It took me a second but I found a site run by About.com and owned by the NYT, it’s called Consumer Search. I found one section dealing with reviewing other websites that review dog food. Consumer Search uses something called a “Credibility Rating“  giving each site a score between 1 and 5 stars. Bottom line is they are doing the work of reviewing the reviewers and this should take a huge burden off the shoulders of pets owners. We need metrics to help us decide what information to use and what information to pass up, Consumer Search is one of those must have sites in our browser favorites.

I hope everyone will take a jaunt with their dog and review all the great info these good people at Consumer Search have made available to us.

Winter has gripped much of North America and as we skate in to a new year 2010 and a new decade I want to share some news from the business of pets and ponder a couple other thoughts. The recession goes on for much of the world and pets are not immune to the cutbacks in household spending. I saw an interesting statistic over at Pew Research this morning stating that households cut back 7% on internet costs while dialing back 22% on their cable TV expenses. These figures got me wondering, when do households and pet owners start cutting back on necessities for their pets.

When my dad grew up and things got tight they fed their dog beans, he was fond of saying ” after 9 days a dog would eat beans.” I’m sure today most pet owners are more enlightened and don’t use starvation to get their pets to eat something profoundly distasteful or something the dog might not like, but the question remains. is there a point people downgrade their pets and decide to feed them less quantity and lower quality food? Are times so tough that this is happening and no one is reporting about it. Are pets starving next to their hungry owners?

Hartz pets products is one large company that has stepped up in the last year to try and address this imbalance in the economy. From June 2009 through January 2010 they have given out over 3 million dollars in pet products to pet shelters, pet food shelters and animal rescue groups across the country. They deserve more than a pat on the back for their efforts and you can read more about their work on their website. Hartz donates to help pet shelters.

This time of year parties and family get-togethers mean one thing, food. Food by the truck load is placed in front of us during the six weeks starting with Thanksgiving and ending at New Years. The NYT today has a story about a new study that shows owners of dogs are more likely to get exercise and more likely to do it more often. “To the surprise of the researchers, the dog walkers showed a big improvement in fitness, while the human walkers began making excuses to skip the workout. Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just a 4 percent increase among the human walkers.“  Read More

Charity donations are down this year and may be as well next year, that’s not good news for animal shelters and with the numbers of homeless pets entering shelter each year nearing 8,000,000 a huge crisis may get terribly worse. Some groups are stepping in across the nation to help and online Bring Pets Home makes it easier for shoppers to give money to shelters with every gift they buy. Macy’s, Walmart and Amazon.com are just a few of the online retailers who are taking part in this worth while program. I urge everyone to check out this site and pass the link on to your friends….. Thanks    

As a child I would frequently start my annual wishing for a dog around the time of my birthday in Oct, and would accelerate that wishing as only a child can straight through to Christmas Eve. My parents would smile and tell me the old story of how they used to have a dog but had to give him away when I was born because he liked to jump in the crib, their explanations were peppered with reasons that now make sense but at the time I did not want to hear. I mean so what if they both had to work and there was no one around to dependably take care of a dog, I wanted a dog…..

When I was nine years old they let me pick out a cat from a new litter in a neighboring town, I picked the multi-colored cat out of a the litter where all the rest of the kittens were yellow. So we took the kitten home and because it was mine my parents and sister only put up mild objections to naming her Stuffy. I loved the cat and even at nine took on the cleaning of the litter box and occasional brushing. We had Stuffy for 16 or 17 years and she taught me many things about animals and love.

With a cat at home my love of animals kept growing and I would run into 6 or 7 dogs in the next 10 years that would have a profound impact in how I viewed the treatment of pets. The first one was a beagle who lived a couple of hundred yards down our street, he was chained up in front of a little dog house situated next to an apartment house. The beagle who I a 10 year old little boy would name Ow-u did not bark or whine he just sat in his yard watching everyone coming and going. One day I crossed the lawn and went to visit him, I ended up returning over and over to chat with him and feed him milk bones I had bought with money from my paper route. We became fast friends for a year and a half till his owners moved away. In all that time I think I was the only person who spent time with him other then his daily feeding. it broke my heart when he went away just as his loneliness broke my heart when I walked by his house.

Animals deserve to live with people who have the time, patience and love to take care of them, they are not toys or things we buy and then push in the back of some closet when a new shinny toy comes along. Too many people neglect their animals and that’s why more and more shelters sprout up every year to meet this horrible crisis.

