Dogs and Swimming

This charming new entry in The New York Times' Puppy Diaries series reminds us that many of our pooches love to swim. Dogs that range from Portuguese Water Dogs and Retrievers to Poodles and Newfoundlands were literally bred to paddle their paws, and swimming can be great exercise for pooches. Nonetheless, although it may seem to us humans that the dog paddle is hard-wired into every canine brain, not all dogs like swimming or know what to do when they enter the water.

Thus, swimming safety is as critical for Fido as it is for people. So, whether you live somewhere that permits swimming year-round, or you can only bring your furry friend to the beach during the summer, keep these safety rules in mind:

• NEVER let Fido swim unattended or unsupervised.
• Verify that your dog knows how to exit the water.
• Be realistic about your dog's fitness and agility level and her desire to swim. Some dogs are perfectly happy walking around in ankle deep water, some dogs could spend all day paddling around the deep end of a pool and some are terrified at the mere thought of putting paw to water. Listen to your dog!
• Don't toss Fido into the water, introduce him gradually so he doesn't panic and sink.
• If you own a pool, be sure it is securely fenced in and covered when not in use.
• Use safety equipment like entry and exit ramps and canine life jackets.
• Wash your dog after his swim. Chlorine and lake or ocean water can leave stinky and irritating residue.

And, as Jill's grandfather used to say, don't let Fido swim on a full stomach.

How Smart are Dogs?

We all like to think of our dogs as being two (or perhaps even one!) step removed from Einstein. Much of this is not mere pride -- dogs accomplish some pretty remarkable things, and can be trained to do tasks both astonishing and profoundly useful.

This past week, the New York Times took a look at one such furry friend named Jet. If you don't feel inadequate after reading this, well, you're probably more interesting than the two of us:

He is both a seizure alert dog and a psychiatric service dog whose owner has epilepsy, severe anxiety, depression, various phobias and hypoglycemia. Jet has been trained to anticipate seizures, panic attacks and plunging blood sugar and will alert his owner to these things by staring intently at her until she does something about the problem. He will drop a toy in her lap to snap her out of a dissociative state. If she has a seizure, he will position himself so that his body is under her head to cushion a fall.

Sounds pretty amazing, eh? You're not the only one who is impressed:

In September, the Army announced that it would spend $300,000 to study the impact of pairing psychiatric service dogs like Jet with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Both the House and Senate have recently passed bills that would finance the training and placement of these dogs with veterans.

Well, here's the rub: are these dogs aware of what they're doing? Are they "thinking" or are they merely responding in conditioned ways to certain stimuli (the way, for example, Jill does when she is near a french fry).

One researcher at the University of British Colombia has attempted to figure this out, by giving dogs language tests and other intelligence exams meant for toddlers. Based on that, he has categorized different dogs by how many commands they can learn. Shadow, Jill's dog, will be pleased to know that Poodles are one of the smartest dogs according to this researcher. Another researcher, however, at the University of Florida, argues that dogs are simply deeply sensitive to the human beings around them, and that through conditioning they can effectively mimic the traits of human thought.

We're not sure of the truth. But we challenge anyone to deny that Zeke, Billy's Portuguese Water Dog, is not interested in the latest developments in fluid dynamics....

Is There a Presidential Dog Walker?

I'm sure that many of you have wondered about walking habits of the Presidential dog, Bo. Who walks him? What happens when the President and his family are traveling -- who takes care of Bo?

The answer is here. It turns out that there is a designated Presidential dog walker, who has walked our national canines since 1972. His name, is Dale Haney, and we can now report that his favorite Presidential dog was Spot, the dearly departed dog of President George W. Bush (and ironically a puppy born of Millie, the dog owned by the elder President George H.W. Bush).

It's really quite an interesting tale!

Come Meet Us at The Greater Philadelphia Pet Expo This Weekend!

Billy pampers a K9 police dog at the Meet the Breeds event in NYC in October

If you live near Philadelphia, we'd love to meet you! We'll be at the The Greater Philadelphia Pet Expo on November 6-8 at the The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, 422 Business Center, Oaks PA. Billy will be speaking several times during the event and answering all your dog care questions.

In addition, stop by the Pledge® Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair booth to get your copy of Happy Dog: Caring For Your Dog's, Body Mind and Spirit signed by Billy and Jill and pick up some valuable coupons. Billy and Jill will donate $1 from every book purchased to the American Humane Association.

Click here to see other places you can meet Billy and Jill.

Old Dogs

Here at Happy Dog Land, we never cease to be moved by the sight of an old dog, half-remembering its frisky past, shuffling along beside its human companion, a sign that the circle of life was more than an Elton John sing-along. Andrew Sullivan notes a particularly moving story by Gene Weingarten, entitled "Why Old Dogs are the Best Dogs." Weigngarten, best known for perhaps the finest piece of feature writing ever put to paper, "The Peekaboo Paradox," tells the story of his recently departed dog, Harry. In this canine tribute, Weingarten says something unexpected and oddly powerful:

Puppies are incomparably cute and incomparably entertaining, and, best of all, they smell exactly like puppies. At middle age, a dog has settled into the knuckleheaded matrix of behavior we find so appealing—his unquestioning loyalty, his irrepressible willingness to please, his infectious happiness. But it is not until a dog gets old that his most important virtues ripen and coalesce. Old dogs can be cloudy-eyed and grouchy, gray of muzzle, graceless of gait, odd of habit, hard of hearing, pimply, wheezy, lazy, and lumpy. But to anyone who has
ever known an old dog, these flaws are of little consequence. Old dogs are vulnerable. They show exorbitant gratitude and limitless trust. They are without artifice. They are funny in new and unexpected ways. But, above all, they seem at peace.

Many shelters specialize in placing older dogs in new homes. Check Petfinder and Adopt-A-Pet, where you can search for dogs by age.

Circus Dogs

We are of mixed feelings here at Happy Dog Land about circuses. There have been many reports over the years regarding mistreatment of circus animals, and we are not completely convinced that many traditional circus animals are enjoying their fate.

However, we may make an exception here. The Big Apple Circus, apparently, does not use exotic animals (no elephants, etc.). Instead, this circus adopts homeless domestic animals and then trains them to become circus performers. Even more importantly, these dogs live with their trainer as pets.

One detail, however, was particularly striking:

Mr. Anastasini is adamant about taking care of the dogs after they retire. They still long to perform, he says, so he often runs them through their old acts to keep them happy. One of his goals is to build a shelter to rehabilitate problem animals and return them to their owners or give them to others. And where does Mr. Anastasini take the animals during their three-month stay in New York? Central Park, of course. “A lot of people think I’m a dog walker,” he said.

Now that's a circus we can get behind...

Military Rescue

We challenge anyone not to be moved by this story of a Marine stationed in Iraq and his dog. Interestingly, this is a case of a feral, wild dog (and see our in-depth discussion of that phenomenon here) who chose his human companion. Which just goes to show that dogs can be good judges of character!