Have you ever lost a pet? Or it rain off? When I was a child my best friend lost her black Labrador named Jackson.  He was only 2 years old but full of energy.  So when he disappeared it crushed Jessica’s heart – but she never gave up trying to find him.  In those days there were limited channels in trying to find your pooch – hang up signs in shops/stores etc – report him to the police/Animal Control – Start a search party – or just wait and see. Recently I came across an across an article that shares my two passions – dogs and social media that I wanted to talk about.  In this story from BBC News Patch,a Jack Russel terrier went missing from his home in Ireland – and decided to hop on a train – to Dublin {home to Guiness}.  I have never heard of a dog deciding to go use public transport – it just sounds like what a child would actually do. I wonder what was processing in Patch’s mind.

Irish Rail found him and later tweeted a picture of him.  As many of you may  know people start RTing messages to their networks etc and it reaches a vast amount of people in a short amount of time.  It took just 30 minutes before his owner saw him on his on Twitter feed.

I find Twitter to be so AMAZING – it has reconnected people with animals – their loved ones during natural disasters – to meeting the President of The United States – to having my own favorite author send me her latest book etc.

To view this article click here

Happy Spring! Recently I haven’t had time to blog as much but now I am making it a priority. With 2012 being a new chapter to YourPuppyNanny – Interviews from Real People and Canines.  Every month we hope to feature owners, canines, animal care professionals etc

 Thanks for agreeing to do a guest blog post interview with me – let’s start out with how old Sallie, Charlie and Zoey are and what breeds are they?

A: Both Charlie and Sallie are 3 years old this coming July. They grew up together as puppies. Zoey will be 2 years old in March. Charlie is a German Shepherd, Sallie is a Lab-mix-mutt and Zoey is a Vizsla hound  (maybe a mix not really sure, but mostly Vizsla hound)

Did you get them from a rescue organization or breeder?

A: Both Sallie and Zoey were rescues. Charlie was an accidental “adoption” from a breeder. I’ve always wanted a German Shepherd and was “just looking” one day.. but I could never bring myself to buying one from a breeder.  Charlie was so cute and he spent about 20 minutes figuring out how to untie my shoe laces. The breeder was also very laid back and not the typical “gung ho” GSB breeder I typically met. I just fell in love with Charlie’s smarts.  Zoey is actually my daughter’s dog, but she had to move and she could not find a place that took dogs quickly enough, so Zoey became our “intern.” She still can’t make coffee…

What is a typical day like for the ‘pack’ – do they all get along with each other?

A: They really do get along together, but when we’re out at the “park” -{a housing development that went bust}  anyone passing by would think they were tearing each other to bits. But they are not. Each one has a role in the pack. Zoey is Charlie’s rabbit that he chases, Sallie is Charlie’s muscle that tackles Zoey in mid stride, Zoey is Sallie’s exploring buddy in the woods..

A typical day is up at 5;00-5:30 for a morning walk around the block. Breakfast. Off to the office in the van and then nap, nap,nap until about 11:00 when they start circling my desk. Walk in the “park” for about an hour or two, depending on how rough the morning was. Then back to the office for lunch and a nap until it is time to go home. Sometimes, we’ll walk at about 9:00 again most days.

This is our daily planner.. http://www.dogwalkblog.com/the-definitive-guide-to-planning-your-day-to-maximize-your-potential-and-meet-cute-people.html

Do you have any funny stories you want to share about one of them?

A: I don’t have any funny stories that come to mind as every day produces some new stuff. Here is a video of Charlie and a watermelon that is pretty funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTK1SOoDs4E

How do you handle having 3 dogs? I am sure it must be a lot of work. Do they have their own sleeping room?

A: Some days, they handle me better than I handle them The trick to handling three dogs is to keep them in a pack, to go with the pack flow, to read their body language and notice when one tenses up, why they do that and keep calm. Nothing spins a pack out of control faster than when you panic, thinking you will not be able to control the dogs.

As far as sleeping, it depends on the time of day. During the day, Sallie “owns” the black sofa in my office. Charlie sleeps on the floor or in the entry way (much to the consternation of the UPS guy) and Zoey hangs on the sofa out in the waiting area. She has short hairs and we never get foot traffic but in case anyone were to sit there, no real harm that they’d notice right away. At night, Zoey sleeps under the covers on the bed, Charlie guards the house at the top of the stairs and Sallie owns the landing.

Could you please tell my readers about Rufus – was he your first? A German Shepard is that right?

