Favorite Video Friday – Coolest Sheep Herding Video Ever

I came across this video on my friend Johann The Dog’s Facebook page and could barely wait to share it with all of you. In fact, I almost didn’t wait. It’s that cool.

Of course, I may be a bit biased in this respect since Jasper has herded sheep before and I am hoping to get him more involved again soon.

This video was shot with a GoPro (a camera I very much want) and gives you a unique view of sheep herding from both the dog and the sheep’s point of view. In my opinion, it’s the best sheep herding video I have ever seen (the choice of music is awesome too). I hope you like it as much as I did.

Just two words of warning: 1) it’s a rather long video, so watch as much or as little as you want, and 2) the video is best watched in big screen, but in the scenes where the dog is wearing the camera it is very disorienting because of the way the camera moves with the dog.

My New Favorite Pet Gadget

Nitize LED Light

In the past, I have mentioned my dislike of the whole “fall back” time change because it takes away my extra hour of daylight in the evening. Most of my dislike has to do with the fact that I hate walking my dogs in the dark. We have no sidewalks in my neighborhood and even though it’s a residential area, we often have people driving their cars way too fast. I am afraid one day me and my dogs, or someone else and their dog, will get hit.

But this weekend I found this wonderful little gadget at Chuck and Don’s Pet Food Outlet. It’s a little LED light that you attach to your dog’s collar. It’s low-tech; it turns on with a twist, and the battery is easy to replace. It’s definitely the best new pet gadget I have seen in some time. I was able to hook it easily to Lady’s collar to show you what it looks like. Yes. It’s really that bright. You can see it from quite a distance. In fact, we saw another dog at our dog park wearing one last night and I could see him way before we got close enough to hear him.

I think we’ll be taking more walks in the dark now that I have found something that allows people to see us more quickly and from further away. This is technology at it’s best, don’t you think?

Lady and her new light

If you live in Minnesota (or Denver) you can pick one up at Chuck and Don’s, and if not, you can order them online at niteize.com – here’s the direct link.

Wordless Wednesday #75

“Cuddle-bug” dogs – Do you have one?

Lady

I was thinking about “cuddle-bug” dogs the other day and pondering the fact that throughout all the dogs I have had in my life, I’ve never once had a full-time cuddle-bug dog. Do you know what I mean? The type of dog that just wants to be near you all of the time and would prefer to cuddle up on the couch with you when you’re reading a good book or watching TV or having a sick day.

Daisy likes to cuddle for a belly rub in the morning, but that’s pretty much it. Jasper likes belly rubs but would prefer to play ball. And then there’s Lady, my off and on cuddle-bug dog. Ever since she’s come home, she’s been more affectionate, often lying on the couch next to me as I pet her or give her a belly rub (Last week I gave her a body massage and now she’s really affectionate!). But, being a Sheltie, she doesn’t like to cuddle for too long because she gets too hot. So as you can imagine cuddle sessions are rather fleeting here at Casa del Mel.

Jasper

Given that I’ve always adopted dogs who are not cuddle-bug type of dogs, it made me wonder… is this my preference or merely chance? What do you think? Do you have a cuddle-bug dog? Do you have a preference when it comes to dogs and their need to cuddle? It seems to me that little dogs are more likely to cuddle than the bigger dogs, but maybe I’m wrong. Do you have a large cuddle-bug dog?

There but for the grace of…

This past week Minnesota Sheltie Rescue alerted us to another missing dog in my neck of the woods. This dog was also shy and a foster dog, but with another local rescue group, RAGOM – Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota. I couldn’t help but be worried about him. Unlike Lady, Kekoa didn’t appear to have as thick a coat as her and temperatures this week have been below zero.

I had planned to help hand out flyers today, but yesterday Kekoa was found. Unfortunately, he was not found in the way any of us had hoped. Kekoa’s story does not have such a happy ending. His body was discovered yesterday. He had been hit by a car after getting through the fencing along a highway.

I can’t help but feel deeply saddened by this outcome. I felt so connected to Kekoa’s story. He got away from his foster mom too.

