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Golden Retriever performs ... the Heimlich Maneuver?

By Bill Peña on 03/28/2007

Now this is a great application of targeting:

CALVERT, Md. -- Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

Cloud, the dolphin-sniffing black Lab

By Miranda Hersey Helin on 03/27/2007

A 3-year-old black Labrador retriever is reportedly the first dog trained to sniff out dead or injured dolphins. Chris Blankenship a marine biologist with 20+ years of experience studying marine mammals, works with Cloud at Dolphin Cove, a research facility and tourist destination in Key Largo.

From the Palm Beach Post:

"She's become one of my best friends," Blankenship said. "She's the perfect dog. She has a phenomenal nose. She has a nose that, now, canine officers say they wish they'd kept her. But she's mine now."

Cloud already has found a dead pilot whale, a stranded dolphin and a necropsied animal that was being towed behind a boat on a rope when the rope broke and the animal sank, Blankenship said. "That was a submerged animal underwater that she found," he said.

Blankenship dreamed up the idea for a dolphin-sniffing dog in 2005, after roughly 80 dolphins became stranded off Marathon Key. About 30 of them died. "The stranded animals died of dehydration, things like that," Blankenship said. "I thought, 'If we had some way of locating the animals ...' "

Read the full article here.

Massive Pet Food Recall

By Bill Peña on 03/19/2007

There is a massive pet food recall in place for many major brands of wet dog and cat food, including brands like Iams and Eukanuba, as well as many store brands like Hannaford's and Save-A-Lot.

Please look at the recall information, and check your pet's food if you use any of the brands. The risk to your pet's health is potentially fatal, so please get the information and spread the word!

Hearts, Minds and Paws - the Extraordinary Talents of Our Canine Partners

By Aidan Bindoff on 03/05/2007

Canine Partners in the UK is a registered charity which specializes in training and providing assistance dogs to people with disabilities. They use a program designed by Nina Bondarenko, a world renowned dog trainer who uses clicker training. Nina has recently written a book entitled "Hearts, Minds and Paws" to both inform and move us on the extraordinary talents of our canine partners.

Dog Finds New Boozer On Same Bus Route

By Aidan Bindoff on 02/18/2007

Reinforcement is a powerful thing. Take the case of "Ratty", a terrier from York in England. Ratty would regularly put himself on the bus to the Black Bull pub in York, where a barmaid would feed him sausages.