Groom of the Week!!

Roscoe M.

Hello, my name is Roscoe and I am a 10 year old Springer although the way I act you would think I was 1 yr old!! I absolutely love coming to Best Friends! I always do the Play N Stay where I make a ton of new friends for a minimum of 4 hours a day. After my playtime with my friends I get to eat dinner, snuggle up on my wooly and pass out!! I’m normally asleep right after dinner! On the day I go home I always get the “Go Home Fresh Bath”. And today I’m even getting a haircut! I know my parents will be excited to see my new haircut as am I to show it off!! Hats off to Claire!

Pets of the Week!!!

Libby & Jessie M.

Hello! Our names are Libby and Jessie, short for Liberty and Justice! I(Libby) am a 6 1/2 yr old Golden Retriever and my lil' sis is a 1 1/2 yr old black German Shepard. This is our first time at Best Friends and we were honestly a little nervous when we first came in, but the staff put us at ease very quick! They took us straight to the DDC room where we started our vacation with the Play N Stay package! Thats where we are able to play with furry friends and human ones too and also spend the night for one low price! We are absolutely loving making new friends everyday! Tell your moms and dads that you need a vacation too!!

Camper Of The Month!!!

Patrick B.

Hey, how are you? I'm Patrick! I'm a yr and half old bulldog mix. I've been coming to Best Friends for as long as I can remember! I started out here doing their Puppy Kindergarten when I was 4 months old and then I started doggie day camp when I was 5 months old. Wow-sers! It's the best!! My favorite things include, but not limited to; The Kong(best toy EVER!), the pool, yea definently the pool, Sherri(my camp counsler), oooh oooh and cookies! Cant forget those!!



I have made SOOO many new friends that I can't even count them on my paws anymore! So how about it, you wanna be my friend and join me in Doggie Day Camp? And thank you mom and dad for taking me to school!!

Pumkin cookies and dog icing for cakes and cookies

Guess what's just around the corner? I know....with the summer heat still hanging on it's hard to imagine it, but it is just around the corner. FALL I mean. And with fall comes apple picking and pumkin fields. Here's a good dog friendly way to use some of that pumpkin too! And Rover will LOVE you more for it!

PUMPKIN COOKIES AND DOG ICING
PUMPKIN COOKIES




INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons dry milk

1 cup white flour

1/3 cup corn meal

1/2 cup oats

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup water + 1 tablespoon water

Directions

Place all the ingredients in your bread machine and set the machine for the dough cycle.

When the dough is finished, remove it and roll it into sheets that are 1/4" thick.

Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes and place it on a lightly greased cookie sheet or an ungreased pastry mat.

Let the cookies rise for about an hour.

Bake the dog cookies for an hour at 275-300 degrees F.

Turn off the oven, and let the dog cookies continue to dry overnight in the oven. When they are completely done, they will be hard, dry and crisp. The dog treats will be hard for you to break in your hands--and better for your dog's teeth and gums.

You can store these dog cookies for a month or so at room temperature.

If you would like to give the dog treats as a gift, serve them at a dog party or use them as a festive treat, you can decorate them with dog treat icing and sprinkles.

Your stars will be easier to decorate if you use a larger star cookie cutter to make bigger stars. You can always break them in half for a smaller dog.

Make sure you keep some pumpkin cookies on hand for the holidays.

You'll want to have some for Halloween, for Thanksgiving and for the Christmas holidays.

Dog icing for cakes and cookies

You can spread yogurt, cream cheese or cottage cheese on a cake. You may wish to puree cottage cheese for a finer consistency. Melted carob can be drizzled on many cakes for dogs.

Mashed bananas works well in dog cake recipes like this one:

Banana & Mock-Choc Frosting:

• 2 cup mashed banana

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 6 tablespoon powdered carob (NEVER EVER USE REAL CHOCOLATE IN YOUR DOG TREATS!)

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 3 tablespoon unbleached flour

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Blend thoroughly and spread on cooled cake.

Cinnamon and vanilla are fine to use as flavorings in dog cake recipes. Bananas make great treats for dogs. Especially frozen bananas on a hot summer day.

It’s up to you how you want to use the frosting and icing. You may want to spread it on thinly or, in the case of bananas, you could use them for decoration and places slices around the top of the cake. You could place a layer of cream cheese on the cake and lay banana slices on top. And so on. It’s fine to be as creative as you like when working with dog cake recipes as long as you are using ingredients that are healthy for dogs.

