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We're recapping each episode of the CBS reality TV show "Greatest American Dog" here on DogHobbyist, and an incident in the fourth episode raised some issues about the effect of the show on dogs. I interviewed judge Victoria Stilwell of BBC's "It's Me or the Dog," as well as DogHobbyist.com recapper Shari Brodsky, renowed trainer Terry Ryan, and the American Humane Association's Film and Television Unit for an article that appears on SFGate.com (the website of the San Francisco Chronicle) today:

In the fourth week, the challenge was this: Each handler was given a word and told to train his or her dog to express that word in some way. At the end of the training period, they'd have one hour with a professional pet photographer to capture the results of the training on camera. Some handlers were given words such as "lazy" or "joyous," but contestant Teresa and her border collie Leroy got the word "angry."

Now, border collies are the most intelligent of dog breeds. That might mean they're not the best family pets, because number one, they need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation to keep them occupied, and number two, it can be demoralizing to have a pet who is smarter than you. But trainable? Look up the word in the dictionary, and you'll see a picture of a border collie.

Which makes it hard to understand why Teresa didn't realize she could have spent her two days' of training time teaching her dog to look angry on cue for the upcoming photo shoot instead of actually trying to piss him off. I do know that not even a quarter of a million bucks could have induced me to do what she did, which was to repeatedly spray lemon juice in her dog's face and then shove a dryer hose into his mouth until he bit her. Then she had the nerve to call him "you bastard," and comment that she expected more cooperation in the future: "You just bit me; I would think I deserve a little more from you."

Even though the squirt method had gotten her nowhere, she persisted with it even after arriving at the photo shoot. While the photographer watched, she tried to get him to snarl by squirting diluted grapefruit juice in his face until he whimpered, shrank back, and then ran to her for comfort. Making it worse was what she said to him when he tried to burrow into her side: "I'm not your mother right now."

Read the full article here, and let us know what you think!

This week's episode of "Greatest American Dog" proved something I’ve always suspected: dogs are not smarter than people, but they sure do live better.

Intelligence was the theme, although the way it was displayed was arguable at best. Before we even got to see the dogs prove how smart they were or weren’t, we were treated to the stupidity of humans, as evidenced by what we’ll do when attracted to someone.

There was some serious flirting going on between Laura and Travis, mostly done through interaction not with each other, but with each other's dogs. Laura acted like she pretty much wanted to eat Travis' boxer Presley up with a spoon, and Travis thought nothing looked cuter than Laura's mohawked Pomeranian Preston piling with his buddy Presley. This is good news for Travis because, as Laura pointed out, “When it comes to relationships, finding a dog-lover is absolutely... the most important thing.”



Or, in Travis' words: "I find myself to be more attracted to women who take a liking to Presley."
Could they be any cuter? Well, maybe.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 106"

Consumer Affairs is reporting a recall of Pedigree Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites dog food.

A salmonella scare has forced Mars Petcare US to recall 100 of its 20-pound bags of PEDIGREE Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites sold at some Albertsons in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The company also makes Nutro pet food, which scores of consumers nationwide blame for the recent illnesses — and even deaths — of their dog and cats.

Nutro products, however, are not included in this recall.

Mars said a "component" that tested positive for salmonella was inadvertently shipped to its Tracy, California, plant and used in the production of 100 bags of PEDIGREE pet food.

The affected bags have the "best by" dates of July 7, 2009.

"Our primary concern is the safety and welfare of our pet owners and their pets," the company said in a statement. "Although the finished product tested negative and we have received no reports of illness of pets or their owners, out of an abundance of caution we are issuing a voluntary recall of the limited number of bags of Pedigree Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites containing the component in question."

Read more here.

Apparently dancing with dogs is an exercise that fascinates the judges, because a group dance was the challenge in the first episode, and this week, individual dance routines were the elimination task. Before they got to the dancing, though, there was the Dog Bone Suite competition, which was a coordination challenge involving mud and a balance beam.

Bill and Star were the first to actually make it over the balance beam that straddled the muddy pit below. Star almost fell, but as Bill said, “I saw her eyes and I knew there was no way she was gonna let me down.” She didn’t. She made it across to get her cookie in 16 seconds.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 105"

You hear it all the time: "But he’s got a really great personality!" While it may not be the deciding factor in blind dates, it actually is what separates the good dogs from the great, and it was also the theme of this week’s challenges.

But before the challenges could even begin, we got to see more of Brandy’s personality as she pouted and whined through a jealous snit over Travis and Laura’s cooking dinner together. Even the dogs were embarrassed for her, and they walk around naked and lick their own butts.

The differences in how the people care for their dogs also said something about their personalities. Bella Starlet gets a special bowl of food with measured doses of nutrients and vitamins, powders and droplets of this and that added. Tillman eats kibble and likes it.



