As part of its commitment to help first responders save lives and property, Mission Manager, Inc. is pleased to announce a collaboration with the American Humane Association aimed at enhancing the associations Red Star teams nationwide animal rescue efforts. Mission Manager, one of the most widely used cloud-based emergency management tools, has supported approximately 5,000 missions over the past three years.

Under the arrangement, Mission Manager will donate its software and a portion of its revenues to the American Humane Association.

Mission Manager provides a turnkey solution for mission planning and real-time situational awareness. Based on three core principals preparation, readiness and execution the software provides a team-based operational environment for day-to-day tasks and serves as an online command center during incidents. Mission Manager features automated reporting tools, multiple communications vehicles and extensive mapping capabilities.

American Humane Associations Red Star volunteer responders are trained to help animals during or after a disaster, or as a result of animal cruelty bringing vital skills in animal handling as well as necessary supplies and resources to set-up and operate temporary shelters and/or conduct field rescue missions.

Were excited to use Mission Manager, which will automate our Red Star Teams administrative tasks and significantly enhance the volunteers rescue efforts. Until now, weve had to organize our team of nearly 200 nationwide volunteers by pen and paper, said Paul Raybould, American Humane Association Chief Innovation Officer. With Mission Managers support, were able to do a better job than ever before in meeting the needs of animals during times of crisis.

Our reason for being is to help first responders save lives and property whether their callout involves a missing person, an animal rescue effort or catastrophic event, said Michael Berthelot, President and CEO of Mission Manager. Thats why our collaboration with American Humane Association is such a fit. Were proud to partner in the pursuit of saving animal lives.

A PROUD SPONSOR OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATIONS HERO DOG AWARDS

Mission Manager is also sponsoring the Search and Rescue (SAR) category in the 2014 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards gala on Sept. 27. The finalist in that category Bretagne (pronounced Brittany) who lives in Cypress, Texas has made significant contributions to the SAR community over her long career.

As seen on a special broadcast of The TODAY Show on Sept. 11, she is one of only two surviving search and rescue dogs who worked at Ground Zero following the 2001 terror attacks. Bretagne was also deployed during the Olympic Winter Games in 2001 and Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Since retiring in 2008, she spends her time working as an ambassador to the SAR community and visiting schools. Bretagne is among eight amazing dogs that will be honored at a star-studded awards gala on Sept. 27 in Beverly Hills, where the top American Hero Dog for 2014 will be chosen based on more than one million votes by the American public. People can read her remarkable story athttp://www.herodogawards.org or watch video at http://on.today.com/1yrzFhZ.

ABOUT THE RED STAR TEAM

American Humane Association is the countrys first national humane organization and the only one devoted to protecting both children and animals. The organizations Red Star rescue work began in 1916 when they were asked by War Department to help save hundreds of thousands of horses that were wounded on the battlefields of World War I in Europe.

Since then, Red Star has been involved in virtually every major relief effort, from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. During the past 10 years, Red Star has rescued, helped and sheltered more than 10,000 animals hurt in catastrophes and cruelty cases. To help, please visit http://www.americanhumane.org.

ABOUT MISSION MANAGER

Mission Manager provides cloud-based software designed to help save lives and property by enabling first responders to operate more efficiently and effectively. Mission Managers team member and asset management capabilities, combined with its calendar and communication functions, allows users to enhance team readiness through optimized training and seamlessly integrate mission-specific operations during real-time events.

Over the past three years, Mission Manager has been used in nearly 5,000 missions ranging from single-person rescues to large public events and full-scale natural disaster response. Mission Manager is currently used in all 50 U.S. states, and on every continent except Antarctica. Truly a global tool, Mission Manager is available in 80 languages. To learn more, visit http://www.MissionManager.com.

Before you finally decide to train your dog with a Prong collar, you have to do a careful research to determine whether or not it is proper to use to your dog.

A Prong collar is made of interlocking metal links. Each of these links has two prongs that stick out inwards. So when the collar is placed over your dog’s head, the prongs sit against its neck. Prong collar training works like this: When the dog performs a bad behavior, the trainer tugs on the leash, as a result the prong collar tightens and pinches the dog’s flesh.

The use of such collar for training is in fact a controversial subject in many animal welfare organizations’ debates. However, prong collar was basically designed only for dogs who failed to respond to other training methods.

Many dog owners are mistaken in the use and fitting of Prong collars. It is very important in such collar training that the owner perfectly understands how to use the collar.

– This kind of collars should never be left on your dog all the time. Such training tool must be put on and taken off before and after training sessions.
– A comfortable fit is required. Try to remove some links so that the collar fits snugly.
– Positioning of the collar is important. Place it right behind the ears and up under the jaw and NOT down at the shoulders of your dog.
– Attach the leash to the dead-ring for normal to average training. This will allow the collar to remain the same size during training while providing less force.
– Allow your dog to become comfortable with the collar. Place it about 20 minutes before training and remove it about 20 minutes after the training as well.

