October 2006
Holistic Puppy Care Starts With The Parents
Subscribers Only Responsible, holistic puppy care begins long before the puppy arrives at the homestead. In fact, the first step to creating a healthy puppy is the selection of the puppy’s parents! The best predictors of long-term health of puppies are the health history and personality of the parents. Breeding stock should be proven to be sound in body, mind, and socialization.
Determining Your Dog's Health Through His Feces
Subscribers Only You can learn a lot about your dogs’ health from their poop. Its color, consistency, contents, odor, amount, and frequency can give you valuable, up-to-date information about their health. For example, it can provide early warning that your dog’s diet may be unsuitable, or that she may be grappling with parasites, viruses, unfriendly bacteria, bad water, emotional upset, food allergies, or serious illness.
Teaching Your Dog to Read
Subscribers Only Don’t laugh. If Bonnie Bergin, EdD, has her way, dogs all over the world will soon be reading – maybe not books and articles, but individual words or sets of words strung together. Now president of the Bonnie Bergin Assistance Dog Institute, the world’s only academic college that awards associate and master’s degrees in dog studies, Dr. Bergin originated the service dog concept when she founded Canine Companions for Independence more than 30 years ago.
Maintaining Healthy Anal Glands and Sacs
Subscribers Only Oh, the smell! Anyone who’s ever been in the same room when a frightened dog “blows” her anal glands or a veterinarian manually expresses them will never forget the malodorous experience. And anyone whose dog has suffered from impacted, infected, or abscessIt’s wise for dog owners to be aware of the problems that can arise with these glands, so they can seek appropriate remedies on their dog’s behalf.
Driving Safely with Your Dog
When I’m driving on the road and see a dog in someone else’s car, it makes me smile. I love it when people care enough about their dogs to chauffeur them around town. I love it even more when the dog is in a crate or seat belted in place. My smile quickly vanishes, however, if the dog has her head stuck out the window, is sitting in the driver’s lap, darting back and forth across the seats, or worse, riding loose in the back of an open pickup truck. And the ultimate crime – leaving a dog in a hot car – motivates me to grab my cell phone and call out the animal cops. As much as we love our dogs and want them with us all the time, we have an incontrovertible obligation to transport them safely, for their own welfare as well as ours, and that of other drivers on the roads. All dogs, large and small, should learn to ride politely in their cars. There’s a long list of safety hazards concomitant with having an unrestrained obstreperous canine in a moving vehicle.
Bottoms Up!
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