ohmidog!

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.

While we bare our souls from time to time here at ohmidog! – and probably even more so on Travels With Ace – we, unlike some members of Congress, try to keep our privates private.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of some our dog-blogging peers.

Foley Monster, a highly respected Yorkshire terrier whose blog is among those on our recommended reading list (see blogroll in our right hand column) has apologized to constituents for Tweeting photos of her crotch area.

In a statement issued last week Foley Monster (A) denied the photo circulating through Twitter was her, (B) admitted it was, (C) denied Tweeting it, (D) admitted she did, and then (E) fell back on the “everybody does it” defense.

“Let me state first of all, that is not a picture of me,” Foley Monster said. “There are plenty of adorable, fit, super sexy Yorkshire Terriers out there and that could be any one of us … Oh all right.  That is me.  I mean who am I trying to kid?  Who else could be that adorable?”

After admitting the crotch in question belonged to her, Foley Monster first blamed hackers, or jealous enemies, or family members for Tweeting the photo, then admitted she had done it.

“I am very sorry if my actions offended anyone,” she said. “Anyway I’m not the only one who does this, look at this collection of slutty puppies.”

In a blog post, Foley Monster (that’s her to the left) backs up her statement with a portfolio of pooches shamelessly exposing their groins for all to see.

Dogs, it seems, will be dogs.

“I know that this behavior must be a great shock to my family …  I would like to apologize to my constituents,” Foley Monster said. “ …. I know you have always trusted me to make the best decision for you and instead of doing so I’ve been spreading my fluffy over six continents … 

“To be clear I have not met any of these dogs or had a physical relationship of any kind.  I haven’t told the truth and I’ve done things I deeply regret.  I once bit a squirrel in Reno just to watch it die…

Foley Monster goes on to confess all her other sins.

“I brought pain to those dogs who trust me, and most of all believe in me … In closing I would like to say I am deeply ashamed of my terrible judgement and actions.  But I’m not going to stop.  If you would like more dirty pictures of me please let me just drop me an e-mail.  I can’t stop now and disappoint my fans.

“That would make me some kind of Weiner.”

(Photos of Foley Monster and that immodest black and white dog courtesy of Foley Monster and Pocket)

A neglected Yorkshire terrier, named Twinkle, gave birth to a litter — all stillborn – not long after she was dropped off at the Forsyth County Animal Shelter in North Carolina.

Shortly after that, the Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation (AARF), also in Winston-Salem, got a call about a golden retriever who had been killed by a car, leaving eight puppies behind — all less than a week old.

A volunteer at AARF had taken in Twinkle as her foster dog, and, before you know it, Twinkle was performing motherly duties, after all — for two of the deceased golden retriever’s puppies, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Twinkle, as she was dubbed by the shelter, was given two of the puppies – named Brandi and Kahlua. She was too small to nurse any more than that.

AARF officials says she accepted the pups as her own.

“She’s happy, the babies are receiving the love of a surrogate mother, and all is well,” Janice Freeman, the chairwoman of AARF’s board, told the Journal.

The other puppies, now about 4½ weeks old, are being bottle-fed. They all will be available for adoption in four weeks.

(Photo: Lauren Carroll / Winston-Salem Journal)

The first comes from Washington, D.C., where a woman left her Yorkshire terrier in her car Saturday while she popped into a laundromat. When she returned, her car window was smashed and her beloved William was gone.

“He’s so much a part of my family. Everyone that knows him loves him. I know he’s scared right now. I can’t sleep because I know he’s scared, and he doesn’t know these people. He’s not gonna eat. They just need to get him back,” Denise Conner-Battle told ABC 7 News.

The second comes from Middleton, Wisconsin, where a dog left in a car while his owner stopped for lunch Thursday somehow managed to shift the car from park to neutral.

Police said the car rolled out of its parking spot and into a pickup truck across the lot. Damage to both vehicles was estimated in the thousands of dollars, according to an Associated Press report. The dog was fine.

The boyfriend of Broadway actress Ashley Yeater has been charged with whipping and kicking her Yorkshire terrier after the 6-pound dog bit him.

Joseph Graves, 30, admitted to investigators he beat the dog, named Emmit, in January, the New York Daily News reports.

“I flew into a rage. Emmit bit me, so I hit him with a belt buckle and kicked him,” prosecutors quote Graves as saying.

Graves took Emmit to a veterinary hospital two days later, after the 4-year-old terrier was vomiting and had stopped eating. Hospital staff, after determining the dog suffered six broken ribs and bruised kidneys, contacted the ASPCA. The dog also lost his left eye as a result of the Jan. 16 attack in Graves’ midtown apartment.

“The pet was nearly killed because a person couldn’t control his temper,” ASCPA spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said. “It’s inexcusable.”

Graves was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony, and criminal mischief.

Emmit was treated at the West Chelsea Veterinary Hospital and is staying with relatives of Yeater, who was appearing in a Florida performance of a “A Chorus Line” when the dog was beaten.

A California woman paid $10,000 to get her dog Lexi back after the Chihuahua-Yorkie mix was taken from her Cadillac Escalade while it was parked outside a restaurant.

