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Pet Adoption Fair – 5th Annual Home For The Holidays

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The 5th Annual Home For The Holidays Pet Adoption Fair at the Irvine Animal Care Center is right around the corner.  Every year I remember this event because it almost always coincides with my birthday (December 5th for all you well wishers out there).  We try our best to make it out to this event every year as it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump away from our house.  One cool thing about this pet adoption is that you’re allowed to bring your fully vaccinated, well-behaved, leashed dog if you so choose.

So, if you’re looking for a dog, cat, rabbit, or other pet (yep, we’ve even seen pigs at the irvine animal care center) then come on down to the Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption Fair this Saturday, December 3rd from 10am to 3pm.  You’ll probably see us down their snapping a few pictures of the adoptable puppies and dogs.

Adorable Puppy And Kitty

Here’s some more information on the event:

Home For The Holidays – 5th Annual Pet Adoption Fair

WHAT: Home For The Holidays – 5th Annual Pet Adoption Fair
WHEN: Saturday, December 3rd from 10am – 3pm
WHERE: Irvine Animal Care Center, 6443 Oak Canyon Road, Irvine, CA

DIRECTIONS:

From the 405 Freeway, take the Sand Canyon exit and turn inland;
turn left into Oak Canyon; the Shelter will be the second driveway on the right.

From the 5 Freeway, take the Sand Canyon exit and turn right;
turn right into Oak Canyon; the Shelter will be the second driveway on the right.

Home for the holidays pet adoption fair

What To Do At The Pet Adoption Fair

We’ve gone in the past and it’s mainly about pet adoption gathering many different pet rescues to show their dogs, puppies, cats, and kitties to the public.  We’ve heard that in the past the Home For The Holidays Pet Adoption Fair has been very successful in getting pets adopted just in time for Christmas.

Here’s some more information on the Home For The Holidays.

  • 400+ Adoptable Animals
  • 70+ Vendors and Exhibitors
  • Food Court and Bake Sale
  • Ask the Vet and Trainer Booths
  • Silent Auction and Drawings
  • Low-cost Microchip

Cost for admission into this event is $1 and as I mentioned earlier they allow you to bring your fully vaccinated, well-behaved, leashed dog.

Here’s a link to the Irvine Animal Care Center main page where you can see and FAQ section and a list of the Animal Rescues, Vendors, and Exhibitors.

Linus my first puppy was adopted from the Carson animal shelter and we’ve also volunteered as foster parents for dogs and puppies so we very much support pet adoption. If you’re considering getting that next dog or puppy please consider pet adoption and by all means visit this years Home For The Holidays Pet Adoption Fair.  We’ll be there this Saturday…How about you?  Have you been in the past or do you plan on going this weekend.  Let us know if you’ve adopted a puppy from this event in the past or this Saturday.  We’d love to hear about your new adopted pet!

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Dawg Walk, Pet Faire, and Dog Adoption Event

June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Every year Guide Dogs of America has a booth at the  Mission Viejo Dog Walk (also known as the DAWG Walk), Pet Faire, and Dog Adoption Event.  Every year I’m busy with one thing or another and can’t attend this event.  I hope to change that trend this year!

Thinking back in time…last year I didn’t have a Guide Dog Puppy.  Two years ago, Derby was too young to work at the booth.  This year I’m going to do my best to help out at the Dawg Walk.  Here’s the information on this years Dawg walk, Pet Faire, and Dog Adoption Event:

Mission Viejo Dog Walk (AKA DAWG Walk)

Mission Viejo Dog Walk

What: 16the Annual DAWG WALK

When: June 26th 7am – noon

Where: The Village Green
(at the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center), located at 24932 Veterans Way (off La Paz Rd.) in Mission Viejo

More Information

  • Pet Faire — It’s Free To All! – Opens at 8:00 a.m. Includes K9 entertainment and dogs for adoption!
  • DAWG Walk Registration & Information
  • Dogs for Adoption
  • Starting at 8:00 a.m., dogs from the Mission Viejo shelter along with over a dozen rescue groups will be there with dogs just waiting to find permanent loving homes!
  • Day’s Events & Exhibits
  • There’s something for the whole family (two-legged and four-legged)!
  • Pet Contests
  • Let Fido’s talent shine today and win some great prizes with our 3 Pet Contests:
  • The Best K9 Kisser Contest
  • Owner/Bowzer Look-Alike Contest
  • Best K9 Trickster Contest!

