National Mutt Day is December 2

Now here's a holiday I can really appreciate!  

Today is National Mutt Day!

National Mutt Day is a day to celebrate the many wonderful attributes of mixed breed dogs and facilitate their adoption from shelters.  It was created by pet lifestyle expert and animal welfare advocate, Colleen Paige and sponsored by the Animal Miracle Foundation. 

At Talking Dogs, we'll be celebrating with our mutt, Jeffie.  He's a Golden Retriever and Border Collie mixed breed dog we adopted from Dogwood Animal Shelter.

Here are just a few suggestions for your celebration of National Mutt Day:

• Adopt a Mutt from your local shelter or rescue organization.  
• Volunteer at your local shelter - walk or play with some mutts.
• Have a National Mutt Day party and invite all your friends and their dogs.
• Join the National Mutt Day Facebook page and post photos of your Mutt.
• Spend some quality time with your mutt - take a walk, play with a new toy, try some new dog treats.
• Fetch www.NationalMuttDay.com for more ideas

The best way to celebrate National Mutt Day?  

 

Love your Mutt!

Foster a Pet for the Holidays

This holiday season, open your heart and your home to a pet from a shelter or rescue group.

Volunteer to foster a shelter cat or dog this holiday season and you'll be giving two gifts:  one to the pet who gets a home for the holidays, and another to the shelter workers and volunteers who take care of these pets year-round.

Learn more about Petfinder's Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays Program at

www.petfinder.com/fosteralonelypet

Black Friday: Black Dogs and Black Dog Syndrome

Black Friday.  

For thousands of black dogs, every Friday is black Friday.

Black Dog Syndrome:  dogs that are large and black, especially Labrador Retrievers, shepherd mixes, pit bulls and Rottweilers are passed over time after time in favor of smaller, lighter colored dogs when it comes to animal shelter and rescue adoptions.

A Petfinder member shelter and rescue groups survey found that most pets are listed for 12.5 months on Petfinder.  Black, senior and special needs pets spend almost four times longer on Petfinder.

According to an article published in Psychology today,  Stanley Coren notes:

"There has been speculation that the reason black dogs are being rejected is part of the fabric of our cultural heritage. In ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Norse mythologies, black dogs are often associated with death and the supernatural. They are emissaries of evil and in the folklore of Britain and Europe these demonic black hounds can be found hovering around the border spaces between this world and the next, such as graveyards and places where violence has occurred. The black dogs of folklore are not too very different from normal dogs, except that they are large and very dark, and if you look at their eyes they will sometimes flash red with a fiery glow. Certainly if the Devil has a dog he is big and black."

Coren conducted a survey which allowed people to express their feelings toward dogs which differ only in color.  He tested a total of 60 individuals, targeting Labrador Retrievers using head-shot photographs.  Subjects were asked how much they liked the look of the dog, how friendly they thought it was, how good it would bge as a family pet, and how likely it would be for the dog to be aggressive.

Black dogs rated lower than the other colored (yellow and chocolate) dogs across the board.

As the Black Dog Rescue Project insists:  A dogs coat color has no affect on a dogs temperament and personality.  When adopting your next best friend, be aware that Black Dog Syndrome is real.  Take a second look around the animal shelter and make sure you have not overlooked the black dogs.

Dog Song Saturday: Old Dogs

It's Saturday.  Time for a Dog Song at Talking Dogs.  

We're celebrating national Adopt a Senior Dog month!   

Today's dog music video was put together by Lily's Legacy Senior Dog Sanctuary and features the sweet country ballad Old Dogs, composed by Bill Staines.

The lyrics to the final verse of Old Dogs:

"Old dogs come and old dogs go, old dogs always seem to know,
That love is life's most precious flow and love is worth the waiting.
And when their time on earth is through, old dogs are forever true,
And ‘round the bend they wait for you come some tomorrow morning.

And when their time on earth is through, old dogs are forever true,
And ‘round the bend they wait for you come some tomorrow morning."

Grab a dog.  Sit.  Stay.  Relax and enjoy beautiful senior dogs and Old Dogs.

Fetch more dog song music videos at Talking Dogs and be sure to scroll down below today's video to explore some barking good dog blogs because today is the Pet Blogger Hop.

