The World’s Ugliest Dog Show
from time.com
A colorful poodle gets trimmed and styled by two professionals.
Loading ... Loading ...Bach Essence: CRAB APPLE
Symptoms:
1. For dogs obsessively preoccupied with impurities
2. For dogs obsessive about cleanliness
3. For dogs who have a poor self image:
* Not holding their head high during competition.
* Cowering; hiding themselves.
* After they have had their coats cut or shaved.
* If the dog has been subjected to abuse.
Use:
1. Spray mist your dog to rid it of odor.
2.For sick animals as a detoxifer and cleanser.
3. For any infectious open wounds or rashes.
4. To flush out emotional toxins
Loading ...Canine lifeguards take to the beaches of Italy
from time.com
Bruno Piccinelli, head of UCIS, Italy’s association of rescue-dog trainers, says the breeds, which are innately strong in the water, are trained from puppyhood until they are at least two years old to make water rescues. Dogs have long been taught to respond to specific types of water accidents and other emergencies as well as to use their keen hearing and sense of smell to assist in search-and-rescue missions — canines were used to help find survivors in the rubble of the recent earthquake in L’Aquila, for example. But now some 70 pooches have been authorized to act as Italy’s Baywatch, minus the suntan lotion and shades. “Now they are on patrol,” says Piccinelli.
Piccinelli, who notes that Scandinavian countries also use rescue dogs in places where lots of people gather near water, describes how the four-legged lifeguards operate: sitting up alongside their human counterparts, the dogs are trained to recognize signs of drowning. When they see someone in trouble, they paddle out to the swimmer, ideally together with their human partners, though they can also go it alone. The distressed swimmer can grab hold of the dog, which will then paddle back to safety with the rescued swimmer in tow, or the dog will drag the person in with its teeth, tugging him ashore by his arm, shirt or bathing suit. “If need be, the dogs are strong enough to pull in three people holding on to each other, or a raft with three people on it,” boasts Piccinelli. Asked if these dogs could put two-legged lifeguards out of a job, Piccinelli assures Speedo-clad guardians everywhere that “they are not meant to replace human lifeguards, but to complement them.”
Loading ...Bach Flower Essence: CLEMATIS
Symptoms:
1. Daydreamers with other-worldly and impractical ideals
2. Lacking concentration
3. May appear dazed, spacey, bored, disinterested, unresponsive
Use:
1. Useful for dogs who are unable to focus on their handlers; whose attention is difficult to gain.
2. For dogs that don’t appear to be “all there.”
3. For prematurely aged dogs with memory dysfunctions or senility.
Aids recovery from surgery; assists waking, helps prevent drowsiness and listlessness.
Helps develop a focused presence; manifesting inspiration in practical life.
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Ten most and ten least intelligent dogs
Ten most intelligent:
• Border collie
• Poodle
• German shepherd
• Golden retriever
• Doberman pinscher
• Shetland sheepdog
• Labrador retriever
• Papillon
• Rottweiler
• Australian cattle dog
Ten least intelligent:
• Afghan hound
• Basenji
• Bulldog
• Chow chow
• Borzoi
• Bloodhound
• Pekingese
• Beagle
• Mastiff
Loading ...How much chocolate can harm your dog?
Chocolate contains theobromine, a naturally occurring stimulant found in cocoa beans that can cause vomiting, heart problems, seizures and even death for dogs.
How much Chocolate is too much? Depends of the type of chocolate and weight of the dog.
Please visit www.nationalgeographic.com for chocolate chart.
Loading ...The Dog and the Butcher
The Dog and the Butcher by Jonathan Holt
The Dog and the Butcher by Jonathan Holt from Jonathan Holt on Vimeo.
Loading ...Average dog smart as a two-year-old
from canada.com
Canine researcher Stanley Coren says dogs have the ability to sniff out and solve complex problems and are more like humans and other higher primates than previously thought.
In fact, Coren, a University of British Columbia psychologist, said the average dog has a “basic” ability to do arithmetic. But that’s not new to veteran Ontario dog breeder John Mitchell.
“There’s an old saying: If you don’t think a dog can count just put two cookies in your pocket then give him one and see what happens,” said Mitchell.
But Coren, who gave a talk — How dogs think– Saturday at the American Psychological Association’s convention in Toronto, said: “You’re not going to turn them into an accountant, but they know that one plus one equals two.”
Coren noted there seems to be two extremes in the way people think about dogs.
“There are a whole lot of people who think of dogs as being just people in fur coats and others who think they are biological robots with no consciousness at all,” he said.
Based on a review of numerous studies and several behavioral measures, Coren said a dog’s mental abilities are close to that of a human child age two to 2.5 years.
Coren said there are different types of dog intelligence: instinctive, what a dog is bred to do; adaptive intelligence, what a dog has learned for itself and obedience, what dogs can learn to do.
When it comes to communication, Coren said, dogs understand 165 words, signs and signals and “super dogs” — or those in the top 20 per cent of intelligence — can learn 250 words.
Coren said dogs have been “designed” to pick up bits and pieces of information to a much better extent than previously thought and more so than people tend to recognize.
“Dogs are the masters of body language and picking up gestures and slight signals,” Coren said. “If you come home and you’ve just broken up with your lover and the dog immediately starts acting very solicitously and you haven’t said anything to the dog, what the dog is doing is reading your body language.”
Mitchell said it all boils down to effective communication.
“The fundamentals of basic communication is listening,” said Mitchell, who lives in Campbellville, Ont. — just west of Toronto — and raises Labrador retrievers and Nova Scotia duck tollings. “Dogs can do that without a word being said and that creates a strong bond.”
Coren even said dogs during play are capable of deliberately trying to deceive other people and dogs.
“They’ll stand in front of you and wait until you reach for the ball and then dash away with it,” Coren explained. “If you don’t fall for that, they might drop it out of their mouth and wait for you to reach for it before grabbing it and dashing away.”
Loading ...Heart Marked Puppy
This lovable chihuahua puppy was born, like its brother, with a perfect heart-shaped marking on its back.
The three-day-old pup “Love-kun” has the same parents as its two-year-old brother “Heart-Kun”, who also made headlines after its birth in Japan.
The new pup arrived in a litter of four others, none of which had the distinctive heart marking.
Both dogs were photographed together at a pet shop in Odate, northern Japan.
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