http://www.rawfed.com/myths/ it’s an older site but the myths are alwasy the same

2. We cannot clash with any collar you might choose either! Ditto for bandanas. Accessorize us!

3. Ease of vaccuuming! You can quickly spot the areas of most urgent need.

4. Excellent night walk protection, the “bad guy” won’t see us til it’s too late!

5. We hide dirt well (doesn’t mean we don’t need that bath after a messy play, but your guests won’t be able to see it so quickly).

6. We make an excellent “backdrop” for a second, more colorful dog if you choose to have more than one.

7. Availability! We are available now at every shelter you can imagine, in every age bracket, no long waiting lists, no long search!

8. Status symbol potential. Black pearls are the most costly you know….

9. No annoying queries “what kind of dog is that” people are content with “big black dog” and don’t ask!

10. We need you!

This message brought to you by the thousands of big black dogs who will die today because nobody realizes our wonderful potential!

The Senior Dogs Project
………..”Looking Out for Older Dogs” ………..

“Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog.”
- Sydney Jeanne Seward

Top Ten Reasons to Adopt an Older Dog*
1. Older dogs are housetrained. You won’t have to go through the difficult stage(s) of teaching a puppy house manners and mopping/cleaning up after accidents.
2. Older dogs are not teething puppies, and won’t chew your shoes and furniture while growing up.
3. Older dogs can focus well because they’ve mellowed. Therefore, they learn quickly.
4. Older dogs have learned what “no” means. If they hadn’t learned it, they wouldn’t have gotten to be “older” dogs.
5. Older dogs settle in easily, because they’ve learned what it takes to get along with others and become part of a pack.
6. Older dogs are good at giving love, once they get into their new, loving home. They are grateful for the second chance they’ve been given.
7. What You See Is What You Get: Unlike puppies, older dogs have grown into their shape and personality. Puppies can grow up to be quite different from what they seemed at first.
8. Older dogs are instant companions — ready for hiking, car trips, and other things you like to do.
9. Older dogs leave you time for yourself, because they don’t make the kinds of demands on your time and attention that puppies and young dogs do.
10. Older dogs let you get a good night’s sleep because they’re accustomed to human schedules and don’t generally need nighttime feedings, comforting, or bathroom breaks.

*Adapted from Labrador Retriever Rescue’s “Top Ten Reasons to Adopt a Rescue”

Some dogs have ‘allergies’ – itchy, flakey skin, ear infections, smells – those ‘allergies’ can be taken care of with raw diet or one of the better kibbles but then there are ALLEGIES.  Environmental ones. They happen middle or late August and last the first few weeks of Sept year after year.

These allergies don’t respond to changes in food (other than lessening some) and even benadryl isn’t effective. Your vet will want to give them prednisone and yeah, that could work but it also stays in their organs forever and ever so i won’t even go there.

In my dogs, Gizmo & Nikos I’ve seen it the last 5 years (thats how long i’ve had them) and same thing end of every august, they chew themselves pretty raw,  Nikos losing the hair around his eyes even. I went nuts the first 2 yrs of this happening, even going so far as to use advantage on Gizmo thinking he was still allergic to fleas even tho i know he had none.  It’s not a flea or food allergy.

I started asking people if their dogs had the same problem and YES a lot DID!!

I’ve gone the homeopathic and alternative ways – Benedryl (works some) and i foudn that TRAUMEEL  and Apis Melifica from the health food store works the best. I get both in liquid (absorbed by the body faster) and put them in a spray bottle so i can squirt it in their mouths and on their itchies easily and in their food and on pieces of bread as needed.

They are lower to the ground than us and the environment AFFECTS THEM  i think faster and more severely than us.

A couple of clients also have dogs with this yearly reaction so that’s why i’m writing about it.  Most have purebreds (Gizmo is too altho a puppy mill dog) but Nikos is a mix and the only mix i know of so far to be so affected altho mixes are suffering the same as purebreds on shitty commercial foods.

I’m also writing because maybe we can’t ‘fix’ everything and to let others know you are NOT ALONE with your dog’s problems. If we talk about things that our dogs do, things that affect them, things we see in our dogs, maybe we wouldn’t be feeding the $4 billion dollar pet industry so well for no results?

I Rescued A Human Today
Author:Janine Allen CPDT

I rescued a human today.

Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor peering apprehensively into the kennels. I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her. I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn’t be afraid.

As she stopped at my kennel I blocked her view from a little accident I had in the back of my cage. I didn’t want her to know that I hadn’t been walked today. Sometimes the shelter keepers get too busy and I didn’t want her to think poorly of them.

