Most dog people I know have  experienced some version of  ”dog-in-the dishwasher” but a friend sent me this picture today and I was especially delighted that the dog actually got in the dishwasher to lick the dishes. My dogs would only lean into the dishwasher and just lick what they could but this pointer rescue knew exactly how it should be done.  (Don’t let your dogs see this because it might give them ideas.)

Jake (the yellow lab): Why didn't I ever think of jumping in the dishwasher to lick the plates? When do I get my turn?

As if we didn’t know, an article out today says that even when times are hard,  dog lovers continue to make sure our dogs have everything they need to have long, healthy and fun lives.  Here’s what the article from the Huffington Post said about the “Pet Pampering” business:

Birth rates may decline during a recession, but our furry friends are lapping up the cost savings of many childless homes. HuffPost blogger and animal expert Wendy Diamond reports:

“With 62% of American households owning at least one pet (up from 56% in 1988), and 37.2% of families owning dogs and 32.4% owning cats (thus 7.6% must own at least one of each) Americans have embraced their pets as members of their families. Growing trends such as the celebration of pets’ birthdays with puppy parties and feline fiestas have created an entire luxury market of paw pampering products that will have your furry friend barking for more.”

Even Martha Stewart and GNC are cashing in on the lucrative pet pampering industry, which is expected to grow 5 percent this year to $47.7 billion. Compare this to $45.5 billion in 2009 and $38.5 billion in pre-recessionary 2006.

A Golden enjoying the heck out of playing with the IntelliBone.

So if just reading this inspires you to want something new for your dog, happydogsplay.com recently added more smart puzzle dog toys that will challenge and entertain your dog in the same way that developmental toys do for kids.  (Those who know me personally know that I know nothing about developmental toys for children but I read this comparison on a website and thought it might explain the concept of smart dog toys to most people.)

We now carry plush puzzle toys like the Hide-A-Squirrel toy that has three toy squirrels (each with a squeaker), hiding in a plush log challenging your dog to find and remove them.  The IntelliBone, featuring a plush bone surrounded by removable plush rings, provides your dog a different kind of challenge because they have to learn to pull the rings off the bone which is quite tricky.

As with all dog toys sold by happydogsplay.com, the plush puzzle toys are made with non-toxic materials and tested thoroughly for safety first by the manufacturer.   And then when we receive them at our office in Roswell, GA, they’re  tested again by happydogsplay.com to check for ourselves that there aren’t unsafe levels of Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and Chromium. We use a local company that specializes in testing for lead and other heavy metals using the X-Ray Flourescence device that is commonly used to test children’s toys.

All happydogsplay.com dog toys are tested to make sure they don't contain lead or other heavy metals.

We’ve also added an agility starter kit that provides you beginner’s equipment to see if your dog has the aptitude for agility sports before you spend a ton of money getting into agility training for real.

And just for the record, happydogsplay.com is not about “pet pampering” because we don’t believe that there is such a thing.  Our dogs need stuff to be happy and happydogsplay.com provides that stuff; and dog people need to be happy and we provide that stuff.   Dog are NOT a blessing in disguise–there is no disguise involved.   They make us happy and we make them happy.  What more could we want?

(If you’re wondering, the other recession-proof businesses are family movies, donuts, marathons, fireworks, iPhones, tattoos, fantasy sports, gum and whale watching.)

truthaboutpetsfoods.com Crusader logo

An easy way to keep up with pet food recalls and to learn how to choose healthier foods and treats for your dog is through http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com.   You can subscribe to their free TruthaboutPetFood newsletter.

Susan Thixton who writes this newsletter explains that “Pet Food is the only industry that is allowed to lie to consumers. Current regulations allow ‘direct unqualified claims’ on pet food labels and pet food advertising.  ‘Direct unqualified claims’ can be a bold face lie…or it could be the truth.  One of many problems with pet food is that we do not know what is true by reading the label claims, watching the television commercials, or listening to pet food radio advertising.  Any pet food can claim it is ‘Healthy’ or ‘Provides Optimal Health’ or ‘Supports Healthy Weight’ yet these statements could be a ‘direct unqualified claim’ (a lie).”

