Dog Report

When you think about animal testing, you probably imagine all kinds of different horrors. Maybe you think about how Proctor & Gamble is famous for sewing the eyes of baby kittens shut just to test human beauty products on them. You might imagine lab rats, bunnies, monkeys, and many other animals kept in cages, unable to see the light of day, injected with all kinds of harmful chemicals and diseases just to ensure that we won’t break out by using some new skin cleanser. (Of course, studies have proven this to be ineffective at best and harmful at worst; since humans are not the same as these animals, we often still get sick—even die—though studies showed ingredients safe on animals like pigs.)

But did you ever think that man’s best friend, the domesticated dog, would be the subject of animal testing?

Read more >

The best advice I’ve ever heard when it comes to avoiding getting bitten by a dog is this: don’t mess with a dog you don’t know. That’s pretty easy to do, right? Yes, it makes a wide assumption that any dog could bite, but in reality, any dog could bite. When provoked by a young child, my dog—then in the care of a friend while we were moving—did bite.

Though she did not cause much harm, she did have to be “put to sleep” over it, something I never understood at that age (I was nine) and never really got over. I haven’t really had a dog since. (We did try to have a puppy when my daughter was a baby, but that didn’t work out and we found her a better, baby-less home.)

Here are some tips to avoid being bitten by a dog.

Read more >

Charlie Negranus: in a couch castle.I love my dogs. I have two Rat Terriers. Charlie and Maple. Maple is the headstrong alpha female, Charlie likes to be on the couch, sleeping. This is my rant.

Charlie has allergies and his paws, in time with spring, are turning into red itch-bombs. That is now his favorite activity: chewing on his paws. He is so bad that when we tell him not to do it, he slinks off to another room to carry on unnoticed. I feel bad for him, and last year we tried medicine, creams, powders and behavior techniques. The bottom line is, the dog's feet itch like crazy and nothing helps. As bad as I feel for him, the constant licking and juicy sucking noises always coming from his location are almost unbearable.

Read more >

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race started in Anchorage on March 6th, and the lead contenders are homing in on Nome.  This famous 1,000 mile sled dog race is as controversial as it is historic, and opinions and tempers run hot on both sides of the debate.

Although most people picture a Siberian husky or a Malamute when they think of sled dog racing, the dog which is bred and used by mushers is a landrace breed.  "Landrace" breeds arise naturally, out of the needs of their breeders.  You could call it a kind of "purpose-built mutt."  

The landrace used in mushing is called a "husky," although it is smaller and trimmer than most husky breeds.  It comes in a variety of coat and eye colors, and is bred for speed, endurance, and "easy keeping," meaning that it can go far on a minimum amount of food.


Read more >