Shopping continues today with a big thanks to Amy who sent me a morning email that read:

"Since you enjoy some fun bathroom humor at times, I thought this might
interest you".
Included was a link to LTD Commodies.com where they sell bowls shaped like toilets for dogs and and fish bowls for cats (such a deal at only 12.95!).

My appreciation of bathroom humor is no secret to long time blog readers and it has a lot to do with living with kids and dogs.
At our house we practice what we jokingly refer to as "defcom lid down" at all times. Charlee is a master at toilet seat manipulation and she has been known to flick the toilet lid up for a taste of the forbidden yuck. Three kids = don't always flush.

Usually when the water bowl is empty Charlee will bang it around with her paw for a while. If I don't come running to fill the water bowl, she will then pick up any bowl that the kids have left around and bring it to me. To include dropping it on me if I am sleeping. If that fails she will go into the bathroom and bang the toilet seat up and down with her nose.
If I still don't arrive with a rapid refill, then she will flip it open and help herself to open toilet bar.
That always gets my attention.

For a limited time you can get an autographed copy of Gina Spadafori's and Dr. Marty Becker's book-
Why Do dogs Drink Out of the Toilet-here.
Personally, I think dogs drink out of the toilet for the same reason they lick themselves.
Cause they can.

By the way, Amy's rescue, All Min Pin Rescue is having a raffle to benefit their Min Pins in need of medical services. All Min Pin Rescue does not turn away dogs in need of expensive medical care. Click here to go to Min Pin's online Christmas raffle.
Good stuff for a good cause.

Click here for the 20 second movie.

It ends as all Charlee's woodland adventures do -
wet, smelly and dirty!

Great update on the Animal Refuge League's web site.
The dogs from the Buxton puppy mill will be going to forever homes!

The Animal Refuge League and Animal Welfare Society begin the next chapter of the Buxton puppy mill saga. On November 15th the court awarded custody of the seized animals to the State of Maine Animal Welfare Program and in the next several weeks the lead agencies in this seizure will be working to get some 300 dogs and pups spayed, neutered and microchipped by Home Again in preparation for eventual adoption. It should be noted that this action is separate from the criminal proceedings and from any other known legal proceedings currently in place, such as the $900 million law suit which has been reported. All animals who are coming up for adoption through ARL and AWS will be posted on the websites and interested parties should keep checking in. Adoptions will be done methodically, giving potential adopters plenty of information about what to expect when adopting a puppy mill survivor.

Read the rest of the update and find out how to help here.

This is an enormous financial undertaking and monetary donations are greatly needed!

Art for Dog Sake
A gathering of artists
Saturday Nov. 17th 10AM-4Pm
Sprague Hall
Rt 77 Cape Elizabeth

A diverse group of artists gathering with a mission to help rescue dogs in need.

$2.00 donation at the door will go to Dogs Deserve Better, a non profit organization dedicated to freeing chained dogs and bringing them into the home and family

For more info and a list of artists- Click here.

See you there!

You know those commercials on TBS, where there is a call center and people call up and tell a story, to find out if it their story is funny and if it is ok to laugh?
Well I am the caller, and you are my TBS laugh call center.

Here goes.

Sadie is here. She is still sugar and spice and everything nice, but add to that a wee bit of adolescence and she needs to be watched all the time or she gets her self in trouble.

14 year old son came home about 9:30 Monday night, to find that Sadie had ripped some pink insulation off the wall in the furnace room and scattered pink fluff on the floor in his bedroom. He doesn't bother to tell me, and for what must have been the first time in his entire life, he cleans up a mess. In hindsight, I think he was trying to cover for her. He now knows now that he should have told me in case Sadie needed to got to the vet!

He also doesn't wash his hands.

Fast forward to the morning. I hear a "What the *#@!!" !! and a "Sadie" and a "moooooommmmm!"coming from his room, and I go down to see him itching his....umm nether region. Apparently he scratched during the night and spread the fiberglass insulation 'down there'.

