This is Charlie... a beautiful Chocolate Lab, doing his bit to clean up New Zealand prisons.
When we offered dog training programmes here at polytech, there was alot of talk of schools using these specially trained dogs for random checks too. Not sure if it has happened... but I do know they can detect the scent on your clothes, even if you just sat on the bus where someone else sat previously that had the scent of it on their clothes. Always made our annual visits to see the police drug dogs in action a little scary - where have I been recently!!!
The other thing I like about these Labradors.. they are usually fit, muscly and thin...which is not something we are used to seeing with pet Labradors these days!
On that topic - if your dog ( or cat) is needing to lose some weight, the new Hill's Pet Fit site is worth a read...
http://petfit.hillspet.co.nz/Public/AboutPetFit.aspx
Facts about overweight pets:
It's not just people who're suffering from obesity. More pets are too, with over 41% of dogs2 and over 32% of cats3 estimated to be clinically overweight or obese.
Extra weight is a significant danger to their health, increasing the risk of serious diseases like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart disease, and painful osteoarthritis.
Studies with dogs have shown those on a controlled diet with lower weight and body fat can live two years longer than dogs whose diets and weights aren't controlled....
Now, I just need to work out how to get one of my cats back in shape!
The rattle of the biscuits in the bowl results in a small earth tremor as she runs to the kitchen... hurls herself up to the bench and dives into her tucker. The rest of the day she sleeps. With the five other cats sharing the same food, separate feeding just is nto an option and "lite" biscuits are not enough... so regular runs in the garden might be the option...
Sigh...
