Welcome to the February 2006 edition on theSausagepress.
Firstly we would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year. We would also like to thank your for your continued support and involvement in our community.
2006 is Year of The Dog in the Chinese calendar and it promises to be a special year for SausageStuff.com
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This edition of theSausagepress contains interesting dog related news, articles and information from all over the globe, as well as our monthly reader only special offer!(scroll down)
Barking dogs bring prosperity for New Year
BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese are accustomed to using idioms to usher in good fortune for the New Year, but have to resort to the mimetic phrase "wang wang" of a dog's barking to wish for prosperity over the coming months.
The Chinese Spring Festival of the "Year of the Dog" is coming,falling on Jan. 29. Puppies' images captioned with "wang wang" canbe seen on the posters, greeting cards and toys everywhere. The barking of dog is "woof-woof" in English and "wang wang" in Chinese. The character "wang" is the homonym to another Chinese character meaning wealth and prosperity.
Many idioms and proverbs can be chosen relating to most of the 12 animals. For example this year has been the "Year of the Rooster" so the phrase "golden roosters heralding the daybreak" can be used. Dogs are famed for their loyalty and honesty in Chinese culture.
According to the lunar calendar based on the cycles of the moon,the coming Lunar New Year will be the Year of "Bin Xu" or the "Year of the Dog". "Bin" is one of the ten Heavenly Stems and "Xu"is one of the 12 Earthly Branches. Chinese use Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches as two sets of signs with one being taken from each set to form 60 pairs designating years, months and days with 12 years as one cycle.
Twelve animals are chosen to represent 12 years. The dog is the11th in the sequence that starts with the rat, followed by ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
It is said that 12 animals are selected and sequenced accordingto their everyday habits and characteristics. When "Xu" of the Earthly Branches represents the time of a day, it refers to 7 p.m.to 9 p.m. and it is the period when ancient Chinese prepared to goto bed and dogs took their responsibility as watchers guarding thegates to courtyards for their owners. Thus "faithful dog" was chosen to represent "Xu".
"In China's primitive ages, dogs were regarded as intelligent animals," Wu Bingan, a professor of Folklore, said. "In the mythology of Han Nationality, the dog is revered as one of the 28 constellations in the Heavenly Palace."
Among the ethnic minorities located in southwest China, dogs are even treated as their creators or ancestors. A fairy tale of Yao Nationality said, "The Nanyue King was captured by his enemy so the King's mother promised to marry the King's daughter to anyone who could save the King. It was the dog named 'Panhu', raised by the Nanyue King, that saved the King in the end. Later,'Panhu' married the King's daughter and their descendants are the Yao Nationality."
Nowadays, dogs in China make their contribution to pushing forward China's economic development, which is the core task of China at this current stage.
The number of dogs registered as pets has exceeded 400,000 in Beijing, including those that have not been registered, the total number is thought to be over 1 million. Experts predicted that the annual sales of pet-related products in the country might exceed 6 million yuan (741,000 U.S. dollars) in 2006.
A glance at well-preened dogs walking on the streets or gardensby their owners can prove dogs are pampered by their owners as thefavorite pet during this "pet craze" in better-off Chinese cities.
The dog is thought to be loyal, reliable, persistent, resourceful, unselfish and honest. "Dogs are often portrayed in modern Chinese novels and movies as heroes for their loyalty and honesty," Zhai Yunduan, a professor with the Liaoning Normal University, said.
People born in the "Year of the Dog" are also considered to have similar merits. Thus many wannabe parents prepare to have their babies in the "Year of the Dog". "My wife and I both love puppies, which are lovely, cute and loyal," Ao Tian, a fashion chain store owner, said, who will greet his baby in October 2006.
Meanwhile, in the coming "Year of the Dog", the lunar cycle begins relatively early and will last for 385 days until Feb. 17, 2007 -- a phenomenon that has occurred only 12 times in more than 2,300 years between 221 B.C. and 2100. The last 385-day lunar yearwas 1944.
