You can’t dress a bunny in a vest and call him a service animal! As of March 15, service animal guidelines are limited to dogs and housebroken miniature horses. No ducks, chickens, donkeys, snakes, rats, monkeys and cats, according to the Department of Justice for the Americans With Disabilities Act. The new guidelines also exclude animals that provide emotional support or comfort and rightly so–the therapy dog and not the service dog provides support and comfort. A service animal is defined as one that enables his owner to get safely from one point to another.
ROYALTY WITHOUT A PEDIGREE. The first mutt to earn a Master Agility championship title is owned and handled by a first-time AKC exhibitor. His name is PRINCE DOGGIE and he earned the title in obedience, rally and agility in ten months!
AKC PENNSYLVANIA BOARD MEMBER. Newly elected to the AKC Board is Robert Gladstone from Mount Pocono. Gladstone, a lawyer, is active in the Welsh Corgi breed. Another new Board member is Robert Amen. It is Amen’s belief that the dogs of the future will be sold to older couples (empty nesters) and smaller families–the two-member family rather than four-member family will be the dog market of the future. This will create a revolutionary change in which dogs are in demand! These new families will need training and trainable dogs, dogs that can vacation with ease, be easy to groom and have few health problems. Their primary function will not be hunting, herding, obedience and other performance activities but COMPANIONSHIP. They will need to be tolerant of not only grandchildren but health caregivers. In addition, Gladstone would set up AKC cooperatives in every community made up of dog interests–without barriers. Clubs as well as pet services would work together to make living with dogs truly a bonding activity. He models his program after one introduced by the renowned Kitty Stiedel who introduced us to the Portuguese Water Dog and most recently the Havanese.
We must remember that the AKC is a business. Competition is expensive and so are the executives and professionals who run them. In this economy they need more and more revenue or registrations. It is time they realize they took a wrong turn when the Canine Good Citizen was being developed. They should have allowed and ENCOURAGED CGC competition, ribbons and titles. The Canine Good Citizen is the AKC lifeline to continued success. Of course, the AKC must always stress good breeding. It is a truism. BUY THE BREEDER before buying the dog.
Apr 21, 2011 | | Uncategorized
BEHAVIORAL and PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF SPAYING AND NEUTERING DOMESTIC DOGS is the title of a master’s thesis by Hunter College graduate student Parvene Farhoody that was included in PA Federation Digest #2035 by Julian Prager. The research rests largely on the Canine Behavior and Research Questionnaire created by Dr. James Serpell–reliable and valid! The results are interesting and provocative. Hopefully, it will slow the knee-jerk acceptance of this “benign” and “beneficial” surgery as the end-all-answer to many canine problems. After all, after more than 30 years of spay-neuter subsidies and banners we still have overpopulation, so clearly the surgery has not been a sufficient solution for this situation. Now there are reasons to suspect that there are other weaknesses in this over-hyped panacea.
According to the abstract included in the Federation Digest, “Behavioral characteristics of intact male and female dogs were compared with those of four groups of neutered dogs–neutered before 6 months, between 13 and 18 months and after 18 months. Among the findings, neutered dogs were more aggressive, fearful, excitable and less trainable than intact dogs. In addition the author found a significant difference in bone lengths.“
Findings support the need for an immediate re-evaluation of current recommendations to spay or neuter dogs to prevent or treat behavior problems and a full examination of the physical effects of spaying and neutering pet dogs. As most readers know a spayed or neutered dog is considered to have less monetary value by both the AKC and the AVMA. Research has also shown a risk of cancer and cognitive impairment, which further act to support many views.
PETUNIA THE NEARLY BLIND DOG. Hopefully, by this time Petunia has found a home. Her story in the Daily Item was heart-wrenching. But, she is not alone. There is an animal sanctuary that specializes in caring for animals with disabilities. Rolling Dog Ranch even has special diets for its residents. http://blogrollingdogranch.org
FLEA AND TICK PESTICIDES. There has been growing concern about the use of flea and tick pesticides (spot-on-products) causing skin irritations and death in animals less than three years of age and/or weighing 10 to 20 pounds. It might be wise to check with your veterinary hospital if your dog falls in one of these areas.