As she read my kennel card I hoped that she wouldn’t feel sad about my past. I only have the future to look forward to and want to make a difference in someone’s life. She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me.

I shoved my shoulder and side of my head up against the bars to comfort her.

Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship. A tear fell down her cheek and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well.

Soon my kennel door opened and her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms. I would promise to keep her safe. I would promise to always be by her side. I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes. I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor. So many more are out there who haven’t walked the corridors. So many more to be saved. At least I could save one.

I rescued a human today.

Written by Janine Allen CPDT, Rescue Me Dog’s professional dog trainer. Janine’s passion is working with people and their dogs. She provides demonstrations for those who have adopted shelter dogs, lends email support to adopted dog owners that need information beyond our Training Support Pages, and aids shelter staff and volunteers in understanding dog behavior to increase their adoptability. Copyright 2009 Rescue Me Dog; www.rescuemedog.org

That if it is in a pet product that they can say it’s in there AS IF IT WERE GOING TO WORK BUT they don’t have to put enough IN THERE TO MAKE IT WORK??

Many pet products that has glucosamine in it does not have ENOUGH glucosamine ot make it work any better than using nothing at all?

I used to think glucosamine didn’t well for dogs as i saw no real imporvement in older, arthritic dogs (and you KNOW how many dogs i see and that are at my disposal for checking things out).

With some research i found that they can legally claim their food or suppliments have glucosamine in it cuz it does. What the DON’T have to do is add ENOUGH to make any appreciable difference.

Since we rely on vets and pet food companies to tell the truth and help us keep our pets healthy (WellI don’t anymore) they can IMPLY anything they like and we ASSUME it’s correct or GOOD for our dogs.  NOT!

The homeopathics i’ve been using along with food have given awesome results but i’ve also been looking for products for thos of you who can’t or won’t do raw that will upgrade the foods and make it absorbable and healthier.

I’ve found BG and Orijen for kibbles to be better than most and I have been adding Dr Clarkes Hip formula to my raw for the older or damamged dogs like Molsyn, Rufus, Cocoa b4 she left, Belle. and even my Hank who is 9 now. It has right AMOUNT of glucosamine in it – as well as some other good stuff i would use homeopathically – and you sprinkle a little on their food once per day.

All the dogs are moving better but the most astonishing one is Molsyn who is a 6 yr old, 105lb Cane corso. First, they usually only live til 8 yrs so she’s technically OLD and she has TWO bad legs – muscles & knees. She wobbled when she came, could do little physically and even short times walking in the yard would make her back legs shake something aweful.

She is now running and even jumping up on me for a kiss. No we haven’t reversed the damage but we’ve improved her enuf to be a little less in pain and enjoy life more – same for the other dogs.

We are adding Dr Clarke’s to our product line and anyone who would like to buy it can contact me for shipping or pick up.

Occasionally i get requests from people over 60 to have a dog. Most of those people have been refused dogs by other rescues for being ‘too old’.

When they come to me, I DO direct them away from puppies and younger dogs, my fear being not so much that they can’t handle them – there are some ‘old’ people waaaay fitter than ME! – but that they will die before the dog.

I have been directing older people to dogs over 5 yrs old (depending on breed/longevity) who need homes as badly, if not more cuz people want puppies, but are awesome dogs who have a long life to love someone .

I was thinking that ALL OF YOU have older relatives and friends who you didn’t know were looking for a dog and may have been refused and never told you OR want a dog but know a puppy is more than they need or want and don’t know about PETFINDER or that there are rescue organizations ther than pounds OR that they don’t have to go into a shelter and feel horrible seeing the dogs there but can go on the internet too. Maybe they don’t know that there ARE OLDER DOGS WHO NEED THEM. Middle ages or LAZY people like me should apply for these guys TOO!

Dogs i have here needing older people to love them if other people don’t want them is:

COCOA, an 8-9 yr old female chocoolate lab, med size – she can live another 5-7 yrs, BELLE, a7-8 yr old female blk lab mix, large, can go another 5-7 yrs, OCTAVIA, 9-11 yr old chihua/terrier mix, female, 10lbs who is the NICEST small dog i’ve ever seen!! never bites or even lifts a lip, not a barker, good on her legs and loving!! she can go another 8 or so years!  POLLY PUGGLES 10 -12yr old pug mix, female, one back leg is gimpy but getting stronger now that she’s using it – seems she may have been crated her whole life (she & Octavia likely puppy mill breeding dogs) and she really chugqs along outside!! She SINGS like a kitten when she needs attention and ok, she is UGLY but E.T. was cute after two hours so she;’ll grow on you! she can go another 5-8 yrs. RAY - still here – 9-10 yr old blk lab, male, blind from cataracts not cancer or diabetes. Awesome dog who gets around darn good for his ‘disability’. He can go 4-6 more years too!