Check out the DAWG WALK main website for all the information and details

Reggie, The Golden Retriever

I’m puppy sitting a young Golden Retriever Guide Dog Puppy In Training named Reggie during the Dog Walk.  I’d like to take Reggie over to help out at the Guide Dog booth at this years Mission Viejo DAWG WALK.  Unfortunately, there is an outside chance that she is too young to work the booth.  We like to make sure we only take our puppies to age appropriate events.  An event like the DAWG WALK may be too stressful for some younger puppies and we want to set all of our puppies up for success whether she’s a guide dog puppy in training or a family pet.

Are you planning on going to this years Mission Viejo Dog Walk?  If so, please stop by and visit the Guide Dogs of America booth.

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What Things Should I Consider Before Getting A Dog?

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s been years since I adopted my first dog and thought about the question: What Things Should I Consider Before Getting A Dog? Adopting a dog is a huge decision and something you should not take lightly.

My girlfriend took me shopping several years ago…not for any old gift, but she planned on getting me a puppy as a birthday gift.  I was very hesitant at first, but we spent a wonderful day visiting several breeders and playing with puppies.  However, I did not make my final decision on whether a puppy would be right for me until over a month later.

I bought several books which not only outlined puppy training, but also the things you should consider before taking home that adorable puppy.

Here are a few things I considered before bringing a new puppy into my household:

What Things Should I Consider Before Getting A Dog?

  1. Researching the breeds - I did a lot of research into dog breeds considering my own lifestyle and how that would mesh with my new puppy.  I even considered the future thinking that I might need a dog good with children.  In the end I ended up getting a mixed breed dog, but he was supposedly mixed with two of the breeds I was considering: Labrador Retriever and Australian Shepherd.
  2. Shelter, Rescue, or Breeder – We initially visited several breeders.  However, it didn’t sit quite right with me.  I new there were many unwanted dogs and puppies at our local shelters and rescues.  I started searching for a puppy on Petfinder.com and ended up rescuing a puppy from the Carson Shelter in Los Angeles County.
  3. Financial Situation – There are a lot of expenses to consider when adopting a new dog…just ask my friends who have spent over $10,000 on a Staffordshire Bull Terrier in the first couple years.  When I first brought Linus home from the shelter he had some serious issues including a stomach virus, extreme fleas, he was lethargic, and had worms.  Vet bills aren’t the only thing to consider.  Food, toys, grooming supplies, flea and tick medication, dog training, collars, leashes, etc.  Those are just a few expenses you will encounter over the lifespan of your dog.  Not to mention he may destroy a few things near and dear to your heart.
  4. Dog Training - In my book, every dog needs to be trained.  How do you plan on training your dog?  Go to the store and get some books or DVD’s, take your dog to group training, private in-house training, find useful information on the internet, etc.  There are all kinds of things to do for dog training.  Just be sure to devote the time and effort to training your dog.  I took Linus to puppy group training and then basic obedience training directly after.  Since then I’ve taken Linus to basic obedience on three other separate occasions to keep him up to speed on his dog training.
  5. Time/Attention for the dog – This was probably the most important thing for me to consider and also the reason why I didn’t get a dog in the past.  I was actually taking time off from work for about a year and instead attending school.  I was also on winter break and had about 5 weeks to work on puppy training 24/7.  Those initial 5 weeks of constant supervision, in the end, really made him a well rounded dog.
  6. Lifespan – Your dog won’t live for ever, but I’d plan on having him for at least the next 10 years.  I’m hoping that Linus lives 15+ years.
  7. Other Pets – We had a young cat that we were a little concerned might not accept our new puppy.  However, the two got along famously and became best of friends.

Those are just a few things I considered before getting a dog.  There are many other important things you might want to take into consideration as everyone is at a different place in their life and in a different situation.

The biggest thing I can say is get out there and educate yourself!  Read a good book like the Puppies For Dummies (affiliate link) book, do some online research (if you found this article then you’ve probably already started this process), talk to your friends, talk to dog trainers and veterinarians, make sure you do your due diligence before you make that final plunge and adopt a puppy.

What do you think?  What things should I consider before getting a dog?

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Dogs Who Ate Owners Are Now Up For Adoption

December 18, 2009 By 2 Comments

Wait…it’s not as bad as it sounds…Did you ever see the movie Alivestarring Ethan Hawke back in the early 1990′s?  If not, let me give you a quick summary:

In 1972 a chartered plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby squad and various family members crashed in the Andes. The real-life against-all-odds odyssey made worldwide headlines when it became known that the survivors ate their own dead to survive.

