Dog News from around the World

Are there limits to drug-sniffing dogs?

2011-11-23T20:54:00.000+13:00

The work of a trained narcotics detection dog in Miami is part of a legal dispute that could very well reach the Supreme Court.
....
The state is asking the nation’s high court to consider overturning a decision by the Florida Supreme Court, asking whether a sniff at the front door of the house by a trained narcotics detection dog is itself a search that requires probable cause.

The case involves a search of a Miami house where police had been tipped that someone was growing marijuana. After surveillance of the house turned up nothing, a detective went up onto the porch with Franky the drug sniffing dog. Franky gave the alert signal that he’d been trained to give when smelling drugs, and at that point the police left the porch. Another detective — aware that the dog had smelled drugs — then went to the door to knock on it and, while there was no answer, he said he also smelled marijuana.

The detective then left and went to get a warrant to search the house. The information he gave to the judge noted Franky’s alert at the house. The magistrate issued the warrant, police returned and found a lot of marijuana and arrested the resident, Joelis Jardines, as he tried to flee.

Read more>>

Now THIS is WRONG !!
You can train a dog to ''point'' to a smell very very easily... using a dog in this way is a breach of the Rights of the Dog. He didn't ask to rat on a human.

The REAL issue here is whether the law of keeping marijuana illegal is a good law. Marijuana in itself is not bad, (just like dogs that bite people), it's the laws around it that make it ''go bad''. In this instance, dogs that are under socialised, dogs that can't BE a DOG.

Ukrainian government calls for end of stray dog killing ahead of Euro 2012 championship

2011-11-19T12:18:00.002+13:00

KIEV, Ukraine —
Ukraine has called for an end to the killing of stray dogs ahead of the Euro 2012 soccer championship next summer, bending to pressure from Western critics.
The Environment Ministry said Thursday it has urged all the country’s mayors to stop euthanizing dogs ahead of the June soccer matches and build animal shelters instead.

Thousands of stray dogs have been killed in Ukraine over the past year, often poisoned or injected with illegal substances, in an apparent effort to clean city streets of strays ahead of the prestigious sports event. That has caused outrage from local and international animal protection groups.
MORE>>

Therapy dog a 'touching' experience for kids with autism

2011-11-13T12:31:00.000+13:00

...
The black Labrador retriever was certified as a therapy dog this summer and now works at schools and nursing homes. Owner Jim McQuinn brings her to Erisman’s class at Seth Whitman Elementary in Belvidere, Ill., each Wednesday, where schoolchildren touch, hug and explore Bella.

“My (students), who have autism, love the feel of her,” Erisman said. “There are so many sensory things about a dog. They love to hug her and squeeze on her.”

Along with another class, the students enjoy the break from their studies when Bella comes to visit. There are 19 students in all, ages 5 to 10, who spend time with Bella each week. They learn about caring for and training a dog, as well as learning to socialize with Bella’s owner.

“The major drive in our class is to form communication and language skills,” Erisman said. “This is a time when they are not doing academics, but are learning to talk to Jim, who is someone new. They have really taken to Jim. He’s a very kind and patient man.” MORE>>

Dogs help veterans cope with psychological war scars

2011-11-13T12:30:00.000+13:00

NORFOLK, Va (Reuters) - As the number of veterans grappling with the psychological scars of war mounts, a miniature Australian Shepherd named Jonas represents a newer breed of treatment for those suffering from Jonas, a peppy 2-year-old, is a legal service dog, trained to scan owner Ian Lord for signs of stress and respond with licks, cuddles and demands for pats.

Lord, a 25-year-old Air Force veteran in Norfolk, Virginia, credits his specialized pet with helping him cope with the mental aftershocks of war.

"He makes it a lot easier to recover from a trigger, like sounds of a helicopter overhead," Lord said. "The difference is, instead of getting wound up about it the rest of the day, it's like OK, go outside and throw a ball around, or just cuddle up to him a bit and kind of snap out of it." MORE>>

Some California Courts Offer Dogs To Comfort Crime Victims

2011-11-13T12:28:00.000+13:00

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5) — For victims of violent crime, taking the witness stand can be terrifying. Some courts, including those in the Bay Area, are now offering support from four-legged friends.

Getting into a courthouse in California means going through security, even if you’re a poodle named Reggie.

Canine companions can offer comfort to sex assault and domestic abuse victims as they face their abusers in a courtroom. In California alone – Marin, Sacramento and San Diego counties have adopted dogs into their justice systems. Nationwide, they can be found in jurisdictions in ten other states. MORE>>

Officers kill dog that bit child's face

2011-11-09T08:41:00.000+13:00

This is really a sad story of gun-wired cops, a 'bite' that was misread, and two families in tears!

My question is... how can the cops turn up on your doorstep and MURDER your dog WITHOUT speaking to ANYONE about the incident !!!

Holey farken hell.... if this even happens in New Zealand, I want to know about it!

Vicki Hagler said Sunday evening that police acted inappropriately when they dubbed her dog a pit bull and fatally shot it after the dog bit a 4-year-old boy’s face on Saturday evening.

(...)

Police said the 4-year-old was being cared for by one of his mother’s friends — a neighbor of Hagler’s family. The child was bit by the dog around 4 pm as he reached for a candy dish inside Hagler’s home at 76 Dover St., according to police. He required 85 to 100 stitches on Saturday evening to close two wounds on his face.

Hagler’s fiance, Bobby West, said the 4-year-old had never been to his house. West said he thought the child must have been “in the dog’s face,” when he was bit. West (adult) wasn’t at home during the incident. He had gone to the store and left Young (15 years old) to watch two of Hagler’s younger children. The family believes the 4-year-old was playing with the younger children in the Hagler’s house.

Young, who was playing basketball outside with friends, heard screaming and saw the 4-year-old on the sidewalk covered in blood. He carried the child to 68 Dover for care and returned to his house. He put the dog in the garage.

After about 15 minutes, West said he returned home and was in the garage holding the dog when police arrived.

Police said the dog was shot after it charged the officers. Gee, the dog felt threatened-- left in an unfamiliar house, left with unfamiliar people, and left to defend himself ALONE with a young kids around him.

Young said the dog was calm until the officers fired.

Young said police drew their guns before reaching the backyard.

“It was like they (cops) were on a mission,” he said.

Police said a vicious dog complaint would be referred to prosecutors.

“Any time an officer discharges a firearm an internal affairs investigation is conducted,” said Dayton police Lt. Wendy Stiver. “We can not comment until after the investigation is conducted.”

I hope that I hear about the continueing saga... TWO FAMILIES are now AFFECTED.

NEVER leave a dog UNATTENDED if there are CHILDREN AROUND.

WHO's FAULT is it that the dog was murdered!!

Hagler said she’s always been be leery of pit bulls and would never allow a vicious dog around her kids.

She said she now wonders how many dogs are mislabeled pit bull.

“We trained this dog,” she said. “I’ve got friends jealous of how good my dog is.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 or arobinson@ DaytonDailyNews.com.

Dog Trials in Central Auckland

2011-10-18T06:37:00.002+13:00

The organiser of rural sporting events taking place in downtown Auckland this week sees them as a chance to boost the profile of events that are part of New Zealand culture.

A week of speed shearing, wood chopping and sheep dog trials begin in central Auckland on Monday afternoon, coinciding with the final week of the Rugby World Cup.

The wood chopping and dog trials will feature contests between New Zealand and Australian teams.

Organiser Steve Hollander of Cutting Edge sports says he aims to keep the momentum going for rural sports.

Japanese snap up dog raincoats to protect their pooches from radiation

2011-10-17T16:44:00.000+13:00

It is a response to Japan's nuclear meltdown that few were expecting.

Dog owners worried about radiation following the Fukushima accident have cleared the shelves of protective pet raincoats.

The doggie jackets are now considered a vital survival strategy for animals living in areas near the power plant.

It is hoped that the colourful coats will protect them from the effects of nuclear rain soaking through their fur.

Vets have warned that because dogs are close to the ground and forage in shrubbery and the ground, they are at risk from airborne radiation, which is concentrated in areas where rainwater collects.

Sales of the mini-macs have soared by 50 per cent, according to The Times, after the catastrophe in March left people terrified of the after-effects of radiation. MORE>>

Dog owners in Qld could be jailed

2011-10-17T16:41:00.000+13:00

Owners of dangerous dogs that attack or kill could face up to ten years in jail under a draft amendment to the Qld Criminal Code.

The Queensland Government has released the draft amendment to deal specifically with serious injury or death caused by dogs.

Attorney General Paul Lucas said the recent death of Ayen Choi in Victoria had sparked debate about Queensland's dangerous dog laws.

He said the proposed amendment to introduce a Dangerous Management of a Dog offence to the Criminal Code would make it clear that owners of dangerous dogs who attack or kill could be criminally liable.

'This is about making sure that the message to dog owners is loud and clear,' Mr Lucas said.

'If they are not properly controlling their pet and it maims or kills a child or an adult, then they could be criminally liable for their action.

'While I have been advised that current provisions in the Queensland Criminal Code such as manslaughter could cover this type of situation, a specific provision would remove any doubt at all.' MORE>>

Canine heroes of 9/11 set example for new generation

2011-09-07T20:50:00.000+12:00

(Reuters) - While there were hundreds of human heroes in the days following the September 11 attacks, there were four-legged heroes too -- the dogs who searched for survivors and bodies in the rubble of buildings and planes.

A decade later, the 9/11 dogs still alive are long retired, but there's a new generation coming up behind them.

Red, a 12 year-old Labrador who searched the rubble of the Pentagon with her handler, is among those retired as an active search dog. Her legs are not as spry as they once were but in her temperament Red still appears to have that same devotion to the search.

Not long after American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, Red was at work. She was 18 months old and only recently certified as a rescue dog, a rookie among more veteran canines.

Red searched the debris pile with an energy that surprised even her handler, Heather Roche. MORE>>

A Blind Man, His Guide Dog and Lessons Learned On 9/11

2011-09-07T20:49:00.000+12:00

Ten years ago, on September 11, 2001, I was working at my desk on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I stood up to grab some letterhead from the supply cabinet when I heard a tremendous BOOM! It was 8:46 a.m.

