How many of you take YOUR pillows for a walk?

As a dog lover, I try to watch everything on TV about dogs. I have a real thirst for knowledge and the view point of others.

But this year the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was not on my list of things to watch. You see, late last week the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show announced that they were dropping Pedigree Brand Dog Food as its sponsor of almost a quarter of a century.

While it’s a free country, and they have every right to do it, I found the reasoning behind the decision a tad bit strange! It seams that they did it because Pedigree’s advertising direction (focusing on stray and abandoned dogs) is “too depressing” for them.

If you’ve been on a different planet, or just haven’t seen one of them, Pedigree’s more recent commercials focus on pet adoption by using emotional stories that tell about the lives of shelter dogs that have been abandoned, neglected or in some cases even abused.

This direction obviously doesn’t align with the kennel club’s showcase animals. They are into the pure-bred dogs with registered and distinguished bloodlines. (ironically this kind of dog is referred to as having a pedigree). WKC is obviously not about lovable mutts. It seams that they are only interested in and only want the top 1% of dogs. (After all, have you ever seen a mutt class at their show?)

The club’s director of communications David Frei, stating in a recent New York Times article that they want  “…people to think of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show as a celebration of the dogs in our lives” and went on to say,  “Show me an ad with a dog and a smile; don’t shame me” (NYTimes.com, 2012).

David, wouldn’t you say that saving a dog from utter destruction is a pretty good way to have a “celebration of the dogs in our lives?” After all, we can’t all afford a million dollar show dog!

On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with a few “happy” and “upbeat” ads aired WITH the current Pedigree spots? And, I know they have them, because I see them everyday. The one that mentions nutrition and say something like: “From the tip of their nose to their wiggly butt” comes to mind.

While it’s sad that the show has decided to part ways with Pedigree for reasons that seem strange at best, the worst thing about it is that the adoption ads that Pedigree airs have had a tremendous impact on the numbers of pets being adopted. In 2007, Pedigree received $500,000 in pledges after the ads were shown over the course of the two-day show.

In a time when thousands of dogs are put down every day only because they don’t have a home, we are ashamed and saddened that the dog show has ended its partnership with Pedigree without finding some kind of middle ground. As a result, this puts thousands of shelters and rescues all over the county much shorter on the funds they need and the dogs that need these funds are at serious risk and may not live long enough to find a forever home.

What I find really disturbing is that while they (WKC) finds Pedigree’s ads depressing, they don’t have any problem allowing some of their members to “Breed IN” genetic problems and defects into their lines of “show” dogs. One case was recently brought to my attention through a website I visited.

It was about a merle Collie that is a Best of Breed winner at Westminster and currently ranked as the number one Collie in the USA.  The dog is a merle Collie who was sired by A double merle Collie who is BLIND and DEAF. The dog was intentionally bred so that he would ALWAYS produce litters of all merle puppies.

For those who may not know, “merle” is not a coat color. It is actually the definition of an incomplete dominant gene that controls coat color in dogs. Breeding two merle dogs together statistically results in 25% of the resulting litter being double merles. Puppies that result from double merle breeding are often smaller and the litters will frequently have stillborn puppies.

In most countries the breeding of two merles is forbidden due to the probability of the resulting puppies having severe health problems including:

- Deafness – from birth or will happen as the dog ages.
- Iris Coloboma – part of the iris is missing
- Corectopia – off center pupil
- Microphthalmia – Abnormally small eye(s)
- Anophthalmia – absence of eye(s)
- Blindness – blind from birth or may go blind as they age

As an alternative to buying a diamond studded collar, a Waterford Crystal water bowl, or Gucci bag for your designer breed why not do something for your dog that it will REALLY love and appreciate?

Instead of spending money, consider an investment of time. Spend some extra time walking or playing with your pet. If you can’t walk or play because of some kind of physical issue just spend a few extra moments hanging out and sharing a little extra quality time! It doesn’t have to be long periods of time either. Just 3-5 minutes several times a day will be greatly appreciated.

Dogs aren’t little four footed humans. They are animals that have been bred to crave human interaction. They don’t care how much you make, what kind of car you drive, or how big your home is! The only thing they really care about is spending time with you. They live to hang out with you and make you happy.

