BSL: From the news

Currently, the campaign to end BSL is focused on Denver. I chose Denver for two reasons: First, their ban has been in place on and off since 1989, and since that time have killed thousands of “pit-bull like” dogs. Now that their mayor, who has previously upheld the ban, is running for governor, it’s crucial to get his attention on this issue. Second, BlogPaws is being held in Denver in September, and with hundreds of pet bloggers pouring their money into the city, I thought we needed to be a voice for these animals.

But it’s important to remember that this is a national issue. Do you know if your city has any type of breed ban or restriction in place? I follow the news of dog bites, breed bans, city council meetings, etc. and wanted to share a few recent stories with you:

New dangerous dog ordinance before Toledo City Council: This is an excellent story. The council considers repealing their breed-specific laws for ones that hold owners responsible.

“If we can make owners more responsible by levying fines against those who are not and cut down on the number of dog bites in City of Toledo, then I think we’re doing our job,” said Council Member Rob Kudeman. “That’s what people expect council and the administration to do.”

Public’s turn to howl over pit bulls: This one really gets me. The proposed ordinance in Lynn, MA defines pit bulls as: “dangerous animals” with “powerful instincts for dominance” and “unyielding aggressiveness.” If passed, the ordinance will require pit bull owners to leash and possibly muzzle their dogs when out in public. It seems to make more sense to require all dog owners to have all dogs leashed when out in public. Why make these things breed specific?

Police chief sees to reason for dog breed ban: Here’s an instance where a resident is concerned that his neighbors’ rottie and pit bull *might* get out of their fence and *might* bite, even though he admits that the dogs haven’t caused any problems.

And to end on a happy note, Rescued Pit Bull Defies Deformity Through Therapy Work: This is an absolutely darling story that shows the resilience and people-loving nature of a very handsome boy!

If you haven’t made your postcard yet, now’s the time to do it! The BlogPaws deadline is quickly approaching (September 12), so please share the campaign across your networks!

Have you seen any recent stories in the news about pit bulls? Please share them in the comments!

3 Comments »Maggie on July 13th 2010 in Animal Rights

Emmett jumps through hoops – literally – to teach teamwork

After "work" Emmett enjoys a puppy latte!

Every other Friday, Emmett and I participate in the pet therapy program at a mental health facility near our town. We primarily work with the children who live at the facility and fall between the ages of 6 and 13 or so. Occasionally we’ll spend time with the younger or older groups, but there’s a core bunch we see every time.

And, man, do these kids love Emmett.

Every other Friday, when we walk through the door of their gymnasium, the kids rush Emmett. “I missed you, Emmett!” they cry. “Did you miss me?”

The thing about Emmett is that he can not get enough attention. He is basically a bottomless pit of need, which means that these kids who want to just pour all their affection all over him are the perfect kids for Emmett to work with. While 15 to 20 kids throw their arms around his neck, plant big fat kisses on the top of his head, beg for high fives, rub his belly, and sprint circles around him, darling Emmett just basks in it all. I swear he thinks that I ferry him from place to place to allow his loyal subjects to devote themselves to him.

While we face the occasional challenge, with this particular group of kids, the biggest struggle is doling out our energy equally. Some of the kids push themselves against us, making us notice them, and begging to be the first one to give Emmett a treat or whatever. Others sit quietly, patiently waiting their turn. While others sort of hide, desperately wanting a turn with Emmett, but not sure how to proceed.

So after I discovered that Emmett is a hoop-jumping fiend, I decided to incorporate some agility into our visits. The first week, I took along a hula hoop and short tunnel. I explained to the kids the idea of agility and asked if they’d be willing to help me train Emmett to tunnel. They enthusiastically agreed and immediately began discussing the best way to teach him. “Just tell him to run through it.” “He won’t know what that means. We need to crawl through with him.” “That’s dumb. Stand at the end and call him.” In the end, we decided to toss a treat through the tunnel while the kids stood around and yelled, “tunnel!”

Luckily, Emmett already knew the tunnel command. ;)

Last Friday, I took two hula hoops. I figured the kids could work together to set up a mini obstacle course, deciding where to position the jumps, how to hold them up, who should lure him, etc. I thought this would build on the teamwork exercises from the previous session. We could work together to figure out how best to get Emmett to follow the course and jump through the hoops.