A: Rufus was not my first dog, but he was my first “first dog.” We got  Rufus in 1999 as a family dog. Right about Jan 2000, my sciatic nerve was kicking up and sitting was a problem.. but walking was not. So, I got used to standing and walking — a lot.  Rufus was a convenient walking partner. By the time the nerves got back to normal in about six months, I had inadvertently trained a dog to walk 3-5 times a day, walk next to me without a leash and go everywhere I went. We stayed that way until he passed away suddenly in October 2008, ironically, because of a nerve anomaly that paralyzed his hind legs overnight and worked its way up his spine and to his brain within a day. http://www.dogwalkblog.com/good-bye-dear-friend.html  I thought about shutting the blog down, but some good friends convinced me that the right thing to do was to continue blogging and adopt his persona.

Do you have any advice/tips for those looking to get a dog in the future?

A: Never buy a puppy and never buy a puppy during the holidays. What I mean about not buying a puppy is you should get your dog as a puppy, but never buy the “puppy” when you really mean to buy the “dog.” Dogs are puppies for about nine months and dogs for about 10-20 years. You should plan for the dog stage as that will last longer.

If your lifestyle does not include daily walking, make sure you change that before you buy the dog. Snow, rain, cold, heat should never be an excuse to not walk. I see way too many “sunny day dog walkers” out there. Their dogs are so pent up with cabin fever that they are mostly uncontrollable. Sunny day dog walkers give the rest of us a bad name, so don’t be that guy.

Your dog is not your child. You are not his mom or dad. Your dog is your dog and you are his leader.

And whatever you do, DO NOT dress your dog up. Not even on Halloween. Really.

About Rufus Dogg

  I’m a dog who writes a blog. It is not a pet blog. It is a real blog that talks about real ideas. No, really. I do my own writing, but I have a really, really cool editor who overlooks the fact that I can’t really hit the space-bar key cause I don’t have thumbs. I talk about everything from politics to social issues to just rambling about local problems. And, sometimes I just talk about nothing in particular.

Follow Rufus on Twitter: @dogwalkblog

Every dog has a story – from being rescued from a puppy mill – natural disaster etc.  I recently had the opportunity to dogsit/visit for 2 days last week a great dog in Edina named Lincoln. Lincoln is a 3 year old Pittbull-Boxer mix that was rescued by Underdog Rescue - she was found by Animal Control wandering around the streets.  Lucky enough she was adopted by a great family with a good sized backyard for her to run around.

I have to admit with media coverage of Pittbulls and the Michael Vick situation – I was scared of them. It was only natural to have that instinct right?

Well when I met Lincoln I was proved wrong. She is so adorable and super sweet! I am very impressed she knows words such as ‘cookies’ (biscuits really not human food) ‘Linky’( a nickname) ‘hug’ and ‘house’.

My advice: Don’t judge a dog by his breed right away – I was open to meeting Lincoln and now we are good friends.

Have you ever wanted to bring your canine furry friend to work? Wonder what it might be like? Last week Volume, an integrated communications agency located at their HQ in Buckhurst Court, Wokingham hosted a special day with a £10 per dog donation to Byte Night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t invited (though I am happy a variety of poochies got together) but I had the chance to interview Samantha Mountain (@sammmie_mountain) via email about her experience.:

How did Volume as an organization come up with the idea of bringing your dog to work?

SM: one of the senior management team (also a dog fanatic) was brainstorming ideas on what we could do to raise money for the byte night funds. She had the idea of a bring your dog to work day and started to socialise it with some of the dog-lovers in the company. When she realised that quite a few people were up for it, she started to get the ball rolling with arranging the  posters to be made [Poster is pictured --->  ]

How many dogs came into the workplace?

SM: All together there were 13 dogs (of ages ranging from 9 months to 14 years):
2 border collies
2 Rottweilers
1 German shepherd
1 old English setter
1 Staffordshire bull terrior
1 jack Russell
4 golden retrievers
1 beagle

I heard you had agility outside – that sounds fun! was it just jumping over poles and/or frisbee tossing?

SM: The agility was great fun, a small course was set up with jumps and a tunnel and all the dogs got to have a go, no matter how long it took! Our COO had to climb in the tunnel to get her setter out!! The height of the jumps were adjustable dependent on the ability of the dog – or the length of it’s legs!

How do you think today went in general? Would Volume do this again?

SM: I think everyone thought it went well! There was no incidents, no fights, no toilet accidents.. So I think it was a success and I’d hope they’d do it again. We must have raised about £150 from the days events, so I hope we do it again.

A little more about Sammie and her puppy dogs:

Tell me about your puppy dog – what is his/her name? breed?

SM: I have two dogs. Kobi, a 3 and a half year old male rottweiler X mastiff, and Nala a 3 year old female Rottweiler X Staffordshire bull terrier. We got kobi from a breeder, met him when he was 1 week old and brought him home when he was 7 weeks old. Hes a lovely natured gentle giant, and has a fantastic character. He’s a very clever dog, can be a bit defiant at times but lovely to live with!

