Anyone that’s ever rented an apartment knows about the pet clause. There are breeds that many leasing offices won’t tolerate. These so called “dangerous dogs” are blacklisted and treated a little more like animals than usual. However, this overarching reactionary attitude begs the question: is this kind of puppy profiling helpful in preventing dog bites? Does an animal’s bad attitude spring from the womb, or is does theproblem lie elsewhere? Is the label, “dangerous breed” an arbitrary and inaccurate term? German Shepherds, Doberman Pinchers, Pit Bulls, Rottweiler, Huskies, and Chow Chows have all at one time or another been lambasted as aggressive or dangerous dogs.  This is due to a study performed by the CDC that recorded dog-related deaths between 1979 and 1988. These animals were near the top of the list. But the list didn’t properly reflect the rare nature of dog attacks. Pit bulls were rated the most dangerous dog with 66 deaths. That’s less death in a decade than can be attributed to bee stings in a single year. If certain breeds really are more vicious then why do so many people love and adore their particular dogs? Dogs that never show their teeth to anybody, not even the mailman. Luckily, insurance companies applied common sense to the situation and started keeping dangerous dog registries, rather than blanket dangerous breed labeling. Despite these advances in the battle against doggy discrimination there are still pockets of resistance against greater understanding of the complex relationship dynamics between people and canines. The state of Ohio labels Pit bulls as dangerous dogs, and requires a whole slew of state ordinances for bull owners to abide by. Now to be fair to the legislature, Pit bulls have long been bred for aggression. A “game” pit bull is a particularly prized possession for certain seedier denizens of back alleys. Generations of this sort of breeding have taken place for the sole purpose of creating fighting dogs. Whereas thousands of years of domestication moved dogs toward docility and sociability, it’s only taken several generations to turn Pit bulls into some savage competitors. Despite the terrible mistreatment many of these “dangerous dogs” must endure, they are still extremely amiable companions to a properly educated human. They’ve been trained and bred to fight other dogs, and usually don’t make for the best pets in homes with multiple animals or children, but to their adult owners they are fiercely loyal. It takes a strong hand and a cool head to handle one of these rescued fighters, but it just goes to show that no amount of mistreatment is as powerful as kindness. With even the most terrible treatment, no dog is beyond salvage. This makes the pit bull its own greatest advocate. If a dog bred over several generations for fierce aggression and unbridled savagery can, within its own lifetime, become a loving companion, it proves that every animal needs to be dealt with on an individual basis. Even a dangerous dog can beat a bad rap through the simple application of love.

Here’s a common scenario: you’re at the supermarket in the dog food aisle. You’re looking at a bunch of different brightly colored bags, labeled with funny terminology you don’t quite understand. One reads, “All-Natural Puppy Food for Large Breeds” another says, “Holistic Lamb and Rice for Smaller Dogs.” Meanwhile, you’re left wondering which one offers the most nutrition for dogs. All of these bags seem virtually the same so you grab the one with the most recognizable name. Sound familiar? Keeping up with nutritional value is hard enough to do in your own diet; knowing the facts about nutrition for dogs means adding another mouth with significantly sharper teeth into the mix. That’s a sure recipe for confusion. All of these odd little labels and miniscule differences between largely identical name brands is enough to make anybody’s head spin. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information online to help you traverse the maze of mongrel mastication. Unfortunately, it’s still pretty complicated. So in the interest of brevity, here are some of the most important considerations when shopping for a nutritious dog food. What Are Your Nutrient Needs? When it comes to nutrition for dogs, you must first know what you’re looking for. It’s easy to forget because of their uniform geniality, but dogs are actually individuals. If you’re dog has joint problems, needs a shinier coat, is still growing, is elderly, has urinary tract problems, and so on—these are things you need to consider. Think of any nutrient needs or special attributes of your dog and take those into account before purchasing their food. Holistic, Organic, and All Natural Shenanigans The next thing to do is avoid the marketing schemes. Believe it or not, there is no law or regulation in place to keep greedy dog food makers from placing meaningless labels onto their products. The terms “Holistic” and “Organic” mean effectively nothing when stamped on the side of your favorite puppy chow. They are undefined and disingenuous. “All Natural” is kind of tricky too. It can mean that there aren’t any synthetic ingredients in the feed, but it can also mean there is only a small amount. Look for Nutritional Value Thirdly, read the ingredient list. A good indicator is if they have a meat, fish, egg, or some type of meat meal or fish meal as either the first or second ingredient. These are high quality foodstuffs that provide plenty of nutrition for dogs. There will also be a percentage of each ingredient listed. Check this an make sure that at least 10% of the dog’s daily diet, by weight, would be protein, and 5.5% would be fat. Lastly, keep this quick list of helpful dog nutrition tips in mind: Wet food- more fat and protein than dry food. It therefore costs more, and requires less feeding per meal than dry food. Although it’s mostly water and not usually recommended by vets. Semi-wet food- will always contain a sugar preservative Dry food -will always contain starch Look for the AAFCO statement. This shows that the food is approved by a governing body.  

