Dr. Becker and PetConnection executive editor Gina Spadafori will also be signing copies of their latest best-sellers, “The Ultimate Cat-Lover” and “The Ultimate Dog-Lover.” The VCA folks will have free refreshments and tours of the facility.

The schedule:

2-3 p.m.: Tours of the VCA Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center. Free refreshments.

3-5 p.m.: Hear Dr. Becker and get your book signed. Bring your own copies of his books or buy them there.

The VCA Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center is at 9801 Old Winery Place, Sacramento 95827. Phone: 916-362-3111

Click for a map

Click to download the flier

Our Dr. Marty Becker, America’s veterinarian, will share the information on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” tomorrow morning (that’s Monday, Aug. 24).

Dr. Becker will share the list of common household items a veterinarian might ask you to use in a pet-health emergency. Beginning treatment correctly at home before you go to the veterinary hospital can make a life-saving difference.

If you can’t see the segment live, be sure to record it! We’ll link to it here when it’s up on the ABC-TV site, as well.

Dr. Tony Johnson, the PetConnection’s emergency care expert, helped Dr. Becker prepare for the appearance. Thanks, Dr. Tony!

A couple notes here and there, a couple of pictures in my e-mail, a phone call or two …  but I wanted more, oh yes, much more.

I wanted a definitive, detailed, expanded report from each and every home on how myMcKenzie’s puppies are doing.  After all, these pups had been my entire life for more than eight weeks, everything wrapped up in making sure they were as well prepared as I could possibly make them for life in their future homes. And they’ve been gone for a week now. A whole week!  

So I sent out an e-mail, beggingasking for updates.

The upshot: They’re all doing very well.

They’re happy and outgoing, learning the rules of their new households, getting more socialization, pottying more or less where they’re supposed to, allowing every inch of their squirming, wriggly tail-wagging happy bodies to be handled without resistance, getting their nails cut without complaint, walking on leash, playing with the kids, bringing back whatever’s thrown for them as quickly as their fat little legs can manage, sitting for their food dishes, learning how to be quiet in their crates and pretty much charming the very socks off their utterly smitten new families. They’ll be starting their puppy classes soon, where they’ll surely be the head of their respective classes.

My response:

Yes!  Yes! Yes!

My heart sings to get such glowing reports. I have never worked so hard at anything in my life as to get these youngsters off to the best start I could. And now, to hear back that they are doing well, and with people who are working just as hard as I did to keep up the pace of good puppy-raising … well, it doesn’t get much better for a first-time breeder. I will always be there for these dogs and their families, as will their other “grandmas,” Katie and Mary. But for now, the reports couldn’t be much better.

Yay, puppies! Yay to Jack (the former Mr. Yellow), Parker (Mr. Green), Dooley (Mr. Blaze Orange), Keen (Ms. Purple) and Maya (Ms. Pink)!

At my house, the One Who Chose Me, Faith (the former Ms. Red),  spent the weekend on the go. To the hardware store, to the patio at Whole Foods, to Peet’s Coffee. She spent a good deal of time on a leash and a good deal more in her safe crate in the car. She’s coming along with her house-training — pee puddles here and there, usually my fault for not paying close enough attention to her signals — but the rest of her business she can hold for the yard, not making a mistake for a few days now. She sleeps in a crate next to the bed, but later she’ll sleep on the bed with everyone else. She needs to learn where the limits are before I spoil her rotten, see?

And then, there’s the clicker training. If you’re not familiar with it, here’s a short primer. Clicker guru Karen Pryor was on “Good Morning America” this morning with a demo as well. I just love clicker-training puppies. I had “pre-loaded” the entire litter before they left by showing each of them the link between the click and the treat so their owners got a head start.

With Faith, I started the next stage of clicker training in earnest after her sister Keen left last Thursday, the last of the puppies to go to her new home. 

Faith’s first goal: Learn to touch the plastic lid from a tupperware container. When she first figured out what we were doing, shelooked back at me with eyes suddenly full of understanding and amazement: “Seriously, all I have to do to get the click and treat is touch this thing with my nose? Cool!”

