ohmidog!

All in all, it has been a rough few days for Gladiator Max, an 85-pound Argentine Mastiff in Colorado — but maybe rougher yet for Denver TV news anchor Kyle Dyer, who Max bit during a Wednesday interview about the dog’s icy rescue.

Dyer was interviewing the dog, his owner, and the firefighter who rescued him from an icy pond Tuesday — all of whom had been invited to the offices of 9 News in Denver. Max had shown no aggression — not during the rescue and not during the studio interview.

But when Dyer got too close, Max bit her in the face. She was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition, according to 9NEWS.

The incident aired live, but the station is not reshowing video of the bite.

Doug Kelley, the director of Denver Animal Care and Control, said Max’s owner will be cited — for the bite, for the leash law violation, and for not having Max vaccinated against rabies.

The dog is being held at the Denver Animal Shelter and will be quarantined for 10 days, according to Kelley.

The studio interview was for a follow up story on Max’s rescue Tuesday evening. Max chased a coyote onto the ice of Smith Reservoir and fell through, according to 9 News in its initial report.

The dog spent 20 minutes in the freezing water before firefighters arrived. Firefighter Tyler Sugaski fell through the ice on his way to Max, swimming the rest of the way to grab him.

“The dog recognized right off that I was there to help, so he came towards me,” Sugaski recalled.

Other than some scrapes from the ice, the dog appeared fine and was taken into an ambulance to be warmed up.

“He’s just a rock solid dog,” said his owner, Michael Robinson.

More than 150 dogs were seized Tuesday from a Danbury, N.C., breeder who was selling dogs for thousands of dollars but raising them in conditions authorities described as unhealthy and inhumane.

“I’m very ashamed that this happened in my county, and I’m appalled at how the dogs were being kept,” Phil Handy, Stokes County Animal Control officer, told Fox News in Greensboro.

The dogs were seized from Dan River Bullies, which sold English bulldog, French bulldogs and Shih Tzu puppies. (Its website was taken down yesterday.)

Officials with the Humane Society of the United States said the dogs appeared never to have been groomed or vaccinated, and lived in stacked cages, their food thrown on the floor next to their feces.

The Guilford County Animal Shelter in Greensboro took in 130 of the animals, many of which had multiple health problems, including infected eyes, skin and teeth, shelter director Marsha Williams said.

The rest of the animals were taken to Raleigh and Charlotte.

Veterinarians said several of dogs were old, but appeared to have spent most of their lives being bred.

The property is owned by Lucile Mabe, who authorities said could face multiple animal cruelty charges.

Williams said the case once again shows the need for strong puppy mill legislation in North Carolina.

“We need to change that and make it stricter, where they’re getting inspected and they’re required to have medical attention for their animals,” she said.

Truth in advertising? It’s a lot like honor among thieves. Society stopped expecting either long ago.

Still, it’s interesting to see how Skechers ad-makers gave an apparent facelift to Tucson Greyhound Park, the site of their “Mr. Quiggly” ad, in which a French bulldog outraces a group of greyhounds thanks to his Skecher’s athletic shoes.

The pictures to the left come from Grey2KUSA, the anti-racing group that sponsored a boycott of the ad, which aired during the Super Bowl.

I’m not sure if the improvements were digital or real, and, if real, whether they were temporary or permanent, but they raise the question: If the track is something to be proud of, as some backers of greyhound racing maintain, why did it need a cosmetic makeover?

Of course, the purpose of the ad was to sell sneakers, not expose the so-called sport’s seamy underbelly. But sprucing the place up beforehand does lend some credence to Grey2KUSA’s concerns that the ad would glorify greyhound racing.

The organization launched a boycott of Skechers before the ad aired and urged its backers to send their shoes back to the company. More than 122,000 people signed its online petition asking the company not to air the ad.

While that wasn’t achieved, Grey2KUSA says the company did make some changes to the ad, including removing “Tucson Greyhound Park” from the footage and digitally replacing it with a fictitious name, “Rexford Downs.”

In addition to altering the sign, the company also spruced up the grounds, the organization says, “bringing in green shrubbery, flowers and other improvements to make this otherwise dilapidated track look attractive.”

