ohmidog!

Kate Gosselin now says Jon’s two allegedly beloved German Shepherds, which were recently returned to their breeder, may — that’s right, “may” — return home one day.

Radar Online quotes Kate Gosselin as saying the following in a talk at the Southern Women’s Show in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday:

“He (Jon) called the breeder and took them back for a short period of time. I’m feeling like I have not enough time to take care of my kids, let alone give the dogs what they need, and the kids surprisingly weren’t that upset about it. They’ll come back I’m sure at some point. But for now, I just needed a break.”

Jon has blamed Kate for forcing him to give up his two dogs, Shoka and Nala, because she doesn’t want to care for them when he’s not at the family’s home in Wernersville, PA. The estranged reality show couple is taking turns staying at home and caring for their eight children.

 
A looooong time coming, and then delayed some more, Baltimore’s first city-funded dog park will open this weekend — and there’s even more good dog news on the horizon after that.

The Locust Point Dog Park ‘s grand opening is scheduled this weekend in conjunction with Locust Point’s Star Spangled Festival, which runs from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday. Mayor Sheila Dixon is expected to attend — primarily to show off the new dog park.

The fenced in dog park includes a big hill topped with fake turf, trees (though dogs will only be able to look at them longingly — they’re protected by fences) and even a water feature: A sunken trough, fed by a water spout (in the foreground of the photo above) runs the width of the park.

The most dramatic feature though will be a giant dead tree, shaved of its bark and set atop large rocks, stump and all. It was being hoisted into place earlier this week.

The effort to start a dog park within Latrobe Park was started by a citizens’ group, then taken over by the city last year, which funded the park, but won’t be responsible for its upkeep. That duty will fall to the citizens’ dog park committee. 

The opening means dogs will have two fenced-in places to legally run unleashed in Baltimore. Canton Dog Park, with a large dog and small dog area, was built by a citizens’ group. The Locust Point Dog Park isn’t divided into large and small dog areas.

Here’s the rest of the good news: Soon, up to four city parks will have designated off leash areas.

The city council gave the Department of Recreation and Parks the authority to create the off-leash areas earlier this summer — just after lowering the off-leash fine to $200, down from a $1,000 fine the council says it inadvertently passed into law.

Sources tell ohmidog! that the off-leash hours are being considered for Riverside, Wyman Park (and a separate area at Wyman Park Dell), Herring Run Park and Patterson Park. There would be morning and evening hours, possibly as expansive as from 5 to 10 a.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.

The exact hours and boundaries for the off-leash areas haven’t yet been determined at all the parks. A group of Riverside Park area pet owners met with city Recreation and Parks Department officials Monday night, and parks officials are meeting with Patterson Park residents Oct. 1 to discuss off-leash hours

A fenced-in dog park, long sought by dog owners in that area, is still a possibility at Patterson Park. The city will consider plans for both options. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Wolfe Street Academy School on Wolfe Street in Upper Fells Point.

Use of the off-leash areas, and of Locust Point Dog Park, will probably carry a fee. In addition to the basic city dog license,  a special fenced run/off-leash tag will be likely be required to use both the off leash areas and the dog park. Those will eventually become available  — through BARCS — at an expected cost of $20 a year ($10 for seniors). Forms to get the basic dog license will be available at the park on opening day

When the changes go into effect — this year if the city moves swiftly, maybe next year if it moves at its usual pace –  expect some increased enforcement of the leash law in those areas, and during those hours, that aren’t leash free.

All in all, though, it looks like — thanks to the hard work of many humans — brighter days are ahead for Baltimore’s dogs.

“An atmosphere of sexual harassment, psychological humiliation and physical assaults.”

It may sound like a description of Abu Ghraib, but what’s being characterized is the U.S. Navy’s Military Working Dogs Division in Bahrain, better known as “The Kennel.”