Our story today is similar to the movie Alive.  Two pugs were abandoned by their owners when the owners both decided to take their own lives.  The dogs had to fend for themselves for several days and eventually their instincts kicked in.  They resorted to eating the only thing in the house that they could to survive — the bodies of their owners.  Check out this video for a little more information:

As the video mentions these dogs have been evaluated.  Here’s a short quote from the video:

“They have no food aggression. They have no aggression toward people. They don’t have aggression toward other dogs. They don’t have any affiliation issues,”

One other point that I thought was interesting was how she mentioned that as your body decomposes the smell changes to the point where you no longer smell like “Pam” or in my case “Colby” and instead you just smell like another decomposing animal.  So, I wonder if that means that the two pugs really didn’t know they were eating they’re owners, but instead just thought they were feasting on some rotting animal flesh.

An interesting story and headline.  They look like great dogs in the video and hopefully they get adopted soon.

Here’s a link to the full my fox story on the dogs who ate their owners.

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IAMS Home 4 The Holidays Aims To Place 1.5 Millions Pets

December 14, 2009 By 2 Comments

Last weekend we attended the Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption at the Irvine Animal Shelter.  It was great to see all the wonderful volunteers working to get animals placed before the holidays.  While dogs seem to dominate the pet adoption there were also cats, birds, bunnies, and even a pig.

We do our best here at Puppy In Training to promote our local shelters and rescues and also advertise upcoming adoption events including the aforementioned Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption, the Super Adoption, and the OC Pet Expo.

This year we were contacted to participate in a larger adoption event.  The IAMS Home 4 the Holidays and Hillary Swank aim to place 1.5 million pets in homes this holiday season.   This is a very admirable goal and we are all for people adopting homeless animals from our shelters and rescues.

IAMS Home 4 the Holidays

IAMS Home 4 the Holidays

Here are some facts from the IAMS Home 4 the Holidays website:

  • As many as 8 million animals are homeless in the U.S.
  • Nearly 4 million orphaned dogs and cats will be euthanized this year due to shelter over-crowding and lack of awareness about the importance of pet adoption.
  • More than 25 percent of all dogs in shelters are purebreds.
  • IH4TH helped 1,202,751 pets find homes last year alone.
  • In Oct. 2008 Hilary Swank adopted Rumi through IH4TH at a Los Angeles shelter.
  • Over the past decade more than 3 million pets –1,638,515 dogs, 1,505,690 cats and 134,062 “other” animals – have been adopted through IH4TH.

Those numbers are staggering and for those of you looking for a purebred dog – “25% of all dogs in shelters are purebred.”

Even though we are advocates of pet adoption we would also like to point out that you should carefully plan and evaluate your own situation before you make the decision to adopt a new pet.  A new pet in your family is a tremendous responsibility and adopting a cat or dog is usually a 10+ year commitment.

One final thought…If your thinking about getting a dog, cat, puppy, kitten as a gift then please read my article on Christmas Puppies before you make that decision.  A pet as a gift is usually not a wise decision.

We’re happy be a part of the IAMS Home 4 the Holidays blogging program and hope to see them reach their goal of 1.5 million pets adopted this holiday season.

We did receive one update notifying us that 621,034 pets had been adopted since October 1st, 2009.  That’s great!  We’re well on our way to reaching the 1.5 million goal.

Please leave us a comment if you adopt a pet in the coming weeks.  We’d love to hear about your experience and see some pictures of your new pet.

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Home for the Holidays Pet Adoptions 2009

December 3, 2009 By 2 Comments

Check out Irvine Pet Adoption – Home For The Holidays 2010!

We just noticed that the Irvine Animal Shelter is having their Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption this Sunday.  If you’re looking to adopt a pet this holiday season then we highly recommend you visit the Irvine Animal Shelter this weekend.  Here’s some more detailed information:

Home for the Holidays Pet Adoptions 2009

Home for the Holidays

What: Home For The Holidays Pet Adoption 2009

When: December 6th, 2009 from 10am – 3pm

Where:
Irvine Animal Care Center
6443 Oak Canyon
Irvine, CA 92618

Go straight to the Irvine Animal Care Center Home for the Holidays website to see all of the participating rescues.  We noticed our friends at Cuddly Canines will be there and we also hope to drop by and support our local animal shelter.  By the way the Cuddly Canines website says that they will have We will have many wonderful dogs & puppies available for adoption! (Cuddly Canines will be in the back area).