OK, I agree. Buying your pet a gift CAN make you happy. And there’s nothing wrong with buying your pet a nice gift once in a while! But I dare you to spend a few extra minutes every day walking or playing with your dog, and not walk away just as happy!

No matter whether you buy gifts or not, thank you for loving and taking care of your pets and their needs.

But I’ve been looking into this subject for several years and I just want to let you know what I have found, so … here goes!

Of late, it has become a somewhat of a controversial subject on the BBS’s and some of the other social sites whether or not animals (including our pets) will go to heaven when they die.

We’ve all seen those cute dog and cat photos with saying like; If pets aren’t in heaven I want to go were they go” and poems and pictures of Rainbow Bridge and many other things like that. Many people believe that heaven just would not be heaven without animals. I happen to agree, but I also have some biblical proof to back up my position.

First, as a matter of full disclosure, I’m not one who follows mainstream christian teachings. I’m not a “churchy” person. In fact I’m not a member of any church group or organized religion. But I do believe in God, Jesus and the Bible. I believe that God is the Creator of our universe and the human race. I also believe that he created the millions of different species of animals, birds, insects and fish that inhabit our earth. I also believe that he is a Loving God who watches over and cares about all of His creations.

For this reason I can’t comprehend for one second that he would just “allow” any of his creations to be destroyed or that he would simply leave them behind when he calls all of the “true believers” home to be with him for eternity. A Loving and Caring God couldn’t possibly do that!

I also cannot believe that Heaven will only be populated by angels and saints unless that includes animal angels and saints too. From some study of the Bible over the past few years I am convinced that Heaven will be a much better place than we could ever imagine.

I have seen some beautiful places on this earth. Some places we even refer as “paradise” … and the beauty of these places are truly breathtaking. But I can imagine that heaven will be much more spectacular. And with all of our pets there … that will surly make it Paradise!!!

Here are a few passages of scripture that I have found that support my beliefs:

Ephesians 1:10 – King James Bible
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Revelation 5:13 – King James Bible
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him that sits on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.

We have spent a good amount of time looking into it and thinking about it.

While we want to thank the person(s) for contacting us, (multiple times), after all things are considered, it is NOT our policy to put someone down or ridicule them for what they think, or say on their own blog. After all, a blog is meant to be a place to express ones thoughts and opinions and provoke discussion about them. And that’s exactly what this blogger is doing.

Wrong or right, it is our God give right, and our duty as citizens to question the actions of our government and the agencies that spend our tax dollars. Because we at IDT do not have any first hand knowledge about this specific subject, we can not in good conscience comment on the validity or accuracy of any statements made. That is up to the author of that blog.

What is NOT in question here is: the large amount of passion and commitment  this blogger has in making sure that all animals are treated with kindness and in a humane way.

Which dog did it?

By doing this we hope to encourage more bloggers to help dog owners around the corner and around the world by offering them quality instruction, information and guidance. We will be calling ours: The “Pawlitzer Prize” Award.

This award will hopefully bring some added attention to some great but, lesser-known blogs too.

The rules for the ”Pawlitzer Prize” Award are very simple.

1. Nominated Blogs must contain at least 80% dog related content.
2. Nominated Blogs must be active and post new items at least once per week.
3. Nominated Blogs must have “G” or “PG” content that is acceptable reading for children as well as adults.
4. As a way to promote all of the blog sites, we would appreciate it if nominees and winners provide a link back to this blog. It will not only promote each blog, it will also serve to make all of the blog sites more visible to Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines. This will bring more traffic to all of our blogs.
5. Copy & paste our award image (above) on your blog with a link back to iowadogtrust.wordpress.com  This will insure that your blog will be eligible for our Annual Award Drawing.

You may also want to consider creating a “top five blogs” list of your own. Let people know about blogs that you feel are important or interesting. After you reveal your “top five” picks, let them know about it by leaving a comment on their blog.

