New Year's resolution

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas

Having fun

Sadly we will not have a white Christmas this year but this dog is having fun.

Koko, another Australian

This is my friend M's little Australian Shepherd called Koko.  That's what Ozzy must have looked like when he was a puppy.  Koko is still with her mother and will arrive at my friend's house on January 3rd when she will be 9 weeks old.  Exciting!  Koko will not be alone because there is Vichy another Australian who is 7 years old.  I cannot wait to walk with Vichy and Koko and look forward to seeing how they all get along.  I think it will be fine.     

To name but a few

Banfield has 700 pet hospitals in the US and has just released the dog names list of 2011. 

Females: Bella, Daisy, Lucy, Molly, Coco, Chloe, Maggie, Sadie, Princess, Sophie, Lola, Sasha, Ginger.

Males: Max, Buddy, Bailey, Charlie, Rocky, Lucky, Roxy, Jack, Harley, Toby, Bear, Jake.

I want to be alone!

I need my own space!

As a dog owner you have to meet your dog’s basic needs to ensure health and happiness.  Whilst owning a dog is a responsibility, it is not a chore.

Here are some basics to provide:

-A healthy and balanced diet.  Choose a quality diet.

-Provide a good home. Dogs are pack animals – they are part of the family and should not be excluded.

-Keep your dog healthy with regular exercise.

-A dog needs his own space: a corner in your kitchen or sitting room or under the stairs.  A basket, a cushion, a blanket will do fine.

-Go to the vet regularly.  Dogs can have worms, fleas, ear infections without us being aware of them. 

-Every dog needs basic grooming.  Some more than others. 

-Dogs thrive on structure and discipline, and training is paramount to your dog’s quality of life.

It is important to maintain a close bond with your dog.  He knows you better than anybody else.  He watches you constantly and observes your every move. 

Follow the leader

Is this what is meant by leadership?

Let's not forget Flanders Field

Dogs were used in the trenches to kill rats and mice, thereby protecting food supplies. In addition to carrying out messenger duties and various other tasks, a regimental mascot also helped to maintain the troops morale.
Most of the armies involved in 'the Great War' had specially trained dogs in many of their regiments. These dogs performed a wide range of important tasks, including carrying messages, sentry duty, acting as decoys, ambulance duties and killing vermin. Keeping a pet also helped to raise the morale of the soldiers, by adding an element of domestic home life to the trench.

Eye contact with Ozzy

I came across an American website which interprets dreams and this particular interpretation I found quite interesting : “To see or dream that you are a dog trainer indicates that you need to keep your negative behavior in check. You need to show more restraint.”

What does this mean?  Anybody know?

Fluorescent poops!

Barcelona’s Museum of Ideas and Inventions (MIBA) has opened its doors to inspire the public with their clever devices and weird contraptions, one of which is fluorescent dog food which is brightly colored and sickly looking and which will provide glow-in-the-dark dog poop called “Flou-Can.”
The fluorescent dog bones and dog food have made such a hit that it was exhibited at 11th Annual British Invention Show & Awards  which was held in London recently.
What next?

Baby Ozzy?

This painting by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) is called Doubtful Crumbs.  Landseer was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags. The best known of Landseer's works, however, are sculptures: the lions in Trafalgar Square. The puppy looks like a baby Ozzy.

Slumdogs

Looks a bit like OZZY

 These are Mr Eurodog's companions in Sarajevo.  He reports on their progress daily.  They know him now and wag their tail when he walks past and talks to them.

Cool new editor

Jill Abramson is the newly appointed executive editor of the New York Times, a powerful journalist and investigative reporter both revered and feared by her colleagues and her peers.  She is the first woman ever to run the Times.

She has received a publicity blitz in the last few weeks with a profile in the latest issue of The New Yorker, an interview on CBS News and the release of “Puppy Diaries: Raising a Dog Named Scout”, her new book based on a popular online column which she wrote for The Times from July 2009 to May 2010.  It is her account of the first year with a beautiful but demanding golden retriever, called Scout.  Abramson wrote the book after two major events in her life, the death of her dog Buddy, a West Highland Terrier and a near-fatal accident when she was run over by a lorry near Times Square.  The latter incident required months of rehabilitation.  Also, although she has a high-powered career, she confesses the emptiness after the leaving home of her grown children.  All goods reason to acquire a puppy.

