ohmidog!

South Lake Tahoe has moved one step closer to banning the retail sale of dogs and cats by pet stores.

The Nevada city’s planning commission recommended approval of the proposed ordinance on a 4-1 vote Thursday, according to the San Jose Mercury News. It now will go to the City Council for consideration.

Supporters say the ordinance would allow the city to do its part to combat puppy mills—high-volume breeding facilities considered inhumane by animal welfare organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States, which says most dogs sold in pet stores come from puppy mills.

If approved, the ordinance would give stores that sell dogs or cats two years to phase out that part of their business.

Cesar Millan — star of the National Geographic Channel series “Dog Whisperer” — took the oath last week and is now an official U.S. citizen.

Millan, who passed his citizenship test earlier this year, attended a swearing in ceremony Thursday morning with dozens of others in Montebello, Calif., just north of Los Angeles.

Millan was joined by his wife Ilusion and two sons, Andre and Calvin, who attended to cheer him on (they are already U.S. citizens).

“This is the ultimate culmination of living the American dream,” said Millan. “Becoming an U.S. citizen has been a goal of mine since I first came to this great country. I have much to thank this country for, and all of the success it has afforded me and my family, and now I am proud to be a citizen.”

Millan, who shot to fame in 2003 when his series premiered on the National Geographic Channel, was born in Mexico, where his talent for rehabilitating dogs was developed on his grandfather’s farm.

He chronicles his childhood in Mexico and how he crossed the border as a young man in his first best-selling book “Cesar’s Way.” He has been a legal resident of the United States since 2000.

(Photo by Ray Mickshaw, courtesy of National Geographic Channel)

We may be down on the Iditarod, but that doesn’t mean we’re down on dog sledding.

As Greg Breining showed in yesterday’s New York Times, when it’s not an 1,100-mile endurance test dogs are forced to take part in, dog sledding can be an exhilarating experience.

“Dog sledding is an exercise in changed states, of chaos turning to order. One moment dogs were barking, yapping, whining, snarling, scrapping, jumping, biting and all the other things dogs do. The next moment they were straining at the gang line, and with a burst of acceleration, all turned silent but for the hiss of the runners on the snow …”

But it’s the breathtaking scenery one encounters while silently sliding through the wilderness that makes dog sledding a popular vacation choice.

“As we crested a small hill, the valley opened, and brilliant Pilot Peak burst into view in stark relief against a black snow cloud. ‘This is why I do this,’ Jason Matthews said, standing on the sled runner next to me. ‘This is why I’m out here.’

Matthews runs Yellowstone Dog Sled Adventures of Immigrant, Mont., one of many sled-dog outfitters running trips from Alaska to the Rockies to Maine. Matthews offers a range of trips — from his two-hour “sled-dog sampler” on a groomed, nearly level trail, to overnight cabin stays high in the mountains.

Other outfitters listed in the Times article are the Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge in Minnesota, and Mahoosuc Guide Service in Maine. Closer to Baltimore, dogsledding is offered at Husky Power Dog Sledding in western Maryland.

(Photo: courtesy of huskypowerdogsledding.com)

Nigel, the Iditarod dog who left his team and took off into the Alaska wilderness after his musher’s sled was disabled, showed up Friday.

The husky became separated from first-time competitor Nancy Yoshida on Tuesday.

While searchers had spotted Nigel from the air and were following his movements, Nigel arrived on his own at the Talvista Lodge near Skwentna, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

Iditarod spokesman Chas St. George said Yoshida cried upon being reunited with her dog. “You could tell the two of them missed each other a lot,” he said.

Nigel was well-hydrated and was in very good condition, considering he’d been roughing it for three days. “Nancy fed him right away out there, and he’s continued to eat,” St. George said. “He’s doing fine.”

Yoshida, 58, of North Dakota, said the husky “was pretty shook up” after she crashed while trying to negotiate a difficult stretch of the route, about 200 miles into the race.

In honor of today’s Great Pit Ball in Las Vegas — an all-day charity event to benefit the Villalobos Animal Rescue Center — we bring you two videos portraying pit bulls in the kind of positive light that seldom shines on them.

A lot of dog owners are familiar with “bully sticks” and know that their dogs are, well, nuts about them. But not all of them know that the delectably beefy strands their dogs are gnawing on are actually — no matter what name they’re given — bull penises.

Check out videos produced by the makers of most bully sticks and you’ll see that many make their entire presentations without once mentioning what the product is; and they manage to avoid calling a you-know-what a you-know-what on their product labels, as well.

