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The Virginia city of Suffolk has approved a ban on dog-tethering, effective the first of September.

After months of wrangling over details and considering compromises, the city council voted 6-2 to enact an outright ban on dog-tethering, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

Suffolk joins a growing number of Virginia cities that have taken steps to ban or limit tethering dogs outside. Hampton forbids it, and Portsmouth, Norfolk and Virginia Beach limit tethering to a maximum of three hours a day.

Suffolk City Councilman Mike Duman, who had proposed a 10-hour a day limit, said he was pleased with the outcome.

Police Chief Thomas Bennett told the council an outright ban would be easier to enforce than restricting tethering to a certain number of hours a day.

The ordinance makes tethering a Class Four misdemeanor punishable by a $250 fine.

(Photo: A tethered dog photographed in the Pleasant Hill area of Suffolk; by Jason Hirschfeld / The Virginian-Pilot)

Salt Lake County is considering a change in its doggie dining laws that would permit restaurant owners to decide whether to allow dogs in their outside seating areas.

The policy change — modeled after one in Dallas — would not force restaurants to let dogs sit outside with their owners; it would only permit them to do so if they so choose.

The board of health is seeking feedback from residents on the proposed regulation change, according to the Salt Lake Tribune

In Dallas, a “Paws on the Patio” initiative four years ago led to 64 restaurants deciding to participate, with few problems.

“Every now and then, we’ll get one about a dog in a restaurant or dogs on the patio sitting in a chair,” said Matt Cloninger, Dallas sanitarian supervisor. “But we don’t get a lot of complaints.”

Salt Lake County Council member Arlyn Bradshaw, who brought the proposal to the board of health, said he has received “overwhelmingly supportive” feedback on the idea.

“The general thought in terms of what restaurant owners have told the board is they appreciate the option,” he said. “There probably won’t be a wave of restaurants doing this.”

Cities inside the county that want to participate would have to modify their own law if it’s in conflict with the new dog regulation.

“A good shoot” is how police in Pembroke Pines, Florida, are describing the shooting of Baxter, an Australian shepherd officers opened fire on outside his owner’s home.

The 6-year-old Australian Shepherd was shot at least three times Friday night inside the gated Lido Isle neighborhood.

Police went to the house after receiving a call from a citizen who reported the dog was loose in front of the owner’s house.

The dog’s owner, Frank Jones, said Baxter was already back inside the house when police arrived, but the front door was open and the dog ran out.

His son, Cameron Jones, 13, went outside to get Baxter, who was barking at officers. “They said get your dog or we’re gonna shoot him,” the boy told Local 10 News. Two seconds later, according to the boy, they did.

Police officials said the dog bit an officer’s shoe.

Baxter was still alive Saturday (you can see video of him, not looking too ferocious, in this news report). He was being treated at a Cooper City animal clinic.

A Pembroke Pines police spokesman said the shooting was justified: “It was a good shoot,” said Pembroke Pines Police Sgt. Chris Chacon-Chang. “The officer was being attacked.”

When their dog Scamp was hit by a car, a Washington state family checked his seemingly lifeless body, then put him under a wheelbarrow, planning to bury him the next morning.

Paul McKinlay, 61, had been speaking with his son in his front yard in Yelm when Scamp, an 8-month-old Yorkie-shih tzu mix (not Shiatsu, as ABC News reported) slipped underneath the fence and ran into the street.

McKinlay heard a yelp and a thud and arrived at the street to find the dog motionless and the female driver crying.

“We checked to see if we felt any breathing out of his nose, and we couldn’t feel any heartbeat,” said Reta McKinlay.

Her husband wrapped the dog — who they’d brought home for their granchildren this summer — in a blanket. They placed his body under an overturned wheelbarrow so no animals could get to him, with plans to bury Scamp in the morning.

Then, they broke the news to the 6-year-old twins — granchildren who live with them.

“[Paul] was going to bury him the next morning so we went into the house and just told the kids the dog had gotten hit by a car and that he had gone to heaven like in that movie, ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven.’ My grandson was crying. He asked if [Scamp] evaporated like in the movie and I said, ‘Yes, that’s what happened.’”

But when Paul McKinlay went outside the next morning and lifted up the wheelbarrow, Scamp was sitting up.

Four days and $3,000 in vet bills later Scamp, who’d suffered a concussion, broken teeth and a possible jaw fracture, was brought home by the McKinlays — much to the suprise of their twin granchildren, who, just in case Scamp didn’t make it, hadn’t initially been told that the dog was still alive.

Mrs. McKinlay said her husband had been “distraught” that he left Scamp out in the cold, but vets told the couple that the cold temperatures could have kept the dog alive, by keeping his brain from swelling.

“Sometimes God’s just not ready to take something away,” she said.

A Phoenix area animal advocate plans to tie herself to a tree Saturday in hopes of raising money to provide her shelter with air conditioned dog houses.

Erica Wellman, a caregiver with Friends for Life Animal Rescue in Gilbert, hopes the demonstration will bring awareness to the plight of dogs left tied up outside in Arizona’s heat.

Temperatures this week in Arizona are expected to reach 116, according to the Arizona Republic.

The non-profit, all-volunteer, no-kill shelter currently holds 21 dogs, but it is forced to rescue fewer in the summer because of space limitations. With air-conditioned dog houses, it would be able to keep dogs outside, and have room for more.

The group recently purchased three air-conditioned doghouses from a company in Alabama at a cost of $5,800.

