Care to Your Dog!

Wouldn’t it be a perfect world if we could all be as happy as our wonderful canine companions seem to be? It really takes so little to make your dog happy and, in return, they’re often the most grateful creatures alive, rewarding your minimal efforts with lavish tail wags, excitement, kisses, and love. Chances are, if your dog is happy, you’ll be happy too.

It’s all too easy to take our dogs for granted, dismissing their feelings during our day-to-day hectic lives. For all they give to us we need to avoid letting our busy schedules and sometimes complicated lifestyles get in the way of showering them with tender love and affection. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time or effort to provide them with the TLC they deserve.

Make your dog smile by meeting their most basic needs:

• Make your home their home. Give them a special place they can call all their own.
• Set aside a little time each day to play with your dog. It eases stress and relieves tension – for BOTH of you.
• Provide access to fresh water around the clock. For inside dogs, that’s easy enough. For outside dogs, consider a continuous water bowl or something like this doggie fountain. Just remember that when an outside water source is connected through a hose, the incoming water can become hot in the summer if you’re not careful to ensure the line is in the shade or buried. And remember that an automated water source still needs to be cleaned regularly.
• Feed your dog the best dog food you can find. Not all dog foods are created equal and you’ll want to find the right dog food that suits your furry friend. Make sure it’s well balanced, has nutrients, and suits your dog’s tastes. On special occasions give them a human treat, a dog biscuit, a bone, or a homemade dog treat.
• Take your playmate to the vet for regular visits. It’s important you’re up to date on shots and aware of any issues about your dog’s health.
• Exercise together! Go for a walk and stop to smell the roses. The great thing is that you’ve got a ready and willing companion who will never say no to a jaunt outside and the physical activity is great for BOTH of you.

In return for providing these simple necessities for your dog, you’ll receive countless benefits that are worth their weight in gold!

From day one you’ll create an emotional bond that will never be broken. Bonding with your dog is a one on one relationship, the more attention, love and respect that you give him the more he will trust, love, and be committed to you. Dogs have a unique ability to act much like humans but they don’t tote all the baggage humans are saddled with. Their lives, and their emotions, are fairly black and white. When was the last time your spouse, mom, dad, sibling or roommate was waiting at the door when you returned with the same level of excitement that your dog greets you with at the door?!

They have the ability to sense and understand fear, sadness, happiness, anxiety, and anger. If you’re lonely, worried, depressed, suffering grief or just plain sad there’s no greater comfort than your dog. Freely they shower you with companionship, comfort, loyalty and unlimited love and affection. Your dog will listen to you endlessly and never complain. They are nonjudgmental listeners. It’s like like having your own live-in therapist!

Nursing homes, hospitals and healthcare facilities everywhere encourage visits by dogs as a way of boosting the spirits of residents and patients. Pet therapy is amazing for the soul. It is undeniably incredible the joy our pets give us for just fulfilling their few basic needs.

What a small price to pay for someone to depend on that is there 24/7 and loves to please. Unconditional love is a great reward.

Tagged as:
happy dog

by Jennifer Bell

It doesn’t take long for pets to become cherished parts of the family, so the thought of giving up a beloved family member when someone in your home has pet allergies can be heartbreaking. Fortunately, research has provided a better understanding of animal allergies and what can be done to treat them.

What Causes Allergies to Pets

It is not actually animal fur which causes allergic symptoms in people. Rather, it is caused from the proteins found in animal dander, saliva and urine. These allergens become airborne when the animal moves, gives you a kiss or eliminates waste. Allergen particles that are released into the air can stick on clothes and furniture, causing misery for the person who suffers from allergies.

Allergy Testing

Before you assume that someone in your household is allergic to your pet, have testing done to confirm the source of the allergy. There are several other common household substances, such as dust, mold, cleaners, tobacco smoke and pollen that drifts in from outside, which may actually be the problem. If allergy tests confirm a pet allergy, there are several measures you can take so the pet and allergy sufferer can continue to live under the same roof.

Ways to Provide Symptom Relief

As tempting and snuggly as it can be to sleep with pets, keep them out of the bedroom of the allergic person. Animal dander can easily get trapped in bedding and it is difficult to remove it completely.

To increase the quality of indoor air in your home, use a HEPA air filtration system. This will remove animal dander and other allergens from their air while circulating pure air at the same time.

