pet connection

Calling them the Hollywood “years” may be stretching it, but Willy the Pug is definitely enjoying his Hollywood days.

My daughter, Mikkel Becker Shannon, and I are in Los Angeles talking to producers about a possible new television show. We brought along our number one spokespug, Mikkel’s dog Willy. We figured we can’t resist him, so most likely the producers wouldn’t be able to, either.

We flew down with him from Spokane, and because he’s both small and well-trained, he was able to fly in the cabin with us. Even before we boarded he was charming his fellow passengers. From Mikkel:

We flew from Spokane to Salt Lake City, and then to Los Angeles. I thought that flying with a dog in the cabin would be stressful and that I’d have to keep him in his carrier while we were in the airport, but I was able to have him out with no hassles other than a few barks exchanged with another dog.

Most travelers and staff at airports are hurried and distracted, but dozens of people, including many airline employees, stopped to get some mutt lovin’, and they each had stories of their own dogs. It was best training experience for Willy, as he was totally immersed in new experiences — all types of people, sounds and different footing, from slick tile to escalator steps.

The best thing of all about the travel portion of our trip was what we found at Los Angeles International Airport: a completely fenced dog yard with a water fountain and bowl, pooper scooper bags and, of course, the essential fire hydrant.

We checked into the Ritz Carlton at Marina del Rey, where Willy’s rock star treatment continued. They even gave him his own specially bottled doggy water and gift box.

This was Willy’s first time on a plane, first time dipping a paw in the ocean (and tasting it, not a particularly successful experiment), and first time wheeling and dealing with the Hollywood power machine.

He visited Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, the Polo Lounge (outside only, due to public health laws he’s working on having overturned), Grauman’s Chinese Theater and Universal Studios.

Traveling with pets isn’t always as easy as it is with Willy. He has the right temperament and he’s had the best training and socialization. He’s even a Delta Society registered Pet Partner:

Delta Society’s Pet Partners program trains volunteers and screens volunteers and their pets for visiting animal programs in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools and other facilities.

The Pet Partners program was established in 1990 to ensure that “both ends of the leash,” people as well as animals, were well-prepared to participate in animal-assisted activity and animal-assisted therapy programs. Pet Partners is the only national registry that requires volunteer training and screening of animal-handler teams.

Delta Society’s national network links volunteers with facilities in their own communities that request visiting pets and helps Pet Partners contact facilities to begin visits in new locations.

And he’s pretty good with the Hollywood moguls, too.

Photos by Dr. Marty Becker. You can view more photos from Willy’s Hollywood adventure on Dr. Becker’s Facebook fan page.

Aren’t we all tired of dogs seized in fighting busts being treated as dangerous ravening beasts instead of victims of cruelty who deserve, at the very least, to be evaluated as individuals? Bad Rap is reporting that the Kent County Humane Society in Michigan got tired of it, too — and decided to go to court about it:

A federal prosecutor in Michigan tried to convince a federal judge to order the euthanasia all dogs swept up in a cruelty case this past summer. The problem is, Kent County Humane Society has been housing several of the dogs for months and believes that they’re adoptable.

The solution? Kent County hired a lawyer and filed an affidavit to argue in favor of letting the adoptable dogs live.

Guess what? They won the case today for 11 dogs in their facility, and they also won the right to evaluate four dogs that have been housed in a different facility.

Bad Rap’s verdict?

We were keeping our eye on this case since we first learned of the dogs’ plight and, and are just jumping up and down around here with the good news. We salute Kent County Humane for their MAJOR CAJONES tonight and are celebrating this victory for the dogs.

Read the story here.

Photo: Froggy, one of the dogs involved in the case, who will now get a chance to be adopted.

[Update: The city council said, "Aye," followed by standing applause.] If you’re near Austin today, you might want to drop in to see the city council make history.  The Austin-American Statesman supplies the dry details, but here’s the skinny:

• $12 million will be appropriated to build a brand new shelter, and more importantly
• Austin will commit itself to a citywide no-kill policy, joining Charlottesville, Va., and Reno, among others.

Congratulations, Austin.

Microchip and insurance requirement in the UK? There’s a movement afoot in the United Kingdom to mandate microchips for all dogs.  A separate proposal would require  dog owners to buy insurance against injury to a third party.   I don’t like this as compulsory policy, but I was interested in reading Dr. Shawn Messonnier’s opinion on this.

Speaking of reporting back, an update on a previously discussed story:

No bark-softening in the Bay State: Following up on previous stories discussing the controversy over bark softening (also called debarking and devocalization), the Massachusetts House voted 150-1 last week to prohibit the procedure for any reason other than the health of the animal.   Petside’s opinion on the matter is clear:

This cruel and unnecessary procedure, along with tail docking and feline declawing, has already been humanely banned throughout the United Kingdom. But, sadly to say I was unable to find any other state in this country that has either passed or that has pending legislation to ban this senseless and dangerous surgery. In fact, California, New Jersey and Ohio have already attempted to broadly ban the procedure without any success.

