Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home
We all know of cases of dogs (and cats) who know when their owners are coming home, who go wait at the door or window 10 minutes or more before their human arrives. Scientist Rupert Sheldrake is back to explain the strange phenomenon and your pet's sixth sense.

Flea Season Heats Up
Another record flea season is brewing due to all the moisture we've received this winter. Protecting your pets is key. Do you know the difference between flea medications? Did you know with one major over-the-counter treatment the flea actually has to bite your pet to kill it. By then it's too late for the transference of diseases like Lyme disease.

Gold-Fish Races Cancelled
The weekly gold fish races at a Tacoma bar are cancelled after it received complaints from animal rights activists. Every Tuesday night the Harmon Tap Room would feature races in which cheap feeder fish from a pet store were "raced" down two 8-foot troughs. Racers guided the fish with squirt bottles. Bartender Joel Cummings said the fish were cared for when they weren't racing but occasionally they would pass away. After complaints by phone and email, the Harmon Tap Room replaced goldfish racing with beer pong.

Branson Modern Day Noah?
Billionaire Richard Branson says he wants to use one of his private Caribbean islands to help save an endangered species of African primate. The British entrepreneur plans to introduce lemurs to the undeveloped Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands. Branson said that he hopes to create a thriving population to help make up for the loss of their native habitat on the island of Madagascar.

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ATTENTION XM SATELLITE LISTENERS: Animal Radio® is moving starting May 7th. We'll be changing XM channels from 158 to 166. Look for us at the same times - Saturdays at noon eastern and Sundays at 5pm eastern on "America's Talk" XM 166.

H.S.U.S. President Explains His Stance
Humane Society of the United States "Top Dog" Wayne Pacelle is our special guest. Why does he have gripes with the American Kennel Club (AKC) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). And did Pacelle endorse Michael Vick getting a dog after a $50,000 donation, or not? Oh, he also has a best-selling book out now too!

A Purr Too Loud?
Smokey is up for the Guinness world record for LOUD purring. At 92 decibels, Smokey exceeds OSHA's standards for a diesel truck. Where does the purr come from and what does it really mean?

A Cure For The Squirts
How powerful is pumpkin pie for stopping an occasional bout of diarrhea? You'd think it would have the opposite affect. Dr. Debbie has the scoop on the pie filling and what's safe and what works.

Hair Extensions for Your Dog?
Yes, our very own Joey Villani reports live from Intergroom, the industry's trade show. This year Pupplocks - hair extensions for dogs are all the rave.

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Husband Comes Back As Dog
When Linda Francis Lee wrote Emily & Einstein, she adamantly told us it had nothing to do with her real life. It's a story about a philandering husband who is killed and comes back as the wife's dog. Imagine the possibilities. Linda, herself, is happily married with a wild imagination.

Inappropriate Pooping
What does it mean when your cat poops outside the box or your dog insists on doing it inside? Can these behaviors be re-learned? Dr. Debbie has answers! That's why we love her so much!

Dogs Love Crazy Men!
A pilot study about human-canine interactions has found that dogs owned by men, especially neurotic men, approach their owners more often than dogs of female owners. The findings add to the growing body of evidence that pet owner gender and personality may influence an animal's social attraction to the person. Recently, a study determined that women and cats enjoy particularly strong bonds.

Fraudulent Therapy Dogs
Owners and trainers of service dogs are increasingly angry with pet owners who pass their animals off as service dogs by using phony credentials. The imposters go to the Internet to buy vests, ID cards and certificates for their dogs. The deception allows their pets to live in restricted housing, accompany them inside restaurants and hotels or fly for free in airplane cabins rather than in cargo holds. "I don't want to say it's a scam, but it is a scam," said Nick Kutsukos, 72, who runs Elite K9 Academy in Jupiter and has trained service dogs for 40 years.

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Snip Snip
PETA's spay and neuter campaign isn't just for cats and dogs anymore. The animal rights group now wants to sterilize humans. One man will win a free vasectomy as part of a contest held in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week.

Guinness Purring
A gray-and-white tabby by the name of Smokey has cat-apulted to fame by purring so loud it has been recorded at a potentially record-setting 73 decibels. The British community college that measured the sound said it peaked at 16 times louder than that of the average cat.

Best Pet Smile
Tropiclean is looking for the biggest and brightest pet smiles to celebrate the release of it's periodontal line of products. We have giveaways! Derrik Kessebaum explains the contest and how to enter.

Snake wants SNL appearance
Fans of the Egyptian cobra that escaped from the Bronx Zoo are doing all they can to get the snake on TV. A Facebook campaign has been started in an attempt to get the cobra on as the host of NBC's "Saturday Night Live." A similar and successful campaign was started for actress Betty White. Prior to its capture, a fictitious Twitter account was started for the snake, which included updates about its travels around town.

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Animal Radio® News Headlines

Home Depot Bans Dogs After Bite Incident
Home Depot is banning pets from all their Canadian stores after an Ottawa employee had the tip of her nose bitten off by a customer's dog.

