Posted by: djogon in partry, headache, dog on
Sep 16, 2009
Ever wonder how dogs feel like when you have a party at your house? Our lab certainly LOVES the attention, the hustle and bustle, dancing, and of course, tricking the unassuming guests into giving her a bite or two to eat from the cheese plate.
Usually she would sleep on the sofa with us while we watch TV at that time of the day so this is always something different. Depending on the "success" of the party - my dog would feel differently in the morning.
If people leave early and there was not too much going on - she feels fine - wakes up in the morning and everything is normal. If, however, the party is a success and people stay longer, dance and drink a lot - my dog feels in the morning as if she was drinking, not me.
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!
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.
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.