The Contra Costa Times termed it a “reward,” but it sounds more like a ransom.

On  Friday night, Debbie Brown and her boyfriend left a restaurant in Concord and found a window of their vehicle had been smashed. Lexi, a 2-year-old “Chorkie” was gone.

Brown posted fliers promising a $10,000 reward, no questions asked, for Lexi’s safe return, which led to a flood of callers — none of whom had the dog.

She called a psychic for help, and a pet detective, who told her that chorkies are in demand and that dognappers target them for breeding purposes.

Over the weekend, Brown received photos of Lexi  via e-mail, and made arrangments to pick her up Monday morning in Alameda, where the cash and the dog were exchanged.

Elena Bicker, executive director of the Walnut Creek-based Animal Rescue Foundation, said the case shows the importance of never leaving pets unattended in public areas, especially small breeds that have been targeted by dognappers.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Bicker said. “And this certainly was a pound of cure.”

It’s not clear if Brown ever reported the theft of her dog to police, or how long she had left her beloved dog alone in the vehicle.

“She’s my life, she’s our baby,” Brown said. “I used to laugh at people like me and say ‘It’s just a dog.’ But she is a member of the family.”

For five straight days, Greg Wong returned to the lonely stretch of highway on Wyoming’s prairie where his wife was killed, searching not for closure but for Sammie and Maddie, the two small dogs traveling with her.

Hours after state police on May 30 called his home in Laramie, notifying him that his wife, Susan, had been killed  on Highway 487, Wong made the first two-hour trip, arriving at 2 a.m., just as a tow truck pulled the SUV his wife had been driving from a deep ravine.

Police told Wong that his wife apparently lost control of the vehicle. It rolled over three times and landed in the ravine. Police told him no dogs were found inside the vehicle, or in the area.

Wong told the Casper Star-Tribune that as soon as he got the news, it was as if he heard his wife’s voice in his head, saying “find the dogs.”

“I guess a lot of it didn’t soak in,” he said. “…You get to that point where you almost turn into a zombie. You are afraid to start thinking about it too much because emotionally you can’t handle it. I kept focusing on ‘you have to find those dogs.’ In a way, I was thinking my last connection to my wife was those dogs.”

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Car thieves stole John Schneider’s sport utility vehicle at a suburban Los Angeles mall last week, including two pups that were early Christmas gifts for his children.

The Escalade belonging to the co-star of the old “Dukes of Hazzard” TV show has since been found — but not the dogs, according to an Associated Press report.

TMZ reported that Schneider searched the neighborhood for the 10-week-old dogs, a Yorkie, named Paisley, and a Yorkie-Poodle mix, named Marley. He says he suspects whoever took the SUV is caring for the dogs, or even re-gifting them.

Goldendoodle

Despite all the buzz about “hypoallergenic dogs” since the Obamas indicated they may get one, there are no breeds that are truly free of potential allergens, some medical experts say.

“I don’t think there is such a thing as a hypoallergenic dog,” allergy and asthma expert Corinna Bowser (really, BOWSER!) of Havertown, Pa. told WebMD.

While there are countless websites devoted to “hypoallergenic dogs,” the Obamas could find it difficult to find one to which their older daughter, Malia, won’t have an allergic reaction.

Bowser explains that the major allergen in dogs is a protein found in dog serum, and dogs excrete that allergen in sweat and shed it from their skin. “It also gets secreted into the saliva, and possibly a little bit in the urine,” Bowser says.

Since all dogs have that protein, no dog is completely allergy-free, according to Bowser.

She said a German study, published this year, tracked allergies among people exposed to various dog breeds and found that factors related to individual dogs seem to influence the “allergenicity” more than breed or gender.

Breeds commonly cited as hypoallergenic include the poodle, (and several poodle hybrids, like the goldendoodle), Bichon Frise, Maltese, Yorkshire Terrier, Portugese Water Dog, Schnauzer, West Highland Terrier, Basenji, Airedale Terrier, and our good friend, the Xoloitzcuintli.

Smaller dogs, and short-haired breeds might be less risky, Bowser said. “Hair length could have something to do with how it spreads in the house,” she said, explaining that shorter dog hairs may not stick as much as long hair to furniture, clothes, and other surfaces.

Bowser went on to say that if she was the Obama family doctor, “I would say it’s probably better not to get a dog.”

“Of course, now he made the promise and he kind of has to,” she said. Bowser recommends that before they get a dog of their own the Obama family dog-sit to see how Malia’s allergies fare, and set some rules about how they’ll handle any allergy issues.

Rather than carry their little dogs in a handbag, American celebrities might want to look into carrying the contents of their handbag in a little dog. Or so Stuffed Ark, a maker of dog handbags — like this Yorkie  ($38.50) – might suggest.
Stuffed Ark says of its fuzzy plush Yorkshire Terrier handbag, “Just shake ‘n fluff and you’re sure to turn heads.”
The bags, which come in about every small breed you can think of, also have removeable straps and collars, zippered pouches inside for keys and lipstick and, in the case of the Yorkie, a rhinestone hairclip. No word on whether they shed, but they are reportedly exceptionally good at “staying.”

(Photo courtesy of stuffedark.com)