The Joys of an Older Dog | Guest Post

Our senior dog Tucker aka Sugar Lips

We're celebrating national Adopt a Senior Dog month at Talking Dogs.  Today we have a guest post from the dog daddy at our house, my husband, Gary.  

The Joys of an older Dog.

Like us, most people who decide to get a dog, or another dog, get a puppy.

Puppies are incredibly cute, soft and cuddly and look to us for direction in life. 

Until recently I had never questioned our decision to adopt puppies. Because of my wife’s avocation as blogger of all things dog, I have begun to think outside of the “Puppy” box.

One thing I have realized is just how many dogs are available for adoption that have had a previous loving life in a family. They are house broken, neutered, socialized and most of all longing for the love and inclusion they once knew.

 I am talking about older dogs. 

Just because an older dog is in a shelter or foster care does not mean something is wrong with them. Their previous people may have died, fallen on hard times or were forced to move somewhere they could not keep the dog. 

This realization has led me to think about our previous pets. The recent loss of our beloved senior dogs, Tucker and Lucy, first comes to mind because I still miss them greatly. Yes they were puppies when they came to live with us, but being a puppy only lasts a short while. 

You get to watch a puppy as they grow into an adult and then grow old. All the while you get to know them better and they get to know you better. They learn their place in their world and become great role models of puppies and people. 

A bond grows and they truly become part of your life and you become a major part of their life. 

If you watch closely you can learn a lot from your dog, and not just little things.  Things we all need to learn in life:  acceptance, trust and unconditional love. 

Yes, my dogs have been a positive and loving experience in my life and have taught me a lot about living. Not much of this learning happens in puppyhood while you are busy house training teaching them the ropes and replacing things they destroy. 

This learning happens as you share your life together. Yes, the end is hard but if you are lucky you get to hold them as you bid them farewell, knowing they had a good life and you were a major part of that. 

Now we have Jeffie, six years old, who is just beginning to show some age.  That realization causes me to want to spend more time with him and share the bond we have. There is Rudy, who is two years old, and I find myself longing for the day when he mellows and learns some of the lessons we are all trying to teach him. 

Puppies are great but the greatest joy is sharing a long and loving life with them.

The shelters are full of older dogs that have already learned those puppy lessons and wanting to share some love. 

Think about it.   I am.

Adopt Sheika a Senior German Shepherd Dog

November is national Adopt a Senior Dog month.  Celebrate with a new best friend!

Sheika is looking for love in a forever home.  She's a German Shepherd Dog mix currently living at the Humane Society of Missouri animal shelter in St Louis.

Sheika is seven years old, spayed and up to date on vaccinations.  She's a sweetheart and hangs out at the front desk of the shelter.  A favorite of the staff and visitors, too.  Sheika is housebroken and walks very gently on a leash.

If you have room in your life and on your couch, please consider adopting Sheika as your new best friend.  Give a call to the HSMO at 314-951-1562.  Sheika's ID number is A523321

Be the Change for Animals 2012: Dog Breed Discrimination

 This is not the blog post I intended to write for Blog the Change for Animals.   I'd planned to write about Pit Bulls and breed discrimination, because I could so easily tie it in to National Pit Bull Awareness Month.  Also because I am beginning to succumb to an almost overwhelming desire to add a pittie or Pit Bull mix dog to our our family.  When I feature adoptable dogs here on the blog, 9 times of out ten it is a Pit Bull type dog that grabs my attention.  

I've now spent the past couple of days reading and researching for my intended post.  What's taken so long?  One thing leads to another and I've found myself very disturbed at what I've learned about dog breed discrimination, related legislation, and our current cultural bias of blaming the dog and/or the dog breed, rather than the dog owner. 

You say you're not worried about dog breed discrimination because you don't own a Pit Bull. 

Right. 

I don't have a Pit Bull (yet), but I'm plenty worried about breed discrimination.

Please forgive me for butchering  Martin Niemoller's quotation:

First they came for the Doberman Pinschers
and I didn't speak out because my dog was not a Doberman.

Then they came for the Rottweilers
and I didn't speak out because my dog was not a Rottweiler.

Then they came for the Pit Bulls
and I didn't speak out because my dog wasn't a Pit Bull.

