Posts tagged "Animal Planet"

"These guys are not gonna be happy when they figure out what we're doing here."

It's baby-sloth bath time in this clip from Animal Planet's "Too Cute." The sloths receive a weekly bath, and apparently they don't like it, but it's tough to tell when they take it so casually. Then again, sloths by their very nature appear to take everything casually. So we'll take their keeper's word for it that this is a stressful activity for them, though adorable to us. But all is well when the freshly scrubbed furballs are given a special snack of hibiscus flowers, aka "sloth chocolate." Could these creature be any cuter? It's like everything about them was invented by an 8-year-old girl with too much Lisa Frank art in her brain.

At Paw Nation, sometimes we forget that some people aren't animal lovers. That thought is so antithetical to all that we believe in, it's difficult to comprehend. What's impossible to imagine is that anyone might not love the most precious of all creatures: kittens. Not only doesn't this woman like kittens, she's lives in crippling fear of them.

While we can't begin to understand this woman, we certainly sympathize with her. She is not hateful; she has a genuine, deep-seated fear of felines. And to be fair, it doesn't help that the camera keep cutting to that one, super creepy looking cat. Anyway, we'd offer this poor woman a message of encouragement here, but there's no way in the world she visits this website.

Get ready; the most depressing show on Animal Planet is back for a third season! "Confessions: Animal Hoarders" is the animal-focused version of the immensely popular genre of hoarding reality shows. Whereas other hoarding shows feature people who refuse to throw out any of their garbage for decades at a time, "Confessions" documents folks who own, let's say, "unreasonable" numbers of pets. We mean enough animals to make life unsafe and virtually unlivable for the hoarders and for the pets.

To get an idea of what we're talking about, watch this interview with Yolanda, a "Confessions" hoarder to shared her story on "Today" this morning. Learn about how keeping 38 dogs and cats affects a person and their family. Want more? The new season of "Confessions: Animal Hoarders" premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on Animal Planet.

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Do you kinda like cats? Keep moving; there's nothing to see here. But if you love -- really love -- cats, then this is the show for you.

The new series "Must Love Cats" debuts on Animal Planet Sat., Feb. 12, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Host John Fulton is a feline fanatic with a funny bone. He plays guitar and composes comedic ditties while introducing viewers to cats and the people who love them.

The show will take you into the fascinating world of amazing kitties, from hero cats that saved their owners' lives to a sly cat who's the main suspect in a string of burglaries. Fulton and his feline friends will also uncover the secrets of catnip, explore the birthplace of the beloved domestic shorthair and take you on a tour of a swanky hotel designed just for -- you guessed it -- Felis catus.

In what's become an annual awww-producing tradition, this year's Puppy Bowl has a few new tricks up its sleeve. From chicken cheerleaders to the Kiss Cam to watching the whole thing in 3-D, Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VII just might make you forget about the Packers-Steelers game altogether!

Meet the Puppy-Meister
We recently caught up with the man who is in the middle of all the action: Puppy Bowl referee Andrew Schechter (who also serves as coordinating producer of the event). Schechter has been making tough "unnecessary-ruffness" calls for four years now and wouldn't have it any other way.

"Some children grow up wanting to be firefighters; others want to be astronauts," he says. "I grew up wanting to be the referee of adorable puppies pretending to play football in a miniature stadium. Dreams really do come true!"

Shelter Dogs Rule the Gridiron
This year he'll ref a picture-perfect lineup of a whopping 47 puppies! "They are all from different shelters. The puppies range in age from 7 to 16 weeks old, and there are 29 different breeds represented," he says. "Of course, the Puppy Bowl referee doesn't play favorites but, I must say, Puppy Bowl VII features some of the cutest and most rambunctious puppy players yet!"

The Puppy Bowl, the yearly pre-Super Bowl "competition" on Animal Planet, is back! To get the full scoop on the event, go to our Puppy Bowl preview, but for right now, just focus on the starting lineup. Oliver, above, is a 9-week-old Great Pyrenees who was found at Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue and will be running around the faux football field playing with other shelter dogs. As you can tell, this fur ball is ready to rumble.

To see all the canine players who will be gracing the field, click over to Animal Planet. Warning, the puppy photo gallery is so completely addicting you'll find it hard to break away.

AOL Extras
For more adorable behind-the-scenes action, be sure to checkout Popeater's visit to the Puppy Bowl as well as TV Squad's exclusive Puppy Bowl coverage.

It's back! If you're a fan of Animal Planet's reality show "It's Me or the Dog," you won't be disappointed with the third season, which begins Sat., Jan. 8, at 8 p.m. EST. If you haven't already checked out the show, tune in to see renowned dog expert and trainer Victoria Stilwell "restore harmony in homes where pets are running riot and the family is in the doghouse."

Stilwell tells Paw Nation that the new season is not just entertaining and educational -- it's intense and full of characters. "It's more than just dog training. There are a lot of challenges in this series," Stilwell says. "There are different behaviors that you haven't seen before and some really great people."