Just about everyone is aware of how dangerous it is to feed a dog chocolate, but as it turns out there’s a plethora of dog poisons.  In fact poison and dogs are pretty close bedfellows. Here, compiled for your information and the public safety of canines everywhere, is a list of items okay for human consumption, but dangerously toxic for dogs. First on the list is Caffeine. Caffeine is that helpful compound that keeps you from killing your fellow employees in the morning. However, in your panting pet partner, caffeine is all kinds of deadly. This means that giving a dog chocolate, coffee, many soft drinks, and a lot of different teas is off limits. The precise reason for caffeine’s status as a dog poison is methylxanthines. Methylxanthines are molecules contained in caffeine that cause all sorts of caustic complications in your pets. If this particular dog poison enters your canine’s system then prepare to take a trip to the vet, or at least make a call to poison control. The effects of this molecule on animals include: vomiting, diarrhea, panting, major thirst, and abnormally frequent urination, hyperactivity, irregular heart rhythm, trembles, seizures and in the worst cases expiration. Another dog poison that shouldn’t come as a surprise to the seasoned pet owner is alcohol. Alcohol isn’t exactly good for people, (though excessive consumption does occasionally have a well-known side effect of making you an awesome dancer) so it should come as no surprise that it is absolutely terrible for dogs. Also unsurprisingly, just as people are inexorably drawn to booze, dogs love it too. The rest of the items on the list are a little less obvious. Raisons, grapes, yeast dough, avocados, chives, onion, garlic, milk, salt, raw meat, eggs, the sweetener xylitol, chicken bones, and macadamia nuts all have a serious impact on an unsuspecting canine that consumes them.  It’s a dog’s life, eh? That’s quite a number of allergies to keep up with. Best keep to dry food for the time being.   Here’s a quick breakdown of some other dog poisons: Avocados give you a healthy dose of monounsaturated fats, but give one to a dog and you’ll be dealing with leakage from both ends. Macadamia nuts are awesome in cookies, but are known to cause hyperthermia, weakness, depression, vomiting, and trembling in dogs. Grapes/raisons will cause kidney failure. Yeast dough will expand in a dog’s stomach and cause serious complications. Salmonella and E. coli can get to a dog just like a human, so avoid raw meat and eggs yolks. Chicken bones will splinter into shards and cut a pup up from the inside. Xylitol leads to liver failure due to insulin release. Onions, garlic, and chives will hurt red blood cells. Milk is terrible for digestion. And a ton of salt is just as poisonous to dogs as it is to human. So remember to keep these foodstuffs safely out of reach from your dog, and tune in next time for more helpful pet tips!    