The company says it is moving forward with the policy in the interest of employee and customer safety.
"We believe this is the best decision for the shopping enjoyment and safety of all customers," the company said in a statement released on Thursday.

Home Depot says the policy has been announced at all stores and the change will take place over the next few weeks. By May 16, no pets will be allowed in any Home Depot store in Canada, with the exception of service animals.

The updated policy follows an incident involving an employee at an Ottawa Home Depot store on Cyrville Road. Anne Riel was greeting customers last week when she welcomed a woman and her pet Shih-Tzu into the store. The dog was in a shopping cart and when Riel bent down to pet the dog, it jumped up, biting off the tip of her nose. Riel was rushed to hospital where she received plastic surgery. She got her stitches removed Wednesday and her nose is healing well.

"It's a fluke thing -- who gets bit by a dog when shopping, but its safety number one," Riel told CTV Ottawa on Thursday.

Although Riel is grateful for Home Depot's quick response, she says she will miss some of the pets that came through the store. "It was one incident, it's not all dogs," she said. "There was one that came in this morning; he came and gave me kisses."

The dog that bit Riel must now be muzzled. The dog's owner has also been fined $610.

Shelter Dogs Being Used For Research
The death of a stray dog whose heart was removed by University of Utah researchers conducting cardiology tests has spurred a renewed call from animal rights groups to stop the practice of selling some shelter animals for research nationwide.

Thirty-six states, including Utah, allow stray dogs and cats to be sold to research facilities if they are scheduled for euthanasia at animal shelters. But animal activists say the shelters should be safe havens, and fear that if the practice continues, people may stop bringing in their unwanted pets.

"We do a lot of work in communities to garner trust in their shelters," Kathleen Conlee, of the Humane Society of the United States, said Monday. "If, for whatever reason, people are not able to take care of their cat or dog anymore, we don't want people to be fearful of taking their animals to a shelter." The Humane Society says just 14 states, including California, Maine, Maryland and Hawaii; prohibit the sale of strays for research.

Cat Gives Birth To Dog? I Think Not.
A cat owner in China says their pet has given birth to a dog. Zhou Yun tells the U.K.'s "Orange" news that he found his cat taking care of a small puppy shortly after giving birth earlier this month. Yun says he went to check on the litter when he noticed that one kitten had died, and another looked just like a dog.

The president of a local pet clinic has since investigated Yun's claim, and says there is no way the cat gave birth to a puppy. The pet expert says it's more than likely that the cat went out and took a puppy from a litter of newborns to replace that kitten that had died. Yun, however, isn't giving up on the idea that his puppy is "a mixed child."

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Ask the Animal Radio® Dream Team

Listen to Animal Radio® LIVE every Saturday at noon eastern and Sundays at 5pm eastern on XM ch. 158 (America's Talk) or on any of the 100 AM-FM radio stations. Call with your questions toll-free 1-866-405-8405 or email yourvoice@AnimalRadio.com

Cushing's Disease

Angela: I have a 10 year old female Maltese, she takes 30 mgs of trilostane for Cushings disease every morning. She's been to the vet recently and they say everything is normal. I feel she drinks too much water, and urinates too often. How many ounces of water  should she drink daily and how often should she urinate every day?

Doctor Debbie: Dear Angela, Hello there! Dogs with Cushing's disease certainly have excessive water intake and urination. But we have to remember that water intake can fluctuate alot between dogs due to non-medical factors like activity, ambient temperature, and diet. For purposes of monitoring Cushings patients,it's great if you can quantitate the amount of water offered in her bowl during the day- minus the amount drank during the day. That can help you subjectively monitor her response with the trilostane.
 
In general most dogs will drink 30-45 ml of water per pound of body weight. So if your Maltese is 10lbs or under we might expect her to drink 300-450ml of water a day (10-15oz per day). Water intake is considered excessive when a dog drinks over that 45ml/pound figure. For simplicity we don't usually have pet parents measure the urine output, but rather focus on measuring water intake and just subjectively rate the urinations as: 1)minimal, 2)normal, 3)excessive, or 4)the point of urine accidents.
 
In addition to monitoring water intake, urinations, and panting in Cushings patients, we doctor types allso monitor Cushing's patients response on Trilostane by an ACTH stimulation test. Usually this test is performed 4-6 hours after the trilostane dose is given. This test is useful to help calculate need for increase or decrease of medications.
 
Best wishes to you with your little one!

Out of Control Urination

Keith: We have two (2) male cats. One is 5yrs old (Tuxedo) and the other is 3 yrs old (Tabby). We have tried numerous products, but they urinate every where. They do go in their box, but they manage to go on the stove, walls, and all over as I said. WHAT CAN WE DO? I would apprieciate your help. I listen to you every Sunday morning on KOST 103.5 while I drive to Church. Thank you. God Bless

Dr. Debbie: My goodness Keith- your kitties are marking their territory all over your home! It's time to reclaim the home!