Our First Five “Pawlitzer Prize” Award Nominees are:

• http://peopleforanimals2011.wordpress.com/
  People For Animals is one of our favorite blogs because each article is designed to educate, update and inform readers (Iowans and non-Iowans alike) on animal laws,  stories and events, in hopes to get the ball rolling for tougher legislation to protect our companion animals.  Education is the key to getting this problems solved.
• http://trainingaservicedog.wordpress.com/
  An Excellent blog about the trials and tribulations of training a service dog named Bambi. The owner hopes to someday help veterans train their own dogs but at the moment she is learning and documenting the training of Bambi.
• http://www.dogleadermysteries.com/
  Deborah Taylor-French writes mysteries for children; full of animal rescue and positive dog leadership. She has taught as a guest artist for California’s Artists in the Schools, led numerous teacher workshops and has raised five adopted dogs.  She is also the one who provide the inspiration for this award!
• http://iowadogblog.com/
  This blog celebrates and discusses all things doggie in Eastern Iowa and the Midwest. It includes Announcements and events about local and regional dog happenings, Stories about her dogs and other dogs she encounters as well as suggestions for places to go (walks or getaways), for people/dogs to see, and dog-related things to check out.
• http://waywarddogs.com/
  Wayward Dogs is the bloggers attempt to keep track of — and if possible help – the lost and wandering dogs that she encounters. It’s also about a human search for meaning and community. It’s about sniffing around and scoping out the surroundings. It’s about venturing off (and on) trails of conventional living.

Please take a few minutes to visit each of these great blog sites and leave a comment for them.

We will be adding more nominees as the year goes by.  So if you have a dog blog, just “Follow” this blog, or “Like” one of our blog posts and you will automatically be added to our list to be considered for future Pawlitzer Prize Nomination. We are also working on some sort of prize giveaway or reward of some kind for our Annual Pawlitzer Prize Award. We’ll announce it at a later date.

Related articles

• Five Animal Blogs I Dig (dogleadermysteries.com)

Today I received notice that the Dog Leader Mysteries blog has chosen to put IOWA Dog Trust on their list of the Five Animal Blogs I Dig . While it’s not a Pulitzer or a contract for a book deal, it a really nice feeling and validation that what we’re trying to do is touching the visitors to our blog.

The Iowa Dog Trust is all about helping young people and the dogs they interact with on a  day to day basis. Animal abuse has reached epidemic proportions and if we hope to stop it, we need to start teaching children before they pick up any BAD habits. That’s why we need to partner together with other dog groups and other websites like Dog Leader Mysteries.

Thanks for your recognition and your vote of support of our work!

Some people think that because dogs and cats have fur, that they are not greatly effected by windchill. WRONG!!!

Frostbite is a very real danger for all living creatures. Frostbite is a condition that can occur in humans, our pets and all other animals on the face of the planet. Frostbite occurs as a result of exposure to freezing or subfreezing temperatures. At 1 degree below zero (Fahrenheit) with a sustained wind of 25 mph it only take 5 minutes to become frostbitten.

In humans it most commonly affects the extremities such as fingers, toes and ears. In dogs and cats, the tips of the ears, the tail, the scrotum, and the feet (especially the toes) are most at risk.

Frostbite occurs when a body part becomes very cold. When this happens, the blood vessels in that area become smaller to help the body conserve heat. But because the tissue then has much less of a blood supply it can eventually become as cold as the surrounding temperatures. If the tissue actually freezes, it will die.

The first signs of frostbite are a pale or gray in color in the skin or tissue. The area in question will be cold and hard to the touch. When the skin or tissue are warmed up the area will most likely become rosie red. In severe cases the exposed area will start to turn black in color. As the tissue warms, the frostbitten area becomes very painful.

In the case that you or your pet becomes frostbitten, you need to warm the area with slightly warm water. NEVER USE HOT WATER. The recommended water temperature is 100 to 105 degrees (F). Use a warm washcloth or hand towel or in the case of a hand or paw, soak the area in warm water. Do NOT use direct dry heat (heating pads or a hair dryer).Do not rub or massage the affected area.

After the area has been warmed to normal temperature dry it gently and thoroughly. Get medical assistance as soon as possible. In the case of pets, contact your veterinarian and have your pet examined immediately. DO NOT WAIT. Keep warm during the travel. A warm dry blanket can be used. Do not give any medication for pain unless you are instructed to do so. Many human pain relievers, including aspirin can be toxic to pets.

Winter weather is nothing to mes with, so be careful out there! Make sure you have a survival kit in your car. And don’t forget a big fluffy blanket for you and your dog to keep warm if your car stalls or get stuck in a show drift!