Have you ever felt like your dog was more than just your faithful family companion? Did you ever get the feeling that the house hound was more like a kid than a big dumb drooling animal? Relax. You aren’t a crazy pet person. Well, maybe you are, but there is scientific data saying that it’s pretty normal to act that way. A fascinating and incredible fact you probably wouldn’t have expected to find out about dogs lies beneath the chemical makeup of the bond between man and his best friend. It’s called Oxytocin. This crazy little chemical is responsible for the bond between parents and children, social awareness, and empathy. It’s released in the brain at birth and during the child’s maturation. It’s a handy evolutionary add on that helps human beings to feel affection for the annoying little rascals that show up suddenly to turn your nights sleepless, and make you change large quantities of overflowing diapers. A potent antithesis to post-partum depression. And Guess what? The same chemical makeup that is responsible for a mother’s love  plays a big role in the feelings between you and your dog. Recent scientific studies performed by the fine Swedish scientists at Uppsalla University show that after only 10 minutes with an adorable little doggy there are sizable increases in the levels of oxytocin in both the brain of the human and the dog! Similar findings in lab rats could indicate that oxytocin is actually responsible for all human/animal bonding. People have always known how therapeutic owning a dog or cat can be. Observable effects on pet owners throughout the years have included longer life, lower stress, and an overall  better level of health. However, now that science is finally catching up to common sense we can actually learn the chemistry behind our most powerful emotions.  That’s a handful of fascination that you might not have expected from ol’ Fido. The implications of this study are pretty huge. Animal based therapies have been in place for a long while and have had some incredible results for the elderly and infirm especially. Now that we are attaining a better understanding of oxytocin and its role in our brain’s chemical makeup as well as our social interactions will only increase the effectiveness of such therapies. Now that we’re catching on to the effectiveness of an oxytocin treatment it’s only a matter of time before it’s monetized and sold for millions. However, in the meantime there’s no oxytocin tablet available for sale. Which really kind of puts an even more positive spin on owning a dog. After all, you don’t need a prescription for a puppy, and they’re a lot cheaper than going to a high priced shrink to endeavor to eliminate your social anxieties and help you better bond with your fellow man.  In the meantime, your doctor recommends you pet your puppy 40 times per minute for 5 minutes and call him in the morning.

Tapeworms. What freaking nightmare. They’re tiny little worms that sit in small intestines and eat all the food before their hosts can draw nourishment. It’d be bad enough if they were only infecting your pets, but these dirty little parasites can make their homesteads in your bowels as well. It’s like something out of a horror movie. The marquis would read: “The Worms Within...” Underneath the title there would be a pale, sickly, multi-fanged abomination of nature exploding out of a cute co-ed’s stomach. Shudder in fear, good people. Shudder in fear. These disgusting parasites are a commonly creepy problem for pets. Fortunately, the worms are more of an annoyance than a legitimate threat. Treatment is relatively painless, and it can be quite reasonable if you head to the right retailer. The problem with the worms is how easy they are to contract. The trouble with tapeworms is all about ingestion. Flea larvae start out eating fecal matter that contains tapeworm eggs. The eggs mature in flea stomachs, the flea is ingested by a dog or cat and presto chango: your dog is scarping his butt across the carpet in supreme irritation. Tapeworm Symptoms You might notice that your pet is tapeworm ridden by some of the following signs: The aforementioned anal itching. Dried worm parts crusting around your pet’s sphincter. Moving worms in your dog/cat’s fecal matter. You could also check out a smear of poo under a microscope, but that seems a bit drastic for the average pet owner. Just look for the other signs and head to the computer to point and click your way to parasite destruction. Now how do you treat or prevent tapeworms? Glad you asked. There are many treatment options for tapeworms, and nearly all of them are instantaneous. That means a case of tapeworms isn’t much more than a disgusting inconvenience. Drontal dewormer works quickly, effectively, and definitively. Britain’s #1 dewormer has an awesome track record in taking out intestinal worms of all kinds, and tapeworms are no exception. One dose of Drontal will take out your pet’s parasitic problem in a day flat. Tapeworm Treatment Other quality dewormers include: Frontline Advantage Multi Advocate Milbemax If you’re thinking more about tapeworms prevention than treatment, you’ll want to stop them at the source. As you’ve already learned, tapeworms are spread through ingestion. If your dog or cat doesn’t have a flea to eat, then there’s very little chance that they can become infected. Make sure to keep them away from feces too. Cats shouldn’t have a problem in this area, but if you have a dog with a penchant for munching on waste… Well, keep a close eye out and nip that behavior in the bud. Remember to keep treating them with monthly worm and flea preventatives as well. The less invaders they have to deal with the better. After all, if they don’t get bit, then they won’t bite and scratch themselves, virtually eliminating the possibility of eating a parasite within a parasite. Avoiding Insect Inseption.