What Lady and I and her rescue volunteers went through is still so fresh in my mind. My memories of how she was found and the joy I felt knowing I no longer had to worry where she was and whether was she in danger. I just wasn’t prepared for an outcome that didn’t end have another happy reunion ending with tears of joy.

Why did Lady come home safely and not Kekoa? I mean she was lost on one side of a very busy highway and was found on the other side of it. Certainly she had to have crossed over it somehow.

When we were out searching for her those twelve long days, I noticed a huge gap in the fencing right along a new bridge that had just been completed this past summer. The bridge crosses over the same highway Lady had to cross and ends fairly close to where she was eventually found. So if she did cross there, why did she not run through the gap in the fence? Why did she not head down the embankment and onto the highway? I can’t help but wonder why Kekoa and not her?

I often hear people say “There but for the grace of God go I,” and I admit that last night I thought that very thing for one brief moment – that it was God’s grace that brought Lady through it all. But then where does that leave Kekoa and the people who searched so diligently for him? Surely he had God’s grace looking upon him too? I know there were prayers said for him, just like they were for Lady. So what made his outcome so different?

I don’t suppose anyone will ever really know the answer to that question, but what I do know is that right now I feel even more thankful tonight as I reflect on the pain and sorrow that Kekoa’s family and caretakers are feeling right now. They did all the same things that were done to help find Lady, and yet, they do not have the happy ending they and Kekoa so deserved. I am so deeply sorry for their loss. Rest in peace dear Kekoa.

Favorite Video Friday – Sleep Baby Sleep

It’s a bit cold here in Minnesota this week. Yesterday we didn’t get above zero and today isn’t supposed to get much above 10 degrees. That’s why this video appealed to me, because in all honesty, it’s what I would be doing today if I didn’t have to work. I hope it starts your Friday off with the warm fuzzies.

Happy Friday!

Dogs as Fashion Accessories

I was out to dinner with some friends a while back and one of them told me that he had almost taken in a French Bulldog through someone he knew at work. It turns out that a lady he worked with knew a young woman who had purchased the dog because it was trendy. Seriously? She got a dog because it was “trendy”? She didn’t want a companion or a friend. Nope. She wanted to be able to show everyone how hip and cool she was because she had latest trendy item.

“Hey look everybody! I’ve got the latest fashion accessory – A French Bulldog!” (Sarcasm intended)

As it turns out, after purchasing the dog, and sending it through doggy training camp for two weeks, she determined that the French Bulldog wasn’t really for her. She decided that she would rather have a pocket dog. She was dumping one dog to get another. How lovely.

Right around the same time, another friend told me how disgusted she was with an acquaintance of hers after she bought a teacup Yorkie. Did she purchase the dog for companionship? No. She got the dog because she loved the idea of being able to dress it up in cute little clothes and carry it around with her – like an accessory.

She didn’t want to take the time to potty train it (or train it at all for that matter), she didn’t want to play with it or spend time walking it either. Why? Because the dog sole purpose in life was to make her look good. What dog wouldn’t love to be dressed up for special outings and then ignored the rest of the time?

Here’s the deal folks – if you’re looking for an accessory, go get yourself a pair of new shoes, or a purse. A dog is not a an accessory. They poop, they pee, they need training, and they need someone who actually CARES for and about them, not someone who wants attention for having the latest fashion accessory in tow.

Stop SOPA and PIPA

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968)

Gone Dark To Protest SOPA and PIPA

On Wednesday, January 18th, I will be joining my fellow bloggers and many others on the internet, by going dark. What does this mean? We are protesting two internet censorship bills currently before Congress: Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Do you upload videos to YouTube? Do you share videos or other content on Facebook? On Twitter? On your blog? Then these bills will affect you.

Websites like Wikipedia, Craigslist, Reddit, Twitpic, WordPress, BoingBoing, Mozilla, and many others will be going black on Wednesday to protest these two bills.

“YouTube would just go dark immediately,” Google public policy director Bob Boorstin said at a conference last month. “It couldn’t function.”

