The Greeks may have invented the marathon, but I think the Italians have perfected it!! Check out these pictures of dogs running the Rome Marathon with their owners (they have numbers and everything!!).

I’m assuming dogs aren’t allowed in the NY marathon, since I’ve never seen one. There are probably too many logistical/safety issues for it to work in NY, but wouldn’t it be nice???

Check out our Flickr gallery for many more pictures!

I think this must be a prototype because it looks like there are a number of exposed moving parts and it’s not exactly sleek in terms of design, but I love the concept!!  Oscar isn’t much of a fetcher, but I can see how this would be really great for dogs that are fetching/tennis ball obsessed.

I especially love the display screen, so that you can see how many balls your dog fetched while you were at work! 

I wonder if it was hard to train the dog??  Very good idea…

Okay, now I had a serious debate with myself before publishing this post…should I publish the post and share an amusing video or should I report these dog owners to the ASPCA?? 

I decided that the dog looks like he’s not being harmed in any way and he might even be enjoying it!  Can it really be any worse than torturing your dog by dressing him up in clothes??  No, I don’t think so. 

The cat looks pretty pissed though…sore loser.

Hope you enjoy…

If you like this video there are lots more…search for “Wii Dog” on youtube.comand you can see him playing (and winning!!) against people in a number of different Wii games.

A friend of mine forwarded me this recent article from the NYTimes and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d pass it on. 

Now, I have to say that I’m pretty skeptical about alternative medicine for people (much less dogs), but I thought the article did a really good job of telling a positive story of one specific dog owner’s acupuncture experience, while also presenting a balanced view of the treatment. 

I probably would have just dismissed the article all-together except that Oscar has been struggling with a broken toe that just won’t seem to heal for the past 4 months.  (I should say that WE’RE struggling with it, Oscar actually seems to have adjusted really well to the splint he’s had to wear around since December). 

After reviewing the options that modern medicine can provide (which include surgery and amputation), I’ll admit that I’ve thought about a lot of stuff that I never thought I would…hoping for a miracle, making secret mental deals with a higher power (take my toe, save his!!)…so alternative medicine is actually not sounding that crazy to me anymore.  I find it really ironic that my desperation to get Oscar back to full speed has led me to open my mind and consider options that I never would consider exploring for myself.

Anyway, I think we’re going to give modern medicine and mother nature a little more time before we try a different path, but I’m not counting anything out right now.  If you have any experience using acupuncture or other forms of alternative medicine to deal with your dog’s health issues, I’d love to hear about it.

So, Oscar sleeps in bed with us (please don’t tell Cesar Millan).  No, y’know what?  Go ahead and tell the Dog Whisperer, because having my pup snuggle up in the crook of my arm pit and fall asleep is one of my favorite parts of being a dog owner.  There, I’ve said it!

Anyway, Oscar can’t get into bed by himself, so when he wants to get in, he will just come around to the side of the bed, stand up on his hind legs and poke his head up as if to say, “Okay, I’m ready to join you.  Please pick me up now”.  If you don’t acknowledge him after 30 seconds or so, he will paw softly at the bed a few times, just to make sure you know that he’s there.  (Of course, you must not have seen him, because why else wouldn’t you already have come over and picked him up???)

That part is okay, it’s a little bit of a pain if he decides to hop out of bed to go get one last drink before bed or check out a noise when you’re already settled.  But, no biggie.  What makes me nervous is Oscar jumping OUT of bed.  Especially since he’s put on a few extra pounds this winter and he has such scrawny little legs.  I’ve been super worried that he’s going to hurt himself.

 So, I finally decided that since we’ve already broken all the “pack leader” rules in regards to the bed, we might as well get pet steps so at least the situation will be more safe and convenient.  Unfortunately, if you take a look at the options out there…pet steps are pretty crappy looking overall.  I was extremely hesitant to buy some cheap plastic or foam set of steps, especially since I’ve finally convinced my husband to exchange all of his terrible post-college hand-me-down furniture for some grown-up furniture!

So, I finally found Mr. Herzher’s Decorative Pet Steps and I think you’ll agree that they’re pretty good looking.

Unfortunately, they were pretty expensive ($99.99 for the 2-step model, $129.99 for the 3-step model) and not terrific quality.  One of the side panels was cracked in several places in the first set of steps that I ordered.  (Fortunately, since I ordered through Amazon, the exchange wasn’t too much of a hassle.)  You have to assemble the steps yourself and you definitely have to use the glue they provide - I tried to assemble without the glue at first and the steps rattled like crazy when Oscar ran up and down them.

Anyway, after a little hassle and a lot of dough, I think we have a solution that is safe for Oscar and looks okay.  But, I think there’s a huge opportunity for someone to come in and launch a competitive high-end pet step!

One last note…it’s so funny how Oscar keeps trying to revert back to his old ways of getting in and out of bed.  We showed him how to use the new steps by luring him with treats up and down, but he still keeps jumping off and coming over to the side of the bed to be picked up.  It’s been about a week and a half and I think he finally gets “UP”, but “DOWN” has really been a challenge!  We’re going to keep at it though!

If you’ve rescued or adopted a mixed breed dog, maybe you’re tired of having to answer “I don’t know” when friends or strangers ask what kind of dog you have.  Would you prefer to say, “My dog is primarily German Shepard & Samoyed, with traces of Clumber Spaniel, Labrador Retriever and Shetland Sheepdog.”?  Then we may have the perfect thing for you. 

There are at least two companies out there doing DNA testing of mixed breed dogs. 

Wisdom Panel MX Mixed Breed Analysis is available from Mars Veterinary.  For ~$200, you can go to a participating veterinarian who will take a small sample of blood for testing.  Within 2-3 weeks, you’ll receive a personal breed analysis for your dog.  Click here to see a sample breed analysis.  This method boasts the ability to identify 130 AKC breeds.  We checked a few zip codes in NY and there are a ton of vets who offer this service, maybe even your own vet.  Go to www.whatsmydog.com to check it out for yourself.

Or, if you looking for something a little less intrusive, you might want to try the Canine Heritage Breed Test from MetaMorphix Inc.  This test only requires you to send a cheek swab from your dog (no vet visit required) and the cost is $79.95.  Results are available 4-6 weeks after they receive your DNA cheek swab.  On the downside, MetaMorphix’s test can only identify 38 breeds, but if you suspect that your dog is one of the 38 common breeds in their database, then this might be a more cost effective option for you.

Check out this link to an article on dogchannel.com for more details on the two different techniques.  Either way, knowing what breeds your dog is made up of can help you to identify potential health risks.  It can also help you better understand your dogs behavior and identify what type of training and exercise might be most effective for your dog.

Everyone know that mutts are the most lovable dogs, but would it make them any less lovable to know what breeds are in their family tree?    I don’t think so…

Spring is in the air and you’re probably thinking about how you’re going to shed those extra pounds to get ready for bathing suit season, but what about your dog???  Maybe she won’t be wearing a bikini this summer (although you never know, with dog fashion these days), but don’t you want to help your best friend be happier & healthier?

In case you didn’t catch it, here’s a segment from the Today Show from last week featuring local dog trainer Andrea Arden.  Andrea gives some great tips on how to know if your dog is overweight, how to know how much food to feed your dog and how to help your dog shed those unwanted pounds.

Oscar - let’s go…we’ve got a lot of work to do before we’re ready to hit the beach!

My sister sent me this link for SkiJoring at Gunstock Mountain in NH.  Cross-country skiing with your dog, sounds great!!  It may be a little late in the season for this winter, but I was already mentally planning our trip up the NH for next year!

Since I’d never heard of SkiJoring and the Gunstock Mountain page didn’t really explain exactly what it was, I looked it up on wikipedia.  Apparently SkiJoring is being pulled on skis by 1-3 dogs (or a horse)!!  Can you imagine me showing up to Gunstock Mountain with my Brussels Griffon for SkiJoring??  Oscar is big for his breed, but I don’t think he could pull me very far, even on skis!

Gunstock doesn’t mention the whole being pulled by your dog thing, so hopefully they would just let you free ski with your dog.  It is pretty cool that they have designated trails for you and your dog.

Has anyone out there ever cross country skied with their dog at a commercial  ski place?  I would love to hear about it. 

We got the chance to meet a truly amazing dog last week - a black lab named Adele.  My colleague, Mitch, met Adele and her owner Marty Harris, while walking his dog and convinced her to come by the Snif Labs office to share her inspirational story with the whole team.

You see, Adele is a service dog who is specially trained to be able to sense when her owner Marty is about to lose consciousness due to a rare heart problem.  Adele will alert Marty to sit or lie down BEFORE she actually faints.  Doctors don’t even understand how Adele is able to sense an oncoming episode (she can also sense things like oncoming seizures & low blood sugar in diabetics), but they think that dogs are able to use their more sophisticated senses of smell and/or hearing to detect very subtle changes that happen to a person before they have an episode.

Before Adele came into Marty’s life, Marty was frequently fainting and ending up in the emergency room, often suffering concussions.  Although Adele sometimes alerts her up to 20 times a day, she hasn’t fainted one single time since Adele has been looking out for her!!  We actually saw Adele alert Marty right in our office and I think Mitch put it best when he said that it “gave him chills”. 

Adele was trained by an amazing organization called Canine Partners for Life.  They train service dogs to help people with muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, seizure disorders and more.

Click here for a recent article from the Boston Globe that goes into more detail about all of the ways that Adele helps Marty in her day to day life.

So far, Oscar hasn’t demonstrated any life-saving abilities, but we’re going to keep our eyes open - maybe he has some hidden talents that we just haven’t discovered yet!!

Thank you, Marty, for sharing your story with us and allowing us to share it with our readers.  We wish you and Adele all the best!

We also wanted to wish Marty’s son Ethan a Happy 9th Birthday!!  We hope you had a great time at Blue Man Group.  Good luck beating the Pokemon game!! 

If you’re just joining us, catch up by reading Becoming a Therapy Dog - Parts 1  through 5.  Back to our story where we just received our official Delta Society Pet Partners badges…

We must be close now…actually depending on the facility you want to visit, you’re probably still 4-8 weeks away from visiting your first patient. What?? We’re already a registered therapy dog team, what could possibly take another 4-8 weeks?? Well now you have to go through the volunteer program for the facility that you want to visit. If you want to visit a hospital, you’re probably looking at a long bureaucratic process. We’ve heard that it can take less time for nursing homes and other facilities, but we can’t speak from experience on those.

We decided that we wanted to visit a local facility with a pet therapy program. Volunteering as a therapy dog team ususally involves a weekly committment, so we wanted to make it as easy as possible to keep our committment by choosing a facility within walking distance. With help from the ASPCA, we were able to identify a nearby facility with a pet therapy program - St. Vincent’s Hospital.

St. Vincent’s was actually the first New York State Department of Health test site for animal-assisted therapy in acute care facilities. In 1998, their pioneering work resulted in the state’s health code being changed to make animal-assisted therapy programs possible in hospitals. Edna Wolf, who runs the Animal-Assisted Therapy program at St. Vincent’s is truly an inspiration. She was a physical therapist at St. Vincent’s for many years. When Edna retired, she took over the management of the animal-assited therapy program as a full-time volunteer. Last we heard, the animal-assisted therapy program at St. Vincent’s had almost 30 active therapy dog teams.

So, bottom line….the therapy dog program at St. Vincent’s is terrific, but it was somewhat of an ordeal to get through the volunteer process.

First, a 4 page application, with SSN for background check and proof of certification by either Delta Society or TDI. 2-3 weeks later, we were scheduled for a volunteer orientation (during the 9-5 work day). This orientation was not specific for the therapy dog program, but contained basic information that all volunteers need to know about standard and emergency hospital procedures. Next a health screening, consisting of a physical and blood work to ensure that you have all critical immunities (during the 9-5 work day). The health screening also required 2 sets of PPD Tuberculosis tests which must be administered at least 2 weeks apart (during the 9-5 work day). Finally, a specific volunteer orientation with Edna, to show you the ropes and accompany you on your first day of visits (during the 9-5 work day).

You might notice that getting through the volunteer program required 4-5 tasks that needed to happen during the 9-5 work day, so unless you have a very flexible work schedule, you should plan to use a few personal or vacation days.

So, almost 6 months to the day from our first failed attempt at the Pet Partners evaluation, we completed both our Delta Society Pet Partners registration and the St. Vincent’s volunteer orientation and started visiting. It was a lot of time and effort, but well worth it.

Now we’ve been visiting every Wednesday night for about 6 months. Each week, as soon as Oscar figures out where we’re going, he drags us the rest of the way to the hospital. Oscar is a now total pro with both the elevator and the revolving doors at the entrance. We don our volunteer uniforms and badges (Oscar has his own badge too). When we get there, we find the clipboard that Edna has left for us that tells us which floor to visit and lists any special requests.

We introduce ourselves to the nursing staff and make our rounds for about an hour (any longer and Oscar starts to get antsy). Overall, Oscar is a huge hit with the patients, their visitors and the staff. Some people aren’t interested in interacting with Oscar and that’s okay. But each week, we usually get to visit with 8-10 patients. Sometimes it’s a quick visit and we just chat for a few mintues about Oscar. Other times, it obvious that the patients are really enjoying the visit and we linger a while, Oscar gets lavished with attention and petting and we show off a few of our tricks. Often, you can see the tension and pain melt from people’s faces just by petting him. Or he simply acts as a conversation starter to distract them for a few minutes from the monotany of being confined to a hospital bed.

Yes, in our short time at St. Vincent’s so far, we’ve had some amazing visits - a woman hugging Oscar and thanking us profusely, with tears running down her face - a 70 year-old man who told us he had been afraid of dogs all his life and ended up asking Oscar for “kisses” several times. But every week, we’re greatful for the even the smallest sign that Oscar is making a difference….a smile, a thank you, some tender petting.

We rarely know why the patients are in the hospital, and we’re not medical professionals, but our prescription??

Take one therapy dog and call us in the morning.