ohmidog!

Wendy Diamond started planning a lavish wedding for her Maltese after learning Lucky had cancer.

It was intended as a tribute to her famous dog, and a way to raise money for a worthy cause.

When Lucky, who held the world record for being photographed with celebrities, died last month, Diamond — a TV personality, animal welfare advocate and founder of Animal Fair magazine — apparently decided the wedding should go on.

Last night it did, with a new bride — her rescued dog, Baby Hope. Diamond was hoping to break the Guinness World Record, as she did with her photographs of Lucky, by holding the most expensive animal wedding ever, and raise money for animals at the same time.

The nuptials took place last night at the Jumeirah Essex House — Baby Hope married Chilly Pasternak, a Virginia poodle chosen in an online vote — with proceeds going to the Humane Society of New York.

The extravagant touches included a $6,000 custom wedding dress for the tiny bride, a $5,000 sushi spread, and a $15,000 seven-piece orchestra, according to the New York Daily News.

Wedding planner Harriette Rose Katz, organized the event. Kleinfeld couture bridal designers Michelle and Henry Roth tailored a $6,000 two-toned, white French lace-encrusted dress with Swarovski crystals and a silk train for the bride. TLC’s “Cake Boss” based in Hoboken is making the wedding cake

The vendors donated their services. Some 250 humans and 50 dogs were expected to attend.

Diamond adopted Lucky in 1999, and the dog inspired her to launch her Animal Fair Media empire. She photographed Lucky with hundreds of celebrities as part of a campaign to stop shelters from euthanizing pets.

After Lucky died in June — while the wedding was being planned — Diamond decided that Baby Hope, a dog she’d been fostering, would make a fine bride.

Tickets to Animal Fair’s “Pet Wedding of the Century” started at $250, with “distinguished sponsors” forking over $10,000 for a table. The couple plans a honeymoon in the Hamptons.

Bruschi, a Boston terrier, has the biggest eyes of any dog in the world.

So says Guinness World Records, which measured them.

Bruschi’s eyes measure 28 millimeters — more than one inch in diameter. Each.

The four-year-old dog’s owner, Victoria Reed, adopted him from a shelter in 2009, according to People.com.

She said she sought out the official distinction after all the comments she’d get on her dog’s bulging eyes – from friends, family and even her own vet.

We won’t diminish Bruschi’s achievement by getting all bogged down in how some breeders attempt to produce caricatures of dog breeds, including pups with bigger eyes — that being considered the foremost factor in how much dogs appeal to us humans.

We won’t question whether, by shining a spotlight on Bruschi,  Guinness is encouraging breeders to create even more freakish dogs.

And we’ll just barely mention that one of Bruschi’s eyeballs popped out of its socket last year, and that he has only peripheral vision in both eyes.

People.com says “the energetic and playful pooch loves to play dress-up and is otherwise in perfectly good health.”

“Some people do make fun of him for his looks,” she told Guinness. “But I feel like he would go up to them and say, ‘Haha, look where I am now, I’ve got a record for my looks!’”

A 2.5-pound dog in New Jersey has been named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the ”world’s smallest working dog,” wresting the honor from the former title-holder, a 6.6-pound search and rescue dog in Japan.

Lucy, a 3-year-old mini Yorkshire terrier who works as a therapy dog, received the certificate — which is considerably larger than her – on Saturday.

Just 6 inches long, and 5.7 inches high, Lucy belongs to Sally Leone Montufar, of Absecon. “She gets a lot of attention already,” Montufar told the Camden Courier Post. “She stops traffic.”

Lucy, who was homeless two years ago, now works as a therapy dog through the Cherry Hill program Leashes of Love, visiting hospitals, nursing homes and schools.

“She had to be trained to sit for long periods, lay for long periods, not be flustered when there’s wheelchairs and walkers all around, and she has to be able to walk for me and be nonaggressive,” Montufar said.

Montufar used to run a pet boutique called Paw Dazzle, and one day a woman came in with several dogs — all headed for an animal shelter.

“She was so pitiful and lethargic, I couldn’t leave her,” Montufar said of Lucy. “I didn’t know if I could save her or not.”

Montufar, a former teacher, hopes Lucy will serve as an advocate for rescuing dogs.

“There’s a lot of people out there who are desperate for companionship,” she said.

Buddy, a surfing dog from Ventura, took top honors in the Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon over the weekend in Del Mar, California.

The largest surfing dog competition in the nation, the event raised more than $100,000, according to the Helen Woodward Animal Center.

