ohmidog!

 
Does Bo Obama long for a career in law enforcement, as opposed to politics?

The White House has released this photo of Bo Obama commandeering a police vehicle last week as it sat parked on the South Lawn of the White House.

The District of Columbia police motorcade escort car had just returned from Marine Corps Base Quantico, where Michelle Obama visited a Toys for Tots warehouse.

(Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

In this 2003 Peanuts special, Charlie Brown’s neighbor, Rerun, pines for a dog of his own for Christmas. Does he get it? To find out, tune into ABC tonight at 8.

Today we begin our Christmas countdown — an eclectic mix of videos that will serve as our way of wishing you the happiest of holidays.

Of course, we’ll still be bringing you dog news as well this week — along with some possible posts related to my Christmas guests, all of whom are canines. In addition to my dog Ace, I’ll be hosting three other dogs this week whose owners are off to visit family.

There’s Lucas — an old yellow Lab who huffs, puffs and dawdles almost as much as me on his walks in the park. There’s Darcy, a young Boston terror, I mean terrier, who is a perpetually bouncing bundle of energy. And there’s Cheyenne, a sweet 11-year-old yellow Lab who, though bred to be a guide dog, didn’t make the cut, then at age 5 began going blind herself.

The more the merrier, I figured.

But back to our holiday greetings. We’ll be bringing you one a day all week, starting with this vintage R.O. Blechman animation that CBS aired in 1966 as a Christmas message to viewers.

An autistic student’s right to bring his service dog to school was upheld by an Illinois appeals court last week.

The appeals court upheld a Monroe County court ruling that permitted Carter Kalbfleisch to bring his autism service dog, Corbin, to school. The Columbia School District had appealed the lower court decision.

Instead of following the lower court’s ruling, the district decided it could not meet Carter’s educational needs and sent him to the Illinois Center for Autism, agreeing to pay for his education there, but refusing to pay the cost of trasnporting Carter and the dog to school, according to the Belleville News-Democrat in Illinois.

 ”We’re happy that it went our way,” said Chris Kalbfleisch, Carter’s father. “Hopefully the school will change their direction with this. … Hopefully we can move forward and get our son back in school.”

“We hope they come to the realization that the law is the law and they have to follow it,” said Kalbfleisch’s attorney, Clay St. Clair. “Just because you don’t like a law doesn’t mean you don’t have to follow the law. We hope they do what they are supposed to do.”

School and district officials argued the dog would be disruptive, and possibly cause allergic reactions in other students.

The school district has the option of accepting the appellate court’s decision, or appealing the case to the Illinois Supreme Court.

You’ll have to forgive us for being a few days late in bringing you this groundbreaking moment — when Bo met Oprah. Despite our vigilance, this one somehow slipped between the cracks. So, without further ado, here it is: Bo and Oprah high five.

A dog has gone missing from the Compassion Veterinary Clinic in Marlborough, Mass. He’s described as small, black and plywood.

Debbie Cassinelli, the clinic manager, made the wooden dog silhouette — and several cats, as well — and attached them a couple of months ago to the clinic’s sign.

She suspects kids took the dog, which disappeared just after Thanksgiving. The cats were spared. 

Cassinelli told Metro West Daily News that she worked on the animals off and on for about three months. The dog was based on her own pet, a border collie-terrier mix. Cats looked down at the dog, which rested its paws on the edge of the sign.

She attached the dog to the sign with steel rods.

Cassinelli said she added the animals to the sign to draw attention to it. People tended to “fly down the road” and not notice the sign before the animals went up, she said.

Cassinelli  does not think she will get the dog back, but she plans to make a new one.

A California police dog who lost a leg to bone cancer is back on the job.

Although his duties have been cut back, and uncertainties remain about his future health, Yasko, a 7-year-old German shepherd who works for the Paso Robles Police Department, showed no signs of cancer after the surgery, without which he probably would have had less than a year to live.

“This is where he wants to be,” Officer Tod Rehner told The Tribune in San Luis Obispo. “He loves working.”

Paso Robles’ Friends of the K-9 Inc., aided by a $1,000 donation from Wal-Mart, raised money for the dog’s $1,500 surgery,according to Sgt. David Bouffard, another canine handler and Friends’ president.

Yasko will only be used in drug investigations now, though he is trained in protection, tracking, searching, apprehension and narcotics detection.

“He’ll still be very effective at that, so we’re lucky, but this is a big loss to our program,” Bouffard said. “Yasko was one of the better tracking dogs in the county.”

Twin brothers Tremayne and Travers Johnson entered pleas of not guilty Friday to animal cruelty charges in connection with the death of Phoenix, a pit bull puppy set on fire in Baltimore this summer.

The 17-year-olds, charged as adults, are being held without bail. Their trials are scheduled for February and March, the Baltimore Sun reports. Both are are also charged, in connection with a separate case, with gun and drug possession.

Phoenix was found burning by a police officer. She survived for several days before taking a turn for the worse and having to be put down.

An Alameda police officer shot and killed one of her department’s own dogs when the dog attacked her and bit her arm.

Billy, a Belgian Malinois, and his handler were among those responding Thursday to a burglary at a Coast Guard recruiting center. The dog was being used to flush out a  suspect  when he bit a uniformed officer assisting on the call. The dog did not let go when his handler ordered him to do so.

The name of the officer who shot the dog was not released. She was treated for bite wounds to her left arm and released, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Billy had been with the department for more than three years.

On May 5, another police Belgian Malinois died after being left inside an Alameda officer’s personal sport utility vehicle as the officer attended a use-of-force training exercise.

The department has suspended the use of its two remaining police dogs pending a review of “all the facets” of the K-9 program, including the circumstances that led up to Billy being deployed and his death, Scott said.