We will help anyone adopting these dogs with health and food advice to make them last as long as they should too!

Other ‘older’ dogs who need people – Joey, Hoss, Claudia - they’re all apprx 4-5 yrs old and have a good 10 yrs left (13 or so for the beagle) and they are calmer and loving and easier to have around – don’t need exceptional amts of exercise either!!

THis is all just thoughts but i’d really like to know what you think and if there is a market for older dogs and people and where the best place it to let seniors know we’re here with great dogs.

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!

http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/121382

Lisa did a book for me on the Camp and on my dogs and i love them! Since Jessie died i especially like to look at some of the pics in there

Lisa Taron proudly refers to herself as The Pet Book Lady. She is a Founding Director of a company called Heritage Makers, an online publishing and digital scrapbooking company.   Using a fun and simple online system (no software to download) customers can create books, cards, calendars, posters, playing cards and more with their own digital or scanned photos.    There is unlimited photo storage, over 800 pre-designed templates and over 30,000 pieces of digital art.  The “Drag and Drop” System makes it easy, even for the computer beginner.

You can create projects on any subject.   But Lisa’s passion and mission is to help people celebrate the love for their pets through the various Heritage Makers products.

Here is the website http://www.MakeBooksOnline and her blog is http://thepetbooklady.typepad.com

She’s here to help you celebrate your pet through the magic of Heritage Makers.

By Gillian Ridgeway, AHT.

The following article appears in the current issue of the Dogs Dogs Dogs newspaper.
(Reprinted with the permission of the author and publisher).

It can be one of the most stressful events you will ever encounter as a dog owner: leaving your dog behind!

We are not immune to the feelings we encounter when we are faced with the inevitable task of choosing the perfect place for Sparky to spend his vacation. While many people opt to have their dog accompany them on their excursions, there will still be a great majority who will have to face the facts and begin the hunt for the perfect boarding facility. As a trainer who works closely with family pets, I am often asked for referrals to boarding facilities that are clean, reputable, and kind. Dog trainers tend to deal with both the dog and the owner, while boarding facilities must concentrate on dealing mainly with the dog. For this reason, I researched the subject from both sides.

What does it take to establish a top notch boarding facility and what goes on behind the scenes?

To find a facility that best suits you and your dog, you’ll need to do some legwork ahead of time. It’s best to get this done before vacation time hits as many boarding facilities are booked well in advance, especially during prime seasons. Take note of how you are treated starting with your initial contact. While many boarding facilities have websites, you will eventually want to touch base with someone in person. You should be served in an efficient manner with your phone call returned within one or two business days. This often shows that the staff is dedicated to their work and feel that your phone call is important.

Did you feel rushed? You should feel comfortable in addressing your concerns and requests. Remember that this facility is used to dealing with owners who may feel stressed by the situation, and have special requests such as bringing along their dog’s favourite toy or blanket. Knowing that your requests are taken seriously, and will be followed through, will help you establish a rapport with the staff. You may be checking out boarding arrangements for an upcoming vacation, but the facility staff should be looking at you as a long-term client, one who will be booking more visits in the future. They should want to get to know you and your dog on a personal level.

How and when will your dog be dropped off and picked up again? Are there specific times involved and is there any flexibility to accommodate your own schedule? If you are returning on a Saturday night, you may not want to wait until Monday morning to retrieve Sparky.

Ask about payment methods in advance. You won’t want to be embarrassed arriving without your credit card only to discover that payment is required in advance. Some facilities will ask for a credit card as a security deposit, even if you are paying in cash.

Now that all those details are finalized… on to the dogs! Again, knowing the individual policies of the facility will help you decide what is most suitable for your family. Dogs that are not spayed or neutered may be an issue with some establishments. If you choose a boarding facility that allows dogs to interact with each other and roam about in a camp-like setting, or in-home boarding where people take in dogs as one of the family, you will often be required to have adult dogs spayed or neutered for all the obvious reasons. If you have an intact adult dog, your only option may be to board in a facility that keeps the dogs separated.

Find out how many dogs will be at the facility and how many staff will be on hand per dog. You’ll want to feel comfortable with the ratio.

If you are not going to a facility that allows dogs a large amount of play area, establish how often they are taken out and for how long. If they do not normally take the dogs for a walk, ask if this can be done for your own dog for an additional charge.

