Big woofs to canine guest blogger Nika, a Dogster member who believes that crate training can be beneficial for dogs and reduce stress.

My name is Nika, and I am a ten-year-old Siberian Husky. I won’t bore you with all the details of my puppyhood and crating issues. However, I’d like to share with you my take on crate training.

Bottom line is, crating can be cruel. It is often forced on dogs in extreme situations when the last thing the dog needs to deal with is learning to like a crate. I know… you humans are already saying I would never do that! I would never force my dog to into a crate if they didn’t want to go in, and I certainly wouldn’t do it if they were already under stress.

Well, I am here to tell you that there is a good chance a situation will occur in your dog’s lifetime when they will need to be crated.

When? Here is the short list: visiting the vet’s office, recovering from surgery, flying on a plane, staying in a hotel or motel. I won’t even get into how the use of a crate could have kept so many dogs from ending up at the local shelter.

I am loose in the house during the day, but that doesn’t mean I am not crate-trained. I often get refresher courses and have seen many dogs even at the age of ten like me learn to like crates! So please don’t ever give up on the crate training! I know a lot of folks think crates are cruel, but one thing I return to is if your dog ever in his or her lifetime needs to stay at the vet’s or wants to travel, being okay with a crate make those times so much easier on the dog.

Want to know how being happy in a crate helped me out? Well…

- I get to travel more often. I can’t stay in a hotel/motel without a crate. Because if the humans go out to eat, housekeeping could still come in and let me escape!

- I go to places with my humans and volunteer at events, and the crate is my place to go when I have had enough.

- I had masses removed from my liver. Imagine how much worse my stay at the vet would have been if I really hated my crate… in a dreaded vet’s office and forced into a crate.

-Recovery from liver surgery includes extreme risk of internal bleeding. Guess where I had to stay for my recovery. Yup, a crate! Without a crate I would have been able to jump on the couch and pull out my stitches. I could have bled to death.

- Recently we had an owner who contacted us because they have to move overseas and want the dog to come with them, but they never crate trained the dog. Now the poor dog is going to have a very stressful ride in a crate on an airplane or, even worse, will have to find a new owner.

So you humans may hate crates, but guess what? Sometimes they are necessary, and today is a better day to learn to accept them rather than a day when you really need one. There is a good chance your dog will have to go in one in the future!

Next week, I’ll post tips on how to teach dogs to like their crates.

More resources:

Guide to Crate Training a Puppy
Answers to Crate Training Questions
Behavior & Training Forum

Cameron Woo, today’s guest blogger, is publisher of Bark, a must-read magazine for dog lovers.

People Have the Power
by Patti Smith

Listen. I believe everything we dream
Can come to pass through our union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the earth’s revolution

We have the power
People have the power

After more than ten years of publishing Bark magazine—the “voice of modern dog culture”—if I’ve learned anything at all it’s that every dog has his/her day. And that day has arrived (hallelujah) for dog people. It seems every strategist from Wall Street to Madison Avenue is acknowledging the newest demographic to mark a territory—people who love dogs.

Part of my job at Bark is selling advertising space in the magazine. Lately, the quest for reader demographics has been turned up several notches. Ad agencies representing companies large and small have been asking: How much do your readers earn? What kind of car do they drive? Do they vacation with their dogs? Buy organic? The interest is palpable. In a world where information is king, dog people are what they refer to as “impassioned enthusiasts” with a strong psychographic (attributes relating to personality, attitude, values and lifestyle). In short, we love dogs—and that makes us highly desirable.

You’ve probably seen those eye-opening stats in articles about the burgeoning pet industry—75 million dogs, a third of American households owning a pet dog, $30 billion spent annually. Yes, that’s you! Someone cares about you and your dog! Or, how your love of dog influences your spending and the social choices you make. Cue up those commercials with the adorable rescue dogs and their pet food, and the one featuring a lost dog and a credit card. These are aimed straight at the heart of dog people in a none-too-subtle effort to seize your sympathies and make that all powerful brand-consumer connection.

So, now that we have accepted our card-carrying membership in this new social group, what’s next? How about using this newfound power to make a difference? I’m reminded of the bumper sticker created by a few off-leash advocacy group: “I have a dog, and I vote.” Yes, it’s time to get involved and to let your opinions be known. Worthy causes abound. Not enough off-leash areas for dogs? The local shelter threatened by budget cuts? Is that anti-puppy mill legislation being stone-walled by special interests? Well, there’s good news, as a dog lover, you are part of a special interest group 100 million strong! That’s some special interest!

So, like it or not dog people, you belong to a community and a greater cause. You have responsibilities. Embrace them and learn to love it. As they say in my hometown, the Republic of Berkeley, everything is political. Shop wisely. Vote responsibly. Exercise your freedom of speech (hey you, pick up!). And help us take a giant leap forward for all dog-kind.

Today’s guest blogger is Stacie Tamaki, Dogster member extraordinaire and guardian of famous pooch Kitai.

You’ve found Dogster.com. You’ve posted pictures and filled in your pet’s bio, and you check back for cool contests and promotions. You feed, walk, play with, groom, pet and adore your four-legged furry buddy. If you frequent the Dogster Forums, you even pretend you are your dog: posting away under their alias and making friends with other humans who will forever be known to you first as their dog’s name. BOL’ing instead of LOL’ing, I still laugh when people call me Kitai instead of Stacie in a private email or better yet on the phone.