After just a couple of days, she will now touch it and come back no matter where I place it within about a 15-foot radius of where I’m standing or sitting.  I’ll be increasing the distance, giving the behavior a “name” — “tap it” — and then moving on to other little tasks, all of which are designed to be built on or chained together, a foundation for learning to last a lifetime.

I have honestly never understood how anyone can consider dog-training an unpleasant chore. It’s an ongoing process with a reward that’s far, far better than having a well-mannered dog or one who does tricks – although both of those things are very nice indeed. When Faith first touched the lid, heard the click and looked back, the world changed for us both:

We were communicating in a common language. 

Different species, and we both at that instant were connected, forever. She knew it, I knew it and we both found it more than a little amazing, a special moment for us both.

How could you not get a thrill from something like that?  To me, it’s a miracle, every time it happens.

Image: Faith, 10 weeks old yesterday, and very very tired from a weekend of puppy-fun-with-a-purpose.

We’ll put up a link to the video when we have it, as well as to his latest “GMA Now” segments, including one on the healing power of pets.

Today’s segment is “Dr. Becker’s Best”: his choices of the top veterinary and pet-care products for 2008. He asked more than 100 veterinary and pet-care experts to send him suggestions, and agonized over which products made the list, especially in the non-veterinary category. Some of the ones that didn’t make the cut this round will end up here in the blog, in our syndicated pet-care column, or both.

If you miss the show, they usually put video up later in the day. And Dr. B will be taping additional segments on pet-care for “GMA Now,” so keep checking for those.

You can find his Becker’s Best picks here.

Update: The video’s up on the GMA site now.

****

Hey, since we’ve been talking about books … um, ya know we have three new ones out?

Aiii-yeeee! October is going to be a busy month!

Oct. 1 is the official release date of “The Ultimate Dog Lover” and “The Ultimate Cat Lover” (”The Ultimate Horse Lover” launches on Nov. 1). Our Dr. Becker will be on “Good Morning America” on Oct. 8 to officially unveil the first two books, talking about the exclusive “must-know” information we have in both. He’ll also be celebrating his 11th year as the show’s veterinary correspondent, many congrats!

Our syndicated pet-care feature with Universal Press will have a two-parter (running in our client newspapers the weeks of Oct. 6 and Oct. 13) excerpting some of that information as well. And we’ll have a sampler from each of the books — with some pictures, “must-know” information from top experts and a couple of the stories — up on this Web site by next weekend.

Dr. Becker will pretty much be a non-stop media machine in October, with lots of appearances following the GMA one to talk about the new books.

And then, for whatever crazy reason, I’m going to Phoenix to cover the World Cynosport Games, the international celebration of the very best teams competing in agility, flyball and dock-diving, with exhibitions in many other sports as well. I’m taking along Pet Connection Director of Photography Morgan Ong, so we will have some fantastic pictures as well.

The weekend before that, our book publisher has invited me, racing fan that I am, to be his guest at the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held this year at historic Santa Anita in Southern California. Go Between (owned by our publisher, Peter Vegso) won the big race of the Del Mar meet, the $1 million win-and-you’re-in Pacific Classic. That sets Go Between up for a try at the top race on the BC card, the Classic, where he’ll likely compete again Curlin and possibly Derby-Preakness winner Big Brown. Check out this picture of Go Between winning the Pacific Classic, with top jockey Garret Gomez aboard. I’m trying to get a print, so I can get it signed by everyone except the horse himself. This will be the first time I’ve ever had anything like primo seats for a major event of any kind (with the exception of those I was covering).

Tomorrow, McKenzie and I will be in competition for our first junior hunter leg. Because of my hit-and-miss training schedule — eight books in two years will do that! — the poor girl is not near ready. So wish us luck, because we’ll need it. I’ve got a $50 side bet with Otter’s forever mom as to whose dog will be a junior hunter first. Otter already has her first leg (you need four). Drat, I should have sabotaged that puppy while I was raising her …

Pictured at top: McKenzie, the tennis-ball maniac. Bonus picture below: Welcome to my life. Clara on the dog bed, and McKenzie sound asleep with a tennis ball in her mouth.

Thought you’d like to know that his segment on foods to beware of is now up on the ABCNews Web site. The piece was shot when he was in New York recently for a “Good Morning America” appearance.