I was one of many thousands of people in the World Trade Center that day.
I had a good job that allowed me and my wife Karen to pay the bills and have a good life. But unlike almost everyone else in the building that day, I am blind and use a guide dog. When the terrorist-hijacked plane plowed into the building above our heads, Roselle was snoozing under my desk.

After the impact, the building shuddered and Roselle decided it was time to wake up. She emerged from under my desk, yawned, and quietly sat, waiting. Time to go to work. “Forward,” I said softly. Forward is used when setting off with the dog in harness, and it’s one of the very first commands all guide dogs are taught.

MORE>>

A Dog at the Funeral Captured on Video

2011-08-28T19:28:00.002+12:00

A man's best friend shows emotion to the presence of his master at his funeral service. music by Harold Britton titled "canon" composed by Johann Pachelbel,( very short video looped for emphasis).

A Tradition Ends as Bars Shut Their Doors to Dogs

2011-08-28T19:27:00.000+12:00

Miles has been going to Ace Bar all his life.

His face has grayed there. Friends have come and gone. He never paid for a drink, but rarely walked out of the East Village bar with an empty stomach. He may have purged his dinner on the floor a time or two, his fellow bar patrons said, but who among them hadn’t done the same?

Over the past year, though, Miles has become the latest subject of what may be the city’s least funny running joke: A dog walks into a bar — and the health department threatens to issue a violation for allowing live animals in a food establishment.

“He’s a dog, but I swear he looks sad,” Mike Israely, 33, said of Miles, his 9-year-old boxer-pug mix, as the dog peered through Ace Bar’s glass doors Thursday night. “Coming here was part of our evening walk.”

Of course, it has always been a violation of the city’s health code to allow a dog anywhere near a beer tap. But for years, this has been one of the most widely — and gleefully — violated rules in the city.

Not any more.

The stricter enforcement is apparently bringing to an end a rich tradition of dog-friendly bars in New York.

“Bars are built around characters,” said Andrew Templar, an owner of Floyd NY in Brooklyn Heights, which received a violation notice after health inspectors twice observed dogs on the premises this summer. “Now it’s just people and their people problems.”

(...)
During inspections, many owners said they were surprised to learn that dogs were not allowed even in outdoor seating areas.

(..)
Some bars evaded formal reprimand from the city with the help of fellow pubs. In the East Village, where many watering holes are known to be dog-friendly, word spread quickly when inspectors began to crack down.
(...)

The city’s history of dog-friendly establishments predates most of its bars. In the 19th century, saloons often housed dogs as security. Occasionally, the animals attracted crowds of gamblers, who wagered on how many penned rats a dog could kill in five minutes. (The record was 60, which New York’s champion terrier failed to break when he was dispatched to New Orleans in 1879 as the headliner of an event at Bison Williams’s Buffalo Bill House, said Christine Sismondo, the author of “America Walks Into a Bar.”)

Biff, a 3-year-old black lab, and Nick Simons, 39, at an East Village bar.
a proper neighborhood bar,” Ms. Sismondo said. “It proves you’re not one of those corporate B.Y.O.F. bars: bring your own friends.”

(...)
And at P.J. Clarke’s in Midtown, a collie named Skippy, with an auburn coat and blackened tail, has held court for nearly a half-century. After the dog’s death in 1963, bar-goers pitched in to have him stuffed. Today, he sits, hind legs tucked in, eyes pulled wide, atop a ledge above the entrance to the handicapped bathroom. He shares the post with metal busts memorializing police officers and firefighters killed on 9/11, beside a placard that reads, “P.J. Clarke’s Remembers.”

(...)
At Fulton Grand in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, many workers bring their animals, said Luke McDermott, co-owner of the bar. Patrons said they welcomed the guests, save for one hound with a howling habit.

“It’s the equivalent of a crying baby,” said Melissa Le, 36, from Prospect Heights. “The owner should know when a dog is fitting in with the environment.”
(...)

“We never turn any dogs away,” said Frankie Delessio, 30, a bartender. “Humans, yes.”

He pulled out his iPhone, with which he shot a video recently: a Jack Russell terrier, paws on the bar counter, head bobbing to the music, with a vodka tonic in a glass in front of him.
“It’s O.K.; he’s 3,” Mr. Delessio said. “That’s 21 in dog years.”

Your pet: A help or a hazard?

2011-08-28T19:10:00.000+12:00

(RNN) - They can provide unconditional love and unbiased companionship, but they are also a gateway for pests and disease.

Long-standing wisdom has maintained owning a pet is beneficial to the owner in numerous ways, from emotional therapy to physical benefits such as lower blood pressure, but those findings are being called in questioned by Western Carolina University psychology professor Harold Herzog in a recent article by Science Daily.

"I'm not trying to denigrate the role of animals in human life, I'm trying to do just the opposite," said Herzog, a pet owner. "It's entirely plausible that our pets really do provide medical and psychological benefits, but we just don't know how strong that effect is, what types of people it works for, and what the underlying biological and psychological mechanisms might be."

He wrote an article in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science saying there is "insufficient evidence" to support claims of increased qualify of life because of the presence of domesticated animals. MORE>>

Pooches on Pacific: Thursday marks a first in 35 years

2011-08-27T17:01:00.002+12:00

SANTA CRUZ - Thursday marked the first day in 35 years dogs were legally allowed downtown.

But the beginning of a three-month trial period came and went with little fanfare. Several dog owners admitted to bringing their canine companions downtown long before Thursday's expiration of 30-day waiting period since the City Council lifted the ban in July.

Pat Galea strode Pacific Avenue with 4 1/2-year-old sibling Pomeranians Zsa Zsa and Osito on Thursday. Although she lives near Frederick Street Park, where dogs are allowed off-leash, she enjoys walking her babies downtown with a leash and will carry waste collection bags to hand other dog owners.

"If everyone acts responsibly, then there is no reason this shouldn't become permanent," she said.

Police spokesman Zach Friend said officers verbally warned a few people about panhandling with a dog and tying a dog up to a post while shopping - two things outlawed by the new rules. No citations were issued. MORE>>

Dognapping! The Economy Is to Blame for a Rise in Dog Kidnapping

2011-08-24T22:58:00.000+12:00

Pets and the economy have a curious relationship. Overall spending in the pet industry has risen steadily over the past few years, even as the economy has struggled. But spending on pets isn’t entirely recession-proof, as demonstrated by the increase in owners who are choosing cremation when their pets pass away, rather than electing for trendy (and more expensive) cemetery plots and burials. Now the tough economy is giving owners extra reason to watch their pooch’s back — because there has been a rise in dogs being stolen or kidnapped.
(...)

Here’s one to add to the list: according to USA Today, the number of dogs that have been snatched from unsuspecting owners has spiked. During the first seven months of 2011, per the American Kennel Club (AKC), there were reports of 224 stolen dogs, compared with 150 during the same time period last year. That’s a rise of 49%. Overall last year, there were 255 dogs reported stolen, up from 162 in 2009 and 71 in 2008.

What’s behind the rise in dognappings? Lisa Peterson, AKC spokeswoman, tells USA Today flatly, “The motivation is money and economics.”

MORE>>

In NY, a dog helps teen testify against rapist dad

2011-08-15T13:48:00.000+12:00

POUGHKEEPSIE (NY): Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. Rosie sat by the teenager's feet.

At particularly bad moments , she leaned in.

When the trial ended in June with the father's conviction , the teenager "was most grateful to Rosie above all," said David A Crenshaw, a psychologist who works with the teenager.

"She just kept hugging Rosie ," he continued. MORE>>

Latest Study Determines Dogs Are Capable Of Reading People’s Minds

2011-08-10T20:39:00.000+12:00

The latest study involved groups of pet dogs, stray dogs from a shelter and hand-raised wolves (named Tristan, Miska and Marion, among other monikers) who were comfortable around humans.

Two people stood about 6 meters apart, one of them looking directly and continuously at the dog or wolf. The other person had their vision blocked, either with a bucket over their head, a book obscuring their face or because their back was turned. Both humans held a piece of food.

“On average, both dogs and wolves were significantly more likely to be begging from the person looking at them when the other person’s back was turned,” said Udell.

But levels of sensitivity did vary by how domesticated the dog or wolf was.

“Domesticated dogs were more likely to beg from someone paying attention to them, but shelter dogs and wolves who don’t often see a person reading books were not likely to get that cue,” Udell related. “So it does seem like specific life experiences really do matter in this context.”

The findings, said Udell, are “important because previous research suggested that something happened to dogs during genetic domestication that made them begin to think like humans. This shows that wolves are capable, if reared with humans, of (picking up human cues).” MORE>>

Quebec offers redress for mass killing of Inuit dogs

2011-08-10T20:36:00.001+12:00

QUEBEC — Quebec Premier Jean Charest travelled to northern Quebec Monday to offer redress to the Inuit for the slaughter of more than 1,000 sled dogs during the 1950s and '60s.

The Quebec government signed an agreement with the Makivik Corporation, a non-profit Inuit organization, to acknowledge the impact of the mass killing of sled dogs, which had served the Inuit as a primary means of transportation.

The province also offered $3 million in compensation to protect and promote Inuit culture and traditions.
"The Quebec government recognizes that Inuit society suffered from the effects of the sled dogs slaughter. We hope that the agreement . . . shows Quebec's willingness to work hand-in-hand with the Inuit," Charest said in a statement.

The announcement is Quebec's answer to the findings of a retired Quebec judge who investigated the long-standing allegations of sled dogs killings.

MORE>>

"Hero dogs" get their own TV awards show

2011-07-30T09:13:00.000+12:00

(Reuters) - Film star Ewan McGregor and actress and animal rights campaigner Betty White will join Whoopi Goldberg and other all-stars on a panel to judge a new heroic dog award show, the Hallmark Channel said on Wednesday.

The American Humane Association is bringing the celebrities on board for its inaugural "Hero Dog Awards," a TV contest which recognizes "thousands of specially trained dogs giving comfort to people every day," the American Humane Association said.

The winning dogs will also get to attend their own red carpet awards gala in Beverly Hills.

Canine movie star Rin Tin Tin, a dog rescued from the frontlines of World War I in France who later became an American icon and movie idol, will be given a special legacy award, presented to one of his doggie descendants.

