As you know, dear reader, every purchase made at Dogstuff supports rescue groups that help dogs find good homes.

More dogs than ever need help these days. Many people are losing their homes – and can’t keep their dogs. Shelters are overflowing with good family dogs who urgently need adoption.

October is the American Humane Association’s Adopt-a-Dog month. Prescott, AZ, recently held its second annual Dogtoberfest to help find forever homes for dogs.

Here’s a helpful checklist for potential dog adopters:

Dogs require exercise just like humans. Make sure your new dog has activity levels that fit your lifestyle.

Dogs aren’t wallflowers. They need to spend time outside, with people and other dogs. If you’re looking to meet new people, dogs can be a great connection point.

Dogs are family pets. Everyone in the family needs to be on board with the decision to adopt a dog, and everyone needs to be ready to help take care of your new furry friend.

Dogs are a lot like kids. They depend on their owners for all their needs – food, water, exercise, health care, shelter, and especially companionship. Be sure your lifestyle will accommodate a pet.

Dogs are a long-term commitment. Dogs are loving family members who will typically live 15 years or more.

For anyone ready to adopt a dog, the rewards are tremendous. If you know someone who’s considering adoption, forward them this post. There’s never been a better time for them to visit their local shelter.

Dog news from other parts:

Moscow held its International Dog Show over the weekend. Borzois, Russian black terriers, and Eastern European sheepdogs were the favorite breeds. The grand finale was a dog-and-owner dancing contest.

In Canberra, Australia, the German Autofest 2008 raised money to train seeing eye dogs, with mascots Velda and Victor, two black Labradors.

In Sydney, too many people aren’t picking up after their dogs. So lawmakers have decided to run DNA tests on dog droppings to track down the producers of pooch poo – and send their owners a fine.

What about you? What are dogs up to in your neck of the woods?

Rummy is a Siberian Husky who was severely neglected by his owner. The Houston SPCA found Rummy blind and emaciated, with clumps of hair missing. He also had mange, roundworms, whipworms, hookworms, and heartworms.

Husky Haven, a rescue group, stepped in and nursed Rummy back to health. Though Rummy is still blind, today he is a confident, secure dog who loves people and being petted.

But in the meantime, Husky Haven, run by all volunteers, was in trouble itself and about to go under. Little did they know that Rummy, in turn, would come to their rescue.

As dogchannel.com reports, Purina Pro Plan’s “Doing More for Pets” contest was part of its Rally to Rescue campaign, aimed at raising awareness of rescue animals and the people who care for them. Rummy’s story, submitted by Angie Claussen, a Husky Haven volunteer, caught the attention of the contest’s judges.

Rummy made it to the list of 10 finalists, out of 100 stories submitted. He and the other finalists received a year’s supply of Purina Pro Plan and a trip to Los Angeles for the grand prize ceremony in October 2007. The finalists garnered over 20,000 votes at Purina’s Rally to Rescue website, and Rummy won top honors.

Rummy’s new owner, Husky Haven volunteer Lisa Goebel, said that his story, and the resulting publicity, had turned things around for the struggling chapter, which also received $5,000 worth of Pro Plan food from Purina after Rummy’s win. “This contest essentially saved Husky Haven.”

Husky Haven’s kindness to Rummy has been rewarded in a way they never would have imagined, allowing them to help many more dogs. For Rummy and his rescuers, it’s a win-win situation.

Where do dog breeds get their names? Some of them are pretty straightforward, like Golden Retriever, or English Short-Haired Pointer. But other breed names are less obvious, even somewhat mysterious at first glance. So the UK’s

Well, that we knew. Personally, I couldn’t run a marathon, let alone 1,100 miles over 10 to 20 days. (At this point in my life I can barely run around the block, but let’s not talk about that.) Sled dogs, however, can perform at a level far above that of even the most elite human athletes, and a 10-year study by a team at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences has found out why.

It seems that sled dogs have three qualities that set them apart from human athletes (the team wasn’t able to study all breeds under similar conditions, of course, so maybe this applies to all dogs – but we don’t know for sure).

