Dog hair gels, both clear and in a variety of colors, can be found that are non-toxic and considered safe, but as with anything, be sure you read the labels carefully.  And remember, human products may not be safe for use on animals.

It is also important to remember to speak to your vet about whether shaving or cutting your dog’s hair is the right thing to do. As noted on PetMD, some dogs with thicker coats may benefit from some shaving in the heat of the summer, but recommend caution for short-haired dogs, not going shorter than 1″, as they can be susceptible to sunburn.  In fact, many hairless and short-hair breeds can get sunburned, so check into having dog-safe sunscreen on hand and using it per the directions.

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They take over the whole bed.
They’ll wake you up first thing in the morning to go pee.
Their hair gets all over the blankets.
They can drive a wedge between you and your partner.

Their farts.
They make it too hot to sleep at night.
It’ll spoil them.
They make it hard to want to get up in the morning.
Their snores could wake the dead.

..

Sleep kicks.
They track dirt onto the bed.
Allergies and asthma can be exacerbated.
It can cause a restless night of sleep.
The chance that you’ll wake up with their butt in your face.

They’ll always let you pick what to watch on TV.
They won’t wake you up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
You’re well-protected at night.
You and your partner will get to snuggle more.

Puppy breath.
They’ll keep you warm at night.
They’ll know they’re loved and secure.

Sleeping in together.
Their light snoring is hypnotic.
Seeing and hearing that they’re dreaming, & wondering what it’s about.
No cold or stinky feet.

They’re immune boosters – kids have fewer infections & allergies.
Studies show they help people get a better night’s rest.
They love spooning.

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Rob Garofalo, a doctor that built his own medical and research career on assisting people that are HIV positive, got news no one wants.  He himself became HIV positive, and all of this after already surviving kidney cancer and a breakup with his longtime partner.

Garofalo had spent what must have felt like a life time trying to help those affected y HIV heal.  Countless hours of helping others and years of medical training, and the doctor found himself in a awkward situation.  What does a doctor do when he can’t heal himself?

“I couldn’t afford myself the same compassion that I’d spent a career teaching other people to have,” says Garofalo.

He had a very hard time tell people about his HIV status at first.  On a Christmas visit in 2010, he tried his best to hide his feelings, but his mother knew something was up.  Before he left for home that holiday season, she said to him, “You can tell me that everything is OK, but it’s not.”

On the flight home to Chicago, he remembers doing a lot of crying, but it was a good thing.  He came to the realization that he needed help that another human just couldn’t provide.  So the doctor got a dog.

When he got Fred, an adorable little Yorkie, things started to change.

“I had this little bundle of, like, pure joy,” Garofalo said.  “He made me re-engage with the world.  But I’m not exaggerating when I say that he saved my life.”

The re-emergence into life for the doctor started with small and simple things.  He couldn’t just stay in his apartment all day when not at work.  He had to go to the store and get food for Fred.  They had to go on walks, and when they would he had to deal with the people he’d pass by, that wanted to interact with him and the dog.  And when the night terror struck, he says it’s nice to have Fred near to help settle things down.

All of these small, every day things got his life jump started again.  He sought counseling, and even told his mother and friends about his HIV.  Now, he has a charity that he started, using Fred as a mascot, that raises money for helps people that are HIV-positive with some of the emotional issues they have.

He started something called When Dogs Heal.  He recruiteda dog photographer named Jesse Freidin and a writer from Chicago named Zach Stafford.  When Dogs Heal shares the stories of HIV positive people and their dogs.  They also have an exhibit that starts in Chicago on December 1st, which is World AIDS Day, and then in New York later.

The exhibit shares many stories, but one from a young mom from Los Angeles named Lynnea Garbutt, and her dog Coconut.  Thanks to Coconut, Garbutt was able to leave an abusive relationship, and prepare her for being able to care for her daughter, who just turned one.  Thanks to modern medical intervention, her daughter is NOT HIV positive.

“I would be in bed and not want to get up, but this little doggy was whining, licking my neck and needed to get outside.  I had to get up,” said Garbutt.

Garofalo has certainly been through a lot.  However, thanks to Fred, things for him and many other affected by HIV are a little more manageable.  His own mother even credits Fred with her son’s turnaround.

“My mom was telling him that he was a miracle,” Garofalo said.  “Because he had brought her son back.”

The post Doctor with HIV Says His Dog Saved His Life appeared first on ILoveDogsAndPuppies.

“They seem to love it,” said Bahnson.  “They get excited when we’d pull the kayaks out and see that we were going.”

He says he got the idea from one of the dogs!  No, they didn’t magically tell him what to do, he saw how easily Susie (one of the dogs) fit into the baggage compartment of one of his kayak.  All he really had to do was install a ring around the opening, so the dogs could stay cozy and dry while on the lake.

With the success he had with Susie fitting so nicely into the baggage compartment, he decided to make another modification.  After making another “baggage hole” in the kayak, and adding another ring, Ginger (his other dog) could be included as well.

“When we got Ginger, I just put in another hole,” said Bahnson. “It’s like a triple kayak, only there isn’t enough room for the paddlers to put their feet — but it’s perfect for a dog.”

The dogs are just so happy to be able to spend a bit more together time with their humans.  Other people try to take their dogs with them in the kayaks, but none are quite as successful.  With a little bit of ingenuity and a few tools, the family floats, together!

“We’ve seen other people kayaking with their dogs, but they usually have them in the cockpit with them. That’s kind of awkward, so this just worked out better,” he said. “They each have a little dedicated space, and they just sit and enjoy the ride.”