Dogs compete in eight categories: law enforcement and arson dogs; service dogs; therapy dogs; military dogs; guide dogs; search and rescue dogs; hearing dogs, and emerging hero dogs, for "ordinary pets who do extraordinary things," according to the Hallmark Channel. MORE>>

South Korean scientists create glowing dog: report

2011-07-30T09:07:00.000+12:00

(Reuters) - South Korean scientists said on Wednesday they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, Yonhap news agency reported.
(...)
"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.

He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005.

The scientist said that because there are 268 illnesses that humans and dogs have in common, creating dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid treatment methods for diseases that afflict humans.

The latest discovery published in 'Genesis', an international journal, took four years of research with roughly 3.2 billion won ($3 million) spent to make the dog and conduct the necessary verification tests, Yonhap said.

MORE>>

Toddler's eyelid partially bitten off by dog in Dorset

2011-07-30T09:05:00.000+12:00

A two-year-old girl has been mauled by a dog in Dorset, but police have no powers to destroy the animal as the attack occurred at the owners' home.

A police spokesman said the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 gave them no powers to take any further action.

Icy's parents, who released a photo of their daughter's injuries, said it was "disgusting" that police could not order the West Highland White Terrier be destroyed.

What? Not a pitbull??

The attack happened after Icy and her parents were invited to celebrate the dog's third birthday at the couple's Dorset holiday home on 24 July.

Mrs Thomas-Day said: "The dog leapt over Icy's hand holding the treat and the dog's face was in Icy's face and it scratched her a dozen times as well.

"The dog was making the most horrific noise like snarling and screaming." MORE>>

This was all totally avoidable. The dog should have been taught some manners, like sit and wait until the person says 'take it'. The exercise ''leave and take it'' is valuable for every dog!

The second point is that a child is the right size for a dog to leap to a face where as an adult, the leap would have brought the dog to someone's knees. And so... the treat should have been thrown on the floor for the dog as oppose to giving it from the child's hand.

Hypoallergenic dogs won't help allergy sufferers much, says study

2011-07-10T09:53:00.000+12:00

CBS) Sorry, hypoallergenic dog owners. That labradoodle you dropped big bucks on might make for a cuddly companion, but won't help your allergies.

That's what the author of a new study says about the class of dogs that are thought to shed less and produce less allergy-inducing pet dander.

"We found no scientific basis to the claim hypoallergenic dogs have less allergen," study author Dr. Christine Cole Johnson, chair of Henry Ford's Department of Public Health Sciences, said in awritten statement.

Woof. Then why do so many people buy hypoallergenic dogs? Numerous websites extol the benefits of owning a hypoallergenic dog. "These dogs will allow those of you that do suffer from allergies to keep your allergies at a very comfortable level, allowing you to enjoy owning and raising a dog," said Puppy-Basics. Even President Obama famously said the White House dog would have to be hypoallergenic because daughter Malia has allergies, before the family settled on Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog.

MORE>>

Barely a sniff of trouble, so Greens say it's time to call off the dogs

2011-07-10T09:51:00.000+12:00

Barely a sniff of trouble, so Greens say it's time to call off the dogs

POLICE sniffer dogs are only identifying drugs or weapons in a small minority of searches in which they are used.

Government figures supplied to the Greens in response to questions on notice show that last year sniffer dogs were involved in 551 searches for firearms or explosives, which identified only five positive cases.

Of the 15,779 searches for illegal drugs, 5087 identified them.

A NSW Greens MP, David Shoebridge, who obtained the figures from the state government, said sniffer dogs had been a ''clear failure'' and ''should be stopped immediately''.

''These figures prove that sniffer dogs are a waste of police resources and the government must commit to an immediate review of their use,'' Mr Shoebridge said.

MORE>>

Dogs Can Tell Apart Identical Twins

2011-07-09T11:13:00.000+12:00

An identical twin might seem like a perfect alibi for any crime one wanted to commit, but now it turns out dogs can tell such twins apart by scent, researchers find.

Research investigating whether dogs can distinguish identical twins from one another has gone on for more than a half-century. However, the findings of these studies have proven conflicting and inconclusive over the years.

Scientists in the Czech Republic suggested any discrepancies seen between the results of past experiments might have been due to different levels of training of the dogs used in each. Instead, they suggested using police dogs with the highest level of training, noting that such canines have been used in police lineups to identify people by scent in Europe and the United States. [10 Things You Didn't Know About Dogs] MORE>>

Bionic pup (video): Watch him play on new legs

2011-06-29T08:15:00.000+12:00

When his family left their foreclosed home and pets behind, Nakio and his brothers and sisters barely survived the harsh Nebraskan winter. The red heeler puppy was in the basement and got his four paws stuck in freezing water. At just five weeks old the litter was taken to an animal rescue center. Under the shelter's care his paws, lost to severe frostbite, healed to rounded stumps.

How far do we go to help our pets? This is an extraordinary example. Bits and pieces have been making the rounds about Nakio but here's the whole story on the first dog to be fitted with a complete set of bionic legs that allow him to run -- and chase the ball. Yes!

MORE>>

Noise reactivities and phobias in dogs: Implementing effective drug therapy

2011-06-29T08:13:00.000+12:00

Dogs with noise phobias can benefit from drugs given before or during an anxiety-provoking event or even as lifelong daily drug therapy MORE>>

Life of a British military dog in Afghanistan

2011-06-29T08:12:00.000+12:00

Britain has approximately 10,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan -- the second highestnumber after the United States. Working alongside Cornish soldiers on the frontlines out of Camp Bastion -- Britain's largest military base in the country -- are a troop of 70 military dogs. So what's life like for a British military dog in Afghanistan? Actually, not too shabby.

The accomodations for these war dogs (as seen in this BBC video) are extensive. Each dog has his or her own kennel quarters -- a small square building with both an indoor and outdoor component. The indoor quarters are air conditioned and each kennel has its own self-sustaining power source.

While on patrol, each handler is outfitted with a special canine first aid kit. For the detection and patrol dogs in Afghanistan, heat is always the handlers' and veterinary medics' biggest concern. There's also only one pool on base -- and it's just for the dogs.

But the canines aren't the only ones happy with these arrangements... MORE>>

Two Ohio Cities Judge Dogs On Behavior, Not Breed

2011-06-28T17:31:00.000+12:00

TOLEDO -- Two Ohio cities that have decided to not label dogs as dangerous just because they're a certain breed have sparked other Ohio lawmakers to make similar changes to state law.

Cleveland decided on Sunday to change its vicious dog rules so that animals are classified by their personal behavior and not by breed. The change comes after Toledo revamped its dog regulations last fall.

MORE>>

well well well... finally some Dog Sense in our Dog Laws.
Will this come to New Zealand??

Dog May Help Ohio Soldier Cope With Post-Traumatic Stress

2011-06-28T17:29:00.000+12:00

Gloria Gilbert Stoga, founder of Puppies Behind Bars, said the dogs are helping inmates are now being trained to help service members.

Stoga said the dogs are trained in 90 commands that include turning lights on and off, opening and closing refrigerators, retrieving a bottle of water and many other tasks.

The organization said that they have recently made up to five commands specifically for veterans with PTSD or traumatic brain injury.

"They're petrified to leave their homes," Stoga said. "They're scared there's a sniper in the mall; they're scared that bag on the sidewalk is an IED; they're scared to drive because that car that comes up behind them could be an insurgent."

She said that their dogs work to control that fear in public. One command called "got my back" has a dog trained to sit behind the veteran if someone comes up behind them.

"They trust the dog," she said. "If the dog behind them is calm, then the person is a normal person."

Another main command is called "clear." With this command the dog is trained to go through the door, turn on the lights, circle the rom and come back to signal that the room is clear.

One of the dogs that helped a veteran with PTSD was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. When Winfrey asked the wife what having the dog meant to her, the wife said that it helped give their kids their dad back.

Endicott told the Columbus Dispatch that he is currently searching for one of the trained dogs because he thinks it would ease some of the persistent anxiety he feels and give him an emotional focus to alleviate the stress that is now a steady part of his life.

MORE>>

I understand the need of these dogs, but it is really sad that they are needed in the first place! Alas... I do understand how dog raise one's oxitocin levels (the warm feeling that manifests in your brain and reduces your stress levels).

The power and the benefit of having an animal companion isn't really tallied up as a health benefit. Having a well trained animal companion should reduce your health insurance rates!

Is DNA Testing Of Dog Poop Forensic Science Gone Too Far?

2011-06-28T17:22:00.001+12:00

If a dog poops in the forest and no one sees it, does it make a smell?

Such philosophical musings aside, dog poop is one of many contentious issues in our highly concentrated urbanized and suburbanized society, where dog owners are often separated from their neighbors by nothing more than an invisible fence. Virtually every communal space, from sidewalks to beaches to parks to hiking trails has become a battleground between dog owners and non-dog owners, but perhaps more importantly, a civil war between those dog owners who pick up and those who don’t. In most such cases, it appears that a small minority of the irresponsible are ruining it for everyone.
The rest of the opinion...MORE>>

Two police dogs 'bake' to death in back of handler's car

2011-06-28T17:20:00.000+12:00

Two police dogs, including a puppy, have died after being left in the back their handler's car with the windows shut on one of the hottest days of the year.

The fully grown Belgian Shepherd dog and the German Shepherd puppy were found by other officers in a "state of collapse"in the back of the vehicle on Sunday morning.

They broke in and rushed them to an emergency vet but they were too ill to survive.
The Metropolitan police's Department of Professional Standards yesterday launched an investigation into the incident.

However, the handler, who was said to be "distraught" has not been suspended and the Independent Police Complaints Commission has not launched an inquiry.
(...)

Sources said the investigation would focus on whether there are grounds to bring a criminal prosecution. Animal cruelty is punishable with a maximum of six months in prison and a £20,000 fine.

In February last year Nottinghamshire police dog handler Mark Johnson, 40, who let his two devoted German Shepherds bake to death in the back of his car in July 2009, was given a six-month conditional discharge and fined £2,500 by Magistrates. MORE>>

Leona Helmsley's pampered Maltese 'Trouble,' one of the world's richest dogs, dies at age 12

2011-06-10T23:36:00.000+12:00

Leona Helmsley's pampered pooch "Trouble," who inherited $12 million from the real estate mogul, has died at the age of 12.That's 84 in dog years.

