We still have a few more months of cold weather, but the sales are starting & I want to track down a good pair of dog boots while I can get a good deal. How cute are these ones from Dog.com?

I know I’m supposed to be shopping for functional & stay put-edness, but these are so darling that I can’t resist!

I think they’ll work better than the last ones I ended up returning because they come up so much higher. That velcro strap has a much better chance of securing the boot to my dog’s paw than the other boots I had which had the velcro right at the top. Too much wiggle room mean the pug kicked those suckers off with much hilarity.

Click here to see more booties from Dog.com >

My poor pug.  I got a new camera & since he’s the cheapest working model I know, there will be many dog pictures taken.  So far he’s proven to be an excellent sport & hasn’t complained one bit, though he does refuse to give the super cute faces when I’ve got my camera pointed at his mug.  I don’t know if he’s bracing for a flash or if he’s putting on a bed rendition of Blue Steel, but the result is a pug face permanently stuck in Old Man Scrunch Face.  Behold:

 I couldn’t help but laugh after reading this article from NPR Winter Wear Goes to the Dogs:

Incidentally, if you’re at all embarrassed by the notion of canine outerwear, it’s typically the toughest of dogs who wear boots and coats. Iditarod runners, police and military K-9′s and search-and rescue dogs all need foot protection. And I have it on good authority from a thermal dog coat manufacturer in Wales that his No. 1 customers are gamekeepers, who suit their shepherds and setters up after a hard day on the run.

Real dogs do wear coats.

A webmaster forum that I post on sometimes recently had a thread for people to post pictures of their pets in their winter gear.  Lots of people have sweaters & coats for their dogs, but lots of people also like to dress up their dogs in clothes that are anything but functional.  One poor pet had been donned with a tiara, which might’ve been cute, but appeared to be dangerously close to poking the poor thing in the eye!  The whole thread turned rather nasty when other folks started posting comments like “any pet owner who dresses up their animal should have their pets taken away from them for animal cruelty” & so on.

Pets don’t choose to be fashion slaves & I do think that some owners go way overboard in trying to make their animals look cute rather than comfy.  But anyone who lives in a cold winter climate knows that dogs, especially little ones, get cold paws if they’re outside for too long.  For my pug & Chihuahua/Jack Russell cross, they need to wear sweaters too, but the paw problem is the most difficult to tackle.  During particularly nasty cold snaps, my dogs won’t stay outside for longer than 2 or 3 minutes – not long enough to do both businesses.  That means coming inside to warm up & then back outside again to finish off the call of nature.  Not ideal.

Piggy got a new pair of winter boots this year, but no pictures unfortunately because they’ve already been returned.  He always kicks the suckers off & it’s become a game to him, just like tugging on a sock.  I’ve used little felt ones with a velcro strap for a few years now & am getting very tired of having to dig through the snow to uncover the missing booties when he comes back inside only wearing 3. 

I saw some cute faux suede booties a few weeks ago with wooly insides, a velcro strap plus laces *and* a zipper.  Perfect!  He’ll never be able to get rid of these guys!

No suck luck.  The pug still managed to get one of them off before we even went outside & the second time I tried putting them on him, the zipper broke.  Back to the store & the search for booties continues…

Source: Click to read the full article from NPR > 

New Year’s Eve celebrations might have been a bit more joyful for pooches if they weren’t having the daylights scared out of them by folks setting off fireworks.  A lot of dogs are afraid of thunder, so it seems like a no brainer that fireworks would also spook them, but to be honest, I wouldn’t have thought of it either if I’d been out in the backyard with friends & family ringing in the new year.

This article talks to the animal shelter staff in Tracy, CA who took in 10 stray dogs over the weekend.

Click here to read the full article >

 This article interviewing the owner of a day spa for pets makes it sound like such a fun job, though I was surprised by which breed she finds the most relaxed:

Each breed is different, Mannella says, with terriers being “snippier” than others and poodles being the most relaxed.

The grooming business seems like it would be all fun & sudsy playtime (movie montages are running through my head right now), but the owner of this shop has had a few experiences that the movie folks tend to play down:

Mannella once got five stitches in her hand after an anxious pooch bit her when she tried to lift him.

A few times, after the staff got close to an animal, they noticed a lump during grooming that has turned out to be cancer.

“We have to bring it to the owners attention and that is a really sad part of it,” Mannella says.

Read the rest of the article here – Signal Item