This Friday the regularly scheduled weekend update will be preempted for my entry in the Be The Change Blog Party.
In the meantime I ask you to do three things for me:
Greetings from BlogPaws!!!! I got here a little early and I am eagerly looking forward to the conference. Look me up if you are here! Here is some dog news from the past week.
First and foremost, a shout-out to Dr. Phil Zeltzman who is celebrating three years of his wonderful newsletter for pet owners. It’s a big Internet with a lot of dodgy information out there. It’s good to see someone who is doing the right thing experience great success.
It seems like every day I see news about how dogs are helping soldiers. This week I saw this great story from the New York Times about the critical role dogs are playing in helping soliders recover from PTSD. What’s really wonderful about this story is a little twist — the psychiatric service dogs are receiving some of their training from inmates in correctional facilities! I also saw this story about a hero bomb detection dog serving with British soliders in Afghanistan. Go Chocolat! (I shared the NY Times story earlier this week on the Dog Spelled Forward Facebook page. Are you a fan yet?)
I’ve mentioned my “alma mater” St. Hubert’s here a few times. Apprenticing and now being selected to instruct there are two of my most proud accomplishments. So you can only imagine how proud I was to see that Pia Silvani, our director of training and behavior, made Bark Magazine’s list of the The Best & Brightest in the World of Dogs! Go Pia!
Last, you don’t need to be a military veteran to benefit from the loving care of a service dog.
Have a great weekend! I’ll be at the conference until Sunday. I’ll have some news and notes about it next week.
A dalmatian enjoys the nice weather we're not getting.
Speaking of Dancing Dog Blog, last week Mary had a great story about sky-diving special forces dogs. I saved it for this week’s update. It’s interesting to read how calmly the dogs deal with the experience.
Dogs have been used in the U.S. military for a long time, but the U.S. Marines program for using them to detect explosive devices has turned a corner. Dogs are saving lives in Iraq and Afghanistan probably right now as you read this.
Dogs save our lives, and it’s our job to return the favor. Dogs Of Course is putting on a conference about that very topic in August of this year. It’s being held in Pennsylvania from August 5 – 7 and doubles as a fundraiser for St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center (my alma mater) with a list of speakers that is nothing short of amazing.
Here is a flyer and here is a direct link to sign up now!
Have a great weekend!
The New Jersey Tundra
A dog that went missing in Virginia showed up 600 miles away in Florida! What a nice surprise!
In the United Kingdom, a dog that has saved many lives in Afghanistan was recognized with the Victoria Cross.
A woman punched out a coyote that attacked her and her puppy.
A dog kept a toddler alive in the cold by staying with her.
Keep your dog on a leash! A Springer Spaniel plunged 300ft off a cliff while chasing a seagull. Here’s some amazing footage of the rescue.
A while back I posted about the wonderful production of 101 Dalmatians that is using rescue dogs. Mary Haight at Dancing Dog Blog has background and backstage information on 101 Dalmatians over here.
Last, did they nail the dialogue on this one or not? “Lazy energy,” “actively submissive,” “kitty leader,” “negative conduct”…..maybe he consulted on this?
The results for the first annual Brodies are in, and I am proud to announce that the Dog Spelled Forward blog……
The New York Times published a story about debarking, something that I had thought was a thing of the past. (Of course the fact that the procedure is illegal for elective reasons in NJ probably contributed to that notion.) Dancing Dog Blog covers the debarking controversy very well. Take a look.
Moving on to another controversy, you’ve probably heard the story of Oreo and Oreo’s Law. Oreo was rescued by the ASPCA after being thrown from a rooftop by an apparently very abusive owner. After spending months (and no doubt thousands of dollars) nursing Oreo back to health, the ASPCA made the heart-wrenching decision to euthanize him because of serious aggression. Professionals in probably the best staffed behavior department in any shelter on the East Coast made a decision about a dog’s behavior.
At some point prior to Oreo being euthanized at least one rescue offered to take him. For whatever reason, and there has been some ambiguity on what and how things happened, the APSCA did not hand Oreo over.
The reaction to this situation has been loud, intense, and unfortunately, very predictable. Some people in the “no-kill” movement thrive on the politics of destruction, and what better target is there than an organization with a national presence that has done tremendous good for animals? Is there a better strategy for raising your own profile than playing “gotcha” with someone bigger than you? After all, when it comes down to it, the people that really cause the pet overpopulation – puppy mills – are faceless and nameless, but when you can tear down an animal welfare icon, you’ve struck gold!
