Animal Insting

First I will say that most people are nice to dogs, so those aren't the people I'm going to talk about.  But some people do really stupid or really horrible things to dogs, and I hate it when that happens.  The two stories I am going to tell you today have been in the news lately, so if you read any news about dogs, you probably already heard these stories, and if you don't want to hear them again, I will forgive you for not reading my blog today.  But only today!

Okay, well, the first story is about this woman in Minneapolis who tried to mail a puppy to Georgia in a box.  This box didn't have air holes or food or water or anything.  There was just a 4-month-old puppy in the box, and he was a poodle-schnauzer mix named Guess.

The woman who did this really dumb thing was named Stacey Champion.  She took the box to her local post office and paid $22 to have it sent Priority Mail.  She said not to worry if noises came out of the box because there was a robot toy in there.  The puppy was a birthday present for an 11-year-old relative in Georgia.

Well, pretty soon, the box started moving, and then it fell off the counter without anyone knocking it off.  So a postal worker listened to the box and heard a panting sound.  Then the postal workers opened the box and found the puppy inside.  They said there was no way the puppy could have got to Georgia alive because he had to fly in an airplane in the cargo compartment where it is really, really cold, and there is hardly any oxygen.

So the police went and found Ms. Champion, and they charged her with misdemeanor animal cruelty.  They took Guess to the animal control shelter, and he will be adopted out if Ms. Champion doesn't want him back.  So far, she hasn't tried to get him back, but she did ask for a refund of the $22 postage she paid, but the post office people said no.

My second story is about sled dogs, and it is much sadder than the first story.  What happened was that there was a company called Outdoor Adventures, and they supposedly killed 100 sled dogs because they didn't need them anymore.  Outdoor Adventures is located in British Columbia, which is a province way over on the left side of Canada.  The company is close to the town of Whistler, which is where the 2010 Winter Olympics took place.



Because of the Olympics, there were lots of tourists there, and they wanted to ride on dog sleds to find out what it was like to do that.  But after the Olympics were over, the tourists didn't come so much anymore, and not very many people wanted to ride dog sleds.  Which meant that Outdoor Adventures was stuck with way more dogs than they needed or could afford to take care of.

The company said they tried to find homes for the dogs, but they couldn't find very many.  So last April they made a man who worked for them shoot 100 of their 300 dogs.  Except some of the dogs didn't die when they got shot, so they had to get shot again.  Or they had to have their throats cut.  And after they were dead, they were all buried together in one big hole.

Then the man who had to kill all the dogs sued the company because he said it was the most awful, horrible thing he had ever had to do, and it gave him Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), just like soldiers sometimes get.  And the judge agreed that the man should get compensation for his PTSD.  I don't know if it made him feel any better to get the money or not, but what I do know is that it didn't bring the dogs back.

And after the court decision, the press and everybody else heard about what had happened to all those dogs at Outdoor Adventures.  The British Columbia SPCA and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police started looking into the killing of the dogs to see if they can file cruelty charges against the sled dog company.  And one thing they are going to probably do is dig up the dead dogs to find out more about how they died.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about this horrible subject.  I'm just glad I'm not a sled dog or a greyhound or a pit bull or any other kind of dog that is just killed off when it is not needed anymore.  Dogs deserve better than that!

Today is the start of the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar.  Except if you live in Vietnam, it's the Year of the Cat.  But I'm going to talk about the Year of the Rabbit, since more people celebrate that.

People who are born in a Rabbit Year have a lot of nice things about them, such as being talented and kind and polite.  They get along with other people and can be good at making deals in business or politics.  But sometimes rabbit people are too cautious or really moody.  They can be lucky in making money, so they would be good gamblers, but usually they don't like to take risks, so they don't gamble.

My brother Mel is a rabbit.  Well, okay, he's a dog, but he was born in a Rabbit year.  So I think this explains why he is very careful about not getting into fights with other dogs.  And in fact, if he ever even thinks there is going to be a fight, he goes off and hides in a corner.  It's a good thing that dogs don't have money because if Mel had money, he would just bury it someplace instead of investing it.  Or if it was paper money, he would probably eat it, just to keep it safe.

So anyway, when it's a Rabbit Year, usually that means we will all have a nice, quiet year when we can get over all the fighting and stuff that happened during the Year of the Tiger.  And everyone will play nicely together, and we'll all be happy, and it will be easy to make money.

But there are these fortuneteller people in Asia who are saying that this Year of the Rabbit won't be so nice.  They say that we are in for a year of terrorists and natural disasters and stock markets that don't do very well.  And besides that, the U.S. and China won't get along with each other.

