Doga: Yoga for Dogs

Dog lovers can figure out ways to involve their canines in just about every sort of physical activity. Dog lovers and yoga lovers certainly have – with doga.

Doga is simply practicing yoga with your dog. According to some doga instructors, doga is beneficial to your pooch because it increases muscle flexibility and decreases stiffness and it helps create a social bond between dog and owner.

Some maneuvers common in yoga come naturally to dogs, so doga isn’t an activity that is foreign to canines. For instance, the downward facing dog pose in yoga is one actually borrowed from dogs. Dogs will naturally do a stretch where they rest on the front legs and arch their backs. If you’re interested in doga, check around – a few yoga studios around the country and some of the major gyms have actually incorporated doga into their programs.

The high cost of top-quality veterinary care

by Gina Spadafori

Over on Dolittler, Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly is writing about the collision of desire in veterinary medicine: Many of us want innovative, cutting-edge veterinary care for our pets, but none of us like the cost of that care:

Though they chose not to realize it, even after my explanations, their complaints were not against the individual hospitals but against the veterinary medical establishment in general.

We all cheer when we read about the amazing new techniques in veterinary medicine: The heartwarming stories of successful brain tumor treatments, spinal surgeries and cancer survival thanks to new medications—not to mention more widespread innovations as simple as superior anesthetics, more effective flea preventatives, gentler heartworm treatment and revolutionary pain control regimens.

But we suffer when we’re asked to pay for it.

No doubt all of us here can attest to the benefits of modern veterinary medicine. No doubt all of us here understand the complexities involved in providing and paying for care better than most. And yet we all still harbor mixed feelings about veterinary medicine and its relentless drive to conquer animal disease—at any cost.

None of us wants to be in the unenviable position my two clients above found themselves in. Facing “pay up or put to sleep” is a horrible scenario. And yet it’s easy to forget that twenty years ago the chances of survival for either of these cases would have been next to nil.

Interesting read. Personally, I am very much in favor of having all options available, but I do think people need to consider that pursuing them isn’t always in a pet’s best interest. I feel that way about human medicine, by the way, which is why my own legal health directive asks that those empowered to make decisions for me if I cannot make them for myself not keep me alive just for the sake of doing so.

For my pets, if there’s a reasonable expectation that choosing a particular option, no matter the price, will maintain or restore quality of life, then it’s a go, and I’ll find a way to pay. But I always ask myself: Am I doing this for my pet, or for myself because I love my pet and don’t want to let go?

The pit bulls of Berkeley … and maybe elsewhere, too

by Gina Spadafori

Ever since no-kill flame-thrower Nathan Winograd knocked our collective socks off here with his book, “Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America,” we’ve watched poorly run, old-school shelters and even well-run, old-school shelters do nothing but bad mouth the possibility that there could be another way besides killing pets for population control while blaming everyone but the shelter industry.

We’ve watched large, wealthy national animal groups lay on the “yeah but …” excuses for why no kill won’t work while failing to get off their own wealthy butts to push for shelter reform — with some groups actively working against it.

One of those “yeah buts … ” you hear all the time involves pit bulls, which may in all their incarnations (AmStaffs, Staffordshires, AMPT, pit mix, etc., etc.) be the No. 1 breed in the country and certainly seem to be the No. 1 breed in the shelters. And the pit bull “yeah, but …”? Here it comes:

“Yeah, but … maybe no kill would work if all we had to place were fuzzy, floppy-eared little poodle mixes, but pit bulls? Hopeless. We just gotta kill them, because even if they were safe, nobody wants them.”

Or so the story goes.

Well, guess what? When a community works together to take on a pet placement problem, even one as challenging as the breed with the worst PR ever, change can happen. From the BAD RAP blog:

Ten years ago, the 60 runs at open-admission Berkeley Animal Care ServicesCheck it: BACS Stats were depressingly full, sometimes doubled up, and staff was forced to euthanize for space…up to 600 dogs a year. But in 2007, the number of dog euthanasias was down 90%, with only 50 dogs put to sleep.

Since last summer, the number of dogs coming in to BACS has dropped so much that almost one half of the runs are now consistently EMPTY. Last week, an all time low with 34 empty runs. It’s almost too quiet in there! What’s going on? We have to credit a combination of efforts: Successful Marketing of Shelter Dogs, Owner Education including Free Training, Volunteerism, Rescue and Voluntary Spay/Neuter Programs. In short: The community kicked ass to make some changes.

Go read. I gotta tell you, it made my whole weekend. Bully to you, BAD RAP. Bully, I say.

Honda hounds hot on the trail of dog lovers

by Keith Turner

The annual gathering of Western Automotive Journalists and automotive public relations professionals usually stirs up some exciting news about what’s on the horizon for four-wheel enthusiasts.

And this year’s just completed conclave in Monterrey, California, also brought some interesting news for lovers of our four-legged friends when Honda’s West Coast PR guru Chris Martin hinted that the Japanese manufacturers may have more DogCar news in store in the not-so-distant future.

You’ll recall that Honda has already gained DogCar fame by being honored as the first-ever DogCar of the Year “Best In Show” for its wonderfully versatile Honda Element. The squarish cargo space, fold-flat seats and easy-to-clean interior all add up to the perfect combination for owners of multiple big dogs who take their canine traveling very seriously.

After the award was announced, Honda’s marketing department sprung into action by creating an advertising campaign geared specifically for the dog-loving car buyer. They’ve even included the DogCars.com logo on their Element website to power home the point.

During a lunch break in the Carmel Valley, Martin said the powers that be are very excited about the U.S. DogCar market and may be planning some additional enhancements to the Honda lineup that will make canine lovers sit up and take notice.

One wonders if perhaps Honda is considering a U.S. launch of the “Wow” (short for “Wonderful Open-Hearted Wagon”) concept car that was introduced at the 2005 Tokyo Auto Show. Martin said that while the Japanese loved the little car with a small dog crate built into the glove box, the concept never got off the drawing board for U.S. distribution.

“Automakers are always targeting niche markets, like young buyers, sports lovers or even surfers or skiers, where there’s a huge demand for a very specific vehicle,” Martin said. “So creating a vehicle for dog owners only makes sense.”

Like a bloodhound hot on the trail of its target, Honda appears to be zeroing in on the needs, wants and desires of the dog lover. Stay tuned . . .

We interrupt the seriousness of this blog …

By Gina Spadafori

… to announce that my dog McKenzie (a/k/a McKutie), last seen on this blog feigning innocence over a missing yogurt container, is now:

Ch. Windfall’s McKenzie.

Her show career is now over, and she can now get as stinking, muddy and wet as she wants whenever she wants, and the baths that follow will no longer be with the fancy soap followed by a blow dry and brushing. (Now, it’ll be more of a spray-off with the hose.)

Regular programming may now resume. That is all.

Oh, P.S. … McKenzie is named after Christie’s mom (whose last name is McKenzie) and her brother (whose first name is McKenzie). I had to come up with an “M” name and thought McKenzie was really interesting and distinctive. Later, my brother the high school teacher informed me he had no fewer than five girls in his classes named either MacKenzie or McKenzie. So much for distinctive, but I still love the name! (Even though I usually call her McKutie.)