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Quiz: Are You Ready For A Dog?

C A N I N E S   O N L I N E ™
Copyright 2000 Canines Online ™
Issue No. 4, Vol.1, September 1, 2000

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CONTENTS:
=>Health:
   -- Healthy Skin and Fur
=>Tidbits:
   -- Did you know?
=>News Briefs:
   -- Shelter permitted animal drug trials
   -- Dogs destroyed as microchipping fails
   -- Shelter's special dogs have their day
   -- Breeds apart
=>Behavior:
   -- Barking
=>Book Corner:
   -- The Dog Owner's Home Veterinary
   -- Paws to Consider
   -- Pack of Two
=>Featured Site:
   -- Aspca.org
=>Featured Breed:
   -- German Shepherd
=>Product News, Reviews, and Coupons:
   -- Keeping Your Pet Safely Contained 
=>The Tail End
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HEALTH
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Healthy Skin and Fur
There’s more to your dog’s coat than the soft or scruffy feel of it. Fur insulates your dog from the elements, protects his skin from injury, and acts as a health indicator. Nutrition, illness, and grooming all affect your pet’s coat and skin. Keep your pooch looking and feeling her best by taking stock of these tips:

Breed determines whether your dog is short, medium, or longhaired and whether her hair is coarse or fine, and curly or arrow-straight. But no matter what her fur’s texture is like, all healthy pets should boast glossy, mat-free coats. Lusterless, brittle coats can indicate illness. You should call your veterinarian if your dog’s fur looks dull, breaks easily, or starts falling out excessively, leaving bald spots.

A dog’s skin is a sensory and protective organ that helps maintain her body temperature. And although dogs don’t sweat like us, the many blood vessels in their skin dilate to cool them off, or constrict to hold in heat and keep them warm. Panting helps release heat too.

A dog’s skin is thinner than human skin, and its natural color ranges from pink to light or dark brown to black. When your dog isn’t feeling well, her skin may change color or appear dry and patchy. Dry skin is especially common in puppies; it can result from inadequate nutrition, gastrointestinal parasite infections, or sometimes mange.

Check your pet’s skin by gently separating her fur. Look for anything unusual, including bumps, rashes, or discoloration. Flakes, scabs, odor, or a greasy feel also can indicate a skin problem. If you notice any of these abnormalities, have your veterinarian examine your dog to find the cause.

Also look for fleas or fine, comma-shaped black specks on your pet’s skin. This dust is flea waste, a sure sign your pet has been infested. Fleas make your pet miserable, so if you find fleas or flea dust, take steps to treat him – and his environment – right away. Your veterinarian and his or her staff can provide expert advice on eradicating fleas.

Grooming your dog makes him even more beautiful and keeps her clean and healthy. Your pet has natural oils on her skin, and regular brushings spread those oils throughout the coat and keep it shiny. Brushing also removes loose dirt from your dog’s coat, and it feels great to your furry pal.

Shedding is a year-round event, but you might not notice it until the longer days of spring and summer arrive. Regular brushing keeps the flyaway hairs under control – and off the couch – and prevents matting, which can trap moisture and bacteria next to your pet’s skin and cause irritated, itchy patches.

Grooming your pet also gives you a chance to check for lumps, bumps, and sensitive areas. Call your veterinarian if you find anything suspicious.


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TIDBITS
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Did you know?…
In 1999, The American Animal Hospital Association sent a survey to pet owners in the United States and Canada. Here are some of the results from the 1,200 respondents:

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NEWS BRIEFS
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Shelter permitted animal drug trials
KNOXVILLE, TN -- One of the country's oldest local humane societies has allowed veterinary students to conduct drug experiments on shelter cats and dogs before they were put to death. For more info:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/today/news_939a4f45f65db1a30064.html

Dogs destroyed as microchipping fails
AUSTRALIA -- Just consider this: you've microchipped your pooch. One day it runs away. But the call to collect your best friend from the pound never comes. For more info: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0008/28/national/national13.html

Shelter's special dogs have their day
GRAYSLAKE, IL -- Hard-to-place pooches audition for adoption. These 16 dogs are not typical dogs that get adopted on the spot: They are the shelter's special-needs dogs. For more info:
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV-0008290308,00.html

Breeds apart
Purebred dogs inherit many genetic diseases, but scientists are trying to develop tests to minimize the perils. For more info:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/28/MN07SCI.DTL


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BEHAVIOR
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Barking
How do I make my dog stop barking up a storm? You don’t. Barking is a dog’s natural reaction to changes in his environment. He should be allowed to indulge himself as long as he’s reasonable. However, if your dog annoys you or the neighbors with his barking, there are some steps you can take to minimize the nuisance. The solution could be as simple as a change of scene for the dog or as complex as the development and implementation of a behavior modification program.

