In honour of her 90th birthday, animal lover and nice lady Betty White has had a seeing eye dog named for her. From the New Jersey based Seeing Eye:

In 1994, White was honored with the Seeing Eye’s Buddy Award, a rare honor that has been reserved for the charity’s most dedicated volunteers. More recently, Betty was a guest of honor at The Seeing Eye’s 75th anniversary gala and has donated her time to the organization’s online fundraising auction each year it has taken place

More here.

A woman on Newlands Avenue reported that a raccoon was under her deck and upsetting her dog.

Police spotted a dog walking down the sidewalk along W. Friendship St. at 12:32 p.m., Jan. 16, dragging a chain and a stake post. An officer was able to secure the dog and use its tags to identify the owner.

A 15-year-old girl locked herself in a bathroom with the family dog while someone burglarized her Martin Family Road home in Spartanburg County on Monday.

Three Howell residents have been charged with burglary after police say they went door to door pretending to search for a lost dog.

Quick thinking saved this dog owner.  He obviously knew it was Dog Training Month!

Police were called at 4:17 p.m. Jan. 10 to the 600 block of Grimes Street for a report of a dog that attacked another dog. Police said the owner of the aggressive dog said he planned to enroll his pet into behavioral training classes. The owner was warned he would be cited if the problem persists

According to this organization, January has been designated Dog Training Month.  So, in the spirit of  “you can never take too many dog classes”, we signed up for a K9 Nose Work class.  (Also, we weren’t doing anything on Tuesday nights.) From NACSW:

This sport was inspired by the training methodology of detection K9s and borrows elements of that training for recreation.  The terms nose work, fun nose work, scent work, search work are all commonly used references to describe any activity where the dog is using its nose to locate a target scent or odor.  K9 Nose Work is the term that defines this detection inspired sport that has evolved from the pursuit of many dogs (with their handlers) to practice nose work and have fun.

Roxy is a natural. We have taken two classes already and she “gets it”.  Laser focus.  Works the room extremely fast but methodical.  Looks like a professional sniffer dog.  We are still using treats hidden in boxes but the eventual goal is to advance to scents like vanilla, clove or peppermint. (Does anyone need a sniffer dog at a bakery?)  Last night we had 15 boxes out on the floor — no problemo! It  will be interesting to see if we are still this keen when we switch over from the liver treats to cloves.

This is a new dog sport. The only registered club in Canada is in British Columbia and the closest one to us is in Massachusetts.  We do our training in upstate New York so hopefully there will be a club coming to this area soon.

Party like it's 1999!

Dragons, Don’t Marry Dogs This Year

2012 is the Year of the Dragon and any one born in Dragon years (1940, ’64, ’88, and 2012) will have a prosperous year.

Conversely, those born in the year of the Dog (’34, ’58, ’82, ’06) seem poised for a bad 2012 and Chen strongly urged Dogs to postpone major life decisions like weddings until next year when their luck should improve. Whatever choices Dogs of the world make in 2012, Chen especially urges them to think twice about marrying a Dragon this year.

We were born in the Year of the Snake and snakes turn into dragons, so we will be having a good year. (If we had gone to Hogwarts, we would have been at Slytherin.)  Happy New Year

From here

The House of the Tragic Poet

Cave Canum -  Beware of Dog.

A dog frozen in time

Sad, but stunningly beautiful.

12:45 p.m. A vagrant Shih Tzu was taken to the Humane Society.

3:54 p.m. A Kila woman complained that a pack of hound dogs was chasing deer on her property.

8:54 p.m. A small but friendly “wolf-dog” named Howlie has run away from home.

and this week, more of the same

9:29 a.m. A woman on Morning View Drive reported that her sheltie dog ran away. The dog was described as blue in color, fuzzy and timid.

From here.