An Associated Press-Petside.com poll shows 52 percent of pet owners plan to buy their animals a holiday gift — up from 43 percent last year.

The AP-Petside.com poll found that six in 10 of those who own only dogs planned on shopping for their pet for the holidays. Forty percent of those with only cats planned to pet shop.

Plush holiday-themed toys are very popular with pet owners, as are candy cane-shaped rawhide chews, said Jessica Douglas, a spokeswoman for the PetSmart pet supply store chain based in Phoenix, Ariz.

Popular clothes at this time of year include a Santa suit, a Mrs. Claus dress and reindeer costumes. A lot of boots are sold to dog owners in cold weather states. Bling-wise, collars and leads are popular.

“Some ID tags are decorated with sparkly embellishments and they can be personalized so it’s not just for looks,” she said.

According to the poll, 62 percent of female owners said they would probably buy their pet a gift, while just 40 percent of the men said they would.

Last year, Debra Jensen’s Labrador named Nightmare and a German shepherd-Siberian Husky named Ticia got stockings with dog treats in them. This year, because her husband recently lost his job, there may not be a stocking, but there will still be treats — they can count on leftover ham.

“The dogs are our only children. I love my babies,” said Jensen, 55, of Tulsa, Okla.

Pat McCauley figures his 4-year-old Shih Tzu named Crystal can survive the holidays without a present.

“I’m not going to buy the pet anything,” said McCauley, 54, of Princeton, Ill., “I have a daughter who is 17 and she will buy the pets something but I surely wouldn’t in any way, shape or form buy my pet a Christmas toy.”

The AP-Petside.com poll was conducted Oct. 1-5, 2009, by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. It involved telephone interviews with 1,166 pet owners nationwide, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for all pet owners.

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Today’s network lineup provides fewer idealized families and no shortage of questionable child-rearing role models (see “Gosselin, Jon”). For every take-charge SuperNanny, there’s a Homer Simpson, and who wants to raise a Bart?

It’s little wonder, then, that some parents, and even a few child therapists, have found themselves taking mental notes from a television personality known for inspiring discipline, order and devotion: Cesar Millan, otherwise known as the Dog Whisperer.

The suggestion that the Dog Whisperer is also a Child Whisperer of sorts has popped up — sometimes couched as a joke, but, well, not really — in parents’ forums like blogs, online discussion boards, magazines, Twitter feeds and podcasts. Some parents are starting to take notice.

“When we started watching his shows, we had intended to apply his advice toward our dogs,” said Amy Twomey, a blogger on parenthood for The Dallas Morning News who is raising three children under 10 with her husband, Matt. “But we realized a lot of ideas can be used on our kids.”

Indeed, Mr. Millan’s advice has replaced a shelf full of books on how to tame an unruly child. “It’s all the same simple concept: how to be the pack leader in your own house,” she said.

Certainly, an army, or at least a few divisions, of credentialed experts on human parenthood long ago stumbled on Mr. Millan’s philosophical holy trinity — exercise, discipline and affection equals happiness. And Mr. Millan does not hold himself up as a new Dr. Spock; he has never opined on how one should raise a creature with two legs in his show on the National Geographic Channel, or in his four books.

But some parents — particularly those weary of never-say-no techniques and child-rearing books suggesting that children should call the shots — say they find inspiration, and even practical advice, in Mr. Millan’s approach, which teaches pet owners how to become the alpha dogs by projecting his trademark “calm-assertive energy.”

DaddyCast, a series of podcasts published online by a father of two who identifies himself only as P.D., devoted an episode last year to discussing how he applied Dog Whisperer philosophies to raising children. In the episode, he recalled exchanging Twitter messages with a father who wrote: “Pampering and never punishing will make a child crazy and unlikable, never self-competent.”

