All About Pets

Dog Diet

When we talk about diet, a lot of folks have the misconception that the word “diet” means an unpleasant regimen or to restrict the intake of a certain class of food such as in slimming. This perception is “imprint” on us as advertisements of low calories food, less sugar etc. Diet is the consumption of certain kind of food that an animal or a human habitually eats and for the well-being. It also constitute utilizing the food intake and nourishing the body.

As for pet food, you will always see the labelling of AAFCO which means the Association of American Feed Control Officials. This office regulates the labelling of every pet food so that it conforms to the requirements. The feeding directions specify the amount of food recommended base on the weight of the animal. These are helpful as a guideline to start with, but nutritional needs vary from category of dog breeds to another type of dog breeds as their metabolism and activity levels are not the same. Therefore it is advisable to consult an expert or your vet on this.

Survey shows that most of the owners feed their dogs with dry food as their daily intake. We need to understand that canines are meat eating animals. However with year of domestication, it has adapted itself to what we term omnivorous. This means that they are eating meat as well as plant foods as their source of nutrition. Having said that, “dead” food (process food) do not contain much nutritional values as processing negates the nutrition in the food. That is why you always see the label with enhance vitamins, calcium and all sorts of things to add nutritional value to the food.

Therefore there are a lot of dog enthusiast turning to natural raw food, raw meat to feed their dogs. They affirmed that their dogs are much healthier as the intake has more nutritional value. As has aforesaid, dogs are instinctively carnivorous. People has the notion that feeding raw meat will bring about worms in the intestines as raw meat may have bacteria contamination. Study has shown that it is not the case as dogs have more active digestive system and more acidic to digest the food as soon as the food enter the stomach. Unlike humans, the food stays in the stomach much more longer which tend to “incubate” and encourage bacteria manifestation thereby causing stomach upset or worst still food poisoning.

This also relates to the perception that raw food is susceptible to Salmonella and E.coli contamination. The argument from this raw-food school of thought is that it is not true. If dogs are susceptible to these bacteria, the dogs would have long ago infected with it as you can see them licking their anus with no negative consequences as stool carries E. coli bacteria. It also relates back to the dog’s stomach being more acidic and destroying the bacteria before any bad effect can take place. However there is still a small percentage of risk involved.

Results have shown that the benefits of raw diet are healthier coat and skin, better control of body weight, improved digestion and firmer stool.

Having said that, it is always safe to take things moderately. There will always be pro and cons on raw diet due to a certain amount of factors and risks.

Let the Medicine Go Down

There are times when we need to take our pets to the veterinarian for its schedule vaccination or check-ups. Especially “not so good times” when our dog is sick or down with fever. We take them to the clinic and after some checking and confirmation from the vet, the vet will either give your dog an injection or some medical tablets. Pop, the tablets goes into its mouth, down its throat and it’s done. The veterinarian prescribe some medical prescription. You check out, pay the bills and happily drive back home with your dog and some medicine in the bag.

However when it is time to administer the medicine to your dog, you find it such a challenging task. You pop the pills into your dog’s mouth, you doggy is not cooperative and it spits the pills out. Palm to the face, OMG! Why is my doggy refusing its medicine? You resort to treats hoping that your dog will take it. Trying different ways of enticing it to take the medicine but without success. How am I going to make my doggy swallow the pills? It becomes a dilemma and if your dog is not going to take the medicine, it is not going to get better and recover.

A lot of the folks may be thinking that well, could it be that when their dogs are in the clinic, they seems to know how to behave and act accordingly, otherwise the veterinarian is going to be hard on them. Or is it the peculiar smell of the clinic that intimidates them to behave and take the pills without any retaliation. We want to believe that, but it is not true. It lies with the technique of how you administer it.

The technique of administering a tablet to your dog is to put and arm around the dog and hold it snugly against the body. Pull the upper jaw up, not too high, and shove the pill as far in as possible with your other hand. As soon as you put the pill in, close the jaws and hold them shut until you see it swallowing. If doggy is not cooperative and not swallowing, blowing in its face will help.

And for those given liquid medicine, you need to administer it with a syringe. It will be different from administering pills. You have to hold the dog’s mouth shut and work the syringe in between the teeth at the side, preferably at the inner side. Do be careful not to scrape and injured the gums. Slowly depress the plunger and let it swallow. Continue to hold the jaws shut until all the medicine is emptied from the syringe.

Some folks adopt the method of hiding medicine in the food of the dog. This is applicable if the medicine is a tablet or pill which is solid. This method is fine as long as your dog takes the medicine. Usually the tablet is hidden in a piece of meat or a ball of food.  However for liquid medicine, it is not advisable as there is no way to confirm that your dog has taken its entire dose for its schedule.

On many occasion when a dog acts in a manner that is not in line with the owner’s requirements, he is consider to have committed a misdemeanour and therefore should be punished or given a reprimand. However a dog understanding does not include blame or punishment, nor does it really include praise or reward. Man has rather fixed interpretation of the meaning of these expressions, which are possibly explain by these four foremost words that is so often used.