We wanted to get a buddy for kobi and after about 6 months of looking online and meeting dogs at battersea dogs home we brought nala back to live with us. She’s very well natured and has lots of energy to match kobi. They get on so well and love to run and play together. Were so lucky that they got on so well, and are blessed to be the owners of two wonderful, gentle, loving dogs

Photos provided by Volume (@volumegroup) and Anthony Musto (@AntMusto)

One last photo I wanted to close on is these two getting special badges for the day

Everyone I want you to meet Louis -(pronounced Louie)- my FIRST official puppy client.

Louis is a 16 week Havenese [To read more about the breed read] black puppy with speck of white on his chin and back legs.  I can’t tell you enough how much energy he has – especially when you have a squeaky toy to throw. We had a blast this weekend – learning how to walk on a leash – experiencing his first hot dog (cut up ove course!) -sampling a few licks of my gelato and driving in the passenger seat in my car. Louis has a very fun personality running around like a mad pooch in circles – realizing he has a tail – and actually found his voice!

In his spare time you can find Louis napping – every so beautifully like in this photo:

For my readers wondering why my post title is not in English is because their son attends French Immersion and also there are French words around in the house.

This Sunday it will mark 10 years since the 9/11 attacks that happened in New York. A very tragic event that happened in our country – but brought us together as a nation. As police officers and firefighters helped out with the situation -also their canine partners contributed to the search too.This article recaps the ‘when and where’ our canine heroes are today and how much they make a huge impact on the search and rescue effort.

Source: Reuters : http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/06/us-sept11-dogs-idUSTRE7856KV20110906

Recently I saw a story on our local news about two canines. Daisy and Duke – both are related but Daisy is blind. This story really hit home to me as I have a close cousin who is nearly going blind and I know that humans aren’t puppy dogs but when they lose their sight they need to have some kind of accommodation available to survive. Thankfully Daisy has Duke! Duke is her own guide dog and actually son too!

Sadly in the foreclosure market – their owner had to drop them off to SecondHand Hounds.

I have only owned one dog in my life and Bingo came from a breeder – but I am really thankful there are great non-profit organizations out there that can help poochies find great homes!

Resource: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/07/11/blind-yellow-lab-has-her-own-guide-dog/

Have you ever had a job where you could bring your pooch to work? I really wish I had that opportunity when I had Bingo (Bischon Frise) to take to any of my jobs that I have had so far.

I recently stumbled upon this great article about dogs make employees more productive at work and I couldn’t disagree.  Just think even if you got in a hostile situation at work or were stressed, your canine would be at your side smiling at you and wanting his/her tummy to be rubbed. Coming from a non-smoker perspective – dogs are definitely by far helpful to keep stress levels really low.

I hope someday I will be able to bring my dog (at the moment my dream dog is a Westie) to work with me.

Original resource is: Man’s Best Co-Worker

This week I had the pleasure of dogsitting Annabelle, who is a gorgeous King Charles Cavalier that lives in the Lake Calhoun (Minneapolis) area with owner Deb Denz and daughter Eleni.

Have you ever met a canine that sparks so much personality? Sometimes I swear when I talk to Annabelle or look at her she displays so many different facial features. I think she thinks of herself as being queen of the house and feels like one of the royal family members probably.  I guess you could say I am her servant yet great friend. I give her plenty of TLC and we have so much fun together.

Many of our days spent together always includes a good 1/4 walk by Lake Calhoun (as I don’t try to over exert her). She is such a superstar when we go on walks, not pulling nor barking at other dogs – though when we have seen other Cavaliers – it seems like a huge fan club  erupts and they all smile at each other.

On Friday (6/17/11) afternoon Annabelle and I jumped in the car and I drove us over to Bubbly Paws , which is a dog wash self service facility located at Excelsior and Grand in St. Louis Park. This was my first time and I didn’t know what to expect. Actually when arrived nobody else was there (besides the girl working the cash register) – so this was the perfect opportunity to learn about what was included in the service.

All the basics were provided to us (towels, brushes, shampoo, conditioner, etc) along with a disposable toothbrush that contains toothpaste and a spa doggie spray to use after drying off your pooch (sorta like a perfume you could say).  BellaChella  (my nickname for her) was quite calm and was a superstar! I don’t think she was nervous – just was very happy at the end to get a dog treat.

I will miss her if she moves to California with her family. She is very special to me.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to take Pippin & Lucy (poochie clients) to Lake of the Isles Dog Park in Minneapolis. I really love this location because it is very community oriented – from 2 boxes full of plastic baggies, you can usually find a good amount of tennis balls, outdoor patio furniture and much more!

I had the great pleasure to meet Leann Crowe that day as well. She is interning/working for Southwest Journal. She was going around the dog park talking to dog owners about potential future dog parks.

Here is the article: http://swjournal.com/index.php?publication=southwest&section=81&story=16946&page=152&category=63&viewComments=viewComments