Come laugh, eat, drink and have a whole lot of fun. Enjoy four seasoned comics from Live Comedy Atlanta helping Happy Tails empower pets to help people.
Gourmet food and drinks are available, so come thirsty and bring your appetite. Also bring all your dog loving friends to help support this worthy cause.
Comedy Night at Nancy G’s
Saturday, August 1st, 8-9:30pm
This intimate venue holds 40 guests so contact Michelle Mark via email to reserve your seats today. $15/pp in advance or $20/pp at door.
Doors open at 7pm. Nancy G’s is located at 4920 Roswell Road, NE Atlanta, GA 30342. Content is PG-13
There is an amazing device that helps guide dogs guide the blind. You’ve got to check out the Peepo GPS Device, technology at its best.
Guide Dogs for the blind folks generally come trained for taking them around the neighborhood and maybe an extra distance. This surely curtails mobility and independence in case they want to explore more than their usual territory. The Peepo GPS Device gives these people a certain degree of freedom to travel beyond the normal route. The GPS system charts the course and guides the dog to the desired destination using a series of vibrations to steer him.
The two-part device comprises of a handheld GPS unit, which uses vocal commands to register the destination and map it. The second attaches to the guide dog’s handle and gives subtle directions via vibration zones; L= Left, R= Right, F= Forward and up on arriving the destination, the zones simultaneously vibrate.
The biggest USP of this device is that it has a touch “return home same way function”, which is quite reassuring.
Dean Koontz who is a well-known bestselling author isn’t the only writer in the family, meet Trixie, his beloved golden retriever.
The great thing about Trixie’s books are all the proceeds go to Canine Companions for Independence, they provide highly-trained assistance dogs for children and adults with disabilities, free of charge.
Trixie and Dean Koontz are proud to announce a special line of products based on “Bliss to You, Trixie’s Guide to a Happy Life.” The items are going to be available at PetSmart now through August and all the proceeds will once again go to Canine Companions for Independence.
NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – June 30, 2009) – Trixie, bestselling author Dean Koontz’s beloved golden retriever, was more than a dog — she was an inspiration. And like all good inspirations, they are best when shared. To celebrate Trixie’s life, legacy and magic, a new line of pet products has been created to inspire all that is loved by pets and their owners while doing good for service dogs. The line Good Dog: Trixie KoontzTM will launch July 1, 2009 in PetSmart stores.
Dean commented, “Trixie was not only a wonderful dog and an endlessly amusing companion. She was also an inspiration who changed my life. I delight in watching her little empire grow, knowing that every dime she earns is going to pay the catastrophic veterinary bills of the canine companions of people with severe disabilities and to provide assistance dogs for those who need them. My little dog is throwing a long shadow.”
Available items celebrate Trixie’s wit and wisdom and include:
* Butterfly toys, plush bones, disks and rope tugs to play with dogs.
* “Bliss You” and “Laugh ’til Your Face Hurts” tanks for a carefree style.
* Stationery and specialty gifts such as coffee mugs, photo frames, key chains, journals and pens.
A big kudos to Dean and Trixie Koontz for their generosity, thanks to them CCI will be able to provide even more service dogs to help those with disabilities.
Since this is a dog blog, a couple of times a month our boy Bo (woof!) thought it would be nice to get the news through a dog’s eyes.
Bo invites everyone to read a chapter from his upcoming bookBAD TO THE BONE at Bo Knows Online. It’s a funny memoir about the crazy adventures we have shared together over the last 14 plus years, told through Bo’s eyes.
Okay Bo, take it from here…..
Today’s story: not weird, not crazy just another reason to love us four legged, fuzzy creatures.
That’s right, not only are we adorable, non-judgmental and eager to please, but now we’re also getting into the human healthcare game.
Turns out our noses are life savers. No, not the green, red or yellow variety but the soul saving kind. A sniff here and a sniff there and we can tell whether a diabetic’s blood sugar falls to a dangerous level.
Of course it is at this point the true test of being man’s best friend comes into play. Ask yourself, are you going to give up that Butterfinger bar in your fur suit to save that human?
While you decide, Reuters has the details on the research.
AYLESBURY, England (Reuters) – Dogs are being trained in Britain as potential life-savers to warn diabetic owners when their blood sugar levels fall to dangerously low levels.
Man’s best friend already has been shown capable of sniffing out certain cancer cells, and dogs have long been put to work in the hunt for illegal drugs and explosives.
Their new front-line role in diabetes care follows recent evidence suggesting a dog’s hyper-sensitive nose can detect tiny changes that occur when a person is about to have a hypoglycemic attack.
Last week the guest tipster on The Daily Dog Tip was CJ Betancourt, founder of The Foundation for Service Dog Support. The FSDS s a non-profit organization based in Arizona. They are a support and resource center for those with service dogs, and those who seek information and training on service dog issues.
The organization runs several programs, but the one I want to focus on is the Puppy Raising Program. The reason being, this program works with high school students. Over the last few months I’ve posted some very disturbing stories dealing with children and animal cruelty, this program highlights the good qualities in today’s teens. It shows what a difference a high school student can make in the community, now and in the future.
The program allows students to earn HS credits, while learning puppy raising, canine obedience and canine safety programming. At the end of three semesters, the teams must successfully pass the FSDS Certification test, and the dogs will then be matched with individuals in the community with disabilities who require service dogs.
