CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT!

"My Jack"

portrait by Linda S. Young

My Jack (aka Gentleman Jack aka Jack Daniels, aka The Jackman) came to live at Hooligan House in 2002. He was approximately 2 years old and was in rescue. We fostered him and the rest is history. A canine DNA test done a couple of years ago confirmed that Jack is an Airedale Terrier – German Shepherd mix. He has the amazing learning quickness and temperament of ADTs and the loyalty and steadfastness of German Shepherds. Jack is a most wonderful doG in all ways. He's a retired therapy dog and service dog. And he’s the one who turned us on to Airedale Terriers and got us into Airedale Terrier Rescue.

So, it’s only fitting that Jack is the poster doG for AlAiredale Rescue. As we go forward with our rescue efforts, we increasingly see the need for fundraising efforts. We have expenses like fuel for transportation, shelter fees when we pull a dog from a “pound” situation, health exams, heartworm treatment, vaccinations, and all that other behind-the-scenes stuff that is necessary to get a rescue doG ready for adoption. Most of it, we provide from our own funds. Occasionally, we receive donations from lovely people who deeply want to be part of a happy story like GG’s.

A friend of ours has graciously offered to donate her talent and time and energy to help us with a fundraiser. She is an Artist with a huge heart. And the winner of our fundraiser will receive a portrait of their own pet, done from a photograph they will provide. And for a donation of $5.00, your name will entered into a drawing to receive a portrait of your own pet, done from a photograph you will provide (and of course, you may enter more than once!). This painting is valued at $500.00.
All you have to do is send a check or money order for $5.00 to Muriel Donald,

P.O. Box 1121, Grand Bay, AL 36541

Or, you can go to www.alairedalerescue.blogspot.com and make a Paypal donation in the amount of $5.00. Be sure to send us an email with your name and email address when you use Paypal.

To see examples of Linda Young’s art, visit: www.lindasyoung.com

Linda S. Young is an award winning artist originally from Brookline, Massachusetts who now lives in Cape Cod and South Carolina. She works in Pastel, Oil Pastel and Oil. Her ability to capture the nuance of a scene has helped her win many awards including two Best in Shows. Linda is a signature member of the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod. She is a member of 21 in Truro, several Art Associations, and has been in numerous group, juried and solo shows and is in many national and international private collections. In 2012 she will be included in the book "100 Southern Artists".
   As an active member of the artistic community, she believes in helping others attain their artistic goals. Since 2002 she has been Artist Mentor through the School to Careers Partnership Art Internship program.

The winner of the ALAiredale Rescue fundraiser will be announced June 1^st, 2012 on this website.

Another Pet Food Warning / Homemade Dog Food Recipes

ThEY PuT WHAT iN ouR FooD???

Dog Owners are Demanding Action from the FDA. One consumer reported they fed their dogs a product called Waggin' Train treats, which is produced by Nestle Purina. Nestle Purina also produces Canyon Creek Ranch treats, which some other complainants have also publicly blamed for dog illnesses and deaths. The Canyon Creek packaging has a picture of a rancher and his dog roaming a farm on the front of the bag and the company's address in South Carolina is displayed on the back of the bag. Beneath that are the words “Made in China”. You can read the entire article at http://news.yahoo.com/toxic-treats-china-killing-us-dogs-pet-owners-151514587--abc-news.html

From Mom-of-Hooligans:  This happens every couple of years. It certainly seems the US FDA is falling short of making sure the pet food entering our country is safe enough for our pets to eat. So --- here are some recipes for you to make for your dogs. They come from one of my favorite websites: http://www.dogtreatrecipes.org/

Remember, YOU are the best judge of what is safe for your dog.

HOMEMADE DOG FOOD

Ingredients:

6 c. Water (or low-sodium broth)

1 lb. Ground beef, turkey or chicken (you don’t have to use ground meat)

2 c. Brown rice

1/2 tsp Garlic powder

1/2 tsp Dried rosemary

16 oz. Bag of assorted frozen veggies (or preferably, 2 cups fresh), thawed and/or finely chopped.  NOTE:  NO Onions!

