ohmidog!

The same telephone technology that makes it possible for us to be annoyed by political campaign robocalls is now being used to annoy us about lost pets.

Which, in my book, is a far more worthy reason to annoy someone.

An article in yesterday’s Washington Post looked at the latest technology people are using to find lost pets, including websites like Findtoto.com, Findfido.com and Pets911.com.

The Post article recounted the case of Lucy, a missing Australian shepherd-husky mix, who disappeared from her Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

Through Find Toto, the owners were able to, within hours of her disappearance, make contact with 10,000 households in the District and Montgomery County, describing Lucy and letting them know whom to call if she was found.

Find Toto offers several packages, starting with one that calls 500 neighbors with a recorded message for $125, all the way up $875 for calling 10,000 neighbors.

The article quotes Scott Giacoppo, chief programs officer for the Washington Humane Society, as saying a small industry has evolved around finding lost pets — not all members of which are trustworthy. He urged seekers of lost pets not give up the old-fashioned methods, like checking with shelters, handing out fliers and posting neighborhood signs, and to remember first and foremost that registering one’s dog, making sure the dog is wearing its ID tags, and microchipping are the best ways to ensure your lost pet gets returned.

Find Toto says it has found more than 900 dogs, cats and other pets since it was established in 2007 — with a success rate of more than 70 percent.

Lucy, meanwhile, was recovered, but not through the service. A month after she disappeared, she was reported to have been seen by animal control officers on Massachusetts Avenue NW, who reviewed photographs of dogs reported missing back and alerted Lucy’s owners to the sighting. They searched the area and found her.

(Photo from Findtoto.com)

In a reversal of roles, humans rescued a 16-month-old St. Bernard from freezing weather.

The dog, named Duke, escaped from his yard and ended up frozen to the ice on a pond at a golf course near Billings, Montana.

A maintenance worker at the Peter Yegen Jr. Golf Club, spotted the dog at about 9 a.m. Friday. Two firefighters on a sled managed to reach the shivering dog, breaking the ice around his tail with a mallet, and hauling the dog ashore — along with the chunk of ice still attached to him.

Rescuers believe that Duke, who weights nearly 120 pounds, fell through the ice on the pond sometime during the night and, after pulling himself out, sat on the ice and became frozen to it, according to an Associated Press account.

Duke was taken to Big Sky Pet Center, where he was listed in good condition after being de-iced and warmed up under a blow dryer.

Mandatory pet sterilization is back on the table in Chicago, and this time the City Council sponsor says he expects his proposal, revised to lessen the fines, to win approval.

Under the new proposal from Alderman Ed Burke, a third offense for not neutering or spaying a pet before they turn 6 months old would trigger a fine of $100 per month. His earlier proposal called for a $500 fine.

A mandatory spay/neuter law was proposed last summer, and former TV game show host Bob Barker came to Chicago to support it, saying it would cut down on the numbers of stray dogs and cats euthanized each year.

But the Chicago and Illinois State Veterinary Medical Associations opposed the measure, saying decisions about sterilization were best left to pet owners and their veterinarians, according to the Chicago Tribune. The proposal never came to a vote.

The proposal is expected to be voted on at a committee meeting Thursday.

Four dogs have gotten sick and one died, apparently from eating poison-laced food at Carriage Lane Park in Mesa, Arizona.

Orange signs are posted at the parks entrance warning that someone is lacing food with strychnine and leaving it in the park, radio station KTAR reported.

Strychnine is a poison often used to kill birds and rodents.

Concerned dog owners have started a website to stay on top of the situation, carriagelanecanines.com.

Martha Stewart’s chow puppy was one of 17 dogs killed in a propane explosion at an eastern Pennsylvania kennel, the Associated Press has reported.

Stewart confirmed the death on her blog, writing that she was ”deeply saddened” by the death of her dog, Genghis Khan, in Friday’s blast at Pazzazz Pet Boarding, a kennel in the Pocono Mountains that breeds and trains show dogs.

Fifteen dogs were killed in the explosion, and two more died over the weekend.

