Many people are unaware that some of the foods that we eat on regular basis can be deadly to your dog.
A piece of chocolate can cause seizures, coma and death. Even a small piece of chocolate is dangerous. Anything containing caffeine can have a similar effect and be as dangerous as chocolate, and that includes coffee grounds, tea, and tea bags.
Grapes and raisins can cause kidney failure and even a single serving of raisins can kill your dog. Excessive salt intake can also cause kidney problems. Onions can cause anemia by destroying red blood cells while tomatoes can cause tremors and heart arrhythmias. Tomato plants are particularly toxic to dogs. Avocados are also highly toxic and can cause breathing difficulty and fluid accumulation around the abdomen chest and heart.
When giving your dog bones ensure that they are raw as cooked bones can splinter and damage their internal organs. Excessive fat can cause pancreatitis, so it is not wise to feed your dog a diet of fatty foods. Fried foods also fall into this category and are not good to retain maximum health in your dog.
Certain nuts, such as Macadamia nuts and walnuts can cause weakness and muscle tremors. Peanut butter however is generally okay provided you use the salt and sugar free peanut butter as sugar can encourage cancer growth. The core and pits of fruits such as Apple’s cherries and peaches contain cyanide, which is poisonous to dogs and can kill them within 24-hours without warning.
If in doubt, always refrain from feeding your dog foods that we are eating assuming that they will be okay. What is safe for humans can kill your dog within hours.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Food & Health by on Jul 7th, 2010. 
How much food does your dog really need? Along with the general population of people, dogs are also suffering from obesity from eating the wrong food and eating too much food.
It is relatively easy to control the amount of food your dog is eating and it is essential that you gauge its weight on a regular basis to ensure that it doesn’t get obese. Dogs can suffer from many different ailments due to obesity including diabetes.
There are an increasing number of dogs suffering from this disease and in most cases this could have been avoided through the correct nutrition and monitoring the amount of food the dog has been eating. Having a dog with diabetes will necessitate the injection of insulin or in some cases taking of pills to assist in the maintenance of the correct sugar levels in their blood.
Obviously this involves additional expense and inconvenience and there is also a danger that should the insulin level be incorrect your pet could die. It makes sense then that your dog should only eat what is good for it and in quantities that won’t result in it developing health problems later in life.
Working dogs will need more food for the energy that they will expend in the course of the day but a dog that lays around the house all day and doesn’t get any exercise will not need to eat the same portions of food. You should weigh your dog on a regular basis and see whether it is gaining or losing weight and adjust the amount of food it is eating accordingly.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Food & Health by on Jul 7th, 2010.
There are two types of worms that you are likely to have to contend with in keeping your dog healthy, and they are the round worms and the tapeworms.
Round worms are the ones most prevalent in puppies and they generally look like small white pieces of string of about three inches in length. They can grow up to twice this size in a full-grown dog.
Round worms live in the small intestine of the dog and can become so concentrated that they will block the passage. They can be passed by the bowel and this can obviously affect other dogs that are in contact with dogs that have round worms. It only takes a matter of days for the worms to become fully developed and it is easy for them to spread quickly from one dog to another.
The speed by which they can breed and multiply has been one of the reasons why many people originally assumed that puppies were always born with round worms although it has since been proven that this is not the case. More often than not the puppies have got the worms from their mother in the confines of their kennel.
There are so many different symptoms that can appear when a dog has worms that anything you notice outside of the ordinary behavior of your pet should be addressed by a visit to your vet as a worm infested dog can become a very unhealthy, unhappy dog very fast. Left untreated worms can kill a dog so it is better to be safe than sorry if you suspect your pet might have worms or have been in contact with other dogs that might have worms.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Food & Health by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Dogs can suffer from similar ailments that we get as we age, including arthritis and pain in the joints.
Some breeds of dogs are more prone than others to getting certain ailments and you need to be aware of the possible problems that your particular breed of dog might get as it grows older.
By giving your dog a warm place to lie when it sleeps you might be able to ward off arthritic pain. By keeping the body weight down to acceptable levels for dogs that are prone to overeating and weight gain might stop your dog from developing other symptoms that can affect the quality of life.
It is far better to control things that can affect the dogs health during the course of their life than to make them, and you, pay for ill health as they age. According to many dog experts our pets should be living for a lot longer than the current life expectancies that we have come to accept.
With good medication we can expect to enjoy more years with our dogs but it is just as easy to add many quality years to their life by ensuring that they get the optimum nutrition and suitable living standards during the course of their life. Most dogs are very hardy but even they will benefit from additional comforts and care.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Food & Health by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Just like their owners, dogs can suffer from allergies too. Some of these allergies can be related to the foods that they eat where some of the cheaper brands of dog food have coloring and preservatives that can cause allergic reactions.
If this is the case then it is a process of eliminating those foods that have the ingredients that cause the reactions. This is not always as easy as it might seem as it can take quite some time to find which particular ingredient is the culprit.
By buying the better premium quality dog foods you are less likely to have these problems or alternatively if you only feed your dog fresh meat and some vegetables rather than processed foods that should help.
Most of the cheap dog foods use grain products as a filler and these are often the cause of the dog’s problems. These food allergies can result in your dog scratching their skin, which can also cause more problems with infections. Just as we would be very uncomfortable with an allergy that makes us constantly want to itch our skin, allergies can make a dogs life miserable. Aside from the allergies affecting skin sensitivities your dog could also develop coughing, discharge from the nose and eyes, hair loss and breathing problems.
There are many more symptoms that can arise and these are just a few. If you notice any changes in your dog when they have a change in diet then it will pay to take a note of the ingredients of that product to see what is in it that could be making your dog feel unwell. Dogs can also get allergies from dust mites just as humans would and it is always necessary to ensure that your dog lives in a clean environment even if they are an outdoor pet by regularly cleaning their cage or kennel.
