Rover, the top dog for the K9 unit for the police in Muncie, Indiana is about to retire. This will leave the local police without the skills unique to a valuable member of their team. But a trained police dog can cost $10,000, and that's a lot of money for the local police in this economy. 
Hello my canine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your humans. This tip is called "kennel." My human introduced me to my kennel when I was just a pup looking for a safe haven. She tossed yummy treats in it and said "kennel." Sometimes she gave me stuffed kongs in my kennel and let me explore it for a couple of days before she closed the door behind me. She even fed me and gave me water in my kennel until I began to go in on my own. She would say "kennel" and point to my little home while tossing in a treat. I began to think of it as my very own perfect place in the world and I loved it.
Don't mess with pets, or the guys from Rescue Ink may be knocking on your door. Rescue Ink is an animal rescue group composed of tattooed, tough looking, tough talking guys, some of which grew up in inner city environments where pets were not always treated so great. They also like to say that many of them got a second chance, and animals deserve at least that much. So, they look tough, but these guys have a soft underbellies and a big hearts when it comes to animals. They go into bad, sometimes dangerous, situations and take action on behalf of animals in need. Rescue Ink also works to advocate on behalf of animals, educate communities about animal abuse and neglect, and other activities that prevent abuse and neglect of pets like me.
Do you ever wish there was something useful to do with all that dog poop? Well, that idea struck the Tompkins County Dog Owners Group (TC DOG) in Ithaca, New York. These folks are partnering with Cayuga Compost to turn the poop from the dog park into usable compost to sell. 
This human mom-to-be, 9 days overdue, was out walking her pup when the dog pooped (it happens). It was right in front of her house, so she was resting on the step for a minute before heading inside to get something to clean it up. Well, that was not good enough for the overzealous police officer who saw the pooping in action--and he ticketed her $250 for not picking up the poop immediately! Poop scooping laws are important for human and dog health and safety, but maybe this officer should have given the woman a break and let her go inside to get a bag. 
Check out this girl Pixie. She landed herself in a shelter, and her chances weren't so good because she is deaf. Lucky for her, Liz Grewal came along. Liz is a specialist in special needs dogs, especially deaf ones, and decided to foster Pixie. Since coming into her new temporary home, nine week old Pixie has learned ten sign language commands! Liz expects that Pixie could eventually have a vocabulary of 100 signals, and will make an exceptional pet. 
I hear that the leader of Libya, Muammar el-Qaddafi (aka Moammar Khadafy), is not so popular with American humans. He is currently visiting New York City, and Maggie apparently got the message. Passing by the dictator's red carpet, Maggie thought it would be a great time to take a not-so-diplomatic-but-highly-symbolic pee! Oops!
The American Kennel Club is celebrating their 125th anniversary this year, and to mark their occasion, they have released a list called "the top ten dogs of all time." Interesting stuff, but if it were actually the top dogs of ALL TIME, mutts would have been on the list because we have been following humans around for thousands of years. So, it is actually the top dogs in the history of the AKC. 
Hello my canine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your human. It seems that some humans don't know how to approach us if they do not know us. They are not sure how we communicate and so they go about greetings us all wrong. Well don't worry once again I am here to save the day. 
Is your dog overweight? Even if your dog is young and fit now, you should think about how to keep him that way. Like people, dogs have varying exercise needs. But how do you know how much your dog needs to stay healthy? 
We have another famous TV human is looking out for dogs--Mario Lopez! Mario recently decided that he is ready to bring a dog into his life, but he wants to do it right. He is doing a lot of research on what kind of dog would be right for him, and considering the decision carefully. The great news is that they are going to document the whole process on his show--Extra. This will help raise awareness of the decisions people need to think about when adopting, while also profiling lots of dogs in need of homes. Extra is working with local shelters, the Humane Society, AKC, celebrity pet trainers, and viewers. Wags all around. 
Poor Andre got stuck in an animal trap up in Alaska! This guy was so determned to escape from the trap that he chewed of his two trapped paws. But the story has a happy ending! A woman found him on the trail and took him to Alaska Dog & Puppy Rescue, who helped him heal and regain his strength. 
Petside has yet another top 10 list: the top 10 dog parks in the country. They rated the the off-leash parks on size, amenities, cost, and activities offered. Here is the rundown:
Stem cell are offering new promise to help dogs in pain. Check out this story of Lola, who had debilitating arthritis, and was barely about to walk. Lola was lucky that her person and vet knew about a new stem cell treatment where they take cells from the dogs fat and transform it into joint tissue. How amazing is that? 
Hello my fellow canine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your human. This week I learned this neat trick called "crawl" and it was so easy to learn. It was so easy that I thought about letting my human know that I was not really working for the treats, but then I came to my senses. What was I thinking! Free treats are one of life's simple pleasures.
Anyway, I learned how to "crawl" by doing a slight variation of what I already knew, "down." My human asked me for a down and I enthusiastically cooperated knowing that treats were close. Then while I was in a down position, she asked me to come. Well I hopped up to come but she said no and asked for a down again. I thought my human may need a nap because she is asking me for a come while I am down. Then it hit me, "you can do both!' I started to inch my way toward her treat hand which was low to the ground and close to my nose. Then as I moved forward she said "good boy" and gave me the treat. I just kept on inching my belly across the floor and eating those treats. As I got better she started to say "crawl" instead of "come." That's it! So many treats, so little work. Pass on the news.
Riley
CEO (Canine of Extraordiary Obedience)
Do you have a plane? And some free time? Who doesn't? 
Somebody is in trouble! This North Carolina pup was a little concerned when his human got a visit from the police, little did he know she called the police to complain about another dog. 
It is tough days for swine....pigs are getting a bad rap for being the original carrier of the H1N1 Flu virus. I won't hold it against the pigs, but I still want to know if dogs like me can get it. Turns out it is very unlikely that dogs will catch swine flu, even if their human has it. 
Popular TV human, Rachel Ray, is all about dogs these days. Last year, the TV chef and pit bull lover launched her own pet website and even started selling her own line of dog food. All of the proceeds from her dog food line ($400,000 last year) goes to pet charities. 
Dogs and babies both depend on people for information. In fact, new research says that dogs depend on people more like a 10 month old baby than our own brother wolves. 
Big Dogs of the blogosphere have deemed today, 9.9.09, A Day Without Cats on the Internet. You know what they are talking about--the piano playing cat on youtube, the wild popularity of lolcats, and other crazy cat stuff in your inbox. 
MSNBC's Sandy Robins has compiled a list of the top 10 hotel perks for pets. This is a long way from just paying a $20 fee to bring your pup into the Best Western. Now high end hotels are catering to high end dog lovers. Perks include special beds, doggie room service, beef-broth drinks, custom poop-bag dispensers, yappy hours, pet concierge service. One even has a pet spa service that goes beyond simple nail clipping--the Peticure service, where they will clip, polish, and paint you pups nails with a design picked out by you. 
Hello my fellow caninine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your human. This is a pretty cool trick and It was so easy to learn. The trick is called "touch" and apparently it is a targeting excercise, whatever that means. All I know is whenever I am out on a walk and I hear "touch" I do. Nothing else is more important, not even another dog!
Kujo, a 120 pound Presia Canario, had the misfortune of finding himself in an abandoned well during a recent thunderstorm in Maryland. His person was ready to tie himself to a rope to try to go down to save him, but luckily the firemen arrived to help. 
Polly is a magnetic dog, in more ways than one. Blue Heelers are known for being high energy and affectionate, but Polly has something peculiar about her--she wants to eat everything! When it come to treats, I eat them all, but Polly really eats EVERYthing! 
ABC news recently honored some special people and pups in their feature "Person of the Week." They marked the 80th anniversary of the Seeing Eye, the oldest guide dog school around. Over the years, they have placed 14,000 dogs with people needing their help. Only half of the dogs that enter the program get the opportunity to serve because it is such hard work and there are so many commands to learn. These pups need to develop "learned disobedience," which is what they have to do when their person wants to cross the street but a car is coming. That sounds tough!
Scientist Stanley Coren has determined that dogs are about as smart as toddlers aged 2-2 1/2. He says that dogs are more like humans than previously thought. See, all that anthropromophizing isn't all wrong! 
Dogs have all kinds of hair--some short, some long, some wiry, some fluffy, some even like human hair. Geneticists have studied the DNA mutations that cause all of these differences. They found that it comes down to just three genes that make all these differences. The interesting science doesn't stop there. Scientists are using this information to understand human cancers--how just a few genes can cause so many different kinds of cancer. Read or listen to the NPR story here.
