Dog Blog

An Illinois appeals court has agreed to allow a central Illinois student to keep his autism helper dog in school.

The Fourth District Appellate Court sided with the family of Kaleb Drew. They had argued that the boy’s yellow Labrador retriever is a service animal allowed in schools under state law.

The boy’s mother had testified that the dog prevents the boy from running away, helps him focus on his homework and calms him when he has a tantrum.

The appeals court upheld the November decision of a Douglas County judge. The court issued its opinion Tuesday.

The Villa Grove school district had opposed the dog’s presence and argued that it isn’t a true service animal. A telephone message for the school district’s attorney was not immediately returned.

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A researcher at Indiana University South Bend found that city people tend to treat animals as their children, especially if the animal is a dog.

“If you have kids, you have less time to spend with your pets. That’s part of it, but not the whole story. People who think of their pets as their children often re-evaluate this thought when they have human children of their own,” said David Blouin.

Blouin’s study found that 93 percent of dog owners and 77 percent of cat owners took their pets to the veterinarian at least one time a year.

Some admitted that they spent significant sums of money on their pet’s health, addressing routine care, such as vaccinations, as well more serious conditions such as skin allergies, Crohn’s disease and diabetes.

The frequency of interactions owners had with their pets, as well as how often they took them to the veterinarian, were closely tied to how owners viewed their pets — whether as a child, a companion, or just another, albeit, useful animal, said Blouin.

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Pooches in Burnaby parks will have to be on their best behaviour now that city parks staff are patrolling parks as part of a new dog education program approved by the parks commission recently.

Previously, the B.C. SPCA has patrolled parks in the summer—on weekends in May and June and on a rotating five-day schedule July through Labour Day—augmented by a part-time city parks staff person. Internal staffing changes mean the SPCA is no longer able to do the seasonal work.

In response, the Burnaby parks department has developed its own program this year with patrols expanded to five days a week from April 30 to Sept. 20, according to a city staff report.

The parks staff aim to take a proactive approach in parks where the majority of complaints are received—Ron McLean, David Gray, Deer Lake, Robert Burnaby, Barnet Beach and Burnaby Heights parks, as well as parks near and on the route to these locations.

The complaints mainly involve dogs being off leash, owners not picking up after their dogs, dogs on sports fields and trails and loud, noisy dogs at dog parks.

Parks staff will hand out information pamphlets to dog owners, inform them of parks bylaws, gather feedback and look at possible improvements to written material, signage and maintenance issues.

“A longer term goal of the program would be to have responsible dog owners provide assistance to new dog owners in proper etiquette on park sites,” the report said.

In the first nine days of the program, the patrols spoke to 167 dog owners and a number of park users without dogs.

“Immediate compliance regarding dogs off leash has been possible on all but nine occasions where patrons did not have a leash with them.”

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Excerpted from the Seattle Times.

Allie jumps from her wrought-iron bed and runs to the window of the presidential suite, past the flat-screen TV tuned to “Animal Planet” just for her.

The black shih tzu presses her nose against the glass overlooking the lobby of Pet Paradise Resort, one of Charlotte, N.C’s newest boarding facilities for dogs and cats.

Here is Allie’s view from the resort’s ritziest, $70-per-night room:

Framed portraits of terriers, bulldogs and spaniels hanging on all four walls of the lobby.

Chairs upholstered in fabric printed with black and yellow labs.

And visible through a window behind the reception desk, a golden retriever-poodle mix splashes outside in a bone-shaped swimming pool.

“A lot of people say, ‘We don’t treat him like he’s a dog,”‘ says resort manager Dina Beam. “We say, ‘Great! That’s what we cater to.”‘

This Club-Med-for-mutts near Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is part of a growing trend toward luxury pet boarding — where businesses calling themselves “hotels” and “spas” pamper pooches with everything from golf cart rides and “Yappy Hour” ice cream to bedtime stories and orthopedic mattresses.

‘Do you want a blueberry facial?’

