Care to Your Dog!

Traveling with pets is a great way to vacation, but before you pack everybody up, there are a few things you need to take into consideration. It isn’t just the logistics of travel that matter, but pets have their own needs and requirements. The following eight tips will help you prepare for a great vacation with your pet.

Photo courtesy of faithfulpetproducts.com

Planning

More and more hotels, resorts and campsites are becoming pet friendly, but never assume that they are. Always call well in advance to make your reservation and make any adjustments as needed. Many rental homes are pet-friendly, and you probably know that there’s a big downside to hotels. You won’t have to worry about being in a low-budget, noisy motel if you’re in a vacation rental. Your pets will love it more too because it has all the creature comforts of home.

A Visit to the Vet

A visit to the vet prior to traveling with your pet is mandatory if crossing borders, but it is also a good idea to have your pet checked prior to leaving to ensure that there are no major health issues. Depending on your destination, the vet may recommend vaccinations to safeguard against Lyme’s disease or other serious issues.

Pack for your Pet

Pets require their own luggage especially if traveling by car. Packing a bowl of water with a sealed lid is mandatory and bring their own dog food. You don’t want to have to start experimenting with new dog foods while on the road. Bedding, brushes, toys and medical records are all great things to pack for a road trip, or voyage abroad.

Tags and Chips

Most pets already have a tag with your contact information, but if traveling a micro chip is a great idea. This tiny chip is encoded with your contact information plus any pertinent medical information, and is implanted under the skin. If the pet gets lost, a simple scan can reveal a wealth of information to help reunite you with your pet.

Practice

If planning on using a carrier or harness restraint system, practice well in advance of your departure so that the animal becomes accustomed to the new restraints. Otherwise, you may well end up with a very upset and stressed pet.

Protection While Traveling

It is essential to ensure the safety of your pet while traveling. Harnesses are made to act like a seat belt for your pet, or you can secure them in a properly sized carrier. If traveling by air, pets must be contained in an appropriately sized carrier. If used in a car, the carrier must be secured in the car to prevent it from shifting.

Sedatives

Many people choose to give their pet a sedative prior to traveling and this can greatly reduce the stress level of the animal. Always test the sedative on the pet well in advance to ensure there are no side effects.

Frequent Breaks and Down Time

Animals can get very stressed while traveling. It is important to take frequent breaks if traveling by car to allow the animals to stretch, and if traveling by air be sure to allow plenty of quiet time for the animal to rest after a stressful trip.

Traveling with your pet can be a fun way to take a vacation, and with these few tips in mind you can have a wonderful and relaxing holiday. After all, pets need holidays too!

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pet traveling,
pet-friendly,
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There has to be an alternative to store-bought organic dog treats.

This was exactly what I was thinking when I was buying another bag of organic treats for my dog. After my fifth bag, I was starting to feel the strain that these expensive treats were putting on my budget. But I wasn’t about to switch over to cheaper, junk food equivalents of dog treats. Driven by both my budget limit and my unwavering commitment to give my dog-only healthy food, I did my research and found out that there are lots of dog-tasty and human-budget friendly treats right in my own home. Here are five of these natural and homemade dog treats that my baby absolutely loves!

1. Apples and Bananas

A weird combination but for some reason, some dogs just love apples and bananas! For smaller breeds, it is better to slice the bananas and cut the apples into small cubes for them to be able to chew them properly. Larger breeds might find it more fun to eat whole apples or bananas on their own. However, apple seeds contain cyanide and can spell trouble for your dog over time. So make sure to remove the core of apples before feeding them to your dog.

Most fruits are enjoyed by dogs. However, there are some fruits that they should stay away from. These are avocados (which cause vomiting and diarrhea), persimmons (can be responsible for intestinal obstruction and enteritis) and grapes, raisins, and currants (all of which have an unknown toxin that can be harmful to the kidneys). If you let your large breeds eat fruit whole, take care that they don’t get access to the large pits which can cause intestinal blockage. Some fruits with large pits are peaches, mangoes, and plums.

2. Carrots

Dogs love fresh carrots! It isn’t known if it’s the natural sweetness of the vegetable or that delightful crunch, but a dog with fresh carrot is a happy canine. For smaller breeds, you can feed them baby carrots or slice a larger carrot into smaller, bite-size pieces. Another plus about carrots is that they serve as natural and healthy teeth cleaners!