We hope to see you all there.  If you do attend leave us a comment and let us know about your experience.  By the way, we attended the Irvine Animal Shelters Super Adoption last summer and they had some great raffle prizes.  Hopefully we’ll see the same at the Home for the Holidays pet adoption.

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Should We Discount Price On Dog Adoptions?

November 2, 2009 By 4 Comments

Do you think our shelters should discount dog adoptions?  The question arose (in my head) when I was reading an article about Animal Shelter has dogs for half-price adoption. My initial reaction is “that’s great…hopefully we can get more dogs and cats adopted by discounting the adoption fee.”  However, on second thought I’m not so sure it is a great idea.

Discount Dog Adoptions

Image By Gore Fiendus (Jerry Frausto)

After further review of Discounting Dog Adoptions I’ve come to the conclusion that there are good and bad things that may result from discounting.  Lets start out with the good:

The Good of Discounting

  • Discounting may be that final incentive someone needs to adopt a dog.
  • A discount gives a person more money to spend on dog toys, veterinarian bills, etc.
  • Marketing your discount program brings in more prospective adopters.

The Bad of Discounting

  • If there is a discount the shelter receives less money.
  • Okay, lets be honest…if you can’t afford the full adoption fee ($75 from the article) then should you really be adopting a pet. – my point being that the adoption fee should be the least of your monetary concerns when adopting a dog.

Shelter adoption fees are probably one of the smallest expenses you’ll spend on your new dog.

Here is an example of some of the fees you encounter during dog adoption: I brought Linus home from the shelter for somewhere in that price range of $35-40 adoption fee.  We then proceeded to spend approximately $200 on supplies including dog food,kennel, dog toys, treats, grooming supplies, etc.  When we got him home we noticed he was sluggish, infested with fleas (he had encrusted blood in his ears), stomach virus, worms, and was very anemic.  We took him to a self grooming shop, purchased a flea comb, medicated shampoo, and proceeded to clean him up – that was another 50 bucks.

The next day we took Linus to the veterinarian for a checkup.  He got his regular vaccinations, medication for his stomach virus and worms and we got another bill for about $200.  Finally, the shelter offered to neuter Linus at no charge…no thanks…Instead of bringing him back to the shelter we used our veterinarian.  When all was said and done another $250.  All of these fees piled up to nearly $1,000 in the first few weeks after adopting Linus.

On a positive note, Linus did receive his initial vaccinations from the shelter and they did offer to neuter him free of charge.  My fear of bringing him back for neutering was that he’d end up with fleas, worms, and another stomach virus.

Dog Adoption

A question I often get asked is what would I do today if I were to adopt a dog?  After all my experience with dog adoptions, rescues, shelters, fostering, guide dogs, puppy raising my first choice would be to establish a relationship with one of the our wonderful local dog rescues like Cuddly Canines and over time be patient and select a dog that would fit my personality and energy level.  I believe most rescues charge somewhere in the neighborhood of a $200-300 donation.  However, that usually includes spay/neuter which most rescues will do before you take home your dog, up to date vaccinations, de-flea and de-worm.  Also, dogs and puppies usually stay with a foster for at least 14 days for health and temperament evaluations.

Of course every dog rescue is different and I’d check with your favorite rescue volunteers to see exactly what their rescue has to offer before adopting.

How about you?  What kind of experience do you have with dog adoption?  Do you think discounting is a good way to “sell” adoption?

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Riverside Humane Society Raises Over 46K

October 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Wow!  $46,000 raised at the Riverside (CA) Humane Society Pet Adoption Center’s 12th Annual Comedy Night.  That’s pretty cool and very encouraging to see that there are so many generous people in our community.

The main reason this article caught my attention is because the Riverside Animal Shelter is where we picked up the seven little German Shepherd puppies that we fostered for two months.  We also made several other trips to the shelter as volunteers and fosters for the Cuddly Canines Rescue.

My brother and his wife adopted George: the cute little (he’s ginormous now!) black and tan puppy in the bottom right corner.

Riverside Animal Shelter

It’s wonderful that so many people were able to donate to Riverside Humane Society.  However, I have heard that the Riverside Animal Shelter receives way more animals then they can handle so please if you have the time I’d encourage you to volunteer as a foster with an organization like Cuddly Canines Rescue that saves many puppies and dogs that would otherwise be euthanized.

I must reiterate that it’s great to see so many people give their hard earned money during these difficult economic times.