I assess the situation and tell him to take a shower, or get a wash cloth....but nooooo, he is a middle schooler after all, and instead of washing the vile stuff off, he marches straight out the door.

As I watch him walk to the bus stop...hupping and pulling and scratching all the way, I laughed. I laughed a lot! Then I laughed more everytime I told the story.

In the early morning light, I am feeling a bit guilty about the whole thing. But deep down I am still laughing because everyone knows that middle schoolers know everything.

Sadie says: What? Why does everyone think it was me?

This past summer I fostered Chase, a pure bred Border Collie from New England Border Collie Rescue. 8 year old Chase was a washed up Goose patrol dog from a golf course in New York. He had lived for a quite a few years in a small outdoor pen before being relinquished to rescue after his original care giver moved on to another job, and he was just the sweetest thing!

True to his breed, Chase had a few quirks. Chase loved to catch water from the hose, and he herded the washer, dryer and dishwasher.

Here he is in my kitchen "helping" me with the dishes.

You must click here to check him out in action.

Chase is thriving in his forever home in New Hampshire.

Meet Jack. He is an American Brittany and a very nice pup.
Notice I didn't call him a Brittany Spaniel.
Brittany's are no longer members of the Spaniel family. I didn't know it either until puppy class last Saturday, and that is why I am posting his picture here. And because he looks like a candy cane with his splint on. He broke a toe when he was run over by his older sibling dogs on the way to the front door.

A few years back Brittany's were removed from the Spaniel class because they do not hunt like Spaniels. Brittany's point and Spaniels flush birds. Interesting!

Jack had to wait through one series of classes for his toe to heel, and he is now doing everything the other pups are doing in class except playtime. During play sessons, he just goes for a short walk. In Jack's class I also have 3 Field Springer pups all from working Champion lines and when all the owners get together, it can be hard for me to get a word in edgewise because they are all so into their pups. All four will be working dogs to varying degrees and I love working with them (and their people to)!

Maddie is in class with Jack. She will be hunting in no time and she is working hard on foundation skills which will help her in the hunt field.

Many dogs who come though class are more than pet dogs and often I need to adjust how I teach and what I teach to accommodate dogs with jobs. The working hunt dogs do things just a bit different from my pet pups, and that makes for interesting classes for me. Like it says in my bio, the more you know the more you know you don't know. People who love their breed and sport, also love to share information and I enjoy being their sponge.

FYI Portland Press Herald. In yesterday's very nice article on Agility you featured an American Brittany captioned as a Spaniel. Opps!

Featured on “Dog Talk” -authors John Ross and Barbara McKinney

A rolled up newspaper can be an effective training tool when used properly. For instance, use the rolled-up newspaper if your dog chews something or has a housebreaking accident. Take the rolled-up newspaper and hit yourself over the head as you repeat the phrase, "I FORGOT TO WATCH MY DOG, I FORGOT TO WATCH MY DOG." If your dog laughs at you when you do this, praise him.

I found the link to the above gem over on Pet Connection.com yesterday. Gina has a brand new rescue dog who ate a peice of an old couch and a reader posted the link in agreement with her that the "incident" was her fault.
Growing up, my Dad used a rolled up newspaper on our dogs nose for chewing and housebreaking accidents.
We now know that the dogs of our youth learned many lessons in spite of, not because of our out dated training methods.

Me and my Golden Ginger circa 1973. Yes those are horses on my shirt.

From the folks at Bad Rap, a wonderful Pit Bull rescue in the San Fransico Bay Area:

If you're a pit bull owner, no doubt you've become strangely accustomed to living under a microscope. We endure public scrutiny and condemnation for - of all things - enjoying a breed that's been America’s sweetheart for over 150 years.

Our dogs are good teachers: They've taught us to strip down to the basics, ignore the naysayers and just...LIVE.

