What happens when you put 12 dogs, four band members, two animal trainers, two furniture movers, one goat and 38 buckets in a room? Well, probably not this without a whole lot of planning.

OK Go's latest video, for the song "White Knuckles," features a dozen rescue pups, a pro-adoption message and choreography that was two years in the making. (Find out how they made the video on the dog trainer's blog.)

Edmund Meurer of Highland, MI, has been a cat person for 20 years, but when he and his wife moved into a new home, the first thing she wanted was a dog.  He was a little skeptical, but he logged onto Petfinder.com, where he was "shocked and saddened" by all the homeless cats and dogs.  It was then the couple agreed they would adopt, not buy, a pet.

"In short order we found our boy, a poor scrawny little guy who had escaped an abusive owner and had wandered around starving until the Sanilac County Shelter [in Sandusky, MI] people had found him," Meurer says.

Last week, photographer Melissa McDaniel shared her tips for taking better photos of deaf dogs and dogs in shelters. This week, she's giving you a chance to win a signed copy of her new book, Deaf Dogs!

The book features portraits of deaf dogs -- including a number of Petfinder alumni -- along with their stories. Enter here for a chance to win a signed copy of Deaf Dogs -- just give us your name and contact info by midnight Sept. 30; one winner will be selected at random. (Official rules)

Melissa hopes Deaf Dogs will inspire more people to help these special dogs. (Read Melissa's 2009 interview with the Petfinder blog to learn more about the challenges deaf dogs face and why she got involved).

Here are a few of the pups featured in Deaf Dogs (Photos and stories © Melissa McDaniel):

This week's video, from the Shelter Pet Project and Patrick McDonnell, creator of the comic strip Mutts, makes the case for adopting a senior dog.

The PSA is an animated addition to McDonnell's Shelter Stories series - adoption-themed vignettes that he features in his Mutts strip throughout the year and published in a 2008 collection, Mutts Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed.

The video shown here is one of six PSAs that McDonnell - a huge adoption advocate and proud dad to Petfinder dog Amelie - created with animator Paul Fierlinger for The Shelter Pet Project. You can see all the PSAs on McDonnell's blog.

They're all great, but we opted to spotlight this one, featuring a "mature" pet, in honor of Adopt-A-Less Adoptable-Pet Week.

(Watch another great PSA from The Shelter Pet Project - and find out how the effort promotes Petfinder pets, here.)

Melissa McDaniel is a Philadelphia-based animal portrait photographer and founder of the Photo Book Projects. Her book, Deaf Dogs, includes portraits of more than 75 deaf dogs from around the country and is available for purchase at her Web site.

Melissa is giving away a signed copy of her Deaf Dogs book to one lucky Petfinder blog reader. Come back Monday to enter for a chance to win!

Photographing shelter dogs for Petfinder is a great way to volunteer: Good photos can help pets get adopted faster and can also attract more potential adopters to the shelter.

Here are some tips on helping shelter dogs shine in their photo sessions.

1. Don't use a flash. The flash on your camera is what's causing your dogs' eyes to glow blue or white. Instead, photograph your dog outside or in a room with a large window and lots of natural light. Make sure the source of the light (the sun or a window) is behind you and is shining on your subject.


2. Be aware of the background. You want the viewer to focus on the dog, so before you photograph him, look around. Is the background full of clutter (chairs, desks, boxes, cars in the parking lot)? If it is, move your dog to a location where the background is less busy, such as in the grass in front of green bushes, or in front of a solid-colored wall. Brightly colored doors or walls make nice backdrops since they can add great color to your image.

People are always impressed and amazed when they meet Keller, my deaf and blind Great Dane. And he meets a lot of people, because he always draws a crowd. He's a great ambassador for Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week.

I think he especially loves it when we leave the house because he gets to experience so many new smells. All dogs have a strong sense of smell, but, think about it: For a deaf and blind dog, smell is everything. Keller sticks his head out of the car window or sun roof and takes it all in. It is really funny to see people at stop lights all pointing to the car with the big white dog sticking out.

While it wasn't a hard decision to take Keller as a 9-week-old puppy -- he was in desperate need of a home right away or he faced euthanasia -- I did initially wonder if I'd gotten in over my head. I had no experience with special-needs dogs and here I was taking on a deaf and blind puppy.

But raising Keller hasn't been that different from raising my other dogs. (See Keller's puppy pictures and read our first post-adoption blog post here. ) Now 3 years old, Keller has taught me a lot about how great special-needs pets can be. He's also taught me some ways to make life easier on both of us. Here's just a bit of what I've learned:

Petfinder has named Sept. 19-25 Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week to call attention to the many homeless pets that, for one reason or another, aren't likely to be adopted.  Donna Thayer of Citrus Heights, CA, knows what it is to adopt one of these often overlooked animals.  She adopted her Lhasa Apso, Mini, from the Sacramento SPCA when the dog was 16 years old.  After Mini's death, Donna knew she wanted to help out another needy Lhasa, so she began searching on Petfinder.com to find one.  Her search wasn't in vain. Patches was waiting.

Patches had two strikes against him: he was about nine years old and blind.

A few weeks ago I posted about my mother's dog, Nanai, an apparent Pit-Shepherd mix with an odd of instinctive behaviors.

We wiped Nanai's cheek with a swab from Canine Heritage and, a few weeks later, got the results: No primary breeds (meaning neither of her parents was a purebred), and as a secondary breed, Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

(According to Canine Heritage, a secondary breed is one that's "easily recognizable within your dog. While these breeds may have a strong influence on your pet, each breed listed makes up less than the majority of your dog's DNA.")

Staffordshire Bull Terrier was not a big surprise -- we'd figured Nanai was a bully breed, and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, while descended from the same line as the American Staffordshire Terrier, is smaller and, according to our Dog Breed Guide, was originally used for killing rats (which would explain Nanai's high prey drive and mouse-killing abilities). 

But some big surprises turned up "in the mix."
 

Next week is Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week, raising awareness of the wonderful pets who too often get overlooked by adopters. Learn more about the week here and check out our gallery of special adoptable pets nominated by our shelter and rescue-group members.

What makes a pet "less-adoptable"?
"Less-adoptable" pets are those who, for one reason or another, have been passed over by potential adopters time and time again. Sometimes it's because they need to be an only pet, other times it's because they're a little more experienced at life (i.e. senior) or have medical needs, and often it's just because they're the "wrong" breed or color.

Less-adoptable pets have just as much love to share and often prove to be some of the most appreciative and loyal companions around. I should know, I have two less-adoptable cats of my own.

(See which adoptable pets are the hardest to place.)

This week's Best Pet-Adoption Video has all the trappings of a viral-video sensation. It's weird, it's timely, it has a cat head on a human body being chased by a giant mouse.

The video might be a parody of Lady Gaga's clip for her song "Bad Romance," but the message is in support of a perfectly good romance - the kind you'll have when you fall in love with an adoptable cat (several of which are shown here, waiting for their forever homes at the San Francisco SPCA).