I know what it's like to lose a dog. It happened to me - and to my family - when I was a teenager and Goldie, our standard Poodle, ran away. We looked for her in animal shelters, ran ads in newspapers, put up fliers in our town and surrounding areas. After several months of searching every day after school and on weekends, we lost hope.

One year later, almost to the day she disappeared, our veterinarian called and said he believed he had found her. Someone brought in a scruffy, filthy apricot-colored Poodle, and the ID on her collar listed him as the vet. He called us.

It was Goldie, all right. We thought we would never see her again, but there she was in our vet's office looking scared and uncertain. I can't describe how happy we were.

Those memories came rushing back when I read the story about Muffy, a Terrier mix on the east coast of Australia who went missing for nine years. Nine years! The other day, she was reunited with her family in Queensland.

RSPCA Australia heard about the dog from someone who had seen her living in a suburban backyard in Melbourne. But she looked sickly, so the person called the organization.

"We found her living in pretty awful conditions on a piece of cardboard," RSPCA inspector Gail Coulter (pictured above with Muffy) told the Times newspaper. "She had matted hair and was riddled with fleas and had a really severe dermatitis condition."

A welfare agency discovered that Muffy had a microchip and traced her to the Lampard family, which had purchased another dog, named Jack, after giving up hope of finding Muffy. But Jack died four months ago.

"I just couldn't believe it. It's absolutely amazing," Natalie Lampard told the Times.  "I told my daughter Chloe and she was just over the moon. She can't wait to see Muffy again."

The dog will need continued care for her skin condition, but after a 1,250-mile odyssey and almost a decade on her own, she's clearly none the worse for wear.

Oh, the stories she could tell.

The nerve.

A jewelry salesman from Kansas told police in Denver this week that he was robbed at gunpoint outside a Starbucks. The bad guys got away with $300,000 worth of dog jewelry.

Who steals dog jewelry? A thieving Chihuahua? A felonious French Poodle?

Actually, police say they don't really know if a crime occurred. They're taking the salesman, who said he was in town for the Rocky Mountain Cluster Dog Show, at his word.

"We can't just say that it seems kind of far-fetched," Parker, Colo., Police Captain Jim Tsurapas told the Rocky Mountain News. "We're treating it as an armed robbery. We are going to pursue it to see if we can prove it or disprove it."

The salesman said three tubs of jewelry, including bejeweled dog collars, were taken from him. He had stopped to buy a cup of coffee.

I say they should check Paris Hilton's dogs first. If they have guilty looks, put them in a lineup.

Today the world witnessed what many would call a "Dream Come True." Barack Obama took the Inaugural Oath and became the 44th President of The United States Of America.

For two young girls, another dream looms on the horizon.  Dog lovers everywhere are rabidly devouring any, and all news of the First Dog.  Fans, supporters and critics all have opinions, advice and stories to share.

For anyone considering a dog, finding and selecting an appropriate match for the family and home is paramount.  The Obamas seem to be taking their time, waiting for the right dog and the right time.  A good choice.

Once found, the pup needs to be welcomed into the home and family.  For many families, bringing home a new canine companion marks the beginning of many challenges.  As with all things, raising and training a well-mannered pup will have "setbacks and false starts." 

Success takes time, commitment, consistency and hard work.  Hope is needed here too.  Many first-time dog parents feel a paralyzing hopeless as they face any number of unexpected challenges.  Perhaps it will serve them well to remember the words of President Obama. 

Could there be such truer words?

I wish that I could, so directly and so convincingly,

If we can't acknowledge what we face, then we will never find the courage, strength and commitment we needed to overcome.  No doubt, there are bigger challenges in life than how to raise and train a new dog.  However, do not underestimate the stresses of a new canine companion. 

Training a new pup can feel like an insurmountable task.   Trainers should be leaders and must not forget to tell all their clients that they are not alone in their frustrations, fears and concerns.  Pup parents and doggie adopters need to hear that the challenges they face are no less enormous than they feel, but that when taken in turn these seemingly insurmountable tasks are smaller and more manageable that they look from afar. 

And yes, everyone with a new dog or puppy needs a good trainer; someone who can to lead them in relocating hope when it has been chewed up, peed on and buried deep in the yard.  Sometimes a good start is just acknowledging that there is a serious matter at hand and that everyone is going to need to dig in and commit to working hard.  

The solution is always out there, but it may not come easily or freely.  In life there are no easy fixes, no short-cuts and no magic potions.  This applies to training dogs, too.

In the midst of a discussion about the economy, global uncertainty and homeland security, President-elect Barack Obama revealed something important about the type of dog that will soon be living within the walls of the White House.

It's either going to be a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog.

Speaking with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," Obama said the choices had been narrowed to those two breeds, although the Labradoodle is really a hybrid (Labrador Retriever and Poodle) and is not recognized by the American Kennel Club. But the question came at the prompting of daughters Malia and Sasha, who accompanied their dad to the televised interview.

Here's how the exchange went:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I got to tell you, you know, (Malia and Sasha are) out touring the museum right now, I heard they were taken straight to the first dog exhibit and while you were getting made up, they went into the control room and played director and producer. And they actually gave me a question they want me to ask you. You know exactly what it's going to be.

OBAMA: Uh-oh. Go ahead.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What kind of a dog are we getting and when are we getting it?

OBAMA: The -- they seem to have narrowed it down to a Labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound.

STEPHANOPOULOS: A medium sized.

OBAMA: Medium sized dog, and so, we're now going to start looking at shelters to see when one of those dogs might come up.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you're closing in on it?

OBAMA: We're closing in on it. This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary.

I don't know if you saw the story about the woman who recently adopted 27 dogs from a shelter to prevent them from being euthanized. When I first read it, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

I'm sure Colleen Spalioni's heart was in the right place. She lost her own dog in November when it was struck and killed by a car, and she wanted to find another that looked just like him. Her Internet search led her to Dogsindanger.com, a site that posts photos of dogs in shelters with the number of days they have left until they are euthanized.

Spalioni, who lives near Reno, hired a teenage neighbor to drive with her almost 800 miles to a shelter near Bakersfield, Calif., where she found a dog that resembled her own. But after seeing so many dogs in need of homes, she just couldn't help herself.

She adopted the dog she wanted - and 26 others, including one Chihuahua, 10 Chihuahua mixes, two German Shepherd mixes, two Miniature Pinschers, a Jack Russell Terrier and a Poodle. She loaded them into her truck and drove home.

Everything would have been fine, except that her new dogs did what dogs normally do. They barked -- so much, in fact, that the neighbors began complaining. And then she was told that a local ordinance allows no more than three dogs per household.

Since then, Spalioni has been looking for new homes for the dogs. So far, she's found places for almost all of them.

And, she said, "I learned my lesson. I promise I won't do this again."

Her concern for the dogs is admirable. I commend her. I'm sure others would love to do the same if they had the space and time to love and care for dogs in need.

But as someone who owns four dogs, I could have told her: It's a lot of work.