Beltline Dog Walk

Times like this I really wish I had a dog.

Atlanta City Councilmember Kwanza Hall is inviting dogs and dog owners to join him for a walk on the Beltline tomorrow, June 12, at 9 a.m.

Irwin Street Market at 660 Irwin Street is the meet up location. The market will have free gourmet doggie treats, a water station, and for humans, gourmet coffee and tea.

Hall recommends that dog walkers wear sturdy walking or tennis shoes.

From the Irwin Street entrance to the Beltline, Hall will lead the group north to Somerset Avenue, where Hall will point out progress on the City’s newest greenspace, Historic Fourth Ward Park. Along the way, walkers will view temporary art installations included in this month’s Art on the Beltline initiative. See more about Art on the Beltline activities here.

Before heading back to Irwin Street, the dogs will enjoy refreshments and receive coupons for discounted spa treatments at Barking Hound Village Dog Spa.

For more information about the Beltline Dog Walk with Councilmember Hall, contact Hall’s office: 404-330-6038 or khall@atlantaga.gov. For information on the morning of the walk, contact 404-406-5296.

See more June events for Atlanta pet lovers.

PAWS Atlanta provides medical care, shelter, food and basic training to homeless cats and dogs until their permanent, safe homes are found. The episode will show the nonprofit receiving upgrades, courtesy of Lowe’s Home Improvement.

The group is holding a viewing party in the High Ballroom at the Hotel Palomar that evening from 7:30 to 10:30 PM. Enjoy food from Chef (and dog-lover) Keira of Pacci Ristorante. Prizes will be raffled off during the commercials! A full cash bar will be available.

Tickets are $30 each if purchased online by Thursday, June 17th. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $35 with cash or check only. Click here for details.

Please note that pets are not allowed in the High Ballroom of the Hotel Palomar.

• Over 15 Non-profit and Rescue Groups
• Pet Adoptions
• Dog Agility, Flyball and Frisbee Demonstrations
• Music Performances by Star94 Artists
• Food Vendors and Beer Garden
• Dog Contests for Cool Prizes
• Inflatables for the Kids
• Pet Photo Booths
• Free Parking
• Prize Giveaways

If your pooch is a Braves fan, tickets are now available for the May 2 Bark in the Park. Tickets cost $25 a piece (covers one dog and one human, plus a donation to the Atlanta Braves Foundation.) Additional human tickets are $12. All canine tickets must be purchased with a human ticket. Fans with two or more dogs must have an additional “owner” accompanying the additional canine. See here for required vaccinations and other details, including a primer on whether “your dog is right” for this event.

Tickets will be available for pick-up on Sunday, May 2, beginning at 11 a.m. The game, against Houston, starts at 1:35.

Event planners say there will be cool water, pools, shady spots, misting machines and ice cream on hand, but older dogs, dogs with short muzzles and/or dogs in general that are quickly prone to heat exhaustion should consider not attending this event or possibly not staying for the entire game.

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Also on Sunday, Piedmont Bark Yappy Hour presents the 2010 Pet Cotillion from 3 to 6 p.m. There’s a $20 entry fee to benefit PALS, which provides ongoing care and support to pets of Atlanta area people living with HIV symptomatic/AIDS and other critical illnesses or disabilities.

For $15 per dog, PAWS Atlanta volunteers will work their magic on your pooch with their doggie shampoos. The group will hold a discount ($15) microchip clinic at the same time. That’s a 70% discount from average vet rates.

Credit: Animal Planet

Each week on Animal Planet’s “It’s Me or the Dog”, British dog trainer Victoria Stilwell wows viewers with her ability to charm unruly pets into well-mannered family members. Stilwell lives in Buckhead with her husband, daughter and chocolate Labrador Sadie. We spoke about the transition from acting to training, her passion for positive reinforcement and the two dogs she couldn’t train.

You can read the interview here on AOL’s Paw Nation, along with two questions that weren’t published:

Did you have a dog growing up in England?
We weren’t allowed. My grandmother was a beagle breeder…and I spent a lot of time there. My father and mother both worked and they knew they didn’t have time for animals but I used to beg and beg and beg, “Please can I have a dog?” It never worked.

