http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/167437/dogs_kidnapped_at_gunpoint_recovered.html
A videotape from a home surveillance system was key in solving the case of the Yorkshire Terriers stolen at gunpoint. Four purebred puppies and an adult pet were stolen by intruders who held the owners at gunpoint while catching the dogs and putting them in a plastic bag. The videotape of the crime was played on multiple television stations, leading to tips that cracked the Los Angeles case.
Four of the five purebred Yorkshire Terriers, that had been stolen at gunpoint more than a week ago have been returned. The fifth dog has not been recovered yet. The suspect turned himself in to police.
The dogs had been stolen at gunpoint during a home invasion. Three puppies, valued at $2,500 each, along with a full grown family pet, were recovered and returned to their owners at the Wilshire Division police station on Saturday night. One puppy remained missing, according to police, as reported by Fox News.
Family members hugged their puppies and left the police station with the dogs in their arms.
Yorkshire Terriers are small dogs with long hair. The breed is one of the most popular AKC breeds in America.
Fox News reported that Detective Luis Corona said that the dogs were recovered after Ryan Belton, 19, of Los Angeles, surrendered to police Friday night.. Ryan Belton was booked for investigation of residential robbery.
The gunpoint dog napping had been captured on a home surveillance system, that taped the incident. The videotape of the robbery was shown on news media. The videotape of the robbery that aired on local television resulted in many tips being called into police. As a result of these tips, police went to the home of Belton's father, Detective Corona said. "When the son came home, he confronted the son and that led to the son being brought in to the station to turn himself in."
A second man was being sought.
The puppies had been advertised for sale in a newspaper. Two men posing as buyers made an appointment to see them on February 23. When a female family member opened the door, one of the men pulled a hand gun. The men ordered the family of four to lie on the floor in the living room. A home surveillance camera recorded the robbery scene as on man held a gun and the other man chased after the puppies with a plastic bag as they scampered around the room. He snatched one of the dogs from a woman's hands.
After grabbing the four puppies and the family dog and stuffing them in the plastic bag, the man and his partner fled in a silver car, according to police.
By: DogLover | Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at 8:30 AM | | 
The National Geographic Channel's "Dog Whisperer" series, now em"bark"ing on its third season and starring Cesar Milan, is looking for neurotic Huskies, frantic Havanese, Skittish bulldogs, silly Samoyeds and other problem pups with their owners to appear on the show.
The nationwide open call and search will stop in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami.
To submit your four legged Barky McBarksalot, send in a 5-7 minute video of you and your dog documenting at least three instances of the dog's bad habits, along with your age and occupation, dog's name, age and breed. Explain your dog's problem, how they affect your life as well as why you love your dog. For more information - check out
http://dogpsychologycenter.com/submissions.php
By: DogLover | Monday, March 5, 2007 at 9:55 AM | |
Wiki the epitome of free information. I was bored this morning and I went online to look for information about dogs on wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DogsInteresting Facts:
"Among dog lovers, dogs are generally valued for their intelligence, and both anecdotal evidence and scientific research suggest that dogs have a reasonably high intelligence. This intelligence is expressed differently with different breeds and individuals"
"Dogs have nearly 220 million smell-sensitive cells over an area about the size of a pocket handkerchief (compared to 5 million over an area the size of a postage stamp for humans). Some breeds have been selectively bred for excellence in detecting scents, even compared to their canine brethren."
"The acute danger from grapes and raisins has been uncovered only since about 2000, and made public slowly since then. At present the cause is not known. Whatever the reason, since only small quantities are necessary to induce acute renal failure, dogs should not be fed grapes or raisins, and sultanas and currants should likely be withheld as well."
By: DogLover | Friday, March 2, 2007 at 9:22 AM | |
http://imdb.com/title/tt0417001/As far as movies go, you "must love dogs" to like this one. The story is totally predictable, the dialogue is banal, the direction is wooden and the pace can be charitably described as glacial. The movie is like that battery rabbit-"It just keeps going and going and going".
Yes, it's a 'chick flick', but that doesn't explain why this one just lays there. Yes, we have the requisite gorgeous and intelligent female protagonist who inexplicably thinks she can't enter into a relationship. We have the sensitive "diamond in the rough" man who doesn't yet realize that he is damn near perfect. We have the standard misadventures until they realize they are Meant To Be Together. So what's wrong?
I wouldn't have believed it possible, but someone has actually made Diane Lane uninteresting. You really don't care about her, and it's hard to tell if she cares about the men in her life because she really cares or because she thinks she should care. She eventually meets two men who seem great and there are a few humorous incidents, including the "search for condoms", but mostly it just excruciatingly drags along.
One problem they write themselves into is that the guy who is a "rival" to John Cusack (whose character also has no charisma) is such a great guy. The only way the writers know how to handle this is to have him turn out to be an ass. Problem is, this is totally out of character relative to how he's been in the entire rest of the movie. Diane Lane then has no choice (after the standard epiphany of self awareness) but to fly to the man who basically is second choice. In other words, "We belong together because who I'd rather be with is a bum and I choose you by process of elimination".
The real flaw is here is that none of the characters have any depth or are particularly interesting. "Chick flicks" can be well done and fun, just go back about 10 years and ask Meg Ryan or Sandra Bullock. They aren't though, when everyone walks through "Chick Flick by the Numbers", which is what we have here. Come to think of it, that would have been a better title for the movie.
By: DogLover | Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 8:50 AM | |
VOLUNTEERS: 40-pound bags packed with yummy treats loaded into planes for trip north.
