Last week at least three very sad and preventable incidents occurred due to people leaving dogs in vans/cars during the very hot (90s) weather.

Last Sunday night a “handler” (a person who shows dogs for other people for a living) got home late at night and according to the news stories decided it was too hot in the garage she kept clients’ dogs in so left them in the van they had traveled in. Supposedly there were fans on the dogs with windows, side doors left open.
7 out of 8 dogs in the van died.

Read the latest article about this tragedy.

Also last week a man decided to take in a movie while leaving his Lab in his car with no windows open.

See this article.
I just wish someone had broken the window out as soon as the dog was noticed — his temperature was 111 at the vet clinic where he died. The owner is being prosecuted.

Closer to home I got an e-mail Friday evening that made me ill — an agility student e-mailed me to tell me she would no longer be at classes this summer because she forgot she had left her two dogs in the car when she got home and both dogs died of heat stroke. Knowing these dogs, it made me very upset to think about them suffering and dieing in their own driveway. I don’t know exactly what happened and probably won’t but I do know I would have trouble forgiving myself if this happened to any of my dogs.

PLEASE don’t take your dog with you when it is hot outside. Even when it is 70 degrees outside a car sitting in the sun can heat up quickly and soon be over 100 degrees inside. Since dogs wear fur coats and don’t sweat they can only expel heat through panting and a little bit of sweating through their paws. Their body temperature can heat up to over 108 degrees in 5 minutes in those temperatures then they can have seizures and die. These are deaths that all could have been prevented. Say a prayer for those owners that loved their dogs, hug your dogs and leave them home in the air conditioning unless you can take them inside whereever you are going.

The My Dog is Cool Campaign operated by United Animal Nations lets people know that leaving a dog in a car for even “just a few minutes” may be too long.

To order or download educational fliers and posters, or to enter your zip code and find out if it is too hot to bring your dog in the car, visit:

www.MyDogIsCool.com

There is a temperature monitor and alarm you can put in your car, truck or motorhome that will cause the horn to blow if temperature is over or under a certain range. It is made by Safe Home Products. It isn’t cheap but in all of these cases it could have saved the dogs involved.

Written in memory of Kitzel.

I was at our Lab Specialty agility trial all day today running two dogs as well as working at it. Jazz had some really fast runs (as in fastest in her class) but still can’t keep all of the bars up. People keep saying “wait til she grows up, she’ll calm down” — she is SIX! It is very frustrating to have such a talented dog and still be stuck in Novice Jumpers and no legs in Open Standard. Cori had the opposite problem — she doesn’t like it when it gets hot and in the sun it was hot so she just trotted along or barely ran until the last few jumps. She either didn’t make time (and had the slowest time in her class) or had a knocked bar due to laziness. I think I just need to give up running her outside in summer weather. So I ran two directly opposite types of dogs and no “q’s” today. Just venting…….

ADDENDUM: Saturday Jazz qualified in both rally obedience classes with 4th places in each (95 and 97 out of 100) so partially redeemed herself.

Tonight I hosted a clinic for kids in our county’s 4H dog project to introduce them to agility. We had 15 dogs participate with their owners and I think a fun time was had by all. I especially wanted to show the kids how positive training techniques make it easy for the dogs to learn as I don’t think they get a lot of exposure to those techniques. I was fortunate to have my friends Jeff and Michelle helping out so all the kids got plenty of assistance. All the dogs ended up doing great and there isn’t one of them that couldn’t do agility in the future. If you are a dog training instructor please consider offering 4H clinics or classes at discounted rates so kids can get exposure to all the fun they can have with their dogs. Kids are the future of our sport and I love teaching them. I hope to arrange a 4H dog agility class session for later this summer.

Yesterday I had a great opportunity to educate the general public about the fun of dog agility. I was asked to do a demo at a 10th anniversary celebration for Country View Vet Clinic. They had booths, educational talks, vendors and many demos such as dressage, polo, natural horsemanship, sheep herding, canine freestyle and my agility demo. We were given a large round pen to use so it was fenced which pleased my students but a naughty little pug was able to easily slip under it. I ran Buster, my rescued pug, at the very end of the demo when I had finished announcing and said people were welcome to watch me practice with my dogs so they understood he was new to it.

He did the first jump, went off to sniff, did second jump, dog walk and a jump, sniffed, then did the tunnel, then ran under the ring fence to pee, then did a jump, then back to the edge to pee, etc. However this was an improvement since in the past he would have run off to go after other dogs, run after horses, etc. which he didn’t and each time he returned to work he got a bunch of treats. Very humbling but it was a good example to the spectators of how to be positive when your dog does ANYTHING right. My husband, who came to help haul equipment and has never been to a trial, got a lot of laughs out of his behavior……

Of course Jazz was crazy since it was cool out and she had to wait in the car for the very end! The crowd loved her though.

It was a fun thing to do, we had a great crowd and I appreciate all my wonderful students taking time out of their day to run in the demo. And a big thanks to Tracy Jane Photography for sending me these great photos from the demo.

There is a busy weekend for dog lovers in Wisconsin starting today and running through Sunday dog shows with going on. Tonight starts with the Great Lakes Pug Club’s annual specialty show with 50 pugs entered. Tomorrow through Sunday will be the Dairyland Cluster of Dog shows and obedience/rally trials. As a member of both the Pug club and the local Badger Kennel Club I will be spending a lot of time at the show site. There are over 1200 to 1600 dogs entered each day! My beautiful Labrador Retriever, Summer, is entered all three days in conformation at these shows. More show information can be found here.