Where did you get the idea for the TV show?
I was living in New York and I watched the first episode of the American “Super Nanny”. I remember just getting so excited and thinking, “I do that with dogs. What a fantastic idea for a TV show.” I found the producers and emailed them and the next day, I got a phone call.

A man who admitted to smashing his dog in the head twice with a sledgehammer in a supposed mercy killing gone wrong was convicted on one felony Wednesday in DeKalb County Superior Court, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s April Hunt reports. Jurors found him guilty of two lesser misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty instead of two other felonies he faced.

Joe Waters could serve prison time and pay thousands of dollars in fines, the AJC said.

Waters left the 9-year-old dog near death in Murphey Candler Park on Dec. 1. The dog had a severe skull fracture, hypothermia and lost an eye, but he has recovered and lives with the man who found him the day after the attack. The Good Samaritan, Robert Kennedy, has paid $10,000 in medical bills with a trust fund that was set up for the dog.

"Don’t use the term 'world music' around Thurston unless you want a 20 minute lecture." -- hipster puppies

I was excited to see that an Atlanta dog recently made the cut on Hipster Puppies, the instantly-popular blog celebrating pretentious canines. (See companion site, Hipster Kitty.)

Thurston lives in Edgewood. He belongs to Austin L. Ray and Ray’s girlfriend, who snapped him up at the DeKalb County Animal Shelter about a month ago. The folks at the shelter estimated that Thurston is a three-year-old boxer/beagle mix, but “judging from his behavior, my girlfriend and I think he’s a little younger than that,” Ray told me.

Thurston made a big splash on the Hipster Puppies blog, prompting a poster on another site to comment, “Would steal ‘Thurston’ if given the opportunity. Dog looks awesome.”

Thurston normally doesn’t wear anything but his collar, but he agreed to pose for this photo while Ray gave him a treat.

“He’s quite the curious chewer. But he’s also very patient…especially when you’re bribing him with a treat,” Ray said.

Ray sent us a photo from that same shoot that they didn’t send to Hipster Puppies:

Thurston is so over it.

Attendees included dog owner and Atlanta city councilman Kwanza Hall and Action News reporter Tom Regan who was also there covering the opening for WSB-TV.

From the cleaning solutions to the front desk made out of recycled concrete to the pricey Greywater water recycling system that magically relocates doggy bath water to the center’s low-flow toilets, [Greendog owner Jennifer] Nichols has put much thought into making Greendog as green as possible.

Down to her hair.

The lifelong dog lover and former cook at Bacchanalia and Floataway Cafe has even dyed her hair green.

“The biggest challenge was doing the research to find the right environmentally friendly cleaning products and finding ones that would also kill the parvovirus,” she explained.

Kevin Rowson with 11 Alive has a story about a Kennesaw couple that has offered a $1,000 reward and spent another $1,000 to find their son’s Yorkshire terrier, posing the question: “How far would you go to find your dog if he or she was missing?”

The ironically named “Bolt” ran off from a relative’s apartment complex the day before Valentine’s Day. He belongs to 7-year-old Cayden Harris, whose parents ask anyone who might know the dog’s whereabouts to call them at 404-931-9096.

West Harris says he wants his son to learn that “Money, time, nothing will come between us finding Bolt,” he said. “If there’s a way that he can be found, we will find him.”

Some viewers were incredulous. In the comments under the story, one person wrote:

Actually, I’ll bet a lot of dog owners would go that far — or farther — to track down a beloved pet.

Last year, I wrote about a Marietta tennis pro who spent five months traveling back and forth between Atlanta and Orlando in search of his lost dog, who went missing while the family was on vacation in Florida. Tim Noonan made the seven-hour drive to Orlando nine times to look for his dog, Jake, put up more than 1,000 fliers, called newspapers and TV stations to get the word out, and had a pet detective analyze maps of southwest Orlando to pinpoint the search. The first month, he paced next to highways at rush hour wearing a sandwich board with the dog’s picture on it.

Tim Noonan with his dog, Jake, and the sandwich board he wore to find him.

Noonan’s efforts were rewarded when he got a call from a golf course groundskeeper who had found Jake and was feeding him hot dogs.

In the Harris’s case, a witness told them they saw a man lure Bolt into a truck in front of the apartment’s mail boxes. Kim Harris thinks the man may have picked up Bolt to help him. “We just know that this person who has him will do the right thing and know that this animal is truly loved very much,” she said.