As the year is unusually long, it will have 13 months, with an intercalary month between the seventh and eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, as well as two "lichun" on Feb. 4 of 2006 and 2007 respectively - the auspicious day marks the beginning of spring
Orignal article can be found Here
Dogs
of the World, take a bow.
By Peta Fitzgerald
You have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, inspire other people's confidence and, best of all, this is your year.
Those born in the Year of the Dog - 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 and 1994 - can celebrate the year of their birth when the Chinese New Year Festival starts on Friday.
With the dog considered one of the most loveable signs of the horoscope it is only fitting that crowds of up to 500,000 are expected to attend the three weeks of festivities to mark Chinese New Year's Day next Sunday.
Dog people may need a little help at this year's celebrations, however, as Chinese belief also characterises them as sometimes distant at parties.
"We have some fantastic events this year for the whole family to enjoy, with the tantalising tastes and free entertainment of the Hawker Central food markets in Belmore Park," said Dr Cindy Pan, ambassador of the 2006 City of Sydney Chinese New Year Festival. "The highlight of the festival, however, will be the Chinese New Year Parade."
The parade will feature lions, dragons, emperors and gods making their way from Town Hall to Paddy's Markets on February 5.
"One of the other really exciting things this year will be the new Lantern Festival, which will involve workshops for the kids to make lanterns and a display at Star City on February 11," Dr Pan said.
For many Chinese families the New Year's festivities include a customary clean-up to sweep away any traces of bad luck and doors and windows are given a coat of paint - usually red.
"The cleaning and fireworks symbolise scaring the demons away and making room for new positive thoughts," Dr Pan said.
Orignal article can be found Here
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Bach stops dogs from barking!
An RSPCA rescue centre in the UK has found that not only does listening
to the classical music by Bach pacify the nerves of people; it also has
a similar calming effect on stressed out dogs.
The centre has now installed a 2,000 pound sound system to play classical
music in order to sooth the frayed nerves of man's best friend.
Anita Clarke, Deputy Manager of the centre, said that they had decided to install the system as classical music by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart had proven to be effecting in soothing the dogs in the kennel.
"Music is proven to have a calming effect on both animals and people. It definitely works. It's quieter in the kennels now because if one dog barks when it's quiet they all start but if music's playing they don't," the BBC quoted her, as saying.
However, Bach's music is not the only sound that wafts through the speakers for whale sounds and panpipes, as well as radio output is also played so the animals get used to sounds of other animals and humans.(ANI)
Original article can be found Here
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Happy Birthday Sausage! Sausage celebrated his 2nd birthday in style today. Amongst his many presents was a giant organic Wurst!
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Two dogs credited with saving diabetic's life
CENTERTON, Ind. — Bill Burns' two dogs, Dusty and Butch, could be considered more than his best friends they could be his guardian angels. Burns, a diabetic, took a walk last week with his two dogs. Upon feeling ill, Burns attempted to cut his walking-circuit short by crossing a field. Halfway through the field he collapsed.
If not for a motorist speeding through the area, Burns would likely have died in the field.
Instead, Deputy Steve Hoffman pulled over a 19-year-old female going 57 mph in a 30 mph zone. After dealing with the lead-foot driver, Hoffman witnessed a light bouncing in the field. Upon closer inspection, Hoffman found one dog with a flashlight in its mouth and one dog laying on top of a body.
Hoffman called for emergency help and, after sweet-talking the growling dogs, he was able to get the unconscious Burns breathing and stabilized until the ambulance arrived.
To read the full story, click here.
Dog Recipes?
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Why not make them yourself? Check out these easy to follow books that we've hand selected.
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Dogs Excell on Smell Test to Find
Cancer
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: January 17, 2006
In the small world of people who train dogs to sniff cancer, a little-known Northern California clinic has made a big claim: that it has trained five dogs - three Labradors and two Portuguese water dogs - to detect lung cancer in the breath of cancer sufferers with 99 percent accuracy.
The study was based on well-established concepts. It has been known since the 80's that tumors exude tiny amounts of alkanes and benzene derivatives not found in healthy tissue.
