Dogs In the News

According to an article on Live Science ( livescience.com), dogs do look like their owners. According to the article, 70 people were shown photos of 41 dog owners along with three breeds to chose from. The 70 people (non dog owners) were right over half the time. Random correctness should have yielded 33% results.

Officials in Winston have located and rescued 90 small breed dogs living in squalor as part of a puppy mill operation. They believe there are over 100 more to be found. Please remember adoption, not mills. Know where your dog comes from.

Fall In Love, Adopt a MUTT by DrJLove
On zazzle.com

Finally, also according to Live Science. com, cow farts could be reduced and thereby greenhouse gas emissions by use of fish oil. It seems the omega 3 fatty acids in fish cut down on gas production. Good news.

Dog Log Cafe Sissy's Final Tail

I usually get attached to a new dog immediately. Without exception there is some connection. Not so with Sissy. At about the one year mark of fostering her we received a call from the Humane Society that we needed to do something- either return her or adopt.

For several months after bringing Sissy home, Xena was her only K-9 friend. Every weekend, weather permitting, we would take all the dogs to the dog park. Most of the dogs love it. Not Sissy. Her fear kept her at arms length from all the other dogs who tried to befriend her. But when she and Xena would take off running, perhaps after a real or imaginary squirrel, Sissy was in heaven. If she could play with just Xena, she was in heaven. Problem of course is that Xena wants to play with everyone. After a while Nikki and Xena and Sissy began to all play.

There was still the problem with us, me and Sissy. She would not allow me to approach if I was standing though she would tolerate me while sitting. In fact after a year she would come up to me in the car while going to the park and nudge me for some affection. She tolerates women much better and allowed our daughter's boyfriend to approach and to pet her while standing.

With all our lack of trust and lack of public displays of affection there was no way I was going to return her and have her go back in that cage. I knew, no matter how short the time, that she would have lost everything she gained. She and Xena and Nikki are good friends. A new beagle has entered our lives, Penny and they too are friends. Sissy and I are also making progress both while sitting and standing. It will improve with time.

Next installment- Penny.

Dog Log Cafe- Prejudice and Pride

I've always been fond of going to kennels. There was a time years ago when I would come to a cage that had a pit bull and I would always, without exception, walk on by without so much as a glance. Back then I know what was in the headlines and what I believed to be true. That these were vicious killers bred for only one purpose. I had a prejudice that like all prejudices had no foundation or a limited one at best.

Today I look at these and all dogs and evaluate them as individuals and not as a breed. I have met pit bulls that are the most timid creatures I have ever met. They both were rescued from a past where they lived as 'bait' dogs for the fighters in the pack. All the dogs, the bait and the fighters were not born bad or good- they were raised in a certain fashion that set their destiny. Humans did this- not dogs. I have also met dogs with a breed history of docility that are more aggressive than the so called dangerous breeds. Remember its not the dog or the breed, its how they are raised and trained by humans. Give each dog regardless of breed, the benefit of the doubt.