September 16, 2010

Toys and Activities to Stimulate a Canine Brain

Dog guardians all know that the most exciting time of the day for Spot is playtime. We all play games such as fetch, but what about some games that are fun for you and your furry friend and have the extra benefit of stimulating your companion's brain? I discussed this topic in my book Let's Have a Dog Party! and thought I would share the following excerpt with you:

Noncompetitive games that you and your dog can play together include basic problem-solving skills and can earn your dog ribbons and trophies.

The Buster Fun Bone Treat is an extremely hard game in which a dog has to try to extract differently colored bones from a container in order to win an award. This game requires an investment of your time, but the delight of seeing your dog learn more and more is worth every second.

The I-Cube Puzzle is a plush cube containing squeaking balls that dogs can retrieve from inside it. The Hide-a-Bee Puzzle and Hide-a-Squirrel Puzzle stimulate dogs' minds and play on their curiosity. Available [online at Tail Waggers].

If you learn how to get your dog to use your (or anyone's) scent as a clue to which object to select from a group of objects, you can even amaze your friends by having your dog pick out the card you selected and then put back in the pack. Roy Hunter's amazing book Fun Nose Work will show you how. This book ... is full of interesting interactive games that engage a dog's nose and his brain and allow you to play with your dog as you both learn. In this book, Mr. Hunter, who spent twenty-five years working in the dog's section of the Metropolitan Police force of London, England, describes how dogs can be trained to find anything and everything including, in the case of a dog in New Zealand, six-inch nails under six inches of water! He takes guardian and dog through their paces, starting with easy-as-pie lessons to mind-boggling feats of tracking. Everything is done by understanding a dog's natural ability and rewarding progress.

How about you? Have you made up any games-or come across any-that seem to stimulate Fido's mind and senses?

August 19, 2009

Help Animals on Chinese Fur Farms

Every year, millions of individual animals, including more than 2 million cats and hundreds of thousands of dogs, are killed for their fur in China. Some are strays, and countless others are companions who once shared homes with people who loved and cared for them before the animals were rounded up often with metal tongs around their necks and tossed, screaming, into a crate.

A timid young rabbit waits, terrified, in a cramped, filthy wire cage. Suddenly, a hand reaches in and roughly grabs her. Her neck is broken. She is then tossed, still convulsing, into a barrel. When it's filled, the barrel is wheeled into another room, where she is skinned.

This horrific abuse is happening right now to countless rabbits and cats and dogs on Chinese fur farms and in Chinese markets. Won't you please help us stop this massive cruelty?

China is one of the world's largest fur suppliers, and more than 95 percent of the country's finished garments are exported with many ending up in North America. And as we now know, Chinese companies have been known to deliberately mislabel cat and dog fur as "Asian jackal," "rabbit," or "raccoon" to fool consumers. Every fur-trimmed collar or other fur item from China, regardless of the kind of animal slaughtered to manufacture it, is the product of cruelty on a truly massive scale. And we must combat it!

We need your help right now. Please make an urgently needed donation to PETA today and help us stop the horrific slaughter of cats, dogs, and other animals for their skin.

The suffering on Chinese fur farms involves all sorts of animals, all of whom are deeply frightened. Powerful video footage taken during a PETA Asia-Pacific undercover investigation documents the misery of rabbits condemned to a short, miserable life and painful death at the hands of grubby fur-farm operators. The investigator saw rabbits who were crammed into filthy cages covered with urine and feces, where they could only wait, petrified, as workers made their way along the tiers of cages.

The rabbits were yanked out of their cages by their ears or legs. The workers aimed at their heads with handheld electrical devices often multiple times as the animals kicked and screamed. The rabbits were then hung upside down and were crudely decapitated. The farm that the investigator visited has 11,000 cages and will be responsible for the slaughter of more than 600,000 animals this year alone in the quest to satisfy the demand for their skins.

Through difficult investigations similar to this one and through decades of relentless campaigning, PETA has saved many thousands of rabbits, dogs, cats, and other animals by convincing consumers and corporations to reject all fur. We've successfully persuaded some of the world's leading designers and retailers including Ann Taylor, Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger to adopt permanent no-fur policies, and we've made fur so synonymous with suffering that furs are no longer considered "luxury goods," and fur prices have seen record lows.

While we've accomplished much, the wholesale slaughter of so many animals for their fur in China is an urgent matter. To help these animals, we must educate consumers, corporations, and even governments about the pain that goes into every piece of fur trim and every fur cat toy produced in China. That is only part of our work, but it is a vital part.

Please contribute to our work for dogs, cats, and all animals by making a special gift today.

On behalf of all animals, especially those confined and killed for their skins in all parts of the world, thank you.

With the fall fashion season just around the corner, we need to do everything we can to make sure designers, retailers, and consumers know the horrific extent of the animal suffering that takes place on fur farms in China and around the world. Please rush your online donation to PETA today. Together, let's save more animals from being cruelly mistreated and killed for their skin.