“That goes along with the philosophy of the Dog Whisperer,” the host added. Brenna Hicks, a child therapist in Palm Harbor, Fla., who writes an advice blog, The Kid Counselor, adapted Mr. Millan’s central idea, that dogs take their cues from their masters, and misbehave only when the masters fail to carry themselves, in body language and tone of voice, like pack leaders. In a post, “Raising Kids: Wisdom From the Dog Whisperer,” she wrote, “When we present nervous, angry or scared energy in front of our kids, they pick up on those emotions.”

Allison Pearson, author of the novel “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” which explored the stresses of modern motherhood, explained how parents would naturally envy the authority of dog trainers. “My generation got itself in a muddle about parenting,” she wrote by e-mail. “We thought that obedience was the enemy of love. We didn’t want the kids to be afraid of us, but after a while we found ourselves wondering: do we have to do what they say the whole time?”

“Unlike modern parents,” she added, “dog trainers don’t think discipline equals being mean. They understand that dogs are happiest when they know their position in the hierarchy.”

So is it “spare the rolled-up newspaper, spoil the child?” Not exactly. Many Dog Whisperer techniques — say, the push on the neck to get a dog’s attention — are best left to the kennel, unless you welcome a visit from Child Protective Services.

But other measures may yield an obedient child. Matthew Hranek, a photographer in New York, has a daughter, Clara, who is 6, and a Patterdale terrier, Charlie, who is a handful. Lately, Mr. Hranek said, he finds himself adopting Mr. Millan’s trademark “sshht!” sound — meant to snap dogs out of unconstructive patterns of thought or behavior — not just when Charlie jumps up on the kitchen counter, but also when Clara does. A bit of a joke? Sure. But it’s efficient. With none of the usual red-in-the-face parental haranguing, it reminds her who is boss in a syllable.

Mr. Hranek said that some parents he knows “do not allow the word ‘no’ to be said around the house. How absurd is that?”

“When you’re wishy-washy with dogs, they take advantage — ‘He didn’t mean don’t eat that biscuit,’ ” Mr. Hranek said. “Kids think the same way.”

In that spirit, Jenny Hope, a television producer in Los Angeles, not connected to the Millan show, applies Dog Whisperer lessons not just to the family dog, Heidi, but also to her son, Rowan, 3. On the show, she said, Mr. Millan lets the dogs know that he decides when they can run off to sniff a juniper bush, and when to heel.

When Ms. Hope’s husband, Simon Cote, recently installed a sprinkler system in the backyard, Rowan wanted to play in the mud. She relented. Fun is crucial, after all. But so is an end to the fun. She let him make his resplendent mess, then brought him in after a set period of time.

“It’s finite, and it’s what they crave,” Ms. Hope explained. “Children love structure, the same as animals love structure.”

Mr. Millan says parents question him all the time. “I’m going to give them my point of view — I’m a father myself,” he said.

As a native of Mexico, he said, he adheres to a more traditional, hierarchical child-rearing philosophy, which he considers effective in both the pack and the family. There, “for thousands of years, the elder has always been the pack leader, it’s never the child,” Mr. Millan said. “In America, kids have too many options when they only need one: ‘Just do it, because.’ ”

To some parents, however, moving Dog Whisperer theories into the human realm is not so much about changing their child’s attitude as it is about changing their own.

Take Elizabeth Meyer, in Columbus Township, Mich. She and her husband adopted a strong-willed 2-year-old boy from South Korea last year.

“Given that all of us were still adjusting, bonding and getting to know one another, there were times when my husband and I really struggled with parenting,” she wrote in an e-mail message.

Then one night she was watching the Dog Whisperer. Squaring off against a particularly difficult dog, he took its intransigence as an opportunity to teach proper behavior. “This is good,” he said.

For Ms. Meyer, it was a moment of epiphany.

“This is good?” she wrote. “Did I have that attitude as a parent? Was I focusing on the positives, the opportunities? Did I remember to take a deep breath, to be calm and assertive when dealing with a frustrating situation? I realized this was something I really needed to work on. And once I did, I saw a difference right away. Our son was calmer and more responsive. During those times when he did act up, being calm and assertive helped me deal with the misbehavior in a positive way.”

