Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my doggie and beagle friends and their owners out there.  May your bowl be filled with many tricks and your beds be warm and safe during the holiday season.

Also, please think of your fellow canine friends who may be less fortunate than you during this time of year.

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sonic the Crazy Beagle

I am excited about the holidays as much as the next dog.  Special dog treats, colorful lights, and energy in house are all benefits for us dogs.  However, we dogs need to take personal responsibility for your own safety.

The following are some things we need to do to stay healthy during the holidays and beyond:

• We like to stand by our owners when they cook those tasty meals.  Watch out for cooking oil or gravy drippings or spatterings that can easily tip over causing severe scalding and burns to us.
• Don’t eat cooled drippings either. Human seasonings aren’t good for you, plus the fact that the rich stock and drippings can easily upset pets’ digestive systems.  If you are like my owners who like to make hot, spicy meals like buffalo wings, you really need to stay away from this type of food.
• Don’t accept large quanitities of cooked turkey and ham during the holidays. Again, human food is too rich; overfeeding of human food can cause additional health problems and feeding human food will often lead to unsatisfactory eating habits when given pet food at their regular mealtimes. Consumption of human food can also result in pitiful begging, an aggravating habit hard to break, when the family sits down for meals.  In other words, just bad manners for a dog.
• BONES ARE DANGEROUS! Never eat bones, especially poultry bones. Poultry bones splinter easily - each year thousands of dogs are treated for consumption of splintered bones, causing pain and sometimes death.
• Usually, during the holiday season there is increased activity and visitors can upset your routine. Try to keep your regular doggie schedule for feeding and exercise and be sure you get plenty of love.
• If you are planning to go with your owner when they go visiting friends and relatives during the holidays, be sure have your owner contact the host in advance to find out if you our is welcome. Because of the excitement during the holidays, it might be best for you to stay home, or at a doggie hotel or sitter.
• Stay away from the lovely bubbling holiday lights are moderate to lethal toxicity, depending on the amount of fluid (methylene chloride) inhaled or ingested.
• Please stay away from angelhair (spun glass) - low toxicity; can cause irritation of the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal tract. Artifical snow and snow flock also has low toxicity - dry particles are inert; however, toxicity from inhalation can occur if spayed directly in the mouth.
• Tell your owner to hang their treasured ornaments higher on the Christmas tree. Use wooden, medal, resin-cast or the like on the lower branches in case curious little paws want to play with bright and colorful ornaments. Tinsel isn’t toxic, but if ingested, intestinal obstruction and choking are potential problems…please stay away from.
• Watch out for fireplaces!  The beauty of the fireplace colors (fire salts) is breath-taking on a cold winter’s evening - moderate toxicity; symptoms are gastrointestinal irritation with vomiting and a variety of other manifestations, including convulsions.
• Resist the temptation to let your owner tie ribbons around your necks for the holidays. You can accidently tighten ribbons resulting in choking or hang yourselves if the ribbon is caught on an object.
• Tell your owner to keep gift ribbons and bows out of sight to prevent chewing and swallowing.
• Request that your owner replace metal ornament hooks with tightly knotted fabric 1/4 inch ribbons, light-weight twine or yarn to slip easily over the branches of the tree.
• Please lead your owner to take you to a secure indoors location during firework displays. The frightening noise and the danger of exploding fireworks are hazardous to your sanity and peace of mind.
• Watch out for the plants.  A number of Christmas season plants are poisonous to doggie if nibbled or eaten: ivy - moderate to very toxic, all parts; holly - moderate to very toxic, especially the berries and leaves; mistletoe - very toxic, all parts, especially the berries; Christmas greens such as balsam, juniper, cedar, pine and fir - all parts have a low level of toxicity; hibiscus - may cause vomiting or bloody diarrhea if ingested; and poinsettias - leaves and stems low in toxicity. This is not a conclusive listing…there are many more toxic plants. It’s wise to keep plants out of your reach.

These are just some of the things, as my fellow doggie and beagle friend, you need to watch for during the holidays.  Train your owner during the holidays will produce to safe environment for you.

Happy Doggie Holidays!

Here’s the picture I will submit for Playdog magazine. Super dogs can be sexy too! Like the song said, “I’m too sexy for my fur, I’m too sexy for my fur, I’m just too sexy.”

I feel it is sexy yet edgy, strong yet vulnerable, everything the dog in your life would want. I think I come off well against the black leather background. All I need is a little Barry White music. I would love to see your comments on this picture.

Help stop the slaughter of my fellow beagles and other dogs.  The following is taken from the Care2Petition website:

Instead of rabies prevention, government officials in China often resort to mass slaughters of dogs, called culls, in which dog-beating squads kill any dog spotted on the street, even if they have an owner.

Stop the dog slaughters! »

Indiscriminate slaughter is an ineffective way of controlling rabies. Rabies has been successfully controlled in many countries through managing the dog population and improving public education about effective disease control and treatment.

The first draft of national animal welfare legislation for China is under review which, if passed into law, would permanently ban these cruel dog culls.

Urge Chinese officials to support the passage of legislation to ban dog culls and to mandate humane rabies prevention measures across the country — sign now.

Sonic the Crazy Beagle wants you to make a difference.  Please take the time to save my fellow canines and make China more dog friendly!