I came across this article and I thought it would be fun to see what Dogsters thought on the subject.

In Dallas, TX it seems that dog owners love to dress up their dogs.  I’m talking  everyday apparel, not just Halloween.

Parent: Denise Devora, Dallas

Pup: Chiquitita the Chihuahua

Ms. Devora, 32, an administrator at Mountain View College, got Chiquitita last April in San Antonio. Doggy couture wasn’t a natural fit for Ms. Devora, although she’s become a convert. “I never thought I would dress up a dog. I never saw that coming. We always had outside dogs; she’s only the second inside dog I’ve ever had.

“But you see these cute little outfits, you think how cute she’d look in that, and one thing leads to another …
“She just eats up the attention she gets when she’s got them on,” Ms. Devora says. “I take her to the mall sometimes in a carrier, and she’ll be really good till someone notices her. Then she’s sticking her head out, and then it starts. Then there’s no stopping her.”

The movie  Beverly Hills Chihuahua was number one at the box office last weekend. In the movie dog star Chloe has her own wardrobe. The producers obviously realized that dressing your dog isn’t just a trend, it’s here to stay.

Go into any doggy boutique or national chain, like PetSmart, and you’ll see sections devoted to dog clothes.  I admit Lisa and I dress the pups up for Halloween, but the neighborhood kids look forward to seeing them every year.  Okay, we do it for ourselves too.  Other than that they go au naturel for the rest of the year.

Last year Bo even wrote a blog entry letting us know his feelings about being dressed up.  You can read Halloween Humiliation and find out what he thought.  I know Bo’s feelings about the subject but I wonder if other dogs like to be dressed up?

The other day I was in the store picking up dog food  when a lady with a small dog started trying to put a Halloween hat on him.  He was squirming around looking like he was about to jump out of the cart when the woman turns to me and says, “He doesn’t like be fully dressed, but he enjoys this.”

That wouldn’t have been my assessment, but what do I know.  So….who out there likes to dress their dog year round?  Who thinks you shouldn’t dress your dog?  Fess up, give me a bark.

Hi there! It’s Tracie Hotchner, author of Dogster’s Daily Dog Tips as well as “The Dog Bible” and “Your Dog’s Best Friend” from the radio show DOG TALK(R). Today I have really good tip for you: Set aside this Saturday night October 11th at 8 PM (replayed Sunday at 7 PM) for a dog-lover’s dream TV show.

I just learned about this very cool new canine TV show on Animal Planet, DOGS 101, that should NOT be a well-kept secret. [I found out about it because the producers interviewed me as a cat expert for the last two episodes which are called CATS 101.] It’s all about different dog breeds, with lots of interviews with a variety of canine experts mixed in with being able to see a half dozen breeds up close and personal every week.Here are the notes for this week’s show:

DOGS 101: French Bulldog, Airedale Terriers, Labrador Retriever, Chihuahua, Poodle.

World Premiere Saturday, October 11, 8-9 PM (ET/PT)

Can the poodle actually read? Is the French bulldog the loudest snorer? Did John Wayne’s Airedale give him his nickname? Do labs swim faster than ducks? And is the Chihuahua actually related to a fox? These questions and more will be answered on this episode of DOGS 101, the series that celebrates man’s best friend. Learn the history and unique traits of the French bulldog, the Airedale, the Labrador, the Chihuahua and the poodle. Prepare to be amazed as these breeds live out their legacies as heroes, healers, friends and brainiacs. You’ll never look at your pooch the same way again.

Check it out and please let me know what you think in the comments. I’ll get back to you at the end of next week so you’ll know if YOUR favorite breed is going to be highlighted then.

Wow, this was a hard one to choose.  We got so many great answers, but in the end we chose Jill Merrick.

It was the thought of washing off all that oil that got to me.  After all… dogs, water and oil don’t mix.

Congratulations Jill, bath time just got a little easier thanks to your new HydroSurge Rapid Bath.

Tale one: I came home one day and found my first dog had chewed up four quarts of oil. He kindly did three quarts, one in each section of the basement. The last quart was in the middle of his nice dog bed. When I slid into the room, he was sitting in the middle of it, with his hair all spiked like I’d used gel. It took four baths and ALOT of patience. Finally had to use Lava pumice soap to make a dent in the oil.

