Archive for the ‘Training’ Category

Sadie the Scottie sailed through competition to capture Best in Show in the country’s main event.

The long-standing traditions that are “Westminster” shine through every year at Madison Square Garden as surely as the monumental silver trophies that are presented to the evening’s Best in Show winner. Unlike the winner of any other American dog show, the victor of Tuesday night’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show instantly makes history books, news reports and the TV morning shows.

For more info on the show click here

Eric Favetta brought his dog, Gizmo, to work during an overnight
shift at PetSmart in Secaucus and kept him in the store’s empty
doggie day care facility. Two weeks later, Favetta was fired for
“theft of service.”

Eric Favetta was in the doghouse.

A PetSmart employee since July 2008, Favetta was fired from his
job at the Secaucus store last month for “theft of service.”
The alleged “theft” occurred during an overnight shift Favetta
worked as a favor to his manager.

Favetta brought his dog, Gizmo, to work with him, and the dog
stayed in the store’s doggie day care facility — which at the
time was not manned by any other employee — while Favetta prepared
the store for a special showing to potential business partners.

“I have always been the type of employee to go the extra mile and
make sure that not only the store was taken care of but that the
employees were taken care of,” said Favetta, 31, of Towaco.

PetSmart seemed like a perfect fit to Favetta after his nearly
seven-year stint as a dog handler for various military units in
Afghanistan and Bahrain. He became operations manager — basically
an assistant manager — at the Wayne store.

Favetta said he was charged with helping clean up a messy store
where business was suffering.

“We began to get compliments from our customers, telling us how
great the store looked and it was a great feeling,” he said.

In April 2009, the district manager moved Favetta to the Secaucus
store — a high-traffic, high-profile store that was in disarray.

At 5 p.m. on Dec. 15, Favetta was asked to work a special
overnight shift that night to prepare the store for a viewing
by representatives for Martha Stewart’s company, which was
considering adding its product lines to PetSmart. Favetta said yes.

“I brought my dog with me because I knew if I didn’t, he would
have been home alone all day and all night until I returned home
at 6 a.m. the next day,” Favetta said.

He did the shift, and Gizmo, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, spent
the night in the empty store’s doggie day care facility. Favetta
said he’d check in on Gizmo every 15 minutes or so, and then go
back to work.

Two weeks later, Favetta was asked to meet with his store and
district managers, who requested a written account of his
overnight shift. He complied. They reviewed it and fired him
for “theft of service.”

“I was shocked,” Favetta said. “It makes me sick that because
I brought my dog to work with me when the store was closed to
do the company a favor, I was called a thief and terminated.”

Boo the therapy dog came to school one day.  A young six year old boy who

never spoke for six years until the day  Boo came to school.

Mark came home and couldn’t stop talking about this dog Boo.  His parents

were delighted.

Boo the Therapy Dog and Marc Oliveri PHOTO BY CBS NEWS

You can see the full story of Boo the Therapy Dog here

With the holiday season approaching things can get mighty hectic, so

don’t forget your furry best friend.

First and foremost you need to make sure your house is safe for your

dog at this time of year.  Make sure there are no electric cords form

Christmas tree lights that your puppy or dog can chew on,  make sure

the Christmas tree is secure so your dog can’t knock it over.

How about a gift for your little furry friend?

Here are some suggestions under $50:

KONG

DOG TORNADO

DOG BED

SWEATER FOR COLD WEATHER

HOMEMADE TREATS ( PAMPER YOUR POOCH)

I’m having a Christmas Contest for all dog lovers to send

in there cutest dog or puppy picture.  It can be any kind of

picture of your dog you own now or in the past.  Tell us the

name of the dog, date of birth, living or deceased, write a

short story about how you came to acquiring this K9 of yours.

The best submission will win the ebook ‘ Pamper Your Pooch’.

Submit your entries to toppooch[at]k9s4ever.com

Contest ends December 31, 2009.

CBC News

A dog in New York has been confirmed to have the pandemic
strain of H1N1.

The pet, a 13-year-old mixed breed, seemed to have caught
the virus from his owner, Michael San Filippo, a spokesman
for the American Veterinary Medical Association, said Tuesday.

It is the first reported case of H1N1 in a dog, but other
pets, including cats and ferrets, have caught the strain
from humans, veterinarians say.

In theory, the strain could be transmitted from a pet to a
human, “but so far it’s really looking like a dead end in
pets,” San Filippo said.

The dog came in for a checkup Tuesday and is “getting back
to his old self” but has not fully recovered, said veterinarian
Julie Steffens.

It is rare for pets to spread flu viruses, and people should
not be afraid to enjoy the animals, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far, 111 million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been made
available in the U.S., she noted.

“Surveys are showing that initial doses of vaccine were
relatively quickly taken up and they were going to the people
they were targeted for,” Schuchat told reporters in a telephone
briefing.

The agency estimates that nearly 50 million Americans have been
infected with swine flu and 10,000 have been killed by it.
Seasonal flu results in about 36,000 deaths a year in the U.S.
and 4,000 to 8,000 a year in Canada. The death toll from swine
flu in Canada as of Dec. 12 was 367.

The World Health Organization cautioned Tuesday against making
comparisons between confirmed H1N1 deaths and seasonal flu deaths.
The comparisons can be misleading and don’t accurately measure
the impact of the pandemic, given that H1N1 affects a much younger
age group, WHO said in a briefing note.

It likely won’t be possible to accurately assess the disease and
death rates until a year or two after the H1N1 pandemic has peaked,
using methods such as those used to estimate deaths during seasonal
flu epidemics, the agency said.