Chico on the other hand, could care less about a ball.  The only toy he likes is his toy chipmunk that we gave him the first day he was dropped on our doorstep.  He does have a few physical problems however.  He is missing the ball in his hind leg hip socket and he has a compressed disc in his neck.  He has his days when walking is very difficult.

I have tried various beds for both but had not gone the route of orthopedic beds yet.

The makers of Crypton pet beds contacted me to test their product.  Not only are they  known for making beds that really last but they have an orthopedic bed that is supposed to be fantastic.  Crypton beds are made with fabric that resists moisture, stains, odor and bacteria (the tag says that spills just wipe away!)

I took them up on their offer and two beautiful beds just arrived!  Can’t wait to test them on Chico and Abe and see the result!  I hope they like it!  Orthopedic AND odor resistant?  What could be better?

Chico's Bed

Abe's Bed

Keep following my blog as the Crypton story to unfolds!

Unfortunately, the arrival of a baby oftentimes means the pet is not only dethroned but re-homed.  I hear stories like this far too often and almost 100% of the time the dog or cat should have remained with the family.

My husband and I welcomed our new baby Sebastian in April and I am happy to say that our dogs are handling the transition beautifully…with a couple of funny exceptions.  Chico howls when the baby really cranks it up and Abe may give a loud WOOF or two to make sure Sebastian knows who’s boss!  But all in all…they have been wonderful.

It is normal for your pet to feel something akin to sibling rivalry when your new child comes home.  He is losing his rank in your pack…dropping down a notch or two and will need to adapt to their new role

To make this transition easier, there are many things you can do before the baby comes home:

1.  Spay or Neuter your pet- if your pet is still in tact, now is the time to change that.  Dogs and cats that have been altered tend to be more mellow.
2. Training- it is very helpful to have a well trained dog prior to welcoming a new baby.  Take the time to enroll in a group class or have a trainer come to your home.  Having the basic commands under your belt will help out immensely. 
3. Make changes now and not after the baby arrives:  For example, if you plan to keep your dog or cat out of the babies room…begin training that prior to the baby coming home.  A baby gate may be helpful in this example.  Or, if mom is the pet’s favorite, begin spending a bit less time with the pet and have dad take on a larger role…this way, when the baby comes along it will be normal for mom to not dote 100% of the time on fido.  The goal is to not have your dog or cat associate changes with the new baby.  These changes were already existing and then the baby came along.
4. Get your pet used to smells, sounds and a new routine- prior to baby arriving on the scene, purchase a baby doll that makes baby sounds, walk around the house with it in your arms, put the doll in a stroller and take your dog on a walk with you.  Use baby powder and baby lotion.
5. Receiving blanket and introductions- prior to mom, dad and baby coming home, have a friend or relative bring the receiving blanket to your house and allow your dog to smell it thoroughly…this way, when the baby arrives, fido will be accustomed to his/her scent.

When the baby does come through the door, the dog should meet the baby immediately.  Have one of the parents hold the baby up out of the dogs reach and let the dog smell the babies feet.  Over the days that follow invite your dog to sniff the baby many times and be a part of the routine as much as possible.  Of course, always under supervision…dog and baby should never be left alone together. 

Following these few tips will help your two legged and four legged babies peacefully coexist!

Dog-Poop Project in France Seeks to Turn Feces Into Fertilizer

April 20 (Bloomberg) — Across the street from a bowling alley in Toulouse, a French scientist in a white smock unlocks the passageway to a hidden refrigerated laboratory where a centuries-old blight is about to be wiped up.

“Show him Project Propec,” says Cedric Cabanes, president of Agronutrition SAS, a boutique fertilizer company with annual sales of 18 million euros ($26 million), which may be on the cusp of transforming a global industry that plowed 163.7 million metric tons of nutritional muck into the soil last year. The metal door swings open and the foul aroma of the excremental experiment inside the chamber overwhelms the possibility of accurate visual observation.

“What we have here is endomycorrhiza, the molecular detoxifying mechanism for a diffusive airborne substance with a 100 meter radius that provokes an immediate intestinal ejection at a precise position,” microbiologist Hicham Ferhout says, thumping shut the steel door. “In layman terms, we’ve finally discovered how to make a dog sh*t in a specific spot, disinfect the deposit and convert it into environmentally friendly energy or fertilizer. I have to think like a dog.”