I like what I have read about her especially since she is the person who has the last say as to what is printed on the front page of The New York Times and for being such a pushover where dogs are concerned.

Otter hound

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) painted this picture of an otter hound which can be seen at the Wallace Collection.  Rosa is a French painter and sculptor best known for her paintings of animals.  She was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, the first woman to be so honoured.

By family accounts, she had been an unruly child and had a difficult time learning to read. To remedy this her mother taught her to read and write by having her select and draw an animal for each letter of the alphabet. To this practice in the company of her doting mother she attributed her love of drawing animals.

Her most famous work is the monumental (8 feet high and 16 feet wide) The Horse Fair which she painted in 1849 and which was purchased by the American millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt and which now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Oddly enough she was more popular in England than in France.  She met Queen Victoria who was an admirer of her work. 

An early Bohemian and feminist, Bonheur defied female convention of the day by wearing men’s clothing and smoking cigarettes.  On her wearing of trousers, she said at the time that her choice of attire was simply practical as it facilitated her work with animals: "I was forced to recognize that the clothing of my sex was a constant bother. That is why I decided to solicit the authorization to wear men's clothing from the prefect of police. But the suit I wear is my work attire, and nothing else. The epithets of imbeciles have never bothered me...."

The Horse Fair

 

Interaction with humans

A study by Monique Udell and her team, from the University of Florida has found how dogs think and learn about human behaviour and how they respond to their body language, verbal commands, and their attention.  The study suggests it is all down to a combination of specific cues, context and previous experience.
Udell and her team carried out two experiments comparing the performance of pet domestic dogs, shelter dogs and wolves by giving the animals the opportunity to beg for food, from either an attentive person or from a person unable to see the animal.
They wanted to know whether the rearing and living environment of the animal (shelter or human home), or the species itself (dog or wolf), had the greater impact on the animal's performance.
They showed, for the first time that wolves, like domestic dogs, are capable of begging successfully for food by approaching the attentive human.
This demonstrates that both dogs and wolves have the capacity to behave, observe and respond to a human's attention.
In addition, both wolves and pet dogs were able to rapidly improve their performance with practice.
The authors also found that dogs were not sensitive to all visual cues of a human's attention in the same way.
In particular, dogs from a home environment rather than a shelter were more sensitive to stimuli predicting attentive humans. Those dogs with less regular exposure to humans did not perform and responded as well.

Facelift

A St Bernard dog has been given a "facelift" to stop his skin folds from rubbing on his eyes.
At the age of two Boycie suffered from excess skin folds, which left him without sight.
Boyce, who is being cared for by the Dogs Trust, in Canterbury, had a section of skin on the top of his head removed so the rest of his skin could be "lifted" and stitched back together.

Belle, one year on

Belle left us on 4th October 2010.  She is still very much in our hearts.

Bulgarian Shepherd

Ancestors of the Bulgarian Shepherd Dogs are the dogs of Central Asia – Afghanistan and Iran area where the migration process of the ancient Bulgarians began. It is also named Karakachan Shepherd after the Karakachans, Balkan nomadic shepherds.  It is a mountain livestock guardian dog used to herd, to escort and guard sheep and goat herds.  The dogs are found in the Balkan peninsula but also on many farms in the US.

Putin, the softy!

Vladimir Putin hugs a Bulgarian shepherd dog, after receiving it as a present from Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov in Sofia, on November 13, 2010.  Looks a bit like Ozzy.

Dog food

Look what I saw on Waitrose's tins of dog food.  It's Ozzy!

In the dog house

Ozzy peed up against my leg.  Not a little widdle either.  I had to change my trousers and my shoes when I got home.
I stayed calm and told him in no uncertain terms that I was not happy with him.  I put him in a submissive down position.  He did not seem to care.
I am trying to work out why this happened and am doing some research on this.
Yes, he was marking his territory because there were others dogs around.  Yes, he wanted to show me or them who was boss.  The latter is unacceptable.
I'll keep you posted.

