The chief complaints are from those citizens who have been attacked by off leash dogs. There are incidences where smaller dogs being walked on leash are brutally attacked by larger off leash dogs. Joggers have complained about being bitten or chased by similar dogs.

It seems that the local bylaw enforcement officers are not doing their work properly. The guilty dog owners have come up with a number of lame excuses like “he pulls too hard”, or “he needs to go faster than I can actually run “, etc.

This blatant disregard for leash bylaws if left unheeded, will result in a serious injury, and if that happens its very likely that some crafty lawyer will get involved and lawsuits could abound!

The Presidential First Dog’s Bowl

You have to had it to the Europeans -they have class.  This dog bowl for instance is just exquisite and made from fine porcelain of the best quality -not Chinese cheap made of lead.  No no…not so.  The Presidents First Dog bowl is fired 4 times and hard kilned made from Czech raw production materials.

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The second and third most common causes were jumping and falling, respectively, making up collectively another 40 percent of fracture claims. These claims most often involved pets jumping or falling from couches, beds or the laps of their owners.

The remaining 20 percent of fracture claims included those in which pets ran into stationary objects, fought with other pets, got caught in a tight space or were unintentionally struck with moving objects.

Breaks to the humerus, femur, radius, ulna and tibia made up most of the fracture claims in 2008. The most common treatment of these breaks, surgical implantation of an orthopedic plate, had an average submitted claim fee of $1,500.

“Broken bones are painful for pets and costly for pet owners,” said Carol McConnell, vice president and chief veterinary medical officer for VPI. “Injury prevention includes careful management of a pet’s environment by removing possible threats and eliminating situations that might put a pet at risk. To prevent pet accidents or injuries caused by moving vehicles, pets should be kept on a leash at all times while away from home. If a pet has a tendency to bolt out the door and into the street, the pet should be desensitized to open doors or restricted to a safe area by a fence or baby gate.

MyPAWSBtnFor years pet owners fretted about traveling with pets on airplanes when they get put into a cage and into the cargo compartment where the temperatures can be very cold since the cargo area is not heated. Many pets have made traumatic trips in the past but now with Pet Airlines -it is a whole new world in pet travel.

Have you ever seen a pet dog in their traveling crate go around and around in the luggage carousel waiting to be picked up by their owners who are probably waiting at the other end of the airport? The CEO and President of Pet Airways is David Wiesel and he says “ you see on Pet Airways, your pets aren’t packages, they are pawsengers.”

Pets that travel on the other commercial airlines are often traumatized for life from the experience and can have a heart attack or die but pet owners have not had any choices with how their pets are handled. If we were to track a pet on a regular commercial airline especially when they are handled like baggage-not many pet owners would want to repeat the experience.

The service starts with you dropping off your pet at the Pet Lounge and they get taken to the pet washroom before takeoff for one last washroom break. Each pet gets a pet attendant for the flight and you can track your pet’s progress on the Pet Tracker which is an online tracking system of the flight.

The first flight takes off on July 14th for the big Pet Airlines takeoff where all pets will travel in the body of the plane -not the cargo area. Currently flight schedules are:

New York to Chicago, New York to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Chicago,

The company based in Florida has scheduled flights from New York to and from Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver or Washington D.C. Now the FAA leave the pet travel to the airlines and their rules are that your pet -container and all must fit under a seat, which is not a very big space.

The other Airlines will only accept one or two pets per flight and if they are booked for the flight you want -your out of luck and your pet stays home. Not very pet friendly are they and certainly not very comfortable even for small pets and you can’t bring a large dog like a Golden or a German Sheppard.

The SPCA of San Francisco found that there were 2 million animals transported by the airlines each year that 5,000 of them are seriously injured. Most animals die of suffocation, overheated or overly cold cargo areas with poor ventilation. In some cases if the pet is near a motor as was the case with one airline-the animal got burnt.

The other problem is that veterinarians tell you to give your dog a sedative for the duration of the trip and that in itself can be harmful. With Pet Airways your pet has an attendant to take care of it and keep it occupied for the trip instead of no one looking after it.

Your pet will be offered food and drink for the trip depending on the length of the trip.

Results of an Associated Press poll show that half of all American pet owners view their pets as part of their family.

The majority of us would do anything for another family member, and more often than not this devotion will bubble over when it comes to our pets.

Too often examples of how much a pet means to a family are exhibited, the most common example of which would probably have to be the vet office.

As a whole, we spend millions on veterinary care each and every year, now if we didn’t love our pets as much as we do would we spend that kind of money?

In addition, 36% of poll respondants considered their pets part of their family, but not fully. Does this mean that a pet owner falling into this category would not pay a big vet bill to save their pet’s life?

It is believed that propane was to blame for the explosion at the Pennsylvania kennel that killed Genghis Khan, Stewart’s Chow puppy.

The explosion occurred during a propane delivery to the kennel on Saturday, and also injured the driver of the delivery truck.

In total 17 dogs were killed in the explosion.

On her blog, Stewart expressed condolences for the injury sustained by the driver of the truck, and for the death of her own dog, plus the other 16 animals.

But he draws the line at giving canines body piercings or fat cats liposuction. “That’s just not what I do,” said the longtime head of surgery at Boston’s Angell Animal Medical Center.

The 58-year-old surgeon is known as a pioneer in reconstructive animal surgery and is so skilled at saving severely sick and injured animals he is sought out by worried pet owners from around the world. Pavletic has cared for thousands of animals, including a dog that swallowed an engagement ring right before the wedding, a cat needing a face reattached and a gorilla that required reconstructive surgery on a finger.

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“It’s been more than 500 years that these dogs have played a part in great moments of humanity,” raved Hugo Oliveira of the Association for the Protection of Water Dogs, which champions the poodle-like breed in Portugal.

“It could be one of ours. Why not?” Carla Peralta, a Water Dog breeder in the southern Algarve region, told the popular 24 Horas daily.

Peralta’s bitch is expecting puppies at Easter time — around the period that the Obamas hope to get their dog.

Speaking to People magazine this week, First Lady Michelle Obama confirmed that the family is looking to adopt an unwanted Portuguese Water Dog, whose hypoallergenic coat would suit allergy-prone older daughter Malia.

“Temperamentally they’re supposed to be pretty good,” she said. “From the size perspective, they’re sort of middle of the road… And the folks that we know who own them have raved about them.”

With a history going back to pre-Christian times, the Portuguese Water Dog travelled with world with 15th century Portuguese explorers, swimming between ships with its webbed feet.

Fishermen meanwhile used them to recover lost nets and guard boats.

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