That’s why we’re proud to present a new video put together by one of our sponsors, K-9 Kraving Raw Diet Dog Food of Baltimore, which now offers bully sticks — and, in a world too full of euphemisms, has the balls to let customers know what they really are.

In addition to featuring my dog Ace, the video is highly informative, offering a step-by-step account of how the sex organs of slaughtered bulls make the journey from fresh “pizzles” to stretched, smoked and dehydrated bully sticks. More impressive yet, they — unlike me — managed to put the entire video together without once resorting to cheap innuendo and tasteless wordplay.

When one of her two Pomeranians dashed out of the car seconds after she parked, Elizabeth Rivera followed to see what the dog was after.

When she caught up, Rivera found her dog Gizmo standing over a seemingly lifeless puppy in a drainage ditch, licking its face.

The white puppy, about 12 to 16 weeks old, was curled up in a four-foot deep drainage ditch with his muzzle tightly wrapped with duct tape. “We thought he was dead,” Rivera told the Wayne Independent.

Rivera, owner of Lizzy’s Head to Toe Salon in Newfoundland, Pa., found the puppy while visiting a friend in Hamlin, Pa. Tuesday night. An animal lover, she had brought her two Pomeranians, Angel and Gizmo, with her, tucked safely in her pocketbook when she exited the car around 10 p.m. But Gizmo jumped out and made a mad dash for the nearby ditch.

The dog Gizmo found growled when Rivera and a friend attempted to reach for it, but after letting the dog sniff their hands, the pup allowed the tape to be removed.

Read more »

After living their entire lives in an alleged puppy mill in North Carolina, the first of the 15 dogs received by the Montgomery County Humane Society in Maryland have found loving homes.

The 15 dogs were among about 300 rescued during a raid of Thornton’s Kennels in Wayne County, North Carolina, after a year-long investigation by the Humane Society of the United States.

The breeder was accused of trying to maximize the amount of puppies born, while minimizing the amount of care they received in order to increase profits. 

Mostly small breeds — Yorkies, poodles, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians and shih-tzus — many of the seized dogs were emaciated, severely matted, had overgrown their collars and were suffering from dental and other serious medical ailments.

“It is appalling that any breeder would allow animals to be raised this way,” Montgomery County Humane Society (MCHS) President and CEO Cris Bombaugh said last month. “These dogs are now getting the medical attention, grooming and TLC they so badly need with our staff and volunteers.”

This week, MCHS reports that two of the dogs have been adopted.

Read more »

ABC News has boldly gone where BBC went before, airing a Nightline episode last night that looked at the world of purebred dogs and dog shows — and how some of the former are suffering for the sake of the latter.

The Nightline segment didn’t really pick up where “Pedigree Dogs Exposed” left off – it was more of a rehash — but it does signify, at least, some attention to a controversial issue that, for the most part, has been far less likely to surface on American shores.

“The Westminster Dog Show is the showpiece for a multi-billion dollar industry, a festival of primped pooches, prestigious prizes and perfect pedigrees. This year’s big winner, a Sussex Spaniel called Stump, became an instant celebrity,” the piece began. “The owners love it. But whether such competitive shows are good for the dogs is debatable.”

A bulldog is the first to be featured, shown being sprayed with a cooling mist backstage at Westminster to keep him from overheating.

Read more »

Robert Larsen was playing fetch with his chocolate Lab, Nick, when a ball got lodged in his dog’s throat.

Rushing to his side, Larsen reached into his dog’s mouth. Nick bit down, severing Larsen’s fingertip.

What happened next is why we like Robert Larsen, 72, of Lincoln, Neb. – even though we don’t know him.

Rather than looking for his severed fingertip, uttering a few choice curse words, or rushing himself to the emergency room, Larsen took his dog to the veterinarian first.

The ball was still lodged in the dog’s throat when he arrived at Omaha Animal Medical Group. Vets removed the ball and revived the dog, and Larsen was taken to Methodist Hospital, then transferred to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was treated and released. Larsen was visiting a family member’s home in Omaha when the accident took place.

Part of Larsen’s index finger was found in his coat pocket, where it apparently had fallen off when he reached for his keys to rush Nick to the vet. Because doctors couldn’t guarantee the operation would be successful, he opted not to have the fingertip reattached.

“The finger was secondary,” Larsen told WOWT-Channel 6 News. “The dog was priority.”

Experts don’t recommend sticking your hand into your dog’s mouth if he’s choking, advising instead a Heimlich maneuver or blows to the dog’s back.