Then they came for my dogs...

Tucker:  Does this look like a dangerous, vicious dog to you?

 It's not that I didn't know about breed discrimination.  The last time we shopped homeowners insurance was shortly after Tucker passed away.  That was probably a good thing because we would have had to lie, been denied by the company we liked, or continued to shop around.

Tucker was a mutt.  There was probably some Lab in there.  However, according to our vets in both Virginia and Missouri, there was definitely some Chow.

That would have been a problem.  

In fact, all of the insurance companies we called had rules about dogs.  In fact, some weren't keen on the size of ours.
  

All of the Talking Dogs are on a list somewhere as banned or restricted.

It reminded me of years ago when I was apartment hunting for a place for me and my dog, Benji, to live in Kansas City.   I no longer remember how many landlords turned me down.  Not because I had a dog.  Benji was a mutt.  A large Doberman / German Shepherd mixed breed dog.  In those days, both of those dog breeds, along with Rottweilers, were looked upon with fear and loathing.

These days it seems Pit Bulls are the first dog breed mentioned in any discussion of "dangerous dogs" or dog breed discrimination.  However, according to Stubby Dog, many insurance companies, cities and counties also target Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Doberman Pinchers, American Bull Dogs, Bull Terriers, Mastiffs, Dalmatians, Chow Chows, mixes of those dog breeds, as well as other large breeds.

Over the years many of our dogs have been mutts that we (and our vets) have made guesses in terms of breed.  Those breeds include:  Beagle, Cocker Spaniel, Doberman Pinscher, German Shepherd, Labrador Retriever, Border Collie,  Golden Retriever and Chow.  Most were large dogs.  

 Not a one was a dangerous dog.

I've been bitten by two dogs in my life.  One was my own Beagle.  I was a kid and I did something stupid.  I deserved that bite.  I learned from from that bite.  And so did my mother.  The other bite was also when I was a child:  an aunt's rescued Cocker Spaniel who was one cranky dog and probably shouldn't have been around children.

Both times I was bitten, it was a case of a dog owner not being a responsible dog owner.  Neither dog breed appears on the lists of dog breeds frequently targeted by breed discrimination legislation. 

Micaela Myers, writing for Stubby Dog, an organization dedicated to changing public perceptions of Pit Bulls, defines BDL:

Breed-discriminatory legislation (BDL) refers to laws that target dogs based on how they look rather than their actions. Hundreds of U.S. cities have already enacted BDL, and more cities adopt it every year. Many cities and counties—plus Marine Corps and Army bases—have banned select breeds altogether. Other cities enact BDL that automatically labels dogs of certain breeds as “vicious” or “dangerous” regardless of their behavior. These laws may require owners of the targeted breeds to follow strict guidelines, such as sterilization, proof of liability insurance, housing of the dog in a cage with a roof and floor, and muzzling the dog when on a leash.

Amy Burkert of Go Pet Friendly notes that across the US, municipalities have placed bans or restrictions on more than 100 breeds of dogs.  Penalties range from fines to your dog being seized and euthanized.  In fact, Burkert began making a a list of all the affected dog breeds, but gave up when it passed 100 affected dog breeds.  She notes that some of the BDL laws have such broad language that they include dogs that look like the targeted breeds. 

Dog breed discrimination is an issue of huge importance to any and all dog owners.  Just because you don't own a dog on any of these targeted lists, doesn't mean that your favorite dog breed or mutt isn't already affected or won't be in the future.

What you can do: 

• Become aware of the laws governing your home city or county and make sure that you are in compliance.  

• When you're traveling, make sure your dogs are safe by knowing about breed restrictions where you're traveling to or through.

• Take action when breed specific legislation is proposed in your city or state.  Attend public meetings and speak out.  Write letters to your elected officials and local newspaper.

• Take every opportunity to help promote awareness of the positive attributes of your particular dog breed.

•  Make sure that you are a responsible dog owner and that your own dogs are well trained and behaved.

Be the Change for Animals (BtC4animals.com) - where everyday advocates band together to make the world a better place for animals.  The goal of BtC4Animals is to ignite and accelerate the change that we can make as individuals.  They highlight one cause per week and provide information on how readers can help.  Blog the Change takes place quarterly.