“Ten to 15 years ago, there started to be a dramatic change in how people viewed their pets,” says Joan Saunders, CEO of the Colorado-based trade group Pet Care Services Association. Pets became “members of the family,” she says, rather than animals that stayed mostly outdoors.

The shift left some pet owners unsatisfied with boarding Puff and Spot in a cage behind the vet’s office. They wanted more deluxe services and were willing to pay for them.

Spending on boarding, day care, grooming and other nonmedical pet care is growing at a rate of more than 5 percent a year despite the sluggish economy, Saunders says. Many boarding facilities have expanded to offer day care, retail boutiques and other amenities.

“You might drop your dog off for the weekend,” Saunders says, “and the facility owner might say, ‘Do you want your dog groomed while they’re here? Do you want a blueberry facial and their nails done?’ ”

Golf cart ride for fifi

Tuscarora’s Country Club for Dogs comes complete with golf carts, as any proper country club should. And that’s just what Fifi is riding in this afternoon.

The white Maltese with a pink bow on her rhinestone collar is bouncing along Tuscarora’s 3/4-mile nature trail in the back of a cart, held securely by staffer Kim Culley.

“In the summertime, we let them swim in the creek,” Culley says, as Fifi sniffs the woodsy air along Cabarrus County’s Little Buffalo Creek.

The 33-acre club has a summer-camp feel that attracts the pets of a few Charlotte Bobcats as well as former Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis and his wife, Donna.

“We use the pick-up and delivery service,” Donna Lewis says, adding that owner Vivian Kelly sometimes comes to get Sissy, the Lewis’s cocker spaniel, in her Cadillac instead of Tuscarora’s van.

The tab for pickup and delivery starts at $30 one way, added to Tuscarora’s boarding fees which start at $25 for dogs, $20 for cats.

Doggy DVDs and ‘Mozart for Cats’

At Best Friends Pet Care in Pineville, N.C., pups bed down on synthetic lambs’ wool pads after nighttime readings from books like “The Pokey Little Puppy” and “Lady and the Tramp.”

The $43-per-night luxury suite is tricked out with a toddler bed — complete with orthopedic mattress — and wall-mounted TV playing doggy DVDs.

They’ve even hosted a formal dance called a Pug Ball, with girl dogs in gowns and boys in tuxes or bow ties, says Assistant manager Kyrsten Shapiro. “We had a disco ball in the middle and music playing,” she says.

At Meadows Bed & Biscuit in Huntersville, N.C., owner Susan Meadows knows that if pet owners are going to spend $3,000 on a trip to Europe, they’ll want their dog to stay in a nice place.

Like Pet Paradise, Meadows B&B has Webcams so owners can check in on their pooch while traveling. Two gyms are outfitted with rubber floors that are easy on paw pads and joints. There’s even anti-microbial synthetic turf in the play yard. In Mooresville, Pampered Pets Inn has heated floors in its suites and play room.

Feline friends aren’t left out of the trend. Meadows, like several of the area’s other upscale facilities, has multilevel kitty condos. Those at Meadows come complete with four-poster beds, six levels for climbing and a view of a 110-gallon fish tank. Mooresville’s Hotel 4 Cats offers classical music (“Mozart for Cats” is a popular CD) and views of bird feeders out the windows.

‘We want to trade places’

Back at Pet Paradise, Jimmy Buffett on the sound system gives an island vibe to a day full of pumpkin frozen yogurt, oatmeal baths for sensitive skin and six different cologne scents that are included with grooming.

Business has increased each month since the August ‘09 opening, says manager Beam, with boarding starting at $35 per night for dogs, $22 for cats.

“As soon as I get him out of the car, he’s dragging me into the place,” customer Tracy White says of Rylee, her 10-month-old golden retriever-poodle mix.

She and her husband joke about how much fun Rylee has at Pet Paradise while they’re toiling away on business trips.

“He’s there playing in the pool and eating ice cream,” White says. “We want to trade places with this dog.”

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