Tsai Shang-chi, a man in Taipei who knows about these things, says "This year the West will suffer from a vicious energy and will be prone to more terrorist attacks."  He also says there will be a bunch of trouble between North and South Korea.  Meanwhile, a man named Rev Yong, who lives in Malaysia, says that there will be lots of floods, an earthquake in Japan, and a bunch of yucky new diseases.





But if a lot of bad things start happening to you, Mr. Tsai says that one thing you can do is to wear yellow and white.  Also you can eat food that is yellow or white, such as pumpkins, oranges, white radishes, and apples.  Or you can carry a dog pendant because the Dog and the Rabbit are zodiac signs that get along well with each other.



Anyway, even though the Year of the Rabbit might not be as cute and cuddly as you were expecting it to be, the Chinese New Year is still a good excuse for a big celebration.  There are lots of different ways to celebrate, and one way is to clean your house and sweep out any bad luck that is in it.  Then you can decorate your windows and doors with red paper cutouts and verses that talk about happiness, wealth, and long life.







On New Year's Eve, families have big, yummy suppers of pigs, ducks, chickens, and sweets.  In the north part of China, they eat dumplings and fish.  Then after that, everybody shoots off firecrackers.  And in the morning, the children get red envelopes that have money in them.  Also there might be parades and festivals and all kinds of fun stuff.






Personally, I think I would most like the part about eating the pigs and ducks and chickens.  Although I like fish, too.  But I could just skip the fireworks part, even though I am not as scared of fireworks as Mel and Barry are.  We don't know yet if Nicky is afraid of them, but I guess we'll find out in July.


Okay, well, I now all that's left is for me to wish you a Happy Year of the Rabbit.  I hope it will be a happy, fuzzy year for you, but if not, start wearing yellow and white and eating lots of oranges!

We have been getting a ton of snow here for the last couple of days, so Mom and all of us dogs and cats have been staying inside where it's warm and dry.  Well, except sometimes we have to go outside to potty. And Mel and Barry like to snack on some poop while they are out there.  And Nicky likes to run around, looking for squirrels.  But when I go out, I don't stay any longer than I need to.  And the cats don't go out at all because they have litter boxes.

So anyway, besides sleeping a lot, which is an excellent thing to do on a snowy day, I have also been looking around online at some interesting stuff about dogs, and I thought I would put some of it in my blog.

First of all, last week the AKC came out with their list of Most Popular Dog Breeds for 2010.  Here are the top 20 breeds, and if you want to see the entire list, you can go here:  http://www.akc.org/reg/dogreg_stats.cfm

  1.  Labrador Retrievers

  2.  German Shepherd Dogs
  3.  Yorkshire Terriers
  4.  Beagles
  5.  Golden Retrievers
  6.  Bulldogs
  7.  Boxers
  8.  Dachshunds
  9.  Poodles
10.  Shih Tzu
11.  Rottweilers
12.  Miniature Schnauzers
13.  Chihuahuas
14.  Doberman Pinschers
15.  Pomeranians
16.  German Shorthaired Pointers
17.  Great Danes
18.  Siberian Huskies
19.  Shetland Sheepdogs
20.  Boston Terriers

The first 3 breeds on the list have the same place that they did last year, but beagles have moved up from 5th to 4th, which means they traded places with golden retrievers.  Bulldogs moved up from 7th to 6th, and they have come all the way up from being #21 in 2000.




Basenjis, sadly, are at #89 on the list, which is one point lower than in 2009.  In 2000, basenjis were #70, so they are really getting to be less popular.  This is kind of a tragedy, if you ask me, because basenjis are pretty much the best dogs ever!

Greyhounds are really, really not popular.  They are #139, which is down from #140 in 2009 and #118 in 2000.  English Foxhounds are still at the very bottom of the list, right after American Foxhounds.

The new breeds that were recognized by the AKC in 2010 did pretty well.  The Leonberger was 33rd, the Cane Corso 51st, and the Icelandic Sheepdog was 82nd.  Which means that all of these breeds were more popular than basenjis, even though a lot of people haven't even heard of them.

Havanese

During the past 10 years, the dogs that got more popular fastest were the French Bulldog (went from 71st to 21st), the Havanese (86th to 31st) and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (54th to 23rd).  Also it seems like more people want to have big dogs such as Great Danes, Mastiffs, Newfoundlands, Bernese Mountain Dogs, and Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs.  Oh, and bully breeds like Bull Terriers and Stafforshire Bull Terriers are also more popular.



So that's one list.  And here's another one, which is the 10 most popular dog names of 2010.  This list was put together by the Veterinary Pet Insurance Company, so it probably just has dogs on it who are covered by that kind of insurance.  It's not divided by boy names and girl names, but it's pretty easy to tell which names are which.  And most of these names are the same ones I already complained about to you before because they are used way too often, in my opinion.


