From Reuters.

Russia fetes dog Laika, first earthling in space
Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:04pm EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow on Friday feted Laika, a plain stray dog which became famous half a century ago as the first living creature from Earth to fly into space.

Russia's official RTR channel showed venerable grey-haired academics laying flowers at a monument near the city's Military Medicine Institute, depicting the agile, good-natured dog strapped into a dissected Vostok rocket.

The monument was unveiled on the eve of Cosmonauts' Day, marking Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin's April 12, 1961 space flight.

Gagarin's 108-minute mission in orbit was the first manned flight into space and dealt a severe blow to the prestige of the Soviet Union's Cold War rival, the United States.

But long before Gagarin's flight, it was Laika who successfully blasted off into space on November 3, 1957, proving that a living creature could survive being launched into space and experiencing weightlessness.

Laika, trained for eight months — including in a centrifuge and a pressure chamber — died during her historic flight.

The U.S. space program relied mainly on tests with primates in its early stages, a fact derided by Russian scientists.

"Monkeys are very ill-mannered — they try to clutch whatever they can, they fancy they can switch whatever they want," RTR showed Vladimir Ponomarenko, head of a space and aviation academy, saying with a smile.

"But the dog is a friend of humans and is easy to train."

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Clifford The Big Red Dog

Everybody's favorite big red dog.

Look what love can do! Clifford, the beloved TV and book character, was the runt of his litter, but Emily Elizabeth Howard chose him anyway. She loved him so much that he grew…and grew…and GREW! Before long, he was over 25 feet tall, forcing the Howard family to leave the city and move to the open spaces of Birdwell Island.

Birdwell, by the way, is the name of Clifford's creator — Norman Birdwell. The first Clifford The Big Red Dog book debuted in 1962. We're all waiting impatiently now for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, but it was Clifford who put Scholastic Books on the map back in 1962.

In the Clifford stories he has adventures with his canine friends Cleo, a Poodle, and T-Bone, who looks a lot like a Pit Bull. (Clifford has been variously described as a Saint Bernard and a Great Dane. Everyone with Setters will tell you he must be an Irish Setter.) Other stories focus on Emily Elizabeth and her friends.

Scholastic Studios produced a successful television adaptation shown on PBS Kids, which aired from 2000 to 2003. John Ritter was the voice of Clifford; Grey DeLisle (Mandy, "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy"; Frankie, "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends"; and others) was the voice of Emily Elizabeth. There have been other television adaptations and a movie made of Clifford's stories. Now Clifford's Puppy Days continues the legacy, while the original stories can still be seen as part of Miss Lori and Hooper's lineup on PBS.

Clifford has been teaching children to read and helping them to learn important life lessons for over 40 years. He's one of the most popular dogs in America. That's pretty good for the runt of the litter.

Lassie To The Rescue

Roddy McDowell and Pal, the original Lassie, in the 1943 movie "Lassie Come Home."

Lassie may be the most famous American dog of all time. She first came to life in "Lassie Come Home," by Eric Knight, published as a short story in the Saturday Evening Post in 1938, then as a novel in 1940. Just four years later the story was turned into a movie starring young Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowell and, of course, the very first Rough Collie to play Lassie, Pal, trained by Rudd and Frank Weatherwax.

Timmy (young Jon Provost) and Lassie in the TV series.

In 1954 the story was changed into a television series centered around the dog, titled Lassie. Lassie went through several owners on the series, which lasted until 1974. Her first owner was "Jeff Miller," played by Tommy Rettig, and the Miller family. Four years later the Miller family left and "Timmy Martin" (Jon Provost) and the Martin family took their place. Both farm boys frequently needed the help of their amazing dog to help them with their problems, week after week. Finally, Ranger Corey Stuart (Robert Bray) came, and, near the end of the series, Lassie went out on her own, with no regular human master.

Lassie with his old friends Timmy (Jon Provost) and Mrs. Martin (June Lockhart) at a luncheon.

Before Pal, the original Lassie, died, he was bred a number of times, producing lots of puppies. Today's Lassie is the ninth direct-line descendant of Pal to play the part. All offspring not chosen to be the next Lassie (or kept for breeding purposes) are adopted with spay/neuter contracts. All nine Lassies have been male even though the character of Lassie is a female role. The reason for this slight poetic license is that when female Collies come in season they tend to "blow their coat" — they shed that long, beautiful hair, which would make it difficult to film them looking the way the public expects their Lassie to look. Also, male Collies are a little larger than female Collies, so child actors can continue to play opposite them for a little longer before outgrowing the part.

Lassie at home.

Today's Lassie is just as popular as ever. A new Lassie movie (shot in the UK) was released in 2006. Lassie is out making promotional appearances all over America. This week Lassie is in Sacramento, CA, opposing AB1634. Her movies and reruns of her TV shows are on TV not only in the U.S., but in countries around the world, and her films are available on VHS and DVD.

Lassie getting a kiss from his owner/trainer Carol Riggins.