An internal Navy investigation into the unit found dozens of examples of hazing and sexual harassment against multiple sailors between 2005 and 2006, including the case of Joseph Rocha, a gay sailor who left the Navy in 2007 after being abused for two years. Rocha says the constant hazing he received while serving as a military dog handler led to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., has asked the Navy for information about the harassment, the still mostly under-wraps internal investigation, and an explanation of why the head of the military working dog unit at the time was promoted.

Sestak’s letter followed a story about the Navy findings of abuse — reported not by the mainstream media, but by Youth Radio, a California organization that teaches reporting, broadcast journalism and media production to youth from public schools, community-based organizations, group homes and juvenile detention centers.

The Youth Radio investigation found that between 2004 and 2006, sailors in the Military Working Dogs Division — on the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf — were subjected to an atmosphere of sexual harassment, psychological humiliation, and physical assaults.

A Navy spokesman said the allegations are being reviewed.

“The incidents that occurred within the Military Working Dog Division at Naval Support Activity Bahrain do not reflect who we are as a Navy,” said Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman. “The Navy is now looking into the handling of this situation more carefully.”

Rocha – despite the Navy’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy –  was repeatedly asked if he was gay, primarily because he didn’t  avail himself of visiting prostitutes.

Shaun Hogan of Maine, a former Bahrain colleague of Rocha’s who is now a reservist, said Rocha was treated worse than others because it was believed he was. Hogan said some in the unit “blatantly asked” if Rocha was gay. It was Hogan who obtained the Navy’s report and shared it with Youth Radio.

“He was one in a large number of people who were abused for a variety of different reasons,” Hogan said.

Rocha’s PTSD prompted him to tell the Navy he is gay, at which point he was discharged.

(Photo: via Youth Radio)

Derbe “Skip” Eckhart, former operator of Pennsylvania’s Almost Heaven Kennel, faces up to three years in prison after pleading guilty in Lehigh County Court yesterday to animal cruelty and multiple dog law violations.

Eckhart also faces fines of up to $7,500 under a plea agreement reached with the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office.

The kennel in Upper Milford Township was shut down in June.

Eckhart pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty, three counts of violating a cease and desist order and failing to remove 216 dogs from the kennel after the period to appeal his denied operating license expired, the Allentown Morning Call reported.

Prosecutor Jay Jenkins said that under the agreement, Eckhart does not intend to be involved in any other kennel, but would like to keep some of his personal animals and continue working as a groomer at a Fogelsville business.

Judge Robert L. Steinberg will determine that, and Eckhart’s sentence, at a Nov. 16 hearing.

A man who beat his girlfriend’s dog to death last year was sentenced in California to six months in county jail Tuesday.

Ryan Reeser, 27, of Burlingame, repeatedly punched Godiva, a 7-pound miniature pinscher, dislodged an eye from its socket and then let the dog bleed to death, prosecutors said.

He pleaded no contest to one count of felony animal cruelty in San Mateo County Superior Court after striking a plea bargain with prosecutors, according to the Oakland Tribune.

Reeser’s girlfriend’s father found Godiva dead in a plastic storage container a few blocks from Reeser’s apartment. 

Reeser had been mad at his girlfriend and annoyed with the dog, which nipped him, spurring the fatal attack, prosecutors said.

Reeser faced a maximum of three years in jail. Under the plea agreement, he will be on probation for three years after serving his six-month sentence.

There’s fetch, and then there’s FETCH!

Check out the size of the log the dog in this video is bringing to shore at a dog-friendly beach in Vancouver.

To learn more about the dog parks of Vancouver (there are 32 of them) visit … well, Vancouver.

And even if you can’t, check out the city’s dog park website.

Vancouver, both on the Internet and in real life, seems to be doing it right.

 
One of the dogs featured in the Maryland SPCA’s 2010 Orioles Calendar has gone missing, apparently taken from her owner’s yard.

Cuji, a two and a half year-old pit bull mix, was taken from her yard in Belair-Edison, her owners told “Unleashed,” the Baltimore Sun’s pets blog.

