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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced voluntary recalls of the following consumer products. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Products: SlyDog™ Retractable Dog Leashes
Units: About 223,000

Importer: Worldwise Inc., of San Rafael, Calif.

Hazard: The metal clasp connecting the leash to a dog’s collar can bend or break while in use, causing the leash to recoil back unexpectedly. This poses a serious risk of injury to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Worldwise has received five reports of injuries, including facial cuts, a broken tooth, displaced eye lens, and a bruised collar bone.

Description: This recall involves the SlyDog™ Retractable Dog Leash with a metal clasp. The leash has a handle composed of a blue plastic case with a black plastic grip. The leash is made of a black woven strap and measures approximately one-half inch wide. The end of the leash has a metal clasp which connects to the dog’s collar. The SlyDog™ retractable leashes with a plastic clasp are not included in this recall.

Sold by: Dollar General Stores nationwide from September 2007 through August 2008 for about $5.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using these leashes immediately and return them to Worldwise Inc. for a full refund, including shipping costs.

Consumer Contact: For more information, contact Worldwise toll-free at (888) 296-3807 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.squareonesystem.com.

This week the challenge theme was courage. The tasks were a test of not just the dogs’ courage, but their people’s as well.

We started with the dog bone challenge, in which a 9000 pound elephant approached each dog individually. The dogs were required to sit, stay, and leave a banana for the elephant to retrieve.



A four and a half ton African elephant stopping within twenty feet of a dog, shaking its head and trumpeting? Is it any surprise that only two dogs – Andrew, the Maltese and Presley the 18 month old Boxer – sat and stayed?



I have a theory. Andrew used his one defense mechanism; I’ve mentioned it before. He sat with his head up, looking at the elephant, and making puppy dog eyes that clearly said, “I am tiny and white and cute, and my tiny white cuteness is all I’ve got. Surely I’m not even worth your time as a snack. By the way, have you noticed in your trumpeting and nine thousand poundness how tiny and white and cute I am?”

As for Presley, well, he just doesn’t understand the word danger (along with a lot of other words).

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 108"

From our own Therese Kopiwoda at PetSitUSA.com, the latest news on the pet product recall front:

Last week I blogged about a toy dog ball that had caused a dog, named Chai, to lose his tongue after the ball got stuck. Chai’s owners contacted the company, Four Paws, and they have issued a recall of the ball, the Four Paws Rough & Rugged Pimple Ball with Bell.

Full details, and a link to the manufacturer's website for full details of the recall, are here.

Pet Connection's Gina Spadafori gets a rant on about this over there this morning, too. Check it out.

From the folks at DogCars.com:

Gas prices got you howling at the moon? DogCars.com, the only auto resource just for dog-lovers, may have the answer with its list of the top five DogCars with good fuel efficiency (25 mpg or better) and a relatively low price tag (under $25,000).

It's called the DogCars.com "Top 5 at 25."

The list, which actually includes six DogCars because of a tie, looks at the factors that make a vehicle a champion when it comes to moving our furry family members. A DogCars.com review team led by best-selling author Dr. Marty Becker, ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" veterinarian and the Universal Press Syndicate pet-care columnist, put together the list after considering all the 2008 model year vehicles that fit the criteria.

"Many dog-loving families are facing the financial reality of having to choose between taking their pets with them on the road, or leaving them home to take a smaller, cheaper vehicle," said Dr. Becker. "We want no dogs left behind, so we did the research and came up the best vehicles for the job."

Find out which cars made the cut here.

Everyone at the Canine Academy seemed stressed out this week. The competition is getting stiffer. The teams have been away from their families for seven weeks and the tension this causes in the dogs and people makes everyone even more stressed than they were before they started feeling tense because the competition is getting stiffer and being away from their families is rough and...

Bella-Starlet was showing it more than any others. (Beth-Joy has been showing her frazzled nerves and minimal coping skills since day one.) Bella has taken to being more aggressive than usual, nipping at Travis’s hand when he reaches out to touch her, growling at other dogs when they initiate interaction and generally acting like her mom, overwrought and emotional.



Beth-Joy’s response to Bella-Starlet’s emotional sensitivity? She cried and whined to her dog. I’m all for leaning on your dog for the unconditional emotional fulfillment that they can provide. I will even say with no shame that talking to your dog as if they understand the complicated concepts of escrow, cost benefit analysis, Chinese vs. pizza and other life-altering decisions is a healthy way to work through some tough questions. However, when you need to discuss what to do about your dog’s emotional instability, it is probably best that you remain emotionally stable. Dogs don’t understand long-term high-yield low-risk investment strategies. They completely understand stressed and worried.



This week’s dog bone suite challenge came with the deluxe room, the “leg up” in the elimination competition and a phone call home. I have never rooted for Star and Bill so hard before.



The task itself was easy enough. An owner gets in a box. The other owner works with the two dogs, getting one to ring the bell and the other to go up some stairs and dig for a rope that opens the door and releases the second human member of the team.



With standard reality TV brand irony, Lori and Andrew were teamed up with JD and Galaxy. The two humans had a heated discussion in the previous scene about their differing views on dog training. JD uses a dominant/submissive method that doesn’t involve treats or praise. As a result, JD has won a lot of contests and earned his dog the nickname “the robot dog.” She is inarguably well trained and listens not just to JD but to anyone giving appropriate commands.



Lori has espoused her views on being the leader, the alpha, the structure and the one thing in Andrew’s life. “It’s not extra stuff that he wants. I am the one who gives him what he needs to survive.”



I want to take this moment to say that if am not coming down one way or the other regarding the best method of dog training. For starters: my dog might dig to get me out of a box, but only because he likes digging. He loves me, but I’ve never trained him to dig; he came that way.

