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Message From the Alpha Dog

Halloween is a fun time for many of us. Halloween is fun for our kids, trick or treating, fun and scary costumes, parties, good stuff to eat, just alot of fun all around. However, Halloween can be frightening to our family dogs. Those ghouls, goblins and fairy princesses can turn a dog's favorite humans into scary creatures.

Some tips to keep your dog safe during this fun holiday:

If your dog enjoys your evening walk, you may want to walk him/her before trick or treating starts. This way the costumes won't frighten your dog.

Once trick or treating starts, find a safe place to keep your dog inside. If possible, put up a gate or block the front door so your dog can't bolt out. If you can't block your dog from the front door, consider crating or placing him/her in another room. It's not a good idea to keep your dog outside during the evening as many dogs can get aggressive towards odd looking strangers and there is often the chance of teasing/taunting, poisonings and even theft of dogs left outside.

If you like to dress up your dog, make sure the costume is safe. Your dog should be able to breathe, see and hear. Avoid the use of elastic or rubber bands as these can cut of the animal's circulation or causeintestinal obstructions if swallowed.

Keep the candy out of the reach of your dog. Candy wrappers have been know to cause choking or intestinal obstruction. No chocolate is good for a dog. Chocolate contains theobromine, which can cause nerve damage. The darker the chocolate, the higher the possibility of a deadly dose. Some symptoms of chocolate poisoning are excessive drooling, excessive urination, pupil dilation, rapid heartbeat, vomiting and diarrhea, hyperactivity, muscle tremors, seizures, and coma. If you notice any of these symptoms, please take your dog to an emergency vet right away.

After Halloween is over, remember that your dog may be very tired after a busy day. Let him/her rest up and relax.

Everyone have a safe and Happy Halloween!!!

Melody Golubski
DogHobbyist.com Site Coordinator
PH FasDog

Howl-O-Ween Puppy Pajama Party

Tonight, Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9 PM Eastern Time, marks the return of our Saturday Night Dog Party with a Howl-O-Ween Puppy Pajama Party!

And if you want to create a "costume" to wear, you can create a Howl-O-Ween username by following these simple steps:

If you want to log in as a guest, just click on "log in as a guest" and create whatever name you want!

If you prefer to create a new registered username that is uniquely yours, then just go to:

Register

Create a new account, using a different email address than the one you used for your previous username. Then when you get the confirmation email, confirm the creation of the name and use that to log in on Saturday night!

Where do you go to log in?

The Dog Den

If you have any problems getting into the room:

Chat Help

We can't wait to see you there! Bring your friends!

What's New on DogHobbyist?

This fall, DogHobbyist.com is adding several new chats and moving a couple of existing ones, to create an exciting schedule with seven full nights of hosted chat!

From the return of the Saturday Night Dog Party (now called the Puppy Pajama Party) to the debut of two new chats, we've got something for every dog lover.

Our new chats are "Myth Understood Breeds," about breeds whose reputation precedes them. Topics will include opposing and preventing breed specific legislation, how to change public perception of our dogs, and more. This chat will be on Mondays at 9 PM ET.

Sunday nights at 9 PM ET will be the "Bull Pen," a chat specifically about pit bulls and all the bully breeds. Discuss how training and living with bullies is special, how to help stop BSL, how to work on weight pulls and other bullie activities.

You can view the complete revised weekly schedule, and sign up for free email reminders, in the Dog Chat Center.

Also new on DogHobbyist.com: Our sister site, RescueNetwork.org, has opened up its free adoption classifieds to individual dog owners. We've always allowed shelters and rescue groups to post ads to find homes for dogs at no charge, and now individuals seeking to rehome dogs can do so, too! We also have a free classified section for Lost/Found/Missing Pets.

And it's not new, but there are lots of great new photos of dogs in costumes there this year... where? In the Festive Fido Photo Gallery, of course! Come see the great shots and upload yours!

Last but not least, here are the current top ten best selling books in DogHobbyist.com's Bookstore:

1: Congratulations! It's a Dog! Training and Behavior Tips for the Newest Member of Your Family
2: Introduction to Dog Agility
3: Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog
4: Show Me!: A Dog Showing Primer
5: The Only Dog Tricks Book You'll Ever Need: Impress Friends, Family--and Other Dogs!
6: Guide to Adopting an Ex-Racing Gre yhound
7: Dog About Town: How to Choose and Care for a City Dog
8: The New Encyclopedia of The Dog
9: How To Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication
10: Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats

Not Without My Dogs
By Christie Keith

Marie Knoblock was a regular on the Chow Chow message board back when our dog community got its start on the old AOL Pet Care Forum, and she not only came and visited the new Chow Chow Forum when we moved to DogHobbyist.com, she gave us photos of her dogs to use on the site. Her dog Jimmi's smiling face greets the visitors to the DogHobbyist Chow Chow Forum to this day.