There is usually much more to these situations than it originally appears and there is honestly no single product you can buy to solve urine marking like this. Your cats are communicating --using their urine marks... and it takes some sleuth work to get to the bottom of it. First I would march your kitties down to your local pet doc and ask them to check a urine sample on both cats. Often we want to blame the cats with a behavior issue, but it's surprising how often a cat that marks can actually have a low grade infection or urine crystals present.

Also:
Are the cats both neutered? if not- then do it right away.

Do the cats go outside? Do they see other cats outdoors through the windows? Cover the windows with blinds or drapes to keep them visually away from outdoor cats that may cause social stress and create a desire to mark.

Do you have ample litter box stations? Make sure you have 3 litter boxes located throughout the home. Take off any lids or pan liners. Do not use any scented litters. Clean the boxes daily.

Make the favored urine marking areas unattractive to the kitties. On carpeted areas you can take a plastic carpet runner and turn it upside down to deter their walking in the area. For the stove, try a compressed canned air product that is activated by motion ( One brand is called SSSCat). As the kitties jump on the stove area a loud PSST of air is given off and deters them from venturing in that area.

Use a pheromone product. The scent hormones have a calming effect and can aid with anxious behaviors like urine marking. Try the plug in pheromone product called Feliway.

Ask your vet about drug therapy. I'll often turn to drug therapy to help tame down severe urine marking situations. My guess is that drugs may be necessary for helping your cats deal with this problem since it sounds quite extreme.

Clean with an enzymatic pet cleaner. Urine odors are best beaten by using enzyme based cleaners that destroy the odors, not masking the odor. One good pick is Nature's Miracle Cleaner.

Keith, I'll be honest....it'll take alot of work and using as many of the above steps that you can manage to deal with this. You will need to enlist the help of your local veterinarian to be most successful. And you have to be ready to draw a line in the sand and agree that it is NOT okay to let this behavior go on further. Hope I've given you encouragement enough that you can work through this!

Best Wishes,
Dr. Debbie

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Events Calendar
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Forte Animal Rescue Fundraiser at Marmi! Marmi,
Where: 4716 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292
When: Thur May 5 6-9pm
Just in time to celebrate Mother's Day and Cinco de Mayo, Marmi will host an evening of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and shopping. Guests will receive a 10% discount on all merchandise, and Marmi will graciously donate 10% of all sales during the party to Forte Animal Rescue.

4th Annual ACVO/Merial National Service Dog Eye Exam Event!
Where: 9599 Jefferson Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
When: Month of May
Complementary eye exams for certified Service Dogs at over 30 Eye Care for Animals locations throughout May to identify problems that may affect the dog's sight and benefit those who rely on Service Animals. Chula Vista, Corte Madera, Culver City, Pasadena, San Diego, Santa Rosa, Torrance, Tustin and Upland.

14th Annual Basset Hound Rescue of Southern California Spring Games
Where: Arcadia Park, corner of Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Ave, Arcadia, CA
When: June 18 (9am-3pm).
Free "wag" bag to first 100 registered participants! Ring Events: Howling Contest, synchronized swim, treat catching and many more. Come and enjoy the games, exhibitors, BBQ and raffle prizes. All breeds welcome, competition for basset hounds only.

2nd Annual Doggy Derby 
Where: The Graycliff in Moonachie, NJ
When: Sunday, May 7 - 11am to 3pm
The entire family is invited to come out for this event. We have plenty of kids activities and they get to participate in a great cause. We have really high end donations for our tricky tray and silent auction. http://halfwayhounds.com

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17th Annual Walk for Animals
Where Crown Point Shores, Mission Bay San Diego
When: Saturday, May 7 10am-12pm
This year's "Barkin' Beach Bash" will offer a complimentary pancake breakfast, doggie games, information booths, music and festivities all while raising funds for the San Diego Humane Society's vital community programs. http://www.sdhumane.org/walk

Kimptom Hotels Paw-Parazzi Pet Photo Contest
At Kimpton, they love pets so much that they have set out to find the cutest and most photogenic pet out there by kicking off the Kimpton Hotels Paw-Parazzi Contest. Anyone can UPLOAD a pet photo to their site. Every two weeks, the five photos with the most "Like" votes will win pet-tacular prizes from their partners such as Olive Green Dog, Polka Dog Bakery, and Republic of Paws. On June 1, 2011, judges from Animal Radio® will select the Grand Prize photo from the 30 bi-weekly winners for the "Ultimate hosPETality Getaway" which includes:

* A two night stay at a Kimpton Hotel of the winner's choice
* Two round trip tickets on JetBlue for human passengers
* $500 credit for the photogenic pet on Pet Airways, a pet only airline
* One $100 Kimpton Restaurant or in-room dining gift certificate
* One in-room spa treatment for two
* An Amelia Collection Carrier by Sherpa Pet Carrier
* Use of pet amenities such as a dog bed, bowl, and treats

Celebrate your pets right now at AnimalRadio.com

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