by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

A new dog is crowned the best in show for the 136th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the Pekingese GCH Palacegarden Malachy and did you know the Best in Show (BIS) judge is from Long Island?  While I was cheering for Fifi the Doberman to win, (for obvious reasons) she didn’t grab the BIS title.  The Westminster Dog Show is the Superbowl of dog shows and with 2,000 dogs competing this year at Madison Square Garden, I would not want to have to pick the winner!  People come from all over the country and the world to compete or just to attend as a spectator.

After being at Westminster all day on Valentine’s day, I was reading the guide and record and it occurred to me, the 136 Annual dog show.  That’s 136 years this show has been happening, and started back in 1876, really quite remarkable.  Another piece of interesting history, for all you history buffs out there – did you know that the Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show is one of only 3 tenants to have been in every one of the four different incarnations of Madison Square Garden – and Westminster started prior to the first MSG location.  MSG was originally it was called Gillmore’s Gardens and was located at 26th and Madison Avenue.  The current location of MSG is the fourth place MSG has been located.  Who knew?

The Clumber Spaniel was one of the first breeds in the early days of Westminster

As more and more dog breeds are accepted in the the American Kennel Club and now being shown at Westminster – there is a much broader scope of fans, onlookers and attendees at the show.  The show seemed a little more crowded to me this year than last and this year 6 new breeds were competing: the Cesky Terrier; Entlebucher Mountain Dog; Finnish Lapphund; Norwegian Lundehund (a dog with 6 toes on each foot); and probably the most unique looking dog the Xoloitzcuintli the national dog of Mexico – commonly called the ‘show-low’ for short.  The hairless breed was originally called the Mexican Hairless – who knows why the name was changed, but really a cool looking dog.  I do however prefer dogs with fur! And even only last year the Cane Corso, once considered a rare breed was let into Westminster and I think there were 20 dogs competing today.

Cane Corso

Dog shows in my opinion have evolved in the way of the crowd – it’s not the average dog show person that you see at the event – but every day dog owners and dog lovers.  It’s such fun way to see so many breeds in one spot and have such an enthusiastic crowd at Westminster.  You can ask the handlers questions about the dogs, get ideas if a certain dog is for you, etc. Even Pet Celebrities like Victoria Stillwell was there meeting dogs and speaking with people.

Victoria Stillwell of Animal Planet's It's Me or the Dog

And if for some reason you can’t hop on the LIRR to head into the show next year, you can join in on their social media craze.  Social Media for Westminster has taken off like wild fire in the past two years.  The Facebook Page for Westminster has over 96 thousand fans and during the two days of the show fans watching the show were tweeting with the #WKC hashtag.  Last year the day after the BIS win – their website had 10.2 million page views – amazing!

As cool as that all is – we all just want to route for our favorite breed or local owner who has a dog in the show, like Lynn the only female Harlequin Great Dane that was in the Great Dane Ring today, Lynn is from Patchogue.  There are many stories like that and many dogs from Long Island who competed the last two days at Westminster.  Do you have a dog that competed from Long Island? (more pictures below)

Sleepy girl!

English Mastiff takes a rest right in the middle of the floor!

by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

After the Pre-Westminster Fashion show, and before the Westminster Dog Show there is a conference tucked in between both and held at the Hotel Pennsylvania – it’s been taking place the past few years.  What conference am I speaking of?  The 4th Annual Pet Writing Conference of course!  This year was my first year I was able to attend – but as a pet writer or someone in the pet industry thinking about getting into pet writing – this is a conference you should not miss.  Meeting with other pet writers from across the US, pet authors who have published pet books and with editors and publishers – this was an intimate group of about 40 pet writing professionals I would not have otherwise have met.

The conference is hosted by Charlotte Reed of The Pet Socialite Inc., and at lunch time the world famous David Frei of the Westminster Dog Show and Angel on a Leash stopped by to speak to us and with us – in which he was a fab addition of the lunch break.  I have met David a few times in the past and he did not disappoint with his stories of Uno a past Westminster Best in Show winner and his perfect pronunciation of the new breeds this year.  You know the dog breed starting with an X, I wouldn’t even attempt how to pronounce it.

