Dog Health Blog

Most people don’t want their dogs to go on the rampage. And while there is no way to be assured that your dog will never bite another person, there are things you can do to considerably decrease the chances.

Spaying or neutering your dog greatly reduces the chances of your dog biting another person. Having this safe procedure performed on your dog will reduce aggression and his desire to fight.

Familiarize your dog with a variety of different social situations, so he doesn’t become anxious when faced with an unknown environment or situation. One of the great ways to socialize your dog is to take him to a training course. It’s also a wonderful way to involve your whole family in the dog’s life since every member of the family can contribute to your dog’s education. Don’t send your dog to a training course alone; he needs to be trained in your presence since you’ll be the one at home.

Never encourage your dog to run after people or even attack them in jest. Dogs sometimes have trouble differentiating between what is play and what is not. At the first sign of inappropriate behavior from your dog, contact a professional for advice. Don’t wait for something major to happen. Your community animal control organization can be a helpful resource for advice and services. Even if your dog is only aggressive toward other animals, that may eventually ripen into aggression toward people.

Dogs who spend a lot of time by themselves are more prone to turning dangerous. Be a conscientious dog owner who includes the dog in regular family time and keeps the dog current with licenses and vaccinations. Dogs who are cared for well are much less likely to attack someone else.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry. If you doubt your dog’s ability to act appropriately in any given situation, exercise caution. Learn your dog’s triggers — the things that excite him or cause him to overreact — and avoid them. Help your dog be the safest dog he can be.

If you’ve found a tick on your dog, yourself or your child, you know you just can’t ignore it. It may be an unpleasant experience, but unless you want a case of Lyme disease on your hands, the tick must be dealt with. Lyme disease is a disease caused by a bacterial infection; the bacteria is carried by certain kinds of ticks in some parts of the country, including New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California.

If this isn’t your first experience with ticks, you might have been exposed to either the “smoldering” or “smothering” method for removing these pesky creatures. The smoldering method involves holding a lit match up to the tick, in hopes that the tick will be sensitive to the heat, let go and drop off on his own. The smothering method involves pouring goo on the tick, such as mineral oil, in order to drown the tick and make him fall off. Neither of these methods are safe, and both can lead to increased infection for your child, yourself or your dog.

And of course, you must know that you can’t pull a tick off. You’ll leave the head imbedded in the skin, and it will continue to suck blood. Gross, but true.

The best way to remove a tick is to use sterilized tweezers. Swab the tweezers with alcohol or hold them over a flame for a few minutes. After that, try to wedge the tweezers in between the skin and the jaws of the tick, approaching the tick from the side. Once you have a grip on the tick, gently pull over a period of several minutes. If the tick doesn’t appear to be moving at all, you may pull from side to side. The trick is to be patient and cause the tick to get tired and release his grip. If you apply steady pressure for several minutes, this should eventually happen. If you pull too hard, you could yank the body off and leave the head stuck in the skin, so be patient. If something unexpected happens or you have any doubts or questions, contact your doctor for advice.

If you don’t have a pair of tweezers handy, you can pull with your fingers (just be sure to cover them with a napkin or some other thin material). Once again, pull gently at the point of contact with the skin; don’t pull on the tick’s body. After you have managed to free the tick, crush it with your shoe or something hard. Ticks are hard to squash, and if you don’t kill them, they could jump back on you and chomp down again. Teach your children to tell an adult if they discover a tick anywhere on their bodies.

If you or your child or your dog have been bitten by a tick, call your doctor to find out if you need to worry about Lyme disease. This disease is easily cured if caught in the early stages, so it’s always better to ask for professional advice rather than waiting.

Dog Quote: I know that dogs are pack animals, but it is difficult to imagine a pack of standard poodles…and if there was such a thing as a pack of standard poodles, where would they rove to? Bloomingdale’s?
….Yvonne Clifford

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Is your dog getting depressed?

It is not uncommon for dogs to get depressed.
They can become bored very easily and when they are bored for extended periods of time this can lead to depression.

The more intelligent the dog the more likely it is to get depressed as they need more stimulation in the form of work or activities that can keep their mind active.

This is one of the reasons why dog training is so important, because a dog that is trained well will get a lot more out of life by pleasing it’s owner and it will also have a leader that is can look to for security and confidence.

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Often the weather in the area we live can be the biggest problem when trying to keep a dog active with the colder winter months and shorter daylight hours making it difficult to exercise the dog.

There are alternatives for dogs just as there are for humans in these conditions and many people are unaware that it is possible to get a dog treadmill for their dog so they can still be exercised no matter what the conditions outside are like.

This can also be ideal for people who live in apartments or those who are unable to take their dog out for a walk at night due to reasons of safety.

For the convenience of ensuring that your dog remains fit and healthy and doesn’t become depressed and need medication, a dog treadmill might just be the answer that you are looking for.

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Dog Quote: When a man’s dog turns against him it is time for a wife to pack her trunk and go home to mama.
….Mark Twain

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Dog insurance is something more and more people are considering to cover them in the event that their dog might get involved in an attack that could lead to legal action.

This might seem strange that people should need dog insurance, particularly as we all think our own dogs are little angels but anything can happen even with the best of us.

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It is our duty to keep our dogs well fenced and away from possible danger where they might attack or bite a child or the postie but these things happen.

Maybe a child has just been annoying your dog and it decided to give the child a small nip, completely out of character of course but these things do happen.

Or your dog might get a little over excited when you take it for a walk in a crowded park.

Many of the more intelligent breeds of dogs that I mentioned in previous newsletter are very protective of their property and owners and it is not uncommon for these dogs to take a nip at someone.

It is up to you to decide whether your dog is a potential risk but if it is, dog insurance might just be what you need to save a whole lot of money in legal expenses.

There are several options that you can take and it is always best to get quotes before deciding which insurance company to use, but you can expect to pay a higher premium for certain dog breeds that are more potential for risk of a dog attack.

If you have a dog that falls into these categories then it might be wise to consider dog insurance before it’s too late.

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Dog Quote: Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
….Mark Twain
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Does your dog have worms?

There are two types of worms that you are likely to have to contend with in keeping your dog healthy, and they are the round worms and the tapeworms.

Round worms are the ones most prevalent in puppies and they generally look like small white pieces of string of about three inches in length.  They can grow up to twice this size in a full-grown dog.

Round worms live in the small intestine of the dog and can become so concentrated that they will block the passage.  They can be passed by the bowel and this can obviously affect other dogs that are in contact with dogs that have round worms.

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It only takes a matter of days for the worms to become fully developed and it is easy for them to spread quickly from one dog to another.

The speed by which they can breed and multiply has been one of the reasons why many people originally assumed that puppies were always born with round worms although it has since been proven that this is not the case.

More often than not the puppies have got the worms from their mother in the confines of their kennel.

There are so many different symptoms that can appear when a dog has worms that anything you notice outside of the ordinary behavior of your pet should be addressed by a visit to your vet as a worm infested dog can become a very unhealthy, unhappy dog very fast.

Left untreated worms can kill a dog so it is better to be safe than sorry if you suspect your pet might have worms or has been in contact with other dogs that might have worms.

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