Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Dexter gets an award...


Dexter's super happy because he won an Achievement Award from Animal Farm Foundation for his work at the Children's Library. Dexter sits while kids read to him to gain confidence in reading. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB9_uLmKeao To find out more about how you can win an Achievement Award for working with yo...ur partner go to http://www.animalfarmfoundation.org/ They're awesome!

Monday, August 9, 2010


The future of our dogs....
For people in Santa Clara County, California:
County Supervisor Ken Yeager is trying to get an ordinance passed that Pit Bulls must be spayed and neutered. This will be presented at the County meeting on tomorrow August 10th. If passed, this would apply to unincorporated areas of Santa Clara county. While we believe spaying and neutering is important to keep down the number of homeless pets, this ordinance will make it difficult for low income families to comply to this who can't afford these services. This brings about the potential for people to lose their dogs in addition to the fact that it's breed specific legislation, isolating one breed. Education on socializing/training and low/no cost programs for spay/neuter are far more helpful.
I feel that this was a knee jerk reaction to the Concord incident. Here's why I have a problem with that. Issues in the Concord situation:

1.Dog/child supervison seemed to be lacking.
2. Male dogs not neutered contained in a garage.
3 .Level of socialization was questionable in this case due to the fact that they were in the garage. Well socialized dogs are living in homes with their families...not the garage.
4.The man knew his dog was uncomfortable around kids.
5. In his interview from jail he specifically stated that his lack of knowledge about dog behavior is what caused this. That is apparent.
= not a specific breed's fault.

Another thing that bothers me is that I'm a dog trainer by trade. Just this last month there was a German Shepard that damaged a 17 yr old boy's leg. I'm assuming if he was 2 he would have been killed. This never made the papers and the boy's father was forgiving in this situation.

Another case this month was a Golden Retriever that bit a child in the arm damaging tendons causing disability. I hate to bring these things up but this was also never reported in the papers.

I see cases like these and the situations have similar circumstances such as above in all cases. NONE of the items have anything to do with breed......but species....humans.

Please contact:
Supervisor Don Gage - District 1
408-299-5010
don.gage@bos.sccgov.org

Supervisor George Shirakawa - District 2
408-299-5020
George.Shirakawa@bos.sccgov.org

Supervisor Dave Cortese - District 3
408-299-5030
dave.cortese@bos.sccgov.org

President/Supervisor Yeager - District 4
408-299-5040
ken.yeager@bos.sccgov.org

Supervisor Liz Kniss - District 5
408-299-5050
liz.kniss@bos.sccgov.org

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Kemo's Home



Here's Kemo smiling and happy leaving for St. Louis. He arrived at Mutts N Stuff yesterday from Oakland Animal Services to start his new life as a therapy dog and working with kids. We helped to coordinate Mutts N Stuff of Missouri and OAS in rescue efforts to help this sweetheart of a dog start anew. M...utts has a house called Pheonix House for blind dogs. We posted the article a couple of days ago - have a good life Kemo! We miss you already! See video of Kemo leaving California http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfYBozi1MRw Original article here: http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_15644965?source=rss&nclick_check=1See More

Monday, August 2, 2010

Groups coming together to help dogs



Nice article on groups working together to help dogs. Director of Oakland Animal Services told us she was misquoted in the last line in the article however. (Click on the Heading to read the full article)

Goes to show what groups can do when they work together.