Directions:

1.  Add everything but the veggies to a large pot or dutch oven and cook on the stove on medium heat.

2.  Stir mixture until the ground meat is broken up and distributed evenly throughout the pot.

3.  Bring to a boil.

4.  Once boiling, cover and bring the heat down to low.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

5.  After 20 minutes, add veggies and cook for an additional 5 minutes or so.  The time will depend on how long it takes for the veggies to get tender.

Done!

Serve warm, not hot and make sure to let the homemade dog food cool completely before storing it in the fridge.

This dog food recipe makes about 10 cups or 5-2 cup servings depending on the size of your pooch.

It should keep in the fridge for about a week.

VEGGIE BAGELS FOR DOGS

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water

2 1/2 cups white flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup chopped spinach

1/2 cup chopped carrots

Directions:

To start, combine all dry items in a mixing bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in a different bowl. Mix together the dry and wet ingredients and knead them to form dough. Next, shape small round balls of dough and poke holes in the middle of each ball to create a bagel shape. When finished making bagel balls, place them on a baking sheet and put them in an oven that has been preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake them for forty-five minutes.

IT'S WHAT TERRIERS DO

Duke stayed out all night last night. 

This morning he met us at the back door

 with a look of sheer joy on his face. 

And some twigs in his beard.

Naturally, we had to find out where 

he had been digging for hours and hours and hours. Maggie found it first.

She decided to enter the hole. No worries, 

it's big enough to hold TWO hooligans.

See how hard Duke worked all night?

Can you imagine how much fun we're

going to have getting him clean?

IF we can ever get him to leave the hole, that is.

He's back in the thickets now, 

digging and digging and digging.

Can you see him?

We just hope the gopher tortoise

who lives in the hole in the thickets manages

to get away during the daylight hours today.

Otherwise, tonight is going to be real exciting.

AAARRROOOOOOO! 

WE LOVE YOU, DAD!

Jack and GG playing with Dad last night.

Hooligan kisses are the best!

Sissy is at THE VET today!

Sissy has an ouchie: an abcessed tooth. She is at the vet's office today and Dad will pick her up in a little while. The office closes at noon on Wednesdays and Dad doesn't get off work until 4:30 today, but it's okay.You know you live in a small town when the vet calls your Dad and says, "Sissy will be outside in a locked kennel. I will leave the key to the kennel and a bottle of antibiotics under the mop bucket at the back door."

TRAINING QUESTION

Dear Mom of Hooligans,

I just adopted a three year old Weimaraner named Rocky. He's sweet and affectionate and I love him to death but he doesn't walk well on a leash. He almost pulls my arm out of the socket. What kind of leash should I get for Rocky? My sister has a retractable leash for her beagle mix.


Congratulations on adopting a great Hooligan! Even his name says "Hooligan"! I foresee alot of happy challenges in your future. As to leashes aka training leads, the one I swear by is a six-way leather leash that has been used in European schutzhund dog training for many, many years. You can use it several ways, but what I like most about it is this: It fits across your upper torso and attaches to the dog's collar. This will keep Rocky beside you so that he has no option but to walk at your heel, with you giving him an appropriate treat reward every so often. Plus, it will leave your hands free. I bought my leads many years ago at a dog show, but I believe you can order these from amazon.com. Just be sure to get one that is leather and is six feet long.

I never recommend retractable leashes for any dog. NEVER. EVER. Don't buy one. I have seen too many owners use these the wrong way and just let their dogs wander wherever they want to, as far away as they want to. It allows the dog the opportunity to annoy other people and other dogs and it also can cause horrid injuries to dogs. The retractable leash is in fact like a wire that can get wrapped around a dog's leg and slice it like a knife. It can do the same thing to human flesh. Big dogs can break a retractable leash with no problem at all, just snapping it like a string of thread. Stay with a strong, six foot leash like the 6-way lead I mentioned above. It's safer and it's reliable.