  1.  Bella
  2.  Bailey
  3.  Max
  4.  Lucy
  5.  Molly
  6.  Buddy
  7.  Maggie
  8.  Daisy
  9.  Charlie
10.  Sophie



Okay, now here's a list of the Top 10 Most Dangerous Dogs, and it was put together by a company that is selling obedience training, so I think they are trying to scare people into buying their classes.  But they say the list was made using research from the American Veterinary Medical Association and also using dog bite statistics from the Humane Society of the United States.

  1.  Pit Bulls
  2.  Rottweilers

Presa Canario

  3.  German Shepherds
  4.  Huskies
  5.  Alaskan Malamutes
  6.  Doberman Pinschers
  7.  Chow Chows
  8.  Presa Canarios
  9.  Boxers
10.  Dalmations




And finally, here is a list of the most expensive dogs ever sold.  Well, okay, it's only two dogs, but I guess you could call that a "list."

Lancelot Encore

The first most expensive dog is named Lancelot Encore, and he was the world's first commercially cloned puppy.  The couple who owns him had him cloned from samples they saved from their original yellow lab, Lancelot.  They won the chance to have the cloning done by bidding highest in an auction, and they paid $155,000.  The new puppy looks just like the first Lancelot, and his owners hope he will turn out to have the same temperament, too.

Tibetan Mastiff

The second most expensive dog turned out to be even more expensive than Lancelot Encore.  He is a black Tibetan Mastiff named Yangtze River Number 2.  This dog was bought by a Chinese millionaire named Ms. Wang in Qinghai Province for the price of $582,000.  Then when Yangtze arrived at the airport in Xi'an, he was met by a motorcade of 30 luxury cars and a crowd of spectators.  I guess if you are the world's most expensive dog, you deserve that kind of thing, but personally, I would be happy with just a warm, cushy bed and some yummy dog food!

In England, in Bedfordshire, in the town of Potton, which is not far from Biggleswade, there is a dog named Rowan, who is a German spitz.  This is a pretty rare breed of dog, so that's one thing that is different about Rowan.  But what really makes him different is that he was born without any eyes!  So of course this means he is blind, because as you probably know, you can't see if you don't have eyes.

Rowan had one littermate, and his littermate has eyes and can see, just like a regular dog, but Rowan got some kind of strange genes that made him not have any eyes.  Rowan's breeder, who is a woman named Sam Orchard, found out that Rowan was blind when he was 10 days old, and she took him to the vet to find out why Rowan hadn't opened his eyes yet.

Well, okay, so you are probably saying to yourself that Rowan is not the only dog who was ever born blind, and that blind dogs learn to get around pretty well, even without using a white cane.  In fact, there is a blind puppy named Oakley at the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, and I have told you about him before.  He was born blind, but he does have eyes.  They are just all cloudy-looking.  So if you want to adopt Oakley, I know he would be very happy to go live with you, because he really needs a home of his own.

But getting back to Rowan, the thing about him that makes him different from other blind dogs is that he uses something called echolocation to get around outside without bumping into stuff.  Bats are the animals you mostly think of as using echolocation, because bats are also blind.  The way it works is that the bat makes this little noise that goes out and hits something such as a building or a mosquito, and then the noise bounces back to the bat.  And since the bat has an ear on each side of his head, the echo sound comes into each ear a little bit differently.  So then when the sounds from the two ears get joined together in the bat's brain, he can somehow tell what's out in front of him, and how big it is, and whether it's moving, and if it might make a yummy bat supper.

Dolphins also use echolocation, and so do some whales and shrews and certain kinds of birds who live in caves.  And the reason all these animals use echolocation is because they are either blind or else they live in places where it is too dark to see the flipper in front of your face, so to speak.

But usually you don't hear about dogs using echolocation, so that's what makes Rowan so different from your ordinary, run-of-the-mill blind dog.  Because when Rowan is outside romping around, he can make little barks and bounce them off the trees in the woods, and then he knows not to bump into those trees.  Which is very clever, if you ask me.  And if you want to watch a video of Rowan doing this, go here.







Rowan's other talents are that he has learned a bunch of obedience commands, and he completed a Good Citizen Bronze award.  But he cannot be in regular dog shows because he doesn't have any eyes, which the silly old breed standard says you are supposed to have.

So Rowan is a very smart dog, and he has figured out how to do something that most blind dogs don't figure out how to do.  And he has a very happy life with his human and doggy family, and he probably doesn't even know he is different from everybody else!