But I digress.
Part of the fallout from the situation is “Oreo Law’s,” which runs the risk of allowing rescues that are already ill-equipped to deal with serious behavior problems the ability to demand any dog they want from a shelter, especially if the dog has serious behavior problems. Speaking from experience, this is not good. Here is a great essay on Oreo’s Law from Animal Law Coalition.
Jordan, retired service dog.
Anthropomorphism can be a “bad word.” It is often used as a perjorative to indicate that someone doesn’t fully understand dog behavior.
I’ve used the word that way myself, as recently as this past weekend in the comments section of a post on this site. I feel that Cesar Millan‘s description of “dominance” is anthropomorphic — that he puts very human thoughts into dog’s heads, like “taking over” when people are not signaling to the dog that they are “in charge.”
But, as I discussed a while back on Dog Star Daily, is anthropomorphism always bad?
To listen to John Homans in New York Magazine, the answer seems to be yes. In his well-researched and very informative article in the February 1 edition of New York he issues the familiar complaint about dogs being pampered and treated as children. I’m a little tired of this argument and the subtext that dog’s treated like children are always spoiled and over-indulged. Seriously…check out how spoiled some children are and then get back to me. (The article covers a lot more territory and is definitely worth a read.)
The latest Puppy Diaries picks up on this argument. Ms. Abramson discusses meeting Temple Grandin, at the premiere of her biopic. Grandin agrees with much of what Homan says, but does say that it’s OK to treat dogs like children. She seems to indicate that while dogs have specific needs and that keeping them cooped up in apartments can cause issues, that if these needs are taken care of, it’s still OK to treat them like family members. Ms. Abramson ultimately decides that Scout “is NEVER going to sleep with us” presumably out of fear that it will “spoil” Scout.
I find this attitude unfortunate. Like Grandin, I think it’s possible to treat our dogs as “full” members of the family without “spoiling” them, and reflexively recoil from grand pronouncements like “no dogs in bed” or “no dogs on the furniture” when there’s nothing more than broad generalizations behind them.
Photo credit:
Dogs Welcome Sign
The mercury has broken 30 degrees a few times over here and I’m already thinking about spending some time outdoors. The Take Paws blog over at Go Pet Friendly had a couple of great posts about dining with your dogs. While being able to take our dogs to a outside cafe for a bite (no pun intended) may seem like a no-brainer to us, some don’t like the idea of eating with dogs around.
Speaking of travel, truth be told I don’t travel a lot and I am no expert. But I am starting to think about it a bit more and I’ve started to subscribe to a few very interesting blogs to get some pointers. Dog Jaunt posted a great article this week on packing for air travel with a small dog. Since I can’t even pack for myself (just ask my wife) I found this very useful.
How about grooming? I’m sporting a bit of a Grizzly Adams look at the moment and need all the help I can get taking care of a fuzzy character like Buddha. Will My Dog Hate Me gave me a new perspective on what grooming means and how to make it seem more manageable.
Earlier I linked to a story about Baltic, a dog that was rescued from the Baltic Sea last week, over on the Dog Spelled Forward Facebook Page. At the time, the identity of Baltic’s family and where he would end up was still unknown. Well, Baltic’s fate has been decided and I couldn’t hope for a happier ending.
Uncle Yorkie Wants You!
Please pop over there and vote. In addition to having a chance to vote of DSF (or one of the others – your choice) you have a chance to see links to some of the best pet blogs on the ‘net!
It's the weekend update! The weekend update!
The New York Times has an online-only feature called “Home Fires” that periodically prints letters and essays from U.S. military war veterans. Being a (peace time only) veteran myself, it’s always been high on my reading list. But on Sunday I found the letter from regular contributor Michael Jernigan especially fascinating. Mike lost his sight in Iraq and he has written some very poignant and touching entries about his struggles. This week he wrote about how important his guide dog, Brittani has been to him.
Last Wednesday, in the shadow of the Haiti disaster, what was the most read article on the BBC’s website? A dog that only understood Polish. The NY Times “Idea of the Day” discussed this briefly on Monday. There’s a link to the original blog post that pointed out the phenomenon, some very interesting discussion in the comments — and of course video about the dog.
They say the secret to getting web traffic is a good headline. I saw this, said “No, duh!” to myself and clicked. I guess it worked.
And last but not least, Daryn Kagan brings us an oldie but a goodie.
Have a good weekend. That’s an order.
Interview at Dog Obedience Training Online
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