Posted by: djogon in spring, smell, puddle, mud, dog on
Mar 22, 2009
What fun it is to unleash your dog in an off-leash park just after the snow has melted away and the park is full of dirty, muddy, yucky puddles...
If you’re lucky to have a dog that does not like the water – you don’t really care. I have seen dogs that deliberately don’t want to put their paws onto any wet surface ... not my lab though :)
This is the time of the year that she enjoys the most I think. It’s still cold enough so she does not get tired quickly and it is wet everywhere. All the smelly and stinky stuff that was buried under the snow is now right there – stinking and rotting away – my dog thinks she is in heaven.
Often she will roll into a particularly smelly stuff. Not only that – she tends to try hard to put this stinky stuff onto her cheeks – right where I kiss her good night! It takes forever to clean this stuff up – shish.
I wouldn’t miss it though. You can tell when she is happy – and she certainly is while running through all that mud. She is getting older and it is not as often that she gets excited about things as she used to. This is one thing she will always love and I vouch to bring her to the park often and let her dash through the mud.
Spring is in the air and my dog is happy ... so am I!
Tom Godfrey from Toronto SUN writes in his article: "About 50 dog owners yesterday tried to take a bite out of Toronto city council's plan to ban their pooches from Kew-Balmy Beach. Pet lovers collected old tires, pieces of steel, coffee cups and other litter to send a message to Mayor David Miller to keep their beaches open to dogs."
Ottawa, Canada for example is even worse. There is something called NCC "National Capital Commission" that "rules" most of the waters within the city limits. Dogs must be at least 3 meters away from the shore at all times!
Dog lovers at Kew-Balmy Beach showed what kind of garbage can be found at these shores. Dogs did not leave old tires behind.
Smokers are more likely to quit smoking for the sake of their pets' health than they are for their own, suggests research published ahead of print in Tobacco Control.
The published evidence shows that second hand tobacco smoke can be as dangerous for pets as it is for the non-smoking partners of smokers. Exposure to it has been associated with lymph gland, nasal, and lung cancers; allergies; eye and skin diseases; as well as respiratory problems in cats and dogs. But few smokers realise what impact their habit is having on the health of their pets, say the US researchers. They set up an online survey for pet owners resident in south eastern Michigan, quizzing them about their and their partners' smoking behaviours, and what they knew about the effects of second hand smoke on their pets.
In all, almost 3300 people responded, one in five of whom were smokers and more than one in four of whom (27%) lived with at least one smoker. The average number of cigarettes smoked was 13.5 a day, with around half of those smoked in the home.
Nearly one in three of the smokers (28.4%) said that knowing that smoking was bad for their pets' health would spur them to give it up. And almost one in 10 (8.7%) said this would prompt them to ask their partners to quit, while around one in seven (14%) said they would tell their partner to smoke outdoors.
These figures were even higher among non-smokers, more than 16% of whom said they would ask their partner to quit, while around one in four (24%) said they would tell their partner to smoke outdoors.
Around four out of 10 smokers and one in four non-smokers living with smokers said they would be interested in receiving information on the effects of smoking and how to give up.
Public health campaigns targeting smokers would do well to focus on the detrimental impact of second hand tobacco smoke on pets, say the authors. US pet owners are clearly a very devoted bunch, they say, which such campaigns could tap into.
Almost two thirds of US households have a pet, and their combined spending power on pet supplies and over the counter medicines was estimated to be in the region of more than US$ 10 billion last year. And a survey carried out by the American Animal Hospital Association in 2008 showed that more than half of the respondents said that if they were stranded on a desert island, they would prefer the company of their pet to that of another person.
Story originally published by ScienceDaily - Adapted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Evreyone in dog world is following this one carefully. What will it be ... Labradoodle? Poodle? ... I hope they make the right choice!
Here is a bit of scoop on this
After months of speculation, it appeared that the selection of a first dog was at hand. People magazine, with a fetching report on its Web site, revealed that first lady Michelle Obama has narrowed the family's choice to a rescued Portuguese water dog. All that stands in the way now is spring break - then comes a dog in April.
"You're getting some scoops here,'' the first lady told the magazine, People reported, and "the only thing still up in the air is the name."
But is the magazine barking up the wrong tree?
The first lady's press secretary, Katie Lelyveld, threw cold water on the report today, suggesting that a decision actually has not been made.
"They have not selected a breed," Lelyveld said. "Mrs. Obama likes the Portuguese water dog, but she is only one of four votes.''
The Obamas have not narrowed the search down to a particular breed, the spokeswoman said, but "their primary focus now is that they get a dog that works with their lifestyle." President Barack Obama had allowed in an earlier interview that the family had narrowed its search to the water dog or a Labradoodle, not a breed really, but a cross between a Labrador retriever and the Standard poodle.
Well ... like anyone else who has ever had a dog and was a responsible dog owner ... deciding on a breed is not an easy task.
My dog not only has food allergies, but also suffers from arthritis (she is a Labrador Retriever after all).
We have tried to use certain joint supplements before, but they all produced heavy allergic reaction in my dog. In fact - that is how we pinpointed that she was very allergic to beef proteins.
My vet who, is an expert in allergies, found something based on a type of shellfish. It's a mussel called perna (perna canaliculus) which contains high concentration of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) - about 12%. It also contains anti-inflammatory compounds making it ideal for dogs with joint problems.
As a responsible dog owners we all want the best for our pooch. When it comes to food – I am particularly interested. My Lab has food allergies and choosing the right food has been a challenge over the years.
According to this article – expensive pet food is not better than cheap pet food.
“When it comes to buying pet food, higher cost doesn’t always mean higher quality, according to the March issue of Consumer Reports. A higher price could indicate better ingredients and better quality control during and after manufacturing, but it could also just mean prettier packaging, more marketing, or a fancy name. And despite food safety concerns that resulted from a recall of pet food tainted with melamine in 2007, Consumer Reports urges caution for consumers who are considering making their own pet food, a growing trend.”
Over the years I have read many books and watched a bunch of TV shows about dogs. Some are training related, some are trying to help you with behavioural issues,
others are simply stupid!
In my oppinion - no show is as insightful or as good as Cesar Milan’s Dog Whisperer. First time I watched the show it simply made sense and I was impressed by the amount of information Cesar managed to bring across.
We have been contacted by a company called 