Sleeping arrangements should also be discussed. Again, if the dogs are all together at a dog camp type of setting, will the dogs be sleeping together or in separate quarters? Is this optional? If the scenario is that the dogs are put into sleeping areas at night, what time do they go to bed? What time will they be given breakfast? To sum it up… what is a typical day for a dog at this facility?

The balance of your research should be along the lines of health and safety. Make sure you know in advance if you are to supply your own dog food. Personally, I would much prefer to bring my own so that he doesn’t suffer an upset tummy while I’m away. If the facility will be supplying the food, check into the brand and find out if additional charges apply.

It is a good idea to make sure that the majority of the staff or at least a couple of the key people have a certificate in First Aid for pets. The Pet First Aid courses are fairly easy to find and there is no reason for people in the boarding industry not to have this handy piece of paper to show that they are prepared for an emergency. Do they have procedures in place for true emergencies? Will a veterinarian be available for after-hours care? No matter how careful the staff is, accidents do happen. The fact is, you need to make sure the staff knows what to do. Will they be prepared to transfer your dog over to your own veterinarian for after-care?

How about medication? Is the staff able to administer medication, and is there an extra charge? Older pets, and those with special needs or circumstances should be treated as such, and you want to make sure your dog does not fall between the cracks.

You might be interested in special services that are offered by the facility, such as pick up and delivery. Some lovely boarding facilities are located out of town. At first glance, you may feel that these locations will be inconvenient, but look again. If they provide pet transportation, it might be worth the additional charge to send your dog to the countryside to romp in its green pastures and fields with his new friends. It is far more convenient to have daily dog daycare located close to home so you can drop off and pick up yourself. But when it comes to a holiday, consider the other facilities as well.

Grooming may be another service that will be of benefit and you might appreciate the option of having your dog bathed before he comes home. On the other hand, when I visited an out-of-town boarding camp recently, I noticed that the dogs seemed really content, tired and happy, playing with their friends… with muddy feet and straw between their toes.

Hopefully, we’ll all come back from our holidays looking like these dogs. Happy, content, healthy, and with a bit of their holiday still attached!

Gillian Ridgeway, AHT, is director of Who’s Walking Who in Toronto and Ajax. She is a consultant and feature writer for Dogs, Dogs, Dogs! and also writes for Dogs in Canada and Metro Today. She appears weekly on Dogs in Canada TV and has been featured on City Pulse, Breakfast Television, Global Television, Q107 radio and in Toronto Life. She is the co-author of the book, “Citizen Canine”. Gillian may be contacted at 416-465-3626; www.whoswalkingwho.net

The following article appeared on City Pulse.com Top Stories on August 6, 2004

Susan Steiner used to be a private investigator before her business went to the dogs. And she couldn’t be happier.

She’s taken a giant leap of faith and left the dog-eat-dog world to start her own business. And it’s one you may not take seriously at first. But she believes it can combine her love of animals with her love of making a good buck (or should that be a good “bark”?)

Steiner runs Camp Lotsadogs, a day and overnight camp for canines. She claims it’s a way to let man’s best friends be exactly what they’re supposed to be.

“We’ve bred them, and we’ve trained them for things through the ages, and then we leave them at home and go off to work, and you know Labs don’t get to retrieve and Shepherds don’t get to herd,” she explains to Pulse24.com. “We just let them play all day. And if it’s crappy weather, I have a living room to let them sit around on the couch … with people and let them watch TV.”

Steiner first stumbled on the concept when she left her own dog with a similar camp several years ago. But she didn’t like the way it was run, and that bone of contention spurred her on to make her own attempt in January.

“I thought if I find the right property, then I’ll do it,” she recalls. “And I found … a stream and I fenced in two acres for the dogs in a meadow with lots of trees … And I have two forests and I take them in there.”

The business, near Oshawa, is able to accommodate 20 boarders and 20 day campers, some of whom she’ll pick up at the Whitby and Oshawa GO stations. So exactly what does a pampered pooch do at Camp Lotsadogs?

“First they run around like lunatics, they play, they do their alpha thing, they pee everywhere … then we have … tennis balls, and we fling balls for about 20 minutes until they’re all absolutely pooped or the balls are all chewed up … And then we pant … and some of them like to be hosed down.”

But it doesn’t come cheap. “It’s $230 a week and they play all day, 12 hours … and day camp is $100 a week,” she outlines. Still, with some Toronto kennels charging twice that for a week’s stay, she thinks it’s a bargain.

And the dogs aren’t cooped up all day, which they appreciate. “I had one lady … she starts crying, “I can’t leave her here! … and when she came back ten days later, the dog wouldn’t get into the car!”

