A healthy dog is easy to recognize - lively eyes, energetic,
and with a shiny, bright coat. As a dog owner,
you should understand
the importance of how to
get your dog healthy
and how to keep him in
that condition.
Let's begin with the most basic ingredient - food. All animals need water
and food to exist. From a human perspective, we realize balanced food intake is the only way to
get a quality diet and to stay on top of our game. Dogs too require the same consideration or they face malnutrition. To ensure our much-loved pooches get proper nutrition, they need a diet rich in minerals, vitamins and
doggy nutrients. This is very simple for us to do since the majority of today's brand-name dog food is complete. A dog food's price does make a difference, as the cheaper brands tend to be less nutritious and contain too much cornmeal.
Just like us humans, dogs can overeat and become overweight. In the wild, this problem never happens since an out-of-shape animal can't fend for itself and doesn't stick around very long. The only time an
obese animal is found is when it's domesticated. Although some kind-hearted pet owners think they're making their pet happy if little Tito is eating lots and lots, these owners are actually shortening their pet's lives and putting them at risk for respiratory problems, arthritic pain, diabetes and heart disease. These
obese pets
also are more likely to pass away if they need to be put under anesthesia for
surgery. (Unfortunately, this is also true for obese people.) Thus, feeding
your dog the correct food in the correct amount is ultimately the most important way to show how much you care for your pet.
The condition of a
dog's fur, skin and stools need to be addressed. Dogs can get ill from tics and fleas. Flea collars aren't always good at
keeping away these pests. Instead,
use a good powder or spray. Make sure to use these correctly
according to the instructions. If a flea problem does arise, it's vital that you attend to it right away. First, clean the spots that the dog regularly lies around. Every time that you vacuum these areas, immediately empty the vacuum bags. Also, wash the dog's bed every time he lies in it. These steps will prevent further outbreaks from the fleas and their eggs nested in your home's carpet and fabrics.
Ticks like to jump aboard your dog while you walk him in the country. After every walk in the woods, check your dog's coat. Also, inspect your dog's stool for visible signs of worms like roundworm,
whipworm, tapeworm and hookworm that attack a dog's
intestinal tract. It's still important to stick to a worming schedule since not all worms can be seen by the naked eye.
These practices are easy ways to make sure your dog is healthy. You can also do other measures to increase your pet's health such as regularly visiting your veterinarian and giving your pet
vaccinations on schedule. In this caring manner, you're helping your dog live a long, healthy and comfortable life.
Copyright 2006 Sally Ricco. All rights reserved. Sally
Ricco's site
Pet Dog Health - an informative site about common and serious dog health
problems. More details at
http://www.petdoghealth.com/
It
had been years since I last visited my boyhood chum Ricky. He used
to be a teammate of mine on
the school baseball team,
but he
was obviously
the better athlete since he was also on
the school football team
and basketball team. But I actually haven't seen
him practicing much the last few months
and when I visited him at home, I
discovered why. To my great surprise, Ricky was enamored with his pet parrots.
He had about a dozen of them in one big cage in
all colors, shapes and sizes.
It was like an explosion in a paint factory. Ricky even had names for all of them and had started buying all the books he could find about parrots. I started reading these books and was absolutely fascinated about what I discovered.
There
are actually two groups of parrot families -- the cacatuidae
or cockatoos and the Psittacidae or true parrots. It turns out that there are exactly 353 species of
birds that can fall under these two categories. The common characteristics they share include a curve shaped beak with the upper mandible having limited mobility and an erect stance. Did you know that all parrots have four toes on each foot, two at the front and two at the back?
Wherever its warm, youre likely going to find a parrot there. These include such places like India, Southeast Asia and West Africa. There was also one parrot breed that could be found only in the United States but it
is now extinct, the Carolina Parakeet. According to studies, the most number of parrot species can be found in Australasia, South America and Central America.
Among the types of parrots that are usually kept as pets are the
conures, macaws, Amazons, cockatoos, African Greys, lovebirds, Cockatiels, Budgerigars and
parakeets, mainly because they are richly colored and boast of many different color combinations. People sometimes clip the wings of their pet parrots to
keep them earth-bound. Others prefer to keep their parrots
flighted. There are parrots that can live up to 80 years, including cockatoos, Amazon parrots, African
Grey Parrots and the larger macaws, have very long
life-spans of up to 80 years.
Kadence Buchanan
writes articles for
http://etotallypets.com/ - In addition, Kadence also writes articles for
http://worldofartandleisure.com/ and
http://familyinformationsource.com/.
When raising a puppy,
there is a fine line between a dog bite
and puppy love. Adult dogs will bite
for a numbers of reasons, including fear, defensiveness,
and aggression. But puppies have yet
to develop many of the behaviors (such
as possessiveness, territoriality,
or simply aggression
in general)
that can contribute to biting tendencies.
So while puppies dont really bite, they
nip. They nip
as a
form of play, but also as manifestation of
their prey instincts in development. Either way, those little teeth sure can hurt, and can puncture just as easily as an accidental staple in
your finger (not
that I would know of course).
Puppies
need to chew even more when they
are teething - there are even special chew toys that can be dampened and frozen to provide relief for painful gums during this process. Broadly speaking, they are using their mouths to express themselves, to explore and engage
with all of the things that surround them. Of course, that includes you, the owner.
Nipping behavior CAN be present in
adult dogs. For example, some dogs tend to nip
at the hands and feet of people whenever they
move quickly. Unfortunately, this is commonly a sign of earlier abuse at the hand (and indeed foot) of a
nasty owner. The adult dog comes to mistrust these appendages, and for good reason.
Such a dog can require a good dose of re-training, precaution, and patience.
But for
puppy owners, there are super simple but super
important steps
you can take to deal with nipping pups:
* Use an OUCH command.
Whenever
your puppy gets
you too hard and inflicts any amount of
pain, whether you are playing or not, cry out sharply with Ouch or something similar. The important thing is NOT to say No or anything that
makes the puppy think it
has done something wrong. They havent. They simply need to figure out some boundaries. An Ouch command lets
them know where to draw the line while
not punishing them for
bad behavior. After all, you are your puppys favorite thing in the world. The last thing they
want to do is poke multiple holes in your hand.
* Use
physical correction.
Another sure-fire technique to interrupt a nipping and biting puppy is to physically
wrap your thumb and forefinger around its lower jaw, further back the better but not down its
throat. Its a bit slimy, but I assure you, your dog doesnt like it either, as it renders them unable to close their jaw. They may try to squirm away. If they
do, you can either let them go, but if they go right back to chomping on you, you should hold firm (dont squeeze), and perhaps give a No biting command gently as you do.
In
both cases, you can follow the correction by placing one of the dogs toys in its mouth to redirect the behavior. Also, be sure to give praise - but best to do it verbally, as it's best not to put your hand back in front of its face.
This will help them get the point of why your hand was removed as
target for its teeth.
These easy steps will prevent the habit of dog biting when playing, and may go some way in discouraging
genuine biting tendencies as the dog matures.
Martin Olliver is a proud member of the
Kingdom of Pets team (
http://www.kingdomofpets.com). For more great articles on nipping and biting dogs, visit:
http://kingdomofpets.com/dogobediencetraining/articles/biting_dog.php
