Cultured Canines

Classes this morning are postponed!!

Class this morning is cancelled as well! Stay warm!

Classes tomorrow are postponed due to the weather! (We might run puppy class if it warms up in the afternoon though. Stay tuned!)

For the last four and a half months, I had the pleasure of raising this lovely little Frenchie, Kiki! I agreed to take care of her for an American friend while they worked out a way to get her over the border. While I never intended to have her for so long, I am extremely grateful for this experience. Since I got Kiki in May, she has come along to countless classes with me, lived with my pack and went to PAWS Dog Daycare weekly. I got to see how I was able to create a well r...ounded pup that will gladly and happily behave and be cultured with anyone who worked with her. Kiki finally went home today, and I am sad to see her go. So sad in fact, that I have decided to kick start Cultured Canines’ newest program... Puppy Board and Trains! More details will be posted soon, but please feel free to inquire if you are interested in having your pup get the Kiki treatment

I feel incredibly sad and defeated today. I (Chantelle) and the team at Justice for Bullies work so hard to put professional, reliable, science-based informatio...n into the world. We are active in our communities and on social media. Until recently, we have not done a lot of media interviews because of poor representation in the past. With the recent talk of BSL in Calgary, I decided to overcome my reservations and speak to Global Calgary this weekend. I asked about the angle of the story and whether they were speaking to any pro-BSL advocates. I was assured that it was a fact-based article about the Calgary questionnaire and that the Calgary Humane Society would also be commenting. I took time off of work to speak to reporters and be available for in-person filming. Everyone I spoke to was lovely and I was starting to feel some optimism about being heard. Imagine my horror when my first taste of the coverage was the headline Woman attacked by pit bull urges Calgarians to fill out city’s pet survey accompanied with a photo of MY DOG. I’m livid that a casual scroller would see attacked by pit bull next to my beautiful dog’s face. The article opens with several paragraphs of gory details about a woman’s traumatic dog bite injury, attributing the bite to a pit bull. What follows are some quotes from myself and the Calgary Humane Society (which were good quotes!), interspersed with two photos of this woman’s horrible injury, live links to other pit bull attack stories, and a closing quote about the victim’s trauma. Let me be clear: we of course sympathise with the victim she did not deserve that attack and she has the right to her opinion. However, we are incredibly disappointed by Global’s journalistic choices. We and the Calgary Humane Society provided facts about dog aggression and dog legislation, because laws should be based on information. Despite assuring me that this was going to be a balanced piece, Global chose to go in another direction. For any other topic, does a media outlet show gory photos to show both sides of the story? If we were talking about assault or seatbelt laws, would we see multiple close-up photos of injuries, blood, and stitches? Why is this acceptable journalism when we are talking about a bylaw issue? It is incredibly disappointing that after all these years, sensationalism and clickbait still wins the day. I wish I could turn back time and reclaim the hours back that I spent on this interview. Your audience deserves better, Global. I deserve better. And Magoo (a certified Canine Good Neighbour) certainly deserves better. UPDATE: At our request, Magoo's photo has now been replaced as the thumbnail for the online article but still appears on the thumbnail for the video with the headline.