…or Arizona, for that matter: Meanwhile, Chandler, Ariz. would rather assault the dogs in and near its parks with high frequency sound (thanks for that one, Anne T).

[T]he proximity to homes where backyard dogs might be exposed could upset neighborhood dogs that aren’t barking but sense they are being punished, Smith said.

Kimberly Searles, spokeswoman for the Arizona Humane Society, said the Dog Silencer “does have the potential to negatively affect dogs who are not barking, in that it can make them not want to go to the dog park if doing so is going to hurt their ears.”

You have the right to remain silent….you have the right to an attorney.  However, your pet doesn’t.  At least not in Switzerland.  (thanks, Deb)

Like, totally vetted, man: OK class, pop quiz time.  Hey, pipe down in back.  If you’ve studied this won’t be a problem.  Everyone check out that red bar on the left side of the page where all the interesting pet blogs are listed.  See anything different?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Two links are missing.  Which ones?  Nobody?  OK, I’ll give you the answer.  Pet Connection’s BFF Dr. Patty Khuly has started a brand new blog, called “Fully Vetted.”  It’s an amalgamation of her two older blogs, Dolittler and Daily Vet.  You’ll notice they’re both gone.  This will be easier for her, and of course (more importantly), easier for me to get all the good stuff in once place.

Not so much for the tootsies: And Dr. Khuly has already started us off with a short but totally sensible mini-rant on why she’d prefer not to trim toenails (I presume she’s referring to those of the pets she sees).

Let’s be honest: a dog that gets a nail trim once a year is receiving an all-but-useless service that only serves to make him more afraid of the veterinarian’s office. After all, they’ll have grown out within a month or two — less in some cases. And some dogs really don’t need trimming at all as long as they walk on surfaces that sufficiently file their toenails.

That’s why I’ve begun a campaign to reduce nail trims at my workplace. Unless the animal is easily amenable or under anesthesia, annual or semi-annual nail trims are counterproductive when conducted by a veterinarian or her staff. You want his nails trimmed? Go to the groomer. Go to PetSmart. Go anywhere else except the place where stress should be minimized for medical reasons.

She’s right.  I don’t remember the last time we had to trim Cami and Harry’s nails.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credits:  Austin skyline, utexas.edu. Pink nails, petmd.com.

No food or drug can ever be made 100 percent safe, and that’s a fact.

I’m OK with that, because life can’t ever be made 100 percent safe, and that’s a fact, too. Honestly, who would want life to be 100 percent safe? Not me, for sure, because that would be awfully damn dull.

I know that even under the best of circumstances food will occasionally be contaminated and need to be recalled. I can forgive a company for that, although my level of forgiveness will vary depending on how likely the company was to know that there was a problem, and how much of the resulting problem was due to accident, or to a decision after doing the math that a few dead pets (or people) weren’t worth the cost of making changes.

When there is a problem, though, I expect — no, I demand — that a company make a real, true and honest effort to let everyone know about it, not dump-and-run a media release late on a Friday night. I want the information front and center on  company’s Web site, and I want to see that the company is making at least as big an effort to get bad product back as they did to market their goods in the first place.

And then I want a company to be honest about what happened, how it happened, and have a plan for getting the problem fixed so the problem — at least not that problem — won’t happen again.

With all that in mind, I say this: Nature’s Variety is a case in point of how to handle a recall right.

They never hid their recall notices — always the first thing you saw on their Web site.  They reached out to retailers, purchasers, media and bloggers to make sure the word got out. And now, they’ve reviewed their internal manufacturing process and are making changes:

… Nature’s Variety now uses High Pressure Pasteurization on our Raw Frozen Diets as a unique process to kill pathogenic bacteria through high-pressure, water-based technology. Having incorporated this state-of-the-art technology on our Freeze Dried Raw products in late 2009, we were able to confidently implement the process universally on all Raw Frozen Diets after the February 11, 2010 recall in order to further enhance food safety. Nature’s Variety also utilizes a test and hold protocol to ensure that all High Pressure Pasteurized Raw Frozen Diets test negative for harmful bacteria before being released for sale.

Let’s repeat that:

Nature’s Variety also utilizes a test and hold protocol to ensure that all High Pressure Pasteurized Raw Frozen Diets test negative for harmful bacteria before being released for sale.

You know what makes me sad? That this sort of thing is news, not standard operating procedure in the food industry.  I have hope, though, that it increasingly will be. Or that we can make sure it will be, by law.

In the meantime, kudos to Nature’s Variety for behaving in such an overtly responsible way.

Look, this is America. Kudos to anyone who can get people to unleash $15 (at full retail) for a cardboard box. But after looking at the video (h/t to Patti S!) I know that my retrievers wouldn’t take a full minute to figure out that ripping the box to shreds would deliver alllllll the treats and the tennis ball, too.

Don’t know what that says about this Labrador’s IQ.  Or the IQ of anyone who doesn’t look at the video and figure out how to make this at home (if desired) for … uh… nothing.

Click on the image to see the vid on Amazon.com.

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