So the Dog Bone Suite contest had the dog’s people proving how well they knew their companions by saying if the dog would “take” (eat, lick or retrieve) and item, or “leave" it.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 104"

From the AKC:

The American Kennel Club (AKC) will be joining Karen R. Breslin of the Progressive Law Center, LLC of Lakewood, Colorado and the Washington D.C. office of Kaye Scholer LLP in representing dog-owning plaintiffs Sonya Dias and others who are asserting that the Denver ordinance banning pit bulls within the city limits is unconstitutional.

In March the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, where the plaintiffs' 2007 lawsuit was originally filed, dismissed the suit without granting a hearing. A brief is being filed today in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit asking to reverse that court's decision and grant the plaintiffs/appellants a hearing on the unconstitutionality of the Denver breed ban. The original lawsuit stated Dias and the other owners were forced to move out of Denver with their dogs because of the ban which they asserted was a violation of, among other things, their constitutional rights.

The Denver ordinance bans ownership or possession of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the American Pit Bull Terrier and/or any dog with a majority of physical traits of one or more of these breeds within the city or county of Denver. Since 2005, as a result of this ordinance, several hundred dogs within the city limits had been euthanized.

The AKC supports reasonable, enforceable, non-discriminatory laws to govern the ownership of dogs. The AKC believes that dog owners should be responsible for their dogs.

We support laws that:

establish a fair process by which specific dogs are identified as "dangerous" based on stated, measurable actions; impose appropriate penalties on irresponsible owners; and establish a well- defined method for dealing with dogs proven to be dangerous. We believe that, if necessary, dogs proven to be "dangerous" may need to be humanely destroyed. The AKC strongly opposes any legislation that determines a dog to be "dangerous" based on specific breeds or phenotypic classes of dogs.

Dog lovers with an interest in the genetics of canine cancer can listen to a new series of free podcasts from the AKC Canine Health Foundation.

Lee Arnold, Vice President of the AKC Canine Health Foundation welcomes Dr. Matthew Breen of the North Carolina State University Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Breen, recent winner of the Asa Mays, DVM, Excellence in Canine Health Research Award gives us insight into lymphoma and other canine cancers and explains the usefulness of the canine model for human research.

Dr. Breen played a key role in the mapping of the canine genome and now uses his skills and resources to focus on the molecular cytogenetic evaluation of canine tumors as a means to discover the genes involved in the initiation and progression of cancers. In addition to his activities at NCSU, Dr. Breen was a founding member and now serves on the Board of Directors of the Canine Comparative Oncology and Genomics Consortium, Inc (CCOGC).

New podcasts are released every two weeks and can be accessed from the AKC Canine Health Foundation website. They are also available on Apple's iTunes.

The third challenge of CBS' Greatest American Dog has "teamwork" as its theme. Which in reality-TV speak means drama, and we got that, too.

We start where we left off, with Bella Starlet’s person, Beth-Joy, continuing to argue that there’s nothing wrong with dressing Bella up.

Lori pointed out that topknots on a Maltese are not the same as a ruffled dress.



Beth-Joy disagreed vehemently and stormed off. Lori summed it up for me when she told David and Elvis, “I’m going to stop pretending that people are not psychotic.”

The theme for the week was teamwork. Good thing this isn’t Greatest American Cat.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 103"

This week, in a basic obedience bootcamp showdown, Presley won the dog bone suite and let his person Travis bring the people for the party they threw.

In a complete reversal of last week’s domination, JD and Galaxy ended up in the doghouse. I don’t think Galaxy noticed. Elvis, who was in the doghouse the week before, might not have noticed either, but his owner definitely did. They're not the rustic types.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 102"

Metaphorically the State of Texas is trying to give me my pet mice back, along with cornsnakes, in proposed revisions to their Commercial Nongame Regulations. The revisions are meant to correct errors made when the rules were first implemented, including errors that our site users pointed out and we posted about here. From the proposed revisions -

The proposed amendment also would remove the cornsnake (Pantherophis guttata), the house mouse, and the rough-footed mud turtle from the list of species that are prohibited from use in commercial activity. The cornsnake is not native to Texas. The house mouse is not wildlife and should not have been included on the list.

Now if someone could only explain to me why my tax dollars are going to offer blanket protections to every species of native mouse, rat, gopher, shrew and vole in the state without offering a shred of scientific justification for it I will be happier.

I would be even happier if they would resolve the issue of the Common Gartersnake still being on the prohibited list.

Exterminators can kill just about all of them in untold quantities, but as a private citizen if you get caught with more than 6 of them in your possession your subject to criminal penalties. For the complete list of species on the proposed "prohibited" list this time around, click below.

The comment period for the proposed revisions to the Commercial Nongame Regulations closes at 05:00 p.m. August 20, 2008 and comments may be submitted online at:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/feedback/public_comment/proposals/200808_nongame.phtml

Continue reading "Texas Gives Me My Mice Back - Cornsnakes Too!"