Happy Holidays again! I hope you are having as great a holiday as I am. As you can see from this book review, I’m having such a great time I haven’t had time to shave. 
For more information on The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood
For more information on the nook, just ask me and I will babble on endlessly about how great it is.
This week New Scientist compared dogs to cats in 11 categories in order to determine which is the superior pet. Dogs won “by a whisker.” Despite the obvious light tone of the “competition,” the research was pretty interesting. Check out the video accompanying the article.
Personally, if I didn’t think Gage would constantly terrorize any cat we brought home, I’d probably have one.
On the shelter and rescue front, there was news this week on a glut of chihuahuas in shelters in California, mostly likely due to their visibility in the arms and purses of various pop icons. (Seems like Paris Hilton is capable of doing more than just embarrassing herself!) More evidence that puppies are not good gifts or fashion accessories.
Have a good weekend!
Mmmmmmmmmm. Turkey.
It is, of course, Thanksgiving Weekend. A time to reflect on the wonderful bounty and prosperity we (those of us with the time and money to write or read blogs) have here in the United States. I can’t even begin to express how thankful I am for my family of people, dogs and birds. So I’ll stop there.
For a few people it’s also time for American Football (bleh) and/or shopping (double bleh.) Hope you had fun if that’s your thing. I did do some shopping online from the comfort of my laptop to make my contribution to the economy.
It was a slow news week for pets. I saw a lot of the same stories, and many of them were more on the depressing side. I’m just going to leave you with story that demonstrates how dogs contribute to our consumer economy too.
Here’s a nice interview and demo with fellow IAABC member (and CPDT) Bob Hammesfahr:
I also want to point one change to the site. I have added Disqus as the new commenting system for DSF. Disqus is used on several popular blogs and allows you to set up your own avatar for your comments, as well as publish your comments on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and many other social networking sites. I’m hoping this helps expand the conversations here to other sites far and wide. Take a look and leave a comment!
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend!
Happy Almost Thanksgiving! I hope you have some great plans for the long weekend and enjoy seeing your family (dogs included) and have a huge coma-inducing meal.
I think we all agree that dogs deserve great holiday treats too, and here is a budding young entrepreneur with a solution. Christian Liendo has developed a new dog-friendly ice cream and I hope he gets some funding to bring it to market soon.
Here is a wonderful story about a woman who has done amazing things to overcome being blind, including helping others bond with guide dogs:
Rats are being clicker-trained to safely detect landmines. This is a great story about animal training using humane and safe techniques!
And a new video about Polar Bears and Huskys:
Have a great holiday!
In The Puppy Diaries: Scout takes a Splash we learn of Scout’s trip to Water4Dogs in downtown Manhattan. This is a place I would love to visit with Caffeine; she loves the water! I guess whenever I get that 8 day week or 36 hour day I ordered, I’ll arrange the trip.
Ms. Abramson also discusses a hotel for dogs, a camp, and doggie daycare. Arrangements for dogs during the day or for vacations is a question I get a lot. It can be a sensitive subject and it does require some careful consideration.
I am a huge fan of daycare for high energy dogs, especially with working couples or “single pet parents.” Being alone all day is tough enough when you are not bouncing off the walls. A well run and safe day care can make a huge difference, even for just two days a week. I wouldn’t recommend more than three days a week anyway; breaking up the 5 day work week with a trip to daycare on Tuesday and Thursday can do a lot to burn off energy and keep the teeth off the furniture.
How can you find a well run and safe day care? Right off the bat, if you can get a referral from a trusted friend, vet, or trainer, start there. Then go without your dog and take a look.
Similar questions apply to doggie hotels or kennels. Do your homework, ask a lot of questions, and always get referrals.
I’m definitely dating myself here, but I remember when Oscar the Grouch was orange.
In order to make up for the crushing burden of a Yankee win in the World Series, this is an update filled with uplifting videos!
The new 101 Dalmatians Musical is using rescue dogs for their production!
What a wonderful outcome for these great dogs!
Daryn Kagan has a great story about Tony LaRussa, who seems to be a great guy (especially for someone associated with the Oakland A’s…)
Daryn Kagan brings us another story, in which Wily Coyote shows us how he survived all of those accidents in the cartoons:
Finally, if you are in Northern New Jersey, keep the drop in classes in Franklin Lakes in mind. We have 5 weeks left, and would love to see you!
As I approach 100 posts on Dog Spelled Forward, I’m taking a step back and evaluating what direction I want to go in. (If I even want to commit to a specific direction.)
This blog is here for you. Yeah, you. If you are reading this and you are not me, you must be a member of the audience. So tell me: What’s next? Stirring up controversy seems to draw a crowd, but that’s not why I am here.
What would you like me to write about? Do you find the tutorials useful? Is there a particular behavior or technique you would like me to revisit or cover? Are you more interested in training theory?
Please leave a comment, send me an e-mail or ping me on twitter at @dogspelledfwd.
I’m here to help.
Weekend Update for January 8, 2010
Gene for OCD isolated in Dogs
While studying Doberman Pinschers with obsessive compulsive disorder, scientists isolated a gene associated with the disorder. This research may be applicable to humans and other researchers are now studying it too! It turns out that the relatively small populations offered by some purebreeds are useful in this type of research.
Dog lost for over a year reunited with human
A dog lost in California in 2008 was recently located in South Carolina because of his microchip. Is there a more compelling reason to chip your dog that than?
Dog saves boy from cougar
This is probably story of the week! Last weekend Angel, a young golden retriever threw herself between an 11-year-old boy and a cougar as it charged at him. Wow!
What’s the difference between a bite and an attack?
If you spend any time working in the pet industry, especially with dogs, you see the annual numbers and periodic research on dog bites and attacks. But what is the difference? Severity? Intensity? Brent Toellner has some thoughts on dog bites and attacks this week.
Doggie Zen
Last, here’s a training video from Mary Hunter’s series on Clicker Training Doggie Zen. The exercise looks a lot like how I train “leave it”, but adds a bit of an impulse control twist.