Category Archives: Links of Interest

01/11/13

The Week in Tweets – 11th January

Welcome to our near-weekly segment: The Week in Tweets! This is where I summarise my weekly tweets (from my Twitter account) and choose my favourite as the Tweet of the Week.

 

A Cheating Tweet of the Week

Currently, the South Australian government is calling for submissions on companion animal welfare.  I think it’s such an important issue, I am going to break my normal ‘tweet of the week’ mould and instead just ask my readers to consider writing a submission.  There are a couple of great templates available from Deathrow Pets and from The Paw Project. For more details on the actual submission process, visit the government website.

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01/5/13

5×4 Blogging Summary

Last year, after receiving Kristine’s 11 Must Reads for 2011 (from Rescued Insanity), I created the cheat’s version in “5 Favourite Dog Blogs of 2011“, but then also committed to making a list of must reads from 2012. I then exceeded these plans by deciding to make four best of lists: My favourite blogs, my favourite blog posts by others, my favourite blog posts by myself, and the most popular blog posts from me (according to Google Analytics). So here we go!

 

My 5 Favourite Blogs of 2012

Saving Pets blog.

1. “Saving Pets” hasn’t budged from the rankings as my absolute favourite blog. This blog exposes inadequacies in welfare, predominately in Australia, looking at the failings of Breed Specific Legislation (especially in Victoria), highlighting how society currently funds kill shelters, number crunching stats that demonstrates the problems associated with the Lost Dogs Home and RSPCA, and many other worthwhile posts. I am so excited to read every post, and I particularly appreciate how breeders are never targeted as problematic in the shelter pet-killing culture.

2. I have only recently started reading the “Dogged Blog” by Christie Keith, but I am so glad I have! The posts made about sheltering and animal welfare are very well articulated, and compliment Saving Pets (above) in terms of content. I am so glad I found this blog and I look forward to continuing to follow. My favourite pieces include “Why shelter killing has nothing to do with ‘pet over-population’” and “What opponents of free pet adoption don’t get“.

3. The “Doggone Safe” blog covers a topic I’m passionate about: Dog-child safety. It very much target audiences, and it’s written in an accessible way for those readers.  For example, posts like, “My dog growled at my child – now what?“. I share this content as much as I can, as I think it’s really important!

4. Denise Fenzi’s blog (which doesn’t seem to have a name?) has been another favourite of mine during the past year.  Denise really brings fun into training and often inspires me to actually do some training with my dogs. She also has some good, novel ideas, like practising heelwork to a metronome.

5. My fifth choice for my favourite blogs goes to “Angry Vet” blog.  I love the upfront approach of this blog, that gets to the point and isn’t afraid to challenge standard veterinary practice – and it’s normally things that I’ve been thinking all along!

 

My 5 Favourite Blog Posts by Others in 2012: Continue reading →

01/3/13

The Week in Tweets – 3rd January

Welcome to our near-weekly segment: The Week in Tweets! This is where I summarise my weekly tweets (from my Twitter account) and choose my favourite as the Tweet of the Week.

 

Tweet of the Week

I tweeted a post from Maddie’s Institute, “Study: Focus on the present, not the past, to get pets adopted“. I am a big advocate of positive adoption listings, and this post by the institute covers it well.  Statements like “rescued from deathrow”, “had been used as a breeder in a puppy mill”, and “was so skinny when he arrived in care”, don’t get pets adopted!  People aren’t terribly interested in what the pet was yesterday, but more the animal they’re bringing into their household today. An excellent post on positive adoption listings.

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12/28/12

The Week in Tweets – 29th December 2012

Each week, I blog the links we shared on my twitter account. I also a select a favourite to crown the ‘Tweet of the Week’. It’s a big hunk of links, so get a coffee and enjoy some reading.

 

Tweet of the Week

When I attended a seminar series with Paul McGreevy, he mentioned how studies of guide dogs have shown that the most successful puppies have characteristics that you wouldn’t typically associated with success.  That is, the ‘perfect guide dog puppy’ is right pawed (‘handed’), left eyed, and has hair that whirls in an anti-clockwise direction.  This is seriously the case, as crazy as it sounds, and ABC Catalyst looks into this in more detail in the story “Left Paw Right Paw“.

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12/21/12

The Week in Tweets – 16th December 2012

Welcome to our only weekly (ish) segment: The Week in Tweets! This is where I summarise my weekly tweets (from my Twitter account) and choose my favourite as the Tweet of the Week.

 

Tweet of the Week

My favourite post this week is a cute video I found where a film crew put pet dogs to the test, to see if they are any good at guarding the property. This is just a ‘silly test’, and a lot can be said about how one would really test these dogs’ guarding abilities. But it’s pretty fun to see how these dog’s reactions, and how their owners think their dog will be react is very interesting, too.  The story is, “Guard dogs more friendly than frightening when put to the test“.

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