What next?

Dog Rocks® are a 100% Natural Australian product that will save your lawn from those nasty burn patches that your Dog's urine can cause.
Dog Rocks® filter out impurities from water such as Tin, ammonia and nitrates. These impurities are usually passed out through urine, and when your grass comes in contact with these elements it is burned, resulting in a dead, yellow patch on your lawn.
Dog Rocks® give your four legged friend a cleaner source of water, while also stopping the cause of those nasty burnt yellow patches on your lawn.
Without the impurities in the water, Dog Rocks® actually help your dog fertilize your lawn! This is great for you, your dog & your lawn!
Original Dog Rocks do not alter the pH balance of your dog's urine. Dog Rocks® are a completely natural product sourced from a reputable quarry in Australia.

Going for a drive

Ozzy is always watching our every move and sticks to us very closely.  I gather this is typical of the breed.  On one of the Australian Shepherd's website they referred to them as "velcro dogs".

Cornish pasties for dogs

Hungry Henrys are described as "sit-tail wagging-good boy-wait-fetch-perfect treats."

These yummy freshly made dog treats from Cornwall are named after Hector, a PBGV living in St Erth in Cornwall.   I picked this information up from their website.  What is a PBGV? Yes, I had to look it up myself.  It is a Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen.   These treats a must for your dog! No added salts, sugars or preservatives. Just locally and responsibly sourced ingredients and so good for your dog. What's more they are Gluten free.

There are six yummy flavours to choose from:

Yummy liver cake

Mouthwatering Cornish Pasty Bites

Scrummy Mackerel Flapjack

Lush Aniseed, liver and carrot

Exceptional Dark secrets

Too good to be true Variety Pack

The packs are available in vet practices in the UK along with quality retailers.  A 150gr pack costs £3.95

I've seen it all now!

Ice cream treats

Nestlé has set canine tails wagging across the United States with the launch of its new Frosty Paws Bites frozen ice cream snacks for dogs.
The bites – specially formulated for dogs, who are lactose intolerant and cannot digest dairy products such as regular ice cream properly – contain high quality protein, vitamins and minerals, but no milk.
Available in Vanilla or Peanut Butter flavours, and coated with vanilla yogurt, they are the second range of products from the Frosty Paws brand, which already offers larger ice cream cups for dogs in the same flavour varieties.

Dog lead

Found this picture on Winchester Whisperer's blog.  This new trend might work in St Tropez for Princess Caroline's dog but I cannot see Ozzy walking around with a sausage dog lead.    

London riots

The riots in London have injured 111 police officers and five service dogs, Scotland Yard said in a statement Tuesday.

Many officers remain hospitalised with broken bones, head injuries, serious cuts and eye injuries from broken glass, the Scotland Yard stated.

Rioters have been throwing bricks, bottles, sticks and other objects at police who are trying to keep order in the streets of London, as looting and fires have been witnessed since Saturday in the capital city of Britain.
Five police dogs have also been injured in various attacks. One was seriously injured when hit on the head with a brick.
One dog had its teeth broken out by an object thrown at it. The remaining dogs were injured by bottles and other items hurled in their direction.
The dogs are Belgian shepherds called Malinois.  They are used for police work all over the world.   

Designer's dogs

Fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who hanged himself last year left £50,000 of his £16million fortune to his pet dogs, his will has revealed.  The money is to be put into a trust to ensure his beloved pets’ upkeep for the rest of their lives.  
He hanged himself after taking a cocktail of cocaine, sleeping pills and tranquillizers on February 11 last year, the day before his mother Joyce’s funeral.  An inquest in April last year heard that he killed himself after struggling with depression, the pressures of his work and his mother's death.
Police found a book at the designer's flat on the back of which he had scribbled: 'Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee.'
The fashion house that bears McQueen's name remains hugely influential.
The Duchess of Cambridge's intricately decorated wedding dress, designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, received rave reviews on her big day in April and is currently on display at Buckingham Palace.