Eighty dogs competed in the sixth annual contest, presented by Eukanuba.  Buddy, who is 14, has won five of the six Surf Dog Surf-A-Thons. He also was inducted into the Surf Dog Hall of Fame. 

“That last heat was probably the best of Buddy’s life,” Bruce Hooker, Buddy’s owner, said during the ceremony.

More than 4,000 spectators gathered to watch dogs compete in four weight classes.

Meanwhile at the Surf City Surf Dog competition in Huntington Beach on Sunday, Abbie’G, an Australian Kelpie, set the first-ever Guinness World Record for the longest surf ride by a dog.

She rode a wave 65 yards, according to the GPS system duct-taped to her wetsuit. A Guinness World Record representative monitored the attempt.

(Photo: Michael Schrager / Helen Woodward Animal Center)

More than 100 dogs took part in 9-11 search and rescue efforts.

A decade later, only a dozen of them are still alive.

They are the subject of Retrieved, a new book by Charlotte Dumas, a Dutch photographer who tracked down the last surviving 9-11 dogs – three died while she was working on the book — and tells their story in words and pictures.

Dumas, 34, traveled to nine states in the U.S. from Texas to Maryland to photograph the dogs, now living with their handlers, in their twilight years.

The book, which, came out Friday, tells the story of them all, including Kaiser, Tuff, Hoke, Red, Merlyn, Guinness, Bretagne, Tara, Moxie, Abigail and Scout.

(The book doesn’t mention one 9-11 dog who died two years ago — but whose genes live on in his five clones.)

Noted for her touching portraits of animals, Dumas wanted Retrieved to mark not only the anniversary of the September 2001 attacks, but also serve as recognition for some of the first responders and their dogs.

“I felt this was a turning point, especially for the dogs, who although are not forgotten, are not as prominent as the human stories involved,” she said. “They speak to us as a different species, and animals are greatly important for our sense of empathy and to put things into perspective.”

Dumas contacted the New York Fire Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and discovered that out of nearly 100 dogs who were among the first responders, only 15 were still alive last year.

“They are all retired and I spent time with each of their handlers learning about their experiences,” Dumas said.

“The dogs are now old and they will soon pass away … These portraits are about how time passes, and how these dogs and their portraits are offering us a way to deal with the things that happened as well as relying on them for comfort.”

Since 2002, Charlotte Dumas has worked exclusively on photographic projects exploring the ways in which we use, define and relate to animals. Her previous works include Al Lavoro! (2011), Repose (2010), Paradis (2009), Heart Shaped Hole (2008), Reverie (2006), and Day is Done (2005).

(Photos: Tara (top) and Abigail; by Charlotte Dumas, from the book Retrieved)

Harbor, an 8-year-old black and tan coonhound who lives in Boulder, Colorado, has been proclaimed by Guinness World Records to have the longest ears of any living dog.

He’s owned by Jennifer Wert, who says as a youngster Harbor had a little trouble walking, often tripping over his ears and falling over himself.

“I’ve had garbage trucks pull over, and the garbage man will get out of the driver’s seat to jump down and pet him,” Wert said. “I don’t even see his ears anymore; most days I forget how oddly long they are. But he’s a phenomenon in the world, and he creates smiles no matter where we are.”

Harbor’s left ear measures 12.25 inches long and his right ear a whopping 13.75, Guinness confirms.

The longest ears ever honor, however, is still held by Tigger, a bloodhound from Illinois who died in 2009.

Harbor will be included in Guinness World Records 2012, a book that will become available in the U.S. on Sept. 15th.

The San Diego Padres may be in the basement of the National League West, but they set a record this week.

Guinness World Record officials were at PETCO Park’s annual “Dog Days of Summer” event to pronounce it official: The 337 costume-clad dogs is now the record for most dogs in a pet costume parade.

The annual infield costume parade was lead by Tillman, the world famous skateboarding dog. The record setting took place during the Wednesday, before the Padres played the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It has been an amazing record attempt and I’m happy to say it was successful,” said Freddie Hoff, adjudicator for Guinness World Records. “The 337 dogs in the costume parade was way above the set amount and on behalf of Guinness World Records, I’d like to say congratulations.”

Puggy, a tiny 10-year-old Pekingese living in Texas, has been recognized by the 2011 edition of Guinness World Records for having the longest tongue of any dog.

Judges confirmed that Puggy’s tongue is 4.5 inches long, which, though a bit freakish for his size, doesn’t seem all that world record breaking to me.

Possibly they are just measuring that portion of tongue that protrudes from the mouth; or possibly they are looking at tongues in relation to a dog’s overall size. Nevertheless, it’s still a pretty big tongue.