Here’s the link to the original article: Over $46,000 Raised at Riverside (CA) Humane Society Pet Adoption Center’s 12th Annual Comedy Night.

Have you been volunteering with a rescue organization?  If so, we’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.

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5 Tips On How To Save Money On Your Dogs

September 18, 2009 By 1 Comment

It’s a tough economy out there and we’re doing our best to save a little money here and there.  Lucky for us we still have our day job although we did receive a cut in pay a few months back.  So that brings up the question How Can You Save Money On Your Dogs? There are a number of things you and I can both do to help save money on our dogs.  Here are five areas where I try to cut my expenses:

5 Tips On How To Save Money On Your Dogs

Puppy Bath

Photo by jsmjr

  1. Buy your dog food in bulk.  This one is a no brainer for me because I have two large dogs.  However, if your dog only eats a cup of food a day you might be buying the smaller dog food bag.  We buy the large 30 pound bag of Natural Balance Potato and Duck allergy formula because we suspect Stetson has dog food allergies.
  2. Grab your old stuffed dog toys and sew them back together or better yet start making your own dog toys.  We’ve been rebuilding our stuffed ducks, rabbits, and squirrels for years.  More recently I’ve been pondering the idea of making a plush toy snake (built out of a sock) or a stuffed clam made out of an old pair of blue jeans.
  3. Exercise, train, and give your dog plenty of attention.  Make sure you do these things and you won’t have to come home to a chewed up TV remote, piece of furniture, or your favorite baseball cap.  Believe me I’ve witnessed the demise of all these items.
  4. Are you looking for a new dog?  Try dog adoption.  There are so many homeless dogs out there why waste money on buying a dog which can cost up to several thousand dollars.  Adopting a dog is a great thing to do and you can also save money.  When we picked up Linus the adoption fee was only $37.  I just checked the LA County website and the fee to adopt a dog is $50 or $30 depending on how long the dog has been at the shelter.  The fee includes Microchip, rabies, and animal wellness vaccinations!
  5. Stop taking your dog to the groomer and take care of grooming yourself.  After all grooming is a great time to bond with your dog.  A groomer can cost $100 or more for one visit.  Head on over to Amazon.com and purchase the necessary grooming products including a brush, shampoo, nail clippers (or Dremel), etc. A few hints on grooming:

    • Make sure you thoroughly rinse all the soap out of your dogs coat.  I rinse my dog’s coat once until there’s no more soap.  Then I rinse him again for good measure.
    • The FURminator works great at getting to your dogs undercoat.  We highly recommend it for heavy shedding dogs.
    • When it comes to nail clippers I don’t like the Guillotine version as much as the regular clippers.  This pair has worked well for me in the past: Nail Clippers.  Make sure you get the correct size for your dog.
    • Lately we’ve been using a Dremel instead of nail clippers.  We like the Dremel 750-02 Minimite 4.8-Volt Two-Speed Cordless Rotary Tool over the PediPaws Dremel because it has a rechargeable battery, has different speeds, and comes with several sander bands.

Those are just a few simple hints on how you can save money on your dogs.  Hopefully this list helps you during this rough economy.

Do you have any hints on how to save money on your dogs?  If so, please leave us your pointers in the comment section below.

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Dog Adoption Labrador Retriever Pointer Mix

January 15, 2009 By 7 Comments

Here at Puppy In Training were back advocates of dog adoption.  It’s been a while since I talked about the Cuddly Canines Rescue and as many of you already know I used to volunteer as a foster parent for Cuddly Canines.  I’m sure I’ll volunteer again in the future when I have more free time in my schedule.  Anyhow, I went ahead and visited their site to take a look at the puppies and dogs they have for adoption.  It looks like their website is under maintenance, but they still have all their adoptable dogs posted at petfinder.com.

One litter of dogs caught my attention…the Labrador Retriever Pointer Mix.  It looks like they have four Lab Pointer mixes from the same litter.  The one that caught my attention was a little female puppy named Madison with a heart shaped marking on her left side.  Take a look at the picture:

Lab Pointer Mix

Lab Pointer Mix

See the nice heart shaped mark on her side.  It kind of reminds me of the story about the little puppy named Heart-kun.  Another heart shaped marked puppy.

If you’d like to see the other puppies in the Labrador Retriever Pointer mix litter than visit the Cuddly Canines website and check out their list of puppies.  If you’re interested in adoption then check out their Cuddly Application for dog adoptions.

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