“It is not known if the greyhound racing ad will continue to air, but if it does, we ask you to continue boycotting Skechers,” Grey2KUSA informed its members this week.

According to Grey2K, dog racing continues in seven states, and three of those — Arizona, Iowa and Florida — have bills pending in their legislatures to ban it.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled today that Charles Jones, shown above kicking his State Highway Patrol dog in September 2007, and fired shortly thereafter, should be reinstated.

And with back pay.

Jones was fired after another trooper turned over two 15-second video clips of him suspending his K-9 partner, Ricoh, from a railing and repeatedly kicking him to force him to release a chew toy.

In 2008, the State Personnel Commission found Jones’ punishment too harsh and ordered that he be reinstated.

Tuesday’s ruling is the latest in a series, all of which agreed the Highway Patrol did not have cause to terminate Jones’ employment. (Ricoh didn’t get a vote.) You can find the full text of the ruling here.

Patrol leaders said they initially planned to discipline Jones but decided to fire him when then-Gov. Mike Easley’s office intervened.

In its ruling, the court noted testimony from Jones’ former supervisor, Lt. Col. Cecil Lockley, who said, “They want him gone … the decision regarding Sgt. Jones’ career was predetermined, not by the patrol’s disciplinary process but by an outside entity.”

Lockley called Jones’ method of disciplining Ricoh “ugly,” but said it did not fall outside the realm of patrol-accepted training techniques.

The appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that ”the training method used by Jones on Ricoh in this matter, while appearing excessive and extreme to the general public, is not unreasonably outside of or substantially different from several of the training techniques that are tested, trained and approved for use by the Patrol.”

It concluded, “Jones acted consistently with his training, and used compliance techniques on Ricoh similar to those used by all Patrol members who were canine handlers.”

We’d hope that the highway patrol has redefined the boundaries of its realm of training techniques –  as it stated it would after the case came to public attention.

A rebuilding of the K-9 unit was promised, and an end to the kind of rough training tactics — swinging, suspending and kicking of patrol dogs — that the video depicts. New training procedures, they said, would specifically prohibit punching, kicking, beating and choking of dogs.

I base this report mostly on advertisements shown during the first half of last night’s Super Bowl — for I began to tire during Madonna’s BRIDGESTONE halftime show.

In the first half of the game, I kept track of ads, and according to my tally — and in accordance with my predictions — dogs were theme No. 1 in this year’s Big Game commercials, topping that perennial favorite, sex.

By halftime, we’d seen the controversial SKECHERS greyhound racing ad — mildly funny, at best — VOLKSWAGEN’S “Bark Side” and a DORITO ad featuring a Great Dane (above) who gives his owner some chips to buy his silence regarding the family cat’s mysterious disappearance.

Dogs played smaller supporting roles in two other ads by then, so at halftime I had it scored this way:

Dogs five, Sex three.

While sex seemed to be gaining in the second half, it scored only three times in the first, with GO DADDY’S body painting bit, David Beckham promoting either underpants or himself (I’m still not sure), and an ad featuring model Adriana Lima for the flower delivery outfit, TELEFLORA. Lima, once she is dressed, explains to us that, on Valentine’s Day, and perhaps all other days, men must give to “receive.”

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

To me, that one was far more offensive than the Skechers ad, which an anti-greyhound racing group was protesting because it was filmed at a greyhound park with a poor safety record, and because they thought it would glorify a sport it finds cruel to animals.

In it, Mr. Quiggly, a French bulldog wearing athetic shoes, bests a group of greyhounds at a racetrack, winning by such a large margin that he pauses and then moonwalks backwards across the finish line — sort of like the Giants final touchdown, that touchdown they didn’t really want.

Still, scoring is everything, as the Teleflora ad tells us: Spend money on a female, perhaps in the form of a nice bouquet, and you will get you some.

Running just behind dogs and sex was the theme of death, destruction and other matters apocalyptic, including ads for several doomsday movies and one for cars that, along with their owners, survived the end of the world.

In fourth place were cute babies. Both DORITO and ETRADE ran baby ads in the first half — the latter featuring the now famous market-savvy talking baby, the former featuring a baby fired from a sling to grab a bag of chips.