It also, she added, “left me feeling a lot less stressed out.”

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Enjoy!

A dog? That’s right. The British actor, who plays the vampire Edward Cullen in the movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”, explained that he felt the deep connection with the four -legged creatures.

When asked what he would like to become, he said: “I think I’d be a dog. The lifestyle of a dog has always fascinated me: You sleep, sit around, get stroked, eat and get walked from time to time. That’s great!” Pattinson added: “There is a deep connection between me and dogs.”

Source

Today’s network lineup provides fewer idealized families and no shortage of questionable child-rearing role models (see “Gosselin, Jon”). For every take-charge SuperNanny, there’s a Homer Simpson, and who wants to raise a Bart?

It’s little wonder, then, that some parents, and even a few child therapists, have found themselves taking mental notes from a television personality known for inspiring discipline, order and devotion: Cesar Millan, otherwise known as the Dog Whisperer.

The suggestion that the Dog Whisperer is also a Child Whisperer of sorts has popped up — sometimes couched as a joke, but, well, not really — in parents’ forums like blogs, online discussion boards, magazines, Twitter feeds and podcasts. Some parents are starting to take notice.

“When we started watching his shows, we had intended to apply his advice toward our dogs,” said Amy Twomey, a blogger on parenthood for The Dallas Morning News who is raising three children under 10 with her husband, Matt. “But we realized a lot of ideas can be used on our kids.”

Indeed, Mr. Millan’s advice has replaced a shelf full of books on how to tame an unruly child. “It’s all the same simple concept: how to be the pack leader in your own house,” she said.

Certainly, an army, or at least a few divisions, of credentialed experts on human parenthood long ago stumbled on Mr. Millan’s philosophical holy trinity — exercise, discipline and affection equals happiness. And Mr. Millan does not hold himself up as a new Dr. Spock; he has never opined on how one should raise a creature with two legs in his show on the National Geographic Channel, or in his four books.

But some parents — particularly those weary of never-say-no techniques and child-rearing books suggesting that children should call the shots — say they find inspiration, and even practical advice, in Mr. Millan’s approach, which teaches pet owners how to become the alpha dogs by projecting his trademark “calm-assertive energy.”

DaddyCast, a series of podcasts published online by a father of two who identifies himself only as P.D., devoted an episode last year to discussing how he applied Dog Whisperer philosophies to raising children. In the episode, he recalled exchanging Twitter messages with a father who wrote: “Pampering and never punishing will make a child crazy and unlikable, never self-competent.”

“That goes along with the philosophy of the Dog Whisperer,” the host added. Brenna Hicks, a child therapist in Palm Harbor, Fla., who writes an advice blog, The Kid Counselor, adapted Mr. Millan’s central idea, that dogs take their cues from their masters, and misbehave only when the masters fail to carry themselves, in body language and tone of voice, like pack leaders. In a post, “Raising Kids: Wisdom From the Dog Whisperer,” she wrote, “When we present nervous, angry or scared energy in front of our kids, they pick up on those emotions.”

Allison Pearson, author of the novel “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” which explored the stresses of modern motherhood, explained how parents would naturally envy the authority of dog trainers. “My generation got itself in a muddle about parenting,” she wrote by e-mail. “We thought that obedience was the enemy of love. We didn’t want the kids to be afraid of us, but after a while we found ourselves wondering: do we have to do what they say the whole time?”

“Unlike modern parents,” she added, “dog trainers don’t think discipline equals being mean. They understand that dogs are happiest when they know their position in the hierarchy.”

So is it “spare the rolled-up newspaper, spoil the child?” Not exactly. Many Dog Whisperer techniques — say, the push on the neck to get a dog’s attention — are best left to the kennel, unless you welcome a visit from Child Protective Services.

