If you leave your dog with friends, change the number on his tag
December 5th, 2007 § 0
If you are leaving your dog with friends, be sure to leave them tags
once and his dog jumped my six foot fence and escaped in less than five minutes. I then spent a panicked afternoon driving around the neighborhood looking for the dog because his collar had my friend’s phone number on it and I didn’t have keys to his house!
So do your dog and your friends a favor, and make sure your dog has a good phone number on his tag all the time! This tip came from Wise Bread. Here’s how they do it:
Interchangeable ID Tags. Our dogs have three sets
each. One set is for when we are home or in that general area. It has,
in addition to each pet’s name, the numbers for both the house and our
main cellular phone. The other set is for when we are traveling other
distances. It has our main cell number only. The third set is for when
they are with the sitters, which they are when we travel
internationally. It has their main house and cell numbers. We swap out
whenever we are changing situations.
Photo by This Year’s Love.
Thanksgiving Dinner for Dogs
November 27th, 2007 § 0
We boarded our dog Chase for Thanksgiving weekend but he didn’t miss out on dinner! On Thanksgiving he got turkey and rice with pumpkin yogurt for dessert! If you decide to feed your dogs Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, try to stick to their regular diet – meat and rice are good foods for dogs.
Photo by image415.
Give your dog a window!
October 21st, 2007 § 0
Everybody knows that dogs like to see what’s going on … my dog loved it when one of the slats in my wooden fence fell out – she could finally see who was walking by! Now you give your dog an actual window in the fence! Get a PetPeek – a window in the fence.
Dogs learn and imitate selectively
May 1st, 2007 § 1
Dogs imitate, but don’t ape quotes a study that shows that dogs not only imitate behavior but they understand the goal and the workarounds.
In the study, dogs were faced with the task of opening a container with
food by pulling a rod. Whereas dogs prefer to use the mouth for this
task, a female dog was trained to open the box with her paw. When the
other dogs observed the female’s action, they imitated it in order to
get the food. However, the dogs imitated selectively. They used their
mouths instead of their paws for manipulating the rod when they had
seen the demonstrating dog using her paw while holding a ball in her
mouth. However, when the demonstrating dog’s mouth was free, the dogs
imitated her action completely and used the paw themselves.
So they understood she was using her paw because her mouth was full!
Does your dog love you? Watch his tail.
April 25th, 2007 § 1
This New York Times article describes a new study that found that dogs tails wag more to the right when they are happy and more to the left when they are scared:
Thus when dogs were attracted to something, including a benign,
approachable cat, their tails wagged right, and when they were fearful,
their tails went left, Dr. Vallortigara said. It suggests that the
muscles in the right side of the tail reflect positive emotions while
the muscles in the left side express negative ones.
Our dog’s tail wags so hard, it’s hard to see which way it’s wagging!
Photo
by Laertes.
How to tell if your dog is fat
April 20th, 2007 § 0
You can tell if your dog is overweight by looking at him or her. You should be able:
- to feel the ribs,
- see a waist from above and
- their tummy should tuck – be higher than their ribs – when viewed from the side.
If your dog has no waist when viewed from above and the side and you can’t feel the ribs, then your dog is likely overweight.
Talk to your vet, feed your dog a quality dog food in measured amounts and take your dog for lots of walks. It’s good for both of you!
What kind of food do you feed your dog with allergies?
March 29th, 2007 § 0
Teddy is allergic to chicken, beef and pork, so I feed her California Nature Lamb & Rice.
You know your dog is allergic to something when they start gnawing and itching at themselves so bad they leave bald spots that eventually bleed. Figuring out what they are allergic too is a bit more difficult. You have two options. You can run a blood test and find out exactly what they are allergic to – this starts at $250 and goes up from there. The second option is to try feeding your dog different foods until you find one they are not allergic to. Here are some foods to cut out of their diet:
- wheat
- corn
- chicken
- beef
- pork
Try dog foods with the following ingredients:
- potatos
- rice
- lamb
- turkey
- deer
- rabbit
- duck
Be sure to read all of the ingredients! Just about all dog food in the grocery store contains chicken by products! A good pet store can help you pick the right food.
It might take your dog anywhere from 2 to 12 weeks to respond to the new diet. Although it usually only takes 3-4 days for Teddy’s allergies to clear up, if she eats chicken or beef it only takes 24 hours before she starts itching all over again.
What type of food do you feed your dog with allergies?
Photo by laffy4k.
Helping your puppy to not be food aggressive
March 27th, 2007 § 0
When Teddy was a puppy I wanted to be very sure that she
never got “food aggressive.” Whenever
anybody came over to the house I’d have them stick their hand in her bowl and
then pretend to eat some of her food. When I was sure it was safe, I had kids do it as well. I still would never trust a dog not to defend
their food, but I feel a lot safer knowing that she’s let lots of people play
with her food! (Especially now that
she’s in kidney failure and always hungry, I worry about the kids – someday she
may want their food!) The only time
she’s ever growled over her food is at Chase, our chocolate lab. It’s ok for people to take her food, but not
Chase!
Photo by Jan Tik.
Backpacking with your dog
March 25th, 2007 § 2
Backpacking with your dog can be a lot of fun if you do it
right.
- First, pick the right pack for your dog. Your dog should be able to move her legs and elbows freely and lie down in the pack. The straps should fit like a collar – you should be able to fit a couple of fingers between the straps and your dog.
- Second, get your dog used to the pack. The first couple of trips your dog’s pack should be empty or contain just a
few ounces. - Also, if you do a lot of bouldering or hiking in close quarters, your dog will need to learn that it’s now “wider.” Different dogs learn in different ways – just like people. When I take Teddy bouldering, if she reaches a tight spot, I can say “hang on” and then I can point or gesture to the best path and she’ll take it. Chase, on the other hand, wants to figure it all out for himself. The first time I took him bouldering I was really worried. He got stuck at least six times in the first half hour! But once he got the hang of it, he turned into a bouldering pro and never needed any help with suggestions or with getting unstuck.
- Watch the weight. Dogs should carry no more than 20% of their weight in a pack. Some breeds like huskies may be able to carry more weight relative to their size than other breeds like greyhounds. Their breeding and bone structures are obviously different!
- Be careful what you put in the pack. Never put anything in your dog’s pack that you can’t do
without! Another good suggestion, especially if your dog likes water, is never put anything that can’t get
wet in your dog’s pack! I usually
have them carry their own food well sealed in ziplock bags. I’ve also tied
a small piece of matting to the top of their pack for them to lie on at
night. They could probably carry
more weight so now that we’ll be backpacking with a baby, I’ll probably
add a few other things to Chase’s pack. - If
your dog yelps when carrying the pack or refuses to move, listen to him or
her! Especially if they used to
carry it happily. When Teddy
started yelping whenever we put the pack on, it turned out she had a
slipped disc! After Teddy slipped a
disc, I never had her carry a pack again, even after the chiropractor
fixed her back.
Enjoy backpacking with your dog!