Beyond Know How

Mold is one those dog allergies that can cause skin itching and general illness, paticularly mold that produces mycotoxins which suppress the immune system.  The two most common places for mold is on you dogs food or in the rooms he is commonly kept.  If you buy food for you dog from stores that don’t generally sell a lot of dog food there is a better chance that food has been sitting on the shelf too long allowing some mold to form.   Sometimes the food producers themselves using poor quality products with a small amount of molding, this will be hard to know without having tests run.  More than likely the mold is existing where he resides.  If you house ever flooded, had a leaky pipe, or washing machine hose broke your house could be the source of mold.  Perhaps you 20 year old plastic dog house could have some molding also.  Look around and bleach or dry those areas and see if it gets better.

Dog training with an obedience instructor can vary in price and it usually takes place in a class. If you don’t have the time or money to get your pooch trained by a professional, then there are other ways to go about it.

If you do the dog training yourself, it is usually free and you can do it from your own home. If you do choose to do the training yourself, it is best to get educated on dog training. There are a number of great books and dvds on the market, but there are also some great online resources available today. Websites, such as DogTipsDaily.com offer tons of great tips and information on training your dog. There you will learn some of the training basics, like sit, stay and heel, but you can also get tips on more advanced training strategies.

If you are using chain link fencing to enclose your dog kennel and run, you will need to make sure that you secure the bottom of the fencing or your dog will most likely simply push himself out.

There are different things you can do to strengthen the bottom of the chain link fence.  One is to attach a galvanized pipe to the bottom of the uprights, though make sure you also buy the right fixtures to attach them with.  Alternatively, you can greatly strengthen the bottom by weaving air line cable in and out of the chain link fencing every couple of feet.  While this will strengthen the fence so the dog can’t push it out and escape, it won’t be much help if your dog is a digger.

If you are worried about your dog digging himself out, the simplest modification is to buy additional chicken wire, which is pretty cheap, and attach it to the bottom of the link fencing about a foot up the fence. You’ll then need to dig out around the fence, and bury about two feet of the chicken wire into the ground.  I have even seen a dog dig out the chicken wire, he loved to dig wherever the ground had been recently turned over, but it usually works fairly well. If you are worried that your dog will dig where you have dug the trench, just cover that area with gravel, or lay something else on it for a time till the ground hardens.

photo credit: Elsie esq.

 
Every day thousands of dogs roam the streets looking for a place to call home.  Animal control officers pick up hundreds of dogs every day.  The cold hard truth about this situation is that many of these dogs end up being euthanized because animal control is unable to find out who they belong to or find a new home for them.

In most municipalities it is a law that your dog must wear a colla and both the license and rabies tax must be on the collar at all times.  Many people think that this law doesn’t apply to them until they have lost their dog and their frantically searching for it.  Dog collars help people get their dog back when it’s lost. It’s as simple as that.  Oftentimes people put an additional tag on the caller that has the phone number and address of the dog.  If the dog ends up missing an a good Samaritan seas that act all it takes is a phone call and your precious dog is back in its home.

Do your dog a favor and put his collar on him.  It may just end up saving his life someday

Unlike topical flea products, Capstar flea medication comes in tablet form. The pill is not chewable but is very tiny in size and can be easily hidden in cheese or peanut butter if your dog is fussy about taking pills. If you need to give Capstar to your cat you’ll probably need to pill him the old fashioned way, by simply shoving the pill down his throat. Another alternative is to crush the pill and either put it in canned cat food or mix with water and feed through a syringe. However, crushing the pill can dilute its effectiveness so it’s always better to pill your cat if possible. If you decide to crush the pill and put it in food, it’s very important that the pet eats the entire contents, otherwise he will not receive the proper dose of medication. The pill can also be given rectally but chances are your pet will prefer the oral route of administration! Capstar begins working in 30 minutes. At that time you will start seeing fleas die and jump off your pet. Your pet may act agitated for a short time while this happens, because the fleas go through an excitement stage before dying.

If you are someone that has trouble walking your dog all the time, then you should be thinking about getting a dog treadmill

photo credit: star5112

. If you don’t have the time to get outside and get your dog healthy, then this might be an option for you. Your dogs health is in your hands, you are the one that needs to take him outside and walk him. If this is not possible then you need to consider another way to exercise your dog. A dog treadmill can provide you with this opportunity. A healthy dog is a much less destructive dog, and of course, you won’t have to take him to the vet all the time and in the long run this will save you a lot of money.

The mother cat has a difficult, involved job when it comes to taking care of newborn kittens.  Unfortunately, sometimes you will find yourself in need of finding a surrogate cat mother to do the job instead.

A surrogate cat mother is a person who takes care of newborn kittens when the mother cat is deceased, gone, or otherwise unavailable.  It can be a big job for a child to take on, but an older child should be able to manage it with some adult supervision.  After all, it is a little more involved than simply cuddling and petting and playing with the kittens.  They need to be fed their formula in the proper amount, bathed, and very lightly disciplined.  It’s a big job, but someone needs to do it.

Maintenance of your dog kennel is one of the most important jobs that needs to be performed on a regular basis. This is needed to keep your dog kennel clean and ensure a healthy living environment for your beloved canine friend. It can be as simple as patching up any worn areas or washing down the kennel floor. If you do wash down your kennel floor, then bleach is great to use to get rid of those tough stains, but, and this is very important, any areas that do come into contact with bleach must be thoroughly rinsed. Bleach is a pretty harmful product and can lead to serious burns on your dog’s paws so make sure that you do this after every wash. It’s not a hard job to maintain your dog kennel, so do it for yourself and your dog. More information about dog kennel maintenance can be found at this Kennels For DogsWebsite.

There are many different schools of dog training ranging from the gentleness of clicker training all the way to the hard-core techniques of obedience training. All these schools don’t mention the the most important part of interacting with any animal.

What is this key ingredient? The most important part of training any animal is the relationship you establish with it. This isn’t usually mentioned because it isn’t actually a training issue. Training methodologies are a body of techniques you can use to achieve a specific end. The relationship with the dog lies below the level that training books usually go to.

When it comes right down to it, the question of what kind of relationship you have with your dog determines everything else and foreshadows what your level of success will be. Why should the dog care what you want it to do? Is your dog happy to work, or does he fear you. The answers to these questions will ultimately decide whether you will achieve what you want with your pet.

This truth is something that my little westie terrier taught me. Get the mind working, the tail wagging and the eyes bright. If you can achieve that, almost any techniques will work for you.

Jolly Balls are pretty much a young horse’s best friend.  They will carry them around, kick the ball at each other, throw them in the air, sit on the jolly ball, and sometimes hold them in their mouth and smack themselves in the face.  I’m not sure why that’s fun, but the horses sure think they make one fine horse gift.  Even the if the ball goes completely flat they seem to enjoy them all the more.  Keeping your horses from boredom will keep them out of trouble.  Horses that are bored tend to chew on things more, suck wind which can be dangerous, figure out how to open gates, and just generally beat up on the other horses which are less dominant than themselves.