Posts Tagged ‘Dogs’

Since 1999 the Iams Home 4 the Holidays campaign has helped
5.8 million orphaned animals in 21 countries.

The goal this year has been to help 1.5 million homeless animals find homes from October 11, 2011, through January 3, 2012.

If you've been thinking of adding a four-legged member to your family, check out Facebook.com/Iams to search for adoptable animals near you. (In Canada, there are as many as 250,000 orphaned animals.)

Even if you already have a litter – or are unable to adopt a pet – you can still help our furry friends out by donating a bowl of food to an animal shelter; find out how here.

Iams is how happy to offer a gift basket (value: $100) to one pet-loving reader. In it, you'll find:

• Full-value Iams pet food coupons
• Pet bed
• Pet picture frame
• Pet treat holder
• Disposable poop bags and holder
• Food dish
• Cat litter scoop
• Pet stocking

For your chance to win this pet gift basket, please leave a comment on this post by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, telling me how your pet became a part of your family. One comment per person, please; this contest is open to residents of Canada only. Not open to any TC Media employees or the people they live with. I'll randonly select and announce the winner on Wednesday, January 4, 2012.

Now this is one happy puppy!

If his vertical matched his excitement level of seeing Baby, he could propel himself right through the ceiling. Instead, what we get is an irresistible game of peekaboo between canine and kid.

Does your pet get this excited around your kids?

What can I say? I'm a sucker for smarts and Jesse the Jack Russell terrier has got me smitten. He's adorable and tidy! Thanks to my colleague Daniela for forwarding this video to me. It put a smile on my face and I hope it has the same effect on you.

Without further ado, behold the amazing tidy-up dog. I want one.

If I had a dog and I could train it to do just one household chore for me, my pooch would be fetching groceries for me. What household chore would you like to assign to your (hypothetical or real) dog?

Catman? Photo, courtesy of chrisdlugosz

Cat guys get a hard time. Cat's aren't especially manly pets, and that tends to (unfairly) reflect on the owners. They're not "man's best friend" and they don't have that kind of manly duty of defending hearth and home (not that I've ever actually seen a dog do that, unless you count giving the mailman a hard time, or running into the front hall when someone on TV rings a doorbell). Worse, I've heard from more than a few women that they look with a weird kind of suspicion on single men who own cats.

I'm not cat person particularly (I'm allergic, and so they seem magnetically drawn to my stuffed-up face), but as the owner of a not-very-manly small white fluffy dog, I can empathize with guys who happen to have a potentially emasculating feline pet. So I thought I might share this video, that I dug up over on The Cat Blog.

The amount of swooning that any of you female readers do or don't do over the guy in the video is entirely at your discretion. But he's certainly a "real man" (whatever that means) and he appears to have a pet cat. It's part of the Much Love Animal Rescue's "It's Okay to be a Cat Guy" campaign.

Maybe man just got himself a second best friend.

This is a question that I've been forced to grapple with because, against all expectations I once had, I now find myself the owner of the kind of little dog that, well, might just need clothes. For the record, I'm mostly against clothes for dogs – I tend to think that they come wrapped in all the clothing they need – but I realize that exceptions need to be made. (more...)

I remember how much I loved snow when I was a kid. It was like a huge toy had just fallen from the sky, and I would be sadly remiss if I didn't take full advantage.

These days it's just more annoying than anything else, which is kind of sad, really. That's why I would pay money – lots* of money – to get half as excited by snow as my dog Bobo.

(Thanks to my girlfriend, Agnes, for the video.)

*Note: I don't actually have "lots" of money, in case anyone is actually ready and willing to sell winter enthusiasm.

After first seeing this video, I wanted desperately for my dog to be able to do half the stuff that little Jack Russell can do. Imagine: You wake up to a freshly fetched paper, a tidied home and a friendly little pup; then you get home from work and dog takes your coat off, pops in a movie and does the dishes. "It's like having a little furry butler!" I said. "What could be better?!"

On second thought, however, I realized that I would very quickly devolve: a) some sort of evil genius, using my hyperintelligent dog to do my bidding; or b) a useless sloth, incapable of doing anything for myself and unmotivated to try. The apathy would likely infect the dog, too, as I'd be too wasted away to bother reaching for his reward treats. Consider this a likely model for how things would go.

