It’s all about dogs!

Goodbye old friend and Hello new life!

Last month we lost a good friend and fellow dog lover to a massive heart attack. Bud was the same age as me and had a few health issues but nothing life treating that we knew of.

What makes the loss even more poignant is the fact that Bud had his heart set on getting one of Sashas puppies. They were born May 10th. He was finally going to realize this dream which started 4 years ago.

You see, they lost their older dog at that time. And after thinking about it he decided that he would like a new puppy. He came to us looking for a puppy at that time, but we were between litters so he decided to wait. As life goes when we had puppies he was not able to take one for one reason or another. This kept going on `till March of this year when everything came together and we both were ready for the big day. …..

I decided that to keep Bud’s dream alive we would donate a puppy in Bud’s name to one of the service schools that we work with. As you probably know we work closely with several service training schools. In the past we have provided at no charge puppies for them to train.

It hit me that this time I would supply one of the schools with a puppy given in Buds name. That school is Carolina Canines, in Wilmington, NC. Unfortunately the pup goes as is and the funds needed to support it though its training will be up to the school to get.

It is estimated that it can cost as much as $35,000 to train a dog for service work. So I’m turning to you for help with this project. If you can please make a small donation directly to the school to help keep this dog’s training ongoing. You can make a donation in some one’s name it will be added to the list that goes with the dog to a happy client.

More information on service school and training programs. ….Click Here

To help keep this service program ongoing use the donation button here.

Technorati Tags: Bud, Buds, Carolina Canines, Dog Attack, Donation Button, Fellow Dog Lover, Good Friend, Goodbye Old Friend, Health Issues, Heart Attack, Litters, Lost Friend, Massive Attack, Massive Heart Attack, New Puppy, Pup, puppies, Train A Dog, Train Dog, Wilmington Nc

We love our dogs and we want to do what is best for them but we sometimes give them human food that is dangerous and sometimes deadly!   Even the foods that we humans think would be good for our dog are not.  Before you feed your dog another bite of human food you MUST know if it is safe. 

Please see the list below for the top 10 human foods that will make your dog sick or worse:

1. Chocolate - especially dark chocolate - can lead to seisures, a coma and sometimes can lead to death
2. Coffee and the grounds have the same affects as chocolate
3. Tea and the grounds have the same affects as chocolate
4. Onions - can lead to anemia and may destroy red blood cells
5. Grapes and/or raisins - could cause kidney failure
6. Cooked bones of any kind - will splinter your dogs internal organs
7. Raw eggs - could cause salmonella poisoning
8. Tomatos and the plant  - could cause heart arrhythmias and tremors
9. Macadamia nuts - contain toxins that cause weakness, muscle tremor, panting and paralysis
10. Avocodoes - the fruit, pit and plant are all toxic and could cause heart and digestive problems, difficult breathing, accumulation of fluids in the chest, abdomen and heart

One of the most dangerous of all human food - well actually it is a sweetner but it is dangerous and fatal to most dogs; therefore, it must be mentioned is XYLITOL - it causes an insulin reaction and can lead to liver failure.  This artificial sweetner is found in gum, candy and baked goods.

One last mention - I am very passionate about warning people about the dangers of commercial dog food.  Please be sure to get some real dog food comparisons to educate yourself yourself about exactly what is in your dog food before you feed your dog another meal.  Top dog foods and dog food ratings must be studied.  Your dogs life depends on it!

http://www.realdogfoodcomparisons.com

Technorati Tags: Commercial Dog Food, Dog Food Comparisons, Dog Food Ratings, Top Dog Foods

Does your dog have this problem?

According to the U.S. Disease Control Center in Atlanta, Georgia, about 1,000,000 people in the United States are bitten by dogs every year. The majority of victims are children between the ages of 5 and 8; in most cases, the biting dogs were house pets.

You will find dogs bite for a variety of reasons. Dogs may bite or display threatening behavior when they are angry, afraid, agitated, over-excited, or when challenged or seeking to protect.

It’s hard, but the first thing to do when confronted with biting dogs is to keep your cool.   If posable discern "why" the dog is behaveing aggressively.  If the dog was being teased or felt threatened, the problem may not be with the dog.   Instead, the fault may lie with whomever or whatever teased him or made him feel threatened.

Some dogs bite or snap at their caregiver’s hands when the caregiver tries to take something away from them.   This is more prone to happen with food or something the dog thinks is food.  According to Barbara Woodhouse, internationally known dog trainer, canine behavior expert, and author of Barbara Woodhouse’s Encyclopedia of Dogs & Puppies, the best cure for such aggressive behavior is to "return violence with violence."

Preventing Aggressive Behavior in Dogs that Leads to Biting

Some dogs are so naturally protective of their owner they attack anyone who approaches, without being given a command. This can be quite dangerous. Allowing a dog to lunge toward people could very well lead to other aggressive behaviors, such as biting.

One of the best methods to prevent this type of aggressive behavior in dogs is to take the dog among crowds - muzzled if necessary. Get people to touch him (muzzled), and give him a sound scolding if he attempts to attack.

Another effective method is to get someone who trains dogs to snatch him from you and really shake him (by his choke chain) when he shows signs of vicious behavior. He must be defeated, and then praised for submitting.

South St. Paul / St. Paul officer not cited in dog bite …

Police treated the case as the…   Read more…

Technorati Tags: biting dog, dog aggression, dog behavior

National Pet First-Aid Awareness Month | DogOscopes

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Do you have any idea what would happen too your dog if you were in a auto crash? 

I’m not sure I do but after reading this e-mail from a member of the Agility club I’m going to find out.  It seams she was in a car crash and— why don’t I let you read it for yourself.

"I was recently involved in a 5 car crash on US 95 in Delaware on my way to a trial in NJ.  Luckily both my dogs and I were uninjured and I was able to drive away.  However, one of the women involved in the crash was taken to the hospital.  She had a small dog (pug mix)  with her in her car and the EMT’s didn’t know what to do with it. They had supposedly called her mother who was coming to get it , but that wasn’t going to happen, given that the highway was blocked in both directions and she was on the other side of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I put it in my car as a stopgap, but an hour+ later when the troopers gave me my paperwork and told me I could leave, I reminded them about the dog.  They had absolutely no idea what to do about it.  We did find a phone number on the dogs tags, and managed to contact the woman’s father, who was on his way to the hospital.  It then took me 20 minutes to convince the state trooper to take the dog to the hospital and turn it over to the father. Fortunately, it had a harness on so I could clip it to the seatbelt in the trooper’s car and that seems to be what convinced him to take the dog.   I’m not sure what they would have done otherwise.

This whole incident raised a number of concerns for me.  First, I used to have tags on my crates which said that in case of an accident my dogs should be taken to the nearest vet (not the pound) and payment would be guaranteed by :  3 contacts/phone numbers. Then there was info about the dogs on the other side.   They’ll be going back on.  However, the total absence of any protocol on the part of the police, EMT’s etc. for dealing with animals was troubling.  I’m not sure they’d honor the tags." 

It seems to me with more people traveling with pets this issue should be delt with,  Need some club or organization to spearhead this issue.  till next time.

Technorati Tags: Dogs in car crash