Leash Lights for Nighttime Walks

Yep, the days are officially getting shorter. But with warmer temperatures, you’re likely still spending lots of time outside with your dog during evening hours. To see better and be more visible to cars at night, try out the Flexi Dog Leash Light. It’s self-fastening and contains six LED bulbs for more than 10,000 hours of bulb life.  The only downside is, it only works if you have a retractable leash. The cost? Just $8.99 and it includes 2 lithium batteries. If you’re interested, you can find it here.

Leash Light

If you don’t have a retractable leash, you could try out Pet Blinkers. It's a flashing light that attaches to your pet’s collar or leash so that he is visible up to a half a mile away at night. The cost for these is also $8.99. To buy, click here.

Pet Blinkers

The Mayor’s Dog Walker

In case you were wondering (and you probably weren’t), Mayor Bloomberg has his very own dog walker for his two yellow Labradors, Bonnie and Clyde.

Alvarez, Warga/News

According to the New York Daily News, her name is Eloise Cucui, and she recently graduated from Hunter College High School. Says Cucui: “I'm literally 'the girl next door.' He's known my parents before he was even mayor, and they know I'm interested in veterinarian medicine, so I was the perfect person."

To top it off, the girl’s gorgeous; appears to be very sweet; and she is attending Cornell University seven-year veterinary science program starting next year. I’m not gonna’ lie, I am a little jealous. When I was 18, I’m pretty sure I was working as a lifeguard at the beach and trying to see how often I could mooch a $20 off my parents without them getting pissed. Anyway, sort of a cheesy story, but read it if you have some free time.

Dog Translator Lets You Decipher Your Dog’s Barks

A product called BowLingual claims it can tell you what your dog’s really trying to say when he’s barking. You attach the bark-sensor collar around your dog’s neck and then use a wireless controller to decipher his barks—it indicates whether he’s  happy, sad, frustrated, on guard, assertive or needy. It also provides a phrase correlated with the emotion to represent what your dog might say if he could actually speak. (I’m imagining I’d get things like “Feed me, woman!” or “I have to pee, damn it!”) The only issue—and it’s a doozy—is, it only works in Japanese. Sweet.

BowLingual says it maintains a record of the 100 most recently analyzed barks as a point of reference, and it can monitor and record your dog's barks and emotions for up to 8 hours while you’re at work. If you want to watch the hilarious video, click here. 

Get Discounted Pet Supplies Delivered

Last night, I ran into a guy named Jason doing a pet food delivery here in Manhattan, and he passed along his flyer. He delivers dog and cat food, accessories, toys, wee wee pads and more directly to your apartment, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Cool, right? The best part is, he has basically every brand of food you can think of.

Check out www.premiumpetsetc.com, and you can give him a call at 1-888-456-3910 or 917-209-4357.

The Dog Flu Virus is Here

According to today’s Science Times, there’s a new dog flu virus going around—H3N8. It has struck predominantly in Florida, New York City’s northern suburbs, Philadelphia and Denver, says New York Times health reporter Donald McNeil, but has been found in 30 states. (It was first found in 2004 among a group of Florida Greyhounds.)

Brachycephalics—dogs with short snub noses—are particularly at risk, say some vets.

H3N8 can be passed by dogs rubbing noses or sharing a water dish, and humans can carry it on their clothes, says Dr. Cynda Crawford of the University of Florida. She predicts it kills five percent of the dogs who contract it. The virus tends to exist in places where dogs live closely together such as shelters, kennels and pet stores. Says the article: “Some veterinarians have found that the dogs that tend to die from it are the 'brachycephalics'—dogs with short snub noses.”

I did some research and found that the most common sign is a cough that lasts for 10-21 days, longer than typical “kennel cough.” Symptoms may also include a nasal discharge and a low fever.

The good news is, the United States Department of Agriculture approved a vaccine last week. (It’s unclear whether the bordatella vaccine will do anything to protect your dog or whether your vet will currently have the vaccine, but I’m checking with my veterinarian to get more information.)

For more information on the virus, check back this week on Dr. Crawford’s NY Times blog by clicking here. If you have any additional information, please share it!