We are hoping some of our state legislators will attend to see the good side of the dog breeding community as well as to talk with breeders about how anti-breeding laws could affect them and why current proposed legislation in our state will not help get rid of puppy mills as intended. All were invited personally to attend so we will see if any take us up on our invite.

The results are in and it appears that a Portuguese Water Dog will soon be moving into the White House. Apparently the choice of getting a puppy needing re-homing through its breeder rather than a puppy being re-homed through a rescue or shelter has some people upset. However the Obama family needed to make a decision on a new family member based on what dog would fit in best with them and their needs and I applaud them for taking their time and finding the breed and dog that is right for their situation. As I understand it, it would likely be difficult to find a PWD in a shelter as there aren’t that many bred each year and this breed’s breeders do a great job in making sure all puppies are properly placed and in taking responsibility for all dogs they have bred. I wish some of the breeders in my primary breed (Labradors) would be as conscientious!

There is an interview with the breeder of the soon to be First Pet at The Pet Connection Blog if you are curious about where the pup is coming from. Sounds like a good person who loves her breed and wants the best for all her puppies.

I hope the Obama’s have lots of fun with their new family member.

I took one of my pugs, Sprite, in for her rabies shot yesterday. Her sister Sprout has reacted twice to the rabies shot with facial swelling, airway closing, etc. Sprite has never reacted to the vaccine but I was a bit nervous about Sprite receiving her shot given her sister’s history. My vet had me wait until we were well past her spay surgery (it’s been two months now) just to be sure she was totally healthy. I opted to leave her at the vet today for observation as I had too many things going on to watch her properly. I went to pick her up about 4:30 p.m. and they assured me she had done just fine. Penny, one of the employees at my vet, came out with Sprite and said she had just vomited. I said “oh oh, that’s what Sprout’s reaction started with” so they had us wait for one of the vets to look at her again. Within a short time she began itching and by the time the vet came into the exam room she was itching a lot more. Her face was still okay but as he said, why wait until her face swells to intervene as it was obvious she was going to get worse. So she got a steroid shot and a benedryl shot. Within about 15 min. she had stopped itching and we went home. Of course, like her sister, she will never get another rabies shot.

In case anyone else has this problem with their dogs, you are probably wondering how I will get them licensed in the future. My vets will write a letter that I will give to my township when I renew licenses once this rabies shot is considered expired in 3 years. If, in the very very unlikely situation, either pug would bite someone after that 3 year period, they would need to be quarantined at my expense for 10 days at my vet’s clinic. A small price to pay if it were to occur versus possibly killing them by vaccinating them again.

The good news is there is a new study being conducted at the University of Wisconsin on the length of time the rabies vaccine provides immunity in dogs. It is quite likely it works for 7 years or more. The Rabies Challenge info can be found here. Donations are needed to help fund this study.

My beautiful first champion Labrador Retriever and foundation of my breeding program, Champion Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN, WC (Nessie to her friends) turned 14 years old today. She is the queen of the house and still very dignified. She does not have any major health problems — okay an accident in the kitchen on a day I am gone to work all day at times but that is very forgiveable. I think she enjoys her near deafness. She is also trained on hand signals as are most of my dogs but she chooses to ignore them when it is convenient. As she mosies off to sniff something else in the yard she conveniently looks away as I signal her to come! I am so happy to still have her with us.

Today is the 3rd year anniversary of one of the hardest days of my life — the day we unexpectedly had to say good-bye to our first pug, Lily. At age 6 she suddenly developed tracheal collapse, a condtion we had never seen a symptom of until 2 days before her death.

I wrote this story about my Lily in my grief after her death.
The pain of the loss is a bit better now and I can say her name without tears but her ashes, leash, collar and photos have stayed right here next to me on my desk for the last 3 years. I have decided it is time to put them with the other precious dogs’ who have passed on yet my hands can’t seem to lift them to move them……

Lily left us two gifts behind — her daughters Sprout and Sprite (also known as “the Ink Spots”) and later sent me Buster, our rescue pug, to comfort me. Buster is nothing like Lily except in one important way — he knows exactly where to cuddle up with me at night and positions himself in almost the same spot as Lily did against my body. Had Lily not passed on maybe Buster would have not found a new home at least certainly with us. I can picture Lily nudging the person who e-mailed me Buster’s posting on Craig’s list a few months later and nudging the former “owner” to call me after he read my reply to his ad. I think Lily then visited Buster and said “this is what you need to do to help my mom”. Buster has some baggage but he has grown on me. I still miss my Lily though and always will. The special ones leave a very large hole that can never be totally filled. I would never have missed out on those 6 years with her no matter how much pain it caused me to lose her. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to move those ashes, maybe not…..

Chicago’s city council is about to vote on a PETA/Humane Society of the United States backed ordinance requiring ALL dogs and cats be spayed or neutered by 6 months of age. This includes purebred dogs who are show or breeding prospects.
This takes away the rights of pet owners and also takes away the decision of what is best for a pet from both the owner and their pet’s veterinarian.
Don’t live in Chicago? You should still worry as once a bad law is passed somewhere it often spreads to adjoining cities/states.
Here are some good blog posts by Chicagoans about why this ordinance would not solve the problems that the proponents claim it would:
From WGN Radio: http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43910&Itemid=254
From the Chicago Tribune Editorial page:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-090310dale_briefs,0,3557678.story

Article on failed mandatory spay/neuter laws in other communities: http://saveourdogs.net/experience.html

To voice your opinion see this poll:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-sterilize-pets-vote,0,7639119.poll