Dog Help Blog

Posts Tagged ‘dog’

Sometime ago, if you told someone that you would be getting pet insurance for your dog, that person would have advised you to avoid wasting money. But the insurance industry has surely changed! Pet insurance has become something inevitable owing to the rise in cost of pet care and treatment. Even animal welfare groups are aggressively promoting pet insurance plans these days. The reality is that most of us cannot afford the type of care that is offered at modern veterinary hospitals. On the other hand, we have pet health insurance to help. Pet owners like you will never have to miss out on a pricey but crucial treatment for insurance dogs.

What do you get with Pet Insurance?

Most of the pet insurance plans present coverage for illnesses, cancer, surgery, hospitalization, accidents, lab and diagnostic tests including MRI, X ray scans and medication. A number of pet insurance plans also offer coverage for breed related and genetic issues, chronic and persistent ailments and alternative treatments like homeopathy, holistic therapy and acupuncture.

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Pets are often a human’s best friend. It can be a dog, a cat, a bird or simply a fish. But a difference between your human best friend and your animal best friend is that the former is self-dependent while the latter requires you to take its responsibility. Having a pet can actually add a lot of life to your house. Imagine you return from your office completely exhausted and your entire spirit totally drained out. As you enter the gate, your pet dog comes running to you wagging its tail so vigorously that it almost seems like it’s going to hurt him. It nearly jumps on you simulating a hug and clings onto you making cute little sounds, pushing its wet nose against your hands and licking you at the same time. Isn’t that a scene worth watching? Don’t you feel totally invigorated after that jocund greeting? This is exactly what the presence of a pet does to you and your house. It reduces your stress, gives you an emotional pump and many times a better physical health too.

Remember, your pet is not a show piece. It is a living being. It eats drinks, moves around and plays. It also gets angry, falls sick and feels sad. So, merely buying a pet and cuddling it everyday, won’t put a full stop to your responsibilities. You need to take special care of it and give it a lot of attention. Here help is at hand, providing you with some tips on the things you need to do for keeping your pet in good shape.

Be it a cat, a dog, a rabbit or a bird, you need to train it well. Unless you do this, both of your lives will be hell. It is very important to build a good communication between you and your pet. Like if your dog poops on your favorite bed sheet, all it needs is a dog whisperer potty training. Dog whisperers are experts on canine communication. You can hire them for the first few weeks till your pet learns all the ways. Likewise, you get trainers for all kinds of pets.

Give your pet proper food and water. Do not over-feed or under-feed them. Keep them clean. Give them proper baths and if they are furry, brush them regularly. Use special pet products to nurture them. Ensure their kennel, cage or basket is in good condition.

Spend quality time with them else they will lose their mirth. For mammals, you will need a proper space for its physical exercise. Also be regular with their vaccines. Try to predict when your pet is getting ill. If you closely observe their behavior you will be able to figure this out. For example, a dog’s nose becomes dry and it responds slowly to your commands when it falls sick. Every pet becomes quiet when they are ill and when you notice such behavior, immediately take measures. Take it to a vet for proper treatment. It would be better if you don’t start your own diagnosis as a dog fever is very different from a human fever.

Keep your pets happy and help it to keep you happy!

Yes!!! The long lasting dream of having a separate airways for pets came true last week. Pet Airways, unique company for pets transportation decided to transport pet animals within USA at least 5 times a day.

They declared that they will keep the dogs or other pet animals inside closed cages with seat belts to avoid air holes. They are offering this service at the rate of just 150 USD for economy class and for the first class $300.

Now, we can call our pets as gifted one. Even a dog has its day .

Actually this is a good news for pet owners who travel frequently. I hope pet airways  will fly international routes soon.

Do you know rawhide bones are made out of inner layer of cowhides? Rawhide bones are perfect treat for your beloved canine partner. Choosing a good rawhide bone would be the best option to entertain your dog. Although there are numerous advantages of feeding rawhide bones to your pet, the top five advantages are discussed in this short post.

