If you are anything like my wife Lisa and I you have more pictures of your dog(s) than your family. Now you can put some of those great shots to use by submitting them to Milk-Bone, and you may very well be on the way to a $100,000 spokesdog contract.

If you need some helping getting that great shot, here’s a little video to help you get it.

Good luck, and we just may be seeing you in ads across the media spectrum!

Security. Its all the rage in this internet age and can be a thorn in ones side.

Take for instance the verification code that you have to enter to gain access to a lot of sites, just to prove you arent a robot. You know the codes Im talking about. Theyre the ones that are all warped and wavy making it difficult to discern a 0 with an o or an I with a 1.

Now theres a better solution.

Asirra stands for Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access. Basically its an HIP [verification process] that requires you to differentiate photos of cats and dogs, a task that is nearly impossible for even the most sophisticated bots.

The cool thing about this technology isnt really the technology but the fact that Microsoft Research has partnered with Petfinder.com to serve up pictures of the more than three million photos of cats and dogs available for adoption. A user is required to select all the pictures that are dogs (or cats) in order to gain access to the site. What’s really great is that each picture has a link to the animal’s petfinder.com adoption page. So now you can get verified and help place a pet at the same time!

You can read all about it here or go to the Asirra home page to find out more.

Let me first say that it is an absolute honor to be Dogster’s new blogger. With Joy’s departure I know I have large shoes to fill (and no, I’m not saying Joy has big feet) and will strive to meet the high standard she has set.

My dogs, Bo and Copper, have been part of the Dogster community for some time, making new friends every day. The newest addition to the family, Logan, is finding this online world to his liking. Just yesterday he turned to me and said, “Woof”, which, loosely translated means “Did any Pup Pal requests come in for me?” I think he’s going to fit in quite nicely.

I’m looking forward to contributing to this dynamic, fun and educational site by bringing you up to date information on all things dog and continuing to make this blog an every day stop.

All I ask is that you continue to share your comments and ideas as we take a walk down the trail that is Dogster.com, for we all know a walk without checking messages is a walk spoiled.

There is amazing news coming out about the intentions in Leona Helmsley’s (the NY hotel baroness) will and how it will be executed.

On June 16th Manhattan Surrogate Judge Renee Roth reduced Leona’s $12 million bequeath to her Maltese, Trouble, to only $2 million (and assigned the $10 million to grandchildren who had been entirely shut out). It was also reported that will executors are spent $100 thousand in the last year on security detail for Trouble who had received death threats.

Now that all the named and direct beneficiaries of the will have been sorted out, there is the matter of the $5 to $8 billion (BILLION!) in unassigned assets that were dedicated in a two page “mission statement” attached to the will for the health and welfare of dogs. William Josephson, a lawyer who was the chief of the Charities Bureau in the New York State attorney generals office from 1999 to 2004 stated The statement is an expression of her wishes that is not necessarily legally binding. However legal precedence consistently decides upon fulfilling the expressed wishes of the deceased over any other interpretation. So it’s very likely that billions in assets ($2.3 billion of which was liquid at the time of her death) must be spent for the health and care of dogs.

Once I was able to wrap my head about this, this is amazingly wonderful news. It definitely verges on the ridiculous considering the NY Times determined that “$5 billion would equal 10 times as much money spent as all 7,381 animal-related nonprofit groups reporting to the Internal Revenue Service in 2005.” Another way to look at it is that if there are 70 million dogs in the U.S. each could be given $71 towards health care. But it’s seems likely likely that huge amounts of money are going to have to be spent on dog health and welfare.

Reading about this makes me think that while Leona thought of her dog’s welfare, most people make no plans for their pets if their pets outlive them.

Our guest blogger, attorney and dog lover Michael Blackburg, posted a great entry on how to prepare for your pet if you are not able. It’s a great overview and steps every pet owner should review. Michael also helps people create simply and binding trusts for their pets.

After doing some research I found The New York Blogger Mike Nizza picked up on just this same issue and informed me of a non-profits called 2nd Chance 4 Pets. Their mission is to keep pets out of shelters and keep them with families.

2nd Chance 4 Pets is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization staffed by volunteers and located in Los Gatos, California. We work throughout the state and across the nation to provide pet owners with comprehensive information about lifetime care solutions to ensure that their pets will always be cared for.

So, on this note, I’m off to start a $5 billion foundation dedicated to dog health and welfare, but first I’m going to make sure Moxie is taken care of … always.

This week I’m digging way back into the vault to one of my all time favorite pictures. It was from one of my first shoots–a gift to a friend who’d been helping me out. I photographed her Springer Spaniel, Max, and at the very end of the shoot I managed to catch this photo of him playing with his favorite ball. It’s not the sharpest, in-focus action shot I’ve ever taken but I’ll take the expression on his face over that any day of the week.

Just make a comment on this post and replace What was I thinking? with your own suggestion to score 25 Zealies that you can spend in the Gift Shop!