I was asked by Adam Levy at Vet Planet to particpate in an online interview. The questions were really good, and other than the horrible photo, I think the result is great.

Take a look and leave a comment!

Meanwhile, believe it or not, we’re supposed to get more snow. I love the winter…but I think I’m over my quota for happiness. It can stop now.

In the latest IAABC Podcast I spoke to Terry Ryan about her new book, The Toolbox for Building a Great Family Dog.

Terry owns and runs Legacy Canine with her husband Bill in Washington state and is the author of several important books, such as Coaching People to Train Their Dogs, a book that you should have on your shelf if you have ever even considered giving a dog training class.

The Toolbox for Building a Great Family Dog is a great book for all trainers, behavior consultants and dog owners, with a wealth of great information packed into a very succinctly written book. Terry shares some useful tips from the book and from her considerable experience as a trainer and a trainer-of-trainers.

Here is the podcast. (If you can’t see it you may need to click through from your RSS reader.)

Partied Hardy!

Happy New Year!

Let’s start out the new year with some cool stories!

Artist BZTAT is starting a new project called Okey’s Promise, to create awareness about the connections between animal maltreatment, child abuse, and domestic violence. You can donate to the project here, at Kickstarter.

Picking on the big food companies is fun and well, usually easy. But sometimes they foil our snarky plans with news like this, which I received just before Christmas:

…..As you may or may not be aware, also on December 20th, Americans nationwide had the opportunity to vote online to raise funds for five national pet-related charities. Over the course of the day, Purina ONE beyOnd donated $200,000 total to the charities and the online voting determined how much of the monetary pool each charity would receive.

Well, the results are in and here is the breakdown of how much each nonprofit will receive as a result of the online voting:

American Humane Association: $103,200
Adopt A Pet: $43,800
Operation Baghdad:  $32,400
AAHA Helping Pets Fund: $12,800
Delta Society: $7,800
 
Think of it as an early holiday present for the pup and kitties at these shelters!

This is part of a promotion Purina is running for their new premium food, beyOnd. I have the fact sheet here. I imagine may people are going to be very skeptical of a premium food coming from a big company. I think it’s a good thing: some people just won’t look past the big names, and if the market is forcing them to make better food, isn’t that good for dogs?

Do you have a rescue dog whose breed mix you just can’t figure out? WhatsMyPuppy.com has set up a “crowdsourced” solution to the problem. Post a photo of your dog with a biography and get some guesses and discussion from other site members. The site has a very cool points system that also gives you a chance to donate to shelters and rescues! Here’s how it works. I plan on posting Gage soon, who I usually refer as a Rorshach’s dog.

It’s been too long since I had a shout-out to another blog. Debbie Jacobs over at the Fearful Dogs Blog made a beautiful point about rewards and the science of motivation just before the holiday break. Check it out.

The second episode of the IAABC podcast is live! In another tie-in with the IAABC 2011 Conference speaker interview series. Brenda Aloff tells us about her talk at the conference, as well as her upcoming book and some great advice for pet owners and trainers alike.

Links from our talk:

Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog
Get Connected with Your Dog: Emphasizing the Relationship While Training Your Dog
Aggression in Dogs: Practical Management, Prevention & Behaviour Modification
Positive Reinforcement: Training Dogs in the Real World

You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or via RSS.

If you like it, a review in iTunes would help the podcast get more attention.

Are you ready for your holiday? I’m definitely not. This is usually my favorite time of the year, but this year…not. I hope yours is better.

Here’s a story you are probably tired of: Michael Vick wants a dog. I’m not really sure how people can get behind him on this. Over at ESPN we read about his better attitude and lifestyle, on The View we apparently heard from Whoopi for a second time how being raised with certain cultural norms validates bad behavior. (My tongue is literally bleeding from not being able to make the obvious comparison there — but this is not that kind of blog.)

Part of his sentence was not being allowed to have any dogs for a certain period of time. Just like you can lose your driver license for driving badly or a gun license for using a gun illegally. Period. I doubt doing a nice job at the office ever got a drunk driver his license back faster, and I a positive growing up with drunks is not a reason for leniency either.

Why is this a question?

On a more holiday-ish note, did you know that mice sing? I didn’t.

If you are reading this from my neck of the woods (Bergen County NJ) there will be holiday photos for pets with Santa (not me this time) at the Maywood Veterinary Clinic. You can get directions on my classes page. If Buddha’s eye looks better, we’ll be there.

I’m going to take advantage of the break to do some much-needed maintenance on this site. It won’t go down or anything, but I’ll be back with a new post here on January 5, 2011.

Have a great holiday!

Not much of a weekend update. Busy weekend and all….

Do you read Neil Gaiman’s blog? You ought to. You get to see cool stuff like this.

If you’re over there in the snow, I envy you!

Chances are I am at a Nose Work Seminar in Maryland while you are reading this. Ha ha! But I can’t let a seminar stand in the way of the news!

On November 11, at their annual Humane Awards Luncheon, the ASPCA honored a bunch of animal and human heroes, including Pearl:
 

Pearl, the 2010 Dog of the Year, is an active Lab who, after finding her true calling as a search dog, helped rescue earthquake victims in Haiti. Volunteers from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) based in Ojai, CA, discovered Pearl in a shelter and trained her as a certified search dog, and in January, the heroic pup and her handler, Ron Horetski of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, were deployed to Haiti. They and six other SDF teams spent two weeks digging through concrete and debris to locate survivors, ultimately helping save 12 people.

What a hero!

As you may already know, Aurora Colorado is one of those wonderful towns that would rather pass bans against dog breeds than actually do something effective about dangerous dogs. There is a slight sliver of hope however, Pit Bull service dogs may soon be allowed. This is, of course, not a city council being magnanimous: it’s local council people that painted themselves into a corner. Brent Toellner at KC Dog Blog has written some great stuff about BSL around the country, and how the service dog issue may get them into trouble.

Last, here’s a list of 10 human medications that can prove fatal to your dog. Thanks to Pet Connection blog for pointing it out earlier this week.

Have a good weekend!