Like many Americans, the pampered Maltese retired to Florida in 2007, shortly after Helmsley died.
Carl Lekic, the general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle hotel in Sarasota, cared for her.

"Trouble was cremated, and her remains are being privately retained," spokeswoman Eileen Sullivan said.
"The funds held in trust for her care have reverted to The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust for charitable purposes."

Trouble, one of the world's richest dogs, died in December, following a series of health setbacks that left her blind and infirm, sources said.

MORE>>

How Nazi Scientists Tried to Create an Army of Talking Dogs Read

2011-05-26T23:33:00.002+12:00

It's further proof that Hitler was barking mad.

In his new book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities, Cardiff University historian Jan Bondeson mines obscure German periodicals to reveal the Nazis' failed attempt to breed an army of educated dogs that could read, write and talk. "In the 1920s, Germany had numerous 'new animal psychologists' who believed dogs were nearly as intelligent as humans, and capable of abstract thinking and communication," he writes. "When the Nazi party took over, one might have thought they would be building concentration camps to lock these fanatics up, but instead they were actually very interested in their ideas."

MORE>>

NSW council to pay for fatal dog attack

2011-05-26T08:24:00.000+12:00

Relatives of a girl "torn to shreds" in a fatal dog attack have won damages after a judge ruled a NSW local council should have declared the animals dangerous.

In ordering Warren Shire Council, in the state's central west, to pay $123,836 damages, Judge Michael Elkaim described the dogs as "trained hunting machines".

In July 2006, four-year-old Tyra Kuehne was mauled to death by one or more of five pig hunting dogs after finding her way into the backyard of a Warren residence near her home.

In the NSW District Court on Wednesday, Judge Elkaim said the council had dealt with many complaints about the dogs owned by Thomas Wilson and knew they often escaped into the neighbourhood.
But it failed to declare them "dangerous", a move which would have required Mr Wilson to house the dogs in a child-proof enclosure.

"Serious harm was very likely if a child wandered, unsupervised, amidst a pack of hunting dogs," he said.
"The burden of declaring the dogs dangerous was little."
MORE>>

3 New dogs aim to sniff out explosives at LAX

2011-05-14T22:19:00.000+12:00

LOS ANGELES—Dogs trained to detect suicide bombers went to work Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport, a prime target in a city Osama bin Laden urged terrorists to attack.

"Today, we're implementing yet one more way that we can further the war on terror: with man's best friend," City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said as the dogs were displayed at a news conference. "We can use all the eyes and all the ears and noses available" to prevent terrorism.

The airport handles nearly 60 million passengers and more than 2 million tons of freight every year, making it the world's sixth busiest airport, said Hahn, whose district includes LAX. MORE>>

Miracle dog survives downstate tornado

2011-04-30T11:07:00.000+12:00

GIRARD, Ill.— The Chet Rhodes family considers their pet, Patch, to be a miracle dog after he survived a recent tornado. Patch was caught up in the EF3 tornado on April 19 that severely damaged more than 22 structures in Girard, demolishing five homes.

"My wife, Andrea, and our other four dogs rode out the storm in the basement, but Patch has always been shy about being in the house," Chet Rhodes said about the evening of April 19.

The Rhodes' home, located on Neff Road, northwest of Girard, is a combination of an older one-story home with a new second-story addition, situated on 10 acres with 100 trees.

"After the tornado passed, we came out to survey the damages, and saw all our fencing gone, all 100 trees down, part of our roof gone, siding missing and all the dog kennels, doghouses and Patch gone," Rhodes said. By Maggie Borman. The (Alton) Telegraph.

The couple spent the rest of the evening walking the debris field and calling for Patch.
(... MORE>>)
"That was pretty emotional," Chet Rhodes said. "We saw Lynn walking across the fields with Patch, and Andrea got to him first and gave him his first hug. Patch is truly a miracle dog. He had to have been swept up in the tornado but was not injured; he is just a little sore. Maybe now he will come into the house in the next storm."

Pit bull won't be put down after attacking boy

2011-04-30T11:04:00.000+12:00

The pit bull took a huge chunk out of Cosmos Skelton's right arm, leaving him with 37 stitches through three layers of skin.

The dog will be returned to the owner on May 4, and will not have to be put down. That's something both Cosmos and his father do not want to see happen.

Cosmos was playing with his friends Easter Sunday when he followed those friends to their house just down the street near Unser and King. When he walked inside, a pit bull that he was no stranger to suddenly attacked him in the doorway.

While the boy was walking towards the house, the dog probably gave some body language signal to say... go away, don't enter this house. We need to know the signs as we are their guardians. We need to learn to understand Dog!

"I was pinned up against the wall with my arms up, and he jumped up and started attacking me right here," he said.

The dog had never attacked Cosmos before. But he says recently the pit bull attacked another dog, and bit one of the kids who live at the house. Vital, VITAL information !! Skelton's friends and some teens who live at the house kicked and punched the dog, and poured water in his nose, finally setting the jaws free after a five-minute attack.

"I could have lost my arm and my life if they didn't get that dog off me." Skelton said. "This was lock jaw, he was going to kill my son," said Cosmo's father, Daniel.
(...)
We confronted the pit bull's owner in her driveway. She says she has no idea why her dog attacked the boy.

The dog attacked attacked another dog a day before... a study was done about the stress levels of dogs, and after an attack, the stress level is still quite high for a few days afterwards. So, being attacked the previous day, a strange boy (I know the boy is supposed to know the dog) walks into the dog's home... territorial I'd say. There is ALWAYS a reason for an attack. A dog doesn't just wake up one day and says, Today, I'm going to Attack a Little Boy!

"I felt absolutely mortified, and devastated, so I'm not like jumping up and down going 'Yay!'" she exclaimed.
When asked if she would volunteer to put down the dog, she said absolutely not.

"I've had him since he was five weeks old. He could sit on my shoulder; I've raised him from a little puppy." She said.

After we talked to the woman, she broke down in tears in her front yard.
Police say the woman and her husband will not face any charges, since the attack happened inside the dog's home.

This dog attacked a dog, and two people. On the Ian Dunbar Scale of Dog Bites, this dog should be put down and since he wont, he needs to be so well-managed, muzzle in public, and these dog owners need to really read up about the dog code.

Recommended reading.. the Dog Vinci Dog by John Rogerson

Breast Cancer: Tumor Marker Same in Dogs and Humans

2011-04-24T23:32:00.002+12:00

....The researchers looked for similarities in breast cancer of dogs and women, focussing on the tumour marker CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen). They uncovered a molecule, the CEA receptor, that turned out to be essentially identical in the two species. The result could lead to the rapid development of new therapeutic methods for use in dogs and humans. MORE>>

A remarkable stand against slaughtering dogs for meat in China

2011-04-21T07:34:00.000+12:00

A remarkable story in the news today reflects two trends in China: an increasing awareness of the importance of animal welfare, and the use of social networking to mobilise activists.

Here’s what happened: after spotting a truck packed with hundreds of whimpering dogs on a Beijing highway, a man put out a call on a microblogging site, begging fellow animal lovers to help him force the driver to release the animals, which were on their way to being slaughtered for meat. Around 200 people responded, blockading the truck at a toll booth for 15 hours until they finally negotiated the dogs’ release for £14,000, with the funds being donated by a pet food company and an animal protection foundation.
(...)
The first ever Chinese animal welfare legislation is currently being drafted; another sign of changing attitude.

MORE>>

Ronnie Smith, Sled Dogs Make National Geographic

2011-04-13T17:49:00.000+12:00

Last fall, Air Force Colonel Ronnie Smith succeeded in his campaign to rename the aeronautical waypoints between Christchurch, New Zealand, and McMurdo Station, the U.S. base in Antarctica, after Roald Amundsen's sled dogs and Robert Falcon Scott's ponies.

MORE>>

Dog rescued after quake going back to its owner

2011-04-05T12:55:00.000+12:00

(CNN) -- A dog rescued off the Japanese coast floating on top of a house is on her way back to her owner Monday.

The dog wagged its tail and jumped up to a woman described by local media as a relative of the owner as she collected her to deliver back to her family for what promises to be a warm reunion.

It turns out the lucky dog's name is "Ban," and she was originally living in Kessenuma before being separated from her master after the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent fire that swept through the coastal village.

It's not clear how the 2-year-old mixed breed Ban and her master were separated, but Kessenuma is located in Miyagi prefecture, which was virtually wiped out by the disaster three weeks ago.
MORE>>

Psychiatric service dogs

2011-04-05T12:51:00.000+12:00

D’fer, as in “D for dog,” wore a red harness imprinted with “Please don’t pet me. I am working,” and yet Sue showed no visible signs of disability. “This is cause for much curiosity,” said Sue. Sure enough the waitress stopped her as she got up to use the washroom.

“You’ve brought your dog in,” she said, checking Sue over. “Uhm, what does he help you with?”
“I have a mental illness,” said Sue without hesitation. “This is my psychiatric service dog,” which is an explanation that can only incite further inquiry.

Fortunately, Sue, who was diagnosed at 18 with anxiety disorder and clinical depression, doesn’t mind talking about her condition. “It’s an invisible disability that suddenly becomes visible when a service dog is at your side.”

“Which isn’t always easy, considering mental illness has such a huge stigma,” added Ann.

These dogs and their role in society is what I’m here to learn about. Just what is a mental health service dog, what does he do, and who teaches him how to do it? MORE>>

Shar-Pei Dogs Shed Light on Human Fever Syndromes

2011-03-19T12:33:00.002+13:00

-- The gene mutation responsible for the wrinkled skin of Shar-Pei dogs is also linked to a periodic fever disorder, a finding that could have important implications for human health, researchers report.

Shar-Pei dogs have a high prevalence of a periodic fever disorder that is similar to inherited autoinflammatory periodic fever syndromes in humans.

The thick, wrinkled skin of Shar-Pei dogs contains an excess of hyaluronan, most likely because of an over-activation of the hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2) gene. The fever disorder in the dogs occurs when overproduction of hyaluronan activates the immune system, according to scientists at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and Uppsala University in Sweden. MORE>>

$1.5 million paid for world’s most expensive dog

2011-03-19T12:32:00.000+13:00

An 11-month old pup named Big Splash (“Hong Dong” in Chinese) recently sold in the Chinese city of Qingdao for 10 million yuan — about $1.5 million in U.S. dollars.