Other vegetables you can give them are pumpkins (good source of fiber and beta carotene), sweet potatoes (for fiber, vitamin B6, vitamin C, beta carotene and manganese), and green beans (fiber, vitamin K, vitamin C, and manganese; these are also great to fill your dog up when he’s on a diet).

3. Oatmeal treats

Oatmeal is a great source of soluble fiber for both humans and dogs. While it is best for older dogs that may already be having problems with their digestion, when made into homemade treats these oatmeal concoctions are enjoyed by dogs of all ages and breeds. Check out this recipe for an easy to make apple sauce oatmeal treat that you can use in your next training session.

Remember to never make these homemade treats with sugar or artificial flavoring and to always cook oatmeal before feeding it to your dog.

4. Yogurt

Great for calcium and protein, yogurt is a canine favorite. Even better is that these can be combined with other foods good for dogs to make a tasty treat! One great way to do this is to blend together a mashed banana, some honey, and some peanut butter then freeze in an ice cube tray. Give these little popsicles to your dog on a particularly hot day.

Remember to choose natural yogurt or non-fat yogurt without any artificial sweeteners or fat substitutes.

5. Cheese

Milk and dairy products in large amounts are definitely bad for dogs. However, dogs do love cheese! So on a day when they are being particularly good, sweet, or if you just want to spoil them, slice up some cheese in tiny cubes and shower them with love by giving them a couple.

Other natural foods that are good for your dog’s health can be found in this article by Modern Dog. Stay away from the foods in this list by Pet Education that have been proven to be harmful and even fatal for your dog. Now that you’re armed with this valuable, healthful food list for your canine family member, after a long session of training, give your dog some tender loving care complete with praises, a rub down, and one of these healthy treats he or she will definitely love.

Renee Bedford is a mom, wife and animal lover. She enjoys spending quality time with her family whether playing outside or making dog treats! Besides being a committed mother and dog owner, she also works for the Christmas Tree Market, where they sell an array of classic and unique artificial Christmas trees.

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dog treats

Dog Days Checks

Checkbook Cover

Classic cats checks

checkbook cover

It all started with a woman that went on vacation with her husband. Friends were watching their dog, Oliver while they were gone. Somehow Oliver went missing and the trauma began. No matter how vigilant dog sitters are there is always the chance that the pet will try to get home.

There are only a few options to assist in finding a lost pet. You can put up posters, call the shelters and search the area but they are all time consuming. You are pretty much spinning your wheels because the animal is moving as fast as you are. There is now an alternative to finding your pet that is faster and much more efficient.

After experiencing the heartbreak of losing a pet, Dawn Wilson set up a Facebook page called “OliverAlert” for people to post both lost and found pets. The page currently has over 5,000 friends. Realizing the importance of immediate action and accessible resources OliverAlert.com was started. It is a website designed to help people who has lost or found a beloved pet. It includes helpful links, shelter listings and important information. In my opinion is was a brilliant idea to have a pet alert system like that of “Amber Alerts” for children. Most pet owners do feel their pets are like their children. OliverAlert.com reaches all over the world using the facebook network and other social media sites to find missing companions. The free advice and a guide to websites is a valuable tool to help reunite pets with their families.

As a result of a great love for animals Dawn took it to another level and created the search engine aKeKee.com, It’s a search engine like Google and Indeed but specifically designed to search for pets and is the only one of its kind. aKeKee.com, the first vertical search engine for pets, was launched on December 11, 2010. As the sister site of OliverAlert.com, aKeKee.com offers the most comprehensive search engine for pet listings. The website provides access to animal postings, compiled from the leading pet websites, which are listed for adoption, for sale, or lost and found.

A feature story CBS Atlanta aired on aKeKee.com and its creator, Dawn H. Wilson. It’s a story about one incredibly driven woman’s dream and how it has come to life. The creation of website, a service unlike anything else in existence that benefits people and animals everywhere.