Lets look at these four expression words and its interpretation of them. The four words are Blame, Punishment, Praise and Reward. When we talk about blaming the dog for the actions or the misdemeanour, the understanding of the word blame, meaning to find fault with. The next word that follows is punishment. Punishment is interpreted as penalty inflicted on an offender. Praise is a warm approbation of something done. Reward is to recompense for service or merit.

If our interpretation of canine logic is to be accepted, the dog cannot be blamed or judged to be at fault for any action that is considered by the owner or members of the community to be undesirable. To blame the dog would be to divert the responsibility from the source. As the dog cannot be blame, there is no place for the application of the punishment at any time. The use of punishment as an expression when describing a human reaction to canine behaviour leaves room for misunderstanding and the resulting action can be incorrect.

Achieving desirable actions or reactions from a dog requires an understanding of human nature as well as one of canine psychology. It is important that the most appropriate phraseology be used when discussing canine behaviour or training. Usually new dogs’ owners as well as some long time dog owners who are not exposed or have learned to understand the behaviour of their pet has very low success rate in training their dogs.

The use of the word punishment for their pet is unpleasant and not appropriate. It has been found that the general use of this expression has deterimental effect. Praise should be the replacement for the use of punishment in training your dog. However, its misplaced use could surely be a hinderance rather than of help. Praise is a pleasant human reaction to a situation which pleases a dog whereas punishment is the result of blaming the offender for his action.

When we consider modifying a dog behaviour or carrying out the constructive and progressive training procedures, out thinking and interpretation must be base on our interpertation of canine logic. Usually a dog is never at fault for any action that is considered to be undesireable by its owner or members of the community. As soon as we blame the dog, we divert the responsibility from ourselves. To explain further, no dog asked to be bought into this world. He is the result of man’s approach to breeding, be it planned of accidental. No puppy or dog picks his owner; the owner has the final say as to whether he takes or keep a particular animal. Human beings controls the upbringing and training of a puppy. The end result is man’s doing. Any dog will do what is natural to him or he will act in acordance with the conditioning he has received during his life.

If a dog cannot be blamed, he cannot be punished, so what is the alternative? The alternative brings us to the philosophy of creating agreeable and disagreeable situation at the correct time to achieve desirable results. A pleasant human reaction at just the correct time will help to induce the desirable canine response. An unpleasant human reaction at the right moment can arrest an unacceptable canine activity. This may be called the aversion therapy. Therefore it is important to get some educated information when keeping a pet.

Dog Rules!

How do you define dog rules? It may sound hilarious or is it serious, as though we are defining rules on what your dog can do and what it should not. Are we going to set precedence or is it just a rule of thumb? Okay, lets starts on what is allowed and what we should set limit.

The dog is not allowed in the house! This usually is the statement when either one of the partners especially a husband or a wife that do not see the dog as one of the family members. Or is it otherwise. Why should the dog not be allowed in the house as it is a companion? It sees you as his world, only you and you alone is his utmost importance whereas for humans, we look at a dog as one of a small part of the society. So where does this leads us?

Okay, the dog is allowed in the house, but only in certain sections of the house or particular rooms. What can we say about this? So if your dog crosses its boundary as per set by you, what are you going to do? Punish your dog? Limit its treat? Cut off its “luxurious” delicacy and joy? This is not going to be good to you. Your dog see you as his world and whatever you offer your dog, it is going to accept it happily and in return loves you without discrimination.

So okay, the dog is allowed in all the rooms, but has to stay off the furniture. Haha, you ask yourself, if it is not allowed on the furniture, how does your dog share its coziness and warmth with you? Are you going to leave your doggy on the cold floor while you snuggle up on your warm couch comfortably? Then what good is it to have a dog and when you cannot share the warmth with your loyal companion.

This leads us to the next rules saying that the dog is granted access to only old furniture. Then are you going to be only on your old furniture to be able to share your affection and closeness with doggy. Well you have to understand, humans do discriminate, and even those who say they do not, it will be to a certain degree. But dogs don’t. Dogs don’t discriminate. Even if you treat it badly when you leave for work in the morning and when you come home in the evening, does your dog turns away from you? Does your dog says “I am going to return you a favor’? That is a BIG NO. It welcomes you home with an open arm. Your doggy does not treat you differently even how bad you may have been. That is why we need to appreciate and reciprocate with compassion, love and care.

Hahaha! where is this leading us to? Ok Ok, fine the dog is allowed on all furniture, but not allowed to sleep with the humans on the bed. And then it is not allowed to sleep under the cover and only by invitation only. Or is it entitle to sleep in the bed every night?

Well is this an egg and chicken debate of which one comes first? It is up to each and every individual to decide what he can concede or how much your partner can tolerate. It is best to have an agreeable atmosphere so that you can enjoy the “gratification” and the love and affection your dog can offer you, knowing that your doggy will never forsake you.

