Weimaraners in South Africa

The sniffer dog that shot to fame by tracking down Panjo the tiger has been killed by a car outside Nelspruit.

Zingela the Weimaraner had spent six years working with his owner to track down large predators on game farms and to fight off poachers.

In July 2010, he helped find Panjo who spent two days on the run after jumping off his owner’s bakkie.

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We were saddened to hear that Virginia Alexander passed away this morning. She was the queen mother of weimaraners in America.  Her book Weimaraner Ways, which she wrote with Jackie Isabel, is the seminal guide to the breed. The world of weimaraners, and of all dogs, has lost a beloved advocate and friend.

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Johannesburg – Food acidity tests are being conducted on three brands of locally produced dog food believed to have caused the deaths of a number of pets in Gauteng, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries department said on Thursday.

“Tests on the levels of acidity in the dog food will be conducted in a lab situated at our Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute,” said acting chief director of communications Steve Galane.

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Man’s best friend may provide more than just faithful companionship: a new study led by a Michigan State University researcher shows people who owned and walked their dogs were 34% more likely to meet federal benchmarks on physical activity.

The results, said epidemiologist Mathew Reeves, show that promoting dog ownership and dog walking could help many people – of which fewer than half meet recommended levels of leisure-time physical activity – become healthier.

“Walking is the most accessible form of physical activity available to people,” Reeves said. “What we wanted to know was if dog owners who walked their dogs were getting more physical activity, or if the dog-walking was simply a substitute for other forms of activity.”

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