Do you have airline crates you’d like to mark with your name? I did. Rather than quickly handwrite my name with a marker, I wanted to make it look a little nicer. In an hour, I had two crates, neatly marked with my name and a graphic. Here’s how:

Supplies: craft knife, permanent marker (I used a chisel-point Sharpie), cutting board, tape, paper or transparent sheet, computer, and printer.

1. Wash and dry your crates.
2. Open your word processing program.
3. Type your name in an easy-to-read font. Size it to fit your crate.
4. Add a graphic, if desired (bone, pawprint, dog silhouette, your logo, etc.)
5. Print your name on paper or a transparent sheet (like an overhead projector sheet).
6. With a sharp craft knife, carefully cut out the letters (and graphic, if used). Now you have a stencil you can mark multiple crates with.
7. Tape the stencil securely to your clean and dry crate.
8. Carefully color in the open areas with a permanent marker.
   • You will need to hold the interior of the stencil steady while you mark.
   • For letters with enclosed negative space, like “a”, “o” and “e”, you’ll have to free-hand that area.
   • My crate was textured, so I had to go over the areas a few times to get full coverage.
9. Carefully remove the stencil.
10. Your crate should dry quickly, but let it sit undisturbed for a moment. You can carefully blot with a paper towel to make sure the ink has set.

You’re all done!

Today is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. For the gifts below, you don’t have to fight the crowds or wear the print off your credit cards. All you need is a little time and imagination and you’ll have great gifts to give.

• Do you have a dog friend who is not computer savvy? Offer to give her a tour of the most useful dog sites and introduce her to the online dog community. Set up bookmarks for her to find the sites later.
  • Show her how to join and participate in a dog discussion group (try Yahoo Groups DogZone)
  • Show her how to browse dog photos of her favorite breed or activity on Flickr, and then upload her own photos.
  • Give her great resource sites to refer to, both local and national.
  • Help her find sites that appeal to her interests (such as breed, dog sport, or canine cause sites).

• Make IOU coupons for your favorite dog person for things such as:
• dog walks
• grooming & nail clippings
• baths
• play dates
• pet sitting
• a digital photo session
• helping your friend set up her equipment at a dog show or event.
• a dog-themed movie night (pick up a couple of dollar DVD rentals and bring the popcorn)

• Make your favorite dog-lover a calendar with dog events for the coming year. Include dog shows, pet fairs, televised dog events, her dog’s birthday or anniversary, etc. To find the events, check with your local shelters, city hall, training facilities, dog clubs, dog shops, and the AKC.

• Knit or sew a cushiony dog mat or rug.

• Braid a strong tug toy out of strips of old blue jeans.

• Mix up some dog biscuits for a special dog. There are lots of recipes online. Package them in inexpensive clear treat bags or decorative tins.

• Buy a small table-top tree and tie bone-shaped biscuits to the branches with ribbon.

• Make some unique refrigerator magnets by hot gluing a magnet to the back of a dog biscuit that has been coated with water-based polyurethane. (Keep these magnets out of the dog’s reach!)

While your family is together for the holidays, why not look through old photos for those that include the family dog? You may be surprised how often the family dog appears in your photos, and how cherished they seem to be.

Look closely at each photo. Is the dog the sole subject of the photo? Is he on the furniture? Is the dog sitting formally alongside family members, or is he in someone’s arms? Is there communication between the dog and people? Is the photo humorous?

I found a wonderful family portrait from the 1930s on the day my grandparents adopted their new dog, Foxie. There is a later photo of Foxie posed alone in the driver’s seat of the car, as if she were headed to town. Mitzi, the family German Shepherd, figured prominently in the photo taken the day my grandmother brought my father home from the hospital (above). A later photo shows Mitzi laying beside my father as he slept on a blanket on the lawn.

Sometimes a poor photograph that was saved shows the degree of attachment for a pet. I found a photograph of a white blur, kept for nearly one hundred years, obviously out of sentiment. It is the only known photograph of my grandmother’s childhood dog, Teddy.

Now that you’ve found photographs of the family dog, what can you do with them? Here are some ideas:

• Put together a photo album with captions.
• Create scrapbook pages or an entire album.
• Frame and display the photos as a group.
• Make copies and give to dog-loving relatives. Frame special photos as gifts.
• Display the photos on your website, or a photo sharing site (like Flickr, Yahoo, or Snapfish).

Make sure you choose acid-free materials to preserve your precious photographs.

Our dogs are so important to us today, but often they were just as important to those in our past. Talk to your older relatives. Show them the photos you’ve found, and take notes as they reminisce. Ask about their pets and write down the stories. You may find you come from a long line of dog-lovers.

For wonderful old dog photos, browse the Old Photos with Dogs group on Flickr. You can also join the group and contribute your family photos. Enjoy!

The Great American Smokeout is today. Have you thought about quitting? Here’s a consequence of smoking you may not have considered: second-hand smoke has been linked to a variety of cancers in dogs and other companion animals.

• Dogs who live with smokers have a 60 percent greater risk of lung cancer (the American Journal of Epidemiology)

• Nasal cancer is a particular risk to long-nosed dogs who live with smokers (the American Journal of Epidemiology)

We live so closely with our pets. If we smoke, they get a double-dose of carcinogens. They first inhale second-hand smoke through their nasal passages. Then, smoke particles in the air become trapped in the animal’s fur; these particles are ingested when the animal grooms himself.

If you’re not yet convinced, here are some sobering statistics about cats:

• Cats who live in smoking homes are three times more likely to develop lymphoma, the most common cancer in cats (Tufts University).