Prior to David showing up at lunchtime, there were different seminars throughout the morning – and I have pages of notes yet to go through and hearing from people in the pet writing industry and learning their ins and outs – was very informative and dare I say fascinating at some points.

I spoke with a publisher and was asking her what she sees in self publishing vs. trying to get your book published world, and she said her company has published pet books that were self published first and the traditional publishing methods.  Was pretty interesting to hear her insight.

Another seminar had speakers from Petside.com and they were so nice and helpful – it was such a wonderful thing to see – as many of us have our own blogs, or pet magazines – they offered nothing but insight and even how to work with them.

Back to the books – one seminar after lunch that was almost a battle, was the Authors on writing – which featured a local Long Island author of 3 children’s books, the first being, ‘Ankle Soup‘ by Maureen Sullivan.  I met Maureen 3-years ago at a pet event in NYC when she and her illustrator were debuting Ankle Soup – and the French Bulldog on the cover is what caught my eye.  Turns out Maureen has been in the publishing world for a while, and yet she still self published her own three beautiful books.  The other author in that seminar, had a book published called Culinary Canine – and she told us of the woes of getting book published, how long it took and how long before they see a percentage (yikes!).  It was really insightful to hear the too authors almost battle out which publishing method was better.  (If and when I write a book, I think I am going to self publish) – so for that part of the seminar alone – made it well worth the attendance of the conference.

I love the fact that I learned things I wasn’t expecting to learn, hence all the notes I still have to go through.  And I was inspired by a few of the speakers that gave me great ideas for things I have coming up in my own pet world.  Gotta love that – and of course all the networking too.

If you’re a established pet writer, blogger or budding pet writer, I would say while in the midst of next year’s Westminster blur – be sure to attend this conference.  Now if I could just think of a catchy title for my book…

By Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

The much anticipated Pre-Westminster Fashion show was a huge hit Friday, February 10, 2012 at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City.  Hundreds of pet celebrities, pet lovers  and lots of paws flocked from all over NYC, surrounding boroughs, New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island, and even from Canada to celebrate the love of dogs.  This is my 3rd time in attendance – and I thought last year was it was crowded with excited dog owners, dogs dressed up and many vendors – but I think this year even more spectacular!  The theme this year was a Venetian Masquerade Pet Fashion Theme by Ada Nieves and there was almost as many dogs wearing masks as people were!

While the fashion show and festivities at Pre-Westminster is a big part of the event – the event is a fundraiser and every year it is for a different animal not-for-profit organization.  This year’s event a portion of the proceeds went to the Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C).  The AC&C has shelter facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and pet receiving centers in Queens and The Bronx.  AC&C is the largest pet welfare organization in the Northeast, caring for nearly 40,000 rescued animals each year.  They have been a non-profit organization since 1995 and is contracted with NYC to manage the City’s municipal shelter system.   Here is Collen a six month old shepherd mix who was totally hamming it up with one of their many volunteers:

This furtastic event is now a well oiled machine and much of that is due to Gregg R. Oehler and his team who coordinate the show.  Gregg R. Oehler is the Chairman of the event and the Publisher of Cesar’s Way Magazine – which is one of the 3 Best in Show sponsors along with Natural Balance Pet Food, Inc. and Petzlife.  The Pre-Westminster Fashion Show is such a great way to kick of the 136th Annual Westminster Kennel Club dog show, and know that you’re helping the animals in the shelter while doing so.  In addition to the many pet vendors at the event, there was also food and drinks, many treats for the pups and let’s just say you need a good amount of muscles to carry out the gift bag they give to all attendees!  My dog Max had his head in the bag checking out all the stuff as soon as I got home.  So mark your calendars for next year, and make a point to get to this show!  You will not be disappointed!
Scroll down to see more pictures!

by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers decided to pick a great theme for the month of January, National Train Your Dog month.  While you should be training and working with your dog all year, this campaign helps raise awareness of the importance of having a well trained dog.  Here on Long Island we are fortunate to have dog trainers offering all kinds of training methods from one end of Long Island to the other.  There really is no excuse to not take a training class, lecture or at least speaking to a trainer on what may best suit your dog and your situation, become a better dog owner and have a happier dog.