For $17.95, you can also subscribe to Petsumer Report online.  It provides subscribers with reviews of dog foods, cat foods and pet treats.  Currently there are over 1600 different reviews available and new reviews are added monthly.  You’ll find out which foods are Chinese imports, what companies use BPA lined cans and who uses risky chemicals and dyes.

I subscribed today.  I feed Gracie, my dog, a combination of home-cooked organic meals and  high-end, premium commercial dog food.   She is going through cancer treatment right now and I know that it’s my job to provide her with the healthiest food that I can.  I can’t control everything she comes into contact with but there are things I can control and I do my best to only buy the safe products.  I did check out the safety of the dog foods I buy on PetsumerReports.com and none of them have any unsafe chemicals in them or came in cans with BPAs.  Some of the ones I would think would be safe aren’t and that’s exactly why this website is necessary.

happydogsplay.com tests all our dog toys using the XRF device that's commonly used to test children's toys.

My business, happydogsplay.com, is also devoted to keeping your dog safe.  We sell dog toys that are non-toxic, lead-free, phthalate-free, eco-friendly and durable. Not only do we get safety testing results from each of the dog toy manufacturers who make the toys we sell, we also test every toy ourselves to make sure that they’re free of Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, Nickel, Antimony, Bromine and many other elements.  We use exposinglead.com, a company right here in Roswell, GA to do our testing.  (BTW, when explosinglead.com was here testing the dog toys, I had them test some of the products I use and found out that the dishes I had been using had lead in them so I replaced them all.)

The more we know, the better choices we can make.  Our dogs certainly deserve the best.

Gracie with her safety harness and Wrist Wraps on.

Gracie, my 13 year old dog, would sometimes stumble on her fronts legs when we went for walks and a few times, she even fell down.  I watched her closely to figure out what the cause of the problem was and saw that when her legs gave out, it was because her front wrists buckled and they weren’t strong enough to hold up her body.  She has had arthritis for most of her life;  in fact, her left hip was replaced with an artificial hip when she was about two years old. Besides giving her all the supplements that I knew could help her from the inside, I started looking for a way to help support her from the outside.

I came across The Wrist Wrap from handicappedtpets.com and it seemed to be exactly what I needed to help support her weak wrists.   It’s simple to use  - you just wrap the neoprene brace around the front leg about 1 inch above where the wrist bends and fasten it securely with the Velcro part of the wrap.  The instructions tell you  to be sure that the brace does not interfere with the flexion of the paw and your dog will soon let you know the proper tension for support.

I got two of the Wrist Wraps for Gracie and I know they’re working because she actually stands still and waits for me to put the them on her before we go for a walk.  She now hardly stumbles at all and I think the extra support helps eliminate the arthritic pain that she must have in her wrists.

The moral of this story is that there are products that can help keep your dog mobile.  handicappedpets.com has many kinds of dog wheelchairs,  lifting harnesses, pet boots, slings, leg splints, orthotic braces, dog ramps and dog steps.

Gracie's new career as a wrist model

The Wrist Wraps are easy to use.

With the all-new Aikiou (pronounced IQ) bowl, you get the latest interactive dog puzzle toy and a dog dinner bowl all in one.  What will they think of next?  (Personally, I’d love someone to invent an interactive dog toy that vacuums your house when your dog plays with it.)

First we had the Nina Ottosson smart dog toys from Sweden and now we have the all new Aikiou bowl from Canada.  The people who invented the Aikiou bowl want your dog to play with their food and they mean that quite literally. The Aikiou is a “revolutionary” dog feeding bowl that challenges your dog to use their primal instincts to hunt down their hidden food and turn mealtime into a walk on the wild side even if it’s just your kitchen.  And, the Aikiou bowl can be used as a  fun and challenging interactive dog puzzle toy that will make your dog smarter by stimulating their brain and relieving boredom along the way. This video will show you the the Aikiou in action.