Special bond

Lance Corporal Liam Tasker, 26, was shot in the face as he and springer spaniel Theo led soldiers through an area believed to be mined.
Theo was visibly "distressed" and had to be cut free from his lead as Liam's colleagues battled to save him.
And the 22-month-old dog had a fatal seizure that night.
Their ashes were buried together in Tayside in Liam's native Scotland.

See?

It is a well known and heavily researched fact that dogs imitate humans.    

To dye for!

Dyeing pets is the latest craze in China.  Those chow chow dogs have been dyed black-and-white to look like pandas.  And at a recent dog show in Taipei a dog-dyeing competition was held but dyeing pets to look like other wild animals is a more recent development.  The trend demonstrates how quickly and dramatically attitudes toward pets — particularly dogs — have changed in many parts of Asia.
In Taiwan, for example, just 10 years ago, dogs were still eaten in public restaurants and raised on farms for that purpose. Traditional Chinese medicine held that so-called "fragrant meat" from dogs which could fortify one's health.
Now, eating dog is viewed by many as an embarrassing reminder of a poorer time.
With more money to spend, newly wealthy Chinese have embraced dog-owning culture with a vengeance. Dogs are brought into restaurants, fussed over in public, dressed up in ridiculous outfits and dyed to look like ferocious tigers.

And here is Ozzy Chinese style.  What do you think?

Not again!

Before you read on:  this is my 400th post since starting this blog. 
Sgt Craven left two dogs, a working Belgian Malinois and a German Shepherd puppy, in an unventilated car at the Met's dog training centre in Keston, Kent, on Sunday. He went to a meeting off-site and called colleagues to alert them when he realised the animals were trapped. The dogs were taken to an emergency veterinary surgery but they both died of heat exhaustion. This happened on Sunday when temperatures in the South East reached 30° which means 50° in an unventilated car parked in full sun.
Sgt Craven is an experienced police dog handler.
How is this possible?

German Shepherd Puppy

Belgian Malinois

Unfortunately this is not a rare occurrence. There was an identical incident last year in the Police Force in Nottingham.

Greeks, we salute you...

Loukanikos is an unusual protester.  He is a stray dog living on the streets of Athens and has become famous for joining in on the many protests and riots which have taken place there the past year. Often found at the front lines dodging tear gas and barking at the police, he has become a mascot for the protesters, and a symbol for the ongoing fight.  He has become popular and famous with a large following on Facebook.  He even  has a website dedicated to him with videos and photos:

http://rebeldog.tumblr.com/

This is 2011. Or is it?

A Jewish rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a stray dog it feared was the reincarnation of a lawyer who insulted its judges, reports say.
The dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave, reports Israeli website Ynet.
It reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog.
The animal is said to have escaped before the sentence was carried out.
One of the judges at the court in the city's ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood had reportedly asked local children to carry out the sentence.
An animal welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against a court official, who denied reports that judges had ordered the dog's stoning but a court manager told Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot the stoning had been ordered as "as an appropriate way to 'get back at' the spirit which entered the poor dog".  according to Ynet.
Dogs are considered impure animals in traditional Judaism.

Dogville

A humane organisation of Brazil has built an entire neighbourhood for around 1,600 stray dogs. Located in the southern city of Caxias do Sul, the pooch favela is probably the only one of its kind in the whole world. Due to lack of funds to build a proper dog shelter, the volunteers of the So Ama organisation were forced to build 1,000 dog houses and chain the dogs next to them. The 1,600 dogs and 200 cats are definitely not easy to take care of, and right now the dog favela is just trying to make ends meet. The $14,000 it receives monthly, from municipal authorities, and the donations are not enough to cover all the costs, which include 13 tons of food and veterinary services.

Who's next?

Which dog school are they attending, I wonder?

Bling for dogs

Border Terrier Smike's owner can't be strapped for cash - she bought him a dog collar with a built in £2,500 Rolex watch as a birthday gift.
Designer Alison Jones, 27, said: "It's the ultimate accessory."