But Jimmi smiles only in photos now, because he, along with Marie and her other dog, drowned in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, when flood waters rapidly filled their home. Her daughter Kim, her daughter's dog, a house guest, and her poodle, escaped through the attic roof, but Marie, 63, and her two chows didn't make it past the second floor.

What would you do, faced with that terrible choice? Like Marie, if told to leave, there's only one thing I would say: Not without my dogs.

In previous disasters, response to this type of thing has usually been disapproval, a sort of “tsk tsk” reaction that these people have only themselves to blame for putting animal lives ahead of human lives, for putting themselves at risk for a mere pet. But it seems there has been a sea change since the last disaster took its toll, because in the face of Hurricane Katrina, pet owners, veterinarians, the media, humane organizations, and aid groups are instead asking if there isn’t a better way.

Lucy Morgan, the Tallahassee Bureau Chief for the St. Petersburg Times in hurricane-plagued Florida, wrote an editorial a few days after Katrina made landfall, asking "Will we remember the lessons of the storm?" and pointing out one major reason that evacuation orders are defied:

"You won't catch us leaving Lewis and Clark, our Siamese gang of two. Mandatory evacuation orders won't ever work until we have enough shelters for Floridians and their dogs, cats and birds. Leaving an animal to face certain death is not an acceptable compromise."

On Sept. 6, NBC-10 News in Providence, RI, reported:

"Valerie Bennett, 34, said rescuers wouldn't let her bring her dogs with her when she and her husband were evacuated from a New Orleans hospital by boat. They were allowed just one item, and that was her husband's medicine. She says she offered her wedding ring and her mother's wedding ring, but they wouldn't relent. "One little boy cried so much when police took his dog that he threw up.

"Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy, who's been rescuing pets, said he found one dog tied up beneath an overpass. Next to it was an unopened can of dog food with a sign that read, 'Please take care of my dog, his name is Chucky'."

VeterinaryPartner.com editor Phyllis DeGioia has dubbed this sea change “The Snowball Effect,” after the little white dog pulled from the arms of a sobbing child as he was evacuated from the Superdome. She is leading an effort to encourage the Red Cross to do as some other disaster assistance groups have done, and set aside a certain percentage of sheltering facilities for people with companion animals, and to make some pet supplies, such as disposable muzzles, part of their standard disaster provisions.

But beyond taking that action, consider this: Marie's story is not unique. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of people dead today because they wouldn’t leave their pets behind when ordered to evacuate in the face of Hurricane Katrina. Even if you don’t think that pets are important, even if you would walk away from yours to save your own life, or have no pets and don’t understand this issue on a personal level at all, the fact is many people consider animals family members. Like it or not, understand it or not, they would no more leave them to face suffering, abandonment, and starvation than they would leave their own children. It doesn’t really matter that you might disapprove of this, because your disapproval doesn’t change the simple reality, that sometimes people love their animals enough to die for them.

If we prefer not to see that happen, we have to accept that the “tsk tsk” approach has been a failure. Not only are people no more likely to abandon their pets than in previous disasters, they seem to be even less likely to do so. And social perception of this reality appears to be coming around to acceptance, understanding, and even sometimes grudging admiration for those who stayed behind, treading water with a dog or cat clutched in their arms, refusing help if meant leaving their animals behind.

Animal disaster preparedness shouldn't mean pet owners being prepared to die.

Copyright 2005 by Christie Keith. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Halloween Mummy Dogs

2 tubes refrigerator roll of pizza dough
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Non-stick spray
4 tbsp. pizza sause or pasta sauce
8 hot dogs
Optional pizza toppings: onions, green peppers, olives, etc.
1 tbsp Italian herb seasoning mix

Preheat oven to 300 degrees f.
Open package of pizza dough, gather ingredients, grate cheese and dice vegetables.
Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray.
Place pizza dough on sheet and cut into 8 squares; press dough thin with fingers.
Add pizza sauce to each square.
Add hot dogs and other pizza toppings and pizza herbs to taste.
"Mummify" the hot dogs by wrapping them completely in the dough and pinching the ends.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until crust begins to brown.
Serve with warm pizza sauce for dip.

Photo of Katie and the Halloween Pumpkin courtesy of PHMisty, and thanks to PHArrow for the gorgeous photo of a Shiba in Autumn!

DogHobbyist News is copyright 2005 by OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc. unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved. --

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