The manufacturers of the Aikiou give this explanation of why your dog might enjoy eating their meals out of the Aikiou bowl:

“By necessity, animals in nature spend much of their time hunting and foraging for their meals. Dogs in particular are adept at seeking and finding food. Unfortunately, this innate problem-solving skill is often under-exericised in domesticated animals sometimes leading to unwanted behaviours around the home. The Aikiou (IQ) bowl was developed with this in mind. Food is hidden inside the bowl’s many compartments, which your dog can access by sliding the doors open or spinning the central wheel. Allowing your dog to exercise his or her problem-solving instincts with the Aikiou bowl is fun and rewarding for both you and your pet.”

The Aikiou is for big dogs....

...or small dogs.

Or, like the Nina Ottosson interactive puzzles, the Aikiou bowl can a be another “board game” where you hide treats for your dog and watch how clever they are at finding and removing them. You hide the treats in different slots or a combination of slots and then your dog uses their nose or paw to slide or twist the openings to find the treats. To keep your dog from getting bored or catching on, you can hide just one treat or hide many treats and keep changing where you put them.

If you do use the Aikiou as your dog’s bowl, one great benefit is that for dogs who inhale their food, it will slow down their eating because they’ll now be playing hide-and-seek with their food.

I’m not so sure that the Aikiou bowl will make your dog feel like a wild animal again but no matter what, it can be fun for you and your dog to play with together.  And we all need more family time with our dogs.

The Aikiou is available now at happydogsplay.com for $24.95.

Dirty Dozen or Clean 15?

If you make your dog home-cooked meals, it’s always best to buy organic ingredients but did you know that with non-organic celery,  you can get a dose of up to 76 different pesticides?   According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) , if you’re eating non-organic celery, that’s the number of pesticides you may very well be ingesting. According to the 2010 edition of EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, the top 12 pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables contain 47 to 67 different pesticides per serving.

Different pesticides have been linked to a variety of health problems, including nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone system effects and skin, eye and lung irritation.

We all know too sadly that compared to humans, dogs live shorter lives. They also have correspondingly shorter latency periods for the development of life-threatening diseases such as cancer (Kelsey 1998).   According to truth4dogs.org, 46% of all dogs dying of disease, will die of cancer.

The Dirty Dozen (Most Contamination)

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Domestic blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Sweet bell peppers
8. Spinach, kale and collard greens
9. Cherries
10. Potatoes
11. Imported grapes
12. Lettuce

The Clean 15 (Least Contamination)

1. Onions
2. Avocados
3. Sweet corn
4. Pineapples
5. Mango
6. Sweet peas
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi fruit
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Cantaloupe
12. Watermelon
13. Grapefruit
14. Sweet potatoes
15. Sweet onions

Notes from the EWG:

1.  The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure.  Use EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to reduce your exposures as much as possible, but eating conventionally-grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all.

2.  You can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce, according to EWG calculations.  When you eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll be exposed to an average of 10 pesticides a day. When you choose fresh produce from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll consume fewer than 2 pesticides per day.

3.  Just washing your produce isn’t the answer. The data used to create the Guide is from produce tested as it is typically eaten. This means washed and, when applicable, peeled. For example, bananas are peeled before testing, and blueberries and peaches are washed. Because all produce has been thoroughly cleaned before analysis, washing a fruit or vegetable would not change its rank in the EWG’s Shopper’s Guide (i.e. washing a conventional apple will not make it is less contaminated).

Again, you can download the complete guide or iPhone application so you have it with you when you go shopping.

PETA  just released to the public more graphic footage and photos from their undercover investigation of Sun Pet Ltd., an Atlanta-based wholesale animal dealer that supplies animals to PETCO, PetSmart, Petland, and Pet Supplies Plus stores, among others.