For another Victoria Stilwell and Wendy Diamond, both well-known names in dog training and rescue, almost came to blows and did come to tears when debating the merits of JD’s method of working with Galaxy. Ms. Stillwell called it “medieval dog training,” to which Wendy Diamond replied, “I completely disagree.” This degenerated into an “I’m right," “No, I’m right," back and forth until Wendy asked, “Do you know everything? Are you the god of dog training?”

Victoria’s response? “Yes, I am.”



Um... yeah, did I mention everyone was a little stressed?

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 107"

We're recapping each episode of the CBS reality TV show "Greatest American Dog" here on DogHobbyist, and an incident in the fourth episode raised some issues about the effect of the show on dogs. I interviewed judge Victoria Stilwell of BBC's "It's Me or the Dog," as well as DogHobbyist.com recapper Shari Brodsky, renowed trainer Terry Ryan, and the American Humane Association's Film and Television Unit for an article that appears on SFGate.com (the website of the San Francisco Chronicle) today:

In the fourth week, the challenge was this: Each handler was given a word and told to train his or her dog to express that word in some way. At the end of the training period, they'd have one hour with a professional pet photographer to capture the results of the training on camera. Some handlers were given words such as "lazy" or "joyous," but contestant Teresa and her border collie Leroy got the word "angry."

Now, border collies are the most intelligent of dog breeds. That might mean they're not the best family pets, because number one, they need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation to keep them occupied, and number two, it can be demoralizing to have a pet who is smarter than you. But trainable? Look up the word in the dictionary, and you'll see a picture of a border collie.

Which makes it hard to understand why Teresa didn't realize she could have spent her two days' of training time teaching her dog to look angry on cue for the upcoming photo shoot instead of actually trying to piss him off. I do know that not even a quarter of a million bucks could have induced me to do what she did, which was to repeatedly spray lemon juice in her dog's face and then shove a dryer hose into his mouth until he bit her. Then she had the nerve to call him "you bastard," and comment that she expected more cooperation in the future: "You just bit me; I would think I deserve a little more from you."

Even though the squirt method had gotten her nowhere, she persisted with it even after arriving at the photo shoot. While the photographer watched, she tried to get him to snarl by squirting diluted grapefruit juice in his face until he whimpered, shrank back, and then ran to her for comfort. Making it worse was what she said to him when he tried to burrow into her side: "I'm not your mother right now."

Read the full article here, and let us know what you think!

This week's episode of "Greatest American Dog" proved something I’ve always suspected: dogs are not smarter than people, but they sure do live better.

Intelligence was the theme, although the way it was displayed was arguable at best. Before we even got to see the dogs prove how smart they were or weren’t, we were treated to the stupidity of humans, as evidenced by what we’ll do when attracted to someone.

There was some serious flirting going on between Laura and Travis, mostly done through interaction not with each other, but with each other's dogs. Laura acted like she pretty much wanted to eat Travis' boxer Presley up with a spoon, and Travis thought nothing looked cuter than Laura's mohawked Pomeranian Preston piling with his buddy Presley. This is good news for Travis because, as Laura pointed out, “When it comes to relationships, finding a dog-lover is absolutely... the most important thing.”



Or, in Travis' words: "I find myself to be more attracted to women who take a liking to Presley."
Could they be any cuter? Well, maybe.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 106"

Consumer Affairs is reporting a recall of Pedigree Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites dog food.

A salmonella scare has forced Mars Petcare US to recall 100 of its 20-pound bags of PEDIGREE Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites sold at some Albertsons in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The company also makes Nutro pet food, which scores of consumers nationwide blame for the recent illnesses — and even deaths — of their dog and cats.

Nutro products, however, are not included in this recall.

Mars said a "component" that tested positive for salmonella was inadvertently shipped to its Tracy, California, plant and used in the production of 100 bags of PEDIGREE pet food.

The affected bags have the "best by" dates of July 7, 2009.

"Our primary concern is the safety and welfare of our pet owners and their pets," the company said in a statement. "Although the finished product tested negative and we have received no reports of illness of pets or their owners, out of an abundance of caution we are issuing a voluntary recall of the limited number of bags of Pedigree Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites containing the component in question."

Read more here.

Apparently dancing with dogs is an exercise that fascinates the judges, because a group dance was the challenge in the first episode, and this week, individual dance routines were the elimination task. Before they got to the dancing, though, there was the Dog Bone Suite competition, which was a coordination challenge involving mud and a balance beam.

Bill and Star were the first to actually make it over the balance beam that straddled the muddy pit below. Star almost fell, but as Bill said, “I saw her eyes and I knew there was no way she was gonna let me down.” She didn’t. She made it across to get her cookie in 16 seconds.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 105"

You hear it all the time: "But he’s got a really great personality!" While it may not be the deciding factor in blind dates, it actually is what separates the good dogs from the great, and it was also the theme of this week’s challenges.

But before the challenges could even begin, we got to see more of Brandy’s personality as she pouted and whined through a jealous snit over Travis and Laura’s cooking dinner together. Even the dogs were embarrassed for her, and they walk around naked and lick their own butts.

The differences in how the people care for their dogs also said something about their personalities. Bella Starlet gets a special bowl of food with measured doses of nutrients and vitamins, powders and droplets of this and that added. Tillman eats kibble and likes it.



So the Dog Bone Suite contest had the dog’s people proving how well they knew their companions by saying if the dog would “take” (eat, lick or retrieve) and item, or “leave" it.

Continue reading "Recap: Greatest American Dog, Episode 104"