ohmidog!

Another tale from the not-so-good neighbor department:

Police in St. Cloud, Minnesota, have ticketed a man for ”unlawful dumping” after he admitted to being the culprit who had been placing small bags of dog feces in the back of his neighbor’s pick up truck — all because it was adorned with a McCain sign.

Police said Donald Esmay, 19, of St. Cloud, told radio station KNSI-AM that he’d been finding small baggies of dog feces in the back of his pickup truck for the past few weeks — ever since he put a 2-foot-by-4-foot McCain sign there.

He and his family watched the truck trying to catch the culprit, but didn’t have any luck until Wednesday when his mother and brother saw someone from the neighborhood, according to an Associated Press report.

They confronted the 45-year-old man, who admitted to it. When police later spoke with the man, he said he did it because he “hates McCain.”

The unlawful dumping ticket comes with a $183 fine.

According to the latest results in a Washington Post poll, 46 percent of those responding — whatever they may think of Obama and McCain — feel that allowing your dog to poop in someone else’s yard is “the height of incivility.”

The poll accompanies the Post’s continuing coverage of a dog poop controversy in Calvert County, Maryland.

I’m not sure which is more depressing — that this neighborhood spat has become a court case, that the Washington Post is covering it (with two reporters, no less), or that upwards of 10,000 people had voted in the poop poll within hours of the story hitting the Internet.

In any case, to break it down: 46 percent believe “allowing your dog to defecate” in someone else’s yard is the height of incivility, 42 percent consider it a “minor offense,” and 11 percent say it’s “perfectly okay.”

We feel obligated to point out that the poll is faulty — in that it does not get into whether said poop is picked up by the dog’s owner (which would make the minor offense much more minor) or simply left there, which, while maybe not the height of incivility, is pretty darned rude.

The case is headed for trial in Calvert County District Court, where Linda May Johnson stands accused of repeatedly allowing her miniature poodles to miniature poop on her neighbor’s lawn in St. Leonard.

An international team of scientists has identified what it believes is the world’s first known dog, and says that it lived in Belgium 31,700 years ago — a good 17,000 years earlier than what was previously thought to be the earliest dog, found in Russia.

The prehistoric dog’s remains were excavated at Goyet Cave in Belgium, suggesting to the researchers that the Aurignacian people of Europe from the Upper Paleolithic period were the first to domesticate dogs, the Discovery Channel reports. 

“The most remarkable difference between these dogs and recent dog breeds is the size of the teeth,” lead author Mietje Germonpré told Discovery News, comparing the tooth size more to wolves than dogs.

The scientists say — based on Isotopic analysis of the bones found – that the earliest dogs subsisted on horse, musk ox and reindeer.

Germonpré, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, said the Paleolithic dogs most resemble the Siberian husky, but were somewhat larger.

For the study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the scientists analyzed 117 skulls of recent and fossil large members of the Canidae family, which includes dogs, wolves and foxes.

Germonpré believes dog domestication might have begun when the prehistoric hunters killed a female wolf and then brought home her pups.

Debbie Dalton’s Chihuahua is buzzing — and she has no idea why.

Frankie emits what sounds like high-pitched radio signals from his ears, the Associated Press reports.

Dalton’s home in Geneva, Ohio has eleven dogs, but Frankie, she says, stands out from the others, something she realized a couple of months ago.

“Frankie’s walking along the back of the sofa and I got closer and closer and I said ‘Oh my goodness …it’s the dog that’s buzzing.’”

Dalton says the noise doesn’t seem to bother Frankie, and it helps her when she loses track of Frankie outside. All she has to do is listen.

Her vet has no idea what the problem is, says Dalton, who’d like to see it solved.

“(When) he’s sleeping facing me, I have to move because i can hardly hear the TV.”

The next in our continuing series of Halloween costume ideas for your dogs is this one from i-pets.com.

How better to add to your bulldog’s already initimating look than by dressing him as a highway patrol officer, a slightly-drooling highway patrol officer, no less?

I’m guessing the inspiration for this costume was actor Broderick Crawford, who — long before I was born — appeared in a television show called Highway Patrol.

For the rest of the costumes featured at i-pets, click here.

Once you’ve gone to the trouble of dressing your dog up, you might as well enter him or her in the DoggySpace Halloween costume contest.

DoggySpace, a social networking site for dogs, is sponsoring a costume contest to benefit local chapters of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA). Dog owners can post pictures at DoggySpace, where site members can vote for their favorite costume.

DoggySpace will donate $6,000 to the winning dog‘s local SPCA chapter.

“Many SPCA‘s are privately funded, which means they are under-funded,” said Levi Thorton, Doggyspace founder. “Prize money from this contest will go directly to a local SPCA to help with the organization‘s mission of raising awareness of animal abuse and promoting programs such as good pet care and spay/neuter awareness initiatives.“

Over 75 SPCA chapters have joined the cause, and more than 2,000 votes have already been cast on photos posted at doggyspace, including this one of Blanco, a Chihuahua dressed as a bumblebee.

Dog lovers have until October 31 to push their favorite costume to the winning spot.

Doggyspace.com is a social network for dog owners, with free membership. Dog owners can create a doggy portfolio, form groups, and post their favorite photos and videos while connecting with other “friends“ in the neighborhood, from the dog park, across the country or in another country.