Another Dog Bug Hits the City

Leptospirosis—a potentially fatal infectious disease found in dogs—is on the loose in New York City. According to a story in the New York Daily News over the weekend, the illness is hitting the city more aggressively this year. This is largely because “lepto,” as it’s called, thrives in warm, wet weather, which we’ve had for basically a month straight.

East Villager Traci Schiffer with her dogs, Fenway and Clementine, who were afflicted with the illness. Michael Ip/Daily News

Some symptoms, says the story, include: weight loss, vomiting, lethargy, depression, muscle pain, and sometimes diarrhea or bloody urine. Lepto is spread by bacteria in the urine of animals such as rats, skunks, and raccoons.

The disease can be fatal because it can result in kidney failure, but luckily, it’s highly treatable. A vaccine is available, but it doesn’t work 100 percent of the time.

Outward Bound Gear for Dogs

If you’re the outdoorsy type—and you tend to take your pooch on NOLS-ish trips on the weekends—it’s worth looking into RuffWear. They have some really cool accessories for dogs of all sizes. For instance, if your pup goes boating, kayaking, or dock-diving (and may or may not have subpar swimming skills), you could get him a Float Coat (as in, a life vest).

A "float coat" from RuffWear

I love the idea of these because they’ll give you piece of mind—whether you’re far from shore or your dog just isn’t in peak swimming condition. Another pretty cool accessory are dog packs for when you take long hikes. With one of these, he can carry extra water, food, and even first aid supplies.

The Palisades Pack from RuffWear

To see more RuffWear products and performance gear, go to http://www.ruffwear.com/.

Leash Lights for Nighttime Walks

Yep, the days are officially getting shorter. But with warmer temperatures, you’re likely still spending lots of time outside with your dog during evening hours. To see better and be more visible to cars at night, try out the Flexi Dog Leash Light. It’s self-fastening and contains six LED bulbs for more than 10,000 hours of bulb life.  The only downside is, it only works if you have a retractable leash. The cost? Just $8.99 and it includes 2 lithium batteries. If you’re interested, you can find it here.

Leash Light

If you don’t have a retractable leash, you could try out Pet Blinkers. It's a flashing light that attaches to your pet’s collar or leash so that he is visible up to a half a mile away at night. The cost for these is also $8.99. To buy, click here.

Pet Blinkers

The Mayor’s Dog Walker

In case you were wondering (and you probably weren’t), Mayor Bloomberg has his very own dog walker for his two yellow Labradors, Bonnie and Clyde.

Alvarez, Warga/News

According to the New York Daily News, her name is Eloise Cucui, and she recently graduated from Hunter College High School. Says Cucui: “I'm literally 'the girl next door.' He's known my parents before he was even mayor, and they know I'm interested in veterinarian medicine, so I was the perfect person."

To top it off, the girl’s gorgeous; appears to be very sweet; and she is attending Cornell University seven-year veterinary science program starting next year. I’m not gonna’ lie, I am a little jealous. When I was 18, I’m pretty sure I was working as a lifeguard at the beach and trying to see how often I could mooch a $20 off my parents without them getting pissed. Anyway, sort of a cheesy story, but read it if you have some free time.

Dog Translator Lets You Decipher Your Dog’s Barks

A product called BowLingual claims it can tell you what your dog’s really trying to say when he’s barking. You attach the bark-sensor collar around your dog’s neck and then use a wireless controller to decipher his barks—it indicates whether he’s  happy, sad, frustrated, on guard, assertive or needy. It also provides a phrase correlated with the emotion to represent what your dog might say if he could actually speak. (I’m imagining I’d get things like “Feed me, woman!” or “I have to pee, damn it!”) The only issue—and it’s a doozy—is, it only works in Japanese. Sweet.

BowLingual says it maintains a record of the 100 most recently analyzed barks as a point of reference, and it can monitor and record your dog's barks and emotions for up to 8 hours while you’re at work. If you want to watch the hilarious video, click here.