The origin of feces is no laughing matter in France, where pedestrians can come upon little piles of dog poop on pavements in even the most fashionable of streets in cities from Paris to Bordeaux. France has 8.8 million dogs, according to the Societe de Protection des Animaux. At an average of 22 pounds a year each, they produce about 194 million pounds of stools, some in public spaces, costing the country millions to clean up, according to Toulouse Deputy Mayor Jean-Michel Fabre.

Office of Tranquility

For the 400,000 residents of Toulouse, says Fabre, who’s also a veterinarian, the postcard-perfect southwestern town is otherwise soiled by 50,000 dogs that step outside to leave tons of their excrement annually. In tow are 300 sanitation workers, 100 of them with scoopers-at-the-ready, spending as much as 33 percent of the city’s 153 million-euro sanitation budget on shoveling canine fecal matter.

“Toulouse has industrial quantities to offer,” says the 50-year-old Fabre who, to illustrate his point, is standing in a sand-filled “boite de crotte,” or dog latrine, in the fragrant Jardin Pierre Goudouli behind the town hall. “Look,” the deputy mayor says with a sweep of the hand, “there’s merde everywhere but in here.”

As Fabre tells it, Toulouse’s scatological action plan to clean up the mess and turn squalor into dollars began when he in 2009 created France’s first “Office of Tranquility.” The city’s official grievance bureau in its first two years received more than 600,000 calls.

Monetizing Dog Poop

“The majority of the people complained about dog merde,” Fabre says. “We have seven dog parks, but the dogs refused to use them.”

Historical research showed that it wouldn’t be easy or pleasant to monetize dog droppings. The only successful venture in this field took place in Victorian England, when the homeless wandered city streets to collect what was then called “pure” or “scitan” (a noun in which the “sc” is pronounced “sh”) for use in tanning leather.

Fabre says solving the problem required a fresh strategy. He called Cabanes and their government-private sector partnership was born. The duo immediately decided to attack the dilemma from the rear.

“Everyone was looking in the wrong direction for an answer,” says Fabre, who began his veterinary career working with goats in Africa. “It’s not the dog owner who chooses the place his dog will poop. It’s the dog who makes the decision and it required a lot of deep thought and analysis to get the dog owners of Toulouse to realize it.”

‘Turdometers’

Back in the lab, Cabanes reckons that dogs have tricked their masters into believing otherwise, inspiring the creation of what the folks at Pet Butler Inc. in Seattle call the “Turdometer.” The on-line gizmo calculates the number of American canine egesta the poop-collection firm has picked up since 1988. That’s 70 million and counting.

Pet Butler franchises start at $30,000 and its business — with America’s 72 million dogs annually depositing between 14 pounds and 30 pounds of undigested kibble — is a growth sector in the $70 billion U.S. pet industry.

“Toulouse has so far invested 70,000 euros and Agronutrition has put up 180,000 euros,” Cabanes says of the project that will require a total of 400,000 euros to complete and market. “I’ve absolutely no doubt that our product will have an instantaneous global customer base. You can’t help but smell the possibilities.”

Toxic Waste

Cabanes says the American solution, a $10.99 can of Poop Freeze Aerosol Freeze, is not ecologically sound, even when employed in conjunction with either Doody Danglers, Snugg-Ease doggie diapers or the Cinch-Lock Tail Anchoring System.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, back in 1991, categorized dog crap a “nonpoint source of pollution,” lumping it in the same group as toxic waste and chemicals.

Research conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta show that one gram of the stuff can contain 23 million fecal coli from bacteria, along with camplobacter, leptospira and a boxcar load of zoonotic diseases easily transmitted to humans.

The French haven’t fared any better in burying the problem. According to a series of government reports over the past decade, Paris has 200,000 dogs dropping 15 tons of stools a day that cost the city 9 million euros a year to mop up.

The city on the Seine has tried motorcycles with vacuum cleaners, “Pince-a-Crotte” poop tongs, “Inspecteurs de Salubrite,’ or caca cops, and 9,100-euro fines for repeat offenders. While fines in New York, London and other major cities have kept the dogs at bay, the poop crisis continues unabated in Paris.