The 3-foot-tall, 180-pound dog is one of a breed that has been around since time immemorial. Tibetan mastiffs are said to have guarded nomad camps and monasteries, and are rarely seen outside of Tibet.
(...)
Raised on a diet of beef, chicken, abalone and sea cucumber, “he is a perfect specimen,” his breeder, identified only as Mr. Lou, told the British newspaper. “He has excellent genes and will be a good breeding dog. When I started in this business, 10 years ago, I never thought we would see such a price.”
MORE>> and see VIDEOS on the website >>

Police dog bites costing U.K. departments

2011-03-13T18:55:00.000+13:00

LONDON, March 12 (UPI) -- Police forces in the United Kingdom say they have paid nearly $1.5 million in compensation to people bitten by police dogs over the past three years.

One victim was paid nearly $100,000, and the greater Manchester Police paid out more than any other agency, shelling out nearly $350,000, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

Statistics indicate 2,725 suspects were bitten by police dogs, along with 196 police staff and 155 members of the public at large. Eight police departments reported more than 100 dog bites in the past 36 months.

"Police dogs are a valuable and essential resource which, when used effectively, make a valuable contribution to reducing and detecting crime and disorder and building safer communities," said Nick Ingram of the Association of Chief Police Officers.

In Cheshire, police paid about $20,000 to a 13-year-old boy who was bitten on the back. In Durham, police paid nearly $14,000 to a victim bitten while running past an off-duty police officer exercising his dog. (oh my oh my!!)

MORE>>

OK Go

2011-03-04T08:30:00.002+13:00

The meticulously choreographed un-cut single take video features 12 talented dogs with the help of 12 equally dedicated trainers. AWESOME !!

PS. Look for the goat!

Dog debate continues

2011-02-22T08:44:00.000+13:00

(Australia) TWO Coast businesses have come up with a plan to beat not only the recession but also the law.

With no word yet on whether Deputy Premier Paul Lucas will fall into line with the rest of the country and amend the law regarding dogs in cafes, Angie Ross, Cainan Johnson and Kylie Vandersteen are taking matters into their own hands.

Angie, who owns Angie’s Pet-cetera, will provide cafe space outside her store once a week with Cainan and Kylie of Saha supplying the goodies.

``This is a real example of small businesses working together to keep their doors open,’’ Angie said.

``It also takes matters into our own hands regarding dogs in outdoor cafes. MORE>>

Mandatory Insurance for Dogs

2011-02-13T12:30:00.000+13:00

State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) has introduced a bill that would require any Texan who owns a male dog which weighs 20 pounds or more and is not neutered to have an insurance policy covering injuries or damage caused by that dog when it is off the leash or out of the dog's yard, 1200 WOAI's Michael Board reports. …

"This does not in any way penalize dogs, or prevent people from enjoying the benefits of dog ownership," she said.

MORE and comments>>

Pet dog chews off San Diego man's toes

2011-02-13T12:29:00.000+13:00

San Diego police say a 72-year-old man has been hospitalized after his dog chewed off some of his toes.
Detective Gary Hassen told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday that the man's caretaker had called for help after finding blood on the face of one of the man's two small dogs.

MORE>>

That's what dogs do when toes are sick... these dogs are only trying to save their owners! This isn't the first time this happens!

Deaf Dog Gets Sign Language Training

2011-02-13T12:27:00.000+13:00

A dog who couldn't hear has learned some sign language thanks to inmates at a U.S. prison and children at a school for the deaf.

Inmates at a Missouri prison trained the deaf dachshund named Sparky in sign language and then asked the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton to take him in.

MORE>>

Lily’s Kitchen – A Dogs-Only Restaurant Opens in London

2011-01-16T09:50:00.000+13:00

Lily’s Kitchen may not be the world’s first restaurant for dogs, but it’s certainly the coolest one right now. Dogs get to eat for free, have their bellies rubbed and can even listen to a nice story. What more could they ask for?

Lily’s Kitchen recently opened on Pimlico Road, in London’s upscale Belgravia neighborhood, and dog owners were quick to have their pooches test out the menu, for free. That’s right, your four-legged friends get to sit at one of the restaurant’s three tables and fill up their bellies with organic food served by a waiter, and you don’t have to pay for it. It sounds to good to be true, but this is just a clever way a dog food company has found to promote their line of organic foods.
MORE>>

Mitzi the bionic dog is back on her feet with the world's first artificial paw

2011-01-16T09:26:00.000+13:00

The three-year-old had her rear right foot amputated after she was trampled by a horse.
But the lively dog is back to enjoying walks with her owner after being fitted with an artificial foot and ankle by pioneering vet Dr Noel Fitzpatrick.

The prosthesis is the first in the world to have been inserted into a fully moving bone and allows Mitzi to walk with a normal gait and no limp.

Mitzi's owner Viv Davis, from Dorchester, Dorset, and her daughter Zoe Randle were desperate to find a way to give her a better quality of life after she lost her hind foot.
Ms Davis said: 'The options were three legs, euthanasia, or give her a chance to walk. We had to give her a chance to walk.'

Dr Fitzpatrick, from Godalming, Surrey, added that the implant proved a success when Mitzi was taken off her lead for the first time on Thursday.

Swiss Village: Pay Your Dog Tax Or Fido Gets It

2011-01-11T09:51:00.001+13:00

A Swiss village has found a drastic way to compel dog holders to pay their pet's annual tax: cough up, or the dog gets it.

Reconvilier — population 2,245 humans, 280 dogs — plans to put Fido on notice if its owner doesn't pay the annual $50 tax.

Local official Pierre-Alain Nemitz says the move is part of an effort to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.

He says a law from 1904 allows the village to kill dogs if its owner does not pay the canine charge.
Nemitz told the AP on Monday that authorities have received death threats since news of the plan got out.
"This isn't about a mass execution of dogs," Nemitz said. "It's meant to put pressure on people who don't cooperate."

That's only $10 000. worth of dog fees?! sheese.. how to get worldwide bad press for your village. Is it worth it?

Border Collie Comprehends Over 1,000 Object Names as Verbal Referents

2011-01-09T13:36:00.002+13:00

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2011) — Researchers at Wofford College discovered that a border collie comprehends the names of over 1,000 objects, differentiating between names of objects and orders to fetch them. This research deepens the findings of researchers in Germany, who had discovered a dog that knew the names of a couple of hundred objects. Important questions were left open as to how far a dog could go, and whether the dog really understood that the object names were nouns and not commands to retrieve the object. MORE>>

Business owner barks back after dog mural censored

2010-12-09T09:07:00.000+13:00

It's hard to see why the colorful mural of cartoon puppies on the side of Kim Houghton's business is controversial. The dogs aren't lifting a leg on a religious icon or engaging in any lewd behavior. They're not even playing poker. They're just frolicking and chasing bones.

But the 1,000-square foot mural facing the popular Shirlington Dog Park is now the subject of a federal lawsuit.
Houghton, owner of a doggie day care business called Wag More Dogs, sued Arlington County on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, seeking permission to uncover the mural. MORE>>

It's not art, it's a business sign!

Dogs are Santa's favorites

2010-12-09T09:05:00.003+13:00

LOS ANGELES -- Dogs have more to look for under the tree this Christmas than cats do.
Fifty-six percent of dog owners say they'll buy their pets a gift this Christmas, but only 48 percent of cat owners plan a gift.

A majority of all pet owners - 53 percent - said in an Associated Press-Petside.com poll that they plan to get their animals a present this holiday season. MORE>>

US Airways flight diverts after dog bites 2 on board

2010-12-09T09:05:00.000+13:00

Is it time for airlines to add a "beware of dog" warning to their pre-flight safety instructions?

That idea may be on the minds of 122 US Airways customers this morning after a dog got loose on their flight and bit a passenger and a flight attendant.

Though the injuries were minor, the incident prompted the pilot to divert the Newark-to-Phoenix flight to Pittsburgh for an emergency landing, The Associated Press reports.

"The captain felt in the interest of safety, it was better to land and have them looked at than continue on," US Airways spokesman Todd Lehmacher tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The culprit: a 12-pound Manchester terrier named Mandy, who got loose after her owner took her out of the cage, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Apparently, the dog's "sedatives began wearing off" and it became agitated, the Tribune-Review says, citing Allegheny County police Inspector David Walsh.

A man sitting next to the dog's owner tried to calm the dog.

That's when the trouble started, according to the Tribune-Review. The paper writes the dog bit the man, got loose "and then ran up and down the aisle of the plane barking. A flight attendant who grabbed the dog also was bitten." MORE>>

Dogs on a plane!! You'd be hard-pressed to see that in New Zealand!

Why brainy tail-wagging top dogs can teach aloof cats a thing or two

2010-11-24T08:06:00.000+13:00

No longer. For scientists yesterday claimed pet dogs are smarter than their feline counterparts.
The reason, they claim, is that dogs evolved bigger brains because friendly, social mammals need more grey matter than solitary, aloof ones.

The findings, which are bound to divide pet owners around the world, come from a study into the brain size of more than 500 species of living and fossilised mammals.
The researchers at Oxford University charted the evolution of mammal brains over the last 60million years – from a few million years after the dinosaurs became extinct to the modern day.

MORE>>

Dog paddles 4km out to sea lion

2010-11-21T00:18:00.000+13:00

A DOG had to be rescued after chasing a sea lion more than four kilometres out to sea in South Australia.

The crossbreed dog, called Westie, was walking with his owner along a beach when he dashed off into the water after the sea lion and refused to come back, the Portside Messenger reported.

Soon the pair were lost from sight over the horizon as the sea lion led the dog further and further off shore, leaving Westie's owner frantic.

I wonder if the sea lion knew what it was doing, or if it even knew that dogs don't live in the water like them!... although seeing the dog swim out, how would the sea lion know?

Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club captain Craig Van Tenac was part of the rescue effort.
"I'd say it was 4km offshore - that dog swam forever," he said. Westie was rubbing his nose against the sea lion who was rolling around playfully in the water, he said.

Despite the dog's stamina, Van Tenac doubted Westie, who spent more than an hour in the water, would have made it back to shore. He said the dog's owner was much relieved to have him back safely.