Top Five Advantages of giving your dog rawhide bones

1. Dogs also suffered from stress like us. Rawhide bones play an important role in removing stress among your pet. They will chew the rawhide bones and get relieved from stress.

2. Puppies feel pain in the gums while tooth erupting process. During this time, they will tend to chew all the objects that is available to them. Provision of rawhide bones to these puppies will prevent them to get rid of destructive chewing habit. And also the teeth pain will subside. This process of providing rawhide bones will help in the growth of the adult teeth in a good manner.

3. The dental benefits of chewing rawhide bones include removal of plaque in their teeth, which in turn help to prevent periodontitis, gingivitis, calculus and finally tooth loss. In nut shell, when you allow your dog to chew rawhide bones, there will be no potential dental problems.

4. Rawhide bone chewing is a perfect substitute for their natural behavior. Chewing is a natural process of dogs of 4-18 months. If there is no perfect thing to chew, the dogs will try to chew shoes, facial tissues or table legs. This destructive behavior will cost more money for you. Yes!!! You need to buy new books, TV remote, new shoes, etc, if you haven’t provided rawhide bones to chew.

5. A study confirms that chewing rawhide bones will stimulate the brain of your dog and they will remain active through out the day. Some of the dogs forget that they are being alone during day time, if they’re being provided with rawhide bones. In other words, provision of this stuff will help to prevent separation anxiety.

With such advantages of rawhide bones for your dog, it is mandatory for a dog owner to get top quality rawhide bones for your dog. ALL THE BEST!!

There is hardly anything that matches the happiness of rearing a pet. That is the reason why many go for it. Before going for new pet one should fulfill certain requirements. Let us discuss about it here.

One should be prepared mentality and financially to take up the new challenge of bringing home a new pet. One should have sufficient finance to buy, feed, and prepare a house. Besides one should have sufficient time to play, and take the pet for walking everyday.

Just don’t prepare yourself to go for a new pet as your kids wanted to have one. It is the duty of the pet owner to give a comfortable living condition for the lovely animal that comes home to entertain you and your family.

The most important factor in pet rearing is the cost. Providing food and shelter is not sufficient. The pets need to be vaccinated periodically. The veterinarian needs to be consulted in case of any disease problem. If the dog is not putting on required weight, then again the vet has to be consulted. All costs money, one should remember.

Many forget the cost involved in replacing the damaged articles results due to active and playful pet. Many expect that the pets like cat and dog behave properly if proper training is given. The cats and dogs have the inherent habit of scratching and chewing the objects. The pet training is not cheap; one needs to shell out sizable amount for that. Don’t forget the cost of play equipments which are necessary to keep the pet active and healthy.

Beware; you need to have somebody at home always. If your family members are busy, you need to hire one person for that. Alternatively you can send the dog to kennel. Both these costs you heavily.

There is yet another important expenditure, i.e. pet insurance. Though it is not mandatory, many opt for this to meet the medical bills. The pet insurance really takes care of your financial burden in case of long standing disease condition which requires the pet to be hospitalized for long time. Hence the pet insurance cost can’t be ignored.

Time is the other factor as we discussed earlier. The dogs require regular walking. The cats require regular grooming. Why, even the some breeds of dogs require diligent grooming everyday. All these take considerable time of yours.

Of course these costs mentioned above are miniscule when compared with the happiness the pets bring in. most pet owners will agree to this. The uninhibited love that these pets shower on you makes you to forget the expenditure involved.

Maintaining a sick dog at home is just not easy. Taking the pet dog for veterinarian’s consultation may be easy, but making the dog to consume the recommended medication is tough. Some dogs take the medication with ease while many others are not. But the pet owners have no choice but to adhere to the vet’s advice without any deviation or imagination. The vet can only help you by prescribing the right medication. The onus of administering rests with the pet owner.