Tale two: My other dog - we went to the park after work. He loves the water, so I thought I’d give him a treat and let him charge for the lake. Little did I know that they had drained it of all the water and all that was left was about three feet deep of pond silt . He was covered with the gooey, smelly, sticky goop. The bathroom is upstairs and he refuses to go up there on his own. Put him on a leash and finally coerced him up. But at 110 pounds, all I could do was get the front feet in the tub. After about 20 minutes of wrestling and the bathroom being covered in mud, I gave up and took him to Petsmart. The groomers hosed him off for me…..

A close second was from Michelle, she got some bonus zealies for her effort.

I have one story that contains my two dogs. It happened shortly after Thanksgiving last year. My two dogs (Henry a Black German Shepard and Griffin a Border Terrier) spend the day in my kitchen/sun porch while I am at work. Needless to say this leaves them full access to my kitchen.

My family had left from visiting and I was cleaning up the kitchen and placed an opened bag of flour on the bottom of my backers rack in between my refrigerator and stove. Completely forgetting that I had left it there I left for work come Monday.

Upon my arrival home from work I entered the sun room and noticed that neither of my two dogs greeted me. This was highly unusual and most certainly indicated that they had done something wrong. Then it hit me.

My entire sun room was covered in flour. The walls, the floor, my furniture, the windows and oh yes, my dogs. They gingerly stepped out from the kitchen both covered from head to toe in whie all purpose flour. It was a mess. Both dogs were covered in flour and in certain places it was caked.

My black German Shepard was now white and my Border Terrier was a lighter shade of brown. They apparently tried to eat some of it because the water bowl was bone dry causing the flour on their noses and snouts to cake up. I just stood there in total disbelief of what I was seeing. After collecting myself and trying my best to clean up the sun room I then attempted to give both of them baths. It took two baths per dog to get all the flour off of them.

Thanks to all the Dogsters that took the time to enter, all the answers were great.

A study led by Camille Ward, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan and director of About Dogs LLC, has found that young male dogs often let females win when playing.

Females were more likely than males to initiate play with their own sex, but that may be to stave off more vicious behavior later.

“Because adult female-female aggression, when it occurs, can generally be more intense than female-male aggression, we suggest that females may use play with other females as one way to practice threat and appeasement signals that may serve to ritualize aggression and limit overt aggression later on,” said Ward, whose findings are published in this month’s Animal Behavior.

While males were less likely to initiate play with other males, they seemed eager to play with females, and would go to all sorts of lengths to keep the play going.

The male puppies, for example, would sometimes lick the muzzles of their opponents, giving the female a chance to bite them in a vulnerable position. They would also even completely drop to the ground from a moving, standing or sitting position, looking like a boxer down for the count.

They might lose the game in the short run, but they could win at love in the future.

“We know that in feral dog populations, female mate choice plays a role in male mating success,” said Ward. “Perhaps males use self-handicapping with females in order to learn more about them and to form close relationships with them — relationships that might later help males to secure future mating opportunities.”

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this on an episode of  MTV’s High School Stories.

There are so many dogs in shelters across the U.S., while some get adopted many never make it out.

Some dogs aren’t adopted because their rather rambunctious personality can be a bit overwhelming to the potential adopter.

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has a way to save these dogs, by putting them to work.

“They don’t do well sitting in your back yard, they don’t do well with little kids because they are just very very rambunctious dogs,” said Marin County Fire Captain Jim Boggeri. “They need a job and they need to get out and run and do this job.”

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Canine Manager Karen Klingberg scours shelters for dogs that can’t make it as pets, but might make it as disaster-scene searchers and rescuers.

“This is where your high-energy, your driven fence jumper, pulling, untrained dogs end up. And to me, those are like ‘yeah’,” she said.

After successfully passing a battery of tests, dogs that are sometimes just hours away from being put down at a shelter are enrolled in a six-to eight-month certification course.

This sounds like a win-win situation to me, what a great story.

On Wednesday, the day we’ve been waiting for finally happened.

Pennsylvania House Bill 2525 was passed by the Senate.