Can Fido Find Bedbugs? Some Question Dogs' Accuracy

2010-11-16T06:53:00.000+13:00

Are really the four-legged champions of the quarter-billion dollar bedbug extermination business?

Some people are questioning those claims.Eric and Jessica Silver of Brooklyn spent more than $3,500 to treat their home after a dog detected bedbugs. But the bugs kept biting, so they called in another exterminator."And you know, it turns out that we didn't have bedbugs at all," Eric Silver told "Good Morning America."

False Positive Readings Reported

It turns out the dog had smelled something else entirely -- rodent mites. The dog's finding was a false positive, something that's reportedly on the increase, according to published reports.

MORE>> and a VIDEO>>

Mountain lion trapped up tree by dog

2010-11-13T12:06:00.001+13:00

A mountain lion found it was no match for a Jack Russell terrier which trapped it up a tree on a farm in the US state of South Dakota.
(...)

Mr Strenge, helped by his dog, chased the mountain lion and shot it dead.

"He trees cats all the time," Mr Strenge told The Argus Leader newspaper. "I suppose he figured it was just a cat."

Professor Jonathan Jenks, an expert on cougar migration, said hunters usually needed two or three hounds to chase a lion up a tree.

He said the cougar was probably not hungry enough to attack Jack.

"It very well could have lost a territory and decided to take off from the Black Hills and head this way," he told The Argus Leader.
MORE>>

Pit Bulls and Parolees: Animal Planet

2010-11-05T08:55:00.000+13:00

Pit bulls & Parolees follows the turbulent drama and bittersweet moments as ex-convicts and ill-reputed dogs come together to strengthen one another. Tia Torres is making a positive change for the prison community and the dog world. Watch as one woman pulls the weight of 1,000 men to fulfill her dream of saving pit bulls from dangerous situations and giving parolees a chance to repair their reputations and their lives.

Website all about pitbulls

Cesar Millan's show message: Ontario, don't ban dog breeds

2010-11-05T08:53:00.000+13:00

Superstar dog trainer Cesar Millan had a message for the Ontario government during his informative, entertaining performance at Scotiabank Place on Wednesday: Banning a breed doesn’t solve the problem.

“In the 70s, the breed that people were afraid of was the Doberman,” Millan said to the sold-out audience of 7,500. “In the 2000s, it’s the pitbull. See, nothing has changed. So the solution is education. If we start to ban breeds, what that tells me is people are afraid or people are ignorant about it. It’s not the breed, it’s the human behind the dog.”
MORE>>

Pet Pharm Documentary

2010-11-05T08:50:00.000+13:00

It’s often said you can know a society by how well it treats its children. Increasingly, it seems, we need to add pets to the equation.

People now commonly see their pets as part of the family. Pet spas offer “pawdicures”; celebrity chefs dish up treats at pet delis; and everything from braces to stem cell transplants to heart surgery is now available for your pet, assuming you can afford it.

The newest trend is the most controversial and revealing: psychoactive drugs for dogs and cats. Identifying a multi-billion dollar untapped market, Big Pharma has just released a handful of designer drugs for pets, treating aggression, separation anxiety, obesity, and “doggie Alzheimer’s”, with more medications to follow.
MORE>>

Town to try dogs for geese control

2010-10-26T02:12:00.000+13:00

COLUMBIA, Md., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A Maryland town says geese have become such a problem at an area lakefront they're going to set the dogs on them, a decision sparking controversy among locals.

The non-profit Columbia Association, charged with overseeing the waterfront at Columbia's Lake Kittamaqundi, used two border collies to patrol geese, but two years after the dogs died, the geese returned along with their waste problem, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The association is set to spend more than $43,000 a year to rent more dogs to run the geese off, the newspaper said Saturday. MORE>>

‘Barking mad’ law threatens future of sled-dog racing in Europe

2010-10-26T01:10:00.000+13:00

The future of Scottish sled-dog racing in continental Europe is under threat because of a “barking mad” new law, it was claimed last night.

The country’s national team has been forced to scrap plans to compete in the world championships in Norway next year because an EU directive restricts the number of animals that can be transported in and out of member states.

The European Commission passed regulations on May 26 which limit to five per person the total number of dogs, cats or ferrets that can be moved from one country to another at any one time.

Professional sled-dog racer Alan Stewart, from Aviemore, said the rule, which applies to all 27 member states, had caused “havoc” and “completely destroyed” the sport.

MORE>>

Guilty verdict in killing over dog's urinating on lawn

2010-10-17T15:54:00.000+13:00

It took a Will County jury four hours Friday to convict a University Park man who shot and killed his neighbor after seeing the man's dog urinate on his immaculate lawn.
The jury, however, did not find Charles J. Clements, 69, guilty of first-degree murder for firing the shot that killed Joshua Funches, 23.
Instead, the jury opted for a second-degree murder conviction, finding Clements thought he was acting in self-defense but that his belief was unreasonable.
On May 10, Funches was walking his fox terrier on Landau Road when the dog urinated on Clements' lawn -- which had won awards for its beauty.
The retired truck driver -- a former Marine -- mowed his lawn every other day in the warm weather, and sometimes every day.
The pair argued, and Funches hit Clements. Clements followed Funches off his property and shot him. Clements was arrested and charged with murder.
Clements now faces from four to 20 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 21.

Slightly over the top! This was accumulated hatred that turned into something that I wonder if Clements actually feels remorseful for!

Pot-smoking poodle?

2010-10-16T03:55:00.000+13:00

They say the key is talking to them early, explaining the dangers of drugs before they reach an age where they may experiment with drugs.
For one Maryland woman, apparently "the talk" did not happen before her toy poodle reached five months.
According to Fox 10, Cynthia Painter took her dog for a walk when the troubles started.
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Dog Comes "Back To Life" After Euthanasia

2010-10-16T03:54:00.000+13:00

The story of the dog who was euthanized, only to be found very much alive the next morning, has spread like wildfire on the Internet. Facing foreclosure, Matt Olivarez was unable to pay for continued veterinary care for Mia, an eleven year old Rottweiler with a debilitating spinal disease. Mia had been part of the family since she was a puppy.
She was euthanized at a veterinary clinic, and Olivarez took the body home for burial the next day. He was shocked to find her missing from the locked barn where he had laid her the night before. There she was - standing up, looking at him. MORE>>

'Pessimistic' dogs have more separation anxiety

2010-10-12T17:15:00.000+13:00

Dogs with a "food-bowl-half-empty" attitude are more likely to bark, yowl and chew when left alone than dogs with a sunnier outlook, according to a new study.

The research, which was funded by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, may help animal shelters match dogs to appropriate homes.

Separation-related behaviors like whining, scratching, chewing and toileting indoors can prevent shelter dogs from finding good homes. In the United Kingdom, where the study was conducted, about half of family dogs act out while alone at some point in their lives, the researchers report in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Current Biology. MORE>>

Dog park lit by dog poop

2010-09-21T11:45:00.002+12:00

A methane digester called "Park Spark" has been installed in a dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The device produces methane by bacterial digestion of the dog excrement, and the methane is used to light a gas-burning street lamp.

People walking their dogs are encouraged to collect the feces, place them into the supplied biodegradable doggie bags and drop them into the digester feeding tube. They then turn a hand crank to stir the mixture of excrement and anaerobic bacteria in the Spark Park digester and help the methane rise to the top where it is burned constantly in the lamp, like an “eternal flame”. MORE>>

Game-obsessed mum neglects kids, pets

2010-09-14T10:21:00.000+12:00

A British mother who became obsessed with a computer game let her two dogs starve to death and neglected her three children.
The British Daily Mail reported the 33-year-old Kent woman, who could not be named for legal reasons, had become addicted to the Small World game and had begun playing it almost non-stop on the internet for months.
(...)
Not only were her children neglected, but also her dogs, which were left dead for two months in her dining room.
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Dallas animal control officer off patrol after dragging dog with shattered legs

2010-09-10T15:52:00.000+12:00

An animal control officer has been pulled off the streets after Dallas city officials concluded he acted inappropriately when he tried to force a dog with shattered legs to stand up and walk, and then dragged it to an animal control vehicle.

The Labrador retriever mix was euthanized a short time later at a city facility.
Charles Jackson, who has worked as an animal control officer for about four years, could face disciplinary action over Tuesday afternoon's incident, which has outraged animal rescue advocates. Jackson could not be reached for comment.

Only read the article if you want to cry for the pain that this animal "control" officer inflicted... I hope that he goes to jail for animal abuse. Shame on him!
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Homeless man wants his dog back

2010-09-08T15:43:00.001+12:00

William C. Leonard Jr., who lives underneath a bridge in Jersey City, wants Franklin back.
Jersey City animal control picked the dog up last month after finding it tied to a post. The beagle-basset mix was taken to the Liberty Humane Society, and later adopted by new owners.

Leonard, 49, a former county and city worker, said Franklin was given to him by a homeless friend, along with a bag of dog food and the dog’s veterinary records. “I fell in love with him,” Leonard said, describing Franklin as his “friend” and “baby.”

The dog was taken away on Aug. 6 after neighbors noticed he had been tied to a pole next door to the EZ-Market Liquor Store, said Joseph Frank, the city’s animal control officer.

But Leonard turned up at the animal shelter the following day, demanding the dog be returned. Leonard said he provided the dog’s veterinary records as proof of ownership, but was not given the dog because he is homeless, NJcom reports.
“I’ve got all my faculties about me. I’m not an idiot. I’m just homeless,” said Leonard. “I want my dog back.”

The dog was adopted by new owners on Aug. 18.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea tried to help Leonard. “He shouldn’t be punished because he happens to be homeless,” O’Dea said. “Obviously he was able to care for the dog for a substantial amount of time before (Animal Control) got involved.”
Liberty Humane Society Director Nikki Dawson — appointed after the incident — said the shelter did not release the dog to Leonard because he is homeless, but that the shelter has since changed that policy.

I'm glad that the shelter will return a dog to someone who doesn't have a home. Dogs, or any pet is an important companion to people. I hope this guy gets his dog back.

“I would have returned the dog and from now on, if someone has proof of ownership, the animal will be returned to them,” Dawson said. She said it’s possible that Leonard and Franklin could be reunited — if the new owner gives up the pet.