Message to Smike's owner from Merseyside: "Don't leave Smike unattended outside the supermarket."

Dog versus human

Here are some interesting facts:

1. Body Temperature

Canine normal body temperature is between 38° to 39.2° Celsius.  The commonly accepted average body temperature in humans is 36.8° Celsius.

2. Respiratory Rate

Dogs: 10-34 breaths per minute, unless panting.  In human adults over 18:  12-20 breaths per minute.
Normal respiratory rates are assessed when the dog/person is at rest. Pain, heart or respiratory problems, heatstroke will usually increase respiratory rates.

3. Heart Rate

Dogs: beats per minute: 60 – 100 for large breeds, 100 – 140 for small breeds.  In human adults 60-80 bpm.

Larger dogs have slower rates than small dogs, and dogs that are in good physical shape will have lower heart rates than dogs of similar age and size who are not physically fit. Puppies typically have higher heart rates, up to 180 bpm; this is normal up to one year of age.  Normal heart rate in children is variable and depends on the child’s age.

4. Duration of Pregnancy

On average, canine pregnancy lasts 63 days.  In humans: 9 months say 274 days.  Elephants: 624 days.   The larger the animal, the longer the gestation period.   

5. Number of Teeth

Puppies have 28 teeth; adult dogs have 42 teeth.  The loss of baby teeth usually starts at about 3 months and ends by 6 to 9 months.
A child has 20 baby teeth and they start falling out at about age 6.  An adult has 32 teeth including wisdom teeth.
Silly question: do dogs have wisdom teeth?  I must ask our vet.

Shock collars - The Shoking Truth

      

There are now a number of ‘quick fix’ products available to dog owners who wish to modify the behaviour of their pet. One such device is the electric collar. The Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors feels that the use of devices that rely on pain or discomfort to modify behaviour are inappropriate as they have the potential to seriously compromise the welfare of dogs, and ruin the relationship with their owners.

Shock Collar Risks

Despite advances in our understanding of dog behaviour and training, and the general move towards reward-based training techniques, some people still continue to recommend the use of punishment as the best method of training or dealing with behaviour problems. While shock collars can work to suppress behaviour, their use comes with unacceptable risks, and inevitably the underlying reasons for the problem behaviour are not dealt with. Even in experienced hands, it can be difficult to deliver shocks at the right moment and to predict the level of discomfort or pain experienced by a dog; in inexperienced hands the use of shock collars can often result in poorly timed intense electric shocks that induce fear and ongoing anxiety in the dog. Owners are often unaware of the high levels of pain that they may be causing their dog.

Aggression and Shock Collars

One of the most common behaviour problems encountered with dogs is that of aggression. In many cases, aggression is motivated by fear. When a dog is nervous or frightened, a natural behavioural strategy is to use aggression to get rid of the “threat”. Placing a shock collar on such a dog to stop it being aggressive can result in the dog becoming even more fearful of the situation, which can make the aggression more likely in the future. The use of a shock collar to try and stop aggressive behaviour can also suppress the warning signs displayed by a dog before it is aggressive, which can make the behaviour of the dog less predictable and more dangerous.

Barking and Shock Collars

The risks of using an electric shock to modify behaviour extend to the treatment of other behaviour problems in dogs such as barking. Dogs learn by association - when using a shock collar there is always a risk that the dog may associate the shock with something other than the behaviour that people are trying to stop. For instance, if a shock is administered for barking, there is a danger that the dog might associate a nearby child with the pain of the shock, rather than its own barking. This could lead to the dog developing distrust or even fear of children. Another significant risk with the use of shock collars is that rather than linking the shock to the wrong thing, a dog may not be able to link the shock to anything at all! This often results in the dog becoming totally confused, anxious and stressed as it repeatedly suffers the pain of the electric shock for no apparent reason.

The APBC feels that behaviour problems can be best addressed through behaviour modification programmes based on an understanding of the motivation for each dog’s behaviour, and the use of humane, reward-based training methods.

Reference: http://www.apbc.org.uk/