WALKING YOUR DOG–HEALTH CARE’S SECRET WEAPON. According to a study in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, people who own and walk a dog are 34% more likely to meet federal benchmarks for physical activity. Physical health benchmarks call for at least 150 minutes of such activity a week. Middle-age people have the least time to walk a dog; younger and older people get the most physical benefit; puppies were more apt to be walked than older dogs; and larger breed dogs were walked longer than smaller dogs. Wonder what difference weekly class training would make in staying young? Perhaps there should be a study on the effect of class dog training on owner health and fitness!
Apr 11, 2011 | | Uncategorized
In the case of Three Mile Island, the lack of planning for pet owner/pet evacuations led, after the accident, to a series of public meetings and community surveys, with results widely reported in the popular and research presses. These discussions also resulted in a number of statewide and community projects and efforts. These include a Pet Alert Wallet Card designed by Animal-Vues, a nonprofit education organization located in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. The card effort was funded initially by Pennsylvania electricity supplier PP&L and distributed around the world after an article on the effort appeared in USA Today. These cards are still being distributed today at no cost by local animal rescue organizations (although a donation is appreciated). The original card had a red border to make it easy to find in a wallet or purse. The holder could write on it the names and contact information for caregivers. It also include the name and phone number of a veterinary hospital, location of pets in the home and how to gain access to them. The current Pet Alert Wallet Cards are more elaborate.
In addition to the Pet Alert Wallet Card, Animal Vues compiled the first small animal (pet) disaster guide, published by Bloomsburg University. The initial 32-page book, Guidelines for emergency pet care, had both easy-to-view and easily understandable illustrations and text. In a later copyrighted version, some of the instructions were modified after consultation with animal behaviorist Dr Sebastian Heath.
More recently, Columbia and Montour counties in central Pennsylvania have established a SART—a state animal response team composed of community volunteers with medical, organizational, and other related expertise and experiences to aid local communities in the evacuation of pets and pet owners to designated sites stocked with medical, food, and other supplies needed to keep pet and owner together in a natural or other crisis.
Most recently, the nuclear disaster in Japan and stories appearing on the national and international news about abandoned pets have reawakened concerns for pets and pet owners. Japan’s earlier institution of the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen program through the work of trainer Terry Ryan in that country has aided rescue and evacuation efforts throughout tsunamis and other natural disasters. Canine Good Citizen program graduates are well-behaved dogs who have been taught to ignore distractions and be calm in all kinds of adversities.
Crises like Three Mile Island, and now the nuclear challenges in Japan, offer valuable lessons learned to animal care, veterinary, community, and other leaders who wish to ensure that all members of an affected community receive care and shelter. During the Three Mile Island accident, the radio was the only form of information, panic was rampant, and there was widespread distrust of authority. There were eyewitness accounts of veterinary hospital parking lots swamped with free-roaming cats and dogs left there by their caring owners. The vast majority of pets were left to roam. Only the milking herds and the Hershey Medical Center research animals were protected—the herds were kept in their barns and the research animals were shielded underground.
Finally, several studies and many articles have been written about disaster planning and pets since Three Mile Island, but very little since that time focusing on nuclear disasters specifically. This article goes some way toward offering practical advice but much more information is needed, as demonstrated by the recent crises in Japan. We should not have to endure a nuclear crisis to receive information about how to survive it, especially with pets—forewarned is fore-armed, and later/during a crisis may be too late for our pets.
What to do in the Event of a Natural or Other Disaster
Overall, pet owners should:
· Ensure that their pets are car-trained and social so that evacuation to a community facility is less stressful both for owners and pets
· Especially for dog owners, participate in Canine Good Citizen training
· Obtain a Pet Alert Wallet Card and keep it on their person
· Be prepared to quickly assemble supplies for evacuation to a shelter, including food, water, bowls, leashes and/or crates/carriers, medicines, bags and scoops for waste, a favorite blanket or something familiar to the pet
If a pet owner must leave their pet at home:
· Put a note in a front window near the front door/on the door about the presence of pets (number, type, ages, medical conditions, etc.)
· Put pets in a basement or bathroom area with access to food, water, and a place to eliminate—typically, there should be a sufficient supply of food and water for at least 48 hours
· If the confined space includes the pet’s crate/carrier, put a small basin of water, or, in the event of several crates/carriers, a small child’s plastic wading pool on the crates to protect the pets from radiation and serve as an emergency source of water
Apr 03, 2011 | | Uncategorized