Other researchers have shown that dogs, whose noses can pick up odors in the low parts-per-billion range, can be trained to detect skin cancers or react differently to dried urine from healthy people and those with bladder cancer, but never with such remarkable consistency.
The near-perfection in the clinic's study, as Dr. Donald Berry, the chairman of biostatistics at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, put it, "is off the charts: there are no laboratory tests as good as this, not Pap tests, not diabetes tests, nothing."
As a result, he and other cancer experts say they are skeptical, but intrigued. Michael McCulloch, research director for the Pine Street Foundation in Marin County, Calif., and the lead researcher on the study, acknowledged that the results seemed too good to be true. (For breast cancer, with a smaller number of samples, the dogs were right about 88 percent of the time with almost no false positives, which compares favorably to mammograms.)
"Yes, we were astounded, as well," Mr. McCulloch said. "And that's why it needs to be replicated with other dogs, plus chemical analysis of what's in the breath."
He is applying for National Science Foundation grants to try just that, he said. The fact that the study was carried out by a clinic supported by the Pine Street Foundation that combines traditional chemotherapy with acupuncture and herbal medicine raised suspicions, as did the fact that it is to be published by a little-known journal, Integrative Cancer Therapies. (The journal published it online last year.)
But experts who read the study could not find any obvious fatal flaw in its methodology, and the idea that dogs can detect cancer is "not crazy at all," said Dr. Ted Gansler, director of medical content in health information for the American Cancer Society. "It's biologically plausible," he said, "but there has to be a lot more study and confirmation of effectiveness."
Dr. Berry, too, was interested but suspicious. "If true, it's huge," he said. "Which is one reason to be skeptical."
Dr. Berry noted, half-jokingly, that Gregor Mendel, the 19th-century discoverer of the laws of genetics, also reported data on his crossbreeding of green and yellow peas that was too good to be true: he repeatedly came up with the perfect 3-1 ratios he predicted. "But we've forgiven Mendel and his gardener," Dr. Berry added, "because his theory turned out to be right."
In Mr. McCulloch's study, the five dogs, borrowed from owners and Guide Dogs for the Blind, were trained as if detecting bombs. They repeatedly heard a clicker and got a treat when they found a desired odor in many identical smelling spots.
The clinic collected breath samples in plastic tubes filled with polypropylene wool from 55 people just after biopsies found lung cancer and from 31 patients with breast cancer, as well as from 83 healthy volunteers.
The tubes were numbered, and then placed in plastic boxes and presented to the dogs, five at a time. If the dog smelled cancer, it was supposed to sit.
For breath from lung cancer patients, Mr. McCulloch reported, the dogs correctly sat 564 times and incorrectly 10 times. (By adjusting for other factors, the researchers determined the accuracy rate at 99 percent.)
For the breath from healthy patients, they sat 4 times and did not sit 708 times.
Experts who read the study raised various objections: The smells of chemotherapy or smoking would be clues, they said. Or the healthy breath samples could have been collected in a different room on different days. Or the dogs could pick up subtle cues - like the tiny, unintentional movements of observers picked up by Clever Hans, the 19th-century "counting horse," as he neared a correct answer. But Mr. McCulloch said cancer patients who had begun chemotherapy were excluded, smokers were included in both groups and the breath samples were collected in the same rooms on the same days. The tubes were numbered elsewhere, he said, and the only assistant who knew which samples were cancerous was out of the room while the dogs were working.
"The fact that dogs did this is kind of beside the point," he said. "What this proved is that there are detectable differences in the breath of cancer patients. Now technology has to rise to that challenge."
The next step, he said, will be to analyze breath samples with a gas chromatograph to figure out exactly which mixes of chemicals the dogs are reacting to.
Even if the dogs are accurate in repeat experiments, Dr. Gansler of the American Cancer Society said, it will be useful only as a preliminary scan. "It's not like someone would start chemotherapy based on a dog test," he said. "They'd still get a biopsy."
Original article can be found Here
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