Birthday cakes for dogs always benefit from these frostings and icings, especially if you wish to enhance them a little with some safe food coloring. There’s no reason why all of your dog cakes have to be white or natural-colored. You can add some food coloring and make cakes for dogs that are bright and bold.

Remember that, as with human cakes, frosting for dog cakes (including dog birthday cakes) sometimes handles better when it has been allowed to cool in the refrigerator for a while. It shouldn’t be either too warm or too cold when you’re trying to put it on the cake. If you’re baking the cake then the cake should be thoroughly cooled before you attempt to do any decorating. Put the decorated cake bake in the fridge to let it “set” before you serve it. You may be making birthday cakes for dogs for a group of wild puppies but you still want it to look nice.

That’s really all there is to it. Frosting and icing are an important part of making cakes for dogs into something really special for your dog. They are, literally, the icing on the cake. Your dog will love them.

Canine lifeguards doggie paddle to the rescue

Hundreds of specially trained dogs form Italy's corps of canine lifeguards, deployed each summer to help swimmers who get into trouble in the nation's popular seas. Unlike their human counterparts, these lifedogs can easily jump from helicopters and speeding boats to reach swimmers in need of a rescue. With millions flocking to Italy's crowded beaches each summer, the Italian Coast Guard says it rescues about 3,000 people every year _ and their canine helpers are credited with saving several lives.

They leap from helicopters or speeding boats, bringing aid to swimmers who get into trouble off Italy's popular beaches.

For these canine lifeguards, the doggie paddle does just fine.

Hundreds of specially trained dogs from Italy's corps of canine lifeguards are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue.

These "lifedogs" wear a harness or tow a buoy that victims can grab, or a raft they can sit on to be towed back to shore, and unlike their human counterparts, they can easily jump from helicopters and speeding boats to reach swimmers in trouble.

It takes three years for the canines to reach expert rescue status, and currently 300 dogs are fully trained for duty, said Roberto Gasbarri, who coordinates the Italian School of Canine Lifeguards program at a center outside of Rome in the seaside town of Civitavecchia.

"Dogs are useful in containing the physical fatigue of the lifeguard, to increase the speed at which casualties are retrieved, to increase the security of both the casualty and of the lifeguard," Gasbarri said.

"The dog becomes a sort of intelligent lifebuoy. It is a buoy that goes by itself to a person in need of help, and comes back to the shore also by himself, choosing the best landing point and swimming through the safest currents," he said.

The Civitavecchia center is one of a dozen around the country for the school founded more than 20 years ago in the northern province of Bergamo by Ferruccio Pilenga, whose first trainee was his own Newfoundland.

The school will train any breed, as long as they weigh at least 30 kilograms (66 pounds), but Labradors, Newfoundlands and golden retrievers are most commonly used because of their natural instinct for swimming. Each dog works in tandem with a human lifeguard, who also acts as the animal's trainer.

"Being retrievers, they set out to pick up anything we tell them, be it a human being, an object, or a fish, and they bring it back to the shore," said lifeguard Monia Luciani. "They do not associate it with a physical activity, but it is rather a game for them."

Our thanks to the Associated Press for this story.

Camper of the Month

JOEY F.

Hello, I'm Joey. I am a 1 year old Border Collie Mix. I have been attending Doggie Day Camp for 5 months now. But I'm no newbie!!! In fact I am one of the ring leaders in camp!!

You see in DDC we all develop a very tight friendship and our friendship is un-breakable(not even for cookies! We share!)! We may play rough and sound funny at times, but you know thats when we are having the best time!! Pools, Kongs, Nylabones, Lovins and great friends.

What else could a happy dog want?

Camper of the Month!

Gracie B.

Hello, my name is Gracie and I am a 6 yr old Golden. I am one of the "golden girls" here at Doggie Day Camp. I have been attending camp for 3 years now. I love coming to Best Friends to play with all my furry and human friends! I love to play in the pool in the summer and play in the snow in the winter. As you can see, we have some crazy fun parties at DDC!! We almost always get dressed up and have our pictures taken and sent home with our mommies and daddies!! So if you feel like coming to some fun furry parties, join camp! Did I also mention Best Friends has web cams so parents can check on us through-out the day!! Hopefully I see you at camp soon!! I'll show you who's a sucker for puppy eyes so you can get extra cookies!!!