For those of you who like celebrity stats, the current Lassie is 7 years old and knows over 250 tricks. His real name is Laddie. His owner/trainer is Carol Riggins of Weatherwax Trained Dogs who works with trainer Bob Weatherwax. Laddie is intact and plans to have a family so he can pass on the "Lassie" heritage to the future.

The Iditarod and Sled Dogs

Togo the Siberian Husky was the lead dog during a critical phase of the 1925 serum run to Nome.

You’ve heard of the Idtarod Trail Sled Dog Race, but do you know the history behind it?

Alaska went through one gold rush after another beginning in the 1880s. There were major gold strikes near Juneau, the Klondike, Nome, and Fairbanks. There was even one at a little place called Iditarod in 1909, 629 miles west of the future site of Anchorage and half way to Nome. The strike at Iditarod was a full-scale, old-fashioned, frontier-style gold rush — the last in the United States or its territories.

Getting around in Alaska was difficult. Some areas were accessible by water in summer, but the most practical way to travel was the way the the native peoples did it — by dog sled. Native peoples in Alaska had been breeding dogs for this purpose for centuries. The Malemiut Inupiat people had developed a very hardy breed of sled dog that now bears their name — the Malamute.

The Russians and Americans who settled in the Alaskan country discovered that dog sleds were the only practical way to travel long distances when river travel wasn’t possible. They discovered that dogs were perfect for winter travel. The typical traveler on the Iditarod Trail was a musher driving a team of twenty or more dogs pulling a massive freight sled capable of carrying a half ton or more. It took dogs who could pull a lot of weight and handle hard, cold weather conditions to cover the trail.

Sled dogs are terrific athletes. Pound for pound they are said to be the most powerful draft animal on earth, able to pull many times their weight. A team of dogs averaging 75 pounds can easily match a team of horses weighing twice as much. A single dog has pulled more than half a ton in the canine equivalent of a tractor pull. As late as the 1960s Yup'ik Eskimos of Nelson Island moved much of their town, including entire houses, to a new site 24 miles away with hundred-dog teams.

Sled dogs are faster than horses over the long haul, capable of maintaining average speeds of eight to twelve miles an hour for hundreds of miles (including rest stops) and can exceed twenty miles an hour or more on shorter sprints. (Owners of Arabian horses and endurance riders might dispute this information!) Dogs can also be fed from the land on meat such as moose, fish or caribou in the winter, while horses or oxen require expensive hay or grain. In addition, heavy draft animals cannot use the snowpacked winter trails.

It’s certainly true that no other animal has adapted so well to traveling in the winter conditions of Alaska.

Early mushers used a mix of breeds, from native types such as the Malamute and the Siberian Husky to various domestic dogs from the contiguous States. (One person I know swears that she has seen a team of Irish Setters being used as sled dogs.) Some mushers even used wolves as sled dogs.

By 1900 dog teams were a common sight. But, with the coming of the airplane, the use of dog sleds and the Iditarod Trail fell off.

There was one last hurrah for dog sledding. In 1925 a diphtheria epidemic broke out, threatening the isolated town of Nome. The nearest serum was in Anchorage. The initial idea was to fly the serum to Nome. However the only pilot considered capable of making the flight in unpredictable weather was in the Lower 48 States and not available.

The only recourse was to organize a Pony Express-style relay of dog teams to take the serum to Nome. Every village along the route offered its best team and driver for its leg of the journey to speed the serum to Nome. The critical leg across the treacherous Norton Sound ice was taken by Leonhard Seppala, with his Siberian Husky Togo. Seppala was the territory’s premier musher and Togo was his lead dog. Gunnar Kaasen drove the final two legs into Nome behind his lead dog Balto, an Alaskan Malamute, through a blizzard hurling 80 mph winds.

Balto the Alaskan Malamute was the lead dog on the final two legs of the serum run, through a blizzard.

The serum arrived in time to prevent the epidemic and save hundreds of lives. The 20 mushers had covered almost 700 miles in little more than 127 hours (about six days) — a trip that normally took three weeks — in temperatures that rarely rose above 40° below zero and winds sometimes strong enough to blow over dogs and sleds. The serum run received worldwide press coverage and the mushers received special gold medals. A statue of Balto, the heroic lead dog, was erected a year later in New York’s Central Park (it’s still there). Togo’s preserved body is on display in a glass case at the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Museum Headquarters in Wasilla, Alaska. He is credited with single-handedly bringing recognition to Siberian Huskies as a breed in the United States.

However, the day of the mushers was largely over. Alaskans quickly came to depend on small planes for their travel needs. (Because of the weather conditions in Alaska, the state has fewer miles of roadways than any state except Rhode Island.)

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, begun in a small way in 1967 for Alaska’s centennial and fully operational in 1973, honors the 1925 diphtheria run. It commemorates the mushers and dogs who raced from Anchorage to Nome to save hundreds of lives. And, it honors the past, when sledding and sled dogs were a daily part of life in Alaska. It honors dogs like Togo and Balto, and all of the sled dogs before and since, who have helped people live in the North Country.