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“The business, for me, is 30% rebellion, 30% comedy, and 30% for money,” said Gedalya Gottdenger. He was wearing a yarmulke, peyos, and a t-shirt screenprinted with an ostentatious cat in mirror shades. Gottdenger stroked his client for the day, a shy red-hued retriever named Tuppance, and reconsidered his math for a second.

“I want to say the remaining 10% is my love of dogs, but really that’s the overarching reason, much more than 10%.”

An Ultra Orthodox gentleman with a giddy pup in tow may not be an odd sight to everyone, but for those aware of the cultural taboo and relatively benign stereotype that religious Jews fear dogs, Gottdenger sticks out like a bagel at a Passover seder.

A column in the Jewish Daily Forward, a recent book of essays, and even the FAQ section of the website for Hasidic sect Chabad describe the phenomena and offer some explanations from a Kabbalah assertion that dogs have demonic powers to a simple fear of the unfamiliar, to its origin.

“There’s a lot of theories as to why. I’m not really satisfied with any of them,” Gottdenger, 23, says. “The most common suggestion is usually about Nazis and their German Shepherds, but I don’t buy it. We were bred to be afraid, any kind of non-human animals give us the shits.”

“Even cats?” I ask.

“Yeah, even cats,” he says, adding, “but to be fair, cats are assholes.”

Like most of his peers, Gottdenger avoided dogs altogether until his early twenties. The belief that they can “smell fear,” some trainers say, can lead to a negative feedback loop of anxiety between dogs and humans.

He was able to break this pattern through prolonged exposure with his secular friend’s affectionate and clingy chihuahua who demands endless games of fetch and occasionally demonstrates affection through urination.

“The more time I spent with her, I realized that not all dogs are scary and want to kill me,” Gottdenger said.

Unable to have a pet himself, he began to walk the chihuahua for fun, and enjoyed the interactions that followed.

“I usually get comments from Latino men. They say, ‘I never saw a Jew with a dog before!’”

While we sat on a bench outside a shop on Myrtle Avenue, a young African American employee of a shop came out with a cup of water to offer to Tuppance. He and Gottdenger had a brief chat about the dog’s age, shyness, and the weather.

As for other Hasidim, sometimes they’ll laugh or furtively snap a camera phone photo, but are too scared to approach.

Tuppance’s “Mom”, Nitza, met Gottdenger through the Jewish community in Williamsburg. They are both working towards careers in social work, and Nitza agreed to hire to him to walk Tuppance several times a week while he saves some cash for school. Two years later, he’s turned his neurotic hobby into a burgeoning career.

“He has a foot in both the Satmar community, and in the whole yuppie, hipster, whatever you want to call it community,” Nitza says.

Although she admits that what he’s doing is unique, it’s all part of the cherished melting pot character of New York. “I couldn’t give a crap about the novelty of it,” she says. “He genuinely loves dogs, he’s very calm, very reliable. She’s not easy to get along with, but she really does like him.”

Recently Gottdenger has expanded the business by walking more dogs each day and offering to watch pets while their owners are on vacation, promoting himself with business cards and social media as “The Hasidic Dog Walker.” His card shows a traditionally dressed Hasidic man looking down, perhaps with trepidation at a dog with a leash in its mouth. Above that, his email: “notafraidofdogs@gmail.com.”

“I love that as a business mantra,” says Erin Mathieu of Bed-Stuy, whose self-described “jerk Chihuahua” Reno was the first dog Gottdenger walked. “It’s a wonderfully snarky response to the pigeonholing that New Yorkers tend to participate in when it comes to the Ultra Orthodox.”

Dog-walking is a standard job for those who appreciate the flexible hours, ability to work outdoors, ease and informality of working for oneself, and occasionally, the animal companionship. Hasidim, on the other hand, live a life where every minute detail is dictated by religious law and customs, and likely see the precarious profession itself, let alone its proximity to fearsome dogs, as opposite their rigid lifestyle.

Some attempt a difficult transition out of Hasidic life, but Gottdenger, who is part of a sect that he describes as “no more open than any other,” prefers to remain religious while testing cultural boundaries. He notes that like cycling, socializing, or attending secular functions, having an animal companion is not prohibited by religious laws.

“But while it’s ‘only culture’ it’s still culture,” he says, emphasizing the extreme centrality of tradition as a supplement to religious life. “It’s not a revolutionary thing, I’m not walking around Williamsburg naked, but for some people, somehow, it’s enough.”

Hoping to bridge the divide in more direct ways, he encourages gentile and secular friends curious about Judaism and Hasidic philosophy to try Torah study with Pratt’s Chabad Rabbi, and interns for a new organization called Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED), which promotes the expansion of secular education amongst Ultra Orthodox children.

“I am angry for not having a well-rounded mathematical or linguistic education,” Gottdenger says. “I’m not upset about not being brought up with Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and baseball, but it’s hard to make it, to become independent, without a well-rounded education.”

Gottdenger’s parents and most of his religious friends don’t know about his new profession, and he doesn’t know how negatively they will react, but perhaps compared to others who more radically transgress cultural norms—such as queer or atheist Hasidim who are forced to either give up the communities in which they were raised or to live double lives—he isn’t too worried.

“People are ultimately going to live the life they want to lead,” Gottdenger says. “And even if it contradicts Judaism or Christianity or Islam or whatever, we have to let them be able to do it.”

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