One of the teens chosen to participate is Brittney Shields. I got the opportunity to interview Brittney about her experience being in the program.
My name is Brittney Shields, and I was chosen to be a handler/trainer in this program. There are twelve handlers and twelve puppies in the first group. Each of us had to go through an application and interview process before we were accepted into the program. I first heard about it from an article on the school district’s website.
After reading the article, I was instantly interested in the program for two reasons. The first reason being that I love animals, and I would get to work with dogs on a daily bases. The second reason was because of the purpose of the program: training service dogs to give to those in the community who have given to us. I would be learning all about service dogs, laws regarding them, and how to train them, and I would also be training a dog for a very deserving individual.
A short but nice story on a football player who’s making a difference.
CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS, Pa. – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is helping a northwestern Pennsylvania police department fight crime.
The Cambridge Springs police department used $8,000 from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation to care for and equip a new 2-year-old German shepherd. The department paid $11,000 for the dog, which was raised in a community fundraiser.
Roethlisberger’s foundation provides funding to train, equip and purchase police dogs. The foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for service dogs used by police and fire departments in Pennsylvania, Roethlisberger’s home state of Ohio and elsewhere.
Fancy’s fortune happened when she was adopted after being dumped in a drop box at the Elkhart County Humane Society. Darlene Guthrie’s good fortune occurred when she adopted Fancy.
Fancy, a 3-year-old Kai Ken-shepherd mix, was adopted by Darlene Guthrie in 2005, when Fancy was just 5 weeks old and weighed less than 3 pounds.
Guthrie, Elkhart Police Department’s animal rescue officer at the time, saw Fancy while dropping off a couple of other neglected dogs. It was love at first sight.
It wasn’t long until Guthrie noticed Fancy had a special talent – the ability to sense seizures in other dogs before they happen.
When Guthrie’s old Labrador dog began having seizures, Fancy would come to Guthrie and her husband.
Guthrie researched procedures to have a dog become a certified work dog and has been working with Fancy for the past several years. Fancy is registered with the United States Service Dog Registry and is considered a service dog.
I don’t have an iPhone but for those who do they just approved a new dog game which benefits Guide Dogs of Texas. You can get yourself a virtual puppy to play with while contributing to a good cause at the same.
Guide Dogs of Texas raises, trains and provides guide dogs to visually impaired Texans to enhance their mobility and independence. It is the only guide dog school in Texas and is a member of the International Guide Dog Federation.
Dolan created a downloadable application called Pocket Puppy Raiser that allows users to interact with a virtual puppy on the Apple iPhone. Users can scratch a sleeping puppy’s belly until its leg shakes, pet the dog until it licks the iPhone screen or play a game of tug-of-war with the pup. Apple approved Pocket Puppy Raiser on May 7.
The application costs $2.99 per download and proceeds will be split among the iPhone App Store, Dolan and Guide Dogs of Texas.
To download the app, go to iTunes and search “Pocket Puppy Raiser.”
The Pocket Puppy Raiser will eventually be upgraded to include more tasks.
American Idol castoff Scott MacIntyre has a new idol, Paula Abdul. MacIntyre may not have made it into the final three but he’s about to receive something even better than being named the next American Idol.
The singer who got booted from the show five weeks ago is visually challenged, although not completely blind.Thanks to the generosity of Abdul he is going to receive a guide dog.
Scott walked-or “test drove” as he joked-two of the organization’s Labrador retrievers on Friday, but he won’t get his dog until after the American Idol tour ends on Sept. 15. At that time, he’ll get matched up with the right pooch for him and go through a 28-day training process. “We have to find a dog that really likes loud music,” joked Paula.
Scott, who was lured to the event under the false pretense that he was there to sing, was quite surprised to learn the truth…
“Are you serious? Thank you so much,” Scott told Paula at the event, which was in honor of May being National Guide Dog Month and cosponsored by Natural Balance Pet Foods and Petco.
Watch the clip of Paula and Scott now–
What a great gesture on the part of Paula Abdul.
* Couldn’t you see yourself adopting Gus? He’s a gorgeous 2-year-old in need of a forever home.
I wanted to let Dogsters know about the Dublin Dog Foundation’s current fundraising campaign.
The DDF promotes humanity’s use of dogs in therapeutic and service capacities. Service and guide dogs make a huge difference to those in need. Whether it’s a guide dog for the blind or therapy dog visiting the ill these dogs change lives.
The Dublin Dog Foundation is partnering with Canine Assistants to raise the funds needed to support the life of one service dog – which will be given to a Cerebral Palsy patient in need. To do this, they have fabricated a one-of-a-kind bike & sidecar, which will be raffled off online, and then ridden in the 2009 Let Freedom Bark Ride on the 4th of July.
The Ride will be a 24 hour-a-day, 400 mile charity ride from Charlotte, N.C., to Washington D.C. The foundation’s fundraising goal of $20,000 will help to cover all the costs associated with the dog’s training, graduation, food and medical bills for the dog’s lifetime.
The national raffle is now live via the Dublin Dog Foundation website, where any dog lover can buy raffle tickets for a minimum donation of $5.00 for a chance to win the official Dublin Dog Foundation one-of-a-kind bike & sidecar with an estimated value of $3,000.
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* Butterfly toys, plush bones, disks and rope tugs to play with dogs.
The national raffle is now live via the Dublin Dog Foundation website, where any dog lover can 