NAME: Madeleine
BREED: Yorkshire Terrier
AGE: 3 years

ABOUT THE DOG:
Brittany got Madeleine from a breeder in 2006. Like most Dog Whisperer cases, Madeleine started off "normal," but has since developed an animosity to an array of peculiar objects.

Whenever someone starts sweeping, Madeleine chases the broom, barking and biting at it. But Madeleine's most intense reactions take place in the car whenever the windshield wipers are on. She attacks them, thrashing back and forth, front seat to back seat, to try and get at them.

ABOUT THE OWNERS:
Brittany works in fashion marketing and works as a wardrobe stylist for Britney Spears.

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Madeliene's aversion to windshield wipers doesn't just end with the Carr's vehicles. She has been known to go after the wipers of oncoming traffic!

NAME: Sara
BREED: German Short-haired Pointer
AGE: 5 years

ABOUT THE DOG:
Sara was a sickly pet shop puppy, recovering at a vet's office when she was adopted. Her new family has had to completely rearrange their lives to keep their dog from hurting herself and destroying their home.

ABOUT THE OWNERS:
Austin and Karrie Pittman are the parents of 2 ½-year-old daughter Isabella and 2 ½-month old son Griffin. They also have two other German Shorthaired Pointers, 7-year-old Trigger and 4-year-old Jack.

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Even the producers of the show were shocked at the damage Sara did to the Pittman's home while her owners were away for just fifteen minutes.

NAME: Seven
BREED: Greyhound mix
AGE: 14 months

ABOUT THE DOG:
Jillian Michaels rescued Seven from a Los Angeles shelter about a month after losing Baxter, her beloved Chihuahua. Jillian hadn't intended on rescuing another dog at the time, but couldn't bear leaving Seven at the shelter.

However, at the equestrian center where Jillian rides her horse Buzz, Seven circles the animal, barking incessantly. She's also tried to nip Buzz. Jillian is afraid Seven's antics will get her killed or hurt someone else.

ABOUT THE OWNER:
Jillian Michaels, best known as a fitness trainer from TV's The Biggest Loser, is also a fitness expert, life coach, author, radio host, blogger, designer and creator of DVDs and video games. She is also an avid horseback rider.

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Cesar tried taking a miniature horse on a pack walk with Seven.

Attention Dog Whisperer Fans! A media friend of the channel has a question for you: If you're a parent, do you ever find yourself applying any of Cesar's ideas to child-rearing? We're interested to hear specific stories about which of Cesar's concepts--like calm-assertive energy--work well in raising kids, too, and why. Please e-mail us your stories at ngcpr@natgeochannel.com

Just in time for Halloween, there's another twist to the disembodied feet mystery. But this is no ghosts and goblins mystery. Theories of serial killers, plane crashes and tsunami victims have been suggested.

Just this past Tuesday 10/27, another sneaker was discovered washed ashore in British Columbia. Not familiar with the case?

In late 2007, a 12-year-old girl found something unusual along the shores of an island in British Columbia: a male right foot inside a shoe that had washed up with the tide. Six days later, another foot in a sneaker had washed up, this time forty miles south. It was not the missing half of the pair however, but a different right foot. Over the next fifteen months, four more feet washed ashore in the region.

Now another sneaker has been found. Though it has not been confirmed it's related to the others, it does add another clue to this bizarre mystery.

Watch a video clip from Explorer: Mystery of the Disembodied Feet. This episode of Explorer airs again on the National Geographic Channel this Saturday October 31 at 7P et.

Learn more about this mystery and watch behind the scenes video clips on the Explorer: Mystery of the Disembodied Feet site >>

NAME: Hardy
BREED: French Bulldog
AGE: 3 years

ABOUT THE DOG:
Owners Shelly and Tadd got Hardy from a breeder at 13 weeks old. He seemed to be the perfect dog and for the first two years, became a mascot for Shelly's beauty salon. But after his second birthday, he started biting anyone who came into his personal space. Now Hardy is banished to a secluded corner of the salon, and his snappy attitude has spread to his owners' home.