Pills-administration

Request the vet to prescribe the medication that can be given with the food. In some cases that may not be possible. Here are few suggestions in case pills were recommended.  Let the pill be held between the index finger and thump. Tilt the dog’s head back little. The upper jaw of the pet should be held firmly with the other hand.

Open the lower jaw of the dog slowly using middle finger. Let the middle finger rest on the small incisor teeth of the pet. The pill needs to be deposited on the toque as deep as possible. Now, let the mouth be closed immediately and never allow the dog to open the mouth for some time. Let the throat of the dog be stoked gently. Alternatively you can blow the nostril. Both will make the dog to swallow the pill.

Syrup or Liquids

Let the dropper or the syringe be filled with medicine at first. Let the dropper or syringe be inserted between the teeth and cheek of the dog. Hold the dog’s head back slightly by closing the mouth. Then slowly release the medication in to the mouth. Let the mouth be closed for some time so that the medicine is swallowed, not wasted. You can help the dog to swallow the medicine by stoking the throat or by blowing the nostril of the dog.

Let it be pill or syrup, you need to be very calm and should never get agitated while administering the medicine. The dog will quickly understand your nervousness which will further complicate the medicine administration.  It is better to reward or praise the dog once the medicine was administered successfully.

It’s essential for Dog parents like you to know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your Dog and can go a long way in training him effectively.

Before you begin training your Dog, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your Dog to have complete trust in you.

Know more about Dog care from this free mini course

Let us see how…….

How To Bond With Your Dog

Building a bond with your Dog is the first and the most crucial step involved in training him successfully. As soon as you bring your Dog home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.

When Dogs are secure in the knowledge that they belong to the family, they are more likely to respond better to their owners’ training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your Dog.

Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.

Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your Dog is almost impossible.

4 Golden Rules To Building A Relationship With Your Dog :

Love Your Dog and He Will Love You back

Once you’re succesful in building a bond with your Dog, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.

Learn how to bond with your Dog with this free mini course.

How Your Dog Learns…

Your Dog’s learning period can be divided into five phases:

The Teaching Phase – This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your Dog exactly what you want him to do.

The Practicing Phase – Practice makes Perfect. Once a lesson is learnt, practice with your Dog what you have just taught him.

The Generalizing Phase – Here you must continue practicing with your Dog in different locations and in an environment with a few distractions. You can take your Dog out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you’ve taught him.

Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help him learn and retain lessons better .

The Testing Phase – Once you’re sure that your Dog has achieved almost 90% success….he responds correctly almost every time you give a command, you must start testing his accuracy in newer locations with a lot of distractions.

Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response the very first time you do this, but you must not lose hope.

The idea is to test your Dog to see how he responds in an environment which is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your Dog.

There are only 2 possibilities:

Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the 3 Ps – patience, persistence, praise.

Internalizing Phase – Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your Dog does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.

Remember:

Learn how to train your Dog better with this free mini course.

Copyright (c) 2009 TrainPetDog.com

The lovely spring has set its foot now. You can notice the plants growing, flowers blooming, insect buzzing etc.  You can also notice that your lovely pet dog scratching its body and prefer to stay in the corner. This is nothing but seasonal allergy. You may know that few get allergic reactions human beings experience due to danders of the pet dog. The dogs too suffer from allergy. Seasonal allergies are more seen in dogs than in cats.

In most cases the allergy is due to genetic factor. The dogs that are in age group between 1 and 3 years are more prone. The allergens make entry in to the body of the dog either through inhalation or ingestion. In dogs the allergic reactions are mostly itching rather than sneezing, running nose, watery eyes etc.   This can be evident by the dog’s act such as frequent rubbing of the face, licking of the feet, and scratching the body.

Types of Seasonal Allergies

There are two types of allergies very common in dogs. Lets us discuss it out here.
Allergy due to fleas- this is more common in dogs. You know that the flea menace is ever lasting problem in pet. The allergic reaction is due to the saliva of the flea. The dog’s immune system reacts quickly for this foreign body. The antibodies are rushed to the affected area, the skin, which is why you notice all those scratching.

