Smartdogs’ Weblog

When we took a recent trip with the dogs to Texas to attend a seminar, we stayed in an Austin area hotel for five days.  While we were there, I was shocked to see that the rudest, dirtiest, most obnoxious guests there were adult men and women travelling with their children.  Some of the children seemed embarrassed by their parents behavior - I don’t blame them.  During our visit, several high school baseball teams were also staying at the hotel.  The players were, without exception, quiet and considerate neighbors.

I was surprised by this.  I grew up in a small, rural, Midwestern town in the 1960’s.  Manners were drilled into me.  Though I’ve moved around a lot, I’ve spent most of my life living in the upper Midwest where common courtesy is an integral part of culture.  I expect adult people to behave well.

So much for expectations.

I received a post on an on-line dog email list the other day that described nightmarish problems at a hotel that hosted a large agility trial.  The names of the club, the hotel and other identifying information have been removed to protect the club as it pursues the offenders. Since they are seeking to deal with this on their own, I’ll not tarnish their name publicly.

I wish I did have the names, postal addresses, home phone numbers and email addresses of the morons who did this offending parties.  I’d be more than happy to post those for public ridicule. 

Here’s an excerpt from the letter:

After a fantastic 4 day trial that the club felt was an absolute success, we received notification late last week that, due to the actions of some of our competitors over the trial weekend, the *hotel* in *city*
will no longer accept dogs during our club’s agility trials. The incomprehensible actions of some of the competitors staying there, as cited by the hotel, include:

1. Dogs swimming in the pool even after the owners were asked to remove all dogs from the pool. This resulted in the hotel having to close to pool for re-treatment and cleaning at considerable cost.

2. Dogs being allowed in the breakfast area even after owners were asked to please remove all dogs.

3. The carpeting in several rooms being ruined and having to be professionally cleaned after finding puddles of dog urine and feces after our competitors left, again at considerable cost.

There were other complaints cited by the hotel as well, but the club realizes it cannot answer for individual guest rudeness to hotel employees.

As a trial secretary, this repulses me. But, more over, as a competitor and frequent traveler myself, this angers me. With hotel prices continually on the rise and $100 non-refundable dog deposits becoming more and more frequent, I find it quite objectionable that anyone in conjunction with an agility event should behave in this manner. This is an extremely poor reflection on a sport that we all love and sets every single competitor and trial-giving club in a bad light. It’s embarrassing and those who committed these acts are the types of competitor that this sport does not need.

This situation is beyond embarrassing.  It is criminal.  Literally.  Also from the letter:

Other clubs in the past have let these infractions drop. *Club* is not willing to do so. The club will work closely with the AKC, the *hotel* their team of legal experts and, if necessary, local authorities to insure those responsible for the infractions are punished to the full extent available to us. We will take any measures necessary to identify the individuals responsible. You should all be aware that the hotel industry holds the person who signed for the room responsible for any damage to the room. We will soon be receiving information from the *hotel* detailing which rooms had to be professionally cleaned and the names of the individuals under whose name the room was booked. It should also be noted that very well placed video cameras may give some indication and identification of those persons involved in the swimming pool and breakfast area incidents.

I urge anyone who stayed at the *hotel* who has knowledge of or who was involved in any of the above incidents to contact me immediately.  Full disclosure on the part of those involved, or who think they may have been involved, will bear considerable weight when deciding how to best handle those found to be in violation. All of those who were not involved and who come forward with any helpful information will remain anonymous. Should it be found that you were involved and did not step forward, I can assure you that the club will impose the maximum penalty allowed by both AKC and local authorities. Enough is enough. Just as we must play by the rules on the course, we must also adhere to the rules elsewhere during events.

Enough is indeed enough.  Not only do we have to deal with AR activists working tirelessly with media hacks and politicians to take away our rights as dog owners - irresponsible dog owners - out of greed, laziness, selfishness and lame ignorance feed the frenzy by flaunting their disrespect for society in a very public way.