 

Spring Break Hoo-Rah!!

Spring Break is nearly come and gone for 2010. I am happy to report our Best Friends facility ran with a pretty full house. Is it a sign the economy is improving or just that every one needed a break from reality for a while? Either way, we hustled and bustled our way through a very busy couple of weeks. In just a few more days it will all be a happy memory. We had big, little, hairy and the not so hairy, with a mix of everything in between. We even had several of the feline variety! Between our daily routine of caring for them we were kept hopping with a variety of play time activities. We like to keep your pets happy and *smiling* when they stay with us and the more playtimes they get to enjoy the happier they are. Keeps us all smiling too as we enjoy taking them out to play as well. We also got lots of pictures of your pets during their playtimes. I hope you all received and enjoyed them! Some are easier to get pictures of then others (hey just like us some are camera shy! They know it all adds 10 pounds too!) but we do our best to get their sniffing schnoozes off the ground. Sometimes though that tracking DNA in some of our guests is just too hard to concur.

Many of our Spring Breakers went home with our *go home fresh bath* as well. Don't forget we do have the full service grooming salon so they can go home smelling and looking their best. Not only does this waive the noon pick up time but it also waives your boarding fee for the day. All you pay for is their grooming services (Sunday's excluded, which is a full day charge reguardless). Besides the bath, dry, and brush out they also get their nails trimmed and their ears cleaned. We have a host of other items you can add to their grooming list if you would like. Just ask one of our lovely CSR's for the options when you check in!

If you have an unruly friend or just one that needs a little touching up please keep in mind we also have our Board and Train option available. Board your pet with us and our trainer Kristi will work with them while they stay. This Spring Break we had 8 guests who took advantage of this program. We worked on everything from heeling on leash to the LEAVE IT command to OFF, and working on one young boy who had some pretty severe fear aggression going on the first few days. In the beginning no one else was allowed to handle him, by the time he went home he loved everyone!  

Now that we are about to bid adieu to Sping Break we are getting ready for Memorial Weekend. We expect this to be another full house weekend so don't wait to long to make your reservations. We want to be sure we have space to accomodate all of you. Call and reserve early and don't forget to tell your friends about us if they have vacation plans as well. We have the *first night free policy* for all of our first time guests.

Pet of the week

Hi, I’m Rosie and I’ve been chosen as the pet of the week!

It’s kind of like winning an Oscar, or an Emmy or something. I have so many good qualifications to win such an award. I’m a good friend to all I meet, (the one on the left is my friend Gerdi ) I’m obedient, (well, at least I’m working on it during my stay this week at Best Friends!) And…I’m extremely smart, lovable and of course, modest.

 My major concern right now is: Which outfit should I wear to my  acceptance speech?  I know I will be photographed on the red carpet camp; I want to look my best!

Winter Safety and a quick check list

In our final chapter of the Winter Pet Safety series, we're going to talk about common poisons found during the winter months and give you a brief reminder list of safety for your pet. The staff here at Best Friends hope you have found the information provided in our series to be informative and helpful. Have a safe and happy winter with your fur friends!

Let's start with poisons.......never a pleasant thought but necessary to be aware for the safety of your pets. Many traditions can pose a risk to them.


HOLIDAY FOODS:
Various holiday foods are toxic to your pets, including chocolate, alcohol, macadamia nuts, grapes, raisins and onions. Even the fatty meats and table scraps can cause pancreatitis in dogs. Sharp bones from the holiday turkey and other meats can perforate the intestines. Even if they beg don't give them the bones! If you are having a party where alcohol or any of these foods listed are being served, please think about keeping your pet in a back room or in a crate.

HOLIDAY PLANTS
Common winter plants such as Mistletoe and Holly berries are dangerous if ingested and can lead to gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems. Lilies are deadly to cats. Poinsettia leaves/stems, balsam/pine/cedar; angel hair (spun glass);
Christmas tree preservatives (don't let your pet drink the Christmas tree water!); snow sprays/snow flock; tree ornaments; super glue; Styrofoam; icicles (tinsel) and crayons/paint.

Quick Check list of Safety

1) Keep all pets away from Anti-freeze
2) Do not leave your pets outside unattended when the temperature gets below freezing. They are susceptible to hypothermia and frostbite, even death.
3) Short coated dogs should not go outside without a coat or a sweater in very cold weather, except to quickly relieve themselves. Small dogs with short coats are especially vulnerable to the cold.
4) Dogs with fur on the bottoms of their pads often develop ice balls between the pads and toes. To prevent this from hhappening, trim the hair around the feet and toes and apply a small amount of Vaseline, cooking oil, or PAM spray to your dog's feet before heading out. This will prevent the snow from sticking to their feet. (make sure you use edible oil as most dogs will lick their feet afterwards.
5) If your pet walks on salted sidewalks or streets be sure to wash their paws after exposure. Salt is very irritating to footpads and can make them very ill if they lick their feet afterwards.
6) Honk your car horn or bang on the hood of the car before starting it as many times cats or other animals will seek warmth from the engine or under the vehicle.
7) Various holiday foods and plants are toxic to your pets so keep them out of their reach.

If you find you need a place for your pet to play during the day to burn off some of that winter boredom please don't forget our fabulous Doggie DayCamp.

If you have training needs, come speak to our trainer, we have a rotation of classes going on through out the week.

And if your pets coat becomes matted or wet and smelly from too much winter play please come visit our groomers. Just call and make a reservation for any of the above. Our staff here at Best Friends are always happy and willing to please!

You can find out more about toxic plants at the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Website at http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc
The ASPCA has a 24 hour hotline to deal with pet poisoning cases. A fee per incident (with unlimited follow ups) may apply. They can be reached at (888_ 426-4435.


Contributing to this article:
Kyle Raun; University of Minnesota, Veterinary Medicine
University Commons; Naperville Illinois
Partners for Animal Welfare

Service Dog Training Class

We've started a new class for our advanced training dogs *in need* at our Indianapolis location. That is, if the owner has a legitimate need and has had their dog in obedience for an extended period of time, (taking them as far as they can), we offer a Service Dog Training class. Right now we have three dogs in this class.

1) Lugnut, a one year old Golden Retriever. He belongs to my son and has been in training since he was 8 weeks old. I am taking him through the class as I work with the other dogs, and their owners. He will eventually be certified as an assistance dog.

2) Sophie, who belongs to Shawn Roberson, our center manager. She is taking this class with Sophie with the intention of getting her certified as an assistance/alert dog.

3) Sophie and Anita Dudley. She is a 1 year old Goldendoodle who has been in our training classes for one year as well. Her owner does have the physical need of an assistance dog. Rather then being placed on a long waiting list for a trained and certified dog, they have committed to Sophie's training themselves.

In taking this class you have to understand first and foremost that not all dogs will be able to be certified. You could spend a year or more in training them for obedience, then just as long in training for the Service Dog test, only to find along the way that they will never be able to qualify because of one particular quirk or another. What each person may end up with is a very well trained and loving family pet. Given that, if they are willing to take the chance, I am willing to work with them.The class has been on going now for 6 weeks and we are at the point of working in stores and malls. There are certain things that they all need to be able to *pass* for this first class. The only way to reach that point with them is to work, work, WORK! All three have their *Service Dog in Training* vests and patches and are now allowed to go any place a human can go. Our eventual *test* at the end of this class will be dinner at a restaurant. No, they won't be certified at this point. They will merely have passed their first class. Keep in mind I said this will be a year or more undertaking in training.Each has picked three *service* chores to train with their pets; for assistance. All are learning to pick up dropped objects and return them to the owners.







Sophie (Roberson) is learning retriever dropped objects, and to turn on and off lights, using a touch base lamp so that she can turn on lights as they enter their home or turn them off just before exiting. She will also be learning to alert her owner to ringing phones, doorbells, smoke alarms etc.

Sophie (Dudley) is also learning to retriever objects, and she is learning to BRACE for her owner so that he may use her body to help lever himself to a standing position from a sitting position. This Sophie is also learning to *pull* her owner slowly up an incline and will eventually be able to use that training to pull a wheelchair, should he progress to that.

Lugnut has already learned to retrieve objects that have been dropped, or that are needed by me. (his biggest issue with that at this point is that he is now *stealing* things left sitting around and bringing them to me so that he can be *rewarded* for *finding* them!) He has learned to BRACE to assist someone in standing up, and he is learning to open handicapped access doors by touching the pads to open those doors with his foot. Lugnut is also in the process of learning to help me off with my shirts, a robe or a coat.

Watch for us in area malls and stores or restaurants. Just please remember, when their vests are on they are in training and can not be petted at that time.