But other measures may yield an obedient child. Matthew Hranek, a photographer in New York, has a daughter, Clara, who is 6, and a Patterdale terrier, Charlie, who is a handful. Lately, Mr. Hranek said, he finds himself adopting Mr. Millan’s trademark “sshht!” sound — meant to snap dogs out of unconstructive patterns of thought or behavior — not just when Charlie jumps up on the kitchen counter, but also when Clara does. A bit of a joke? Sure. But it’s efficient. With none of the usual red-in-the-face parental haranguing, it reminds her who is boss in a syllable.

Mr. Hranek said that some parents he knows “do not allow the word ‘no’ to be said around the house. How absurd is that?”

“When you’re wishy-washy with dogs, they take advantage — ‘He didn’t mean don’t eat that biscuit,’ ” Mr. Hranek said. “Kids think the same way.”

In that spirit, Jenny Hope, a television producer in Los Angeles, not connected to the Millan show, applies Dog Whisperer lessons not just to the family dog, Heidi, but also to her son, Rowan, 3. On the show, she said, Mr. Millan lets the dogs know that he decides when they can run off to sniff a juniper bush, and when to heel.

When Ms. Hope’s husband, Simon Cote, recently installed a sprinkler system in the backyard, Rowan wanted to play in the mud. She relented. Fun is crucial, after all. But so is an end to the fun. She let him make his resplendent mess, then brought him in after a set period of time.

“It’s finite, and it’s what they crave,” Ms. Hope explained. “Children love structure, the same as animals love structure.”

Mr. Millan says parents question him all the time. “I’m going to give them my point of view — I’m a father myself,” he said.

As a native of Mexico, he said, he adheres to a more traditional, hierarchical child-rearing philosophy, which he considers effective in both the pack and the family. There, “for thousands of years, the elder has always been the pack leader, it’s never the child,” Mr. Millan said. “In America, kids have too many options when they only need one: ‘Just do it, because.’ ”

To some parents, however, moving Dog Whisperer theories into the human realm is not so much about changing their child’s attitude as it is about changing their own.

Take Elizabeth Meyer, in Columbus Township, Mich. She and her husband adopted a strong-willed 2-year-old boy from South Korea last year.

“Given that all of us were still adjusting, bonding and getting to know one another, there were times when my husband and I really struggled with parenting,” she wrote in an e-mail message.

Then one night she was watching the Dog Whisperer. Squaring off against a particularly difficult dog, he took its intransigence as an opportunity to teach proper behavior. “This is good,” he said.

For Ms. Meyer, it was a moment of epiphany.

“This is good?” she wrote. “Did I have that attitude as a parent? Was I focusing on the positives, the opportunities? Did I remember to take a deep breath, to be calm and assertive when dealing with a frustrating situation? I realized this was something I really needed to work on. And once I did, I saw a difference right away. Our son was calmer and more responsive. During those times when he did act up, being calm and assertive helped me deal with the misbehavior in a positive way.”

It also, she added, “left me feeling a lot less stressed out.”

Source - New York Times

This video has begun going viral after appearing on the news stations yesterday.

Studies have shown that people who own dogs or pets have lower blood pressure, less anxiety, stronger imunity–overall, having a dog or cat can make you live longer.

And this video of a soldier’s dog welcoming him home proves why:

Sabi the Army Dog Returns Home

Another heartwarming account of soldiers and dogs reuniting is the story of Sabi, the army dog who was found after being lost for 14 months in Afghanistan.

After an ambush deep in the Uruzgan province of Taleban territory, Sabi, a bomb-sniffing labrador Army dog, was presumed dead after going MIA in battle. Then, after 14 months, Sabi was noticed by an American soldier near a remote outpost in Uruzgan.

The soldier called Sabi and she came running. In order to confirm Sabi’s identity, her trainer played a familiar game by nudging a tennis ball to her with his foot. She picked it up immediately, which is a game Sabi and her handler used to play often.

Source

Eggert was shocked and saddened to see the site in the 14700-block 76th Avenue in Newton being prepared for development.