It sounds like the commotion at the trial hotel was a lot like what you’d expect to see if a group of drunken frat boys or rugby players had stayed there - but these weren’t drunken kids, they were a group consisting mostly of sober, adult women with jobs and families.

I had recently begun to wonder if the emphasis of fun and frenzy over anything else in some agility circles would lead to problems in the sport.  This situation certainly points to a need for competitors to learn more than a few things about responsibility, ethics and plain old-fashioned manners.  If this kind of behavior becomes the norm - all breeds of dogs could eventually end up being banned.

Another thing I’d like to point out is that an out-of-control, barking, reactive dog who races around in a mindless frenzy is not a dog who is having a good time.  I mean seriously, would you watch an over-tired toddler amped up on Mountain Dew and Cakesters run amok through the mall and remark how sweet and happy he looks?  I think not.  Yet people often look at a dog behaving in a similar way and gush about what fun he’s having.

A barking, leaping dog dog amped up on adrenaline is a lot like a poorly-behaved toddler throwing a tantrum.  He doesn’t enjoy the behavior any more than the people around him do - he just hasn’t developed the self-control to deal with the situation he’s in yet - and he needs help from his human companion to learn it.  Think about it, do you see Olympic athletes amp themselves up into a frenzy before they compete?

Agility is fun.  It should be fun.  But fun should never trump responsibility.  I hope that the disrespectful people involved in this situation are caught and prosecuted and/or sued and that it serves as a warning to those who consider behaving this way in the future.

Hat tip to Sharon who alerted me to the July-August Edition of the Spaniel Journal, that features an article by Loretta Baughn titled “Setting Brush Fires.”  The lead-in is this excellent quote from Samuel Adams:

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”

This country was founded by an irate, tireless minority who fought to earn freedom of religion, freedom of speech and to be free from the tyranny of taxation without representation - among other things. 

Regrettably, the tireless minority that fights today is one that seeks to restrict - and even take away - many of our freedoms.  As Ms. Baughan pointed out:

The phenomenon is not exclusive to Wisconsin.  “Brush fires” are being set across the country in states, cities and towns - from sea to shining sea.  The animal rights activists will point to a dog authorities might have confiscated in a raid of a sub-standard breeder with its fur all matted and dirty then scream the state has a “puppy mill” problem.  I hate to see any animal needlessly suffer, but just by virtue that the authorities DID raid and confiscate dogs from a sub-standard breeder raising them in filth is PROOF that current laws work.

There are laws on the books regulating animal cruelty, livestock handling,animals in research, commercial breeding, pet waste, noise, zoning, limit laws - and more.  Many of these laws could be improved, but when arrests occur, the media quick to jump on the animal rights bandwagon publicizing the plight of abused animals - but slow to the point of refusing - to report the fact that arrests can demonstrate that laws are working?

When a person is severly bitten by a dog, the incident spreads through the media like, well - like a brush fire.  But the press never tells us when the dog involved in the incident was (as in most cases) an unlicensed, untrained dog with a previous history of aggression that was allowed, illegally - to run at large.  The reports of most of the dog bite incidents published in local news over the last year noted that the dog had a previous history of aggression but they almost never went on to point out that the dog’s owner was therefore already breaking an existing law by putting the dog into the situation where the bite occured.

According to Minnesota State Law (Statutes 347.50-54) “Dangerous dog” means any dog that has: 
(1) without provocation, inflicted substantial bodily harm on a human being on public or private property;
(2) killed a domestic animal without provocation while off the owner’s property; or
(3) been found to be potentially dangerous, and after the owner has notice that the dog is potentially dangerous, the dog aggressively bites, attacks, or endangers the safety of humans or domestic animals.

