Right now, the best idea I can think of is to keep abreast of the news regarding pet food recalls.

Go to Google News and type in pet food recall (and possibly the brand you feed and want to monitor) and click “Search News”.

The search results are usually presented by relevance, but you can request that the most recent stories be presented first. (Google constantly updates with just-posted news stories.) These options are toward the upper right of the screen.

Please check frequently for updates, read critically and from multiple sources, and please share the info with friends, neighbors and co-workers.

May your pets be well-fed and healthy.

Inexpensive software downloads for your PDA abound.

If you have a Palm PDA, visit Palm Gear and search under the keywords dog and pets. There are programs to organize your dog’s information, and keep veterinary, show and training records. You’ll find games, eBooks, and AKC breed standards for a dozen breeds. There is even a program that simulates clicker sounds, just in case your dog ate your clicker.

Here is a sampling of programs:

• HandyClic Virtual Dog Trainer 1.0 (free)
• PetPal - Dog & Cat Info Organizer (free)
• AKC Dog Pocket Breed Standards (free)
• Good Dog PDA Journal 1.2 (shareware benefits dog rescue)

A Google search will reveal software downloads, such as DataDog: PDA software for the canine sports enthusiast.

Are you busily loading music, games, and video onto a shiny new iPod, PDA, or computer? Why not add some dog-related information and entertainment? Here are some free audio downloads:

• Dogcast radio offers downloads of more than 30 UK-based canine podcasts. You’ll find everything from interviews with well-known experts to topics for kids. Check the subject or episode indices.

• Pet World Radio features interviews with a wide variety of “dog people” from Jean Donaldson to Betty White, and topics like Canine Freestyle and coping with summer heat.

• K9 Cast with Walter and Tara offers more than 60 podcasts covering a variety of canine topics. Search the archives at the upper right of their blog.

A number of dog-related audio books are available for purchase from sites like Amazon.com and Audible.com. An audio version of the classic Don’t Shoot the Dog is available on Karen Pryor’s Clicker Training.com (as well as dog training eBooks which can be read on your PDA or computer.)

Why not find a good audio book and listen to it the next time you’re on the road to a dog show!

It’s hot. Dash makes very brief trips to the backyard, only when necessary. My plants have stopped growing. My car could double as a sauna. We have little ambition. This is the perfect time to stay in the air conditioning and do a little internet browsing. Why not see what dogs are doing in other parts of the world?

• Kenya the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and her humans live in Canada. Kenya and family been blogging since August 2005. Her blog has short posts but lots of photos and a great sense of humor. It’s one of our favorites.

• Find out what it’s like to raise a Guide Dogs of America puppy raiser with Jenny.

• Jon, of Dogblog, lives in San Francisco and has become famous for photographing dogs “tied to things” around the city. It’s oddly fascinating to look at the expressions and posture of these city dogs as they wait for their people.

• Zippy the Corgi’s blog is approaching it’s fifth year. Zippy’s blog is full of extras; pictures, movies, games, stories. What a busy guy.

How do you find more dog blogs? Two dedicated blog search engines are Google Blog Search or Ice Rocket Blog Search, but truthfully, I have better luck just searching on Google. Search for blogs about your breed, your favorite dog sport, or dogs in a certain locale. Type in blog and your choice of keywords (like beagle, tracking, or California).

Why not set up your own blog? Blogs are a great way for far-away friends and relatives to keep up with you and your dog. Blogger is free and very easy to use. Other blogging services are Wordpress (Good Dog Ideas is powered by Wordpress), Typepad, Live Journal, and Movable Type.

Do you have a favorite dog blog? We’d love to hear about it.

Would you like to keep up on dog news across the globe? Sit back and let Google do the legwork!

For a simple one-time search, go to Google News.

What do you want to read about? Dog news in your town, dog legislation, maybe agility trials?

Type the phrase “agility trials” in parentheses. (Hint: If you do not use parentheses, you will get news articles about agility trials, but also irrelevant articles that happen to use the words agility and trials, but not necessarily together.)

Perhaps you want to read about chihuahuas doing agility, any time, anywhere. Type the words dog agility chihuahua without parentheses and click the search button. (Hint: Typing your search terms in lower case will often give you more results.)

To continually monitor the news for your interest, you can have Google News email you periodically when news stories that would interest you are published. Here’s how:

Go to Google Alerts

• Type the keywords you are interested in, for example, “rhodesian ridgeback” (in parentheses) or basenji in the Search Terms box.
• Select the sources you want Google to search; news, the web, both news & the web, or discussion groups? (I would suggest starting with only news, or news and web.)
• Select how often you’d like email notifications from Google; once a week, daily, or as-it-happens.
• Type in the email address where you want your notifications sent. Click “create alert”.
• Google will send an email to this address, asking you verify that you made the request (an anti-spam measure). Open the email and click to verify.

You can go to Google Alerts at any time and cancel, change, or add new search requests.

Note: The majority of news sites publish articles for anyone to read. Some news sites require you to sign up for a free account to read articles. A few sites require a paid subscription before you can read articles.

If you’ve never seen flyball, it is a lot of fun. Screaming, crazy fun, if Austin’s Dogzrule Flyball group is anything to go by. These well-edited videos will put a big grin on your face and have you moving to the music.

• Dogzrule Flyball Austin – Dogs in Action! (1 min 54 sec)
• Dogzrule Flyball Bloopers (1 min 59 sec)

You want one more, don’t you?

• Dogzrule Summer Survivor (2 min 44 sec)

A note about quality: The videos are sharper when played at the original size. On Google, playback size is selected by the little down arrow at the bottom right of the video. On YouTube, the second button from the right at the bottom toggles between the original size and the slightly larger full preview screen.

See the earlier post on how to find dog videos online.)

Caveat:

As always, be careful what you download to your computer. Use your antivirus software and only dowload from a site you trust.

There are hundreds of dog-related video clips you can watch online. Some are informational, while most are just for fun.Two of the more popular video search sites are Google Video and You Tube.

You can find everything from a 30 second clip of a puppy playing in the sprinkler, to a 58 minute video of the 1996 FCI World Dog Show in Budapest. Have fun browsing, but beware. An hour later you could still be glued to your chair! I found myself watching a Border Collie and his human doing a Gladiator canine freestyle routine, a Sheltie in an obedience trial in Poland, dogs doing Rally in the Netherlands, and Kimo, an elite Frisbee Dog. Try browsing the categories; dog obedience, dog frisbee, flyball, agility trial, and dog show.

How to Find Videos:

• On both Google Video and YouTube (which currently has a larger database of videos), if you’re searching for a phrase, like dog park, you’ll get more accurate results if you type “dog park” in parentheses.

Fine Points of Watching Videos:

• Video quality varies from excellent to why-did-they-bother? A smaller playback size (often called “original”) is sharper. On Google, playback size is selected by the little down arrow at the bottom right of the video. On YouTube, the second button from the right at the bottom toggles between the original size and the slightly larger full preview screen.

Caveat:

As always, be careful about what you download to your computer, and which links you open. I wouldn’t select any of the sensational “most downloaded” videos; they are more likely to contain malicious code than videos of dog agility trials. Use your antivirus software and only dowload from a site you trust!