Today we have owners who are too busy in his or her own “world” whether it is building a career or raising a family that they either forgot that a dog needs basic training or guidance to understand or obey its owner’s instruction. Owning a pet especially a dog needs to understand that it is also growing like a child and it is the time that we guide and train them so that they can live in harmony with society especially the owner and his family without causing problem to it.
Having some knowledge and understanding the needs of man’s best friend are some of the basic requirements of being a good pal to your dog. Each of the dog must suit into the human society requirement of that environment to be able to appreciate each other company, the dog and its owner.
We have dogs that have variety of functions and duties, however the basic necessity is to have it adequately trained and obedient enough not to create unnecessary problem to its owner, whether it is in the house or outside. To accomplish this, the dog must understand the owner’s command on the basic obedience.
We do not condone or support training of dogs by way of violence or force such as being whipped until it submit to the command of the owner. Aside from the cruelty of such practice, it will not accomplish its purpose as it will just intimidate the dog into submission rather than obedience. Our objective in training the dog is to have the dog respond to our command in a pleasant way.
Basic obedience training should be conducted in such a manner that it is a joyful encounter for both the dog and its owner. Dogs are pleased when given rewards. So treats is one of the method of rewarding the dog. Patting the dog is also an acceptable reward or praise to the dog which is conducive. However we must make known to the dog what it is and what we want the dog to do or respond to a certain command.
It is very important that when we use an instruction or command that we want the dog to obey, we should make it clear and precise. We do not want to confuse the dog as it will not be of any help to either the dog or the owner. Confusing instructions will only tired out the dog during training and frustrate the owner in training his dog. The best guide is to use a one-word instruction rather than a two or three words instructions.
When training a dog, we have to understand how a dog thinks. Dogs react to the occurrence at that instant and not something that occured say five or more minutes before. We so often heard complaints from dog owners that when they let their dogs out, the dogs kept running away when they called their pet to come back home. Only when their dogs had enough of “gallivanting” or roaming that their dogs came back home. And what they did was to reprimand their dogs, slap or beat it, immediately when their dogs come back home just to teach or train their dogs without success. Their complaint is so common and typical of an uninformed owner. This is unproductive as the dog will relate the beatings to the coming home (remember, dog respond to the immediate). This will make the dog fearful of coming home as the owner’s incorrect or rather confusing reprimand makes the situation worst. The only thing that the dog learns is that when it comes home, it will get the beatings.
We need to understand that dogs think in logic and respond to the immediate, especially an action, rather than a reasoning. So now we know that when we train or instruct a dog, we should know how the dog think not like us humans. When you understand this rule, you will find that training your dog is just a stroll in the park. Happy Training.

Dog Vaccination

Every dog loving family will be happy to welcome a new puppy home. We frequently hear that puppies are cute, nice to curdle, adorable, charming and so on. When we take a dog home, we are committed to provide food and medical care for the dog for its lifespan which could be as long as 15 years. Understanding some basic requirement of owning a dog and the care for its well-being is necessary. Vaccination is a prevention to ensure the well-being of our pets.

The common first year vaccination as per recommended for the puppy is as per the following. When the puppy reached the age of six to eight weeks, you need to visit your veterinarian for the puppy first vaccination. This will be your pup’s first vaccination and it is for Distemper, Measles and Parainfluenza. Thereafter, at 10 to 12 weeks, you will need to visit the veterinarian for the second vaccination. The second vaccination will be the booster vaccination of the first inoculation. Then when the puppy reaches 12 to 24 weeks, it is high time for Rabies vaccination. The DHPP vaccination which stands for Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvo and Parainfluenza, is to be administered when the puppy is at 14 to 16 weeks old.

Vaccinations schedule recommended to be administered to dogs are Rabies and DHPP between one year to sixteen months of age. And every one to two years, the dog should go for DHPP vaccination. Every one to three years, your dog needs to be vaccinated against Rabies. As Rabies is contagious, also between wild animals, usually its requirement is set by the authority.

The vaccinations are for the prevention of the following diseases:

• Distemper: This is a viral disease and will cause fever, respiratory problems, convulsions and diarrhea. It attacks the nervous system as it grows in the white blood cells. It is usually fatal.
• Measles: This virus is the canine adapted measles of human measles. This virus is group together with Distemper, that is why Distemper vaccination includes this Measles vaccine.
• Leptospirosis: This bacteria is usually transmitted through contaminated water such as contamination from rodent urination. It can cause kidney and liver failure, vomiting and fever.
• Rabies: This is viral infection. The common recommendation is once every 1 to 3 years. It affects the brain and nervous system. Symptoms of this disease includes convulsions and difficulty in swallowing. Finally it causes death. Contagious to humans.
• Parvovirus: This disease can spread and is fatal. It can cause vomiting, fever and serious diarrhea with blood in the stool.
• Para-influenza: This virus is carried by air. The vaccine can only protect this kind of virus to a certain degree and is not totally preventive. It can affect the dog and cause irritating cough which is also known as Canine cough. Usually older dogs and puppies are more prone to it and can be disastrous.
• Hepatitis – The disease is known to affect the liver foremost. For matured dogs, hepatitis can cause bleeding diarrhea, fever, weakness and loss of appetite. It can be fatal if puppies are infected with this disease.