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Published: February 17, 2007
Last Modified: February 25, 2007 at 11:23 AM
Stan Hecker hoisted a 40-pound bag of dog food up on one shoulder and lumbered off to a pallet where he deposited it for shipment to one of the checkpoints along the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail.
For Hecker, a 57-year-old retired labor relations practitioner from East Lansing, Mich., making the trek to Alaska for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has become a decade-long tradition.
Hecker was one of about 30 volunteers who assembled at a loading dock Wednesday close to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport for the dog food drops -- a sure sign that the world's longest sled dog race is just a few weeks away.
"It became a vacation for me," said Hecker, who plans to spend 45 days in Alaska. "It's fun."
As of Wednesday, 83 teams are scheduled to compete in the 2007 Iditarod, set to start March 3 in downtown Anchorage. Most of the mushers are from Alaska, with Washington, Montana, Wisconsin, Vermont, Colorado, Wyoming, Ohio and Michigan also represented.
Mushers also are coming from Canada, Norway, Germany, Argentina and Serbia.
Hecker helped the mushers as they backed their trucks up to the loading dock to deliver more than 2,000 pounds of dog food each, divided into bags with the musher's name and checkpoint destination written in large block letters on the outside.
The dog food -- approximately 86 tons -- is stockpiled at more than two dozen checkpoints, where mushers can rest their dogs on straw beds, fill up their food bowls and perhaps get a little sleep themselves before heading out on the trail again.
Iditarod volunteer Opie Combs, 37, who describes himself as "a bum" but actually works in a retail store in Anchorage, also was helping hoist food bags on Wednesday. During the race, he and Hecker will help out at the Kaltag checkpoint 359 miles from the finish line.
"It's fun. I like the dogs. I like the race," Combs said. "I always root for the underdog so I hope someone comes up huge from the back."
That was not the case last year when Jeff King, 50, of Denali Park became a four-time Iditarod winner, fending off four-time champion Doug Swingley, 53, of Lincoln, Mont.
Each team needs about 2,000 pounds of dog food along the trail, said volunteer Sonny Chambers of Eagle River, who was helping weigh the bags. The Iditarod air force -- a collection of pilots who volunteer their time and planes -- will fly out of Anchorage this weekend to make deliveries. The focus now is getting food to checkpoints south of the Alaska Range.
"They will ship it out pretty quick," Chambers said.
Kristee Nichols, a 52-year-old ultrasound technician from Old Lyme, Conn., said she spent $800 for airfare to fly to Anchorage for a couple of days to help out.
"I don't like laying on the beach. I like an active vacation and an odd vacation. This is certainly odd," she said, as she waited to be handed another sack of food.
"All right, back to work," she said, as she turned and dragged another bag across the floor.
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/race_2007/story/8648657p-8539596c.htmlLabels: alaska, dog food, dogs, food
By: DogLover | Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 12:41 PM | |
In rural communities, the sight of a horse-drawn cart - while novel - isn't all that unusual. But when Terry Duff drives his 2,000-pound draft horse, Jake, around his small North Carolina town, the sight draws much more than a passing glance.
It's not just Jake's size that catches people's attention. What really causes people to stop and stare is that tiny dog sitting on the huge horse's back.
As Jake trots along, Toby, a five-pound Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix, stands confidently atop his back, with his tiny front paws firmly planted on the harness collar. When Jake comes to a halt, Toby runs back and forth on the horse's broad back until Duff jiggles the reins, Jake's signal to move and Toby's signal to get back in position.
Duff, a lifelong resident of Wallace, NC, had owned and driven Jake, a Percheron, for about five years before Toby arrived. The small dog came into his life three years ago and Duff said he discovered the dog's equestrian talent quite by accident.
"One day I was just wondering how the horse would react if I put the dog on his back," he said.
He tried it, and Duff said the pair easily tolerated each other, so he began placing Toby on Jake's back when the big horse was in the pasture. Although the little dog did fall off a couple of times in the beginning, he soon became steady enough to confidently ride around town.
That was two years ago, and today Toby looks forward to the rides, barking with excitement whenever he sees Jake getting harnessed. On a recent Saturday, the pint-sized dog vaulted from Duff's arms onto Jake's back, his body wiggling in enthusiastic expectation of the ride.
Duff said he has yet to get tired of onlooker's reactions to his odd animal couple.
"The public is what I enjoy," he said, guiding Jake onto the road toward town. "Just to see the children smile and laugh is the enjoyment I get. They like seeing something so big carrying something so small."
Mayor Charley Farrior said while the area is growing fast, Duff's trips through town with Toby and Jake help preserve some of Wallace's small town flavor.
"I don't think I've ever been to another town and seen anything quite like it," he said. "It's certainly unique."
After more than an hour in town, Duff turned the cart onto N.C. 11, toward home. Jake, knowing his familiar stable was getting closer, picked up the pace, his harness jingling as his hoofs clip-clopped on the road. Almost on cue, Toby struck a hood-ornament pose, chest out and fluffy tail flying like a flag in the breeze.
Duff said if he had more pasture space he'd love to have another draft horse, not only to keep Jake company but so he could drive them as a team.
"It would be nice to have two of them," he smiled. "Of course, I'd have to get another dog so he could ride with Toby."
http://www.dogflu.ca/02282007/13/a_real_life_dog_and_pony_showLabels: dogs, news
By: DogLover | at 12:34 PM | |
