Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Category: Communication
The second set of those beautiful dog and cat photographs.
The first set was a week ago.
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Wish I had weeks and weeks of these for you but sadly that’s all for now! But many thanks, John H., for sending them on.
Happy days everyone!
Carnivore Meat Company of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has announced it is voluntarily recalling a single lot of its Vital Essentials Frozen Chicken Entrees for Dogs due to contamination with Salmonella bacteria.
To learn which products are affected, please visit the following link:
Vital Essentials Dog Food Recall of January 2016
Please be sure to share the news of this alert with other pet owners.
Mike Sagman, Editor
The Dog Food Advisor
That link above explains:
January 15, 2016 — Carnivore Meat Company of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has announced it is voluntarily recalling a single lot of Vital Essentials Frozen Chicken Patties Entrée for Dogs due to possible contamination with Salmonella bacteria.
What’s Being Recalled?
The single lot involved in this voluntary recall is:
- Vital Essentials Frozen Chicken Patties Entrée for Dogs
Net weight 6 pounds
UPC 33211 00807
Lot # 11475
Best by date 20161108 (11/08/16)The “Best By” date code and lot # is located on the back of the package.
Where Was It Distributed?
The affected product was distributed in the following states:
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Rhode Island
- Texas
- Washington
Why Was It Recalled?
The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) selected and tested product as part of a national collection initiative, which was issued by the Center of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) on June 3, 2015.
The Agency notified Carnivore Meat Company that one of the samples collected, tested positive for Salmonella, bacteria commonly associated with fresh and frozen poultry, in human and in pet products.
There have been no customer complaints reported.
No other product manufactured by Carnivore is involved in this recall.
About Salmonella
Salmonella can cause serious illness or fatal infection in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.
Although healthy individuals may suffer only short term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal cramping and diarrhea.
Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.
What to Do?
If you are a consumer and have purchased a bag of the affected product, please call the the company at 920-370-6542 Monday-Friday, 9 AM to 4 PM CST.
The company will assist you in obtaining replacement or a full refund from your local retailer for your original purchase.
If your package has been opened, the company suggests that you dispose of the raw food in a safe manner. This can be accomplished by securing it in a covered trash receptacle.
U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.
Or go to http://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.
Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.
Get Dog Food Recall Alerts by Email
Get free dog food recall alerts sent to you by email. Subscribe to The Dog Food Advisor’s recall notification list.
Let’s all take care of our wonderful dogs!
As our dear dogs speak it.
You will recall that last Friday I featured an item under the title of Private First Class Lingo. The item had been brought to my attention by Constance Frankland.
Well here’s another really special story that Constance came across on a website called Arditor and I wanted to share it with you.
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8 Ways Your Dog is Saying “I Love You“Although dogs don’t speak our language, they are constantly trying to tell us that they love us and always showing love through their actions. Unfortunately, many shrug their shoulders or get annoyed over their dogs’ love gestures.
Here are 8 ways your dog is saying “I love you”…
Tail WaggingSimilar to a cat, a dog’s tail is a communication tool. In fact it is sometimes more accurate in translating its emotions than barking. Held at different positions, a dog’s wag could communicate excitement, fear, threat or submission. If your dog’s tail is held in a relaxed position and wagging all together with its entire butt, it means it is very happy to see you.
Face LickingWarm, sticky, wet and stinky! We know this can get annoying but licking a person’s face is a love gesture from a dog. Dogs lick faces for a few reasons. Mainly, if your pet dog is licking your face, he is trying to groom you! Grooming is an intimate gesture only done after a strong connection is made between dogs (so now you know he sees you as one of his kind). On the other hand, if a stranger dog licks your face, it is simply trying to say that he is harmless and friendly.
Following You Wherever You GoThis is another behaviour that can get on your nerves, especially when your dog attempts to follow you to work! However, it is only a dog’s way to show his love, devotion and loyalty to you. Wherever you are, that is where your dog wants to be. Dogs are extreme social creatures and unlike humans, there is no need for solitude.
Sleeping with YouSimilar to wild wolve packs, wild dogs curl up together to sleep in the night. Rather than sleeping alone in his designated corner, your dog prefers to snuggle right next to you in your bed. If you catch your dog sneaking onto your bed or falling asleep next to you in your couch, it implies that you are his family.