Real Housewives, Pampered Poodles, Angry Pit Bulls and More
One such person is Jill Zarin of the reality television show "Real Housewives of New York." Stilwell comes in to help Zarin with the family's cantankerous Chihuahua, Ginger. (Check out scenes from the segment in the video below.) Then there's the bunch of pampered poodles that live in a Long Island castle and a micro pig that is in dire need of training.

Stilwell's most memorable case though? A family in Staten Island, all living in the same house with a pit bull that started displaying worrying and aggressive behavior toward people. Like most dog training she does, fixing the issues wasn't just about working with the dog but also its owners.

"Some of the people on the show are really honest, and they understand they've just gone down the wrong path, so then it's about retraining the dog," she says. "Other times it is their behavior affecting their dogs in a negative way."

Is your cat a certified couch potato? Is your kitty perhaps tired of playing the keyboard? Is your putty-tat portly? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you need some new toys. That's why we asked Janet McCulley, Animal Planet's Pet Trendologist for The Daily Treat blog, to round up her favorite finds for felines seeking activities that will keep them mentally and physically fit. Watch your cat transformed into a skilled hunter with these top innovative cat toys designed to beat the kitty blues!

I was watering my postage-stamp-sized Brooklyn garden one morning last spring when a white-bibbed cat peeked out from under my azalea bush. As I weeded, the cat napped in the sun, eventually sauntering over to press himself against my ankle. Clearly, this was no skittish street cat.

When I was finished, he marched up the steps alongside me, fully expecting to be let inside. That night, I noticed he'd slipped under the gate to the basement and curled up beside the door. After three days of this, I deduced he was either lost or recently deposited on the curb, which meant I had to find him proper shelter.

As the cat-allergic owner of two dogs, adopting him myself was not an option. After unsuccessfully trying to convince several (cold-hearted) cat folk in my life that he'd make a fine pet, a neighbor suggested I call a woman who ran a local cat-rescue program. She came highly recommended. At the least, I figured she'd be able to suggest some no-kill centers.

Helping or Hoarding?
When she answered the phone, the woman sounded flustered, but I chalked it up to the kid screaming in the background. Almost immediately, she said she could come by within an hour, but she needed to talk to her husband first. "I'm currently fostering eight cats and we have four of our own," she said. "But I'm sure he'll be fine with it. Let me call you back."

Once I hung up, I started to do the math: One New York City apartment + three humans + 12 cats = CRAZY. Or does it?

Do you consider your cats members of the family? Would you rather purchase them a special kitty condo than buy yourself something special? If so, you might be just what Fresh Step and Animal Planet are looking for in their Feline Fanatics Contest!

Animal Planet is debuting a new show next year called "Must Love Cats," and in celebration, Fresh Step has teamed up with the network to hold a nationwide search for the families that love their felines the most. Whoever has the best cat tale will win an appearance on an episode of "Must Love Cats," an editorial feature in "Star" and a year's supply of Fresh Step cat litter.

John Fulton, the host of "Must Love Cats" (pictured here) has seen some extraordinary displays of kitty-cat love, including a cat birthday party with 200 guests (and a cat fashion show). But he knows there are more great stories out there, saying, "We're hosting this contest for all feline fanatics in America so we can find and honor the everyday people doing extraordinary things for their cats."

Think you qualify as a Feline Fanatic? Enter now through Oct. 17 at Fresh Step's Facebook page or the contest website by uploading one photo of your cat, sharing a brief description explaining why you qualify as a Feline Fanatic. Judges from Animal Planet and Fresh Step will select five finalists, and then America will choose the winner by voting at Fresh Step's Facebook page from Nov. 9-29.

And remember, they're looking people who have done things for their cats, not necessarily to them, so telling a story about dressing up your pretty kitty won't necessarily beat out someone who built their cat a two-story kitty castle!

When you see a cute litter of puppies or a box full of kittens, the desire to keep a couple of dozen of the little critters around is almost overwhelming. Most of us recognize, however, that we don't have the space or the time to attend to large numbers of animals.

But then there are the hoarders: People who love animals so much that they can't stop "rescuing" them, even when they have hundreds of cats and dogs in their homes.

Animal Planet is launching a new series called CONFESSIONS: Animal Hoarding, which looks into the lives of pet lovers who have a compulsion to possess and control an unmanageable number of animals. The series coordinates interventions by psychologists, animal welfare experts and friends and family to help these people -- and their pets -- recover from animal hoarding.

In this video from Today, Matt Lauer interviews Robin, one of the women featured in the show, along with psychologist Karen Cassiday, to gain insight into this troubling phenomenon.

Mississippi realtor Shelly Bookwalter is always showing houses and rescuing dogs, often at the same time.