Cuji (for a better picture, turn to October in your calendar) posed with the Orioles’ Koji Uehara.

Brian Willis, an engineer who adopted the dog in June, said the dog disappeared from his home on the 3300 block of Brendan Avenue in the Belair-Edison neighborhood. His collar was left behind.

Dogs Finding Dogs, a nonprofit organization that uses retired police dogs to search for missing pets, had joined in the search. Willis has also called a number of area shelters and placed missing dog notices online. Cuji, about 70 pounds, is microchipped.

 
Dear Abby tackled one of the finer points of dog poop etiquette yesterday, but I’m going to have to disagree with her advice on this one.

“My wife and I were walking our terriers one evening when one had to answer nature’s call,” a reader wrote. “Being responsible dog owners, I picked up the ‘deposit’ with a bag we carry for such occasions.

“It was garbage pickup day and the neighbors’ trash cans were out at the curb, so at the next house I placed the bag in the trash can. My wife, family and co-workers all think this was not appropriate — that I should have carried it home and disposed of it in our trash can.

“Abby, we were 15 minutes from home, but given the choice, I would rather not carry that bag and figured a garbage bin is a garbage bin. I’ll abide by your answer and admit I was wrong if you say so.”

It was signed “Pooped Out in North Carolina.”

Abby’s response: “As long as the bag was securely sealed, I don’t think adding it to someone’s trash bin was a social no-no.”

Had he written Dear ohmidog! we would have told him this — after first asking, “How can you be in front of a neighbor’s house and 15 minutes from home?”

Since it was garbage day, and the event occured at night, that means the poop bag would remain in the neighbor’s trash bin for several days (a week in my Baltimore neighborhood), until the next collection. While a person’s trash may no longer be their property, their bin is, and thus you have no right to put your dog’s poop in it — no matter how securely sealed it may be.

While there are some neighbors that might be cool about this, myself included, it’s bad form, and gives the anti-dog crowd something to complain about. If there are no public trash receptacles available — or even a community dumpster — pack your poop all the way home.

That’s my take. What’s your’s?

(Photo from the flickr page of left-hand)

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A self-avowed “cat person,” CBS reporter Bill Geist recently got his first dog — a shelter pooch from South Carolina that was delivered to him at a New Jersey Turnpike rest area.

Geist, in this report, documents that delivery and his early days in the strange new world (to him) of being a dog person.

He captures pretty much everything — the quest for a dog online, naming her (Daphne), socializing at the dog park, his first poop scoopage, and availing himself of the many goods and services the dog owner soons becomes familiar with — from accessories to grooming to obedience training.

Giest says he had no idea how much of a challenge raising a puppy would be: “You practically have to quit your job.”

After three years of litigation and $40,000 in legal fees, who gets Dexter — a six-year-old pug at the center of a New Jersey custody case — has been decided.

Dexter, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, will be shared.

Under a New Jersey Superior Court judge’s ruling yesterday, the dog will be rotated, every five weeks, between the homes of Eric Dare, who was originally awarded custody of the dog, and his ex, Doreen Houseman, who sued to get Dexter back.

Dexter has been with Dare since the initial court ruling, filed after the couple ended their relationship in May 2006. They spent 13 years as a couple, but never married.

An appeals panel earlier this year reversed the original ruling by Judge John Tomasello, saying the judge had failed to consider Dexter’s “subjective value.”

The panel said the dog was similar to a family heirloom, or work of art, that cannot simply be awarded to one person in exchange for a face-value payment. Houseman was paid $1,500, the price of the pedigree dog, but she wanted the pet, which she frequently dressed in costumes and lavished with gifts.

Both live in Gloucester County, N.J.

Houseman, 35, who now lives with her parents, said she was “very happy” with the ruling and can’t wait to give Dexter “a lot of hugs and kisses” when she sees him Friday. Dare, 37, said he was shocked and may appeal the ruling.