SmilingIt is no surprise when you see something like a smile on your dog. Dogs do smile too! Research has found that dogs can also show and use facial expressions similar to how humans do. A dog’s smile is another way of showing his love and joy to his owner. Having said that, most of us are guilty of not recognizing our dog’s smile.
Crotch SniffingArgh, this is an embarrassing one and how we wished our dogs can quit going around sniffing crotches. But before you start screaming at your dog, try to understand it. This behaviour is in fact a dog’s perculiar way of greeting. More importantly, apart from a hello, it allows the dog to understand and remember you through your scent.
Taking Care of You When You are SickDoes your dog stay by your bed and watch you the whole time while you are nursing a flu? This is its natural instinct to care for a sick or wounded family member, just as they would in the wild. A dog extends its love and care to its sick or injured owner by quietly and patiently watching over him/her. But make sure you hide any superficial wounds away from your dog! It might actually lick your wound as its form of first aid.
Leaning on YouWhether you are sitting or standing, your dog is leaning on you and wouldn’t budge. You can’t move and you can’t get on with your daily routine. While you are wondering what they are up to, your dog has already got what they needed: your attention. Getting your attention and giving you their attention by leaning on you is their way of showing affection. Next time this happens, stop what you are doing and reciprocate with some love.
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This turned out to be more of a Sunday Picture Parade but it seemed too special to hold it from you until the weekend.
No, our dogs don’t speak a language that we humans would recognise as such but, nonetheless, our dogs communicate in ways that still are as magical and special as our human poetry.
Speaking of poetry, let me close today’s post with this.
Back to the theme of sharing.
The latest WordPress report is out in terms of a review of WordPress blogging for 2015. Here’s how that review opens:
Here’s an incredible fact: together, you published more than 660 million posts on WordPress.com in 2015, and made more than 655 million comments.
That’s a whole lot of joy, laughter, tears, insight, and thoughtfulness. And it’s just one part of a huge global community of people — WordPress now powers more than 25% of the internet — with interests ranging from the news shaping our world to personal stories that shape our own families and lives.
We talked about the serious and the mundane, the silly and the sorrowful; we talked about creativity, sports, marriage, parenthood, politics, love, romance, differences, divisions, and identity.
From all of us at Automattic to everyone in the WordPress.com community: it’s been a thrill to watch, participate in, and support your work.
What an incredible community. One that demonstrates multiple times a day that sharing our lives, our dreams and our fears, is all that matters.
Speaking of large numbers here’s a repeat of something that I published last January. Hope not too many of you recall it from a year ago.
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The Lone Ranger and Tonto went camping in the desert.
After they got their tent all set up, both men fell sound asleep. Some hours later, Tonto wakes the Lone Ranger and says,
“Kemo Sabe, look towards sky, what you see?“
The Lone Ranger replies,
“I see millions of stars.“
Tonto then responded,
“What that tell you?“
The Lone Ranger ponders for a minute then says,
“Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
However, astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo.
Then again, thinking about the time just now, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning.
From a theologically perspective, it’s evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant.
Finally, meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
What’s it tell you, Tonto?”
Tonto is silent for a moment, then says,
“Kemo Sabe, you dumber than buffalo chip. Someone has stolen tent.”
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All I want to add is this: Thank you all for taking an interest in Learning from Dogs.
Just couldn’t resist these.
I was searching for another item on YouTube and accidentally came across these two videos.
Take a few minutes out of your day and revel in the following.
Published on Dec 29, 2015Zina, a Maremma/Great Pyrenees mix, does her very best to get her father to play with her. Will he give in? Well, it’s not looking good so far…
Published on Mar 3, 2013Zoey playing with her dad, Bravo, who was a certified therapy dog. 😦 Sadly, Bravo passed away in February. We are happy he can continue to bring joy to people through this video, even though he is no longer with us.
Dogs of all shapes and sizes bring us humans so much joy.
The first one of the New Year.
To learn which products are affected, please visit the following link:
Big Dog Natural Dog Food Recall of January 2016
Please be sure to share the news of this alert with other pet owners.