The Senate and the House on Wednesday approved a bill that gives most commercial kennel owners an additional three years to comply with an array of new regulations to make their kennels more humane. The bill also gives the state agriculture secretary the power to extend that waiver even longer.

But even with provisions that supporters said water down the legislation, it still was an advancement for animal welfare in Pennsylvania, they declared.

”This is the day that we eliminate” Pennsylvania’s reputation ”as the puppy mill capital of the East,” said Rep. James Casorio, D-Westmoreland, the prime sponsor. ”The mistreatment of thousands and thousands and thousands of dogs kept in deplorable and inhumane [conditions]  will no longer stand.”

The bill has been changed from the original, but at least this is a beginning, you have to start somewhere.

Hopefully,  what Pennsylvania has begun will force every state to take a look at their laws, or lack of, so that humane treatment of dogs in puppy mills will be the norm rather than the exception.

Pit Bulls have gotten a bit of a bad rap lately, so I wanted to post an event that celebrates these dogs.

Pitt Bull Party in Cambier Park

(Naples, FL)–For too long, the pit bull terrier breed has been wrongly maligned and feared. In an effort to educate people and allay their fears about these dogs, The Humane Society Naples presents its second annual A Celebration of the Staffordshire.

Well-behaved pit bulls and other varieties of the breed and their owners will gather on Saturday, October 18th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Cambier Park for a two-hour “Pittie Party” of socializing and demonstrating just how wonderful these dogs really are. (Cambier Park is in downtown Naples, just west of City Hall, 375 8th St South.)

The Celebration ends with participants taking their “pits on parade” in a leisurely stroll down 5th Avenue. Owners of well-behaved, socialized American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and pit bull mixes are encouraged to attend this free, educational event and demonstrate to the world how wonderful and loving these breeds are.

All dogs must be leashed, per county and city ordinance.

For more information, contact Patricia Connell, assistant director of development at 239-643-1880 x 18 or by e-mail at patricia@HSNaples.org.

The beauty pictured on the left, is Leo, he was rescued from Michael Vick’s property at the time of his arrest. He’s now a certified therapy dog working in medical facilities. What a great story, read more on Leo’s page.

To all the great Dogsters that took the time to vote,  I’m pleased to announce that Mark Rogers has won the photography contest.

He is the #1 San Francisco Bay Area Pet Photographer 2008.  Way to go Mark!

Dear customers, friends and supporters,

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been voted the #1 San Francisco Bay Area Pet Photographer for 2008 on the SF Chronicle/SFGate.com Bay List.

This is a huge honor for me and I really owe it all to the loyal customers and fans who voted and took the time to write those wonderful reviews. Thank you so much for helping me turn my passion into a job I truly love.

Over the course of the contest I’ve also realized how important it is for me to stay in touch and to get your feedback and input. To that end, I’m letting you know about my new newsletter.

Subscribe and six times per year you’ll get the latest on upcoming photography events and new products along with special deals and offers from me and other pet-friendly businesses I work with.

Thanks again for everything,

Mark

I’m working on an interview with Mark,  find out everything you ever wanted to know about him.  If anyone has any questions for him, leave a comment in the comment section and I’ll try and get it answered.  Bark away.

On October 2nd  I posted Hailed A Hero, Buried A Pauper. It was about a man from Florida helping out after Hurricane Ike, who was killed saving three dogs trapped on a Texas highway.

Robert “Bob” Emery had been living alone, estranged from his family officials had noone to contact about his death.

Without anyone to claim his body, this hero risked being buried in a pauper’s grave.  All of that has changed, his long lost daughter has been located.

The e-mail from a stranger in Clear Lake was to the point, and an improbable end to a Pittsburgh woman’s 13 years of searching for the father she hadn’t spoken to since she was a kid.

“Is your father’s name Robert Emery? The whole city of Houston is looking for any relatives,” read the message.

Alaina Emery was startled as she stared at a computer screen while in the library at paralegal school.

Trembling and swept with emotion, she misunderstood the reason for the question.

“Why is the entire city of Houston looking for him?” she typed back.

