Dog poop is one of those things that raises everyone’s ire. It stinks, it’s a health risk and it’s plain unpleasant.

Pick up poop. A home-made sign in Wellington, New Zealand.

I found this article astonishing. It seems that one or more dog owners in a luxury condo building in Baltimore, USA, not only allow their dogs to poop inside the building, but they don’t clean up afterwards.

Some are suggesting DNA tests to help deal with the issue:

Under the proposal, every dog at Scarlett Place and guest dogs would be swabbed for a DNA sample — owners would then have to pay $50 each to cover the test and supplies. Dog owners would also pay an extra $10 per month per dog to cover the cost of having the building’s staff scoop poop and send it to a lab. Feces, like saliva, contains tell-tale DNA.

If the lab identifies your dog as the pooper, that’s a $500 fine. …

Dog excrement has been found in the elevators, in the long, carpeted hallways, in the common areas.

[Via Doggone DNA - baltimoresun.com.]

That sounded like a great idea, at first, but the article went on to point out some drawbacks to the plan. One suggestion was that a dog owner could be ‘framed’ by someone with a grudge.

I guess I’m most shocked at the idea that some dog owners are so cavalier as to just not pick up after their pet inside the building. We already know people don’t bother outdoors.

Amazing. And time those dog owners became a bit more responsible.

What a great idea! In Japan there are public displays of what guide dogs, hearing dogs and assistance dogs can do. For a country with 127 million people, it doesn’t have many such dogs. Building public awareness should help everyone.

Guide Dog in Harness.

Apart from Japan’s 51 service dogs, it has 19 hearing dogs who can help deaf or hearing impaired people by alerting their handler to important sounds such as doorbells, smoke alarms, ringing telephones or alarm clocks. They may also work outside the home, alerting to sounds such as sirens, cars and a person calling the handler’s name.

Japan also has 1,045 guide dogs …

“In Japan, there are special associations for the three types of dogs and they will hold 200 to 300 promotional activities a year in public places, … to help people better understand the animals and their works.

“They also provide brochures about assistance dogs or channel information through the Internet,” he added.

[Via Dogs with a care factor.]

For more information about service dogs in Japan see:

• Japan Guide Dog Association
• Japan
  Hearing Dogs For Deaf People

In Wellington, New Zealand brunch is a popular activity. We even have quite a few cafes where we can sit outside.

Dog at brunch.

Here dogs aren’t allowed inside shops or cafes, but it’s not too uncommon to see people at an outside table with a dog nearby.

In fact, when the Chocolate Fish cafe was round in Scorching Bay they provided bowls of water and even the occasional biscuit for client dogs.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports a law change in New South Wales to allow dogs to sit with their owners at outdoor cafes:

DOG owners say that new laws to allow allow canine companions in cafes and restaurants are a ”victory for commonsense”.

The [New South Wales] Government has introduced amendments to laws … Business owners will have the discretion to allow dogs in outdoor dining areas, but pets will still be banned from indoors and food preparation areas.… But any pooches panting for a puppychino will be disappointed — the laws state dogs cannot be provided with food, must be kept on a leash and can’t sit on tables and chairs.

[Via Dogs now welcome to join cafe society.]

I hope they’re allowed a bowl of water, even if they can’t have a biscuit!

If you’re in New South Wales take a look at the Dogs NSW website.

Guide dogs bring new freedoms to visually impaired people in many Western countries, but it’s not so easy in China:

Despite the convenience guide dogs bring to the blind, there is no regulations in China at present that guarantee a legal identity to the dogs.

Guide Dog in Harness.

Currently, ownership of big dogs like Golden Retriever and Labrador Retriever in Beijing is restricted, and big dogs are barred from public places. Since guide dogs are a new phenomenon in the country, they are not an exception under the law.

Ping said that her dog Lucky, a 1.4-meter-long Golden Retriever, was barred from public places quite a few times. …

The current laws and regulations concerning guide dogs in China are ambiguous. According to Article 58 of the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, blind owners shall observe the relevant provisions of the country when entering a public place. But it does not name the exact provisions to follow. In practice, the guide dogs do not have a legal identity card and the blind owners need to ask for permission every time they appear in public.

[Via Global Times - Blind faith.]

Guide dogs are new in China — in 2010 there are about 15 graduated pairs of blind people and guide dogs in the whole of China. It could be a long while before people become accustomed to the dogs.

At Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, USA, dogs have a very important job: greeting visitors and patients as they arrive —

There are around five therapy dog greeters at Memorial, and most afternoons one of them is on duty.

Renee Langdon volunteers at the hospital with her therapy dog partner, Drew, a 150-pound St. Bernard.

Drew greets a visitor.

Drew, 3 years old, is a Delta Society-certified therapy dog, and has been socialized for this role since he was 5 months old, Langdon explained.

When guests of the hospital see Drew, their faces light up. Langdon greets each guest, asking them if they would like to pet Drew. Even guests who have walked by will come back to pet the dog.

“Drew has a very calming effect for people. You forget you’re in a hospital and you feel better about yourself,” Langdon said.

Dogs — and all pets in general — have been found to lower blood pressure, Langdon said.

[Via South Bend Tribune: Hospitality has a new face.]

I was interested to read that even people who fear dogs find a dog at the entrance way a talking point, as they share their fears.

What a great idea! Good on you, Memorial Hospital.