DORITOS — though its dog-related ads often have a bit of a mean streak (like last year’s of a taunted pug smashing  through a door) — scored with a second dog ad in the second half, depicting a dog park where humans perform tricks and line up for a salty treat.

Our pick of the litter? Weego, the rescued mutt who, whenever he is called – “Here, Weego!” — responds by fetching a BUD LIGHT for the caller. That’s not exactly new ground in beer advertising, but this time, the star was a rescued mutt, a scrawny little dog who oozed far more personality than any of the personalities in the Super Bowl ads, like Mark Cuban, Donald Trump and Clint Eastwood. Better yet, the ad included a pitch for rescuing dogs — and referred viewers to a Facebook page where they could learn more.

Also making a strong showing were “inspirational” ads from GE, celebrating the American worker, and at least two beer ads that seemed to be celebrating the end of prohibition, nearly 80 years ago.

The most powerful, and curious, advertisement shown during the Super Bowl was Clint Eastwood’s pitch for CHRYSLER (or was it for America?). The ad shows dismal-looking footage of Detroit as Eastwood tells us, “It’s halftime in America.” Then he goes on to talk about the resilience of Americans — how, via our bootstraps and given our inner strength, we can pick ourselves up and overcome anything.

It was a moody, somber but hopeful, piece — and maybe a tad ironic given the government bailout Chrysler received decades ago.

It was not an ad I wanted to hoist a celebratory drink to — after all, if it were truly halftime in America, that would mean we’d only have 235 years left – but it was definitely one that made me want to drink.

“Here, Weego!”

(For all our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here.)

Subaru isn’t suggesting you avoid the Super Bowl entirely — even though, as an advertiser, it is — it’s just that they want to make sure you don’t forget to take the dog out.

The company is skipping the Super Bowl this year, opting instead to advertise its cars during the Puppy Bowl, and through social marketing and apps.

These four new ads are part of the automaker’s third annual “Dog Tested, Dog Approved” marketing campaign.

The company seems intent on keeping its standing among the dog-loving community, and with good reason — about 70 percent of Subaru owners have a pet, roughly twice the figure for car owners in general.

For the second year in a row, it’s sponsoring the “Game Day Dog Walk,” in which pet owners sign a pledge on Subaru’s Facebook page, as 88,000 pet owners did last year, to walk their dog on Game Day.

Subaru also sponsors the “Dogbook” app — basically Facebook for pets — and it has partnered to launch a new app called “MapMyDOGWALK,” a canine version of the “MapMyFITNESS” app you can download to your Smartphone.

The new ads feature groups of dogs headed out on adventures – a ski trip, camping, a trip to the lake in which the dogs join in to help the doggie driver parallel park and, of course, a day at the beach.

(To see all our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here.)

Giants and Patriots aside, it’s time for the big event — the Puppy Bowl – two hours worth of puppies playing on a miniature football field, and more.

Unlike the well-paid athletes who will be battling it out in Indianapolis, all the pups in this bowl game are currently without permanent homes; all are adoptable; and all can be found listed at Petfinder.com.

In its eighth year on Animal Planet, this year’s Puppy Bowl will also feature kittens, pigs, chickens and Meep the Bird, who will be Tweeting the action from inside the stadium.

Five pigs will replace last year’s chicken cheerleaders.

Puppy Bowl referee Dan Schachner sat down with the Wall Street Journal’s Kelsey Hubbard before the event to talk about the big game, which starts today at 3 p.m. on Animal Planet.

You can learn all you need to know about the broadcast here.

Here’s another preview of an upcoming Super Bowl ad, starring dogs.

That makes at least four that we know of during this year’s big game — two for cars, one for shoes and one for beer – that are using dogs (as opposed to scantily clad women, digitally altered babies and celebrity bimbos) to make the sale.

If that’s not a trend, I don’t know what is.

This one, called “Sled,” is American Suzuki Motor Corporation’s second Super Bowl ad — for its all-wheel-drive 2012 Suzuki Kizashi sport sedan.

The canine star of the ad — or at least the one sitting in the front seat, tapping his paw to the music – is Nitro, an eight-year-old husky from Vancouver who now lives in Okotoks, Alberta.

The ad also features actual Inuit actors, the song ”Party Still Jumpin’” by BKM (Benjamin Kahle Music), and lots of majestic countryside.