The exchange would quickly lead to Alaina, now 25, realizing her long-lost father was Robert “Bob” Emery, the mysterious Hurricane Ike relief worker killed the night of Sept. 27 as he dashed onto the East Freeway to rescue three dogs stranded in the emergency lane hugging the median.

Robert Emery was a man that had many personal issues, he battled a lifelong drug addiction.  A problem that destroyed two marriages and a career as a construction worker.  However, regardless of his issues noone was surprised that he risked his life rescuing the dogs.  It seems that was the type of person he was.

For his daughter this is obviously a bittersweet ending.  In the end, after searching for her dad for many years and never finding him, it was a stranger that found her to let her know what happened to him.

“I am very saddened that I could not find him in life, but somehow he found me in death,” Emery told the Houston Chronicle by phone. “I wanted to hug him, to meet my son.”

We hope now, Robert “Bob” Emery, you can rest in peace.

When Lisa and I adopted Bo, 15 years ago, he was about 11 months old.  Eight years later we adopted Copper, she was around 6 months.  It wasn’t so much that we set out to adopt younger dogs, it just happened.

We recently added another member into our family, Logan, who is a 5 five year old Bernese Mountain dog rescue.

Logan has taught us how much joy  adopting an older dog can bring.  Being an abused dog from a puppy mill he missed out on all the fun things a normal dog would experience.  Everything is new to him; running, playing, taking walks, being loved.

The first time Logan wagged his tail I think Lisa and I must have stood around grinning for about an hour. Originally, when we were looking to adopt a Berner rescue, I admit, we were looking for a dog no older than two.  One of the people from BARC mentioned Logan to us, that was when we started to consider adopting an older dog.

We knew that there will always be people to adopt the puppies, everyone loves a puppy, but the older ones ofter get left behind.  People are afraid they’re to set in their ways or that they won’t be around that long.

I think when older dogs are adopted they are so appreciative because they sense how lucky they are, they have so much love to give. The fact is that no one knows how much time we’re going to get with our dog, some die young while others live to a ripe old age. Life offers no guarantees, sometimes you just have to take a chance..

The following is from an article posted in the L.A. Times.

We got the scoop on two great senior dogs in the West L.A. shelter from shelter volunteer Mirja Bishop. We’ll let Mirja take it from here:

Holly, ID# A0940982, has been at the West L.A. shelter since May. She’s already spayed and is listed as a German Shepherd mix.

Jessica, ID# A0941207, has been at the West L.A. shelter since May. She’s already spayed and is listed as a German Shepherd mix.

Holly is 11 years old; Jessica is listed as 10, but she behaves like a much younger dog. They’re reportedly mother and daughter — you have to look closely to tell one from the other, but Holly does have a few gray hairs on her muzzle and she’s a little slower and more deliberate than Jessica. They have always been housed together and they are deeply devoted to one another.

Recently another volunteer and I bathed the girls in preparation for a mobile dog adoption event (lifting them into the wash basin was quite a challenge). Both were apprehensive, but their sweet dispositions (and a few treats) allowed the baths to go off without a hitch!

When bath time was over, we took Holly and Jessica to a play area so they could romp and chase each other around on the grass. (Holly still acts like a mom and tried to groom her daughter, despite the look of protest on Jessica’s face. The look clearly said, “Mom, don’t embarrass me!”)

They played with such wild abandon that all I could do was smile and shout, ‘Go, girls, go!’ What a joy it was to see them running freely, two beautiful dogs enjoying some well-deserved playtime.

It’s hard to understand why they have not been adopted to date; it probably points out a sad reality, that people do not want older dogs. How sad, because these dogs have so much love and loyalty to give to some lucky person! We hope that someone out there will fall in love with the two of them — they have spent their lives together and to separate them now would be truly sad.

Holly and Jessica are just a few of the many older dogs that are housed in our local shelters. Senior pets have so much love and loyalty to offer and ask for nothing more than a forever home where they can curl up and feel safe and loved again.

This mother-daughter team is available now at the West L.A. shelter, located at 11361 West Pico Blvd. (near the intersection of Pico and Sawtelle). You can inquire further about them (or any of the other dogs in the shelter) by calling 888-4LAPET1 with the ID numbers listed here.

If anyone lives around the L.A. area and is looking for love, I know where you might want to start.