Fresh Patchmaker of the real-grass, disposable dog pottyjoins with many other dog-friendly Americans in welcoming The Weather Channels new therapy dog, Butler.

For several months, The Weather Channel has been conducting a search for a therapy dog that will bear its name, and will travel as its emissary to places struck by natural disasters. Chosen from five finalists, Butler will be an ambassador for both The Weather Channel and for the American Humane Association, which worked together in this effort.

A young shepherd mix, Butler was rescued from the Humane Society of Charlotte, North Carolina. Butler will be trained by Amy McCullough, the National Director of Animal-Assisted Therapy for the American Humane Association. McCullough says that she will train Butler at her home in Colorado, with the goal of registering him as a therapy dog in time for the storm season this spring.

Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters have shown that therapy dogs can be a valuable aid to individuals and families who are experiencing tremendous loss. A therapy dog can be a source of comfort and hope. According to McCullough, The Weather Channel will be keeping its viewers posted on Butlers training, and will follow his service as a therapy dog. Updates will be posted on Butlers Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/therapydogbutler

Like other fans of The Weather Channel, the Fresh Patch Company has been captivated by the stations search for a therapy dog, and was glad to see that Butler was given the important role. Our company was just one of many Weather Channel viewers who found the process engaging. Because we are a dog-focused company, we like to applaud programs and events that recognize the enormous contributions dogs make to people and to society, says a Fresh Patch spokesperson.

During the third week in May, Doggone Safe Inc., Pet At Home Sitting Services, Inc., Pet At Home, and other organizations will be calling attention to one of the nations most commonly reported public health problems: dog bites. Half of all children will be bitten by a dog by age 12 and the majority of these bites are by the family dog or other dog known to the child.

Deedra Thompson of Pet At Home Sitting Services will be presenting the Doggone Safe Be a Tree childrens program on Tuesday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. at All Paws Animal Clinic, located at 1011 North State Rd 7, Royal Palm Beach in the Regal Cinema Plaza. Bring your child and learn to be a doggie detective. The class is catered to school age children and there is no charge for the class, but registration is required. Please call All Paws today at 561-790-9225 to reserve a space for your child. One parent is requested to accompany the child.

Doggone Safe, a non-profit organization dedicated to dog bite prevention through education offers free information at its website http://www.doggonesafe.com to help promote safety messages during dog bite prevention week. Doggone Safe also promotes the Doggone Safe Be a Tree childrens program. This program is a short presentation with large photos and lots of activities to teach children to understand the signs dogs send with their body language. The central message of this program is Be a Tree. That is, stand still if a strange dog approaches or any dog is threatening or overly frisky. Children learn to be doggie detectives, looking for the clues that dogs give with body language to show how they are feeling.

Doggone Safe and Pet At Home offer the following tips for parents and dog owners to help keep kids safe:

The 3 Most Important Things to Teach Your Kids 1.Dogs Dont Like Hugs and Kisses Teach your kids not to hug or kiss a dog on the face. Hugging the family dog or face-to-face contact are common causes of bites to the face. Instead, teach kids to scratch the dog on the chest or the side of the neck. 2.Be a Tree if a Strange Dog Approaches Teach kids to stand still, like a tree. Trees are boring and the dog will eventually go away. This works for strange dogs and anytime the family dog gets too frisky or becomes aggressive. 3.Never Tease a Dog and never disturb a dog thats sleeping, eating or protecting something.

The 2 Most Important Things Parents Can Do 1.Supervise Dont assume your dog is good with kids. If a toddler must interact with your dog, you should have your hands on the dog too. Even if your dog is great with kids and has never bitten why take a chance? 2.Train the dog Take your dog to obedience classes where positive-reinforcement is used. Never pin, shake, choke, hold the dog down or roll the dog over to teach it a lesson. Dogs treated this way are likely to turn their aggression on weaker family members. Involve older children in training the family dog while supervising. Dont allow children to punish the dog. Condition the dog to enjoy the presence and actions of children using positive experiences.

The 3 Most Important Things Dog Owners can do 1.Spay or Neuter Your Dog Neutered pets are calmer, healthier and less likely to be aggressive. Neutering prevents unwanted dogs that may end up in shelters or in less than ideal conditions where they may grow up to be poorly socialized or aggressive. 2.Condition Your Dog for the World Give your puppy lots of new positive experiences. Train using positive methods i.e. clicker training. 3.Supervise Your Dog Supervise your dog at all times around children. Do not allow children to hug and kiss the dog. If visiting children are bothering your dog, put the dog away or send the children home.

About Pet At Home Sitting Services:

Pet At Home began serving pets in the community in January 2004 and is a family owned professional pet sitting service, insured, bonded, licensed and certified in Pet CPR and First Aid by the America Red Cross. Pet At Home is a proud member of NAPPS, the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters and PSI, Pet Sitters International. They offer professional pet sitting service to pet owners who want their pets treated like members of their family. Beginning a pet sitting service was second nature for the owner and President Deedra Thompson coming from a family that owned and operated a small zoo in Austin, Texas. Pets are my passion, and I take the responsibility of caring for them and the security of my clients home very seriously commented Deedra Thompson. I chose to teach the “Be A Tree” program to protect children from being hurt and to protect our canine friends from being in situations that would cause them to bite. To learn more about Pet At Home Sitting Services, Inc. or to schedule the “Be A Tree” program for a school age group or organization in the West Palm Beach area please call 561-686-2900 or visit its website at http://www.petathome.com.

About All Paws Animal Clinic:

All Paws Animal Clinic opened for business in July 2002 and is owned and managed by Dr. Patricia Forsythe, Medical Director. All Paws has rapidly grown into a well-established and respected veterinary hospital. The clinic has been chosen Best of the West for veterinarian in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by the readers of the Wellington Forum. We are dedicated to our mission statement Quality Care with Compassion for your Best Friend. Visit us at allpawsanimal.com!

About Doggone Safe Inc.:

The not-for-profit Doggone Safe organizations mandate was based on jurors recommendations following an inquest into the mauling death of 8 year old Courtney Trempe in Ontario, Canada. Along with their many educational programs, Doggone Safe also provides victim support and administers the Courtney Trempe Memorial fund, in honor of her memory, to help provide trauma counseling (not provided by insurance) for child dog bite victims and their families. Visit http://www.doggonesafe.com

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In this article I will be discussing the advantages of reading good dog obedience training reviews. It’s always nice when you are about to make an online purchase and someone else does all of the research about a product for you!

Reviews are written many different ways, but as long as you are getting the information you were looking for, you have saved a lot of time. We can all benefit from a good time saver. You also gain the wisdom that the person doing the reviews has on the dog obedience training as well.

If you are like me , you love your dog. Our dogs need training, even a well mannered dog. The one on one time spent while training between a dog and its owner is very good for your dog. There are several good dog training books on the internet. The problem most people have is that they don’t know which author or book to buy. It seems like a daunting task on today’s internet, when it is full of so many options about dog obedience training. How many of these options are actually worth buying, well that’s where a good dog obedience training reviews website comes in handy!

Getting a lot of bang for your buck is something we all try to achieve. We are all so busy with our everyday lives and it seems to be hard to find the time to research everything we decide to buy.

I suggest at least visiting a reviews website before making a purchase. You can type in the name of the product that you are interested in followed or preceded by the word “reviews” or “review”. This will bring you lots of options of what you are looking for without having to spend much time doing it!

The next time you are looking for a dog training product of any kind, just type in the words review dog training, review dog obedience training, or dog obedience training review!

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.