All pets, even cats who meticulously clean themselves, should be given a bath every week. A bath will help with excess shedding and remove dander, fleas, dirt and anything else the pet managed to get in their fur over the course of seven days. If there is no one in the home who can bathe the pet without experiencing allergy symptoms, the next best alternative is a hypoallergenic and fragrance free wipe designed for pets. Baby wipes will also suffice for this purpose.

Always wash your hands immediately after holding or handling your pet, and be careful not to rub your eyes before you have done so. Animal dander that gets into eyes can cause severe irritation.

Vacuum frequently with a HEPA filter, or better yet, get rid of your carpets all together. Carpets are known allergy triggers since they can hold tiny dust mites and other allergens deep in their surface where they can not be seen.

Finally, be sure to wash your pet’s bedding at least once a week for maximum allergy control.

This guest article was contributed by Jennifer Bell from Health Training Guide. Jennifer has loved animals ever since her father brought home their first family dog when she was 5 years old. Today she owns a lovely golden retriever and two playful cats. 

Check out her site to learn more about clinical laboratory technologist training and other exciting health careers.

Tagged as:
pet allergies

Dog Days Checks

Checkbook Cover

Classic cats checks

checkbook cover

Photo courtesy of Miller Sye

Submit your pet picture for inclusion here: Just Send an email to admin@petsblogs.com with the words Wordless Wednesday as the subject line. We’ll give you credit and link the photo to your website, too!

Tagged as:
beauceron,
pet pictures

by Jamie O’Connor

Things were at a tipping point. I had been living with my sister and her husband for nearly a year, and their two canines, as much as I loved them, were out of control. Our relatively cheap two- bedroom apartment was surprisingly spacious dogs included, but the sacrifice was that it did not have a closed-in backyard. My sister and her husband had to commit to a walking regimen in order for the dogs to do their business somewhere besides in the house. Let me tell you, full-time jobs and college equals lots of puddles unless the dogs are put inside a kennel all day. I did my best to help walk them regularly, but there’s only so much even three adults can do to accommodate the bodily functions of pets when they all have busy schedules.

The pooping and peeing debacle was not the only ill side effect of not having a closed backyard. Putting the poor canines inside a kennel all day did nothing but build up their energy levels to a point that once freed they were unstoppable attention getters and barkers and jumpers until bedtime. This created an inability for us to leave them unattended for long periods of time. Ten minutes in the living room unsupervised with all that pent up energy to exert could mean anything from a knocked over vase to a torn up couch cushion ripped in the pursuit of a cheese doodle buried in the cracks. It got to the point where we were seriously considering taking all the nice furniture and items we had and taking them to the local StorageMart. We had two options: call Cesar Milan or figure it out ourselves.

It always came back to the lack of a backyard for me. While my sister and her husband struggled to figure out the best way to teach their young dogs old tricks on how to not act so rambunctious and unruly, I started to see the sequence of events that was causing the problems and I started to realize what it took to stop them. It’s really a matter of looking at the world the way the dogs would. Everything they encountered besides each other in their kennels during the day was thus far under the supervision of humans. It’s sort of like kids who never get to play outside by themselves. This created an enormous emphasis in the dogs’ heads on the association between humans and happiness. So when they were released from their kennels, bad behavior through untamed affection followed in the form of jumping, barking, and the release of all that energy.

Coordinating their natural needs to fit the times when we could walk them was an arduous task too that was invariably linked to the lack of a backyard. Dogs that can be “let outside” quickly pick up ways to alert their owners to when they want to be taken out. But when the walking is the sole act of human decision-making, a dog has a much harder time figuring out that a need to go means a need to let the human know. Without a way to let humans know, dogs have no mental option other than to hold it in until they can’t anymore.

We really liked the discount rent, but the solution was simple: find someplace to live with a fenced-in yard. We did, and it was like night and day. The dogs started knowing how to ask to be let outside, they were able to release their energy more, and combined it meant that the reasons for keeping them cooped up all day didn’t apply anymore. The dogs could be let loose around the house without fear of them shredding the sofa to pieces. They also lost their ignorantly rude over-friendliness, instead self-pacifying their behavior. As time went on, they lose their association between humans and everything besides their kennel. They at long last became normal dogs!

I forgot to mention the human benefits. No more messy cleanups, no more messed up furniture, and no more stress added by the extra effort walking dogs that were locked up for the last 8 hours does to you. All it took to make the three of us happier people was to care about what made the dogs happy, and it was just a matter of deciding we needed a closed-in yard to do it.

Jamie O’Connor is a cat person from St. Louis, MO. When she isn’t writing blogs she’s cleaning cat litter and coughing up fur balls.

Tagged as:
fencing,
pet contentment