Myth-Busting: Pet Dangers

2010-09-08T03:30:00.000+12:00

Veterinarian Marty Becker Separates Fact From Fiction for Your Furry Friends

Can chocolate really kill your dog? If your dog chomps down on poinsettias, is it going to be OK?

From old wives tales to internet-based scares, pet owners often find themselves in a fog of half-truths and outright lies when it comes to keeping their animals safe.
MORE>>

How animals evolved personalities

2010-09-05T03:59:00.002+12:00

PERSONALITY is pointless unless someone notices you have it.

Both humans and animals have personalities - consistent behavioural patterns - but how did they evolve? To find out, Max Wolf of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, created simple simulated animals with personalities that were either consistently aggressive or meek, or flipped between the two.

They were pitted against each other in repeated contests designed to be representative of many seen in the real world - for instance when an individual is defending its territory.

All three animal types did equally well until Wolf introduced a new one that could learn about the behavioural patterns of others. "Learners" and those with a consistent personality wiped out animals whose behaviour was not consistent (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1051). These types together formed a more stable society because the learners could adjust their behaviour to that of the others, and so avoid costly conflict.

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How 12 dog breeds got their names

2010-09-04T06:22:00.000+12:00

Every dog owner knows why they gave their dog its name, but how well do you know the story behind their breed names? Let's take a look at where a handful of common breeds found their monikers.

1. Jack Russell Terrier
Yep, Jack Russell was a real guy.
(...)

2. Lhasa Apso
(...)
The "Lhasa" in the name comes from the city of Lhasa, Tibet's longtime capital. Apso is a Tibetan word meaning "bearded," so the breed's name signifies that it's a longhaired dog that originated in Tibet.

3. Basset Hound
The lovable big-eared hounds don't get their name from a person named Basset. Rather, "Basset" comes from the French word bas for "low" and refers to the dogs' low-slung statures.

4. Cairn Terrier
These feisty little terriers originated in the Scottish Highlands, where they were renowned for their abilities as hunters of rats and other small prey like rabbits.
(...)

5. Dalmatian
The spotted breed takes its name from Dalmatia, an Adriatic region that lies mostly within modern-day Croatia. Dalmatians have long been used as sentinels and guard dogs in the region, but it's not entirely clear that they originated there.(...)

6. Poodle
The poodle may be thought of as a fancy, snooty dog today, but it actually had fairly rough-and-tumble origins as a gun dog.( ...)

7. Weimaraner
(...)
Karl August's breed allegedly became fashionable among his fellow Weimar noblemen, and the breed gained popularity as a bird-hunting dog as well.

8. Cocker Spaniel
Spaniels have been around as far back as the 14th century, and these popular pets also got their starts as gun dogs. English hunters prized the dogs' particularly skilled tracking of woodcocks, so the dogs became known as "cockers."

9. Bouvier des Flandres
This herding dog's name is pretty straightforward if you know a bit of French. The breed originated in Flanders, and French farmers who prized their working spirits named the Bouvier des Flandres, which translates into "Cow herder of Flanders."

10. Dachshund
(...)
Their name reflects this early purpose; "dachshund" means "badger dog" in German.

11. Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
This spaniel takes its name from King Charles II of Britain, who was often depicted in paintings and tapestries in the company of a small spaniel and was reportedly "seldom seen without his little dogs."

12. Beagle

The exact origins of the word "beagle" are a bit mysterious, but anybody who has spent much time with the breed will believe the most commonly accepted story. The American Kennel Club traces the name back to the 16th century, when the hounds became associated with the French word becguele ("noisy person") thanks to the din of their howls during hunts.

Do Dogs Commit Suicide?

2010-08-30T02:12:00.000+12:00

Are lonely depressed dogs who leap from balconies attempting suicide?
.....

In human beings depression is a major predictor of attempted suicides. This is one of the reasons why severe episodes of depression are treated as a major concern. It is also true that dogs can suffer from depression, and the scientific data is clear that the same kinds of pharmaceuticals that help control depression in people will work on dogs as well. However, to suggest that because depressed humans sometimes attempt suicide means that depressed dogs will also do so might be a hasty conclusion.

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Canine Lifeguards Rescue Doggie Style

2010-08-25T12:57:00.000+12:00

Every summer hoards of beach-goers swarm the Italian coasts, and each year, the Italian Coast Guard estimates they rescue 3,000 people.

Working along side them is a team of very specialized lifeguards who are responsible for saving many lives during these seaside months — the graduates of canine lifeguarding school.

"Dogs are useful in containing the physical fatigue of the lifeguard, to increase the speed at which casualties are retrieved, to increase the security of both the casualty and of the lifeguard," Roberto Gasbarri, coordinator of the Italian School of Canine Lifeguards, told the Associated Press.

The program is three years long and trains dogs to rescue swimmers in trouble. The lifedogs wear buoys or tow a raft on which the victim can hold on while the dogs pull them to safety. The pups are particularly useful in missions where they need to jump from helicopters or fast boats, as they are much more capable than humans in these extreme situations. MORE>>

Dog who ate beehive wins unusual pet insurance award

2010-08-25T12:55:00.000+12:00

(Reuters Life!) - A Labrador that ate a beehive containing pesticides and thousands of dead bees won an award on Monday that recognized the most unusual pet health insurance claim in the United States. MORE>>

A tweeting dog? Bow wow!

2010-08-24T14:28:00.000+12:00

The beagle named James Bond has tweeted his way into the spotlight.

When he isn’t sniffing out the neighbourhood, he is sitting on the porch with his owner tweeting about his day.

"So as this James Bond persona he definitely talks about life as a doggie spy, if you will,” says owner Sloane Kelly. “Of course he is a hound dog, so he likes to sleep a lot and there's a natural tension between his desire to sleep and his need to do his duties."

Ms Kelly set up her dog's twitter account a year ago - she tweets for a living at her job at a Hilton head advertising agency.

"I was bored on a weekend and said why not create something based on my dog," explains Ms Kelly.

James Bond the dog now has more than 2,600 followers. MORE>>

Disc dogging: four-legged frisbee

2010-08-24T14:26:00.000+12:00

Families from across Hungary turned up in Budapest for one of the first national championships in a 'sport' claimed to be one of the fastest-growing in the world.

It's called 'disc dogging', described as four-legged frisbee, six legged if you include the essential human component.

Owners and trainers put their animals, one by one, through a series of competition rounds, each judged by a panel looking for rapport between animal and trainer and gymnastic prowess by the dog. MORE>>

Pets Vital to Human Evolution

2010-08-17T03:28:00.001+12:00

Dogs, cats, cows and other domesticated animals played a key role in human evolution, according to a theory being published by paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State University.

The uniquely human habit of taking in and employing animals -- even competitors like wolves -- spurred on human tool-making and language, which have both driven humanity's success, Shipman says.

"Wherever you go in the world, whatever ecosystem, whatever culture, people live with animals," Shipman told Discovery News. MORE>>

Improving Workplace Collaboration Requires A Dog

2010-08-15T03:53:00.001+12:00

Research wanted to know ifhaving a dog had any workplace benefits...

Tibetan Mastiffs: Dogs That Fetch $600,000 in China

2010-08-09T04:57:00.003+12:00

Meet the Tibetan mastiff. This breed can measure up to three feet tall and weigh up to 180 pounds. And in China, these dogs are all the rage.

The pups are considered holy — legend dubbed them the guardian dogs of Tibet. Their presence is said to help humans' health and security. But mostly, they seem to be a status symbol for Chinese millionaires, according to a report on The Today Show. (See pictures from behind the scenes at the Westminster dog show.)

One couple said they forked over $600,000 for their mastiff, named Yangtze River Number Two, and transported him to their home via a fleet of Mercedes sedans. Their dog was worth the price, they said, because of his pure bloodline, which is extremely rare."

MORE>>

Check out the picture in the article... check out the CHAIN that they have for this dog.

Chinese buying Tibetan dogs-- somewhat of an irony, no?

Canine jaws of life

2010-08-09T04:49:00.003+12:00

.......About the only thing we won't do for dogs is allow them to bite us. The dog that bites its owner is unlikely to be long for this world. One dog, in Rockford, Mich., however, is a hero this week, because he not only bit his owner while he was sleeping, he ate the fellow's entire toe.

"Sleeping" is actually a euphemism. Musician Jerry Douthett, according to news reports, had an appointment with a doctor to have what he suspected was an infected foot examined. Before the appointment, however, he got drunk and passed out. When he awoke, he discovered that his terrier had eaten his toe.

For this, Douthett is grateful to his dog, because, when he was rushed to the hospital for treatment -- there was a lot of blood; who knew an old toe could have so much blood in it? -- doctors identified an undiagnosed but life-threatening diabetic condition, which is now being treated medically, while the toe-eating terrier is being treated like a life-saving hero-dog. MORE>>

The author says that the dog was only after some real meat (read the whole article). If this were true why then didn't the dog eat his toe previously? I know he's trying to be humourous about the whole thing, but dogs do sense cancer.

Unfortunately, a lady in New Zealand had her toe nibbled away by her dog. Authorities didn't understand and the dog wasn't seen as a life-saving-hero-dog, but rather as a dangerous, "we have to shoot the dog" because he might chew someone else's toe off. If only they understood. Poor dog! Actually, poor 'dead' dog.

Police question if officer in dog shooting was legally allowed to carry gun

2010-08-09T04:37:00.002+12:00

Anne Arundel County Police said Friday that they expect to conclude in the next 72 hours their investigation into the fatal shooting of a Siberian husky by a federal officer at a Severn dog park, and they indicated that the unidentified officer might not have been authorized to carry a firearm.
(...)
According to the police report, the unnamed officer and his wife told police that they were at the private Quail Run Community Dog Park with their leashed dog Asia when Bear-Bear approached. He said the dogs started to smell each other, and then the husky became aggressive.

The officer said he yelled at Stephen Ryan Kurinij to remove Bear-Bear, the report said. The officer told police that when he attempted to pull his dog away, the husky began to "grit his teeth and bite his dog around his neck," according to the report.

The officer then shot the dog once with his Glock 9 mm loaded with "hydroshock" bullets, and Kurinij went over to Bear-Bear and appeared "out of it," the officer told police.

