Sgt. Gwen Beberg, serving in Iraq, rescued a puppy from a burning pile of trash.

The problem is getting the puppy, Ratchet, into the U.S. due to rules prohibiting soldiers from adopting pets.

“I just want my puppy home,” Sgt. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis wrote to her mother in an e-mail Sunday from Iraq, soon after she was separated from the dog following a transfer. “I miss my dog horribly.” Beberg, 28, is scheduled to return to the U.S. next month.

There have been exceptions thanks to the group Operation Baghdad Pups, they’ve gotten 50 dogs and six cats transferred to the U.S. in the last eight months.

Operation Baghdad Pups’ program coordinator, Terry Crisp, is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad on Wednesday. Crisp said the adopted dogs left behind face death on Iraqi streets.

She said Iraqis view dogs and cats as nuisances and carriers of disease, and U.S. soldiers have rescued many of them from abuse.

Let your bark be heard,  help in “Operation Ratchet”  by going to the petition site and putting your paw on paper to help bring this innocent puppy home.

In September I posted  Custody Is Going To The Dogs,   discussing the attachment we have to our dog, something not easily broken up even when the family is.

Because of this, courtroom custody battles over the family dog have been popping up around the country.

What it didn’t cover was what the dog (or cat) goes through.  I saw an article out of the UK stating that an animal charity has claimed that when a relationship is over it has an effect on the animal.

The increasing frequency of relationship breakdown means pets are developing obsessive and compulsive disorders, including self-harming and cats sucking or chewing on woollen items such as blankets, because of the stress caused by their owners breaking up.

Leading UK veterinary charity, the PDSA (Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals) is now urging owners to make the well-being of their pets a central part of the process of agreeing a separation.

The key to this article is the word “claimed”, there wasn’t an official study.  All the same, it is interesting.  Do think think there is any validity to the claim?  Give me a bark.

Here’s a great story about a study done in Australia  showing kids with dogs were in better shape than those without.

As experts grapple with Australia’s escalating childhood obesity epidemic, new research has found owning a pet could keep children slim and healthy.

A Deakin University study found that young children who own a dog are less likely to be overweight or obese compared with those who do not have one in the family home.

The study of more than 1100 children aged five to 12 found they were in much better shape if they had a dog, even if they did not walk it regularly.

Head researcher, Associate Professor Jo Salmon, said the findings suggest even incidental play with the dog helped children keep the weight off. She said physical activity was the key to maintaining a healthy weight and the results were likely to be the same if children owned other pets such as cats or rabbits.

I would think this would apply to anyone, young and old, who has a dog.  I know it gets Lisa and I to the park everyday, even when we don’t feel like it.

“For parents who are trying to get their kids off the computer and switching off the TV and getting out and playing, having a pet might be a really good strategy for doing that,” Professor Salmon said. “Social support for physical activity is vital, so this research suggests the extended family network - not just parents and siblings but also dogs and pets - is important for children’s health and their physical activity.”

Do you find your owner being more active thanks to you?  Give me a bark.

* Click on the pic above and you can visit Pop,  he’s Bo’s good buddy.  Pop has a two-legged sister who takes him for walks in the woods.

In San Pedro, CA there’s a woman with a very noble mission.

Dorothy Matich  has started a grass-roots movement to raise money to refurbish the military dog cemetery.

The way Dorothy Matich sees it, the war dogs buried at San Pedro’s former Army base deserve a respectable resting place.

“They’re veterans, as far as I’m concerned,” Matich said.

Through the years, the cemetery for more than 30 military canines that helped guard the coastline during the Cold War years had fallen into disrepair.

Some of the bronze grave markers were stolen, along with a life-size statue of a German shepherd that once “guarded” the unique burial ground.

Steve Nelson, curator of the Fort MacArthur Museum located inside Angels Gate Park, had long wanted to restore the canine cemetery, but lacked the funds to do so.

While on a visit to the museum Dorothy Matich  learned of the cemetery and curator Steve Nelson’s wish to restore it.  A one woman dog loving machine Matich has managed to raise thousands to go towards the renovations.

Through teas and small-scale fundraisers, Matich and other San Pedro supporters - Florence Kleinjan and Alan and Liz Johnson among them - managed to raise enough money to install a new wrought-iron fence around the cemetery. Private donations also were solicited, with the Petco Foundation donating $1,000.

An irrigation system has been installed with new turf yet to come. Sculptor Eugene
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Daub is working on a design for a new dog statue for the cemetery.

Replicas of the bronze grave markers - although some are missing, others remain locked safely away in the museum - will be made and placed in the cemetery.

The markers bear the names of the dogs - Lance, Baron, Jack, Winner, Pancho, Fritz - along with their military service dates.

The museum has many very interesting exhibits,  including a history of the  “K-9 Command.”  It’s definitely worth visiting if you’re in the area.

For anyone interested in making a donation for the cemetery project you can do so online, or by sending a check made out to the Fort MacArthur Museum Association (designated for the “K-9 Cemetery”) to the Fort MacArthur Museum, P.O. Box 268, San Pedro, CA 90731.

On September 30th I posted Heart Of Glass, a case where two dogs ate glass laced meatballs left in their yard.

I’m happy to report a man has been arrested for this cruel and cowardly act.

Pittsburgh, PA (AHN) — A Pittsburgh man is charged with cruelty to animals for feeding two of his neighbor’s dogs meatballs laced with glass and nails.

Brett Kolarik, 41, turned himself into police Friday after the dog’s owner, Debra Rogers, realized that the meatballs were filled with harmful materials after her dogs seemed unwell.

Police told reporters that Kolarik fed the dogs the hazardous materials because he was tired of their incessant barking.

The dogs, a beagle and a husky, required emergency surgery at a cost of $4,000. Both are home recovering.

If convicted, Kolarik faces up to two years in jail per count of animal cruelty. He would also have to pay restitution to Rogers.

I’m glad to hear the dogs are home and doing well. Let’s hope Kolarik has to pay the $4,000 medical bill,  along with jail time so he can think about what he did.

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.

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.