As many of you know, I have been busy with the Omaha Community Playhouse rehearsing for the upcoming production of “Gypsy”.  Ferris, my 7 year old Papillon, and Pogo, my 1 year old Blue Crowned Conure both have parts in the play and are doing a terrific job.  To say that I am proud of them both is an understatement, as they have both been so very well behaved throughout the long rehearsals they have participated in.   The best part is that they both seem to enjoy it, as they are receiving non-stop attention from several cast members and it has been an overall pleasant experience for them both.  Pogo even gets to keep his normal bedtime since he is taken back and forth to the show in his sleeping cage.  Once 9:15 rolls around, he climbs into his bed and sleeps all the way home. 

The people at the Omaha Community Playhouse are always so much fun to work with, they we thoroughly enjoy every opportunity we get to spend with them.  The production kicks off Friday May 29 and runs through June 28th.  For more information, please check out the the Omaha Community Playhouse’s website.

One last thing to mention is that the Omaha World-Herald ran a story in today’s Living section.  Here is a link to that article: tp://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2620&u_sid=10639672

Enjoy!

Imagine sailing through choppy waters with the family and the family dog when suddenly the dog is washed overboard.  How devastating would it be to not be able to find the dog, assuming it had drowned?  I can’t even imagine, but believe it or not this story has a happy ending.

This was the case of the Griffith family from Australia who was sailing off the coast of Queensland in November with the family dog.  Choppy waters caused the dog to fall overboard. After an exhausting search, the family returned home without their beloved Australian Cattle Dog, Sophie.  The family was, of course, devastated.

Five nautical miles away, and four months later rangers spotted a dog on St. Bee’s Island.  Thought to be a wild dog, rangers patroling the island finally captured the dog to take back to the mainland.   Hearing reports of a possible Australian Cattle Dog having been found, the Griffiths went to see if it could possibly be their beloved Sophie. 

The dog was indeed Sophie.  She had apparently swam five nautical miles through choppy, shark infested waters and survived by eating wild baby goats.  The dog had turned to feral ways and wouldn’t approach any of the rangers without a fight.  As soon as she saw the Griffiths, she was whining and wagging in excitement. 

In our wildest imaginations I don’t think we could dream up this story.  Congratulations, Sophie on returning to your family!

Thanks to “Nightline” for the episode about puppy mills in Pennsylvania.  Watch the video, and think about it before purchasing a puppy in a petstore.  By “saving” that one pup from the store, you are causing several more to suffer.  This will only stop if we quit shopping and supporting these types of stores.

Did you know there are three dog constellations?  Look…

1.  Sirius, aka the Dog Star.  This is the brightest star in the Big Dog constellation and is also known as Canis Major, the Greater Dog, and the Dog of Orion.

2.  Canis Minor, aka the Lesser Dog.  Lesser is Orion’s second hunting dog and is much smaller than its mate.  Its brightest star is known as Procyon.

3.  Canes Venati actually represents two dogs: Asterion and Chara.  Both of these are held “on a leash” by Bootes the hunter as they are in chase of the Great Bear around the North Pole.

If you are a dog lover, you may never look at the stars in the same way again.

In Minot, North Dakota animal control officers reportedly responded to a call about a “dog on a roof”. 

A border collie mix who had been in a kennel in a fenced in backyard, apparently wanted a better view of the neighborhood.  He took advantage of the high snow drift in the owner’s backyard and climbed right on up to the rooftop. 

After several failed attempts to coax the dog to a lower level of the roof, animal control officers had to contact the owners and wait for their arrival before the dog would happily leave the peak (or should I say “peek”?).

I just love creative dogs!!

We don’t think much of white man’s elections. Whoever wins, we Indians always lose. Well, we have a little story about elections…

 Once a long time ago, the dogs were trying to elect a president. So one of them got up in the dog convention and said: “I nominate the bulldog for president. He’s strong. He can fight.”

“But he can’t run,” said another dog. “What good is a fighter who can’t run?

But the other dogs cried: “Naw, he can run all right, but he can’t fight. When he catches up with somebody, what happens then? He gets the hell beaten out of him, that’s what! So all he’s good for is running away.”

Then an ugly little mutt jumped up and said: “I nominate that dog for president who smells good underneath his tail.”

And immediatley an equally ugly mutt jumped up and said: “I second the motion.”

At once all the dogs started sniffing underneath each other’s tails. A big chorus went up:

“Phew, he doesn’t smell good under his tail.”

“No, neither does this one.”

“He’s no presidential timber!”

“No, he no good, either.”

“This one sure isn’t the people’s choice.”

“Wow, this ain’t my candidate!”

When you go for a walk, just watch the dogs. They’re still sniffing underneath each other’s tails. They’re looking for a good leader, and they still haven’t found him.

–Told by Lame Deer of the Sioux,
Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota, 1969.
Recorded by Richard Erdoes

I have always been aware of the awful conditions that puppy mill dogs come from.  Trying to educate the public on this subject, however, has been a huge challenge.  When stores such as Petland continue to supply the ever-demanding and unknowing puppy buyer, it is too common that individuals will feel as though they are “rescuing” a pup from the store.  Not seeing the conditions that the pups have come from, or that its parents continue to live in, it is literally an “out of sight, out of mind” situation.  Worse yet is the fact that individuals are being told by Petland employees that the puppies have come from “reputable breeders”.  I sadly think that the majority of these workers truly believe that to be the case.  However, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that management doesn’t know the real situation.  The sad reality is that the public is flat out being lied to and told whatever they want to hear in order to make the sale final. 

Having worked with puppies from puppy mills and reputable breeders both, I can assure you that the puppy mill pups are NEVER developmentally healthy.  I attribute that to the fact that they have not had proper stimulation, socialization and/or treatment during their first couple of months of life.  In fact, the majority of these pups have accepted the fact that living in their own waste is perfectly acceptable.  These pups are difficult to housetrain as a result, and are oftentimes turned over to rescues and shelters due to housetraining issues.  It frustrates me as I see it over and over again, while the public is kept in the dark and refusing to believe that their puppy has come from these implorable conditions.

Be in the dark no more, people!  The Humane Society of the United States has recently completed an investigation of Petland, one of the nations top retailers of puppies.  I am attaching HSUS’s video investigation to help spread the word and educate the public about the sickening subject of puppy mills.  I hope after you watch it that you will join in the trend of no longer supporting stores like Petland. 

Be educated…

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.  Sandi’s K9 Management.

According to the results of a recent study in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan, when puppies play, the males allow the females to dominate and win. 

Four different breeds of pups from the ages of three to 40 weeks were observed with pups of the same sex, as well as pups of the opposite sex.  What Dr. Ward and her colleagues found was that when the male puppies were engaged in play with the females, they would often use vulnerable positions in order to allow the female to dominate and keep the play going as long as possible.  It is believed that this leads to easier mating of dogs later in life. 

The study also revealed that although females will engage play with other female puppies that this was not as popular among the male pups.  Female to female aggression is often more intense than aggression towards male dogs, so the study leads us to believe that play among female puppies is a way they practice appeasement behaviors.  This is yet another argument in favor of not removing a pup from a litter prior to eight weeks of age, and continuing socialization with other dogs and puppies throughout a dog’s lifetime.

Good job to Dr. Ward and her colleagues at the University of Michigan.