Pet gear: Add some fun to their summer and yours USAToday.com - Need a new ball for Fido this summer -- and one that is versatile inside and outside? Looking for ideas to stimulate Fluffy to stay out of trouble? Here are some of the good (and some really good bad) ideas that have crossed my desk. Whether you're staying home this summer or traveling, these certified non-toxic rubber balls are loads of fun. Even a dog who has trouble catching a ball, can find a way to grab onto this one. It is soft and smashes down, easily fitting into luggage or a tote for the car. PETCO sells them and hopes you'll sign up for their Summer Adventure Sweepstakes. Winners qualify for prizes that range from pet accessories to a Toyota Venza. Summer needs to be fun, fun, fun. For boaters, there are brightly-colored canine flotation harnesses that can make it easy to spot your dog in the water. These seem smart to me (everyone on the boat wears a flotation device, right?) and also provides you with a handle so you can grab hold of your dog if it accidentally goes overboard. Sail with my brother and the Jack Russell terrier, Gracie, goes overboard. That's why she wears one of these. More ideas: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/pets/pawprintpost/post/2011/06/pet-gear-how-to-ease-through-the-summer/175383/1

Cool treats help dogs beat the heat (MNN) -- With a little help from my friend Jojo Pera of Atlanta -- here are 20 dog treats to help your puppies beat the heat. Pera and I volunteer together, and she is my go-to friend for all things pet-related. As the owner of five dogs and three cats, she always provides great tips on how to keep pets busy and distracted while she's away at work. 1. Grab a bowl, fill it three-quarters of the way full with water and place it in the freezer overnight. Place it beside his regular water bowl before you leave for work. As the ice melts, your dog will have a second bowl of cool water during the day. 2. Pour chicken or beef broth into ice cube trays. When frozen, place a few of these yummy pooch ice pops in the food bowl with your dog's kibble, or simply add to the water bowl for a flavored beverage. 3. Pera relies on super tough Kong toys to keep her crowd occupied. Kongs feature hollowed centers that can be filled with anything yummy. "I fill them, freeze them and then pull them out when I leave," she says. Seal the small hole of a Kong with peanut butter then add chicken broth and a stick of beef jerky. Freeze for a yummy yet messy outdoor treat. Keep reading: http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/08/12/summer.dog.treats.mnn/index.html?hpt=hp_bn8

When you're a dog owner, like it or not, scooping the poop kinda just goes with the territory -- at least it's supposed to anyway. And unlike some of the other yahoos around here, I would personally never leave a steaming pile of lawn sausages in my neighbor's front yard. It's just not the neighborly thing to do. Now do I enjoy picking up a handful of stinky dog dung? Heck no! Nevertheless, though, I gag my way through every shitty little bit of it cause that's what I signed up for when I brought a four-legged friend into our family. And let me just tell ya that poop patrol is certainly not for the faint of heart. Try as you may to get the whole heaping mess into that skinny little plastic bag, there are times when it ends up on YOU. Take, for instance, my afternoon walk with Goatdog last week when he dropped a load that could seriously rival a cow's. I wriggled and I jiggled it into the bag as much as I possibly could, but its mountainous size made it an impossible fit. Before I knew it, I was wearing a big ol' smudge of it on my fingers like the newest shade of OPI. Lovely, eh? So given that I was on my way to the library to pick up my kids, I thought it'd be best to dispose of the rancid refuse before I got there. Now for some reason, a few people in my hood get their panties all up in a bunch over people throwing away poop bags in their alley trash cans. In fact, some even go so far as to place signs on their garbage cans that say "NO DOG POOP!" I typically don't throw out stuff in anyone's cans but our own, but this was kind of an emergency. I mean, my nails were brown, for crap's sakes! (*Pun intended.*) I scanned the area to make sure no one was looking as I carefully lifted the lid. Without hesitation, I dropped the bag of ick down into the deep, dark can......along with.......my keys. Son. Of. A. Bitch. Not only did I have butt mud on my hands, but NOW I had to dig through someone else's waste to fetch my friggin' keys!!! Begrudgingly, I held my breath, tipped the can on its side, and reached down as far as my arm could possibly extend. The willies washed over my entire body as I made contact with my keys as well as some seriously soiled food wrappers and other unidentifiable gunk. I nearly vomited right there in the alley. After that, I practically ran the dog over to pick the kids up and get the hell home. I swear if I could've bathed in a tub of Clorox, I totally would have. And the next time I walk the dog, I may just be wearing a hazmat suit as a precaution....

This is definitely true. My puppy is just like a person! He knows everything and definitely picks up all the emotions that my boyfriend and I give off! _____________ Dogs may pick up on human intent USAToday.com - Man's beloved four-legged friends not only respond to the words and ministrations of humans, dogs can understand and anticipate the intentions of their people, researchers are reporting. In a new study, dogs who were spoken to or who had direct eye contact with a person were more likely to follow that human's gaze as it moved across the room than if the person didn't make direct eye contact with them. The skills are equivalent to what is seen in 6-month-old human infants, say researchers, who published their findings online Jan. 5 in Current Biology. "These results support the notion that dogs are sensitive to the cues signaling humans' communicative intent in a way that is analogous to preverbal human infants," said study author Jozsef Topal. "Dogs were domesticated for the purpose of working with people, so it's essential that the two species are able to communicate," said Adam Goldfarb, director of pet care issues at The Humane Society of the United States. "Even though most dogs have transitioned away from their work of herding or hunting, they've retained their communication tools." More and more research is illuminating the uncanny human-like qualities of Canis lupus familiaris, better known as the domestic dog. Continue: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/pets/dogs/story/2012-01-05/Like-babies-dogs-pick-up-on-human-intent/52395162/1