"The more houses I sell, the more dogs I can save, so I go very fast in both categories," said Bookwalter, the star of a new Animal Planet series, "Last Chance Highway," developed by Al Roker's production company. "I can't say how many times I've scooted clients over in the car to make room to load a couple of dogs. I'm not going to miss a single stray dog that's going down the road; I don't care who's with me."

She has 25 to 30 dogs in her home at any given time, and saves an average of 650 a year.

When "Last Chance Highway" premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT, viewers will see Bookwalter's quest to rescue unwanted strays and soon-to-be euthanized shelter dogs in rural Mississippi, where many owners don't spay or neuter their animals and shelters are strained beyond capacity. Many of the dogs come from the DeSoto County Animal Shelter near Bookwalter's house, where more than half the 2,578 dogs brought into the shelter last year were put down, according to the show.

"We're in such a rural area, there are a lot of dogs that just roam free, and if a dog roams free unspayed, they're pregnant immediately," Bookwalter tells Paw Nation.

Bookwalter has come up with a creative solution for saving the dogs -- sending them North to waiting families. The real estate agent spends what she earns selling homes to have dogs spayed and neutered, and treated and fed until they can be listed on Petfinder.com and placed in homes.

Each week, she takes the animals to Memphis, where Tennessee pet transport company owner Kyle Peterson picks them up and takes Bookwalter's rescues, along with more than 100 other dogs, up the coast to their new families in Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.

Mike Tyson is entering the realm of reality TV. This doesn't surprise us one iota. Nor does it surprise us that there has been some controversy. What does surprise us is that the show will be on Animal Planet and is based on pigeons. Yes, really.

Not every dog lays around all day, waiting for you to come home. Take Rosie the Newfie, for example. When her neighbor became seriously ill, she found a way to lend a paw and give a dying woman a reason to smile by leaping a fence to visit the sick neighbor every single day. And her owners had no idea.

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are really doing their part to make tails wag across the country. Ellen has teamed up with the USPS and her dog food company, Halo, to raise awareness and feed homeless pets a million meals -- all you have to do to help is buy some stamps! Portia, on the other hand, is focusing on the feral cat population by working with Alley Cat Allies to tell people why the trap-neuter-return is the best policy.

If you're seriously hurt, you get yourself to the emergency room, right? Sure -- because you're human. Well, an injured German shepherd did just that after wandering away from home. Fortunately, the ER staff took pity on the pup and he's since been treated by the local animal shelter and returned to his owners.

The illegal trade of endangered animals is common in the Middle East, but the UN is taking measures to eliminate the practice. Delegates at a conference to discuss endangered species are looking at everything from animal abuse on a small scale to the sale of highly specialized species. It's going to be a hard (and heartbreaking) battle, but we're glad to see the UN addressing the issue.

For two days in December, nearly 4,000 dogs from across the nation and around the world gathered in Long Beach, Calif. to compete in the American Kennel Club (AKC)/Eukanuba National Championship. The event has the distinction of being the only dog show in the United States that is organized and held solely by the AKC, the country's oldest and only not-for-profit purebred dog registry.

With $225,000 in prize money available, the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship is the largest prize-money dog show in the world, according to Animal Planet, which will air highlights from the event on Feb. 6.

Elite dogs competed in several separate events, including Best in Show and AKC invitationals in agility and obedience. In addition, the Eukanuba World Challenge -- presided over this year by Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson -- featured dogs from 41 countries. The event brings together "some of the world's most beautiful and diverse dogs," promises Animal Planet. (Be sure to watch for Sadie, a black Scottish terrier, pictured left, who was ranked the number-one dog going into the competition.)

The AKC/Eukanuba National Championship premieres on Animal Planet and also on the Discovery Channel on Saturday, February 6, 2010, from 8-11 PM (ET/PT).

The "ruff," tough and utterly adorable players take the field Sunday for Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VI, and referee Andrew Schechter will be back to keep the canine chaos in check. The Brooklyn native (and associate producer) of Puppy Bowl talks with Paw Nation about the big game for pet fans, including some exiting new additions for this year's match-up.

What will be familiar to viewers on Sunday?
The famous kitten halftime show is back again, as well as what we like to call the most innovative camera shot in sports: The water-bowl shot.

What are some of the new features for Puppy Bowl VI?
We're going to have hamsters piloting a miniature blimp above the field, which will give viewers a bird's eye view of the action. And for the first time ever we're going to have bunny-rabbit cheerleaders on the sidelines.

Was it hard to get the bunnies into the outfits?
Actually, none of the animals on Puppy Bowl wear clothes.

It sounds like that's a deliberate decision.
Absolutely. We like to keep them as natural as possible in a comfortable environment. That's what people tune in to see: Puppies being puppies.

Where do the players come from?
The filming takes place near Silver Spring, Md., just outside of D.C. Most of the puppies come from area shelters. We also have shelter dogs from Louisiana, Georgia, Nebraska and Oklahoma.