The non-profit group hopes the “Erica Unchained” fundraiser, starting at 8 a.m., will raise at least a $1,000.

“I can feel what it is to be a dog for a day and see how hard it is for them to handle it,” Wellman said.

Wellman will be tied to a tree with a short leash attached to her waist. A thermostat board will keep track of donations as they come in. Wellman will allow herself to take a water and potty break with every $200 donated.

“I’m hoping to get the money fast so I can come inside,” she said.

Dining with your dog could soon become legal in Frederick County, Maryland.

Sen. Alexander Mooney  is proposing a measure to give the Frederick County Commissioners the authority to allow people to dine with their dogs in outdoor dining areas, the Frederick Gazette reports.

Mooney filed the bill last week, the day after Frederick city officials — who want to see outdoor dining with dogs legalized — decided to wait on drafting a bill of their own, in light of concerns that restaurant rules and regulations fall under county jurisdiction.

Mooney’s proposal would give the county commissioners the authority to allow outdoor dining with dogs. The Maryland General Assembly would have to pass the bill, and the governor would have to sign it. Then it would be up to the county on whether to allow it.

The Downtown Frederick Partnership, which promotes economic development in downtown Frederick, has spearheaded the campaign to permit dining with dogs.

Kara Norman, executive director, said one of the partnership’s most successful events is its August “First Saturday” celebration, which is themed “Dog Days of Summer.” The event brings more than 11,000 visitors to downtown Frederick from several counties and neighboring states.

“I think it’s important to our residents and the people who live here, as well as to our tourists,” she said. “The partnership has found, and many of our merchants have found that this is a group who is loyal, willing to travel, and really appreciates that you take care of them … and their dog.”

Not too many dogs are full-time outdoor dwellers these days, but for those who are, and even those who aren’t, here’s a product that makes good sense, especially on days as miserably steamy as yesterday.

The WaterDog hooks up to your spigot and turns on when it senses your dog approaching, spewing out some fresh water to quench his thirst.

It then turns off when your dog leaves the area.

The device helps keep your dog from drinking from a stagnant pool, keeps you from constantly having to fill the water bowl and ensures he always has water.

Its inventor came up with the idea on his daily walks with Romeo, his Great Dane. Anxious over wheter the dog was getting dehydrated, the inventor would stop and turn on spigots in front of houses under construction.

That led to Romeo walking up to any spigot he saw and waiting there for his owner to turn it on — a minor inconvenience.

“As I thought more about how much Romeo loved to drink from the spigot, I decided to build one at the house, so that he could have it all the time. This was partly out of love to Romeo but also out of laziness from me, since having a device like this would free me from the chore of keeping water available,” the inventor, a mechanical engineer, says on his website.

A four-day-old child dragged out of his crib and into the yard by the family dog remained in critical condition yesterday at University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington.

Michael Smith and his wife Chrissie say when they checked on their baby Monday afternoon, he was not in his crib.

Smith told the Associated Press he headed to the family’s wooded, two-acre backyard, knowing that Dakota, a mixed breed described as a “Native American Indian Dog,” had a reputation for stealing household items and depositing them there.

Smith said when he found the dog, it was treating the baby, named Alexander James Smith, as a puppy and wasn’t being vicious.

Despite that, the infant suffered two collapsed lungs, a skull fracture, broken ribs and cuts and bruises.

Jessamine County chief deputy sheriff Allen Peel said no charges had been filed, but the case remains under investigation. He said he expects the dog, named Dakota, to be destroyed by animal control, which took him into custody Monday.

Smith said the 4-year-old was one of three dogs the family had owned since they were puppies and he had no history of aggression or problems with Smith’s two other children from a previous marriage.

When it comes to North Carolina style barbecue, there’ve been slim pickins in Baltimore. When it comes to dog-friendly restaurants, they’ve been slimmer yet.

Now there’s a place that offers both, Harbor Que, and it’s quickly become a favorite of my dog Ace.

The first time we went, he was offered a small container of free meat scraps. The second time, he received a mountain of turkey and beef, piled high in a foam container.

I can attest that what they serve the humans — wings,chicken, ribs, Carolina pulled pork, pit beef ham and turkey — is top notch as well.

Dogs are allowed on the outdoor deck at Harbor Que, which opened last month.

Harbor Que is located at 1421 Lawrence St., off Key Highway in Locust Point, just a stone’s throw from the Inner Harbor. It’s open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

So many of the life-size dog statues set up as part of a community art fundraising project in Lafayette, Indiana, have been stolen and damaged that organizers of the “Dog Days of Summer” exhibit are moving most of the works inside.

“I’m disheartened by the lack of respect for creativity,” said Joanne Kuhn Titolo, who had two pieces in the outdoor exhibit. “Because of the increased thefts, our artwork isn’t safe. This is horrifying.”

A total of 41 dog statues were installed in Lafayette, West Lafayette and on Purdue University’s campus. Two, as we told you last month, were stolen before the exhibit even offically started.

Altogether, seven have been stolen or significantly damaged, with most of the problems coming at Purdue or in West Lafayette near the Wabash River, according to Channel 6 News in Indianapolis.

As of Friday, organizers had moved 18 of the dogs, including “St. Joan of Bark,” to the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette until suitable indoor homes can be found for the work. Some dogs in Lafayette will remain in their original spots.

The “Dog Days” event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Purdue Veterinary Medicine Department and the 100th anniversary of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette.

(Photo: courtesy of Dog Days of Summer)