“I hadn’t been out there in six years but, the last time I was out there, everything was fine,” she said.

Eggert had five pets buried there between 1972 and 1995. She paid former owners Mary and Daniel Blair $200 to bury each animal and $400 for each headstone.

The Blairs founded the 0.2-hectare cemetery in 1952 and about 670 animals were buried there. Mary Blair sold the four-hectare property to a developer for about $900,000 in the mid-1990s.

At the time, the developer offered to sell the cemetery portion to the Surrey Pet Cemetery Society but the group couldn’t raise the $172,000 asking price. The new owner stopped taking burials.

Nicholas Lai, a Surrey planning manager, said the developer was allowed to build 23 houses but with one restrictive covenant — to preserve the cemetery until Jan. 1, 2010.

“It used to be a place we could go to take flowers and visit our pets and tell them how much we missed them,” she said. “People paid good money for those burials and headstones, but no one cares now who is buried there.”

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On Saturday his battle with cancer ended after a day full of hiking, love and treats.

Ron and I took Kobi to Robert Burnaby Park and spent a few hours hiking around with him. He was deliriously happy. He ran around with huge tree limbs clasped in his mouth; he dug at rocks in the stream beds and submerged his head under the murky water to look for those elusive rocks that seemed to hide on him when he dropped them from his maw. He never wandered far from us constantly trying to see if we were still with him, his eye sight almost gone now and his hearing nearly as impaired.

Ron and I choked back tears and held hands. It seemed impossible that this was the last hike.

Kobi was so happy – we took a zillion photo’s and in almost all of them is the lab grin and lolling tongue covered in bark, earth and moss, broken teeth…

We walked to the vet clinic where they inserted a catheter and administered a sedative to calm his natural lab verve. The three of us walked home like drunken sailors. When we got home, Kobi laid down in his favorite spot by the dining room table and rested, still with that grin. Ron and I laid on the floor with him crying and stroking his velvet pelt, whispering love in his silken ears. Our wonderful vet and gentle assistant arrived and we all sat on the floor with Kobi. We placed him on a cozy blanket and Manju and Susan told us what to expect.

When they administered the drug it happened so quickly. One minute his lovely liquid brown eyes were glued to mine, so trusting and full of unconditional love, the next they were empty. His spirit flew from his body and we were left alone in grief with his rapidly cooling body in our arms. I tried in vain to close his eyes but they would not shut.

We were not in the room when they took him away. I had his collar in my hands and it was wet with the recent foray into the stream and my tears. We heard the door shut and our home suddenly was so very empty.

I think even harder than letting our Kobi go was having to tell our young children who had never experience death before. Our five year old Maxime crumbled and we were all back there on the floor again with Kobi, holding him, his spirit, his tenacity, his youthful demeanor and slightly crazed personality.

We are grieving and trying to help out children grieve. Teaching them, holding their hands as they seek out Kobi in his usual sleeping place, under the table, on the landing of the stairs, by the green velvet chair in the family room, nose in fridge, barking at the back door to come in, by the fire in the living room, amongst the toys in the playroom, kids ball in mouth, the mad chase…time will help and eventually we will be able to remember the above with fondness and thankfulness instead of such heavy pained hearts.

I keep thinking I need to feed him, walk him, let him out, let him in…I keep thinking I am forgetting something…

Sleep well my lovely insane Kobi – soar and be free and we will once again meet by that stream bed you so loved.

Love,
Rani, Ron, Maxime, Luka
November 14. 2009

He has been brave and stoic with his Canine Cushings Disease and Addison’s Disease.

Kobi, our dear 13 year old black lab cannot fight any more…

Tomorrow our lovely vet will come to our home and help Kobi pass on to a more serene place.

Ron and I will go on a hike in the forest and let him dig and bark all he wants for rocks in the streams beds he loves to demolish.

After we will eat some delicious treats and have a warm cuddle in front of the fire he loves to bask in.