The kennel was getting a propane delivery when the tank ignited, setting the pens on fire.

The driver of the truck, Timohty Kleinhagen,  was badly burned, but managed to toss one dog over the kennel fence to safety.

“That man is a hero,” said the kennel’s co-owner, Karen Tracy. “My heart goes out to his family.” Kleinhagen was listed in critical condition yesterday.

Genghis Khan was a grandson of Stewart’s previous chow, Paw Paw. Paw Paw died last April at age 12.

Stewart announced on her blog in December that she was adopting Genghis Khan, then 7 weeks old. It wasn’t immediately clear how much time Genghis Khan had spent at Stewart’s Westchester County, N.Y., estate.

Stewart sent condolences to Tracy, who breeds and trains dogs who compete in shows throughout the country, including Westminster. Many of the dead dogs belonged to Tracy and her mother, Jean Ahner, who live on the property in Carbon County, about 75 miles north of Philadelphia.

“My heart goes out to Karen Tracy and I am hoping for a speedy recovery for those (both pets and humans) injured in this terrible event,” Stewart wrote.

(Photo from The Martha Blog)

The Great Pit Ball, an all-day charity event to benefit the Villalobos Animal Rescue Center, the largest rehabilitation and placement facility for abandoned pit bulls in the world, is scheduled to take place March 14 in Las Vegas.

All proceeds from the night will go to the rescue center.

“Like many non-profits today, Villalobos has been under financial duress for some time due to the economic climate so we knew we had to do something to help,” said Brandon Bond, a tattoo artist from Atlanta  who co-organized the event.

“People have many misconceptions about pit bulls, when in reality, they are the most loyal, loving and amazing animals,” said co-organizer Ralph Perazzo, award-winning pastry chef and owner of Rare Concepts Group.

Read more »

A dozen springer spaniels — from the Missouri puppy mill whose owner set his home and business on fire in February — arrived in Spokane, Wash., over the weekend, where the search to find them new homes will continue.

They were among the 200 dogs — springer spaniels and German shorthaired pointers — kept at River Valley Puppies, near Tecumseh, Mo., where owner Michael Vanderwall allegedly set fire to his kennels after officials contacted him about not having a breeder’s license.

Authorities said Vanderwall, whose breeding facility has been under state scrutiny at least since September, became angry when a Missouri Department of Agriculture inspector saw the conditions at his property and tried to persuade him to surrender the animals.

After the inspector left, Vanderwall allegedly set his barn, kennel, house and camper on fire after the inspector left. Fortunately, the dogs weren’t caged at the time and were roaming freely on the property.

“I just went a little nuts,” Michael Vanderwall told the Ozark County sheriff, according to a probable cause affidavit. The affidavit says Vanderwall was armed and initially wouldn’t permit emergency personnel onto his property, according to an Associated Press report.

He later relented, was arrested and told authorities his wife had left him, turned off his utilities, and informed the state he had abused his dogs. He said his property was under foreclosure and wasn’t insured, the affidavit said.

Best Friends Animal Society, was called in by the Missouri Department of Agriculture to assist with the case. This video was made during the organization’s first day on the scene.

To learn more about the dogs, contribute to their care, or look into adopting one, visit the Springer Rescue website

A bad day just kept getting worse for Ralph Bias, an 18-year-old arrested in Louisiana last week.

Police stopped Bias for speeding. He was going 52 mph in a 35 mph zone (Mistake One).

The officer noticed he wasn’t wearing a seat belt (Mistake Two), and upon checking his license, saw that he was driving with a suspended one (Mistake Three).

Then, according to nola.com, the officer noticed the handrolled marijuana cigarette on the console (Mistake Four).

With some further checking, the officer found that the 2004 Lexus that Bias was driving had been reported stolen from New Orleans (Mistake Five).

At that point, the officer — not having much reason to trust the driver — made some inquiries about the Shih Tzu sitting on the front passenger seat, and ended up calling the veterinarian whose name was listed on the dog’s tags.