Among other requirements, the owner must register a dangerous dog with the state.  He must obtain a $50,000 surety bond or liability insurance payable to any person injured by the dog.  He must keep the dog in a secure enclosure with warning signs.  When the dog is outside the enclosure it must be leashed, muzzled and under the physical restraint of a responsible person.  Enforcing these restrictions would have prevented nearly every severe dog bite incident that occurred in this state in the last few years.

Yet the media (spurred on by a tireless, vocal minority of animal rights activists) continues to call for more laws instead of lobbying for better enforcement of existing laws; and members of the public, who have been conditioned to believe the media without question; agree to give up a little bit of their freedom to save babies from dogs bites and puppies from greedy millers.

Folks, we’re standing at the edge of a steep and terrifyingly slippery slope. 

Vicious dog attacks.  The plight of mill dogs.  Dogs being euthanized or warehoused, in shelters.  Dog poop in parks.  Animal hoarders.  Cruel people who torture dogs and other animals.  Stories about these law breakers are being fed to the media directly from the spoon of the animal rights movement.  The law breakers are portrayed as representing the norm, instead of the exception – and the story sells.  Meanwhile, the thousands millions of stories that could be written about sweet-natured pitbulls, conscientious dog breeders, skilled dog trainers, caring rescue groups and responsible pet owners only rarely make the news.

The AR minority is trying to use lurid charges of animal abuse directed at the minority of farmers, hunters, fishermen, breeders and pet owners who break laws and commit cruel acts to end all use of animals in society.  False and unsubstantiated allegations of animal abuse to raise funds are routinely used by these groups to attract media attention and amass support from naive, uninformed citizens who are led to believe that their donations will be used directly to save abandoned and abused animals.

Their true goal is not to help animals.  HSUS doesn’t operate shelters and PETA kills nearly every animal they take in.  The animal rights movement hurts us - and it hurts our pets.  And it will keep doing so as long as citizens mindlessly swallow the AR media hype they’re fed and continue to contribute financial and tacit support to this cruel, tireless minority.

According to a press release from their myspace page “Street Dogs of South Central” is:

A nature documentary about the stray dogs that survive the streets of South Central Los Angeles, ‘Street Dogs’ follows the story of Elsie– a mother struggling to raise her litter of puppies in a harsh urban environment. 85 minutes running time. Coming to a theater near you in 2008.

The trailer - shown below - is both riveting and heartbreaking. 

As a trainer of dogs and student of dog behavior, I can’t wait to see the film.  The chance to see footage of feral dogs in their own environment is not something I’ll pass up.  Surfing around, I found that the film will be released by Lionsgate, the same group that released the controversial, disturbing – and fascinating documentary “Grizzly Man.”

“Grizzly Man” chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. The film includes fiilm shot by Treadwell before he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by a bear in 2003.  I enjoyed the film because it showed incredible footage of bears and other northern wildlife in their native habitat - and because it didn’t romanticize Treadwell - who, frankly - was a charming, fascinating dimwit that did nearly everything he could to get himself killed.

I hope that “Street Dogs” suceeds as well as “Grizzly Man” did at presenting an unglamorized portrayal of the subjects of the documentary.  But because Animal Planet is also involved, I’ll have to wait to see.  

Have I mentioned that I hate Animal Planet?  You know, the group that either hypes adrenaline-junkie “grab the venomous snake before it KILLS you” trash or panders to AR extremists in promoting the “every dog who has visible ribs, spends time unsupervised in the yard or otherwise lives in a way that *I* don’t approve of is abused and MUST be seized” party line.  Or should I just rant about anthropomorphic crap like “Meerkat Manor” that encourages naive urbanites to see animals as small furry people who live in communities just like our own.

Oh…  Just considering the possibility that “Street Dogs” could get polluted that way scares the dog poo out of me.  Please doG - let this turn out to be a good thing.  For us — and for dogs.

The Wisconsin Humane Society says it will buy and close one of the nation’s largest dog-breeding facilities  and plans to close the kennel and find new homes for the more than 1,100 dogs there, the society announced today.

