Pit Bull Mix is National Dock Diving Champ!

We love to highlight positive Pit Bull news when we see it! Check out this story from yesterday's San Jose Mercury News about Aries, a rescued Pit Bull mix who is making headlines as a national champion dock jumper:

Formerly lost San Jose mutt now a national champion of little-known sport of dock-jumping

By Sean Webby

Three years ago, a troubled, traumatized pit bull mix puppy with the coloring of a Rorschach test was picked up by the San Jose Animal Care and Control. He had been abandoned or became lost leaping after squirrels through the streets of San Jose.

Last month, Aries -- now considerably mellowed with St. John's Wort and the gentle stewardship of his new owner, Ursula Kinley -- raced down a slender dock at a Las Vegas pool, soared through the air and splashed down just shy of 30 feet away. With that astonishing leap, Aries became a national champion -- for the second year in a row.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Pack Walking

For some training fun, get some dog friends together and practice walking your dogs in a group. Over the years we've practiced pack walks like this in the Sunday Our Pack classes just for fun and to help the dogs to relax. It's good to change directions to get the dogs used to staying calm while walking towards other dogs, while keeping a comfortable distance.

Here's a video from the Sunday Our Pack class:

Your Pups Featured in Our Pack Calendar!

We'd like to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who submitted photos for the 2011 Our Pack calendar! We had a great response to our call for photos, and we loved reading your stories about what your Pitties have meant to you. We wish we could have included every photo! Thank you for sharing your photos and stories with us, and thank you for your tremendous support!

Get them now! Our Pack 2011 Calendars are available here:

http://www.cafepress.com/pitpack/7434283

We received lots of photos! Unfortunately, not all of them could be used. Some tips for submitting your photos for next year's calendar:

1. Make sure the photo is in focus. We received some darling shots that were too blurry to use.
2. Set your camera to its highest quality settings. In order to look good in print, photos need to be as large and high resolution as possible.
3. Try to avoid "green eyes" when using flash and shooting in overly dark environments indoors. Outdoor shots tend to be best for capturing those cute Pitty faces!
4. We can only use photos you possess the rights to; professional pet portraits must be submitted by the photographer or come with a written release.

Thanks again everyone and enjoy!

Tip

It's best to have your pup around lots of people that provide positive experiences early on and dogs that can set good examples. Of course sometimes even when we do all the right things issues can still come up. Dogs do have a better chance with good social structure and management set in early on. Nice video of some ...calm relaxed behavior.