Well, you know… we all want to change the world—to a simpler and safer place for pets that is! There is a veritable smorgasbord of preventatives on the pet medication buffet, but how do you tell which is the correct choice for your pet? Well, in the interest of pet revelations and the commonwealth of cats and dogs everywhere, here is a brief account of the advantages of two popular items on most every pet owner’s radar. Revolution and Frontline Plus. Both Revolution and Frontline Plus will treat the basic parasites: fleas and ticks. However, they differ in their methods and applicability. Both are spot-on medications applied to the back of your pet’s neck. This saves you the trouble of covering a tablet in peanut-butter and deceiving your trusting companions. These medications deserve their due diligence as fine and effective products. On the Frontlines Though Revolution and Frontline Plus both share a degree of notoriety, Frontline plus is probably the better known of the two. Though it suffers some criticism at the hands of sporadic posters on many pet forums, it maintains a merited respectable reputation. It is a multi-action parasite medication that attacks every stage of the flea life cycle, neutralizing flea eggs, inhibiting larval growth and killing adult fleas. While offering comprehensive protection against fleas, Frontline Plus also tackles those troublesome ticks and lice.   Revolution Revelations Revolution is also a multi-action parasite medication. Revolution will defend your dog or cat from fleas and ticks just like Frontline Plus. The flea protection offered by both products is identical as Revolution is no respecter of age when it comes to eliminating fleas, though it treats a much more limited variety of ticks as compared to Frontline Plus. Whereas Frontline protects against American Dog Ticks, Brown Ticks, Lone Star Ticks, and Deer Ticks too; Revolution only offers defense against the most prevalent of those listed above: The American Dog Tick. The main advantage of Revolution is that it also treats deadly heartworms, invasive Ear Mites, and even intestinal parasites in cats. Frontline Or Revolution? Heartworm prevention is pretty important to a pet owner, and not having to administer two separate medications for these parasites is a pretty big advantage for Revolution. However, if you live in an area proliferated by more than the run-of-the-mill tick population it might behoove you to stock up on Frontline Plus instead. Revolution and Frontline plus are both effective in the most common uses of pet medications, and each has its own standout characteristics making it more or less attractive according to consumer preferences. Whichever you choose you’re likely to be a powerfully satisfied return customer for years to come. The main thing to remember is that none of the medications you research are really “better” or “worse” than any other. They simply offer distinctly different advantages and disadvantages. Do your research and carefully consider the possibilities before deciding on the best course of treatment for your fuzziest family members.