Often time’s dog owners have ‘heard’ things about certain training methods, and already have an assumption in their mind, like the prong collar is horrible and mean, or that they would never ever be able to do clicker training with their dog.  But once they are educated how to properly use ANY type of dog training method, you can see the transformation on their face on what they were originally thinking about. (The Human’s face!)

Every month in our Responsible Dog Owner Class (a dog training and education class for humans only) our volunteer dog trainers from Doggie U K9 Academy and Dog Training 101, go over nearly every type of collar, leash, harness, no-pull harness, etc. and talk about how each is meant to work.  Like not pulling or yanking your dog while he is wearing a prong collar, that they are self correcting, or when to ‘click’ that clicker so the dog starts to associate the click with doing the command correctly and getting rewarded.

I have read recently on some blogs dog trainers bashing each other for their various training methods, and I think this negativity doesn’t help the dog training industry.  I have used treats, positive rewards, and evaluate (over days and weeks) what might work best for each dog.  And let me tell you many dogs react, act differently to different training methods.  I have worked with dogs who could care less if you are holding a filet mignon in front of them – if they are aggressive or leash aggressive they don’t give a bleep what food you have.  It’s not always about food reward.  While most dogs are food motivated, not all are.

I have worked with dogs in the past year, that were so highly aggressive towards humans that most behaviorists would suggested they be put to sleep.  One dog who was so aggressive (territorially so) when she in her house, she came very close to attacking me (and viciously) more times than I could count. She was only like this at the door when I arrived at the house to walk her (the owners were not there).  Why go back and work with the dog?  Because I could see how there was an amazing dog in there – she was fantastic with her owner – super smart and very well trained – but at the door it was almost like she was seriously bi-polar and would go off the deep end.  Once out of the house (with TONS of patience on my part), she was just the most fantastic dog, friendly to people – so well trained on and off leash – it was well, insane.  It did take me four months to get a leash on the dog, FOUR months! Did I mention the patience part?  Once she trusted me, she loved going for walks, listened, watched me for commands, and even was very affectionate and sweet.  This same dog that was trying to kill me at the door – the transformation was awesome.  (This dog was abandoned and her owner was the only one that could get near her, and luckily for her he did and was very committed to working with her).  Oddly enough she ended up being one of my favorite dogs to walk and work with because of how she blossomed.  I don’t take credit for her training – I give her owner all the kudos for it, but if I was not patient and gave up on her I would never have seen her wonderful transformation.  She was a dog that was food motivated and the only way to get her out of the house was to bribe her with treats – but on a walk, she wanted your attention and didn’t need the food, verbal praise and petting she adored.  So it was interesting to see a dog you had to use food with in one instance and not in others.

Most dogs want to bond with you, learn from you, some love to have a job to do – and your verbal reward and attention is all they are striving for.  Think about the drug and bomb sniffing dogs, ever watch what the handlers reward them with? It’s usually some sort of toy, tug toy, ball, handmade toy or something along those lines, not food.  It’s still a positive reward, but it’s not food.

To be a dog owner, and want a well trained well mannered dog – you as the dog owner need to do your research.  Find out about different training methods, interview different trainers, get referrals, and if one trainer doesn’t work out – don’t be discouraged, move on to the next trainer.  I have had people hire me after they went through a dog trainer or two – and I asked what did the other trainers tell you – and often times, I would say, well I agree with what they said, you need to do your homework, work with the dog, etc.  So sometimes it’s not that the first and second trainer you met with didn’t work, it’s that the owner didn’t want to follow their instructions or do the work!  A well behaved dog does not happen over night.  I mean do you expect your human kids to learn to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ by telling them only once to do it? I doubt it.

Another piece of advice would be don’t be scared of trying different training methods – you might go through a couple before you get to the one that you see the light bulb over your dog’s head go off!

You can find many different dog trainers in your area by clicking here.

Winnie & Lucy - Lucy was the dog I was speaking of above. Good Girl Lucy!