ABOUT THE OWNERS:
Shelly Dale has always been a dog lover, even taking in stray dogs. She wanted to incorporate her love of dogs with the clients of her successful hair salon. Tadd McCalmont is a fire sprinkler designer and shares Shelly's passion for canines.

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Hardy's salon "test" took place at Primrose Organics. The owner is a friend of the show and has cut the hair of the Dog Whisperer staff.

by Adam Maloof, Geologist, Princeton University

Pole shifting is a fascinating and important process in geological history, but will have nothing to do with the Mayans or with 2012. Read on to understand why.

Earth is not a rigid sphere. In fact, the solid Earth deforms on a range of timescales, from the twice-a-day lunar-solar tide, to the rebound of the arctic regions over the past 10,000 years as the ice sheets melt and return their stored water weight to the oceans. Just under the influence of her own spin, Earth deforms into an oblate spheroid. In other words, Earth is fatter around the equator than it is at the pole by about 20 km (Fig. 1). It is this equatorial bulge that sticks out into the solar system, interacts with the moon, planets and sun, and leads to the orbital wobbles such as precession and obliquity. Precession is the wobble of Earth's spin axis that causes the zodiac to rotate through time (i.e., polaris has not always been the north star). Precession is the process that John Major Jenkins thinks the Mayans were able to observe and use to predict certain alignments on which to base their long count calendar. Obliquity is the changing tilt of Earth's spin axis with respect to the stars. Together, these wobbles (Fig. 2), known as Milankovitch cycles, modulate the amount of solar radiation that reaches Earth's surface and are thought to pace the comings and goings of ice ages over the past few million years.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Continue reading "Pole-Shift Science With Adam Maloof" >>

Saving the Predators
by Ben Horton
Expedition Granted Competitor

Editor's Note: This blog was written by Ben from the Alacranes reef in Mexico, where he is currently on a research assignment.

We really don't know exactly what a healthy marine ecosystem is supposed to look like. We do know, though, that it is supposed to be thriving with sharks and other predators that are there to manage the quantities of other fish. Somehow, over the last century, we've managed to consume such vast amounts of these animals that they are all but lost.

When you think about it, we only eat the predator fish. When we bait our hooks, it's with smaller fish, not algae or coral, both of which have fish that survive on them. This is what is in my mind right now as I explore the reaches of the Alacranes reef in Mexico. The grazer fish are everywhere, and in such vast numbers that the reef seems to be thriving, yet there is something missing: the predators. This reef system is an example of a region that has been drastically over fished. It is an example of what places like Rio Sirena in Costa Rica will become if we don't start monitoring the commercial fishing that, as I write, is going on unimpeded. Right now Rio Sirena is on the verge of becoming what the Alacranes reef is, and what most of our ocean is.

I know most people are quite glad not to see any sharks when they go to the beach, snorkeling in Hawaii or diving in Mexico. They are glad because of the horrible reputation that sharks have been given by scared humans. If people really knew what it meant to lose all of the sharks on the planet and, of course, if they knew the real nature of these animals, I think most of us would be glad to see them return.

With their return comes a balanced, thriving ocean. An ocean that we can rely on for sustenance in the future. It's not possible for me to "Save the Ocean" all at once, but by doing this expedition to Rio Sirena it is possible for us to start a pattern of changes that could save a critically endangered ecosystem.

NAME: Valentino
BREED: Chihuahua
AGE: 5 years

ABOUT THE DOG:
Owner Brendi Blackburn rescued Valentino from a neglectful and potentially abusive situation. Now, it seems he has taken a vengeance and started lashing out, biting those who come near Brendi and sometimes, even Brendi herself.

ABOUT THE OWNER:
Brendi Blackburn works in the film and television industry. Her family owned big, "outside" dogs when she was growing up. Before Valentino, none of the dogs in her life had any behavioral issues.