Let me paint you a picture. There’s a warm sandy shore in front of you, deep blue waves constantly crashing against the sands with all the predictability of a heartbeat. The sun sits lofty in the sky, midway through its daily journey, shining down on your well baked skin, warming you despite the soft yet steady breeze that slowly massages the stress right out of your body. When suddenly-- a big, goofy, fur covered face blots out the bright blazing of the sun's rays. After a violent fit of shaking, you are now covered in wet sand and salt water. Meanwhile, your bubbly beach dog has resumed panting and staring at you expectantly.  You look down annoyed, but bemused. How can you stay mad at that face?   Time to throw the ball again. Salty Dogs Can Cause Some Trouble! Sounds like fun, right? Most everybody loves a beach vacation, and your mutt is no exception. He’s dying to stretch his salty dog's sea legs at the first available opportunity. Unfortunately, because of a beach dog’s mischievous habits, many vacation spots have put down a blanket ban on canine gallivanting. Not every beach is a dog beach. Beach dogs are lovable creatures in a care-free setting, but they can play havoc with a beach’s ecosystem, and hassle its patrons.   Beach dogs chase resting birds, which can limit their ability to continue migrating. They can unearth nesting grounds of turtles and gulls alike. They will also occasionally badger other beach goers. Finally, if their waste is left unattended, it can lead to the spread of bacterial infections to both humans and other animals. On the bright side there are plenty of beaches all over the world that cater to aquatically inclined water dogs. These destinations are common enough, but they aren’t exactly free for all’s. The risks to the ecosystems for public beaches and dog beaches are identical. You still have to keep your beach dog within sight, clean up after it, and prevent it from digging above the shorelines.  Keep Your Water Dog Afloat! There are also some safety concerns to look out for.  After all, beaches are hot and dogs are hairy. Keep a close eye on your beach dog, provide plenty of fresh water, and make sure they don’t overdo it swimming. Even for humans, swimming is excellent exercise. Dogs aren’t any different. If a dog isn’t in the best shape, the chances of injury increase with extended periods of exercise. And as always, never forget to treat your dog for fleas before venturing outdoors. The Cat Will Be So Jealous. If you can follow these guidelines, keep your dog's flea and worm medications up to date, and observe leash laws wherever applicable, then you’re all set for a beach outing with your best friend. So set up an umbrella and bring a Frisbee, and see if you can’t wash your work week away with salty sea spray, and treat your beach dog to the time of its life.  

Everyone loves to take their dog to the Dog Park. The mutt burns some energy, socializes with other dogs, and you get to enjoy the sight of happy hounds frolicking. The only thing you have to worry about is picking up some unwanted guests, namely fleas or ticks, from the dog park grounds or the other dogs. Fortunately, there are ways to ensure your dog’s wellbeing during his Dog Park visit. Vet recommended canine parasite medications are readily available, as well as home remedies, and protective chemical barriers that can boost your pet’s defenses to near impenetrable levels. All so you can keep the dog park from turning into a flea circus. The Preventative Strike The Dog Park is enemy territory, to make an incursion you’ve got to be prepared. The first step in an effective defense is prevention. There are effective medicines that can shield your pet from the malicious pests plaguing you both. Canine parasite medications like Frontline, Comfortis, and Revolution all meet the task admirably, and they are all available from your favorite online Pet Supermarket. The Castle Walls Once you’ve decided on a monthly treatment, it’s time to go the extra mile. If you’ve got a scheduled visit to your local dog park, then dress your dog appropriately with a flea/tick collar. These handy implements will spread a thin layer of parasite repellant across your pup’s body, and send any unwanted visitors packing with a poisonous rebuttal. Final Preparations As if these two precautions weren’t enough to deter even the boldest parasites lurking in your local dog park, there are some home remedies that can be effective in weeding out the mostresilient of your tiny foes. For example, mix a small amount of garlic into your dog’s meals. The garlic is absorbed into your pet’s bloodstream and the pungent flavor proves unpalatable for the picky flea. Just as a citronella candle will keep mosquitos at bay, the more earthbound bloodsucking flea tries to avoid the scent of citronella as well. To put this trick to good use, take a bandana or scarf and drop a few drops of citronella onto it. Wrap the small garment around your pet’s neck and give them a pretty new accessory as well as the assurance of an itch free afternoon. Home remedies like these can prove fairly, but shouldn’t be seen as substitutes for the overall protection of a proven canine parasite medication. However, they can fill in the gaps and help put one more barrier between your pet and his predators. Avoid the Flea Circus! Always remember to check your dog for fleas after a day at the dog park. When the pooches intermingle so closely it’s a safe bet that one of them has rolled in something they shouldn’t have, and it’s only a short hop for a single flea to start a new colony on your dog’s hide. Start defending your dog with an effective canine parasite medication today.