Feeding your dog naturally

June 16th, 2009 by admin

The beagle can be a delightful breed. They are adorable, small dogs, and beagle personalities make great pets if they are disciplined and well taken care of. If you fail to train and take good care of your dog, they can also be difficult. Caring for a beagle will be rewarding, however, if you are willing to learn a bit about the breed and make some effort.

In order to properly groom the pet, you will need to get in the habit of following a simple regimen. Even though the breed has relatively short hair, you should brush it about once a week. This breed does shed a little, and doing this will also remove dirt and prevent an odor. Their ears also need care as well. Check the ears and clean them with a cotton ball about every other week. They can get dirty (and irritated) and develop an odor as well. You don’t need to bathe often, maybe once a month.

Beagles do have a tendency to over-eat if the opportunity presents itself, therefore you must take extra care not to over-feed him. You must also make sure to never feed him table scraps–he will be much healthier on a dry dog food. Also, as with any dog, he should be taken outside at least once or twice a day for a good stretch and a bit of exercise.

Dog training beagle puppies is a huge step to creating a well-formed dog. Although a friendly breed, the beagle can be stubborn (especially when it comes to looking for food). Be very consistent in your discipline and don’t slack off. Try to use positive reinforcement as opposed to negative punishment. If you have small children, be careful, as they tend to nip or bite if provoked.

Remember that beagle can live from 12-15 years, so be prepared for that commitment that caring for a beagle entails. If you look into proper care and properly train, feed, and clean your beagle, you should be a happy owner of this wonderful breed.

If you are looking to find beagles for sale, the internet is a great place to start. You may also find some great deals by looking in the classifieds section of your local newspaper. Take care in choosing your pet and make sure that the breeder is reputable.

June 15th, 2009 by admin

Chewing is a matter of individual preference among dogs: some derive great pleasure from chewing and others just do it when they are extremely bored.

The phrase “destructive chewing” may sound redundant, because – by its very nature! – all chewing can tear things up. Your dog has strong jaws full of sharp, pointy teeth: just about anything she starts to chew on is probably going to show the effects of it inside of a minute. To be clear when I use the phrase “destructive chewing” I am referring to chewing your possessions and house items instead of hers.

The three main reasons why dogs chew:

– All dogs have a natural desire to chew. And really it’s fun and passes time a self-rewarding, self-reinforcing activity.)

– Chewing provides a nervous, bored, or lonely dog with an outlet for her emotions. To a dog the repetitive act of chewing is soothing just like we eat comfort food.

If dogs are not exercised to burn up their excess energy they often turn to chewing to give themselves something to do.

– How to prevent bad chewing -

Dogs can learn not to chew your things – you just need to work at it.

1. Take control of the situation: manage your own possessions. Dog-proofing your home should be the first step. Even if she is well-behaved there is no reason to test her self-control – after all dogs explore the world with their mouth.

Dog-proofing your home means taking whatever you don’t want to end up in her mouth, and making it unavailable. Consider her size and agility when deciding whether something’s out of reach: can she jump? Can she climb, or leap onto something else to reach the desired object? When standing on her back legs how tall is she?

Small crunchy appliances such as cell phones, cameras and remote controls and eyewear, shoes and garbage are often targets in the home.

It should go without saying that all food needs to be put securely away: don’t leave snacks on low tables (or even countertops – you’d be surprised how acrobatic she can be when there’s food at stake!), put all food into containers or the pantry. Make sure you scrape out plates and rinse them before leaving them by the sink.

2. Prevent her from learning the joys of illegal chewing. The more times she manages to snatch a jaw full of a forbidden substance – a chair-leg, a pillow, a running shoe – the more readily she’ll target those items in future. If you can prevent her from chewing your stuff in the first place, it’s a lot easier for her to understand what you expect of her. In other words, this means confining her in a dog-proofed area until you are confident of her understanding the house rules.

3. Don’t set her up for failure by blurring the boundaries between her stuff (OK to chew) and your stuff (not OK to chew). If she has gotten caught with household articles then don’t give her similiar castoffs to play with, there is no way she would know the difference.

4. Give her lots of different, good tasting alternatives to your things. If she doesn’t have anything to play with, you can hardly blame her for targeting your possessions. Just think, most dogs need to chew; especially if she’s an adolescent or a puppy. Go on a toy and chew shopping spree, then give her two or three to play with at a time. Rotating the available toys every few days will keep things novel and interesting for her.

5. Spend a lot of time in one on one supervision. Yes it is easier to keep her penned in her crate but horrible for her, and hardley any fun for you either?) She can not learn all that you expect of her if you keep her all boxed up in a dog-proof zone: she needs to be able to explore and have challengies so that she can understand what is appropriate and what is not.