The vet told the officer that the pet had been stolen during a home burglary (Mistake Six).

A laptop computer in the vehicle was also found to be stolen (Mistake Seven).

In all, Bias was found with stolen items valued at $27,020, including the value of the Lexus.

Bias was booked with possession of stolen goods, marijuana possession and various traffic offenses. He was released on bond Thursday.

A Sealyham Terrier from Chester County, Pa., was named best in show at Crufts today.

Margery Good, owner of the four-year-old dog, named Charmin, said she was “very excited and very pleased” to have won, according to a BBC report.

Ms. Good added: “He’s such a special dog. He is my best buddy. He proved himself tonight and made every step just right.”

With the awarding of best in show, the four-day event at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, tainted by controversy this year, came to a close. The RSPCA and sponsor Pedigree pulled out of partnerships with the dog show, following claims about breeding malpractice in a BBC documentary.

But thousands of spectators attended the four-day event at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, About 28,000 dogs were estimated to have attended the show, the third highest figure since the show was founded in 1891.

The Kennel Club, which runs Crufts, broadcast the event live on the internet for the first time, and predicted that visitor numbers would match last year’s record crowd of 160,000.

Crufts was hit by controversy after the BBC screened a documentary last year which exposed serious health issues around breeding practices for some breeds of pedigree dogs.

The BBC suspended its coverage of the show pending further investigations and a key sponsor also pulled out.

Charmin, whose win was just the latest of many, is also featured in the video below, which explains a little more about the breed. Sealyhams are not as popular today as the breed once was. In the first half of the 20th Century, Sealyhams were owned by Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Burton and Alfred Hitchcock, who used his own Sealyhams in the movies “The Birds” and “Suspicion.”

The Sealyham Terrier was named by its original breeder, Captain Edwardes, after his mansion, Sealyham, near the Sealy river in Pembrokeshire, South Wales

What do these four breeds have in common — besides getting labeled as vicious from time to time?

All four (Rottweiler, Akita, chow and Staffordshire terrier, aka pit bull) are in my dog Ace, according to yet another DNA test (last one, I promise). The best guess now is that one of Ace’s parents was a Rottweiler, the other a combination of Akita, Chow and pit bull.

Together, they formed this creature:

How the product of four “feared” breeds could be such a gentle giant might be explained several ways.

For starters, they aren’t vicious breeds — just breeds that, due to the acts of a few members, have seen themselves smeared as a whole. Secondly, we would contend, when you start mixing up breeds, though some purebred purists might be offended by it, some wonderful things can happen. Third, maybe, just maybe, nurture is more important than nature.

Then again, maybe DNA testing — scientifically solid as it may be — isn’t always the full and final answer.

After all this was our third test, and our third different diagnosis.

The first DNA analysis was performed in connection with the Baltimore Sun series, “Hey Mister What Kind of Dog is That?” The Canine Heritage test from Metamorphix, using a cheek swab taken from Ace, determined he was Rottweiler and Chow. At the time, the test checked for 38 breeds.

The second came after Mars Veterinary offered us a free Wisdom Panel MX Mixed Breed Analysis kit, which can detect the presence of more than 150 breeds. This one required a visit from a vet to take Ace’s blood, and the results showed he was 50 percent Rottweiler, 25 percent Akita, and 25 percent other unknown breeds.

While we were waiting for our results on that one, Canine Heritage got back in touch to let us know the newer version of their  test — still using a cheek swab — could now detect 100 breeds. They offered us a free re-test, so we swabbed Ace’s mouth again.

The results of that one arrived in the mail last week.

Makers of the tests say it helps dog owners better understand their pets’ behavior, and better be on the lookout for potential medical problems, many of which are prevalent among certain breeds. In that regard, testing a dog’s DNA can serve a useful purpose. But there’s a potential for misusing them as well — if, for instance, they ever become a tool for enforcing breed bans.

In that case, Ace, with his components, would be Public Enemy No. 1. Should that ever come to pass, none of this ever happened, and Ace is actually a, uh … Portuguese water dog/Labradoodle mix.