• The likelihood of a cat developing lymphoma increases with the number of smokers in the house and the length of exposure (Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts).

If you are a smoker, please put your pets outdoors or in another room while you smoke. A smokeless ashtry or open window may help remove second-hand smoke from the environment.

For further reading:

Second Hand Smoke Affects Pets, Too - College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana

Gift: Dog magazines are great Christmas presents for you or your dog-loving friends. Subscribe now and the first issue may arrive before the end of the year.

Below is a list of some of the most popular dog magazines, most of which can be found on the newsstand:

• AKC Gazette
• AKC Family Dog
• Animal Wellness
• Bark
• Dog Fancy
• Dog and Kennel
• Dog World
• Dogs for Kids
• Fido Friendly
• Modern Dog

Another popular publication is the Whole Dog Journal. WDJ is a journal, rather than a magazine. There are no ads; each page is pure content. You can receive a paper copy of the Whole Dog Journal via snailmail, or you may choose a digital subscription for a reduced rate. With the digital subscription, you can read the issue online, and download and save each issue on your computer to print or read later.

There are many magazines, not found on the newsstands, that are breed or sport-specific. Search online for those you might be interested in, or start at World Newspapers for a ready-made list of various dog magazines.

Share: Do you subscribe to dog magazines, read them once, and then throw them away? Why not give the magazines to a library, junior dog group (such as 4H), bring them to a club meeting, or give to friends.

Swap: Swap magazines with someone in another country for a different perspective. Are you on a dog forum or discussion list? Ask if anyone would like to swap magazines with you. To save money, send via media mail in the US and surface mail overseas. You package will take longer to arrive, but it’s much cheaper. It’s a good idea to waterproof your package. Put magazines in a plastic bag before wrapping them to mail.

Recycle: If you tear out pages you’re interested in and then discard your magazines, why not recycle them? Abitibi has many locations across North America, and they welcome magazines, catalogs and other slick paper.

Some friends of mine keep an attractive basket of neatly folded kitchen towels by the back door. They sit ready for muddy paws, grooming sessions, dog drool or accidents. The white towels are easily laundered, with bleach if necessary. Sensible and inexpensive, they are in constant use by this busy family.

The simplest ideas usually are the best!

It’s already dark when I get home from work, but Dash still goes right to the back door for a play session. I’ve taken a flashlight outside and thrown toys for him to retrieve, but that can be awkward. So, I dug around in the toy basket and found several glow-in-the-dark balls. After exposing them to the light for a few minutes, we’re ready to go.

Now that he can see the ball, we can play like we do in the daylight. I can toss the ball from hand to hand or throw it in an unexpected direction, and he doesn’t miss a beat.

I love watching Dash return to me with the ball in his mouth. All I see is this green orb, bouncing toward me out of the darkness. After a long day at work, that always makes me laugh!

Do you need to conquer the dark evenings with glow-in-the-dark toys? You can sometimes find flying discs that glow in toy departments or some sporting goods stores. Check at your local pet supply store, online, or in catalogs for glow-in-the-dark dog toys.

Most dog toys glow after a brief exposure to light. Others use a small battery, and generally flash or glow when bounced or shaken.

Caveats:

• Some of the battery-powered toys make noise as well. Those with laughter or squealing sounds are controversial. Many trainers believe we shouldn’t encourage a dog to become excited by and chase a ball that sounds like a human child.

• Toys with batteries should be supervised toys. A strong chewer may be able to chew through to the battery.

• For my dog, I treat all but the toughest glow-in-the-dark toys as supervised toys. I don’t have sufficient information about the chemical that makes toys glow, so I don’t want him chewing and ingesting pieces of those toys.

Enjoy those winter evenings!

Add a little fun to your cards and letters with “remailing”. Remailing is most popular for Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Hundreds of thousands of cards are sent to cities like Santa Claus, Indiana or Valentine, Nebraska to be postmarked, and then mailed to the recipient.

Why not have your special occasion cards postmarked from cities with dog-related names? Look through a road atlas or the internet for city names that are meaningful to you. Try these sites; placesnamed.com, epodunk.com, and Wikipedia.

Not all towns have their own post office. Type the city name and state in the USPS Post Office Locator to see if your chosen city has a post office. The address and telephone number for each post office will be found in the search results.

Some dog-related city names I found are:

• Brittany, LA
• Boston, MA
• Cavalier, ND
• Chesapeake, OH and VA
• Dane, WI
• English, IN
• Newfoundland, NJ and PA
• Norfolk, CT, MA, NE, NY, VA
• Pembroke, GA, KY, ME, MA, NC, VA
• St. Bernard, LA and OH
• Shepherd, MI, MT, and TX
• Springer, NM and OK
• Sussex, NJ, VA, WI

• Argyle, MO and Scotland SD, GA and MD
• Blue Eye, MO
• Ireland, IN and WV
• Finland, MN
• Marmaduke, AR
• Russia, OH
• Welsh, LA and Wales, AK, MA, ND and WI
• Westminster, CA, CO, MD, MA, SC, TX, VT
• Champion, MI, NE, PA

Guidelines for Remailing:

1. Put the stamped and addressed envelopes you would like postmarked in an outer envelope.
2. Address the outer envelope to “Postmaster”, Remailing, and the full post office address (street, city, state, and zip code).
3. Send to the remailing post office. Remember to allow extra time for delivery of your envelopes to their final destination.

Hint:

You might want to decorate the envelope to draw attention to the out-of-town postmark. The lower left corner of the envelope is ideal for a comment such as, “Congratulations on your CH from Champion, Michigan!”