Intro To The World of Canines

Welcome to K-9 Confidential, where everything we will blog about will orbit the K-9 world and none of it will be confidential,...so if it has anything to do with Canines, you can bet someone somewhere will say something about it on this blog.

So who are we?  We are the volunteers, fosters, adopters, trainers and all around dog-lovers that dedicate our time and energy in the rescue world to provide better lives for our canine friends in need.  While many of us are involved with I.C.A.R.E. Dog Rescue, our articles will come from all over and be written by people from all walks of life and with varying levels of experience within the canine world.   And when it comes to topics, we plan to talk about everything from basic training and health, to cool recipes for home-made doggie treats and killer vacation destinations that will be just as fun for your dog as it will be for you!

So why the blog?  Well, it's all about sharing, not only knowledge and experiences, but our common appreciation and reverence for the one animal that has been a constant companion to us throughout the millennia, the dog,... but it also goes beyond that.  In the dog rescue world, it is abundantly evident that many people are simply not knowledgeable about the four legged friends they share living quarters with and that lack of knowledge ultimately does not end well for the dog.

By sharing our knowledge and experiences on this blog we hope to encourage not only a better understanding of our canine friends, but a deeper appreciation for them as well.  Ultimately, when people are better informed, the abuses and negligence that we see so often in the rescue world will eventually become things of the past and we can forge a future that offers healthier and happier relationships between us and our companions.

For now, even living in a country where dogs generally lead better lives than in others, we still have a long way to go before the playing field is level.  As it stands now, dogs teeter on the razor edge of life and death every day and it is simply because people are misinformed and end up treating a dog as a commodity rather then a living breathing creature.  When this happens, dogs can become an inconvenience, like any old piece of furniture, and even the most natural of behaviors can give a person enough of an excuse to just get rid of the dog at a shelter or worse.

Many of us in the rescue world know all to well that shelters can become automatic death sentences, especially for certain breeds, and even though some people that give up dogs to shelters have good intentions at heart, most don't realize (or in many cases care) that life as the dog knew it may be over.  In one instance, I recall a man giving up his dog to a shelter because he was going on vacation and didn't want to board his dog.  So a life was lost in exchange for a one week vacation.

We know that we cannot save them all, but if this blog creates a better understanding that leads to a better appreciation and ultimately tips someones decision somewhere as to whether or not they should take their dog to the shelter or stick it out with the the dog, then this blog would have accomplished what it was set out to do,...