But those kids had a whole other idea!

They wanted to run around.

Run with Emmett, race Emmett, fling the hula hoops around, chase each other in circles. So that’s what we did because, really, the whole goal of our pet therapy program is to make these kids happy. They wanted to run, so Emmett ran, wagging his tail the entire time.

2 Comments »Maggie on July 12th 2010 in Puppy Love: All about my boys

Strength – and wisdom – in numbers!

Today's community question was inspired by Lucas!

Yesterday I missed posting! The past few weeks have been nutty, and this week it caught up with me. So I sincerely hope that everyone has been having a great week. I have some serious Facebook and Twitter catching up to do.

In the meantime, I’m going to be changing things up a little bit over here at Oh My Dog! While a lot of the content will stay the same – reviews, quotes and pictures, stories about Emmett and Lucas – I want to layer in community interaction content. Because holy cow. You guys are SMART. I pour over your blogs, read your tweets, check out your Facebook pages, and you are one amazing community of animal lovers, advocates, and experts.

So let’s pool our resources together.

Starting today, I’m going to toss out a Community Question on the first Friday of every month. (I know, I know. This is actually the second Friday of July, but I didn’t think of the idea in time for the first Friday!)

I would love for each and every one of you to weigh in on the question, and get a discussion going in the comments section. I think we can learn a lot from each other. And along those lines, if you have a question you’d like me to toss out, go ahead and send me an email, and I’ll get it scheduled!

For this Friday, here’s my question:

Is punishment ever appropriate or effective in training? I try to focus solely on positive, reward-based training, but when – if ever – is it okay to, say, squirt bottle your dog? Give a leash correction? A time out?

Discuss!

8 Comments »Maggie on July 9th 2010 in Community Question

Puppy love

Can you even stand this darling face??

“My doctrine is this: that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and we do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”
– Anna Sewell, English Novelist

*Have you checked out Be the Change for Animals yet? I’m excited and honored that the Campaign to End BSL is the first featured project, but bookmark the site and check in weekly for simple steps you can take to help animals!

No Comments »Maggie on July 7th 2010 in Quotes

BSL update, exciting news, and let’s TWEET!

BSL Update

Number of Postcards: 409

Donations to Printing/Mailing: $200

Wahoo! I’m so excited and so proud of everyone for taking the time to create such inspiring postcards. While we’re making lots of progress, I’d like to challenge you to post the campaign on your Facebook page, tweet it, send emails to your pet-friendly networks. Let’s keep this momentum going!

Exciting News

And on that note… I’m so excited to announce that we are the inaugural campaign on Be the Change for the Animals! Have you seen this site yet? It’s a genius collaboration to encourage the animal community to take action to help animals. Each week, they feature a campaign with a simple step you can take to make a noticeable difference in animal welfare – and this week it’s all about creating End BSL postcards! Definitely check out the site to learn more about this awesome initiative. I am so proud to be a part of it!

Let’s TWEET!

Lastly, when the campaign launched, Rod at GoPetFriendly.com had the brilliant idea to get everyone to tweet #endBSL at the same time. Well, I say… let’s do that again! Let’s make #endBSL a trending topic!

This Friday, July 6 at 3 pm EST, tweet with the #endBSL hashtag. Please feel free to leave your Twitter handle in the comments, and I’ll be sure to follow you between now and then!

I hope you all had a great weekend, and thank you for all that you do to help and support this campaign!

1 Comment »Maggie on July 6th 2010 in Animal Rights

Emmett’s “Gotcha” Day!

Four years ago this week, Emmett burst into our lives. It was a match made in heaven – from the moment we saw him at the rescue, we knew he was ours – and we were his! In the car on the way home that day, Emmett rested his head on the armrest between our seats and fell right to sleep, like he was happy and comfortable and just knew he was going home!

At the shelter he jumped right on my lap!

His fave toy and pillow when he first came home!

His first ever Frosty Paw!

Emmett's first Christmas!

His first trip to IN, he commandeered his cousin/chihuahua's bed!

