Take your dog to work

Three employees discuss a great pertk, being allowed to bring your dog to work.

Caveat: the dogs must be well behaved.

Who invited the dog?

A New York Times special investigative report:

Difficult guests are no longer limited to humans. The boundaries between humans and animals have been so eaten away by pet therapists, pet designer outfits and pet bar mitzvahs, that it has reached a point where devoted owners, who treat their animals as privileged children, lose all perspective on the pet’s role in their social lives.

More American households have pets than ever — 68.7 million of them in 2006, according to a new survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association, up 12.4 percent from 2001.

Vet practises animal physiotherapy

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on a subject of interest to owners of german shepherds with hip dysplasia. It's a rehabilitative process for animals similar to the ones humans undergo:

Veterinarian Ava Frick is nothing short of a miracle worker. She manipulates their spines, massages their tails, cracks their toes and stretches their muscles to control pain and help them recover from injuries and surgery.

Frick is the founder of the Animal Fitness Center in Union, about an hour's drive southwest of St. Louis. She performs her magic in a metal building constructed seven years ago just outside of Union.

The center's website is here. One of Frick's specialties is the underwater treadmill which she used to effectivly treat a German Shepherd with hip problems.

Elka, (an)r 8-year-old German shepherd, "could hardly get up or down a flight of stairs" before coming to the fitness center in April. "Now, she's back playing and going up an down stairs like a whole new dog," said (her owner.)

Elka, who weighs 80 pounds, spent 15 minutes (going 1.1 miles per hour) in the underwater treadmill at the fitness center to build up strength in her back legs. The water was a warm 87-92 degrees and reached up to the middle of her back legs. The dog occasionally licked at the water as she dutifully kept up the even pace of the treadmill.

Two German Shepherds take over bank

Two elderly German Shepherd dogs, who appear to be homeless, walked into a Scottish Bank to shelter from the rain, and then refused to leave. Ena Conyon, a kennel owner who is now looking after the dogs, estimates the pair to be about 12-years-old. She told BBC Scotland's news website:

My husband likened them to an old married couple. They are in quite a poor condition. They're not going anywhere so we've taken them in.

A marine and his dog

This is the story of a campaign to send Lex, the explosive sniffing German Shepherd who worked in Iraq with the late Corporal Dusty Lee, to live with his former partner's family. Earlier this week, Corporal Lee's parents received word that they will be able to adopt their son’s wounded canine companion.

Will Smith praises his canine co-star in Legend

"You say a smart dog? It's like, it got to the point with Abbey, she'd be playing, playing, playing, she'd hear 'Rolling!' and she'd run over to her mark and get ready," Smith said. "And I was like, 'What in the hell?' It's like she would know when I wasn't doing my lines right. If I would get lost in the scene, you know, she would just go [tilts his head]."

Read more about Abbey the acting dog, who is making her screen debut in I am Legend.

El Diario's Congo editorial

When humans attack

Dogologist's top five book picks

Psychologist and dog scholar Stanley Coren picks his five top dog books for the Wall Street Journal and -- wouldn't you know it? -- they're all a bit on the wonkish side.

For the Love of a Dog
By Patricia B. McConnell
Ballantine, 2006

If Only They Could Speak
By Nicholas H. Dodman
Norton, 2002

If Dogs Could Talk
By Vilmos Csányi
North Point, 2005

Bones Would Rain From the Sky
By Suzanne Clothier
Warner, 2002

Always Faithful
By William Putney
Free Press, 2001

Another German Shepherd is on death row

And like Congo, this Colorado German Shepherd's death sentence has also triggered protests.