Training video from Dogstuff

Tips on what to do (and what *not* to do) to get your dog to stop jumping on you and other people.

A series of short posts gives dog owners vital background and tips on this important topic. (Part 1 is mostly information specific to Philadelphia, but there are links at the bottom of the page to each of the other sections, so you can easily move on.)

A service dog delivers a package

Al Franken, former comedian, was finally confirmed as the new U.S. Senator from Minnesota. As the Los Angeles Times reports, he’s beginning his public service with a very serious topic: a bill to provide more service dogs for veterans.

“As someone who’s spent time with our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on USO tours and met wounded warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda, I feel a deep obligation to the men and women who have risked life and limb on our behalf,” Franken explains. He has met with vets who have service dogs and also visited programs who train the dogs.

Since most vets can’t afford to pay for service dogs themselves, Franken wants to start a 3-year pilot program to document the dogs’ effectiveness in helping veterans with physical and emotional wounds. The data from the pilot program could then be used to support more funding to train dogs and provide them to veterans who need them.

The owner of a pit bull that killed a neighborhood cat has filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance that requires the dog to be euthanized, the Miami Herald reports.

Opponents of the law say it is too harsh and doesn’t allow for time to change a dog’s behavior. Proponents say it will protect other animals, and people, from injury and death.

Broward County’s dangerous-dog law is one of the strictest in the country, and this lawsuit is only one of several challenging it as unconstitutional.

Rocky, an abandoned dog, gets a bath at Dogtopia

The Baltimore Sun reports on Dogtopia, which recently held a dog-wash fundraiser to benefit military dogs around the world.

Dogtopia’s owner, Amy Nichols, is both the daughter and wife of military people, and wanted to use her business to show her support.

Cloned dogs on duty

Airports in Korea are using the services of drug-sniffing dogs cloned from a Canadian dog, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Seven puppies were cloned from the Labrador, a successful sniffer. One was injured during training, but the other six completed the program and are now on duty.

Korean officials say that they hope cloning the dogs will save them money, since only about 30% of “natural” dogs complete training successfully. But since the cost of cloning the dogs was about $230,000, its cost-effectiveness remains an open question.

You don't say ... then what happened?

We all knew that babies were smart little language-learning machines. But dog talk?

Yep, says a new study from BYU. Babies accurately matched photos of friendly or aggressive dogs with audio clips of friendly or angry dog sounds. It didn’t matter whether the babies had previous experience with dogs, either.

Researchers said the study helps us understand how babies learn. Long before they can speak, they grasp the nuances of emotion — human or otherwise.

The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

Shawnine Mackay and her dog Molly, who helps her deal with seizures

The Los Angeles Times reports on a lawsuit filed there, which claims that homeless shelters routinely turn away clients who have service dogs, forcing them to choose between their dogs and receiving services.

Shawnine “Viper” Mackay, pictured above, who is one of the plaintiffs in the suit, says, “I’m not safe without her but I’m not safe on the streets either.”

The lawsuit is a class-action filing, so its outcome will have broad-ranging effects.