DEVILTRY

THiS iss MAGGIE! I FyNULLy goT to comPOOTER all By Myseff aND noBuddy iss wATCHING!

Yesterday ouryard was soaken wet beecoss of rainrainrain alladale long. We cooddint play out there for long. Well DUKE and BUDDY ddnt want to play out there for long.

I wass liken that rain, me. But they wanted to get outta rain so we came bak inna houss and wass habben a borren ole morning until me and Duke got the grate idea to tteach Bud how to do the Airedance.

Only Mom says Airedances don’t beelong inna houss and she fusssd and made uss stoppit.

Then we deesided to snoop around in the dog den to see if there wass anny spilt food on the floor. There wassent so I went counter surfing and I got inta trubble for that too.

IN a few minnutts Buddy saw sumthen red on toppa da kitchen tabble. He dossent like red and he goess after it every time. Whitch he did again it wass a red dish towel and he pulled it down and it was sittingg under a pan and when Buddy yanked the red towell it made the pan come down too and it clanged and banged and Mom jumped and yelled and blamed ME for it becoss I had just been counter surfen a few sekunds before when she looked through the door. 

She put me in TIME out and DUKe hadda come too even thow he wassent even inna kitchen when it happenned. Dales get blamed for EVERYTHING around here.  I think Duke told yhall one time that the hoomans think Buddy issa little PRINCE!

Here iss a exsample. Buddy even went and foun one of Dad’s clean hankees in the laundry basket. He picked it up and rann inta the den with it and tried to get Dad to play tug. Dad just said, no Buddy, all my handkerchiefs have holes in them from your teeth and the people at the office make fun of me. He took the handkerchief away from Buddy and that was all that happened! Buddy laid down at Dad’s feet like a real good boy. GRRR.

After awhile the little prince got bored and wannedd us to play with him. He play bowed and wagged and finully began jumpping at us. He iss like a bowling ball when he jumps on us. I think Mom tole you that once, too.

Affter Buddy bowled into me a couple of time, and made me grrrowl he started in afta Duke. Duke doesn’t play bowling and he stood up and gave Buddy whut for which of course got us in trubble all over again. Then me and Duke looked at each other and got the best idea of all.

It wass still raining outside but you know when a dog hass to go, a dog hass to go. Me and Duke ran to the door and barked and of course here comess Buddy too. He ran right up between us and bowled us away from the door. But we didunt snap at hm this time. Dad came over and opened the door so the DOGS could go outside to take care of their bidness. When the door opened, Buddy almost broke a leg running outside into the storm ahead of me and DUKE. He just hass to be first, in everyTHING.

BUDDY ran out into the storm and me and DUKE just sat down. And grinned at each other. And stayed dry. GOTCHA!

The Dale who AAARRROOOs last, AAARRROOOOs best!

"WHERE DO I SEND IT?"

Our friend G.M. read our blog about being a voice for the animals and then placed a phone call about animal cruelty laws in her community. G.M. was put on hold when she made her phone call, and no one ever came to the phone. Can you imagine that? Surely that was a one-time incident.

But just in case it happens to you and, like G.M., you want to know where to send the letter -- we are posting the following hyperlinks that will help you find telephone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses of your elected officials. Local law enforcement agencies will be listed in your telephone book.

1.  Enter your zip code here and it will take you to the list of your elected legislators.

http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html

2.  Need to find your senator? Try this link.
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

3.  AND HERE'S A BONUS FOR YOU!
Live in the United States? Visit this site to find out about the animal cruelty laws in your state.
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/animalcruelty/


Thank you to everyone who read the blog about being a voice for the animals, who made that phone call or sent that letter or email. Thank you for talking to your friends, family and co-workers.

