Dogs Holiday Shopping at Bergdorf Goodman's Posh NYC Store

This holiday season us Mutts are moving up in society thanks to the efforts of one of New York City’s most posh shopping establishments, Bergdorf Goodman. The store known for fostering a Dog friendly environment (they offer treats in their second floor Shoe Salon), just released a new Holiday video, “Unleashed”, featuring a bunch of our four legged friends shopping for presents to give their human companions.

It’s a Dog's high-class shopping dream come true (and probably a two-legger’s dream come true too).

The video features Salty, an adorable black and white Mutt who steals the show with a performance that will warm the hearts of animal lovers everywhere. But it also showcases Purebreds of all types dashing across the store before it closes; going up and down in elevators, opening shoe boxes and even sniffing fine cigars.

The real focus of “Unleashed” is to encourage people to adopt more of our K-9 comrades by contacting the Humane Society of New York, an institution that has been helping animals since 1904.

In celebration of “Unleashed”, Bergdorf Goodman has also introduced the tag #BGDogs to be used with Instagram photo’s on Twitter (I think that is a something my human Mom checks way too much). By using that hash tag, BG customers and their Mutt amigos can appear on an interactive map of Manhattan. Finally, the internet is put to use for our kind, that is, besides my Mutt site.

Thank you Bergdorf Goodman for loving Mutts and keeping us in your Holiday thoughts.  Merry Christmas everydoggy!

Miracle Mutt Survives Three Weeks in a Rabbit Hole

Bilbo

Talk about dogged determination! Bilbo, a genetically challenged dog from the UK, was stuck underground for 20 days before finally making his way out. Of course, it comes as no surprise to us that this amazing dog is a mutt.

  

As this story explains, Bilbo was out for a walk with his family when he decided to chase a rabbit into a 10-inch-hole. Perfectly understandable! Unfortunately, though, he got stuck inside the network of tunnels and couldn't get out.

Firemen thought the tunnel might collapse if they dug into it, so the family was told they would have to wait for Bilbo to find his own way out. That day, and for weeks later, they tried to lure him out with food and other familiar scents, but he was obviously stuck, because none of that worked.

His family had given up by the time Bilbo finally emerged. Luckily they had plastered the village with "missing" posters. The person who found him recognized him from the posters and called right away to alert the family. Bilbo had lost a lot of weight, was caked in mud and had trouble breathing. Fortunately he has been gaining weight and is now nearly back to his full health!

So in this season of celebration we have decided to make Bilbo an Honorary GenChan®* because he exemplifies the definition of a GenChan and GenChan Standards. Additionally Bilbo has the gritty determination that every GenChan has and that is to never let anything get them down!  Read Bilbo's story here.

*GenChan - The first all encompassing breed for mutts and mixes. A humorous acronym for the genetically challenged dog.

Puppies Rescued from Shelters Help Law Students Relax

We know there’s nothing quite like hanging out with a mutt to help lower a human’s stress level. And according to this story I found, law school is a pretty stressful place to be, especially around exam time. That’s why George Mason University School of Law in my neck of the woods, Virginia ,recently held a “puppy day” with 15 homeless and adoptable puppies.

More and more, law schools are trying to teach students how to balance the stress of their studies with healthy habits like running, volunteering or my personal favorite, hanging out with a pet. The Yale Law Library now has a “therapy dog” named Monty, and other law schools have also brought puppies on campus during exams. 

For high-strung law students, dogs and other animals can also provide a soothing presence. That’s a lesson researchers have learned from others in stressful environments, including soldiers in war zones and patients in rehabilitation centers.

At George Mason’s law school, students took time out from studying to play with the puppies. The animals had been saved recently from euthanasia in West Virginia shelters by A Forever-Home Rescue Foundation. The four litters of mixed-breed puppies are living with four foster moms until they are adopted.

“There’s nothing like a puppy to make someone smile,” said Debbie Marson, a volunteer with the foundation. “It’s great for the students, and it’s great socialization for the dogs.”

It’s hard to say who enjoyed the interaction more. The puppies loved the petting and attention, with some even falling asleep in the law students’ arms. But one thing’s for sure: “puppy day” was an unmitigated success. “I think they are sensing our stress,” one student said as she cuddled with a puppy. “They’re reminding us we need to take breaks.”

I think this is something we should take to every stressed occupation don't you?

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At-Risk Dogs Get a Mutt-Makeover

Thankfully there are amazing humans who take a chance on us four-legged creatures and either adopt us or work closely to help those of us who didn't learn manners, get some, so that we find forever homes.  There is a cool group who used to train unruly horses, but have now turned their focus to include training dogs that are at-risk and have been labeled unadoptable. It's called Extreme Mutt Makeover and the alpha dog here is a lady named Patti Colbert.  According to their Facebook Fan Page, the program takes "10 homeless dogs, 10 trainers, and 6 weeks to create well-trained, adoptable dogs."

Only 25% of dogs that enter an animal shelter are adopted, according to American Humane Association.  One of the many reasons is aggression or bad behavior.  Many of the pups in the program go on to help other humans.  Magnus, the lab mix, for example is going to work with children who have autism.  To read more on this happy tail-waggin' story click here.

My friend Mava who really is a dog!

Now on a more humorous note, if you want to give your little or big furrybutt a makeover here are a couple of links that may give you some ideas or not! http://bit.ly/uIYsM0  http://bit.ly/uJEAz5

Genetically challenged dogs may not have the blue blood line, but we have a lot of heart and soul and to keep up with the activities in our pack follow http://MUTTeringsAndThings.blogspot.com

Holiday Donations - Make Sure Your Money is Going Where You Want it To.

Guess you've seen as many appeals for donations to various NFP's in your mail as we have in the past few weeks. And although we can't give quite as much as we have in the past, I want to make sure that whatever I can donate goes to the intended receipients. I don't want to have my dollars supporting the high livin' lifestyle of the administrators of the NFP.

This is the first year that I've checked out the NFP's I like on Charity Navigator. Was I EVER surprised at a couple of the ones I've given to over the years when I saw that their administrative percentages were very high.  In fact, I scratched those charities off my list and added some that focus on the needy and not the administrators.

Charity Navigator has reports on 5,000 charities. If you want to check your charities out, you can sort by Pets for example or choose them alphabetically, here's the link!