Cory Smith of the Humane Society of the United States says the effort may be the first time a chapter has dealt with the issue of so-called puppy mills by buying one of them.  “You see these places and it’s heartbreaking. So when you know that people are making a living by this, this approach seems like a logical step — to use financial means to get the animals out of there.”

O-tay Corey…  If buying up the ‘livestock’ in puppy mills and shutting them down is such a terrific idea, why isn’t the H$U$ putting some of its MILLIONS of dollars to work to accomplish the task?  Oh that’s right.  Part of your ‘job’ is to end pet ownership.  Sad, sick, pathetic dogs in puppy mills are need to suffer so you can publicize their plight to get more donations to….  ….. ……  to publicize their plight!

Wisconsin Humane Society says it will take in 1,100 dogs from Puppy Haven, vet them, evaluate them and adopt them out to homes.  The new homes should be much better than the one they’re leaving.  According to the Journal Sentinel:

American Kennel Club spokeswoman Daisy Okas says the club suspended and fined the kennel’s owner in 2006 over the facility’s conditions.

Good for AKC — but really, does a suspension from AKC really mean anything anymore?  After all, new ‘designer’ registries like the Continental Kennel Club and America’s Pet Registry Inc. will register anything for a fee.  Given that most members of the public now believe that Labradoodles, Puggles and Maltipoos are ‘new, rare and unique breeds’ and that they don’t know the difference between a pedigree and a sales slip - if it’s cute, it’s furry and it ‘has papers’ - it will sell.

Haven’s dogs sold - and given the number of dogs he had and the length of time he was in business (over 40 years according to information on his website), he sold a lot of them.  He also notes that he lives in an Amish community (not surprising) and does an exemplary job of demonstrating poor grammar and spelling skills (also not surprising).

According to the Journal Sentinel:

The Wisconsin society has not said how much it is paying Wallace Havens. It says Havens agreed to sell because he plans to retire.  Puppy Haven sold about 3,000 dogs a year, according to the statement. The dog breeds included pugs, beagles, poodles, miniature schnauzers, Shih Tzus, American Eskimos, Yorkshire terriers and mixes known as “designer breeds.”

The Wisconsin Humane Society is asking for contributions to help pay for the costs of the dogs’ care and adoption.  PetSmart Charities has provided a generous gift of equipment to care for the animals, including leashes, collars, toys, food bowls and grooming supplies.  There are many needs that still remain, which will be posted on the WHS Wishlist.

I’d like to go on record saying that, as deeply as I sympathize with the miserable plight of puppy mill dogs, I strongly disagree with programs that purchase dogs from mills and auctions.  It is my opinion that, though they are well-meaning, these programs serve more to support the millers and auctioneers, and therefore - in the long run, hurt the dogs they seek to save.  Buying a dog from an auction or a mill sellout isn’t much different from buying a dog at a petstore - and in the long run - it just prolongs the misery.

When we stop buying them, they will stop breeding them.

Or was that…. foalish?

From the archives of the UK’s Daily Mail:

Just like his labrador friends, he wags his tail, fetches sticks and rolls on his back to have his tummy tickled.

But the hooves and mane give away his real identity - as a Shetland pony.

Rory was rejected by his mother after he was born in Colchester on Friday the 13th of October. After arriving at the sanctuary he became ill and spent all his time being nursed in the office - attracting the interest of labradors Alfie and Millie, owned by stable manager Sam Edwards.

Here’s more from London Tonight via YouTube:

A horse - living as a dog?  That’s just wrong.  And fortunately the folks at the Essex Horse and Pony sanctuary realized this too.  According to a followup article on metro.co.uk:

Now he has recovered from his brush with death, three-month-old Rory - who will only grow to nine hands tall - has been given a equine role model… Nanna Bracken.

Ms Allery said: ‘As soon as he was well enough we started stabling him, he got to be a proper pony now and do pony things.

‘We can’t state the importance of him being a pony, for his own sake he’s got to learn he’s a horse.