Kurinij told police that "Bear and Asia seemed to be getting along," and that "Bear is a friendly dog and has never had any problems at the dog park." MORE>>

A cop firing at a dog in a dog park!! holy hell.... I know that a dog fight can be seen as threatening, but then again, a dog that goes for the throat is better than a dog that goes for the hind legs. That is when you should be really scared. That's the kill instinct.

Too bad the cop and his wife weren't aware of dog positioning, or a dog's body language. What we as humans perceive as a 'fight' is really a 'misunderstanding' in the doggie world. And that's where we get these sorts of misinterpretation of a dog fight.

Believe you me, I have seen my dog Holmes get bitten in the leg and drew blood. Did I shoot the other dog? The thought would never ever have entered my mind (even if I did own a gun, which in New Zealand, we don't believe in arming ourselves!)

Dog Training and the Myth of Alpha-Male Dominance

2010-08-09T03:53:00.000+12:00

......But many experts say Millan's philosophy is based on now-debunked animal studies and that some of his techniques — most famously the alpha roll, in which he pins a dog on its back and holds it by the throat — are downright cruel. Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell has launched a competitive assault on Dog Whisperer by starring on Animal Planet's It's Me or the Dog and by spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training virtually and with troops on the ground: this June she launched a podcast (available on positively.com and iTunes) and franchised her methods to a first batch of 20 dog trainers in the U.S., the U.K., Italy and Greece. She uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans.

Military dog comes home from Iraq traumatized

2010-08-04T14:04:00.001+12:00

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — Gina was a playful 2-year-old German shepherd when she went to Iraq as a highly trained bomb-sniffing dog with the military, conducting door-to-door searches and witnessing all sorts of noisy explosions.

She returned home to Colorado cowering and fearful. When her handlers tried to take her into a building, she would stiffen her legs and resist. Once inside, she would tuck her tail beneath her body and slink along the floor. She would hide under furniture or in a corner to avoid people.

A military veterinarian diagnosed with her post-traumatic stress disorder — a condition that experts say can afflict dogs just like it does humans.

(...)

"There is a condition in dogs which is almost precisely the same, if not precisely the same, as PTSD in humans," said Nicholas Dodman, head of the animal behavior program at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

But some veterinarians dislike applying the diagnosis to animals, thinking it demeans servicemen and women, Dodman said. He added that he means no offense to military personnel when he uses the term.

MORE>>

Scientists discover world's oldest dog bone

2010-08-04T04:02:00.001+12:00

German scientists have identified the world's oldest dog bone, proving that humans kept dogs more than 14 000 years ago, Tuebingen University said on Tuesday.

The canine jaw was found in Switzerland in 1873, but has only just been analysed by researchers across the border in Tuebingen. The findings were reported in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.

The dog lived between 14 100 and 14 600 years ago, according to archaeologists Hannes Napierala and Hans-Peter Uerpmann.

"At this time, humans were still hunter-gatherers," Napierala said.

The size of the fangs convinced the research team that the animal was a dog, not a wolf. The jaw and remaining teeth also differ from those of a wolf.

Dogs developed from wolves when they were tamed and domesticated by man.

The find shed no further light on when man began to tame wolves but indicated that the process was well underway 14 000 years ago, as the dog bones had already evolved differently from their wild ancestors. - Sapa-dpa

Why dogs and their owners are so alike - life - 01 August 2010 - New Scientist

2010-08-02T14:26:00.000+12:00

DOG owners are said to resemble their pets - and perhaps with good reason. It seems dogs naturally match human gestures in a phenomenon known as automatic imitation.

People unconsciously copy the gestures of those around them. For example, a yawn will induce yawning in an observer, and a person looking skywards encourages passers-by to do the same. Friederike Range of the University of Vienna, Austria, and colleagues wanted to see whether dogs' actions, too, were influenced by humans. They trained dogs to open a sliding door with either their paw or mouth. One group of dogs were rewarded when they used the same method as their trainer, another when they used a different method to the trainer. The team found that the second group took more attempts to get the task right, suggesting that dogs are indeed subject to automatic imitation (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1142).

The findings support the idea that social animals automatically imitate others.

MORE>>

Dog brains rotated by selective breeding

2010-08-02T14:19:00.001+12:00

The selective breeding of some domestic dogs has made their brains rotate forwards, and relocated one key component.

Michael Valenzuela at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues, used a brain scanner to look at the heads of 11 dogs that had recently been put down, and two live ones. The dogs came from a variety of breeds, which have been bred over thousands of years to have – among other characteristics – snouts of different lengths.

They found that dogs with shorter snouts had brains which were rotated forwards by up to 15 degrees. They also found that the olfactory lobe at the front of the brain, which processes the sense of smell, was shunted downwards.

MORE>>

Sneaky dogs take food quietly to avoid getting caught

2010-07-26T00:05:00.001+12:00

LIKE children with their hands in the cookie jar, dogs steal food quietly to make sure they don't get caught. The finding adds to evidence that dogs can work out what others are thinking.

Shannon Kundey of Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and colleagues, gave 40 dogs, which had previously been trained not to eat food left on a plate, a chance to take food from inside two containers. Both containers were fitted with bells, but on one container the bells were muted.

When someone was watching, the dogs took food from both containers equally. But if the watcher looked away, for instance by putting their head between their legs, the dogs went for the silent container. This suggests they knew they could get a meal without the watcher hearing them (Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol 126, p 45).

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Dog's Life: Pugs and Bulldogs Top Airlines' List of Canine Deaths See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/dpWNBG

2010-07-18T11:52:00.002+12:00

About half the dog deaths reported by U.S. airlines were short-faced breeds such as pugs and bulldogs, according to a Transportation Department statement issued Friday.

Airlines reported 122 dog deaths since May, 2005. Eliminating data on the deaths of "unknown" and "mixed breeds," approximately half of the pet dogs that died in flight over the last five years belonged to short-faced breeds, such as the English bulldog, pug, French bulldog and American Staffordshire terrier.

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/dpWNBG

Baghdad kills 58,000 stray dogs in 3-month span

2010-07-13T09:42:00.002+12:00

Teams of veterinarians and police shooters have killed some 58,000 stray dogs in and around the Iraqi capital over the past three months as part of a campaign to curb an increasing number of strays blamed for attacks on residents.

The Baghdad provincial government said in a statement released Sunday that 20 teams have been moving around Baghdad and the outer-lying districts daily looking for and putting down the dogs. The operation, which was first announced in late 2008, only truly took off this April after funds were allocated for the project.

The surge in strays -- estimated by provincial officials to number around 1.25 million -- is ironically linked to what officials say is an improvement in some elements of daily life in Baghdad, a city that for seven years has been struggling to return to normalcy after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Officials with the provincial veterinary directorate said that with open-air markets and bustling city life returning, the dogs are able to find more food and are having bigger litters.

(...) There are not believed to be any dog shelters in Baghdad.

(...) Under Saddam Hussein's regime, stray dogs were routinely shot. But their numbers grew steadily following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion when a host of more serious security issues sidelined efforts to deal with the dogs.

Your Dog Isn’t Racist

2010-07-05T11:11:00.003+12:00

He might attack when he sees people of color, but that doesn’t mean he’s a canine Klan member. What’s really behind doggie discrimination.

I have a dear friend, one of my oldest, actually, who called me in a bit of a panic: he was worried that one of his two dogs was racist. Apparently, Herman (his name has been changed to protect a potentially innocent canine) barks and shows his teeth when he sees people of color. My friend (white) wanted to know what he should do since Herman’s antics are embarrassing to him. Plus, Richard is petrified that everyone in the world will think he’s an Archie Bunker, since a bigoted dog must be picking up those attitudes from his owner. MORE>>

a good read... of course we all know that dogs remember bad experiences and if they had one with someone with different hair colour, or a beard, or long stick, or brown skin,... this isn't called racism, but fear of the unknown.

Dogs Trust Slams RSPCA Dog Licence Proposal

2010-07-04T13:01:00.000+12:00

In what appears to be a battle of the ‘my idea is better than your idea’, The Dogs Trust have hit out at the RSPCA’s call for the reintroduction of a national dog licence for English dog owners.

The charity has issued a statement claiming, without a hint of irony, that the take up for the licence in Northern Ireland is poor and so the ‘better’ approach would be compulsory microchipping.

The charity doesn’t explain (as it hasn’t to date) how or why it believes that their compulsory microchipping idea would be taken up by the dog owners who they claim would not take up other compulsory measures but they do go on to mention that you can pay the Dogs Trust £10 to get a microchip for your dog.

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Austrian Dog Licence Discriminates Against Breeds

2010-07-04T13:00:00.000+12:00

A new law has been enforced today in Austria that will discriminate against dog owners of certain breeds. Twelve breeds known as aggressive “fight dogs” will be under stricter scrutiny. Breeds include Rottweilers, some Bulldogs, Pitbull Terriers and some Mastiffs. The new law requires Viennese and longterm visitors who own such dogs to carry a licence proving they can confidently handle their dogs.

The list of breeds was compiled at ‘random’ says reports from The Associated Press and these 12 breeds carry the stigma of ‘fight dogs’. Alexander Willer, a spokesman for Vienna’s main animal shelter, told The Associated Press that it was now harder for abandoned breeds of this kind to find new homes.

“The image of these dogs has hit rock bottom,” Willer said, adding that since Christmas, the number of “fight dogs” seeking refuge in the shelter increased from 123 to 170.

“The majority of people who own these kinds of dogs are normal — they aren’t psychopaths,” Willer said.

The law has caused outrage as some groups say that parks, streets and public places are now safer, whilst others claim this is victimisation against certain breeds of dog. MORE>>

First ever dog census exercise in city planned

2010-07-04T12:58:00.000+12:00

AHMEDABAD: An international organisation, Humane Society International (HSI), will conduct the first ever dog census exercise in Ahmedabad.(...)

On the census exercise, Gautam said, "The HSI officials will visit the city on July 9 to discuss the modalities for census exercise. The organisation will do the census free of cost. After the census a massive sterilisation drive will be conducted in the city."

He said, "Census is crucial for a time-bound animal birth control programme in the city. It is required for strategy and to identify yearly targets."

On the use of barbaric iron tongs by Cattle Nuisance Control Department (CNCD) of AMC, Kharab said, "Catching the dogs with orthodox manner is not advisable as it amounts to animal cruelty."
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