Fleas are another concern for dogs and they can lead to excessive licking, particularly around the tail, which can ultimately lead to hair loss and sores. It is very easy for your vet to see if your dog has fleas if you are unable to do so yourself and there are simple solutions to eliminate fleas. Dogs can also get varying skin diseases and some breeds are more susceptible than others.
There are many good lotions and antibiotic pills that can be administered by your vet to control this and the sooner you get these problems seen to the better as they can lead to more intensive skin problems if left unattended.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Dog Food & Health by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Dog insurance is something more and more people are considering to cover them in the event that their dog might get involved in an attack that could lead to legal action.
This might seem strange that people should need dog insurance, particularly as we all think our own dogs are little angels but anything can happen even with the best of us. It is our duty to keep our dogs well fenced and away from possible danger where they might attack or bite a child or the postie but these things happen.
Maybe a child has just been annoying your dog and it decided to give the child a small nip, completely out of character of course but these things do happen. Or your dog might get a little over excited when you take it for a walk in a rowded park. Many of the more intelligent breeds of dogs that I mentioned in previous newsletter are very protective of their property and owners and it is not uncommon for these dogs to take a nip at someone.
It is up to you to decide whether your dog is a potential risk but if it is, dog insurance might just be what you need to save a whole lot of money in legal expenses.
There are several options that you can take and it is always best to get quotes before deciding which insurance company to use, but you can expect to pay a higher premium for certain dog breeds that are more potential for risk of a dog attack. If you have a dog that falls into these categories then it might be wise to consider dog insurance before it’s too late.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Living With Dogs by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Dog training is all about building relationships. Good dog training is all about building positive relationships where the dog has respect for it’s owner and also where the dog realizes that the owner is the master and leader of the pack.
If the owner assumes the position of the leader of the pack and the dog knows and respects that position then it will feel more secure and be a happier pet. Under no circumstances should the dog be fearful of it’s master and that is why most current methods of dog training focus on the positive aspects of the dogs actions and reward it for the good actions that it takes rather than punishing it for anything that it does wrong.
A well trained dog that respects it’s master will always want to please, and that leads to a better-behaved dog both at home and when socializing with other dogs and people. These positive training techniques are also great at retraining dogs that have consistently done something wrong, as they will quickly learn that the rewards for good actions are far greater than the attention they are seeking from their negative actions.
Even older dogs can be trained quite well by using these methods so a dog is certainly never too old to learn new tricks.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Living With Dogs by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Is your dog getting depressed? It is not uncommon for dogs to get depressed. They can become bored very easily and when they are bored for extended periods of time this can lead to depression.
The more intelligent the dog the more likely it is to get depressed as they need more stimulation in the form of work or activities that can keep their mind active. This is one of the reasons why dog training is so important, because a dog that is trained well will get a lot more out of life by pleasing it’s owner and it will also have a leader that is can look to for security and confidence.
Often the weather in the area we live can be the biggest problem when trying to keep a dog active with the colder winter months and shorter daylight hours making it difficult to exercise the dog.
There are alternatives for dogs just as there are for humans in these conditions and many people are unaware that it is possible to get a dog treadmill for their dog so they can still be exercised no matter what the conditions outside are like. This can also be ideal for people who live in apartments or those who are unable to take their dog out for a walk at night due to reasons of safety.
For the convenience of ensuring that your dog remains fit and healthy and doesn’t become depressed and need medication, a dog treadmill might just be the answer that you are looking for.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Exercise & Your Dog by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Many people are under the false impression that you can only crate train puppies and they refrain from crate training older dogs as they think it is too difficult.
There are also many people who think crate training is inhumane but done correctly this couldn’t be further from the truth. The dogs crate should never be used as a place to be sent when punished.
When dogs have been crate trained correctly they actually enjoy the security of having their own place to stay. Even at times when they are not expected to stay in the crate the dog will find comfort in it’s own area of the home. Provided the crate is in a sheltered place and there is fresh water available they will be completely happy to have their own home.
Dogs often get possessive of their crate and other members of the family, children in particular, need to understand that this is the dogs special area that they must respect. The crate should always be kept clean and where possible the dog should have a favorite rug or blanket to sleep on in the crate.
The crate should always be made accessible for the dog with the door open when they aren’t required to stay in the crate so they can feel free to come and go as they like and stay in the crate if they feel like resting at times other than those destined for the crate door to be closed.
Older dogs can find the crate a very secure place as they become less confident with themselves when getting older. If an older dog does have a mishap and urinate or soil their crate it is very important that it is cleaned immediately so they will continue to enjoy their space.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Crate Training by on Jul 7th, 2010.
Dogs love to socialize and taking your pet to places that they have never been before is a great adventure that will help stimulate them both mentally and physically.
When they interact with other dogs and people they develop more social skills and will generally become better pets. This is of course assuming that your dog has had some form of training and you are able to keep them under control in these situations.
If your dog has had some training and you let them socialize with other dogs while maintaining your control over them this often assists in taking their manageability to higher levels where you can take them more places without the fear of mishaps.
A dog that is well trained and gets sufficient social interaction with others is less likely to become bored and want to escape and roam the neighborhood. It’s all part of good ownership and a good relationship to allow your dog to experience as many situations as possible in their life with you in attendance. They can certainly be a man’s, or woman’s best friend provided we treat them in a similar manner and treasure them as one of the family.
Dogs can add so much fun and entertainment to our lives and they don’t ask for much in return other than food water and a place to sleep. If only life was that simple with people what a wonderful life we would all have. The simple things in life, like our pets, are always those things that bring the most pleasure at the end of the day.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!” This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.
Filed under Living With Dogs by on Jul 7th, 2010.
