Hope you had a great St Patrick’s Day – even the Swedish American Staffordshire Terrier was Irish for a day:
There’s been quite a bit of canine related drama around the web this week…
Crufts always inspires much internet uproar. Almost 30,000 dogs attended to compete and the vast majority experience a pretty good standard of welfare but the intense coverage of this show highlights where progress must be made in terms of breeding practices, selecting for anatomical extremes and temperamental qualities.
A very sweet, young Westie called Devon won Best in Show and lots of fun was had by many hundreds of thousands of competitors and spectators.
One of our favourite moments was this Freestyle routine from Irena & Layla, which, believe it or not, took third place in an obviously highly competitive International Freestyle competition:
You can watch the whole thing plus years gone by too on the Crufts YouTube channel.
Controversy surrounding Cesar Millan and his dog whispering ways have catapulted him and his actions into the headlines again, after a period of relative peace and quiet. This time things have got serious with he and his team being investigated for animal cruelty relating to the treatment of a pig involved in one of his “dog rehabilitation” pieces. A LOT of social media pieces have appeared, some can be found here: Cesar-Gate and Beyond Cesar Millan.
No other dog-person inspires so much controversy and so many polarised views points. Discussion is good and this piece is a nice summary of this particular situation and links to further information.
Concerns in the UK have been raised after a number of dogs have died of a tick-borne disease, Babesiosis. More on this disease in dogs here.
Wow! Time for some good news I think; a tale of a Robinson Crusoe dog who fell off a fishing boat but was found alive five weeks later!
At this time of year, bunnies and other pets are considered but in most cases a chocolate bunny is better (but not for your dog!):
From Friends of Unwanted Rabbits
Old dogs are a joy but getting older ain’t easy: It’s Only Money
And living with an older dog often means considering that most difficult of decisions; some advice here if dealing with canine dementia in your older dog: Dementia in Senior Dogs
The dog-child mix can be amazingly successful or down-right disastrous; some good advice from Roger Abrantes: How to avoid problems with children and dogs
Tissues are required for this beautiful, touching and heartbreaking piece: Goodbye to my owner
For the cat owners, but some tips useful for dogs too – 5 Purrfect hacks fur cat owners:
And some much needed comic relief as this handy dog owner admires the fence he built to keep his dog in…
MUD!
AniEd Ireland 