‘Miracle Industry’

“Bacteria, chemicals and pharmaceuticals reside in the feces of all organisms,” Cabanes says. “The key to making dog excrement a product is sterilizing those toxins and turning what’s left into energy. Once we’ve done it with dogs, we can do it with humans.”

Ferhout says the initial tests getting 34 female beagles to poop as directed were 100 percent successful and that field experiments at seven sites throughout Toulouse are scheduled to begin this fall.

“The attractor is a mélange of dog feces, urine and sex pheromones,” Ferhout says of the product that comes in easy-to- scatter pellets or in a colorless aerosol spray. “I can’t right now say that it will work with 100 percent certainty,” Cabanes says. “But if it does, Toulouse will become the center of a miracle industry.”

Not Funny

Ferhout riffles through a pile of research charts marked “canine olfactory studies.” He says the data is the key to successfully attracting dogs and investment capital.

“Then we collect the waste, detoxify it with endomycorrhiza and we have organic fertilizer,” he said.

“Beagles have middle-spectrum olfactory sensitivity capacity,” he says. “Dogs like Dobermans and German Shepherds have the best and poodles have the worst. Getting all of them to one spot is a question of blend. The science here is good.”

As for the secret ingredient, Ferhout will only reveal it’s a specific meat protein irresistible to all Rovers.

Perched on a stoop overlooking a colossal silo that’s whipping up a batch of Axofol SR, a luxury organic fertilizer designed to enhance the fruity flavor of white-wine grapes, Cabanes says his 64 employees view Project Propec as a homeopathic solution to a growing global health and energy issue that others are too squeamish to tackle.

“Project Propec is all about sustainability” the 53-year- old agronomist says over the machine’s great groaning blades. “What we’re developing is a business based on dog sh*t. People will find it either offensive or funny — until they step on it.”

To contact the writer on the story: A. Craig Copetas in Paris at ccopetas@bloomberg.net .

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net .

Find out more about Bloomberg for iPad: http://m.bloomberg.com/ipad/

• Keep Pets Indoors- Please, I repeat, please keep your pets indoors the night of Halloween. There will be many pranksters out, who just might find it funny to let your pet out of the gate, antagonize your pet or even worse.
• Chocolate, Candy and other Yummies- By all means, all candy, especially chocolate is a big NO NO for Fifi and Fido. Chocolate is toxic to a pet’s system and can have fatal results. Not to mention, the wrappers, foil, twist ties, etc. surrounding the candy can cause choking or may lodge in the pet’s intestines.
• Candles- We all know that Fido’s tail can whip around as fast as a category two and will take out anything in it’s path. Please keep all lit candles far out of your dogs range. And definitely remember to extinguish candles prior to leaving your home.
• Trick or Treaters- If your dog is like Abe, he likes nothing better than to run to the door and sniff each and every trick or treater who eagerly holds out their bag for candy. A warning for this behavior: dogs may get spooked by costumes and excited kids…causing them to bolt out of your open door or perhaps become scared/nervous. The best precaution is to not let Fido greet the trick or treaters without being on the other end of his leash.
• If your dog is nervous- It is better to leave him in a room with all of his favorite things while you are greeting trick or treaters or hosting a Halloween party. He will feel much better and you will not take the chance of your otherwise friendly FiFi becoming snappish.
• Costumes- If you choose to dress your pet this season, please make sure that their costume is not constricting in any way. If the costume includes a mask, please ensure that the eyeholes are wide enough not to impede Fido’s peripheral vision. Limited vision could cause your dog to become nervous and potentially act out of the norm. Give your pet extra water when dressed as he may become warm and try not to leave his costume on for extended periods of time.

Who is typically bitten?   Considering the numbers above, nearly 2% of the US population. You won’t be surprised to learn that the vast majority are children.  Other front runners are the elderly and service providers such as postal employees.

On a weekly basis, I hear stories of dogs biting adults, children and other dogs.  The biting typically occurs in the home or yard by a dog that the person/child/dog knows…i.e.  a family or neighborhood pet.  People are upset, angry and questioning what to do with the aggressor.   If the bite was imposed on a child and not severe, the dog is typically re-homed.  In more serious cases, like the stories we hear about on the news, the dog is euthanized.

The reality?  In most cases, the bite was 100% preventable. 