Founded and designed by Dawn H. Wilson, aKeKee.com was developed by Software Consultant Rob Faraj. Wilson also received guidance from Chris Lamprecht, Software Engineer at the leading search engine for jobs. The site based in the U.S offers users the convenience of a single interface to search for almost any kind of pet. The philosophy of aKeKee, Inc. is to keep it simple. Read “Vertical Search Engine Hits the Pet Industry with aKeKee.com Launch” to learn more.

Dawn’s hope is for people everywhere to have access to finding out about aKeKee.com so it can be of assistance to everyone who needs it. Searching for a pet has never been so easy.

Our hats are off to the wonderful internet site provided by Dawn Wilson! Help us get the word out to the animal community.

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pet search engine

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Declawing and debarking are operations that some pet owners may consider for their pets. Serious consideration should be taken before you have these procedures done.

It would make for a perfect world if your cat did not scratch up all your furniture or your dog would not bark at all hours of the night. But as you know we do not live in a perfect world. If you have pets in your home you should already realize that this is their normal behavior. They are simply doing what comes natural to them. With consistent training their behavior can be modified.

If your husband, wife or children just talked too much, would it be acceptable to have their vocal cords cut? No matter how much we would like to do this sometimes, it is just not the way the world works.

I will not deny that I am opposed to either procedure unless absolutely necessary for medical reasons. It’s hard to assess pain in cats and dogs. So we can only assume there is a great deal of pain having either surgical procedure based on our knowledge of pain after surgery.

I recently came across a poll taken October 13-20, 2010 that I found very interesting. GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications conducted The Associated Press-Petside.com poll “Is declawing or debarking the answer?”. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 pet owners nationwide. (Results for all pet owners have a margin of sampling error plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

Nearly 60 percent of American pet owners, including 55 percent of cat owners, say it is OK to have a cat declawed, but only 8 percent approve of having a dog’s vocal cords removed, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll.
Experts say both surgeries are painful and alter the way the animals walk or talk.

Declawing a cat “is amputation. If you look at your fingers, declawing would be like amputating the last section of each finger. If you were declawed, you would have 10 little short fingers. It’s amputation times 10,” said veterinarian Louise Murray, vice president of the Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in New York City. The hospital is part of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

One participant said she had a cat declawed once and shortly afterward he died. She stated that he was in agony the whole time and it broke her heart that she had it done.

“It’s not cruel to declaw your cats,” another participant said. “They do not know they’ve been declawed. They made the same kneading movements. The recovery process was very short. They never showed any sign of pain,”

Thirty-two percent of the cat owners polled have had their pets declawed.

It is interesting that cat owners are more apt than others to favor a law banning the declawing of cats — 24 percent favor such a law, 16 percent strongly.

Ninety percent of pet owners oppose removing a dog’s vocal cords. Forty-seven percent would favor a law making the procedure illegal, while 44 percent would oppose a law.

Last July, Massachusetts became the first state to ban elective devocalization surgeries for cats or dogs. Violations are punishable under the state’s animal cruelty laws. Virginia lawmakers are considering a similar measure.

Of dog owners who took part in the poll, only 1 percent reported having the procedure done on their pet. There was no difference between dog owners and others who were asked if it was OK — 89 percent who own dogs said no.

Veteran dog trainer and behaviorist Jonathan Klein of Culver City, Calif., would support a state ban on debarking because even though 90 percent sounds like a lot, it still means that for every 900,000 dog owners who oppose it, there are 100,000 who would not, he said.

The ability to bark allows dogs to communicate with humans and other animals. The barking dog can be beneficial to us in many ways. There are many vets that refuse to do debarking surgery.

Another poll taker stated that her dog, an English Lab mix, is 2 and barks very little. She has not had her vocal cords removed, but “our neighbor has 40 dogs and quite a few of them are devocalized because of barking and howling,” she said.

Debarking can fix the problem quickly, but the same result can be achieved by working with a dog to find the cause and begin behavioral training.

The ASPCA opposes declawing, debarking, defanging, ear cropping and tail docking — any elective surgery done to conform to breed standard or eliminate undesirable behavior — except in extreme circumstances. There are adoption facilities that say no declawing as a condition of adoption.

There are pros and cons for a law to ban declawing and debarking. People feel it should be a decision left up to the owners. Some feel there has got to be a limit on how much government interferes.

There are two sides to every coin and each of us must make our own judgment call when it comes to having our pet declawed or devocalized.

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declawing