It was filmed in Kananaskis Country in Alberta, according to the Vancouver Sun.

“I have to say he loves to act and he loves to go to work. He’s an actor dog,” Flo Krisko said of Nitro. Krisko trained all of the dogs in the ad at Alberta Film Animals in Okotoks.

Nitro is owned by Krisko’s neighbour. He was featured in the 2007 film “Christmas in Wonderland” and will be in upcoming episodes of the CBC show “Heartland.”

(To see all our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here.)

Don’t be surprised if you see more canines than cleavage when it comes to this year’s Super Bowl ads.

At least three ads premiering during the 2012 Super Bowl will star dogs.

“You can’t go wrong with a dog,” Robbie Blinkoff, a cultural anthropologist told USA Today. “The dogs are idealized versions of ourselves. The dogs aren’t dogs — they’re us.”

As anyone who’s been following our “Woof in Advertising” series knows, sex may be the quickest way to a consumer’s groin, but the best route to a consumer’s heart (which we’d argue more often controls the purse strings) is through dogs.

Volkswagen is one company that’s shifted to more heartwarming ads, moving away from the mean spirited but funny ones of recent years.

In its 2012 Super Bowl spot, an extended Internet version of which is seen above, a dog sets off to chase a new VW Beetle only to realize he can no longer fit through the dog door.

He undertakes a makeover of his own, drops a few pounds and is off and running — through the dog door and after a shiny red Beetle. In the final seconds, the ads shifts to a Star War themes, in homage to VW’s popular 2011 Super Bowl spot that featured a child dressed as Darth Vader who thinks “The Force” helped him start a car.

“The Dog Strikes Back” will run in the second quarter of Sunday’s game.

Anheuser Busch, meanwhile, will introduce a new dog — a rescued mutt — in its ad for Bud Light. The dog’s name is Weego, and he fetches a bottle of guess what whenever he hears someone say, “Here, Weego.”

Then there’s the controversial Skechers ad, which the company hopes more people will find funny and inspiring than offensive. (Filmed at Tucson Greyhound Park, it has led to protests and a boycott of Skechers by the anti- greyhound racing group Grey2KUSA.)

Skechers, in case you haven’t stayed abreast, featured Kim Kardashian in its Super Bowl ad last year. This year it put its money on an athletic-shoe wearing French bulldog named Mr. Quiggly, who, in the ad, goes up against a group of racing greyhounds.

Leonard Armato, president of Skechers Fitness Group, says the spot is about inspiration — not greyhound racing: “We believe he’ll be the most lovable dog on the Super Bowl.”

As we’ve only seen a snippet of that one, and no sneak preview of “Weego,” we’ve got to go with the VW dog, for now, as most lovable. He’s a pretty magnificent beast, named Bolt, a 3-year-old Australian shepherd and St. Bernard mix.

As for how he achieved that amazing weight loss, you can find the answer in this “Making of The Dog Strikes Back” video:

(To see all of our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here.)

He licked her face. He nudged her hand. And when his master regained consciousness after a fall on the kitchen floor, a miniature schnauzer named Danny not only brought her the phone, but a list of phone numbers as well.

So says Bethe Bennett, of Glendale, Arizona, who’s now recuperating from her painful tumble.

Bennett fell on her tile floor Friday and broke her femur. Once she regained consciousness, with help from Danny, she hoped the dog remembered some of his old tricks, because she wasn’t expecting any visitors until Tuesday.

“I was scared. I really thought I was going to die,” Bennett told ABCNews.com. “I knew I was going into shock because I’m a nurse.”

But Danny, a trained service dog who used to care for Bennett’s now-deceased mother, was able to remember his training.

“I started asking Danny to get me the phone,” Bennett said. “He ran back and forth a couple of times barking and finally jumped up and knocked the phone over and pushed it with his nose toward me.”

She called for an ambulance, but then realized the paramedics might not be able to get into her locked house. She decided to call a neighbor, but didn’t remember the phone number.

“Paper!” she yelled, and Danny brought over five sheets, one of which had the phone numbers of Bennett’s neighbors. They arrived in time to let the paramedics in.

She is now recovering at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, with Danny by her side, ABC reported.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be the one he’d have to rescue,” she said. “He was my little hero.”