6. Make a loud noise like clapping your hand or make an “Ah-ah-aaaah” when you catch her chewing something you don’t want her to chew!” noise. Then, immediately hand her a tasty and dog-appropriate alternative (a rawhide bone or other chew toy); as soon as her jaws close around it, praise her lavishly. Chewing “her” toys equals praise from you and every thing else is trouble.

– Maintain a productive attitude -

If nothing else, keep your expectation realistic. Neither you or your dog are perfect and there will be a good chance she will tear up something you cherishe.

In the early stage of your relationship, she is still learning the ropes: it will take a while before she will be completely reliable.) You need to give her time to learn the rules, and a lot of time with you, then she will learn faster but don’t forget tto keep things out of her reach!

For more information on dog training techniques and how to deal with problem dog behavior (like chewing), check out Secrets to Dog Training. A complete manual to fast-track your dog’s learning.

June 6th, 2009 by admin

The definition of pet ownership has changed in recent years. Gone are the Britney Spears of the world entering a LA pet shop and dropping $3000 on a Yorkie. Do something like that now and suffer the ire of PETA. Even our new president is being affected by the recent developments in the economy. He has realized that you can’t simply enter a pet store and 30 minutes later exit with a new pet. The president has stated that trying to find a new dog for his children is tougher than finding a Commerce secretary. He has been trying to model what a responsible new potential pet owner should be like during a recession, or any other time for that matter. During this recession we must take in consideration the needs of all the family members and wait until the household is calm before bringing a new pet into the family. He is also showing setting a good example by getting a pet from a shelter or rescue group.

Although the president’s choice of a new family pet, and whether it will be a labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound has been all over the media, the top story is the bleek future of pets in a time when many are struggling to pay for utility bills.In our nation’s hayday, it was not un-common to see stories that made us snicker and shake our heads about how people would spend exorbitant amounts of money on their pets. They thought that their dogs actually loved the posh bottled water that was served to them in a crystal doggie glass. Stories of million dollar doggie trust funds, thousand dollar doggie hotels, pearl necklaces, and other examples of doggie decadence covered the newspapers daily.

Now that our economy has sunken to new depths, stories about our beloved pets have changed and have become much more daunting and deeply troubling. The media all across our country have been reporting about local animal shelters becoming filled far beyond their capacity, often times being forced to euthanize a greater number of otherwise healthy pets simply because of space constraints. Still others have abandoned their pets in foreclosed dwellings or tied up in back yards of abandoned properties, left to survive on their own, often times un able to reach food and water painfully starving to death at the end of a chain. The LA times even made pets and the economy their features story of the New Year. Pets are quickly turning into the luxury that can no longer be afforded.

This downward spiral comes on the heels of a recient upswing in adoptions. For nearly a decade shelters and rescues have been seeing a consistant rise in the rate of adoptions a starke difference from the overwhelming intake and decline in new adoption applications. There is no real way of knowing if we have seen the bottom of this staggering trend or if there is more despair to come. You can be certain of one thing, it is not getting any better.

Any progress made in the past of teaching the public on the need to adopt from shelters instead of purchasing from a puppy store means nothing if our sinking economy causes people to not be able to afford to own a pet or take care of the pets that they already have in their home. Vet costs alone have been a major factor in family’s decisions to give up their beloved pets. With the average vet visit costing in the range of $200 a visit, families often have to decide whether they can spend this month’s credit card payment and unless they find a way to reduce their credit card debt, they often have little choice but to give up their pet.

Another sign of the rapid decline of the luxury pet market was the cancelation New York’s Pet Fashion Week. With all this negative news on the pet industry it is woth mentioning that pets have many benefits. Vets across the nation have said that pets are an excellent way to lower blood pressure which helps justify spending the money spent on them.

For many people the only way to avoid having to make the decision of paying bills of feeding Fido, is to get themselves in a position to weather the economic storm. For many people this could mean entering into a credit card debt settlement program or other ways of lowering their household expenses. Often time’s bankruptcy is not an option for these embattled pet owners who do not want to deal with the court system, paying attorney fees nor having the black mark on their credit report for up to ten years. Often times credit card counseling, which is run by the creditors, is not a realistic option since in most cases the payments are no less and sometimes more then what they are paying at the moment. Again this makes the owner struggle with pet food not to mention vet bills as mentioned earlier.

Whatever solution you may decide,  should you need credit card debt relief, ensure that you educate yourself on the differences between the programs and fully understand the pitfalls. In most cases talking to someone who can assist you in settling your debt can be helpful and is suggested over going it alone.

This discussion over pets and the economy will likely go on for as long as there is an economic crunch in our nation. The main issue is that we either need to deal with the credit card debt we have and pull ourselves out of this crisis, or resort to what many have and abandon the family pet. Where will this trend stop? Will the next crisis make us to decide whether to take care of our kids and pay for medical insurance or leave them on the side of the street to fend for themselves.