Guinness World Record announced yesterday the new record holder for the World’s Tallest Dog title. And it’s neither the earlier introduced George, nor Boomer. It’s Titan, a San Diego-based blind, deaf and epileptic white Great Dane, who’s almost 3 1/2 feet tall from floor to shoulder. Titan weighs 190 pounds, so his measurements definitely live up to his name.
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Did you know that the Norwegian Lundehund is a polydactyl? With seven toes on each paw, these dogs were bred to assist in hunting puffins, usually located in caves and in cliff nests. Even their heads are flexibly, which can be bent backwards along their own spine.
This breed is considered an old breed, dating back to the 1600’s. They almost went extinct during World War II when canine distemper infected the Norwegian Coast. Though still rare, there are roughly 2,000 Norwegian Lundehund in the world and only 300 in the US.
Norwegian Lundehunds love to chase after birds and live for about 10 years. They are known to be difficult to house-train, love to dig & bark, and can be very suspicious of strangers.
To learn more about this intelligent, active and mischievous breed, visit the Norwegian Lundehund Association Of America.
I just finished up editing Memphis’ images and spent some extra time perfecting this one thanks to my new Wacom Tablet (love it).
I find it fascinating that dogs have such a three dimensional quality about them. If you took this same shot of a human head from the back it would be just that, a human head.
But with a dog, you get so much more expression out of them through the use of their body language.
The slightest change in their ears or the smallest tilt of a head says much more than words ever could!
Of the 139 police dogs killed by guns in the line of duty in the last 40 years, 29 of those deaths were – euphemism alert! — due to “friendly fire.”
That’s according to statistics compiled by the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association, and cited in a Baltimore Sun article yesterday.
The figures weren’t broken down into how many of those ”friendly fire” deaths were a result of dogs being caught up in the middle of a gunfight, as opposed to cases of mistaken identity — like the one that led to a Baltimore police dog being shot by an officer he jumped on during a pursuit this week.
But either way, even without adding in the number of injuries, the figures show society could be doing a better job of protecting its police dogs.
On top of the nationwide toll of friendly-fire deaths, and far more common, are police dogs being killed by suspects — as has happened 110 times (with guns) and 25 times (with knives).
So there are really two issues here. One, as evidenced by the case of Baltimore police dog Blade, is whether all police dogs should be distinctly marked as such, by virtue of a vest, collar or other means.
The other, larger one is whether police dogs (and the dogs of the FBI) should be outfitted — like their human counterparts — in bullet-proof vests, something that hasn’t been a priority with municipal officials in Baltimore and lots of other financially-strapped cities.
On the smaller issue, there is disagreement among experts. Some believe putting a dog in a vest for identification purposes, in addition to slowing that dog down, could lead to injuries as a result of the fabric getting snagged on fences and urban debris. Others believe that’s a small price to pay for something that might save the dog’s life, and that police dogs should be clearly marked as such.
Jim Cortina, director of the police dog association in Connecticut, and Russ Hess, director of the U.S. Police Canine Association, told The Sun that outfitting police dogs in identification vests — while the policy of some departments — is not a widely accepted standard.
A Baltimore police spokesman said the department is looking at using reflective collars for dogs, but even that might not have prevented the shooting of Blade, given the speed at which the incident played out.
While police departments aren’t tripping over each other to equip their dogs with vests — either for identification purposes, or protection — a few compassionate citizens have taken up the cause.
Six-year-old Kayleigh Crimmins sold her toys on Craigslist to raise money to buy bullet-proof vests for police dogs in Newport News, Virginia.
Then there’s Alyssa Mayorga in California — aka the “Penny Princess” — who started, at age 7 , picking pennies offf the street and now has her own website devoted to raising money to provide bullet-proof vests for police dogs. She has purchased around 30 of them for police departments in California, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Both little girls were motivated after hearing of cases in which police dogs died in the line of duty.
Children at St. Cloud Elementary School pooled their spare change to raise more than $1,000 in just two weeks to buy a bullet-proof vest for a police dog named Ajsa, who had visited the school earlier. While the town couldn’t come up with a way equip Ajsa with a $1,000 vest, students figured it right out, placing donation bags in homerooms and school offices and raising $1,173.61 in just two weeks, according to the Orlando Sentinel’s “Animal Crazy” blog. (Note to Baltimore schoolteachers: Need a class project?)
Some adults are helping out, too. In 2002, Susie Jean, then living in Georgia, saw a police dog killed on an episode of “America’s Most Wanted.” The next day, she called her local police department and asked if they had bullet-proof vests for their police dogs. They said no, they didn’t have the money for that. Jean made it her mission to raise some and, a few months later, supplied vests to all five of the department’s police dogs.
Jean went on to found Vest ‘N P.D.P., Inc., an organization that has provided 422 bullet-proof vests to police dogs in 39 states.
The rationale behind all those grass roots efforts — so simple that first-graders figure it out – doesn’t seem to have sunk in with a lot of government bureaucrats: Aren’t we obligated, given the dangerous situations we place them in, to provide a modicum of protection to those who are protecting and serving us, even if they’re dogs?
(Photos from EliteK9.com)