What are the foods to look out for? Avocados and macadamia nuts, to start with. Check out the segment for the rest, and for tips on keeping your pet safe from these hazards.

Regular readers know Gina has asked me to keep track of my dad’s public appearances, with updates on the ones everyone can catch.

One of those iswastoday (Aug. 12). My dad, Dr. Marty Becker, was on  “Good Morning America” this morning, talking about saving money on pet care, a topic that’s stressing us all in this economy. He offered easy tips for saving money on medications, veterinary care, food and long-term care. You can start saving money today, while still giving your pets the preventive care they need to stay healthy (and save you money) long-term. You can also catch up with him over XM radio for GMA, on channel 155.

He’ll also appear on “GMA NOW” talking about some foods and household products that can make our pets sick or even kill them. Details on pet-proofing homes as well. GMA NOW is available over cable or on abcnews.com, and the segments will be available for viewing one week after filming on Aug. 12.

Also: This morning we had a chuckle because in the TV listings in “USA Today,” dad was listed over Donald Trump! I guess that means pets trump Trump.

Many owners consider their household pets family members, but just like their human counterparts, these animals can spread illnesses to people.

Pet-to-human transmission is called zoonosis, and highly publicized examples include disease that’s passed from nonhousehold animals to humans, such as mad cow disease and bird flu.

Here’s the rest, and we’ll link up to the video later if it’s posted. And don’t forget Mikkel’s post on what it’s like backstage.

In other veterinary-related news, Time has an interesting piece on stem-cell therapy. From Time:

Blue had hip dysplasia, a fairly common and sometimes crippling degenerative condition in dogs and cats. The cure — a complete hip transplant — would keep Blue in recovery for up to six months. So while Waters mulled the surgery, Blue’s regular veterinarian sent Waters to see another local vet, Kathy Mitchener, who was trained in acupuncture, to treat Blue’s pain.

But Mitchener had a better idea. She offered a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant, a therapy not yet available to humans, that would potentially help Blue’s hip repair itself. The treatment took just two days last January. Mitchener had recently become certified to perform the stem-cell treatment, pioneered by the company Vet-Stem based in San Diego. She removed some fatty tissue from the dog’s abdomen and shipped the sample to Vet-Stem’s labs, where technicians used centrifuges to extract stem cells from the tissue. The cells were shipped back the next day, and Mitchener injected them into Blue’s failing hip, where they adapted and developed into the healthy cartilage and tendon cells the animal needed. Within 36 hours, Waters says, “Blue was moving well, and you could see an ease in her gait.”

Unrelated: Sandy Robins writes about the high cost of moving a pet by air. Woody has flown twice in the last year, and Otter, the puppy I raised for a friend, flew here from Texas and back to Texas four months later. And finally, Ilario came here on a short hop from Oregon a couple months ago.

I can vouch for the price hit of air travel. While Otter’s trips were unaccompanied, Woody flew with me going out and with my friend Mary coming back. Woody’s ride in cargo was considerably more expensive than the ticket for the two-legged half of the travel team, both times. Between the worry and the cost, I’ll be loathe to ship an animal for any reason but the most urgent, that’s for sure.

In other words, Air Woody will be limited to the altitude he can gain on his own. Actually, given the state of air travel, I’m not exactly looking to fly much myself. (Pictured: Air Woody)

Not only will he be appearing live on “GMA” in the morning, but he will also be featured on the GMA Radio show on XM radio, Channel 155. In addition to all the live stuff, dad will be taped interviews: “The Top 10 Tips For Traveling With Your Pets” and “Breakthroughs in Feeding Your Pet,” both of which will later air on the ABC’s all digital GMA NOW program; which is an extended version of GMA offered to viewers through cable, broadband and cell phones. (For for more details go to GMA NOW.)

If you think that’s a lot of running around and talking about pets, you’re right. But my Dad always comes back from New York to our Idaho home tired but happy. Tired is obvious, but happy because he loves what he does and feels blessed to be given the opportunities to help people get the information they need to care for their pets the best way possible.

This time, I want to give you a behind the scenes look at what a day at “Good Morning America” is like for my dad, both what his taping schedule is like, and the observances I have made watching him the day of the show.

