Best Friends Animal Society has taken over an empty L.A. City shelter in Mission Hills on Brand Blvd. They will have a minimum of 100 animals (dogs and cats) available for adoption. The pets will be pulled from the L.A. City shelters too be put up for adoption at the Best Friends facility. Best Friends has volunteers on staff who will be working with the dogs teaching basic manners to make them more adoptable. The goal is to have each animal be in the center for 2 weeks or less, and to do 3000 adoptions in the first year. Opening day is January 28th so please come see the facility, meet the dogs and cats and hopefully take one home. Please spread the word!

There will also be a low cost spay/neuter clinic which is opening mid-February.

Five pet store chains in 6 states have taken the Humane Society of the United States puppy friendly pledge not to sell puppies. As we know, most puppies sold in pet stores come from puppy mills. If you aren’t sure what a puppy mill is, or why they are bad, have a look at the article I wrote about them here on my blog.

One of the stores taking this pledge is right here in Los Angeles. It is Centinela Feed. They have numerous stores throughout the Los Angeles area. Centinela Feed carries just about everything you can imagine for your pets. They have a club you can join where you receive discounts on things you buy, as well as getting their emails announcing extra savings.

Please support the pet supply stores that take this pledge. It is so important for the puppies coming from puppy mills, and the adults dogs being bred under such horrendous conditions.

I recommend Nylabone products to my clients all the time. There are at least 10 of them lying around my house & yard at any given time. I even recommend the Plaque Attacker line but rarely do I suggest the flexible kind unless it is a very small, young puppy which doesn’t have the jaw strength to bite off anything. For some reason that line of products has always made me nervous for exactly the reason in this article.

Some people say I play devil’s advocate too much and that I’m always looking for “what if’s” in every situation. But I have to tell you, if it can happen, it probably will happen to me. Yes, I’m overcautious but it seems when I haven’t followed my instinct on things like this it always comes back to bite me.

As with anything you give your dog to chew on you should check it often for signs that pieces are coming off, or that it has become so small your pooch can swallow what is remaining. Knowing there was a small piece of something undigestible lying there a minute ago, and now it’s gone and you think your dog ate it is not a good feeling. The anxiety over whether or not it will cause a blockage and eminent hospitalization & surgery to remove it is something no one should have to go through. And we certainly don’t want our dog to have to endure such a thing. And that’s if we catch it in time. Unfortunately it isn’t caught in many dogs in time and causes irreparable damage to the stomach or intestines which can lead to death. Regardless of the toys you give your dogs if he starts chewing off pieces throw them away. And nylon isn’t the only material that can cause problems: rubber, plastic and rope are issues as well. And I knew one person who gave their dog corn cobs to chew on and that also caused a blockage and a very expensive surgery. So please be careful what you give your dogs and check your toys often, replacing as necessary.

We are happy to announce that the 2 Corgis which went missing when the van they were in was stolen early Tuesday morning have been returned to their owners.  The other 2 dogs, both Akitas, were found yesterday along with the stolen van.  All dogs appear to be healthy and the owners are happy to have them all back.