 PAWS ALL OVER THE WORLD

ARE APPLAUDING YOU.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME & MAGGIE

It was cold at our house this morning. How cold was it? Well, Dad got up around 3:30 to let Maggie out for some personal time. He rested in his recliner for a little while and covered up under the purple afghan that Mom leaves on the sofa for decoration. When Maggie came back inside, Dad tossed the afghan back on the sofa, and he went to bed. Leaving the afghan alone and unprotected.

Mom and Dad overslept this morning and when they did get up, they almost tripped over a pudgy purple lump on the den floor. It was snoring. Only the tip of a big black nose was sticky-outy. Mom told Dad to grab his camera phone from beside the recliner to take a pickshure of Maggie and he said no. Mom said, "She looks like a purple sausage! Get the camera!" Dad said no again because he wasn’t quite awake yet. I’m sure that was the reason. Otherwise he would never say no to Mom. ( ! )

But all that talking woke the Princess up and she scurried out of the purple afghan and went running to the kitchen for a real sausage breakfast (Maggie likes to eat first thing in the morning). And so a great photo op was lost forever.

I asked Mom how she knew Maggie was the purple clump and not me.

Mom said, “Because my dear, the floor has never been comfortable enough for you to sleep on all night no matter how many afghans you find unattended.” She knows me so well. I would have been on the sofa with the afghan. With my head on a cushion.

AAARRROOOOOOOO!

I GO TO THE OFFICE WITH MOM

Mom woke me up this morning and said we were going to have some fun today. We got in the car and zoomed away while Maggie howled and the other Hooligans tried to ignore her. When Mom turned the car onto Business Park Drive, I sat straight up because I knew where we were! We were going to work!

When we got there, I sniffed around and decided to lie down in the middle of the doorway to Mom's office. It seemed like a good place to be; I could see people coming from all directions and alert Mom to them.

But then I met Miss Paula and she said if I was gonna be at work today,

I needed to work today. Huh?

So she showed me the copy machine and the desk

where she wanted me to spend the day.

To which I replied, "NOT THIS BROWN DOG!"

"I'm gonna work the way Mom does!"

Got my coca cola, got my smart phone. That's all the work I'm gonna do today.

AAARRROOOOOOOO!

IT's A GOOD LIFE

I was asked to try out for the starring role in a remake of The Shaggy Dog.

And Mom didn't think it was funny.

So she took me to the Salon.

I got a haircut and I think I look pretty snazzy.  

Mom took me to her office to show me off to everyone.

When we got home, my back was itchy

so I went outside to check on Mom's antique roses.

The ones with the thorns.

AAARRROOOOOO!!!

That feels GREAT!

Autumn in the Aire

 We are finally getting some good weather here in south Alabama: lows in the low sixties and highs in the low eighties. We are spending more time outdoors and as you can see from this photo, I have plans to inspect and patrol every square inch of our back yard, all weekend long. Hope you enjoy your weekend, too!

AAARRROOOOOOOO!



TO THE RESCUE!!!

Another Hooligan House Adventure!!!

This is ABBY. Her family had to give her up because they couldn't afford to take care of her. She is leaving a shelter in Mississippi today and going to New Orleans for a few days and then she will be coming to Hooligan House! Mom already has a foster home lined up for her AND a possible forever family. Abby just needs to spend some time in foster care so that Mom can evaluate her and be sure the applicants will be a good fit for her. ISN'T THIS GREAT?? WE ARE VERY EXCITED AND CANNOT STOP ARROOOING!

Besides the evaluation Mom will do, we Hooligans are gonna do a Hooligan evaluation, to see if Abby is worthy of joining our ranks. We've already heard that she is very high energy, so that's a real good sign. Hope that adoptive family knows what to expect!

AAARRROOOOOOOO!

Great Rescue Run, Part 3

Before we get started again, Mom says there’s no need for you all to keep jamming my email box with requests for muddy pictures of her and Dad. She says don’t hold your breath because that’s not the kind of image she wants getting’ spread around the internet. I don’t really get that. She was laughing the other night and she acted like she thought it was fun. Oh well.

