The Heidi Chronicles, Chapter 52: Stay tuned ...

This is Heidi. Last year, she was "discovered" in the park by a pet talent agency; since then, she has embarked on a one-dog quest to break into the business. This is her Hollywood story as chronicled by Diane Haithman. And this is her "head shot": That longing look was achieved by placing a biscuit just out of reach.

As of last Friday, I am no longer a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. Ergo, this is the last chapter of "The Heidi Chronicles" for L.A. Unleashed. I'd like to thank the blog for unleashing an obsessed doggie stage mother, and providing a forum for documenting the approximate first year of Heidi's attempt to take Hollywood by storm.

I'd also like to thank Heidi's fans and her entourage of one, Layla the Labrador mix, for sticking by Heidi through thick and thin. However, I visited Layla and her parents, Jim and Irene Dorsey, recently and Layla seem thrilled to enjoy a little quality time without Heidi, just this once. Recently, the patient Layla has been somewhat taxed by the many canine guests at the Dorseys, including small and frequent visitor Kiki Newberg, a Norwich terrier cute enough to get away with murder one.

But I encourage Layla, Kiki Newberg and all of your dogs to be sure to tune in for "Don't Walk on the Grass," the Nov. 1 episode of "Desperate Housewives." Heidi and I are waiting to see whether our background appearance in a restaurant scene made the cut.

And despite my own recent career change, let it be said that Heidi fully intends to continue her pursuit of Hollywood stardom.

Better canine citizens in Paris? Oui oui!

The French love their dogs, and take them everywhere. And with over 500,000 dogs living in Paris, it's no wonder that the parade of pampered pooches is a constant of Parisian life. They sit on subway cars, on their own chairs at brasseries. Most places humans go, dogs are also allowed. But is it our imagination, or do Paris' dogs seem to be better behaved than our stateside pets? It's almost as if someone slipped a little Xanax into their kibble.

With the dog population growing stateside, perhaps Paris is just a small glimpse of what we may see in the future as laws become more lax and people begin to expect royal treatment of their fur-person family members.

Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D. a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and author of "For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Best Friend," says our perception is actually close to reality. "We have noticed that the dogs we see in Paris are well-behaved," she said. "It's more than likely because they are allowed to interact in public situations and they and their owners are more conditioned to train them to behave."

What follows is photographic documentation of pooches behaving well in the City of Lights...

Jeepers creepers: Bedbug-sniffing dogs save the day

Trained dogs sniff out drugs in schools, detect bombs in airports, and even chase geese away from golf courses, but now trainers are focusing their efforts on another type of smart canine: bedbug-detection dogs. 

Today, L.A. Times reporter Bob Drogin wrote about the hard-working animals who sniff out infestations of real-life bedbugs -- those tiny, blood-sucking pests that leave itchy, painful welts -- in apartment buildings, hotels and office buildings so people really can sleep tight. This pest problem has become more than just a childhood scare tactic: Bedbugs are very real.

Many pest-control companies are now purchasing the dogs from two main trainers in Florida, who sell the dogs for up to $9,500 each. The dogs receive treat rewards whenever they alert for bedbugs, so experts caution against some exterminators whose dogs report false alarms, allowing the company to tack on extra charges.

We hope that this means the old adage will soon become a meaningless good-night saying once again.

Read the full article here, or look through the photo gallery of bedbug dogs on the prowl.

-- Kelsey Ramos

Photo: Sara, a lab trained to hunt bedbugs, poses after checking an apartment in Jersey City, N.J. Credit: Michael Nagle / For The Times

Training your dog using more 'yes,' less 'no'

Too often, dog training seems like it's all about saying "No."

"People have the knee-jerk assumption that they seek training to fix something," says Victoria Schade, author of "Bonding With Your Dog."

But if all you think about is stopping bad behavior, you miss the real joy of training: being able to talk to the animals. "Training is about changing the way you communicate with your dog. It's giving you a common language," says Schade.

So how do you train your dog by saying "Yes," rather than "No"?

One way is to get involved in canine sports. And the good news is that they're more available to dog owners than ever before.

The classic traditional obedience exercise is to sit, stay, and do nothing silently. For the dedicated competitor, it's a fascinating challenge and a suspenseful three minutes, but for the rest of us and our dogs it might be a little, well, boring. And if you've seen those agility competitions on TV, where dogs run, jump and climb a course of obstacles, you might worry you're not as athletic as the handlers who are racing alongside.

The Heidi Chronicles, Chapter 51: Waiting on Wisteria Lane, Part 2

Last week, you read about our first day on the set of “Desperate Housewives,” cast as background actors, “Neighbor with Dog.”  As happens frequently in the TV biz, some of the extras called that day didn’t get used – but were asked to come back the next day. We learned that, for a background actor, everything is always is subject to change.

This time, instead of getting lost on the way to Wisteria Lane, a van picked us up at the parking lot at Gate 3. I had learned from our van experience the day before that, when nervous, Heidi turns into a very large lap dog -- so this time I was careful to get into the vehicle before the dog to make sure she didn’t once again surprise some other actor with a free lap dance.

We were whisked straight to the costume and makeup-and-hair trailers.  There, we met one of our new friends from the day before –  Lauren Hicks, who had won out over the competition for the “Busty Waitress“ role and had brought along the requested assortment of fancy bras to complement her low-cut white top.