Allergic inhaled dermatitis- this type of allergy is due to allergens such as house dust mite, house dust, pollen, ragweed, feathers, grasses, shrubs, trees, dander etc. These allergens gain entry either through the respiratory tract [inhalation] or through the feet or through digestive system [ingestion]. This allergy is bit difficult to prevent as the above mentioned allergens are seen in abundance in dog’s surrounding.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of the allergy may be easy but finding out the root cause of the allergic reaction is difficult as you know by now that the allergens are more than few. The veterinarian needs to be consulted at the earliest.  The vet will conduct blood test and intradermal test to find out the possible cause. In case of intradermal test, the allergens will be injected under the skin of the dog and will be observed for the reaction. Formation of wheal or hive like swelling will indicate that the test is positive.

Treatment

To start with the vet will subject the dog to symptomatic treatment. Once the cause of the problem is identified, appropriate treatment can be designed. By far the most effective and popular treatment is immunotherapy or hypo sensitization. Here the specific allergens are injected to the dog in lower concentration at periodic interval. The pet becomes less sensitive to it over a period of time, thus preventing the allergic reactions. The disadvantage of this technique is that it is costly and time consuming. The duration of the treatment may be a year or more in some cases. The other alternative is to give steroid injections to minimize the allergic manifestations. The side effects of the steroids are cause of worry, hence used in limited quantity and duration.

Beagles and Retrievers are known for their enormous appetites and nonselective feeding habits. A dog’s increased appetite may be an indication of a disease condition. In the cold weather, all the dog is having increased appetite. It is not a problem!

The old saying that dogs will eat only what they need is simply not true — the fact approximately one-third of dogs in US and UK are overweight bears witness to that.

Abnormal Signs of Increased Appetite

A sudden increase in appetite may have an obvious cause, such as an unusual spurt of activity, growth (in young dog), pregnancy, or underfeeding. If the dog’s eating habits have the following characteristics, ther may be an underlying medical problem:

• It eats feces of its own species, or  other animals- cows, sheep, or horses, which is called as copraphagia.
• It eats more rapidly than normal, cleaning its bowl as quickly as possible (this may be competitive, if sharing mealtimes with another dog).
• It eats less selectively and sometimes ingests inedible matter. This is called “PICA“.
• The dog demands food at unusual times of day and is unsatisfied when its meal is finished.

Disorders of the adrenal gland and pancreas, including sugar diabetes, may affect appetite, so it’s wise to take a urine sample with you as well. Kidney disease can cause protein loss and muscle wasting, leading the dog to eat more. Even some medicines have the effect of increasing appetite, so be sure to inform the vet if your dog has received any recent treatment.

Intestinal worms are common causes of increased appetite, and your vet cancan carry out a simple test to establish whether they are present in the dog’s stools, or feces. If the worms are ruled out, the vet will look for disorders of eating and swallowing that leave hunger unsatisfied.

Occasionally, however, a dog’s increased appetite is not caused by greed but by one of a number of medical problems. The dog may eat indiscriminately, or develop an unusual eating habit. Vets call this dog’s increased appetite as “POLYPHAGIA”.

In Southern Italy, one-year old pooch was hit by a speeding vehicle of 70mph. Unfortunately, the driver-Marco Menozzi didn’t stop the vehicle immediately to see the fate of the dog. But he stopped the car after 15 miles to see what happened to his car.

For his surprise, he could see the dog in the grill of his car. The driver was not punished for his act of hit and run because the dog survived even after knocked with a speed of 70mph.

Experts opined that if the dog was knocked with lesser speed, he would have bounced off the car and been crushed under the wheels.

I think the dog escaped because the plastic grill disintegrated and absorbed much of the energy of the impact.

As far as my knowledge is concerned the driver should be punished with a fine because he didn’t stop the vehicle to see the fate of the canine.

But the dog is really lucky because he escaped with little scrapes and bruises with a broken leg.

You can read more HERE…