I love happy endings!

From the USGS Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project:

“A wolf feeds on a road-killed elk carcass in the morning. A grizzly bear with two cubs feeds on the carcass in the evening. A grizzly bear will chuff and pop its jaw when it feels threatened. Sometimes it will also charge at the threat, usually veering off or stopping short – a bluff charge. Early the next morning a grizzly bear with cubs chuffs and bluff charges a wolf. The wolf appears to be alone and, at times, postures as if it is playing. Video camera was triggered by a motion sensor.”

Want to see more?  Video archives for the project are available here.

“For man is but the servant or interpreter of nature; what he does and what he knows is only what he has observed of nature’s order in fact or in thought; beyond this he knows nothing and can do nothing. . . . All depends on keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the facts of nature and so receiving the images simply as they are.”     Francis Bacon  1620

The article titled “Dog Bites Dog Story ”from the June 2007 issue of Scientific American caught my attention as I did a bit of web browsing this morning.  As with many good things, there was a lot more to this story than first met the eye.  As I began to read through it, I thought I might learn something interesting about canine behavior.  I was both surprised and delighted to find that the article was really about — science!

There are experimental sciences, and then there are historical and observational sciences. The experimental sciences, like chemistry and physics, are easy to spot. When stuff blows up or systems don’t work right, you’ve got yourself an experiment.

Historical and observational sciences can be a little tougher to get a handle on. The researchers in these fields must adopt the Yogi Berra stance—“You can observe a lot just by watching”—and then interpret reality.

Oh yes, the long-standing battle between experimental and anecdotal research continues.  Empiricists assert that true knowledge can only arise from experience, not from revelation.  Anecdotal evidence, being based on human observation doesn’t always qualify as scientific evidence for many reasons.  However, some subjects - like the study of human and animal behavior - don’t necessarily lend themselves conveniently to laboratory study.  I mean seriously, how can you study ‘normal’ animal (or human) behavior in a lab setting?

Experimental study is a wonderful thing - but anecdotal research is useful too.  When we’re faced with the necessity of using anecdotal data, how can we avoid the many pitfalls this kind of research seems determined to lure us into?  Well – like good experimental data, good anecdotal data must be collected and evaluated carefully. 

A nifty little article from Quirks.com called “Seven Rules for Observational Research” was referenced in Sciam’s “Dog Bites Dog” article.  It’s important stuff, so here (with just a bit of editorial liberty) are the rules:

1. Look for the ordinary, not the extraordinary.  Ordinary events are the foundation of science.  If you build a theory on anything else - its likely to collapse.
2. Nothing people or animals do is ‘natural.’  There is a reason or trigger for every behavior.  “Once you recognize that everything people do is the result of something, you can begin looking for that something. Maybe it’s something about them. Or the people they’re with. Or the environment they’re in. Or something else.”
3. If it’s really obvious, then it must be really basic.  Mastering the obvious is the secret to success.  Obvious things that everybody else had heretofore ignored is what led great minds like Galileo and Newton to insights that changed society.
4. God is in the details.  The truly important revelations of many situations are often found in the small, often-repeated details of the environment, not in the flashy, unique ones.  If something only happened once - it’s probably not important in the study of day-to-day behavior.
5. The observational perspective defines the study.  Or - you can only find what you look for.  The temporal and spatial scales of observation, point of view of the observers (both literally and philosophically speaking) and details of observation all affect the results. “Observation, like all qualitative techniques, takes some Zen. If your task is too tightly defined, all you’ll see is what you expected to see.” 
6. Context is key. “Think of activities as rings of context.  The whole activity is a set of behaviors that includes these small units plus at least one layer of context.”  Identifying which behaviors and/or situations control others is not always a simple task.
7. The most obvious things become obvious only in hindsight.  Context doesn’t appear until it has a big picture to figure into.  You often need to flesh out a lot of detail before you can separate the trees from the forest.