Celebrate the spirit of bold innocence with our BAD RAP Exposed 2008 Calendar, photographed on some of California’s most beautiful beaches. We’re proud to say that, freckles and all, pit bull owners have nothing to hide!

$20 plus shipping
order here!
Mine is on the way!

Gary

Last week I was surfing the Bad Rap blog and shed waaaaayyyyyy too many tears reading about a dog they called Gary. Gary was pulled him from a shelter all skin, bones and fleas, as a compassion case. Bad Rap planned to send him off to the bridge with peace, dignity and love instead of letting him die in a shelter all scared and alone. I don't know of any rescue group that pulls dogs from shelters to give them compassionate care. If that isn't one of the most selfless, kindest things I have ever heard in all my days. You can read about Gary and see his video on the Bad Rap Blog.
Bring a tissue.

The Gary chronicles start here. Scroll down to the middle of September's page and then look for more on Gary in October. Gary made great strides in foster care, and almost made it to a home of his own.

From the very first Gary entry on the Bad Rap Blog:

This boney guy was covered in hundreds of fleas on his scarred, filthy dirty, starving little body. Just another day in an urban animal shelter. He was nobody's dog and he was basically, already dead. But he managed to look us in the eye with the calmest look of quiet resignation. Suckers-R-We ... we only meant to give him a bath before he went to meet his Maker, but his brown eyes sold us a bill of goods and five baths later, we loaded him up in the car.

When we can manage it, our group will take home compassion cases for the purpose of letting them die in peace after a few days of rest, love and sunshine. We don't talk about it much because, frankly, it's both painful and controversial. Why save a dog only to put it to sleep?!

RIP Gary, I know who you will be waiting for at the bridge.

Jose Franco photo

A huge and very hearty congratulations goes out Buxton Maine's own Anne Andrle for earning a spot on the World Agility Team with her Border Collie Ski The competition will take place in Belgium in the spring.

South Portland Association of Dog Owners is an active community force. President Crystal Goodrich has been working very hard to keep South Portland's green spaces clean, accessible and enjoyable for all people with and without dogs.

SoPodogs sent out questionnaires to all four candidates seeking the Councilor at Large seats in today's election.
Click here to read all four candidates answers.

Be sure to check out the SoPodog.com updated web site, which includes places to take your dogs both on and off leash, and many local community clean up events.

In case you live under a blogging rock, and have never before heard of the site
I Can has Cheeseburger, this blog is for you!

I Can has Cheeseburger is a good place to waste lots of time.

Directions, upload a picture and then go to the awsum cheezeburger factory Lolcat builder and add a lolcat message.

This is one of the most popular pet blogs of all time.

Now get back to work Mainetoday.com staff!

UPDATE-I made one to....

$29.95 from L.L. Bean and Planet Dog

When Planet Dog sent me a press release for the Naughty and Nice Gift Tote for Dogs
, I have to say, I was impressed. What a perfect gift for the dog lover!
Stuffed Naughty and Nice as well as an Orbee-Tuff® toy all in a tough L. L. Bean tote bag with a paw print on it!

You can also get a puppy tote bag with puppy toys and treats for the same price.

$14.95 Planet Dog

I don't think I could count how many travel feed bags from Planet Dog I have purchased over the last few years. I use three of them myself, and I have given them away as gifts too many times to count. My dogs each have their own that I pack when we travel containing their own food, medicine and toys, and I keep another one in my van filled to the brim with various dog toys that I use for training client's dogs.

$12.95 size medium

My travel training bag is filled with the medium size Orbee balls on a rope. Wonderful for teaching tug, drop it and retrieve, or use it to just have fun. They are tough!

By the way, Planet Dog is getting lots of well deserved good blogosphere press today for taking their production of dog toys back to Maine and out of China. But you local Maine dog folks already knew that right?

Gifts for dogs and dog lovers will continue through early December. At that time they will be featured together on one big blog.