Have you ever been in The Dog House?  Dog owners will enjoy visiting  this dog house! We got there from The Dog Patch ...

Bloglines, the web-based news reader talks opml, xml, rdf... etc, which in geekdog speak, means it can gobble up all the news on the web (in rss kibble) and spew it out in order by your choice of keyword.

Woof! What does that mean in people speak? Drop your url over there, crank out a search on all the news feeds and blogs, as in "dog" and start reading about your favorite topic, collected from the web... Bloglines is a web based news reader to free you from that desktop prison. Now, you can uncrate your dog and yourself, roam the world inside or out and from any web connection, get your own personalized news... [Shifted Librarian] (thank goodness... I need more time to pick up all that dog poop... )

Dog Whisperer Reveals Secret To Canine Behavior MI (If you watch and listen to your dog, you'll learn some tricks of communication... )

Family opens home, hearts to raise guide dog for blind IL [Liberty Suburban Chicago Newspapers] 

Dog’s excessive barking  HI  [ Honolulu Star-Bulletin] (dogs often bark for attention)

Note to readers: The dogs need a vacation...  Dog News will resume regular publishing on October 13, 2003.

When it comes to acting, dog and cats are asked to do more than just animal tricks (and how!)

'The phone calls come at all hours. Has Rhonda Hall got a rabbit that can come out of a hat? Yes, she has. What about a magician's white dove? Yes. How about a dog that can lick butter off a man strapped to a rotisserie?...' [Sydney Morning Herald Online]

Funny Pets  dedicates its content to all the fun of owning a pet: animal humor, jokes, riddles, quotations and trivia and includes  funny and cute pet pictures and  links to other great pet websites. In September, Funny Pets awarded Dog News  an award for outstanding dog news.

Animal Radio Network wrote about commercial dog food in August: Commercial Dog Food: What the labels say, What the labels mean... and has generously given us permission to reprint it on Dog News.  Check out their recent show topics: Your dog may become poisoned, To Spay or Not to Spay, and more.

some 'dog' blogs to check out (haven't checked all of them out yet)

a dog named fish
Birds, Blogs and Dogs
Blog Dogs
Bookerdogs make perfect swords
burnt ends
catdog
Coolio's : Your Daily Doggy Style
Corndog Weblog
Cute K-Dog: The Bloggie of a Doggie
DC Dog News
Dewayne Mikkelson and his Radio WebDog, Shadow
Dog and Pony Show
Dog Door of Death - Weblog
Dog New Tricks
Dog Snot Diaries
Dogisms
DogPoet's Campfire
Dogs
Dogtown Journal
dogwash
FirstBlog
g o o d d o g b a d d o g
I'm the cutest puppy!
Is that the dog barking?
Jim Mangan's Radio Weblog
Jim Mangan's Weblog
Kasey
Lexi - The Dog always great
Mad Ogre
maddog
Moonbloggie
mydogmeg
nikki the dog
RiverDogs
Rocketdog Blog
Songdog.net
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler [Popdex]

Rockville Maryland Humane Society's: The Ark A refuge for dog and owner MD Yesterday, I took our two chows for grooming to The Ark: , the Rockville, Maryland, Humane Society's grooming and pet supply store. I had trepiditions, after recently being refused grooming services by other groomers (because they were afraid of the chow breed); my fears were totally unfounded. On the phone, the store's volunteer staff assured me that breed was NOT a problem: '...we ARE the Humane Society, after all..."

The store's manager helped me unload the two furry chows (a very difficult job for one person because our gimpy dogs require a ramp). Jenny, the Ark's professonal groomer (a grooming instructor with almost 20 years of grooming expertise), took us all back to the grooming room, which was spotlessly clean and cheerily arranged. Both dogs immediately received water bowls which totally impressed me and both dogs settled in right away... amazing. When I picked them up later in the day, both exquisitely groomed dogs greeted me with contentment.

The Ark's small store is chock full of cool pet supplies you won't find anywhere else. For example, the Ark sells emergency dog and cat kits for a nominal fee; all proceeds go to the Humane Society's rescue fund. Their grooming supplies range from organic oatmeal shampoo and conditioner, great for itchy dogs with allergies, to vanity shampoos to bring out the luster and shine of specific show dogs.

If you own a chow, you know groomers charge more for chows than just about any other dog. I realized we had to do something, if we wanted to keep two chows in tip-top condition, so we  decided to tackle the grooming ourselves. In a quest to save money, we bought professional clippers, a grooming table (a folding table to which we added with a grooming pole) and a dog dryer. I soon found that for us, grooming our dogs was an all day affair, and I didn't enjoy the aches and pains of kneeling in the shower with a squirmy dog. We also made the mistake of drying our dogs on the kitchen floor and soon found all the house afloat with dog hair and dander (well, at least it was clean); a separate grooming room would have isolated the 'hair' pollution and made cleanup easier. When it came to clipping, forget it; we purchased Andis clippers, but the instructions for assembly and cleaning are so small and unreadable, that we haven't tackled it yet. And assembly really requires hands on training... (okay, so I'm a dummy; I can take apart a computer and put it back together, but I haven't figured out dog clippers).

If you live in the DC Metro area, check out The Ark. You can pamper your pet and save homeless and abused animals with your purchases and volunteer services.  The Ark occasionally holds garage sales (one coming up very soon) where you can pick up unique gifts at a cool price and you can unload those unwanted, but quality, items cluttering up your home....

 

The Ark: 601 S. Stonestreet Ave.
Rockville, Maryland  20850
Phone: (240) 453-0624
Fax: (240) 453-0626