So, what does any of this have to do with dogs?  Well, unfortunately, junk science and junk journalism seem to have become the norm in reporting on animal behavior in today’s world.  Scientists and journalists seem not to even be aware of the seven simple rules outlined above. 

Sensationalism trumps science at every step.

The issue is especially problematic in the ’study’ of dog bite statistics.  Random observations by opinionated, uninformed, emotionally over-wrought humans is selectively collected, sorted and sensationalized then reported as ‘news’ – or worse yet, as ’science.’

Descriptions of dogs provided by members of the public at large, animal control officers, police officers, EMTs and others with little or no experience in breed identification are taken as ‘facts’.  This is compounded by the fact that breed identification isn’t a simple thing even for those who are experienced.  Not only is there an enormous variation in the appearance of members of many breeds of dogs - but the large number of mixed breed dogs present everywhere - and the fact that these ‘identifications’ do not use, and in fact commonly ignore, pedigree information, makes them utterly useless as data.

And just how to we define an attack?  If I get knocked over by a large dog and skin my knee, was I attacked?  If I smiling dog turns his head to face me just as I turn mine to face him, a large canine tooth bumps my tender forehead and cuts me - was I bitten?  And if I repeatedly torture my neighbor’s dog through the fence until said dog gets loose and exacts his well-deserved revenge - is he a vicious animal?

Now back Scientific American’s Dog Bites Dog Story.  It describes a heart-warming tale taken from the files of the Associated Press about how a ‘plucky little terrier’ protected its child owner from an attack by a pair of ‘marauding pitbulls’.  To wit:

“A plucky Jack Russell terrier named George saved five children from two marauding pit bulls…. George was playing with the group of children as they returned home from buying sweets.” So far we have an anthropomorphized terrier—plucky, and he was playing with them, mind you—and the Little Rascals returning from the candy store, when:

“Two pit bulls appeared and lunged toward them.” Next comes a quote from one of the kids, an 11-year-old animal behaviorist: “‘George tried to protect us by barking and rushing at them, but they started to bite him.’” Note that she goes beyond description to narrative herself—George’s primary interest was her safety. Now comes the resolution of the situation, according to the 11-year-old: “‘We ran off crying, and some people saw what was happening and rescued George.’”

The headline and the article thus conspire to portray a brave little dog that tried to rescue human children. And that may indeed be what happened. Based solely on the facts reported in this piece, however, we may construct a somewhat different narrative. The pit bulls appeared and moved in on the group; the terrier rushed at them; the pit bulls focused their attention on the terrier; the kids ran away. In other words, the same reported facts could have led to a story that carried the headline “Five Frightened Kids Flee as Tiny Dog Is Attacked.”

Oh yes.  Or maybe even more accurately: “Obnoxious, untrained, underexercised mutt runs into neighbor’s yard and attacks two boxers who were minding their own business.  Rude, undisciplined children amped up on a sugar high who were supposed to have left the dog at home, run off in a panic realizing that the neighbor who owns the boxers has been overcome with rightous indigination and will tell their parents what they’ve done.” 

Watch for the follow up story: “Children’s parents, after seeing overblown media blitz and realizing neighbor has excellent insurance decide to sue.  Local authorities (egged on by AR activists) propose a breed ban.”

This adorable little video was recently posted to one of the dog lists I subscribe to:

Along with the utter sweetness of puppies piling up and dropping off to sleep, there are some really interesting things going on here.

Nods to a friend on the list who posted a link to Greenpa’s LittleBlogintheWoods, where he wrote about how he did this with his children.

Oh yes!  Being able to sing a tired, fussy baby or puppy to sleep would be a godsend to every parent, breeder and new puppy owner in the world!  As Greenpa posted: ”Sometimes, when you are dead tired and want sleep- the little stinkers won’t.  And won’t let you do it, either.”

So, what would Pavlov do? 

