I’m pleased to announce that the Los Angeles Dog Blog has it’s first guest blogger!  Below is a very informative article about storm water and keeping your pet healthy and our city cleaner.

Some Paws-itively Great Tips to Keep Your Dog Healthy

As a dog owner, I know that your pooch is an important part of your family.  Dodger (yup, like the team) is the name of my furry friend and his “siblings” include two cats named Boo and Xeni. In addition to being an animal lover, I’m also the public education manager for the City of LA’s Stormwater Program. For that reason, I know the importance of picking up after Dodger every time in order to protect his health (and that of other dogs) and also to keep my community and ocean clean.

Not everyone is aware that while indoor waste water gets processed at sewage treatment plants before being discharged into the bay, outdoor water (i.e. rain, hoses, etc) carries waste on the ground directly out to the ocean, without receiving any treatment, via the 1500-mile storm drain system. This means that litter, motor oil and pet waste are unintentionally washed down into our storm drain system which leads to our local waterways and ends up at the beach and our ocean. This pollution negatively impacts aquatic life and those who swim at our beaches.

Not to mention, unattended pet waste can cause diseases such as Canine Parvovirus, Canine Distemper and Giardia amongst people and pets! The increased spreading of such diseases is in part due to pet owners not picking up after their dogs.  When someone doesn’t pick up after their dog, you and your pet’s chances of getting infected with one of these diseases are increased.

So have fun with your furry friends – but please remember to keep your community clean and preserve our environment by always picking up after your pooch!

Make sure to visit our website and sign up for our pet eUpdates.  Also, send us a Halloween themed photo of your pooch before November 9^th to win an Eco-Pet gift card in our photo contest!!

Joyce Amaro
City of Los Angeles Stormwater Public Education Manager

In the past few weeks there have been a few new pet food recalls.  If you feed any of these foods please check your bags for the lot #’s and get rid of the food if it falls into one of these categories.  Recalls such as these just reinforce my choice to feed my dogs raw food that I control.

The first was “Premium Edge” Cat food, due to a thiamine deficiency.  Then last week it is Wysong brand dog food because of mold contamination:

• Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090617
• Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090624
• Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090706
• Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090720
• Wysong Senior™: lot #: 090623

And now Nutro brand is recalled because of plastic contamination.  The types affected are sold in Petsmart stores in CA, AZ, TX, NM, and CO.

and this type went to Petco stores in CA, HI, NV and UT

Visit the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival this weekend, October 17 & 18.  Cath Cobb of Fido Fitness with be at booth # 420 to tell you all about the great dog products she sells as well as her dog walking and fitness business.   Stop by & visit her!

I have a client from a few years ago who is a very nice woman and is now a friend.  She hired me when she got a cocker spaniel/poodle mix from a local pet store.  I refuse to call it a breed,  because it isn’t, it’s a mix.  I have absolutely no issue with mixed breeds as most of mine have been mixes.  What I do have a problem with is people purposely breeding 2 different breeds to make mixes and then selling them for exorbitant amounts of money and calling them “designer” dogs.  Especially when there are so many perfectly great mixes, and purebreds I might add,  sitting in the shelters being euthanized every day.  Sorry for the rant, I’ll get back to my story now.

So although I was disappointed in her choice of dog, and more so the store where she bought the dog, the dog needed training and she needed help doing so.  After we became more friendly we talked about the “pet store” where she got the dog.  I told her the dog came from a puppy mill & she said “noway, they said the dogs are well taken care of  & come from a nice breeder in the Mid-West.  And anyway, isnt’ she a great dog?”  As if that made up for the horrible living conditions the dog’s parents are most likely living in.

After training was finished we remained friends and had coffee a time or two.  A while later one of her other dogs died very suddenly.  In her grief she contacted the “pet store” and told them.  A couple of days later they called to say they had a very nice golden-doodle (their term not mine) that she’d just love. I told her the dog is from a puppy mill. Again she told me the girl swore to her the breeder is a very nice lady who raises her dogs in a clean and happy environment.  I told her to ask if the girl had actually traveled to Missouri, Iowa, or Oklahoma, or wherever the place was to take a look for herself.  Of course the girl had not.  For some reason my client/friend decided to listen to me and chose not to get the dog and went to a rescue instead.

Within a couple of months the “pet store” was closed down for selling dogs from puppy mills  and not informing the clientele.  The case has gone to trial and yipee they have a judgment against them for a whopping $4.8 million!!!  Many of the dogs they sold were sick and some even died.  Many of the people who spent thousands, even $10k on vet bills and their pups still died.  I truly feel for the people and especially the puppies who were innocent in all of this.

In this day and age, with so many news shows, and so many ways to keep up (hello, Internet??) it still amazes me that people are so naive, and I won’t say the other words I’m thinking, as to buy a dog from a pet store, or a even out of a newspaper, the Recycler, or the Pennysaver for that matter.  Any reputable breeder should have a waiting list for their puppies and shouldn’t have to advertise for buyers.  They also want to know where their pups are going to be living and with whom.  They don’t want them shipped across the Country and being sold by a broker to someone they’ll never meet.  A reputable breeder also makes you sign a contract which states that should anything happen at any time during that dog’s life which forces you to not be able to keep their puppy, they will unconditionally take the dog back.  THAT is responsiblity.  If you bring a life into this World you are responsible for it for the rest of it’s life.

Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now .

http://tinyurl.com/ngw7yu

http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/get_the_facts_on_puppy_mills/

http://stoppuppymills.org/

http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/puppy-mills/