For now, Steiner is advertising in local flyers and community newspapers, hoping to get the word out. And while she admits she’d do it all for free if she could, she’s hoping word of mouth makes her big financial gamble a winner.

“I need ten dogs a day to cover all my expenses including pizza night for the dogs,” she laughs. “And that’s it. The rest of it’s passion.”

Canines are in the grip of an obesity epidemic and one trainer has the answer: fat camp

The following article appeared on Macleans.ca Top Stories on August 9, 2006
See the original story here

BARBARA RIGHTON

Man’s best friend is so fat he can barely roll off the couch to bark at the mailman. In the U.S., scientists are reporting that 24 per cent of all dogs are obese, and another 30 per cent are overweight. Veterinarians are sounding the alarm about shortened life spans. Headline writers are having fun with stories like the one about the beagle that weighed a gut-busting 21 kg. “Who ate all the Pal?” the Sunday Mail asked in England last February. “It must have been the Biggle.” In Chicago’s trendy West Loop neighbourhood, one trainer is trying to reverse the damage. She’s putting canines on treadmills and taking them swimming. In fact, the Do Right Inn, opened by “dog whisperer” Ami Moore two months ago, may be North America’s first fat spa for pooches.

For US$4,000, over a 31-day stay, Moore teaches fat dogs to go off-leash and then takes them everywhere with her — even into local restaurants, where they lie quietly under the table while she eats. Six at a time, she says — “I rent a big van and I pile them all in and I take them either to Lake Michigan or the Chicago River and I have them play in the water for half-an-hour or an hour a day.” She also puts them on the treadmill, where they build speed as they get fit. “I get on first and then I put my trained dog on, and then I say, ‘Okay, it’s your turn,’ ” she explains. “I know it sounds bizarre. But they like it. They become addicted to the movement because that’s what nature made them — migratory carnivores.”

It’s been three years since pet obesity reached epidemic proportions, according to Washington’s National Academy of Sciences. People still argue about the causes, if not the cure. Some say like master, like dog. Others think owners are just too tired after a long day to exercise their dogs. Whatever the reason, some owners are turning to professionals for help. At Camp Lotsa Dogs, a country retreat in Kendal, Ont., near Oshawa, dogs can gambol in a pack for hours a day, which sure beats what they get for exercise at home. Its owner, Susan Steiner, complains that “everyone takes their dogs for two 10-minute walks a day, because, you know, it’s hot out, it’s cold out, it’s raining.” Asked how many campers are fat when they arrive, she says, “All of them” — pugs to poodles. “I am really upfront about it,” she says. “When people come for the assessment, I go, ‘Wow. Fat dog.’ ”

In Winnipeg, veterinarian Nancy McQuade is subtler. “You never want to say, right off the top, that a dog is fat,” she says. She talks about a new client who brought in a 50-kg lab last week; she did the exam and complimented the dog before suggesting it had a weight problem. ” ‘No,’ the owner said. ‘He has a big frame.’ I loved that one.” Other owners have said their dogs just have big hair. “I get impatient,” McQuade says. Obesity can shorten a dog’s life by four or five years. “I tell them, you’re killing your dog with kindness.”

That’s a lesson Martha Garvey learned. Her 2005 book My Fat Dog was inspired by her beloved dog, Faith, a lab-, beagle-, pitbull-cross she adopted (already fat) from a shelter near her home in Hoboken, N.J. Faith was “very food driven,” Garvey says. For the book, she interviewed trainers and learned how not to cave in to Faith’s imploring looks. She began taking Faith for regular weigh-ins. The dog lost weight. “There is no question that there is a psychological element involved with people who overfeed their dogs,” she says. “They can spend a lot of time thinking about it, or they can use a measuring cup.”

Moore’s solution is exercise, obedience, and less food. For the past 10 years, Moore has been in business with a dog-training facility, Doggie Do Right 911. She says she got interested in dog fitness because she noticed that dogs with behavioural problems often had medical problems too. Many owners initially contact her, she says, because their dogs are aggressive — and fat. “Most fat dogs are very socially dominant to their owners,” she says. “They are always demanding more — more petting, more attention, more food.”

Moore guarantees the owners a sylphlike, well-mannered dog, and she offers a lifetime of follow-up. Half her clients have happy healthy dogs as a result. But she has no patience for the other half — usually women, she says — who abandon her program. “Overfeeding is simply a reflection of the owner’s own lack of love,” Moore says. ” ‘I don’t feel loved, so here puppy, have a cookie. See, he took it. He loves me.’ ” The sad part, says Camp Lotsa Dogs’ Steiner, is that the dog loves them anyway, “madly and passionately, no matter what they do.”