Canada’s Fairmont Hotels now have a ‘fleet’of dogs that can be booked online and taken for walks. So if it’s bad enough that you had to leave your dog behind, but you still like to go for a walk and talk with a dog, you can now hire a hound at selected Fairmont Hotels in Canada.
I couldn’t find any mention of it on their site at www.fairmont.com, so you’ll have to contact them for details.
According to the Sun-Herald newspaper, this is available at Fairmont Chateau Ftontenac, Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver.
They tend to be labradors or retrievers so far.
I just heard about the Barking Mad website at http://barking-mad.com.au/index.php.
It’s run by Eedra Zey from the Central Coast, and is an organisation designed to promote responsible dog ownership (please pick up your poo!), and be a voice to gain rights for companion animals on transport, beaches and more.
There’s a cool newsletter (the first was January 2007), and some intriguing interaction with Warringah Council, when she took her dog for a picnic at Long Reef beach. Apparently there are no surf beaches in Sydney where a dog is permitted, most unusual in Australia. So we’re quite lucky in Mosman having access to the non-surf beaches at Spit Reserve and Sirius Cove (according to the Mosman Council website at http://www.mosman.nsw.gov.au/mosman/recreation/dogs
Congratulations to the Kirkland Washington office of Google for their first ever Dog Day, where workers could bring in their dogs to work.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/dog-day-at-kirkland.html describes the day these lucky dogs had – massage, acupressure, grooming, a dog whisperer, training, awards and a goody bag.
They probably didn’t need to call participants Dooglers though.
Filed under: Dog News
Lance Cove council has just announced that it plans to raise the fee for personal trainers and dog walkers in its parks and ovals o $22 an hour. This is almost twice the current $13 and hour they said they would charge this year – although they didn’t end up collecting any money at all – so this year they plan to use council rangers to enforce it.
Apparently it’s all about principles – they currently tax non-profit sporting organisations for use of ovals, so they should charge all commercial operations a fee.
I can’t say I’m annoyed about the personal trainers – they’re noisy, take up lots of room, and damage benches with their constant use of them as foot rests and exercise benches.
It would be hard to police dog walkers though – how can you tell the difference between a commercial dog walker and a good owner?
Finally, my two new dog sites are ready. They’ve been months in the planning, while I built or modified software, learnt new languages, and designed all the features.
MyDogSpace gives you a free dog blog and web page for your dog (a dog space), with lots more features if you upgrade, such as forums, events, groups and more.
MyDogSite is an information site targetted solely at Australians, with an advanced dog search function that lets you search by breed, state, region, suburb, business name, as well as smaller fields like ‘PIAA member’ or ‘Dog Beach nearby’ or ‘Dog Sitter who puts out the garbage’.
There’s not a lot of data in them yet, but it’s time to let the visitors start coming, and tell me if all my hard work was worth it.
The print copy of http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/terrier-voted-crufts-top-dog–no-bull/2007/03/12/1173548109968.html had a beautiful picture of Luci, a Yorkshire Terrier, although she wasn’t actually the winner. The winner was Araki Fabulous Willy, a Tibetan Terrier, from Gloucertershire, who did scrub up pretty well for a boy.
Filed under: Dog News
I try to keep articles and magazines about dogs, so I can go through them later, and see if there is anything worth adding to one of my sites.
One was a mini mag called “Your Pets” from Purina, that looked like it came as an insert in a paper or magazine. I dug it up today, and while it’s dated Summer 06/07, already some information was out-of-date.
The dog blog section mentioned CelebrityDogBlog.com, that was empty and up for sale when I checked today. MalcolmTurnbulls dogblog was a little unexciting, although useful for people with dogs in his electorate. The cutest dog blog I found was one featured at http://www.dogswithblogs.com.au/, which although an Australian site, featured http://www.bailymypuppy.blogspot.com/ from Canada. But the little terrier did look cute in her trendy sunglasses.
So I think there’s definitely room for an active dog community site in Australia. If I’m lucky, it’ll be ready in the next week or two.
While I build the dog search functions for www.mydogsite.com.au, I’d love to know if people think it’s worthwhile building a search for dog-friendly cafes? In particular ones that serve puppacinos. What do you think?
Filed under: Dog News
RSPCA Awareness Week takes place each year from 1-8 October. These dates were chosen to include World Animal Day on 4th October and World Farm Animals Day on 2nd October.
RSPCA Awareness Week is a time to celebrate animals, and raise awareness of the many functions performed by the RSPCA, including preventing and fighting animal cruelty, education, animal rehabilitation and animal rescue.
Visit the site to see how you can help, and contact your local shelter to see what events are scheduled.
Filed under: Dog News
An interesting article in the SMH about Barney the termite-detecting beagle.
Sydney’s Best Pest Control uses Barney as a last check for termites, after the standard detections have been performed. To guarantee that Barney always gets his reward, his owner always brings a jar of live termites to detect, even if the house had none.
So Barney always performs, always finds the termites, and always gets his reward. A good training and reinforcing technique.
A competitor pans the technique, however admits it could be useful if standard techniques cannot find out how and where the termites are getting in. The use of a dog is more of a comfort and reassurance, as ever.
Another article about how pampered life can be for dogs at the top end of town.
Madison magazine has a five page article with pictures on the luxuries lavished upon dogs by some ladies around town.
I'm sure most people in Sydney would be familiar with the shops Dogue (in Woollahra) and Pets in the City (in Neutral Bay), catering for extreme luxuries for dogs. Although four-poster beds, tuxedos, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Gucci products would be fun to see.
This is supposed to be about news for dogs in Australia, but it is fun to read about stuff in the US, where you can now fly with your dog in the seat next to you, courtesy of Companion Air, or get him/her pampered at the latest health spa, or colour his air to cover the graying of age.
It was surprising and heart-warming to hear that in Sydney, St Mary's Catholic Church in Erskineville can hold blessing ceremonies for the pets of their parishioners.