Mike Sagman, Editor
The Dog Food Advisor
If you go to that link, you will read the following:
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January 4, 2015 — Big Dog Natural of Brick, NJ, has announced it is voluntarily recalling a select lot of its Big Dog Natural Chicken Supreme raw dehydrated dog food because it may be contaminated with Salmonella.
The company is also recalling its Fish Supreme product because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The affected products were shipped to online customers during the period from October 31, 2015 through November 13, 2015.
Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes can affect animals eating the products.
And there is also risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products — especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products.
Healthy people infected with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever.
Rarely, Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms.
Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.
Pets with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting.
Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain.
Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans.
If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.
These products were sold directly to consumers through the company’s online website and in the US.
The recalled products include all weight volumes of the Big Dog Natural Chicken and Fish Supreme.
No additional products are affected by this recall.
Big Dog Natural became aware of a potential issue after receiving notification from the FDA that an investigative sample of Chicken Supreme tested positive for Salmonella.
And that an investigative sample of Fish Supreme tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.
Consumers should discontinue feeding the affected product, monitor their pet’s health and contact their veterinarian if they have concerns.
Consumers who purchased the product can obtain a full refund or exchange by returning the product in its original packaging.
Consumers with questions should contact Big Dog Natural by calling 732-785-2600 from 9 AM to 4 PM ET.
U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.
Or go to http://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.
Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.
Get free dog food recall alerts sent to you by email. Subscribe to The Dog Food Advisor’s recall notification list.
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Please share this with all other dog owners – thank you!
You are going to love this – guaranteed!
Eleanore MacDonald is the author of the blog Notes From An Endless Sea. It’s a blog that I have been following for a while.
On the last day of last year, I published a post that contained the following:
There is much in this new world that concerns me and I know I am not alone with this view. But the rewards of reading the thoughts of others right across the world are wonderful beyond measure.
Little did I know that in just five days time Eleanore would demonstrate “wonderful beyond measure” par excellence! With her very kind permission I republish in full her post from last Sunday. Please don’t read any further until you can be very still and read Eleanore’s post with your total concentration on her stunningly beautiful prose.
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I didn’t have to search for it. My word for the year just came to me, and with it, a host of lovely synonyms in its wake. Devotion. Well, devotion––minus the religious connotations––holding hands with dedication, fealty, loyalty, commitment, fortitude and constancy.
In the past I have labored over what it might be for me, that word that embodies all I want to do with my intentions in the year ahead. But this year, it came floating to me like an errant leaf, late falling on a winter’s breeze. It resonated deep within and because it came with an entourage I felt like a farmer with acres and acres of fertile, unblemished land spread before me all waiting for me to plant an endless bounty.
So I start my new cycle, this new year, with the sowing of seeds of intention, digging deeply into this dark, rich soil. It begins with a renewed Devotion and dedication to loving. To magic. And to beauty.
And writing – something I failed so miserably at conjuring last year. A block is no joke, it is a deep, dark hole that any creative soul can fall into and in my case is called ‘writer’s block’, and it is real. And it sucks. I banish it now with a loyalty to work, those further and continual efforts to paint with words from a palette-full of color.
And then there is Fealty. A deep and resonant fealty to my love/partner/mate, to family and those dear ones who love me as I am whether broken or whole; to those who love the animals and celebrate empathy, truth and compassion; to those who will be happy for me when I succeed, and cry with me in my sadness, who try to pick me up when I fall, and push me hard to continue to explore the vast continents of my interior and to walk onward along the path to becoming the best I can possibly be.
Those beloveds who allow me, in all of that vulnerability, to do the same for them.
Loyalty. Loyalty to my path. And to the greater good. To honesty, integrity, goodness, caring, loving––to kindness and empathy, to staying awake with eyes and ears and heart attentive to the big world around us, to laughter, to weeping buckets when I’m overflowing, to connection, to speaking up and speaking out (loudly!), to celebrating beauty and color, and to a nurturance of the evolution of soul and spirit, my own and that of others.
Commitment. To continuing to wield light, through music.
Commitment to seeing the glass half full.
