Avoid The Dog Pounds

Your dog may be overweight - and you may not realize it.

That lack of awareness could jeopardize the health of your favorite four-legged friend.

To help combat canine obesity, Pfizer Animal Health has joined forces with the American Kennel Club Humane Fund and veterinarians across the country to launch The National Canine Weight Check, a free and simple way to find out whether your dog is overweight.

To get a realistic picture of your dog's health, you can take your dog to participating veterinary clinics throughout February for a free weight check.

Numerous local veterinarians are participating, so go to www.stopcanineobesity.com to find the one nearest to you.

The Van Dyke Animal Clinic, at 6066 Van Dyke Road, is among those taking part.

Read More

Prosthesis provides mobility for puppy born with only two legs

For a two-legged puppy, Hope gets around.

The sprightly Maltese can bounce across a room at a break-neck pace. Rounding her small back, she uses her hind legs to propel her body forward onto her chest, which has small wriggling nubs where her front legs should be.

“She gets around fine,” said the puppy’s rehabilitation specialist, Cassy Englert of River Veterinary Emergency Clinic on Amnicola Highway. “She never knew anything other than hopping like she did. ... The hardest thing is teaching her a new way to get around that’s going to actually be better for her.”

A Chattanooga orthotist with Dynamic Prosthetic & Orthotic on McCallie Avenue created a device he hoped would give Hope a more normal gait.

“Once she quits growing and gets to her full size, she will need another one,” local orthotist David Turnbill said. “Prosthetic care is an ongoing cycle.”

Read More

Good dog! Have a treat at Just Dogs! Gourmet

At Just Dogs! Gourmet in Randolph, the proprietor is Elvine Tsang, self-proclaimed dogaholic. The quality control supervisors are Sydney, 6, and Ada, 4. They are German pinschers.

"I don't sell anything Sydney and Ada don't like," said Tsang, originally from Thailand.

The shop, which carries dozens of fun items from dog spa products and designer pet tags to easy-walk harnesses and rhinestone starlet necklaces, is mostly about healthy dog food. Customer traffic has been brisk at the 2-month-old Route 10 location.

"After last year's recall of pet food made with ingredients imported from China, dog owners are more educated," said the 34-year-old Tsang, who opened the shop of her dreams after downsizing ended a 10-year career in corporate graphic design. "Today people ask me where our products are made -- here or abroad."

The answer is "here." To be precise, the company makes its own treats in its Pennsylvania "barkery" using human grade ingredients in a facility inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Read More

Ask AP: Product Recalls, Obama's Faith

You've just gotten word of a product recall, so you grab the offending toy _ or packet of meat, or can of dog food _ and bring it back to the store.

What happens next? What does the future hold for a turkey sausage deemed unfit for human consumption?

That's one of the four questions being answered in this installment of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line.

___

What becomes of all the recalled poisonous pet food, lead-tainted toys and antifreeze-flavored toothpaste? Are they incinerated? Buried?

Read More