If you are considering purchasing this training tool, take extra effort to learn its correct use. Also, prong collars are not supposed to be permanent collars. Never use this type of collar all the time as your dog might develop a tolerance and you’ll effectively eliminate any training value of the collar. On regular days, just use an ordinary collar. Do not leave the collar on your dog when you are not training.

German Shepherds first started being developed in the late 19th century by a man named Max von Stephanitz. Stephanitz is still today credited as having fathered the entire German Shepherd breed. An admirer of the German sheep dog of the time, he chose to breed selectively to procure his most desired traits and weed out those that were unnecessary or undesirable. Stephanitz bred his dogs for years, creating the founding root of the German Shepherd breed and eventually become the dog we know today.

When the German Shepherd was brought over to the United States, the breeders in America changed up the bloodlines of the breed by mating it with other types of dog. It is still up for debate whether these breeders aided or damaged the development of the German Shepherd, as American breeders were working towards a show-quality dog while the original German Shepherd was intended primarily for work.

German Shepherds in the United States have coats that are on the shorter side of medium, usually brown and black, tan and black, or cream and black, but not uncommonly producing an all white or all black variety. The truly German variety of the breed has a longer coat which is occasionally (but rarely) seen in the U.S.

German Shepherds were initially developed by Stephanitz as a working breed. To this day, even with the American cross breeding, German Shepherds excel in the work force as hunters, farm dogs, service dogs, narcotics dogs, and law enforcement dogs. German Shepherds are an exceedingly agile, strong, and athletic breed, with a very malleable temperament. They can be trained to work as aggressive guard dogs or be gentle helpers on the farm.

In their native country, the breeding of German Shepherds is so meticulously monitored that a registered shepherd must have had both its sire and damn Shutzhund certified, which means that they have been evaluated for temperament and ability by professionals. Shutzhund certification pays no mind to the size, coat, or general appearance of the dog, which is vastly different from the American variety of canine judging.

The primary visible difference between true German Shepherds and American German Shepherds, besides the length of their coat, is the lack of sloped hips. True German Shepherds have hips level with their shoulders, as the original breed was intended to. American German Shepherds have a distinct slope at the back of the torso into the hips. Sloped hips are argued over by many international breed enthusiasts, being the desired trait for showmanship in America, but also leading to an earlier onset and more significant risk of hip dysplasia.

Whether you are choosing to acquire an American German Shepherd or seeking out a true German Shepherd, you must research your breeder thoroughly. Because of the popularity of this breed and its potential for strength, there are many unethical breeders out there who are trying to turn a quick profit by mating irresponsibly. With proper research, either variety of German Shepherd can provide you with a loyal worker or a loving family pet.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should move toward permitting private contractors to train explosive-sniffing dogs and make them available for use at government certified cargo screening facilities, the Airforwarders Association (AfA) urged a congressional panel in testimony today.

Appearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security, AfA board member Chris Connell urged TSA to finalize its efforts to develop a program for private companies to use their own canines, certified to TSA standards, to meet federal air cargo screening mandates. Currently, TSA permits only the use of the agencys own dogs in cargo screening, and only at on-airport facilities.

Click here to download the AfA’s written testimony.

Connell, who is President of Commodity Forwarders, Inc., a Los Angeles-based freight forwarding company specializing in perishable products, said enabling the use of private sector dogs will help broaden the security options for freight forwarders who operate off-airport Certified Cargo Screening Facilities (CCSF), which are supervised by TSA.

We are not saying that privatized canines are a magic bullet when it comes to screening cargo, but they are a potentially valuable part of this multilayer approach another important tool in the toolbox, if you will that includes a range of other technology solutions that our members can use to meet their screening requirements, he said.

Connell told the subcommittee that the AfA had just recently surveyed its members and found that fully three-quarters of the respondents about half of whom operate CCSFs said they would strongly consider using dogs provided by private companies if they were given the option to do that.

While emphasizing that the threat to the aviation industry remains high and association members are determined to do their part to ensure safety, Connell noted that time is money in our business. And right now our company believes that we could save over a million dollars a year at our LAX facility if we had access to a third party solution deploying canines. And of course our customers would highly appreciate the time savings that this solution would help us achieve.

Accordingly, we are highly interested in any solution that can help us expedite the screening process, move our perishables more quickly through the supply chain, and still provide the utmost in safety and security of what we ship. We think dogs can really help us do that, he said.

Connell also noted that use of specially trained dogs is one of several methods for screening air freight that are identified in the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act that was passed by Congress in 2007. And he said that, given the track record of using canines in cargo screening, proceeding with a private sector option with solutions fully regulated, certified and monitored by government agencies would square with other screening approaches such as in-house x-ray and ETD, where the government relies on private sector solutions that are tested and certified.

About the Airforwarders Association

The Airforwarders Association (AfA) represents more than 360 member companies dedicated to moving cargo throughout the supply chain. The association’s members range from small businesses with fewer than 20 employees to large companies employing more than 1,000 people and business models varying from domestic to worldwide freight forwarding operations. In short, they are the travel agents for freight shipments, moving cargo in the timeliest and most cost efficient manner whether it is carried on aircraft, truck, rail or ship. For more information, visit the association’s website at http://www.airforwarders.org.