My more conservative outfit – and Heidi’s bandanna – met with approval, but I had to leave Heidi in the care of another actor while I went into the trailer for a hair makeover. I sat one chair away from series star Marcia Cross as hairdressers fluffed her long red locks, and super-glued mine into a chignon that could withstand El Niño.

Then it was back into the van – today not headed to Wisteria Lane, but to a different set, an upscale outdoor cafe.  Apparently, “Neighbor with Dog” was about to become “Restaurant Guest with Dog.”

Your morning adorable: Talented beagle plays the piano

We've seen dogs try their hand at the piano before (one childhood pet, a standard poodle named Skip, even attempted the trick himself, with rather unimpressive results).  But we've never seen a doggie pianist quite as talented as Beamin the beagle, who sells his song with show-stopping performance abilities we haven't seen the likes of since 1970s-era Elton John.

According to Beamin's owner, the little guy does 35 separate tricks -- and if they're all as well-executed as his piano playing, we're very impressed indeed.  Can his own concerto be far behind?  Now that's something we'd pay money to see.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: lightningjc via YouTube

Your morning adorable: Rooster gives a high-five

Poor chickens often get a bad rap. While they're sometimes seen as unintelligent little grain-eating automatons, many are actually capable of putting those tiny little brains to use with tricks more commonly seen being performed by dogs.

Evidence: Foghorn Leghorn, the rooster wunderkind who knows how to give his owner a high-five (well, truthfully, more of a low-five).  OK, it's not rocket science -- but considering his brain is about the size of a human fingernail, we're suitably impressed.

In fact, some dog trainers even practice clicker training on chickens, rewarding the little guys with food when they perform behaviors their trainers wish to reinforce. In this way, chickens can be taught to flap, squawk and even perform more intricate tricks on command!  (These performing chickens have a leg-up on our own terrier mutts, both of whom ran from the room in terror when we attempted to get them used to the sound of the clicker.) All of this just goes to show, we suppose, that it's not the size of your brain, but what you do with it that counts.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Video credit: coreyguidry02 via YouTube

The Heidi Chronicles, Chapter 50: Waiting on Wisteria Lane

On a recent Monday, the dog and I got the call we'd been waiting for: We were to report to Universal Studios on Wednesday afternoon as nonunion background actors to portray "Neighbor with Dog" on an upcoming episode of  "Desperate Housewives." "Background actor" is just a fancy way of saying "extra."

I have no show biz aspirations, but since you can't send a German shepherd to a major studio by herself, I am resigned to doing what I must for the dog. I'm not an actor; I'll just play one on TV. We eagerly agreed.

The process is rather complicated:  Much like citizens on jury duty, background actors are given a special call-in number to check in the night before. A recorded voice details where to report, where to park and what to wear. At about 9 p.m., I learned that the "neighbors"  would be required to look "very conservative, very wealthy, very Republican" -- no black clothing, pastels preferred.  And bring several sets of these very conservative Republican clothes to provide a choice. Those cast as "younger people" (yeah, thanks a lot) could wear somewhat sexier duds, but should still attempt to look like preppie college students home for the summer.

I pawed through my wardrobe for summer suits, and managed to scrape up some suitably Brooks Brothers tops and shoes. But I wondered whether to attempt to tame my very curly hair, which definitely voted for Obama. I decided to sleep on it.

Your morning adorable: Dogs help with the shopping in Shenyang, China

Sun Chien of Shenyang, China, has come up with an unusual method for dealing with the aftereffects of a stroke.  The 76-year-old didn't enlist a family member or an outside caregiver to handle mundane chores like shopping -- instead, Sun built a dog-sized shopping cart, and now pets Pong Pong and Wow Wow handle the trek to the market.

"I used to pull an ordinary cart with me to get my shopping home. Then one day, Pong Pong suddenly stood up on his hind legs and tried to help me to push," Metro U.K. quotes Sun. "I made them a cart of their own and now they're so good they don't need me with them. If one gets tired, he hops in and then they swap over."

We can't decide which shopping impresses us more: Pong Pong and Wow Wow or Lala the shopping penguin.  Lala doesn't push a shopping cart, but gets points for whimsy: He wears his own tiny, penguin-shaped backpack, in which he carries home the day's catch from the fish market.

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photos: European Pressphoto Agency

Back-to-school time spells separation anxiety for many pets

With the end of summer comes a day that many parents have been looking forward to and many children have been dreading for months: The first day of school.  But one family member that's often overlooked in the hubbub is the family pet -- which is a shame, because back-to-school time is among the toughest parts of the year for pets suffering from separation anxiety.

How do you know if your pet has separation anxiety?  Many animals, particularly dogs, act out and become destructive when left alone.  (Our own ordinarily well-behaved pup, Django, seemed to make a mission of systematically destroying our favorite books when we first began leaving him home alone.) 

Many pets afflicted with separation anxiety display behaviors like following their owners from room to room; displaying frantic greeting behaviors when their owners arrive home; appearing to dislike or resent being left alone in a fenced outdoor yard; and exhibiting excitement, depression or anxiety when they realize their person is about to leave, according to the Humane Society of the United States. 

Besides a sudden disruption to its normal schedule (like a child with whom it's spent a great deal of uninterrupted time during summer vacation), a number of outside influences can cause a pet to develop separation anxiety.  These can include the stress of being in an animal shelter or kennel (a common culprit for rescue pets), the addition of a new pet to the family or a move, among other things.