Essentially, both bills help the entertainment industry from being ripped off, but in fact they are far more likely to allow corporations and the U.S. government to censor websites they don’t like. This would impact the First and Fourth amendments of the United States Constitution and could essentially kill the internet as it exists today.

Corporate supporters of S968 (Protect IP -or- PIPA) and HR3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site that affects their profits — without prior judicial oversight or due process — in the name of combating “online piracy.” Craigslist

Looking for important information on Google? Under these bills, the anyone could claim something as copyright infringement and shutdown that website and ask Google to remove the site from it’s search engine.

Uploading a cute video of your dog onto YouTube? You better make sure that you don’t have your favorite song playing on your radio. Under these bills, your content could be considered copyrighted material and mot only removed from YouTube, but you could be sued by the record label or artist that owns that song.

You can learn more about PIPA and SOPA in the video below, or for a more humorous take on the bills, go here to see Stephen Colbert breaks down SOPA. Please send your Congressman or woman an email to let them know you don’t support SOPA or PIPA and they shouldn’t either.

“It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today,” former Sen. Chris Dodd, now chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA),commenting on Internet Blackout Day.

I’ll be off the Internet Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA. please join in protest.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin worked for an independent film production firm prior to joining the tech world, and frequently received bogus requests to remove his company’s material from YouTube.

“We would get a lot of erroneous . . . takedown notices, even on our own trailers for our own films put up on YouTube, because keywords would match,” Martin said on a Tuesday conference call with reporters. “Especially when companies are using automated tools — it’s a script, and human beings aren’t even looking at this — the potential for abuse [under Protect IP and SOPA] is huge.”(Huffington Post, 1/17/2012)

Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)

Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)

More information:
Where Do Your Members of Congress Stand on SOPA and PIPA?
Follow the money trail – Who is lobbying for PIPA and SOPA?
How SOPA would affect you: FAQ
CNN Money – SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters

The Lies Pet Stores and Puppy Mills Tell You

My friend Amy over at Go Pet Friendly wrote a great piece detailing her friend’s search for an Akita and how they determined that the breeder wasn’t a responsible breeder at all. I encourage you to go read it – Internet Puppies for Blog the Change – and walk through their decision-making process.

I thought I would tag onto Amy’s piece with a list of lies that pet stores and puppy mills use to get you to buy their puppies. The truth is that the average consumer is often no match for these savvy salesmen and women. They know just the right words to say and key phrases to use to get the unsuspecting pet owner to buy their puppies (and kitties). They use emotion and act like your friend in order to sell you a puppy, but they are only focused on two goals – selling puppies and making money. Period.

I welcome any of you who have other lies to add to the list to share them in the comment section below.

The more we share, the more we educate.

The Lies Pet Stores and Puppy Mills Tell You

We only get our dogs from “good” or “responsible” breeders
Our dogs are only from USDA licensed facilities
We pick up our puppies directly from select breeders that we have chosen to do business with
We only deal with private breeders
I visit every breeder personally (to make sure they are not a puppy mill)
Our puppies are raised in our home with our family
All our dogs are inspected by a veterinarian before we sell them to the public
You can go visit or call the breeder to make sure your puppy is from a “good” breeder
The breeders don’t like to have people come see the puppies because they are so delicate
We stock the largest selection of puppies around
One-year health guarantee
Each puppy is checked by our veterinarian
All our puppies are AKC registered
We don’t buy from puppy mills
We deal with only the top breeders from across the country
We only sell healthy/happy puppies
Any breed can be special ordered

Meet me in X parking lot and I’ll bring your puppy to you
We operate a clean breeding facility
I love my puppies and will only give them to loving families like yours
I only raise show dogs (but sell them in the paper)
I’ll bring the dog dog to you (i.e., I don’t want you to see my facilities)

Key words to watch for…
USDA certified
USDA licensed
State issued proof
Home raised
Home bred
Top breeders
Select breeders
Private breeders
Triple health checks
We ship!
Puppies will be ready for (name of holiday)