Saturday Pet Blogger Hop...Plus: Dog Meets Litter Of Gorgeous Kittens

            Now on to this week's Pet Blogger Hop!

Happy Saturday to everyone-and whadayasay we dogs go hoppin' right away?! We'll meet at the Old Elm Tree, chase some squirrels, and then visit everyones' blogs together-how does that sound? And we're NOT giving up on Timmy and Lassie! Stay tuned...

Photo by www.rachellaurenphotography.com

Here are just a few, easy-to-follow rules for joining this hop:

__ Use the Linky tool provided to sign up. Note: if your blog is not pet-related it will be removed from the list.

__Follow the three hosts at the top of the list (and while you're at it, follow us-we'd appreciate it!)

__ Peruse these fabulous blogs and follow and comment as you desire.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for Week 79 in our "Living with Your Pet" series!

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Could These Dogs Have Prevented The Boston Bombing?

Their trainers at Auburn University say, probably "yes". Check out this segment that just aired tonight on Anderson Cooper's CNN show to see why. It's interesting that this particular bomb sniffing training program passes on the traditional police and military use of German shepherds and Malinois, in favor of Labs and spaniels, mainly because they don't stand out as what most people think of as bomb-sniffing dogs and wouldn't attract attention in a crowd. The footage of the dogs in training is pretty cool, too.

And what Anderson Cooper says at the end of the segment is, well, why we love Anderson Cooper!

We're wondering if these highly trained canines, who can track a bomb's vapor trail over several hundred yards, will start making more appearances at large, public events...one would think so. 

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Military Dog Heroes Get Their Day: They're Not Just Equipment.

                      Photo courtesy of  Yahoo News

Or at least their own two hour special on Animal Planet, titled "Glory Hounds" that focuses on the "glory and trauma" of military dogs. This article posted on Yahoo News describes how the lives of one cameraman for Animal Planet, embedded with soldiers in Afghanistan to film this special, a soldier and his working dog, Azza, intertwined one fateful day.

But the Animal Planet special follows the dogs and their human compatriots "into combat zones where insurgents and buried explosives could be around any bend or any pile of dirt." According to the soldier featured in this article, Air Force Tech Sgt. Leonard Anderson, "Military dogs are prized targets for Taliban insurgents...they sniff out bombs, making safe passage for troops to follow and saving countless lives." But "They [the military] call them tools, and they are not...They are soldiers. They just have four paws instead of two feet...It's a deadly game and they die all the time."

We'll be watching when "Glory Hounds" airs this Thursday, February 21 at 8:00 pm ET. In case you miss it or forget to set your DVR, it repeats on February 24 at 9:00 am EST. We hope you enjoy it and share your thoughts with us!

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Dog's Loyalty Transcends Owner's Death

Grieving dog, Tommy, at Santa Maria Assunta church in San Donaci, Italy

We've become familiar with this scenario: Dog's owner dies and dog refuses to leave graveside or train station, or in the case of a Navy Seal, his canine military partner lies steadfast beside his coffin. But we think this story brings a new level of sweetness and loyalty to the human-dog bond.

A German shepherd named Tommy has attended mass in the Catholic church in San Donaci, Italy, every day since his owner's funeral service was held there in late December of last year. According to  Father Donato Panna, the dog always accompanied his owner to church services, and when she died, "the dog joined mourners at her funeral service...and followed after Maria's coffin as it was carried into the church."

Now, Tommy quietly arrives each time the church bells ring announcing mass, and sits by the side of the alter throughout each service. The villagers provide Tommy with food and water and a place to sleep nearby. As one animal behavior expert quoted for the article says, " We have had a close, cognitive, emotional and working relationship with dogs for tens of thousands of years, and we both have been changed by that history." Beautiful...


But would I do that for Parental Unit? Is this the face of canine loyalty? You decide!

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"What's A Dog For?"

Cool illustration by Peter Ourmanski, courtesy of  The New York Times

In fact, that's the title of yet another new book about dogs: What's A Dog For? The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man's Best Friend. and it looks like a winner to us. As stated in this recent NewYork Times book review, the book is "both a survey on the latest research on canine cognition and a memoir of his [the author's] years with his Lab mix, Stella. The author, executive editor at New York magazine, was curious to know "why so many of us bond with dogs and why dog ownership is on the rise."

Have dogs become more like humans? Are humans living more isolated lives and need some form of physical companionship, i.e., a warm body? Our best guess is that this book answers these questions and more in a thorough and entertaining way. With any luck, we'll be able to do a review and giveaway at some point soon-paws crossed!

Speaking of book reviews and giveaways, we've got a real treat coming up: On Friday, we'll review and begin our giveaway of a copy of the amazing book, Dogs of Courage by Lisa Rogak, so stay tuned!