When he is warm and happy and relaxed we will help him slip away in a dreamy space. I know in my heart he will be thinking of the tasty treats and stream and great forest smells. He will blissfully be holding hands with Ron and I and will be making that low rumble contented sound he makes deep in his throat. I will lay by his side and watch his lovely brown eyes close and shed tears of joyful memory and deep passionate saddness for his passing.

I want this day to be long and for the sun to shine for hours and hours…tonight is not a night I look forward to ending…

Here is a poem I found that has brought us some peace:

I’m Still Here

Friend, please don’t mourn for me
I’m still here, though you don’t see.
I’m right by your side each night and day
and within your heart I long to stay.

My body is gone but I’m always near.
I’m everything you feel, see or hear.
My spirit is free, but I’ll never depart
as long as you keep me alive in your heart.

I’ll never wander out of your sight-
I’m the brightest star on a summer’s night.
I’ll never be beyond your reach-
I’m the warm moist sand when you’re at the beach.

I’m the colorful leaves when fall comes around
and the pure white snow that blankets the ground.
I’m the beautiful flowers of which you’re so fond,
The clear cool water in a quiet pond.

I’m the first bright blossom you’ll see in the spring,
The first warn raindrop that April will bring.
I’m the first ray of light when the sun starts to shine,
and you’ll see that the face in the moon shine is mine.

When you start thinking there’s no one to love you,
you can talk to through the Lord up above you.
I’ll whisper my answer through the leaves on the trees,
and you’ll feel my presence in the soft summer breeze.

I’m the hot salty tears that flow when you weep
and the beautiful dreams that come while you sleep.
I’m the smile you see on a baby’s face.
Just look for me friend, I’m every place!

- Author Unknown

One of the most common behavior problems a veterinarian is asked in dogs is barking. Owners want dogs that will bark at strangers and burglars. A dog that barks simply because the wind is blowing is undesirable to owners and exasperated neighbors. There are many options available to an owner trying to break the annoying habit of constant barking.

Veterinarians will first suggest a water bottle or spray gun. If this fails, some will go with an aluminum can with a few pennies or pebbles inside. Both of these methods are to be used when the dog is caught in the act.

There are electric shock collars available for barking dogs. These are often effective until the collar comes off. An intelligent dog will figure out that he only gets shocked while wearing the collar.

By this time, many owners are ready to throw in the towel and be rid of a noise-making nuisance.

Unaware to many owners is a simple, surgical solution to all their problems.

A dog can be debarked in a relatively easy procedure that makes for a much happier relationship between dogs and owners, owners and neighbors.

The procedure for debarking a dog takes about twenty minutes to complete. The majority of this time is taken up by the actual anesthetizing of the animal. It is put under a general anesthesia, a trach tube is inserted into the dog’s trachea and the procedure is begun.

The actual surgery takes two people to perform. A technician is usually on one side of the table holding the head and the tongue while the veterinarian is on the other. It is necessary to hold the mouth open wide and the tongue out as much as possible to allow the doctor easy access to the vocal chords.

A light is directed onto these chords and once visualized, the doctor will place a clamp on one side. He then takes a long handled pair of curved scissors to clip as wide a triangular piece as possible from the vocal chord. Bleeding is minimal and the doctor will then repeat the procedure on the other side.

When finished, the dog is allowed to come out of anesthesia and sent home that day. As soon as the effects of the medication are gone, he or she will start running and barking just as normal with one slight difference.

A dog that has been debarked still will make a sound but it is similar to a person with a bad case of laryngitis. The bark comes out very faint and raspy. It will be enough to give an owner warning when someone comes around but not enough for the neighbors to hear behind closed doors.

Many people are under the misconception that debarking a dog is cruel and inhumane. This is not true. The dogs themselves don’t know the difference in their bark and happy owners mean better cared for pets.

When the options an owner faces are finding a new home, taking the dog to the pound or humane shelter, dumping it on a road or flat out putting it down, debarking is a much better alternative.

Source