According to The Telegraph, Puggy was abandoned by a breeder as a pup because of his looks, but then taken in by a Texas couple.

“‘People who meet Puggy for the first time do a lot of double takes; they are in total disbelief and are amused by his unique appearance,” said Becky Stanford, Puggy’s owner.

”It means a great deal to us that he has accomplished what he has. From being a stray dog, being dumped, to being a Guinness World Record Holder is just phenomenal. I just can’t believe it.”

 
The Great (Dane) Debate is over:  The “World’s Tallest Dog” is Giant George of Tucson, Guinness World’s Records has proclaimed.

The 250-pound blue Great Dane wrested the title away from Titan, a white, partly blind Great Dane from San Diego who held it little more than three months.

Guinness World Records says George is the tallest dog ever on record, standing 43 inches tall at the shoulder, three-quarters of an inch taller than Titan.

Titan was named World’s Tallest Dog last November after the death of the previous title-holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane from Grass Valley, Calif., who died of bone cancer.

Giant George was in the running then, but disputed measurements and late paperwork left his owner, David Nasser, unable to qualify.

Guinness officials say there were conflicting reports about Giant George’s height, so they sent a judge to verify it.

Guinness made the announcement this morning, and George and Nasser appeared this afternoon on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Diana Taylor, Titan’s owner, told the San Diego Union-Tribune she didn’t intend to watch the show because she was busy Monday trying to find a swim vest that would fit Titan, her 190-pound deaf, epileptic and partly blind “special needs dog,” for his first water therapy session.

A blog post on Titan’s website site argues that Titan should still be tops. Taylor says she intends to lodge a dispute but won’t exert a lot of energy on a challenge if Titan’s reign is officially over.

Giant George, we should point out, has his own website as well, which, according to Taylor, was part of a massive public relations effort to steal the title away from her dog.

“Regardless of whether he’s the world’s tallest dog or not, he’s still this beautiful deaf and blind Great Dane, and no one can take that away from him,” Taylor said of Titan.

The blog post read, in part:

“Despite the fact that it detracted from our mission of helping rescue and special-needs dogs, I strived to take the high road. But now, after months of having our accomplishment overshadowed by this media blitz-kreig of poor sportsmanship (and on the eve of this dog actually being on Oprah) I’ve decided it’s time to let the public know the truth about ‘Giant’ George.

“…Confused at how to measure his dog, this owner took two official measurements… one at the shoulder and another halfway up the neck. Guinness requirements state an animal must be measured at the shoulder. See below — when measured correctly George is only 39 1/8″ compared to Titan’s certified height of 42.25″.

“George’s ‘record-breaking’ 43″ is based on a measurement halfway up the neck, a procedure that does not follow industry standards or meet Guinness requirements…”

Guinness spokeswoman Jamie Panas said last week that Nasser’s claim to the title was one of more than 100 the company received since late last year.“It’s a huge record for us,” she said. “The pet records resonate the most with our readers.”

(Photo: Courtesy of Guinness World Records)

Fox News reported yesterday that the world’s oldest dog has died.

Unfortunately, they were dead wrong about that dog’s identity.

According to the initial Fox report: “Chanel, a wire-haired dachshund, died at her owners’ home in Port Jefferson Station on Long Island, N.Y.”

Accurate enough — not to mention fair and balanced — but a bit off, timing-wise. Chanel died at age 20 nearly five months ago.

It was the new World’s Oldest Dog who died this week: Otto (above), also a dachshund, residing in Britain.

Otto, nearly 21, was officially crowned the most senior canine in the world by the Guinness Book of Records in October of last year, after the timely death of Chanel.

On Wednesday, Otto’s owner took him to the vet, who recommended that Otto, suffering from stomach tumors, be put down, according to the Daily Mail

Peter Jones, 68, said he and his wife Lynn, 53, were devastated by the loss. The dachshund-terrier mix was playful to the end. They attributed his longevity to “plenty of love, plenty of good food and regular check-ups at the vets.”

Describing his pet’s final day, Jones, of Shrewsbury, said: “He slept in my bed. He woke up in the morning and he gave me the usual kiss…I was having a bath, he wanted to play, and he brought me his ball. But as soon as I bounced it a couple of times he went asleep again. He was absolutely cream crackered.” (British readers, translation please.)

Most who would pick up the story from the British press got it right. But apparently the folks at Fox News goofed up in Googling, came across the old stories on Chanel (left) and re-reported her death instead.

Others would go on to repeat the error (though we’d hope they’d have it corrected by now), including Shortnews.com.

A new world’s oldest dog will be named by Guinness.

Rest in peace, Otto.

And you, too, Chanel.