And...we've got a book giveaway going on right now-thanks for reminding us to remind you... that it's not too late to enter to win an autographed copy of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend: www.boccibeefs.com/2012/12/rin-tin-tin-life-and-legend-review-and.html

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The Canine Nose Is Before The U. S. Supreme Court

Photo of Franky, a retired narcotics detective dog, courtesy of  The New York Times

The primary question that the nine justices will hear tomorrow is whether a dog's nose is "essentially infallible". In earlier decisions, the Florida Supreme Court decreed that Franky's nose was playing tricks on him, and threw out the evidence put forth to convict the defendant of a drug offense. It did the same with another trained drug-sniffing dog, Aldo, in a separate case, and both cases will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, starting tomorrow.

The trend of scientific evidence, however, indicates that even highly trained drug sniffing dogs have a decent number of "false positives" and "good and bad days." But the other side argues that dogs' noses are so sensitive that they pick of scents that linger from long-ago drug use, so when they sound the alarm, so to speak, no contraband is found at that time. This kind of general searching, particularly inside or directly outside of homes, often leads to charges of "unreasonable search" prohibited by the Constitution.

We're eager to hear the arguments in this case and of course, the final decision. But what do you think? How well do you trust a dog's sense of smell? Let us know!

P.S. Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon (after the Wordless Wednesday Hop) when I model and review a fun Halloween Costume, courtesy of PetSmart (the Cowardly Lion!)  and finally post those pictures from our local Halloween Pet Parade.

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Dog's Cross Country Treks A Lesson In Thoughtlessness

This story in yesterday's New York Times  seems to us to be the epitome of humans' thoughtless behavior toward fellow living creatures under the guise of what most consider a typical business transaction. What intrigues us is this: No matter how loudly we claim to love our companion animals these days (which of course, most of us do), they're still treated like they were hundreds, even thousands of years ago-as property with very little, if any, rights under the law.

Photo of Emmi, courtesy of the New York Times

Here's the short version of what happened to Emmi, a five year old German shepherd: a company in Washington state called Kraftwerk K9, breeds, trains and sells German shepherds. A man in Long Island, we'll call him "Clueless", buys Emmi over the Internet for $7,500, ostensibly as a family pet, and the professionally trained dog (according to Kraftwerk K9) makes her first cross country journey. Six days later, Clueless takes Emmi back to the airport and ships her back to Washington because she just didn't work out. He described her as "an aggressive dog who posed a great danger to my family." (So a supposedly trained, intelligent, powerful breed dog is supposed to fit in with an untrained family in six days?)

Here's the kicker: Kraftwerk K9 refused to take back the dog because it was past their 72 hour return policy-so no one was there to pick up Emmi, who then spent the night in a local shelter. The next day, the company's owner, who accused Clueless of abandonment, reluctantly picked up Emmi, but refused to return his $7500. Fighting over payment of the dog continues.

 We have so many beefs with this scenario, but will start with this question:  there is so much information available to humans these days on the proper choosing, care and training of dogs-and we all know how many great dogs are available from shelters and rescues, pretty much for free. So why would a person not avail themselves of any of that information and just pay the big bucks to have an "already trained dog" shipped across country to them? And then not seem to have even the most basic empathy for the dog's situation: flying across country, new home, new people, little time to adjust. And don't get us started on the company, which seemed not to care if the prospective owner was able to handle such a trained dog, as long as they made their exorbitant fee.

Now that you've heard our take, we'd love to know what you think about this story. Have at it!

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The German Shepherd Dog: A Soldier's Best Friend

We loved this slide show in the New York Times that briefly documents the history of the German shepherd dog in military regiments around the world. And from World War II (when they were named the Army's official mascot), through Afghanistan, this amazing breed has partnered with American soldiers in their various global operations, particularly in explosive device detection units.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo News

But has this gorgeous breed "had its day", as the writer, Susan Orlean, hypothesized is Sunday's New York TImes? If you've read the plethora of articles lately on the paradox of breeding in general and "bad breeding" in particular in the various dog magazines, you understand the impact (both good and bad) of breeding for certain physical and emotional traits on something pretty important: the dogs themselves.

The German shepherd today. Photo courtesy of Yahoo News

As Orlean discusses in her recent opinion piece in the Times, the breeds popularity is waning, and that may be a good thing for the breed: when there is less demand for any particular breed, less puppies by both legitimate breeders and unscrupulous breeders are produced, which in turn helps to maintain the original breed standards, rather than dilute those standards in a "ramped up production" of the dogs to meet over-zealous demands.

Now, we're not criticizing legitimate breeders or those who own purebred dogs. As we're fond of saying, some of our best friends are purebreds, and we think breeds and their history are inextricably woven into the world's history, which to our way of thinking, makes their preservation imperative.

But what about the many opinions out there that an outsized demand for a particular breed works to destroy the breed? Let us know what you're thinking about this very important issue!

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