Pet dog sick after eating palm oil on Broadstairs beach

A couple have spoken of the moment they found out their beloved pet had been poisoned when it ate palm oil washed up on a beach.

John Watterson and his wife Jean realised three-year-old Vulcan was ill when he vomited after his walk on Friday.

The pair’s granddaughter had been walking the flat-coated retriever along Botany Bay, Broadstairs, between 10am and 11am close to the power station.

Mr Watterson, of Percy Avenue, Broadstairs, took Vulcan straight to the vet at around 8pm as soon as he realised what had made the dog so poorly.

He said: “I took him to the vet who asked me what I thought it might be and then they said it seemed likely.

“He was put onto a drip and kept in overnight and did blood tests.”

His owners went to collect him the following afternoon.

Mr Watterson added: “The size of the thing he ingested was relative to half a brick. I think the problem comes when it starts to get a bit windy and what is normally in the sea comes on to the land.

“He must have been intrigued about what it was and decided to try some, which made him ill.”

The chemical comes in the form of a white waxy substance which is found in lumps on the beach and is highly toxic to animals.

In the worst cases palm oil can cause severe illness or death in animals and can also be dangerous to humans if they come into close contact with it.

It is grown across the world and used mainly in food, soaps and shampoos as well as biofuels.

Thanet coast protection officer for Thanet District Council Tony Child said: “If there is anything that looks hazardous on our beaches, we will react promptly to clean up any incidents in conjunction with other authorities.

Stoke-on-Trent couple's pet ban after dog's leg amputated

A couple have been banned from keeping dogs for 10 years after leaving their pet in such pain from a broken leg he had to have it amputated.

Marie and Steven Richards claimed Charlie, a West Highland terrier-cross, just had a small bite wound on his leg.

But when the RSPCA found his femur was snapped in half, they admitted Mr Richards had fallen on Charlie but they had no money to take him to the vets.

The pair, from Stoke-on-Trent, were each given a 12-month community order.

Marie Richards, 48, and her 51-year-old husband were convicted of causing unnecessary suffering at North Staffordshire Justice Centre. They were also also ordered to each carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.

The RSPCA said it became involved after being alerted by a member of the public who was concerned about the Charlie's welfare.

Insp Charlotte Melvin, said it had been obvious the dog's injury was more serious than the couple had said.

"Charlie was on three legs and couldn't put any weight on his fourth leg," she said.

"When we took him to the vet an x-ray revealed that his femur was completely snapped in half an injury that was consistent with the force of being hit by a car."

The couple, from Triner Place, said they had given him paracetamol and thought he was okay because "he was still wagging his tail".

But a vet said Charlie would have suffered excruciating pain from the injury, which was at least a week old, Ms Melvin said.

"Charlie has since been successfully re-homed and is "very happy", she added.

The Hasbro Joy For All Pet Pup is the Cutest Robot Dog Yet

The list of pet robot dogs is getting pretty long, and while most are endearing, a lot of them don’t do a great job of looking like dogs. While we have a soft spot for the bot-looking dogs, too, Hasbro is thinking robot dogs might go over better if they looked more like the cute and cuddly real ones. Last year, they launched their robot bet line, Joy For All, with a pet cat. This year, they’re sliding in before the holiday season with a pet dog that we’re guessing is going to end up under a lot of trees this year.

The Joy For All pet pup looks like a stuffed dog at first, with golden fur and a red bandanna around his neck. He’s all robot inside, but it sounds like Hasbro has done a pretty good job of hiding that. The pup can run around, turn his head, and bark in response to your voice. Pet his back, and you’ll feel a heartbeat, too! That’s about it, but that seems like the genius of this pup — other robot pups tend to have so many features, they become too unlike the real thing. Seems like Hasbro just made a robot pup that does what a real one would do — except for the things requiring clean up.

Hasbro’s Joy For All line was conceived as a way to provide partnership to the elderly that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. It looks like they’ve done a good job — we love cats, too, but this pup seems just a touch more lifelike and cuddly (as I suppose could be said of real dogs versus real cats, if you really wanted to take it there). But, robot pets are also great for younger kids that aren’t quite ready for the responsibility of a real pet, and this one is no different.

A Celebrity Dog Ranch In The Hills Above Malibu

On a recent visit to Topanga Pet Resort, I did a triple take at a handsome German Shepherd. “Oh, you probably recognize her from television,” a staff member said in a whisper, and she was probably right.

Open since 2005, the luxury getaway for dogs is a home away from home for pets of celebrities as well as for a few pets famous in their own right. Nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains, Topanga Pet Resort is a 6.5-acre hillside retreat in a neighborhood heavy on rock stars, sitcom actors and Oscar winners.