During this holiday season please direct some of your giving to animal shelters so they can continue the generous work they do everyday. Giving just 2 or 3 dollars to a couple of shelters will brighten the lives of some forgotten pet. Please visit a couple of shelter websites and make a donation today…  Thanks….

The recession is not confined to North America, as the recent news from the Middle East has shown us the credit and job crunch has spread world wide. It’s unfortunate but when economy’s take a downward spiral pets take a hit. We can take heart that food banks more and more include staples for the care and feeding of our beloved pets. Some food pantries even make house deliveries as shown by a wonderful slide show over at the New York Times entitled Pet Food Pantry check it out and if you can spare some change please donate so that pets everywhere have the nourishment they need. Thanks..

If you know any Empty Nester’s or soon to be Empty Nester’s take a look at this new story at the NYT New Puppy Life about how bringing a dog into your life once the kids have moved out may spark more joy then you ever thought possible.

Many singles and couples who may have never thought about getting a dog or cat are now finding caring and loving for a pet will bring tremendous return to their lives. Encourage your friends and those you know to take a trip to their local shelter to rescue a pet for the holidays. If you work for a shelter think about focusing your outreach to include Empty Nester’s

To pet lovers everything pet is the way to go. Apple has a growing number of applications for users of iPhone and the iPod Touch.

First up from Ngmoco is a game called Touch Pet for Dogs the game bills itself as a Share & Care, Go on Play-dates with your dogs and connect with other who are playing the game.

From their website “Need a puppy friend of your very own? Well now you can adopt a pup that lives in your pocket. Bring your new friend home, take care of them, train them, set them upon a career path, and even share them with all your friends.”

Next from a company named Mobeezio we have Dog Whistler, it comes in a free and paid version and is fully adjustable by frequency. Also Animal Planet’s Daily Treat has a video about this IPhone app, check it out here Dog Whistle Video

From Mobile Simplified and for only 99 cents you can get a pet information manager allowing you to keep track of all your pets important information and have it at your finger tips where ever you go and whenever you want it.

A new app just out from PetsMD is a cousin to their online Symptom Checker giving you a ton of information at your finger tips. Now this is one app I would want to give a serious check out. At 1.99 why not give it a try and drop us a note telling us how you like it.

Petfinder.com powers an interesting app called iPetfinder. it cost 1.99 and allows you to search from your iPhone or iPod Touch for available animals in shelters around the country. This could be an interesting app in help to promote adoption. Anyone try this one out yet?

Finally there is PuppyPics from trippert Labs that allows you to download, rate and share pictures of puppies. The app is free and who doesn’t love looking at pictures of puppies….. I was unable to find a website for this app, you will have to check it out on iTunes.

The iTunes app store is full of hundreds of games and informational apps surrounding the pet world, if you have tried any of these please leave a comment with you thoughts.

Back on Nov 3rd PetSmart issued a recall for products that had the potential to contain salmonella contamination they have now updated that recall to include more products . Here is the updated list. Please check the list to see if you have any of the recall items.

listed with description, SKU, UPC

Dentley’s Bulk Cattle Hoof: 1611247, 73725703323

Dentley’s Choobles 10-Pack Beef Hooves: 5019015, 73725736055

Choo-Hooves Stuffed with Cheese-Bacon: 1611993, 3465190058

Choo-Hooves Stuffed with Peanut Butter: 611994, 3465190056

Flossy Chews Choo-Hoove Roper Two-Hooves: 1813131, 3465117005

Flossy Chews Roper Bone Buddy: 1815505, 3465190002

Flossy Chews Beef Bones with Rope Toy: 5080721, 3465117055

Flossy Chews White Bone Rope: 5147942, 3465117065

Knucle Steaks 2-Pack: 5084141, 3465190046

Choo-Hooves Dog Chews 3-Pack: 1611410, 3465184103

3-Pack Smoked Hooves: 5042279; 3465114003, 4651140037

5-lb. Cow Hooves: 5042275; 34651150609, 3465115060

5-lb. Smokies-Hooves: 5042277; 34651140556, 3465114055

60-Piece Smoked Hooves: 5042278, 3465112122

From the PetSmart website they posted the following and assured everyone all the products affected have been removed from their shelves and website.

“If you purchased any recalled products, discontinue use immediately and return the product to any PetSmart for a complete refund or exchange. If you have any concerns about your health or your pet’s health, we recommend that you contact a medical professional. Any additional questions about this recall can be directed to the PetSmart customer service at 1-888-839-9638.”