Barking can sometimes be controlled by providing chew toys, and increase in exercise or providing animal companionship. If these things do not work there are other solutions.

Some dogs bark at everything they see and hear. Some dogs will stop barking if they cannot hear or see the what ever is making them bark. If your dog is an in-the-house noisemaker, put him in the kitchen or laundry room with a crate or bed, away from windows, common walls, and hallways, and turn on some music before leaving the house. Classical music may work best. Radios may cause barking because of commercials with doorbells and other noises. Make sure you confine him in the room with baby gates in the doorways, not by closing doors, so he doesn’t panic.

If your dog barks while you’re gone because he is outside and wants inside or if he’s an outside dog and a habitual barker, change of scene could work as well. You could bring him inside the house or build a run in the basement to keep him in an area without so many distractions to bark at. The radio will help mask the sounds and confinement to a small area may help him settle down.

If your outdoor dog has been banished from the house because he is destructive, you may find that he has outgrown his destructive stage. If not, or if you are afraid to find out, a crate or a basement kennel may be the answer.

Some Methods
One method has the owner leaving home as usual, then sneaking back and watching the dog from a hidden vantagepoint. When the dog starts barking, the owner makes a brief distracting sound to catch the dog’s attention. The dog is not praised for stopping his noise, but the distraction is repeated if he starts barking again. When the dog settles down, the owner goes about his daily routine.

Instead of making a distracting noise when the dog barks, re-enter the house or yard, shaking the dog by the scruff, and repeating “NO, NO, NO” in a commanding tone. After the correction, the owner should calmly leave again, wait out of the dog’s sight, and repeat if necessary.

The owner must judge the applicability of these methods for himself. Some will find them useful, others will not have the patience or the fortitude to carry them out, and still others will find that their dogs bark more, not less, because the noise brings attention.

When you’re home
If your dog is bossy or suspicious, he may bark when you have a visitor, when joggers go by, when the kids get off the school bus on the corner, or when the next door neighbor gets a UPS package or has the landscapers in the yard for three or four days – even when you are home.

A bossy dog is often easier to cure than a suspicious one because he may simply need to be reminded that he’s not in charge. It takes longer to get the message across if you have ceded your authority in any fashion, but it can be done by making the dog work for every treat and cuddle and love tap he gets. He should sit or lie down or do a trick on command before getting anything he wants.

Teaching a suspicious dog to bark on command so you can then teach him to stop on command works as well. The trick here is to know what triggers the barking so you can get it started yourself, then, just before initiating the noise, saying the name of the command.

Here’s how it works. If your dog barks when someone knocks at the door, repeat “speak, speak” just before you knock on a wall or other hard surface. Tell him he’s good and give him a treat. Repeat several times a day until he understands that “speak” means bark. This process focuses his attention on you and gets ready for the next step – teaching him to quit barking.

When you tell your dog to speak and give him his reward for doing so, follow it with “Enough” or some other word that means “knock-it-off!” Once he gets the idea that he must stop barking after the treat, you can begin to use “enough!” when he barks at real interruptions.

Other methods
Training is the best way to correct unacceptable behavior, but other methods are available. Faced with seemingly unsolvable problems and threats of lawsuits or court action, owners have used no-bark collars and vocal cord surgery to stop their pets from making excess noise.

The anti-bark collars come in two types, radio and herbal spray. The radio collars deliver a mild shock when the dog starts to bark. The collar has prongs that must touch the front of the dog’s neck so the vibrations of the barking trigger the shock. The herbal spray collars work the same way, only the vibrations trigger a mist of pungent citrus-scented fog into the dog’s face. The mist startles the dog and interrupts the barking.

There is also debarking surgery. A veterinarian must do debarking. The procedure actually muffles barking but doesn’t eliminate it – but it is a humane alternative to the options of giving away a beloved pet, suffering the wrath of neighbors, or facing legal action.


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BOOK CORNER
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The Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook By: James M. Giffin Liisa Carlson
Our Price: $19.56
Retail Price: $27.95
This 3rd Edition has all new and updated material to explain the latest
on: