The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

Chihuahua helps catch burglary suspects

Four-pound Bella isn’t a police dog but she isn’t a wimpy purse dog either.

She is credited with helping catch two bad guys who were being pursued by the police in Florida. She did it by doing what Chihuahuas do best, barking.

She and her owner, Sgt. John Bonafair, an off duty police officer, were taking a walk when they came face to face with the suspect. Bonafair and Bella took off in pursuit.

"Bella stayed with me and began barking and consequently alerted the other officers to where I was at, and they were able to successfully apprehend him and take him into custody," according to Bonafair.

Police arrested two men accused of stealing a purse from a nearby mall. Mitchell Knight, 18, and Alonzo Johnson, 26 are suspected in a number of burglary cases. Source and video

It is unknown whether Bella will continue to fight crime.

Aerial attacks on small dogs

Fortunately they are rare, but two recent bizarre attacks by great horned owls have taken place in different parts of the country.

One dog was taken on a flight through the Iowa night and the other was attacked in Washington while still on a leash. Both dogs survived, but owners should be aware that something from above may be waiting to make an entrée of their little companion.

Sadie, a tiny Pomeranian, survived a two mile night flight over Davenport, Iowa in the clutches of an owl bent on a meal of Pomeranian Stroganoff.

It all started when Sadie got spooked by fireworks and ran into a nearby woods. When next we hear from Sadie, she is dropping out of the night sky right in front of Jamie Padden’s car as she was stopped at a sign on a city street. Padden watched in horror as the owl tried to snatch back the little dog who was scrambling to escape.

“I opened my car door and ran screaming at that owl,” she says. “It was after the dog. That owl was so big I swear that its wings spread halfway across the street. That sounds overdramatic, but it’s true.”

Padden was able to shoo the owl away and rescue Sadie. She called the police, sure that no one was going to believe her. They did, and the next morning McCarten was reunited with her very lucky little dog. 

As the owl flies, Sadie’s flight covered between 24 to 30 city blocks. She was scruffed up, but suffered nothing worse than bruises and a broken tail. source

Earlier this month Sarah Miller from Spokane was walking her nine pound mini Pinscher, Mary Lou, on a leash when an owl swooped down and tried to carry the dog away. She believes the owl was scoping her out from a roof top because she had only been out for a couple of minutes. Mary Lou had puncture wounds on her neck and shoulders but no life threatening injuries.  source

Great horned owls can stand 24 inches high. They are well endowed as predators as you can see by their talons. Their usual diet is rodents and skunks, but they can easily pick up rabbits, cats, and small dogs.

Decorating the Christmas tree the canine way

Every year I send the crew out to get a small-ish Christmas tree.

Every year they come back with a large-ish Christmas tree.

Every year they swear it "wasn't that big on the lot."

In spite of our efforts the tree continues to lean so it isn't decorated yet. We’ve given up on the elves being much help. Here is what I am waiting for:

Rear Gear—yes, it is what you think it is.

“Rear Gear—Butt covers”

Seriously.

Rear Gear is a small Portland, Oregon business with a store on Etsy which specializes in hand made gear to offer “a cheerful solution” to hide your “favorite pet’s un-manicured back.” They are suitable for dogs and cats. You can select from many designs

… including a disco ball, air freshener, heart, flower, biohazard, smiley face,  number one ribbon, cupcake, sheriff’s badge, dice, and you can even make yours custom, so there’s a Rear Gear for everyone.

Not to be confused with a plug or anything, they are designed to attach to the tail and swing aside when there is…uh, traffic, business, dooty in the area. I’m not sure how that works.

They sell for $5 each. But here’s the thing: in case you are thinking ‘what a great Christmas present' for your dog or cat they are currently sold out.

From Etsy via The Daily What via Pam.

Are pygmy hedgehogs going to be the new Chihuahua?

For the first time Chihuahuas outnumber Pit Bulls in California animal shelters.

Because of their appearance in movies and celebrities carrying them in purses, Chihuahuas have become fashion items in recent years. Now some are being thrown out like last year's jackets.

As long as trends involve, say $300 ripped jeans, it is really no one’s business who wants to buy into them. But when the fad involves a living creature, a Chihuahua, Pug, Puggle, Dalmatian, or Pot belly pig, and when the living creature is later tossed into a shelter for other people to deal with, then it isn’t just a private matter between seller and buyer.

The African pygmy hedgehog has become the”hot pet” for the trendies in England. Not only are they being marketed as cute and easy to care for, but they come in a variety of fashion colors and fit easily into purses. 

These little hedgehogs have been around since the 1980’s when a breeder crossed a white-bellied hedgehog with an Algerian hedgehog, but they are still wild animals with  instincts and specialized needs.

While they do live longer than gerbils and hamsters which makes them more desirable as pets, it also is a longer time for the owner to get bored with them and their noisy nocturnal habits.

Fortunately for the hedgehog, they are illegal in California and New York City where so many trends in this country seem to originate. Or would having an illegal pet be even more intriguing?

Walking the dog—in frump or in style?

Is this dog walker a pathetic soul with irretrievably bad hair who dug her clothes and boots out of a Goodwill reject bag so that she could afford to buy dog food?

Or

Is this someone who alerted the paparazzi that she was going to be walking a dog while she was dressed in trendy garments and expensive tresses that cost more than many people’s mortgage?

Keywords: dog walker, fashion police,  paparazzi, bad hair, Goodwill, good grief, split ends, tacky, shabby chic, shabby, Prada, Versace, Rodeo Drive, Ashley Tisdale

And the winner is...

The early bird gets the Recycled Bicycle Tube Dog Collar or Leash from Two Knobby Tires.

From the entrants my lovely assistant drew #1 and the winner is Smart Dogs.

She was the first entrant, a self confessed recycling geek, and I suspect she has some dark magic powers besides that.

Congratulations. You and your dogs will love it.

From pound puppy to police dog—how much should sniffer dogs cost?

Some watchdog groups are questioning the federal government spending up to $4500 each to buy puppies from Europe and another $15,000 to train them for Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies.

The price tag for European dogs is as much as four times the price of domestic puppies. It is estimated by some sources that only three out of ten dogs bred for law enforcement can reach certification.

The South Korean cloning “factory” has cloned seven golden Labrador Retriever sniffer dogs at a cost of $100,000 to $150,000 each.

Because the budget didn’t allow for the thousands of dollars a sniffer dog costs, Officer Steve Martinez of the Chicago Police Department was able to find and train a shelter dog to join the department.

Few dogs qualify to be trained as sniffer dogs. But officer Martinez knew what he was looking for. After four visits to the Chicago Ridge Animal Welfare League, he found Pantera and adopted him for just $98.

Pantera, one of those big black dogs that are often the last dogs chosen, had been turned over to the shelter when his owners moved into a place that didn’t allow dogs. He met the criteria of being a dog with a "high degree of maturity and strong drive."

After extensive training in drug detection techniques Pantera became the youngest certified narcotics detection dog in Chicago history.

Since joining the force, Pantera has recovered evidence and assisted in search warrant executions with the narcotics section, the department said. Source

Definitely $98 well spent!

Lost dog survives 98 days on a deserted island

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful…Beagle?

Buddy the Beagle’s problem started back on August 31. He was playing with his family, the Kelleys from New Jersey, on uninhabited Gull Island in Manasquan, according to this story.

I’ve written about Beagles before. In fact I even had one so the story doesn’t surprise me. They are wonderful dogs, cute, funny, loyal, endearing...and infuriating. They were bred to track rabbits and that’s what most of them want to do every chance they get.

Four-year-old Buddy saw his opportunity during a leash exchange and bolted. Lost dog posters went up, but no Buddy as the weeks and months went by.

The Coast Guard reported seeing a stray dog digging in the sand, possibly for clams, and eating a dead seagull.

Finally a local man known as Muskrat Jack Neary, who has been trapping animals for 50 years, was able to lure Buddy into a humane trap. What he uses as bait he refers to as a “secret formula,” but chances are it tastes better than dead seagull.

Buddy was soon reunited with his family, including Patrick, the boy who never gave up hope of finding his dog even after more than three months.

During his adventure Buddy had gone from 35 pounds to 19 pounds. Muskrat Jack described him as "A bag of bones…a little lonely, cold, forlorn little dog curled up sleeping."

The veterinarian said he was fine and advised the family to feed him small amounts several times a day.

Beagles have been popular pets for over 100 years, but unfortunately some people expect them to spend their days like Snoopy sitting on the roof of their doghouse writing novels.

Or they imagine owning Uno, the impossibly cute Beagle who drew a standing ovation from the crowd at Madison Square Garden when he was the first Beagle to be named Best in Show at Westminster in 2008.

Unfortunately Beagles often hear the call of the wild and have traffic accidents or end up in shelters when the owners get tired of their roaming.

Did Buddy learn anything from his experience? Probably not. He’s a Beagle.

Chihuahua welcome sign

 My daughter introduced me to Regretsy and it is both hysterical and addicting.

The Regretsy team finds and posts insanely weird handmade items from Etsy that are the “cream of the crap” to feature on their website. Everything from oil paintings of roadkill to vulva earrings.

The writers, Knitler Youth and Helen Killer, link to the items on Etsy and a lot of the items actually sell to their readers. No accounting for tastes.

As they explain:

Don’t get us wrong. We like crafts. We just don’t like these crafts.

Yes, we know these people put their hearts into it. We know it took hours and hours. We know how mean it is to laugh at their creations. And we regret being the only web site on the internet that makes fun of things. But what can we do? We’re immature….

Listen, if you like something you see here, don’t argue with us, go and buy it…

 -- The Regretsy team

We aren’t sure what to make of the handmade one-of-a-kind Chihuahua dressed in biker dude clothes for $29.95. 

What does this sign say to you: “Welcome to my home” or “We put Chihuahuas in bondage” or “Bestiality welcome here”?

Oh, and the biker dude clothes are not included in the $29.95 price. They cost another 20 bucks. You can also buy him “Interchangeable outfits for the holidays and seasons” for $20 a pop.

So that means you could have a winter ski dude Chihuahua and a summer surfer dude Chihuahua—in bondage, of course.

You might want to check out Regretsy for a Christmas present for that person who “has everything.” Bet they don’t.

Wordless Wednesday

[No animals were harmed or humiliated in the making of this post.
The Poodles, however, refused to have anything to do with it.]