First, Iditarod dogs are unusually good at adapting to exercise – even sustained, strenuous exercise. The OSU team was able to study over 5,000 dogs in various races. During the Iditarod, they measured the dogs’ biochemical profiles. Four days in, their profiles returned to normal, as if they weren’t in the middle of the most grueling race on earth. No human athlete can do that – our muscles fatigue and require recovery time.

Second, sled dogs have tremendous aerobic capacity. A fully conditioned sled dog has an aerobic capacity twice that of an untrained sled dog. Having high levels of oxygen circulating through their bodies probably prevents muscle fatigue, since oxygen depletion is a key cause of muscles giving out.

Finally, Iditarod dogs are extraordinarily efficient at converting food to energy. A roughly 55-pound sled dog can burn up to 12,000 kilocalories per day – the equivalent of 24 Big Macs. A human athlete, to sustain Iditarod-level performance for just one day, would have to eat, *and* efficiently process, the equivalent of 72 Big Macs. Sled dogs eat a commercial race diet, but it can be supplemented by anything from salmon to congealed lard (ick), all of which they’re able to convert to fuel.

How do they do it? Professor Michael Davis, the team leader, said he suspects that the dogs have very thin cell membranes within their muscle fiber, enabling them to continuously absorb nutrients from their bloodstream while they’re running. That, their quick adaptation to long-term, high-level exertion, and all the oxygen in their systems enable sled dogs to avoid the immune suppression, fatigue, muscle damage and stomach ulcers that plague human athletes.

I wish I had an extraordinary capacity to adapt to exercise and could efficiently convert huge quantities of food to fuel. Just don’t make me eat lard.

Psychologists are all over the place when it comes to advice about sharing your bed with dogs, yet nearly half of all dog owners say they wouldn’t have it any other way. A girlfriend of mine used to say you shouldn’t own more dogs than can comfortably sleep in your bedroom. She and her husband raised Shiloh Shepherds and had nine of them in the bedroom most nights, yet reserved their bed for their little mixed breed.

According to Modern Dog magazine, whether or not you tend to snuggle with Snoopy at night depends largely upon — wait for it– your age and gender. Nearly six out of ten females between the ages of 18 and 34 regularly allow the dog on the bed, and though the group with the largest likelihood of throwing Fluffy off are married men over 45 years of age (maybe it’s all those trips to the bathroom), almost forty percent of them don’t mind sharing the sheets with the family hound.

Many of the rich, famous, and or powerful throughout history have extended bed privileges to their companion dogs. Pharaoh Rameses The Great had a hound called Pahates (no word on what sort of hound, but we’ll go out on a limb and say it was a Pharaoh Hound) with the official title “Bed Companion to the Pharaoh.” That may or may not have been good news for Pahates, considering how insecure the Egyptian royals tended to be about drifting off to the afterworld without every kitschy trinket they ever owned securely bundled about the burial chamber, much less their much beloved personal pets.

Could the course of history be influenced by whether or not Fido is included in pillow talk? Let’s take the case of one influential military man. General George Custer was at odds with his wife Libbie about whether dogs should be allowed on the bed. His wife agreed to allow the dogs into the bedroom, but drew the line at the bed. In camp, Custer always slept with his beloved deerhounds. In a letter to Libbie from the ill-fated Black Hills expedition, he wrote “the dogs surround me: Cardigan is sleeping on the edge of my bed. Tuck at the head, and Blucher nearby.” If Libbie had welcomed the deerhounds to the bed, perhaps Custer would have taken early retirement.

My question, dear DogBlog readers, is this: Do you? Do you sleep with dogs? If you own multiple dogs, how do you determine with which ones you share the bed? How does your partner feel about this arrangement? Please let us know. We’ll keep track of replies and let you know the truth about the sleeping arrangements of your fellow dog devotees.

The Humane Society Legislative Fund, which never has endorsed a candidate for president, says the needs of animals make it critical to do so this year. They picked Barack Obama, who doesn’t even own a pet (yet).

Obama, however, has promised his family a dog in November, win or lose, which led AKC members to step up in a fun poll and choose that dog for him. AKC members’ vote? Get the kids a poodle.

Why choose petless Obama (shown here after a rally with anti-puppy mill spokespoodle, “Baby”) over John McCain, who has 24 pets among his various residences?

The Fund’s president, Michael Markarian, explains why it decided to take this unusual step:

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