In Greenpa’s plain English the process is:

With somnolence aforethought then, I made an EFFORT.  I made it a point to be there, when the durn critter was already falling asleep because of sheer exhaustion. 

DON’T start to sing- until the child is nine-tenths gone.  Sing softly.  Continue singing for a good minute after the creature is clearly asleep.

Then do it again.  And again.  Then start singing when the kiddle is HALF asleep.  Repeat.

Then start singing just as they’re getting sleepy.

You should be getting the idea by now.  You are getting sleepy…  drowsy… so warm and comfortable, it’s hard to keep your eyes open…  you will send me money, lots and lots of  money…

When the child is actually conditioned, singing in the accustomed way can MAKE the child sleepy, and put them to sleep; ready or not.

There’s even a nifty little book out on the process (teaching a dog to eliminate on command - not singing puppies to sleep). It’s called, appropriately “You Can Teach Your Dog to Eliminate on Command.”  (Note - if you check out the book on Amazon, be sure to read the reviews.  The third one - Bitterly Disappointed -  posted is a riot.)

Thank you, Pavlov.

Apparently the folks over at DogFancy Magazine don’t bother to screen the content of ads submitted to their publication.  This month’s issue includes an ad placed by PeTA that offers a “Free Gift Bag” for new puppy owners.  Any new puppy owner foolish enough to call the number listed for the free offer will hear a message informing them that the “gift” is a body bag for the dog that they ‘killed’ by purchasing a purebred puppy.

Just when I begin to think that I’ve seen it all, the proslytizing idiots fools over at PeTA manage to find a way to drop to new lows.  I wonder how many of the people who call are children, excited by a new pup?

For the record, I’m not a fan of Dog Fancy.  As noted above, they don’t appeaer to make any effort to screen their ad content and some of the ads they carry promote operations that I believe are unethical.  You know what I’m talking about, the kind of “send us credit card payment and we’ll ship a puppy to you, no questions asked” sort of operation that works so hard to masquerade as a reputable breeder.

Is this just a case of poor screening of ad content, or are the folks over at DogFancy simply out to make a buck at any cost?  Based on the number of ads placed each month there by money-grubbing puppy mills questionable breeders and the fact that they accepted a full page ad from the H$U$ just last month — it sure looks like a case of pure, unadulterated greed.

A newsletter for the Southern California Alaskan Malamute Club carried a response from a staff member at Dog Fancy just after they posted the full page ad from HSUS.  She stated:

Our department did not sell this ad it was our display department. We work with the breeders not businesses. I’m so sorry I can see why you and others are upset. I am going to do what I can so this does not happen again.

Apparently the clueless dolts nice people over at Dog Fancy had no idea that PeTA and HSUS are in the business of eliminating pet ownership.  Perhaps if they spent just a bit of time researching important issues like breed specific legislation, mandatory spay/neuter laws, pet limits and other pet-related legislation - they’d understand just how much it hurts them when they provide a public relations platform to AR groups. 

If you’d like to contact Dog Fancy Magazine to express your opinion, here’s the information:

You can post comments to Dog Fancy online here:
http://www.dogchannel.com/contact-us.aspx

Or contact Constance Dang in the editorial department directly:
(800) 530-3010
cdang@bowtieinc.com

UPDATED July 18:

Here’s MORE contact information.

(866) 834-6061 is the phone number you are supposed to call to leave the address for PeTA to send your body bag, but you could choose to leave a message there instead – perhaps letting them know how you feel about their campaign.  Why don’t we heat up that line a bit?

We are very sorry to report that Monday morning, Caroline Scott helped her incredible dog Rookie over the bridge.  She sent notice to the world via this page on The Land of Pure Gold website.

Caroline and Rookie have been described as “the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of Canine Freestyle.”  The video of Caroline and Rookie competing to You’re The One That I Want from Grease went viral when it was released on the web and continues to be enormously popular today.

From YouTube here’s a tribute to their 15-year journey:

- our hearts go out to Ms. Scott in this difficult time -