Going on the show takes weeks of preparation. Not only does Dad need to make sure he has the absolute latest and greatest information on the topic before the show and practice his delivery, but he also has to contact numerous manufacturers to have product samples sent to the studio. These products can range from a half-ton hydrotherapy treadmill to the Tootsie Rolls he’ll have on hand for the tomorrow’s show. Why Tootsie Rolls? They make excellent stand-ins for cat poop in litter box demonstrations. (Always one to coin something corny, Dad calls the fake doo “Cat Man-Made Doo,” like Katmandu. Get it? At first I didn’t either and I have 22 years of experience deciphering his “jokes.”)

Dad also needs animals to use for the show. For most shows, Dad uses “borrowed” dogs and cats from the Humane Society of New York. It’s good for the group and the pet, too: The HSNY gets airtime on national TV and the pets always end up with hundreds of people wanting to adopt them. The last time I went to watch Dad on GMA, the shelter animals that day were a Pug and a gray kitten. As Dad was practicing before the show aired, I was given the joyous job of being the official pet-sitter. I sat in the back corner of the studio on the opposite side of the live audience, as the two animals played happily on my lap. All the things I see when I am in New York, and these two pets remain one of my most precious memories.  I know they had no idea they were stars that day, and I love thinking they wenr to great forever homes.

On the the day of the show, Dad gets a wake-up call at about 5:15 a.m.  (the equivalent of 2:15 A.M. back home in Idaho). He has to be at the studio at 6 a.m.  to rehearse before the show starts at 7 a.m.  He’ll practice the segment in the area of the stage with the props set up. Someone, usually his producer, will play the part of the GMA hosts  — Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo — for the rehearsal. During the rehearsal, the camera angles are all practiced and assigned, lighting is adjusted if needed, props are rearranged, and the segment is timed to make sure it will fit within the time that has been allotted for it, usually between 4-5 minutes.  A few minutes before the segment goes live, the host will come down to do a quick run-through, with the camera operators and executive producer making the final adjustments.

The pet segments are so popular that they’re usually held for the end of the show, to help keep viewers all the way to the final credits. Because of this, there’s always a lot of waiting around, since Dad gets there at 6 a.m. and does go “live” until 8:30 a.m. The waiting time is spent in the Green Room with the guests, and that’s pretty interesting, too, since the guest list on any given day can range from the biggest names to everyday people who are in the news for some reason.  He’ll spend some of this waiting time in the radio room, where they broadcast   GMA on XM show. Usually the interview is around 10 minutes long, and both audio and video versions are prepared, so people can listen or watch on the Internet.

About an hour before Dad’s segment, GMA will begin showing what is called either “bumpers” or “teasers,” small clips they usually take before the commercial break to show what is coming up in the next hour and keep viewers wanting to watch. Usually the clips picture Dad handling one of the shelter pets of that day, with the host saying something like, “Coming up is Dr. Marty Becker talking about diseases you can catch from your pet.” Usually one to three bumpers are shown before Dad’s segment.

You’d think it would all be pretty calm after all the waiting, but there’s always a rush and scramble just before the pet segment to make sure everything is right: GMA staff make sure Dad’s hair and make-up. TV folks have to wear gobs of make-up, and with Dad, they have to work a little extra because of his squinty eyes!  While that’s going on, other folks are checking  the pets and props.

The segment only lasts a few minutes which always seems kinda odd when you consider all the weeks of work that go into those few minutes. It’s pretty exciting, though, because it’s live!

Even after the airing, my Dad’s job is rarely done. The GMA staff has a one hour break, and then they come back to tape longer pieces (about 7 minutes), which will air on the GMA NOW show. These are usually taped pieces, which are more in depth, longer, and more casual than those on the live show.

One more aspect of the show Dad does is a written piece with more information on his topic, and that gets posted on ABCNews.com after GMA has been seen in all four  time zones. The written piece is a combination of Dad’s own expertise on the topic, in-depth interviews with experts, and is co-written by both my Dad and a writer from ABC.

Jeez, that’s a breath full just trying to explain what one day for my Dad with GMA involves. I hope I’ve shed some light as to what goes on behind the camera!

(Pictured: Dr. Marty Becker on the GMA set, top, and Mikkel Becker Shannon pet-sitting with a kitten who later got adopted.)