How can you protect your family…including your dog?  Let’s start with the first step, Reduce the Risk of Your Dog Biting.   I know that for many of you, I am preaching to the choir.  But for those who are unaware of how to prevent your dog from biting…this is worth the read. 

Be a responsible pet owner- as the saying goes:  love, license and LEASH your dog.  I know many people who don’t believe in the last part of that phrase.  They let their dog roam off leash as much as possible and enjoy giving him that freedom. 

Even if your dog is the most non aggressive dog on the planet, he could try to interact with a dog aggressive dog being walked on leash… an altercation ensues and someone gets bit.  OR, your unleashed dog, roaming around your front yard, becomes protective of his territory, and decides to chase and/or bite two and four legged passersby. 

These situations are completely avoidable simply by leashing your dog while walking and letting your dog have free range of their fenced and gated backyard.

Spay or neuter your dog- Having your dog altered will reduce their desire to roam and act aggressively.   Altered dogs are three times less likely to bite than non altered dogs.  Spaying/neutering also promotes a healthier lifestyle for your pet.

Socialize your dog- Introduce your puppy to many types of people, animals and situations so they are at ease when a new or strange situation occurs.  If you have an older dog that needs to beef up his social skills try a training class or work one on one with a training professional.

Train your dog- Enrolling your dog into a training class at an early age is the best choice, but older dogs can do well to take a refresher course.

Pet selection and timing- Dogs should never be obtained on impulse.  Research the type of dog that will blend well with your family and lifestyle.  Since so many bites happen to children, make sure it is the right time for you and your kids.  It is recommended to wait until children are over four years of age.

Most importantly, ALWAYS monitor your dog while with children.  Never let children and dogs have alone time.  As we all know, children love to play, tug at and chase dogs oftentimes.  They also don’t know better than to interrupt a dog while he is eating, snacking on a treat or sleeping.  These are all potential situations for a nip.

Keep your dog healthy- A healthy dog is a happy dog and the way a dog feels directly affects his actions.  Have your dog vaccinated against rabies and other infectious diseases and ensure comfort by using parasite control.

If your dog exhibits aggressive behavior towards people, children or animals contact your veterinarian ASAP to rule out a health related issue.  If your Sophie or Tucker checks out with a clean bill of health it is time to check him or her into a dog training class to address your concerns.

There is so much to say on this topic and to learn more please visit the following sites:

Dog Body Language:  http://www.pawsacrossamerica.com/interpret.html

Teaching Kid’s:  www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/dog-care-dog-bite-prevention.html

A little bit of common sense will go a long way to keeping your family and pet safe!

To safely flee the scene with Fido in tow:

• Know where you will go. You can’t leave your pet behind, because even if they do survive the storm they could escape through a broken window, door, etc. They could get lost or harmed by predators and unsanitary conditions. A few helpful sites I found www.floridapets.net, www.pets-allowed-hotels.com, www.dogfriendly.com and www.petvacations.com.

• Get your pet an i.d. tag or better yet micro-chipped. Microchipping can be done at your veterinarian’s office or you can oftentimes find low cost micro-chip clinics around Tampa. The Humane Society and the Animal Coalition of Tampa provide chipping for approximately $25.

• Have a pet carrier handy to transport your pet easily. For this situation, a simple plastic or rubber pet carrier will be ideal. Bring a crate along that offers your pet ample room to stand up, turn around and lay down.

• Take up-to-date photos of your pet from all sides. Take these with you along with pet meds, i.d. and ownership papers.

• Create Pet Disaster Kit: this should include: meds, medical records, collar, leash, food/water dishes, 14 day supply of food and H2O, manual can opener, blanket, toy, cleanser and disinfectant to handle wastes. Make sure to bring your waste pick up bags. Canned and freeze dried pet foods are good to always have on hand this season.

• Create Pet Medical Emergency Kit include tweezers; scissors; tape, gauze pads and a roll of gauze to clean and cover injuries; an antiseptic solution for cleansing wounds; alcohol pads to clean scissors, tweezers and hands; antibiotic ointment; buffered aspirin for pain and inflammation and Benedryl to reduce allergic reactions to insect bites; and a thermometer (the normal temperature in dogs and cats is between 101 to 102 degrees).

Early preparation is key! Be safe this season!