So… where were we? I can’t remember so I think I’ll tell you next about that Purple collared grrl. She had really long legs (I like that in a grrl) and she was a liddle bigger than the two sisters. And she was fun, like me. She played tag with Mom and Dad. They chased her all over the house, trying to tighten her collar, but she was fast and she can jump higher than they can. I just lay on the sofa and watched the excitement. My head went back and forth: PG would run past, then Dad would run past, then PG would run back by me, then Mom would try to grab PG’s collar, then PG would jump over the ottoman and run away again. Whew! It wore me out but I laughed and laughed.

Purple Grrl

Finully Mom caught hold of that pretty purple collar with one hand and PG’s bottle-brush tail with the other. Dad came over to help. He held PG while Mom tightened the martingale.

What’s a martingale? Oh, it’s a speshul collar that’s not supposed to slip off. Heh heh heh. But PG is an Airedale. There’s never been a collar made that we couldn’t slip out of if we want to. She wanted to. And she did. Then it was run run run run through the house some more, and leaping over chairs while the parents did it all over again. (The camera was in Mom’s purse behind a closed door, sorry.)

Anyways, they gave up on the fancy-dancy martingale and got a harness to put on the Purple Grrl. It was red. She didn’t like it much but she couldn’t get out of it. Then they gave her a rope toy to play with and she had never seen one of those before. She sniffed it and cocked her head at it and put a paw on it so she could find out just what it was made of, and then she put it in her mouth and she ran into Dad’s office with it and lay down and started chewing it. Pink Grrl went right after her and tried to take it away from her, and they started tugging on opposite ends of the rope like they’d been doing it furever. Mom was so P R O U D of them and so happy their rescue experience hadn’t stressed them out too much to play. Mom and Dad took the two grrls out to potty and then brought them back in for some more playtime with the rope.

Mom offered them treats but I think I told you before that they weren’t familiar with treats. They sniffed and licked them but that was about all. Mom says these pups are going to be motivated by toys & games more than treats when they go through obedience training.

Well, those two grrls were busy with the rope and the third liddle grrl, Turquoise, still hadn’t left the guest room. Not because she was locked in there. She just stood at the doorway and whimpered for her sister. The other two would trot down the hall and try to ‘splain to her that it was okay to come out into the house, but she just couldn’t get up the courage to do it. And any time a parent went into the room to talk to her, Turquoise would run into one of the crates and hide. Mom knew Turquoise needed to go potty because she drank a lodda water when the pups first came home. And Mom was worried that Turquoise would strain her bladder by holding it for a long time.

It was sad, watching Turquoise at the door and listening to her whimper.

At last Mom said, well, maybe she will go potty on newspaper. So she put some newspaper down in the hall.

Guess WHAT? Nope. Turquoise didn’t potty on the paper.

Instead, she used it like stepping stones to get to the hall runner rug and then onto the living room rug. She had been afraid of the vinyl tile in our hallway!  None of us had even considered that, and we all felt pretty silly about it.

But really, it makes sense. The pups had been kept in crates most of their 8 months of life and they didn’t know nuthin about house floors. Purple and Pink were bold enough that it didn’t bother them, but Turquoise was more shy and Mom says T is gonna need an understanding, patient hooman to help her adapt to real dogdom.

Her bladder finully did let go inside the house but Mom didn’t say a word about that. She just cleaned it up and pretended it hadn’t happened.

Before bedtime, though, TG was following her sister around the house and she even took a treat from Dad’s hand. WOW.  She wouldn’t come when Mom called her though, she would just hunker down on the floor. Finully Mom got down on the floor with TG and started stroking her on the back. Just for a minute or so, and then she stopped and TG got up and ran away. About thirdy minutes later, Mom did it again.

And you know sumthen? Before the pups were crated for the night, Mom offered TG another treat. TG came over to take it, and she let Mom touch the side of her face evuh so gentle.

It was a good night at Hooligan House.

AAARRROOOOOOOO!

That's Turquoise Grrl on the far left. In the middle is Pink Grrl. And on the right, is Purple Grrl.