But did you remember to build your dog its own personal blog? Using sites like Blogger, TypePad and Wordpress, you can create a blog for little or no cost and start spreading the word that a dog’s life just keeps getting better and better.

You may ask yourself, does your dog really need a blog? Hopefully it does. Hopefully your dog has a lot to say about the great way you care for him or her. I’ve found that having a blog, or in Kitai’s case a blog and entire website, is a great educational resource for other pet owners.

1. By including photos of your pet out on a walk, at the dog park, at a play date with another dog or hanging out at an outdoor cafe, if your city has them, your blog can show owners who normally don’t take their dogs outside of their homes or yards that they can do more with their pets than they realize. Kitai recently attended his first black-tie gala! And of course his trip to NYC last fall to be on tv was a huge and exciting adventure for both of us.

2. You can add a link list to help those interested in adopting a dog from a local shelter or rescue group. The clickable links make it easy for people to go and view dogs looking for homes in their local area and will introduce them to organizations they didn’t even know existed. If you know responsible, ethical breeders, you can include a preferred breeders list as well to steer people away from backyard breeders and pet shop puppies that support the puppy mill industry.

3. They’re a great way to help spread the word on the latest and greatest news in pet care. Grain-free food? A cool new reflective leash for night walking? An upcoming pet-friendly event? Help with behavior problems? You can post it all on your blog and help bring informative content to pet owners who don’t know about all of the products, services and events available to them to help care for and have more fun with their pets.

And if you build your pooch its own blog or website, don’t forget to order some inexpensive business cards online so you can pass them out to strangers who stop you on the street to chat about your pup. Recently I gave away all 250 of Kitai’s business cards, so I just ordered another 500.

Another great option if you want to use your Dogster Diary as your blog but have a fun domain name (url) to put on a business card? Go to a domain name registrar like GoDaddy and register a url like: www.FidoAndFifi.com. It costs about $8 per year to do this. Then forward the url to your Dogster page. Print www.FidoAndFifi.com on your business card, and when people go online and enter the url, it will take them straight to your Dogster page. FYI: .info would be more appropriate than .com as the extension unless you plan on building a commerce site using the same domain url in the future.

A cute card, that includes a photo of your pet and a url, that you can hand over when anyone ever says they are, or know someone who is, looking for a new pet to adopt is a fabulous way to help shelter dogs find forever homes. Just let them know you’ve created the local shelter/rescue link list and they can go and find them all in one place.

They’ll appreciate it! I promise. :o)

Most of us don’t want to think about the time after we die and what will happen to those we leave behind. I mean of course our dogs and cats. But if you have pets its part of your job to think ahead and make sure you have a plan in place to care for them if you go to the Rainbow Bridge before them.

Thanks to Eddie Essig for barking in this reminder and this link to this excellent article on how to make sure your furfamily is cared for.

I don’t know if you happened to see this announcement about Noelle’s Mom, but it sparked my thought process:

This poor Dogster Mom suddenly passed away in her sleep at the young age of 47, and left behind 3 furkids with no one to care for them, thus giving them an uncertain future. What a scary thought!! In Snoop Dogs, along with the fun, I try hard to discuss important issues also, so I made this post concerning the matter:

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JD’s furmom Tina barked in this call for help. Dogster JD may be facing a bum rap. If you have any advice you can offer furmom Tina or if you live in the area and know of any groups or lawyers who could advise her, please pawmail JD.

I need help ASAP. I have a 2year old Yellow Lab that the city of Tekoa Wa. whats to kill. He was accused of bitting a 8 year old boy. I asked for proof that it was my dog as he has never bitten anyone and is not a aggressive dog. The child was ruff playing in another nieghbors yard with their Chow. The Chow has bitten before.

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As a community, Dogsters and Catsters look out for each other. Dogster Ezperanza barked in asking for help in finding a new home in Nassau County, New York. We all know how it is to live in an unwelcoming situation. If you know of anything, please pawmail Esperanza.

Let’s all hope something turns up soon.

Are there any Dogster’s out there that know of an apartment for rent in Nassau county New York? Our landlady has gotten really mean the last few months, she won’t let me use the yard any more, she makes it difficult or impossible for mommy to park her van, she complains about everything and is always screaming at mommy. She has been at our apartment 4 times today, yelling at mommy. Mommy is really upset and so am I, I am afraid when people yell.

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If you live in a city with a small dog or cat, you may think you don’t have to worry about predators. Think again! Janice, furmom to the darling Tico el Bandito, barked in to warn all Dogsters and Catsters to watch out for hungry predators.

It’s cold and many larger birds and other animals are hungry. Keep an eye on your smaller furbabies!

And Janice, please bark back in to let us know about Tico!

Janice F. wrote:
Joy

Yesterday morning my Chihuahua was attacked by a hawk in my own backyard.

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I get a lot of questions from Dogsters and Catsters. It might be about feeding a new dog or finding a reputable breeder. I’m always glad to field questions in the blog when I have space but nowadays with emails and post suggestions pouring in, I can’t always publish them. Dogster HQ in their quest to make this the absolutely BEST site in the online feline and canine world has a solution — Dogster and Catster Answers!

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A Dogster from the UK is in a dire situation and desperately looking for a dog shelter in Bulgaria. Can someone tell her where to find a shelter in Bulgaria? Please bark in!

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Attention Dogsters with large dogs! What advice can you give this fellow Dogster who wants to make sure her new grandson will be safe around his family’s big dog? I haven’t seen problems with big dogs and babies so bark in and help her out!

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