While the resort won’t say who its notable clients are, I did notice signed photos by some of my favorite entertainers–an iconic sitcom star and a chart-topping band of “brothers,” among others–in the main office off Old Topanga Road, across from CaliCamp and Mill Creek Equestrian Center. Cesar Millan has filmed there, and that episode’s featured dog, who was there for socialization training, liked the Topanga pack so much, he kept coming back.

Pet grooming and boarding is a $5.4 billion a year business in the U.S., according to a 2015 survey by the American Pet Products Association. In affluent areas like this one (Topanga Canyon is sandwiched between Malibu and Pacific Palisades), over-the-top amenities and preschool-like staff-to-pet ratios are the norm. “Guest” visits at a dog ranch can easily run into the thousands when a performer is on tour or on location, and it’s essential for the quality of care to match the price.

I talked to Topanga Pet Resort owner Keith Tomlinson, who runs the business with his wife, Pat, and live on property, about running one of L.A.’s premiere pet pampering outposts.

What sort of special attention to dogs get at the resort?

Some of our small dog condos have mini furniture, which is nice. All our dogs get bedding when they’re staying overnight but I was pretty excited when I found those miniature beds. We’re also committed to keeping the environment smelling fresh and also to using organic products whenever possible. We use natural herbs for disinfecting, which adds a wonderful thyme scent. That also lets us keep our grass for pets to run on without resorting to harsh chemicals. Vets ask where they can buy our natural products. We provide baths and nail trims and special time with the trainer, trips to the veterinarian and can accommodate special diet requests.

The scenery is pretty spectacular, too. We’re blessed to have a spectacular rock formation across the street that draws local artists and provides a picturesque background for our dogs playing in the yards. The play yards themselves are outdoors, under the oaks, and play times are scheduled for four sessions a day. Our staff-to-dog ratios are typically between 1-5  and 1-8.

With a high-profile client list, you must get some outlandish requests.

Probably my favorite is that several of our long-time customers have moved away but still bring their dogs to us. One client who now lives in Miami flies her dog out to us to board and then goes on to her destination. Quite a compliment to our staff.

What should pet owners look for when searching for a place to board?

First, ask for a meet and greet session. This should allow the owner to see the grounds, play yards, and indoor sleeping area. It’s important that facilities look and smell clean. This will also be a time to share shot record information and allow the dog to meet some of the other dogs in a controlled no-cost evaluation.

Your Pet Dog Would Rather Have Your Praise Than Food

Dog owners, take note! Your pet pooch may prefer praise from you over food, a new study suggests.

The study is one of the first to combine brain-imaging data with behavioural experiments to explore canine reward preferences, researchers said.

"We are trying to understand the basis of the dog-human bond and whether it is mainly about food, or about the relationship itself," said Gregory Burns from Emory University in the US.

Out of the 13 dogs that completed the study, researchers found that most of them either preferred praise from their owners over food, or they appeared to like both equally.

"Only two of the dogs were real chowhounds, showing a strong preference for the food," said Berns.

For the study, researchers began by training the dogs to associate three different objects with different outcomes.

A pink toy truck signalled a food reward; a blue toy knight signalled verbal praise from the owner; and a hairbrush signalled no reward, to serve as a control.

The dogs then were tested on the three objects while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. Each dog underwent 32 trials for each of the three objects as their neural activity was recorded.

All of the dogs showed a stronger neural activation for the reward stimuli compared to the stimulus that signalled no reward, and their responses covered a broad range.

Four of the dogs showed a particularly strong activation for the stimulus that signalled praise from their owners.

Nine of the dogs showed similar neural activation for both the praise stimulus and the food stimulus. And two of the dogs consistently showed more activation when shown the stimulus for food, researchers said.

The dogs then underwent a behavioural experiment. Each dog was familiarised with a room that contained a simple Y-shaped maze constructed from baby gates - one path of the maze led to a bowl of food and the other path to the dog's owner.

The owners sat with their backs towards their dogs. The dog was then repeatedly released into the room and allowed to choose one of the paths. If they came to the owner, the owner praised them, researchers said.

"We found that the caudate response of each dog in the first experiment correlated with their choices in the second experiment," said Berns.

"Dogs are individuals and their neurological profiles fit the behavioral choices they make. Most of the dogs alternated between food and owner, but the dogs with the strongest neural response to praise chose to go to their owners 80 to 90 percent of the time," he said.

"It shows the importance of social reward and praise to dogs. It may be analogous to how we humans feel when someone praises us," he added.

The findings were published in the journal Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.