But, still, it would be great for a while, wouldn't it?

A quick note for today: It may be a pain to remember to regularly brush your dog’s teeth (though it's important to know how to do it properly) or take care of your’s cat’s chompers, but at least you don ’t have to do this.

“Is this food? I’ll check." That's how dogs think – I'm convinced of it.

Oh yes, our pet dogs may be cute and furry, they may have impeccable manners and sweet dispositions, but make no mistake, beneath the well-coiffed exterior of even the most innocuous-looking teacup poodle lurks an unstoppable eating machine. Socks, furniture, TV remotes, door-to-door salesmen – it's all on the menu for our canine companions, who live in a constant and barely restrained state of temptation to taste everything.

Take Sophie, a basset hound in Colorado Springs, Colo. Apparently Sophie devoured no less than 31 nails, her own rabies tag and a chunk of siding – all in one sitting. That's just amazing. There's a certain kind of steady dedication in that that I can't help but admire a little bit. Granted, its a dedication to doing something monumentally stupid, but bassets aren't known for their keen intelligence. Sophie's fine now, thankfully, with the help of a vet who was probably a bit shocked when he/she expected to look at X-ray and saw a photograph of hardware store.

None of my dogs have ever been so ambitions, but I’ve seen a few interesting things disappear down the doggie gullet. Rocky, a collie/mutt my parents got just before I was born, showed a keen canine sense of irony by gobbling up – and getting very sick over – a plastic hospital bracelet she rummaged out of the trash.

Photo: TheGiantVermin

When, Toby, another of my family’s sadly departed pooches, went through a period of devouring whole bushes, some neighbours suggested we lace the soil with Tabasco sauce. In theory it would sting Toby out of her digging. In practice, she ate huge amounts of the spicy dirt – and paid dearly for it when, uhh, things made their way out the other end.

Since my girlfriend and I have had Bobo – our inherited Bichon Frise – he’s been pretty lax about munching on things: He’s too small to reach up onto tables, and his little mouth can’t really come to grips with the bigger things he’s probably got an eye on. That said, before he came to live with us it seems one Christmas he devoured a nativity scene, Jesus and all. That’s probably bad karma, but it’s less of a risk than eating one of my girlfriend's shoes, so it’s good he’s ditched the habit.

I’d love to hear your I-can-laugh-about-it-now stories of the odd and unlikely things your pups have munched down. But be sure to include the happy ending – no one likes a story where the dog isn’t safe by the end.

Watching my dog chase a balloon around the house, or chew happily on a stick for hours on end, I’ve come to question the wisdom of spending money on pet toys. Part of me understands: you love the little guy and want to spoil him, and besides – it’s a toy for you, too. But another part of me knows full well that dogs don’t really distinguish between, well, “toys” and “garbage,” and would be just as happy playing with something you had lying around the house.

Photo: ginnerobot

With that in mind, I’ve cobbled together a list of tried-and-true DIY dog toys. No assembly required.

The empty plastic bottle

Dogs lose their minds for these. Just screw the cap on an empty 660 mL or 2 L (depending on the size of dog) bottle, and watch the fur fly. Cheap water bottles make a crunching noise when chewed, so they’ll be munched on happily for hours. Sturdier soda bottles tend to

escape grasping mouths and skitter away erratically – meaning they’re that wonderful kind of toy that the dog can play with by himself – and they’re great for a playful-yet-harmless bop on the backside.

Like any toy, of course, keep in mind your pet’s propensity to eat, rather than enjoy.

The old towel

It’s a time-tested standby, and no dog can resist a tug-of-war with an old towel. Just remember that once that towel hits the floor, it’s not yours anymore: dogs of all sizes tend to adopt their towel as a security blanket, and will carry it around the house until it's in shreds.

Photo: jaybergesen

Balloons

This might best kept to small dogs with small mouths, lest the balloon to become a very quick snack (and, trust me, you don’t want that). There’s a drawer in every kitchen that has a few forgotten birthday balloons in it, so find yours and Fido’s got a new toy. The balloons float teasingly and are hard to trap, bouncing off swiping paws and poking noses. And, of course, there’s the darkly hilarious moment when your startled pup’s toy bursts. Good fun for everyone – but be extra careful your dog doesn’t eat the pieces of burst balloon.