Dogs are widely used in all kinds of search and rescue activities, including finding people under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

One research team is looking for ways to enhance what dogs can offer, by fitting them with Canine Augmentation Technology (CAT) — cameras, video, wifi and other tech:

The primary goal of the project is to improve the performance of trained Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) dogs in finding and facilitating the rescue of live people who are trapped in the rubble of buildings that suffer a structural Collapse. Our goal is to create assistive technology so that others might live.

… At the moment, the project consists of 5 separate subcomponents that are based on the theme of finding trapped people faster in order to save lives.

We all know the image of the Saint Bernard dog delivering a small barrel of brandy to those trapped in the snow. How much more useful it would be if rescue dogs could deliver food, medicine, water and communications:

The Canine Remote Deployment System (CRDS) is a remotely operated release mechanism worn by the dog and triggered by the handler using a wireless handset. When the handler hears the bark indication of the dog, they can release a bag (called the “underdog”) that can contain medical supplies, a radio, food, water or other sensors very close to where the trapped person is located. The technology has been awarded a provisional U.S. Patent.

The team are working on 5 areas:

1. Canine Augmentation Technology (CAT)
2. Canine Remote Deployment System (CRDS)
3. Canine Pose (CP) (sensors indicate what the dog’s doing)
4. Canine Work Apparel (CWA)
5. Canine Brain Function (CBF)

Let’s hope they gain enough funding to continue this important work.

Imagine a dog in a special jacket that carries a video camera and tiny screen, and a basic keyboard built into the fabric. After a disaster that dog could allow people to record short messages for friends and family members currently separated from their loved ones.

Disaster dog in special jacket.

That what’s a couple of students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) are working on with their Messenger Dog project:

In those very first hours of fear and displacement, people may just want to send a message to their beloved ones only saying that they are alive and safe, hoping the same for them as well.

Messanger Dogs can help in recording those messages as video message and delivering them to the refugee camp they are assigned to.

Messanger Dogs wear a particular uniform to identify them, equipped with a device that can record messages, store geolocation of where each message was taken and the time as well. Messanger dogs are trained to sit when in front of a person, so as soon as one of them meets a person, it sits, allowing the accelerometer inside the recording device to trigger the interface software to start.

… At the end of their work, they can come back to the camp, where volunteers will download the video and make them available to the people to browse among and watch.

The video explains more.

Messenger Dog from laura boffi on Vimeo.

I would think this could be easily modified so the dog could also carry a standard recorded message informing people about where to turn for help or of survival measures they should take.

This is an interesting idea. I hope the students explore it further.

Buddy the German Shepherd near Anchorage, Alaska, ran to get help when a fire started. For his services he’s to be presented with a special award:

Troopers say Buddy and his owner, 23-year-old Ben Heinrichs, were in the family workshop when a heater ignited chemicals. Heinrichs told Buddy: ‘We need to get help.’

The dog eventually found a trooper responding to a call about the fire.

The State Troopers are presenting a special award Friday to the dog. Buddy will receive an engraved silver-plated dog bowl in Anchorage.

[Via Dog Leads Alaska State Trooper To Fire.]

There are those who do their best to exclude dogs from city centres. In downtown St. Louis though dogs are being welcomed back as an element of revival:

The role of dogs in transforming downtown into a community cannot be underestimated, said loft resident Sarah Hunt, owner of Roxie, an 8-month-old beagle-pug mix.

“The idea is get people out of their apartments, because when you get people out of their apartments, things happen,” said Hunt, a second-year St. Louis University law student.

Not so long ago, residents found much about the neighborhood beyond their doors unappealing, noted Howard Wynder, a Washington University researcher, president of Lucas Park Beautification, owner of Layla, an 120-pound “small” Great Dane and, in the words of Triplett, a “downtown pioneer.”

Wynder calls the addition of the dog run (which replaces a smaller, temporary space for canines on the east side of the park) part of a larger initiative to make all of downtown more inhabitable for residents who live in homes and those who don’t.

[Via : Going to the dogs viewed as big step toward downtown revival - STLtoday.com.]

Dogs are always a talking point. Even strangers who don’t stop to pat a dog out for a walk often smile as they go past. Dogs are likely to brighten a day, get people chatting and bring a smile to the weary.

In this blog we like to celebrate working dogs — those who sniff out drugs, explosives or bodies, guard, guide or help people, draw loads, and retrieve objects. But some of those working dogs are taken into war.

Landmine Clearing Efforts of the UN Mine Action Centre

It’s amazing any of them cope with the experience, but some develop stress disorders, like Gunner:

Out of the 58 bomb-sniffing dogs the [US] Marines have in Afghanistan, only one — a brown-eyed, floppy-eared yellow Lab named Gunner — is suffering from such severe canine post-traumatic stress disorder that he had to sit out the ongoing offensive …

[Gunner] reacted so nervously to the rattle of gunfire and deep boom of artillery commonplace around military outposts that he never even got a chance to test his mettle on a real patrol. …

Gunner was sent to the main kennel at Camp Leatherneck, a rear base. There, bomb dogs recuperate from illness or injury …

For weeks after he arrived at Camp Leatherneck, Gunner refused to leave the kennel compound. Even now almost any sound sends him into a panic.

[Via : Even His Red Squeak Toy Can't Get First Sgt. Gunner, USMC, to Fight - WSJ.com.]

It’s very sobering, and I feel sorry for both Gunner and all other dogs taken into danger.

Photo by United Nations: Landmine Clearing Efforts of the UN Mine Action Centre.