And to the voiceless ones, who really are my reason for being. The animals. Commitment to doing what I can to ease the burden of suffering for those in need of compassion and caring, of rescue and respite.
Commitment to honoring those others who continue to do the hard and mostly thankless work attending to the emergent needs of those barely surviving untenable lives in the shadows; those caring for the pets of the homeless, animals who act as angels for the people of the streets whose only tether left to any comfort in this life is a beloved dog or cat companion; those pulling the newborn kits and pups from garbage bins, or flimsy boxes set in the cold rain along busy streets, those rescuing dogs from a brutal existence of abuse, abandonment, fighting, life at the end of a cold chain; those earthly angels whose hearts have been broken over and over again yet they continue on, continue giving, helping, trying to make a better life and a better world for those left behind. (I have always held that, were humans to collectively realize that the other beings we share this glowing, gorgeous orb with––the animals, the trees, the waters, the land––all require and deserve our recognition, our action, our honor and caring, then the world’s ills would resolve. And so it goes…)
Fortitude. The fortitude to walk my path ahead in constancy, through dark and light with no time or inclination to curl into a ball and sink to the bottom of the well. Life now is too short for that.
Dedication, fealty, loyalty, commitment, fortitude… in action, together they reduce down and distill to a fine and pure constancy of devotion.
I am good with that! Right?
Do you have a ‘word for the year’? If so, do try to hold it close, in honor of its gift. When 2016 comes to pass, I would love to hear what your word was and how it served you. Or, how you served it.
Spreading my wings now… With love and light, and hopes that your year ahead is graced by all that is good,
Eleanore
all photos © Eleanore MacDonald except for those taken by Paul Kamm.
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Adding anything from me runs the risk of diminishing the beauty of Eleanore’s words.
See you tomorrow!
Please read, digest and share as widely as you can!
Fellow author, Deborah Taylor-French, recently posted a stark warning for all dog owners. Deborah wrote on her blog, Dog Leader Mysteries, the following:
1 thing more toxic than chocolate for dogs
Yes, and it’s everywhere.
Please visit my guest blog post on 4Knines blog “One common thing that is more toxic than chocolate for dogs” Then please comment! Of course, after you comment, I’d love it if you would share far and wide for the love and lives of dogs. After working on this post for about a month I shared it as a guest post so that it may reach a larger audience of dog lovers, beyond my WordPress blog.
(I also can’t resist including the following photograph of Deborah and Syd that was in that post!)
So the balance of my post today is a full republication of Deborah’s guest post as it appeared over on 4knines blog.
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Reflections on the old and the new.
So here we are on the last day of 2015, the cusp of a new year and who knows what the next twelve months have in store.
All I am going to do is to reflect on the huge potential our modern ‘wired-up’ world offers for learning.
Most will know the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
But it is wrong!
Here at home, where a number of the dogs are in their old age (Pharaoh is the equivalent in age of 100 human years; one dog year being approximately the same as eight human years) Jean and I see no difficulty in these elderly dogs learning new tricks. Staying with Pharaoh, as an example, his hearing is pretty poor now but he has learnt a whole range of hand signals in recent months and he still communicates very well with us.
There is much in this new world that concerns me and I know I am not alone with this view. But the rewards of reading the thoughts of others right across the world are wonderful beyond measure.
Here’s a tiny dip into some fascinating items and articles that have graced my in-box in just the last twenty-four hours.
and my final selection:
So here’s to a new year of wonderful new learnings. And let me leave you with this additional message for 2016.
Namely that The Nation weekly journal are celebrating their 150 years of publishing the magazine. They recently published a 150th Anniversary edition and the front editorial is written by Katrina Vanden Heuval. There is a ‘break out’ to one side on Page 2 of that editorial that reads:
Change is inevitable, but the one constant in The Nation‘s history has been a faith in what can happen if you tell people the truth.
Finding out the truth and sharing it so we can all see what can happen is my wish for 2016.
Happy New Year to all of you, and to all of your friends and loved ones.
Sent across to me by Dordie, a close neighbour of ours.
You all stay warm wherever you are – and here are some good ideas about so doing!
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Heading into the end of the year now!
Learning from Dogs 