Despite this disturbing video footage, hundreds of your e-mails and phone calls, and a great deal of media attention focused on the case, Fulton County district attorney, Paul L. Howard Jr., has still not filed cruelty-to-animals charges against anyone at Sun Pet. He hasn’t even filed charges against the woman we showed you last week who bashed a bag of live hamsters against a table and left at least one to pant and suffer for several minutes before dying.

Howard’s office has had this video—and much more evidence—for more than two months, but it seems that he has halted the investigation of animal suffering at Sun Pet. Had anyone in Fulton County bagged and bashed puppies or kittens, they would have been held accountable weeks ago.  Howard is an elected official, so your voice is critical!

Please, even if you have already done so, e-mail Howard and ask him what is cruelty to animals in Fulton County if not slamming a bag full of small animals against a table and leaving those who survive the impact to suffocate and die slowly of trauma and injuries? Tell him you hope that he is not being swayed by the powerful pet-trade industry to ignore animal abuse in Fulton County. Please also call Howard at 404-612-4982. You can also write to him at:

The Honorable Paul L. Howard Jr.
District Attorney
Fulton County District Attorney’s Office
136 Pryor St. S.W., 3rd Fl.
Atlanta, GA 30303

Every call, letter, and e-mail counts, so please share this information with your family and friends right away.

On May 1st, the Atlanta Humane Society’s largest annual fund-raising event, Pet Parade, raised over $126,000 to benefit the shelter’s homeless animals. Participants followed a mile-and-a-half long route through Piedmont Park and also enjoyed the many activities for pets and their people.   Many rescue groups brought adoptable pets and conducted  training demonstrations.

happydogsplay.com was there as a vendor and we sold several of the Nina Ottosson interactive dog games and many of the dog-related cookie cutters that we carry (we have over 100 different cookie cutter designs!).  Thank you to everyone who stopped by our tent to talk dog or to check out our merchandise and thank you to all the people who brought a wide assortment of dogs (and one cat) and lived in the Land of Dog for a few hours in Piedmont Park.

And for those of you who missed the event, you can donate directly to the Atlanta Humane Society through their website.

At the end of Jack's life, Vincent re-appears and helps Jack make the transition from the physical to the spiritual world.

So the “Lost” were found but to me, it was never about the people finding redemption–it was always about Vincent, the Yellow Lab.  He survived the crash and was there at the beginning of the story and there at the end.

To dog lovers, “Lost” was always about Vincent and all the dogs we get to share our journeys with and how these truly spiritual and loving beings who aren’t here for us but are here with us help us become our best selves, our truest selves.  Goodbye Vincent.

By sending in the hair you collect after brushing your dog, you can help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf.

From Care2 Healthy & Green Daily Newsletter posted by Megan from Mother Nature Network:

If you’ve been keeping tabs on the catastrophic (an adjective I feel like I’ve been having to use far too often lately) Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, you’ve probably been wondering how exactly you can help. Well, for those of you with furry, four-legged flatmates, it can be as easy as sweeping the floors and collecting all that errant fur and hair.

So how exactly can hoarding pet fur help with cleaning up one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory? Enter Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that’s been accepting donations of non-filthy pet fur and human hair since 1998 to craft oil-absorbing hairmats — described as “flat square dreadlocks” — and hair-stuffed containment booms made from recycled pantyhose. These hairy contraptions are effective at soaking-up oil and they don’t require any new resources … just stuff you’d normally trash (or compost) unless you’re into, umm, stockpiling fur.

I must say, sending along fur to Matter of Trust via Excess Access is an eco-ideal spring cleaning mission for folks with critters around the house. In addition to pet owners, groomers and salon owners can get involved too by sending in bulk shipments of hair/fur. In fact, as of today, 400,000 pounds of hair was en route to the Gulf Coast.

Head on over to Matter of Trust for instructions on how you, and Mr. Bojangles the beagle, can help out.