“Dogs Abandoned by Family After Move (FOX 10 Phoenix)” plus 2

Dogs Abandoned by Family After Move (FOX 10 Phoenix)

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 05:36 PM PDT

PHOENIX - The tough economic times are impacting not only owners and renters, but pets.

Tuesday, police were called out to a west Phoenix home because some family dogs had been living on their own for several days.

"There was a concerned neighbor who obviously cares for animals and called us out here," explains Officer Mark Valenzuela. "The big concern is the safety of these animals."

The neighbor told police the residents packed up and left the house six days ago, leaving the dogs to fend for themselves. No one is sure if the family will return.

Luckily, the neighbors gave them plenty of water and food after hearing them barking.

The Arizona Humane Society was called in to check on the dogs. A technician will make sure they are fed, and if the owners don't return within 7 days, the dogs will be taken to a shelter.

The Humane Society asks that anyone who can't take care of their pets turn them into a shelter, where they have a chance at finding another home.

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Clinic for pets (Elbert County News)

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 04:20 AM PDT

In light of the recent rabies skunk found in Elbert County, a rabies and distemper clinic will be held in the county for dogs and cats.

The clinic will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 3 at Rattlesnake Fire and Rescue station 52 located at 7119 Sun Country Drive.

Dr. Dale Rice with Tree Peaks Veterinary will be providing shots for pets, $18 for the first shot and $10 for the second shot.

For more information call station 51 at 303-841-8111.

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Dog owners get activities, quality time with pets at camp (USA Today)

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 03:55 AM PDT

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Nature walks, swimming and memory-making campfires (all dog-focused) are being augmented with agility training, cooking-for-canines instruction, bury-the-bone competitions and dozens of other activities for pooch-loving participants.

"It's a great way to have 100% together time with your dog, enjoying nature and activities, instead of just feeding them and walking them," says Margaret Rapp of Arlington Heights, Ill. She attended Camp Dogwood in Ingleside, Ill., last year with Danny, her spaniel mix, and Ollie, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel who was a recent puppy mill rescue.

"Camp also gives you a chance to try many different things — without paying for eight sessions, as is the case at home," she says. She was surprised to learn at camp that Danny wasn't interested in flyball, though he did embrace other active-dog stuff. Ollie, on the other hand, preferred laze-about activities like massage (but he did work hard to pass his Canine Good Citizenship certification while there).

Camp Dogwood ($420 to $700 for three nights and four days, depending on the accommodations), held three times a year at an overnight camp for kids (when kid camp's not in session), is among a growing number of canine-and-owner retreats for active and inactive dogs and their people.

Join in — or not

"We keep some things the same every session," says Alysa Slay, a clinical psychologist who co-founded the Camp Dogwood sessions in 2001, "but we're always adding new things."

The scores of activities and lectures include water sports, herding, dog fur spinning and ask-the-vet sessions.

Most canine camps are held at waterfront facilities — rustic cabins and/or tent or RV sites — that serve as kid camps, music workshops or couples-counseling retreats most of the time but that occasionally go to the dogs.

Most limit participants to 20 to 100 humans plus their dogs (some allow two dogs per person), and many exclude kids younger than 18 on the grounds that a person keeping track of children isn't as able to bond with a dog in the ideal way.

Some campers partake of every offering they can cram in. But if the two- and four-legged clients just want to chill, that's fine. "If someone wants to sit under a tree with her dog or go for a stroll, just the two of them, that's just fine," says Lory Kohlmoos, director of Camp Winnaribbun, a three-times-a-year week-long camp in Stateline, Nev., on the shores of Lake Tahoe ($1,300 for lodging, meals and activities).

"Everyone learns a lot about themselves and about their dogs," Kohlmoos says, even if the humans skip some of the dozens of activities, which range from tracking to crafts to homeopathy sessions.

Happy campers keep coming back

As interest in the concept grows, so, too, do the kinds of venues. Minneapolis dog trainer Lisa Sellman organized her first three-night, four-day dog lovers' retreat at the upscale Gunflint Lodge in Grand Marais, Minn., in October, and response was sufficiently strong that seven have been scheduled for 2010 ($399 a person, which includes cushy accommodations, most meals and scads of dog activities).

The lodge has been dog-friendly since 1928 out of necessity, because dog sled teams were used to haul supplies, but during retreat times, the trails and conference rooms are filled with dogs and people participating in such things as "Doggie Socials," positive training classes and Sellman's demonstrations of Tellington TTouch, a form of body work that reduces the stress and tension of dogs.

Camps that have been around for a while have a huge return rate — 60% to 75% of their clientele each session are return campers, they say. The humans make friends they enjoy seeing again, and so do the dogs.

"Some of the dogs came for the first time as puppies," says Kohlmoos, whose Camp Winnaribbun celebrates its 16th season this year, "and then they're brought back when they are old and pulled around on a wagon so they can have one last time to enjoy the sunshine and water."

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