That first year was filled with so many funny, memorable, touching experiences. We made a lot of mistakes as first-time doggy parents, but Emmett was so happy and eager from day 1. He made friends with everyone in our building and instantly endeared himself to our friends and family. When we adopted Lucas – fearful, timid, aggressive Lucas – Emmett took him under his wing (paw?) and helped us help Lucas. Emmett is a world-class snuggler. He’s silly, playful, and loves people more than anything. Except food. Which he really does love more than anything.

It’s hard to believe four years have already gone by. It feels like he’s been a part of our lives forever, and he really has changed our lives forever. We are so lucky and so incredibly grateful that Emmett came into our lives four years ago.

We love you, Emmett!

Handsome Emmett

2 Comments »Maggie on July 5th 2010 in Puppy Love: All about my boys

Link Love: BSL

Another adorable postcard!

Thanks to everyone who has blogged about BSL and linked to the campaign. We wouldn’t be as far as we are without your efforts and support! There are a few blogs I wanted to call out for today’s link love because they’ve been instrumental in keeping the campaign rolling. I definitely encourage you to check out these awesome blogs:

Mayzie’s Dog Blog

Gunny

Bad Mutha Fudruckers

Take Paws (via GoPetFriendly.com)

Daily Dog Scoop

My Tail Hurts From Wagging So Much

… and many, many more! Definitely check out the growing Anti-BSL Link Library, and please send me links to your posts about BSL so I can include them in the effort.

In the meantime, have a fabulous weekend and a very happy Fourth of July!

2 Comments »Maggie on July 2nd 2010 in link love

Are your dogs obsessed with bugs?

Emmett and Lucas are obsessed with insects of all kinds. They chase down moths and lightening bugs. They watch caterpillars crawl across the patio and sniff the little ladybugs that crawl through our garden. They gobble up spiders – which totally freaks me out because I am irrationally terrified of spiders. But their favorite activity is fly hunting.

The flies have been really bad the past couple weeks. I don’t spray anything to get rid of them, but Lucas has taken it upon himself to rid our home of those pesky flies. Periodically, I hear him launch up, scramble around, sometimes crash into a window or wall, and snap flies out of the air. He doesn’t eat them, though. Once dead, he spits their carcasses out on the floor for me to step on/sweep up.

Do your dogs do things like this??

Anyway, last night, Lucas slammed into the window while in pursuit of a fly. Somehow he knocked the fly down the air vent. Their reaction was so funny – and so prolonged – that I was able to grab my phone and film their reactions to the poor fly who was buzzing his last buzzes in our vent.

(So I don’t know why these aren’t showing a screen shot, but if you click play, they do play.)

Fly-Hunter Lucas Loses His Prey from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.

There’s something down there…. from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.

The camera was shaking because I was totally cracking up. Silly dogs.

4 Comments »Maggie on July 1st 2010 in Puppy Love: All about my boys

Puppy love

“The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race, form the blackest chapter in the whole world’s history.”
– Edward Freeman, English Freelance Historian and Journalist

Reminder: Help make a difference in the lives of innocent, helpless animals by participating in the Campaign to End BSL! Create a postcard, post the project on Facebook, tweet it. Every little bit helps!

Adorable, snuggly pit bull puppy image from melgupta.

1 Comment »Maggie on June 30th 2010 in Quotes

BSL: From the mouths of babes

So far I’ve received 373 postcards and countless other commitments for submissions! I estimate that if all the postcards arrive from the folks who have requested my mailing address for hard copies, we’ll be close to 500!

This is awesome progress! But I’d like to throw out another challenge: This week, I’d like to challenge you to post a link to the postcard page or the Oh My Dog! Facebook page on your Facebook page. If we could each get at least one friend to create a postcard, that will more than double our current total! Heck, many of you have several thousand followers on Twitter! Let’s see if we can double the postcards this week! Light up those networks!! I know we can do it! I’ll post the next status update one week from today.

And now for a little inspiration… I received nearly 100 postcards from fourth and fifth graders in North Carolina. A very special dog named Gunny taught these kids about pit bulls, and their messages are so incredibly heartfelt. I shared a few of the fifth grade postcards already, but here are some of the fourth graders’ along with a couple postcards received from other children across the U.S. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

9 Comments »Maggie on June 29th 2010 in Animal Rights

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes