Category: dog

Treat your new rescue dog like a 2-year-old child, and you’ll make friends fast, says Jean Smith, coordinator of Collie Rescue of the Carolinas. “It is important to establish right away that this is his new home and he is staying,” she adds.

Here are 10 tips to help you welcome your rescue dog.

1.  Know your dog. “Get as much information as possible from shelter or rescue organization personnel about his behavior and daily routine,” says Emma Parsons, adoption intake coordinator for Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue. Continuing the feeding, exercise, and grooming routine he was used to gives your dog confidence in his new home.

2.  Clarify dog-care duties and limits in your home. These duties include who will walk the dog and when, who will feed him, and whether any furniture or rooms will be off-limit to four paws. Make sure no duty goes neglected and that everyone enforces limits consistently.

3.  Check the dog’s health. “Take him for a veterinary exam, including a heartworm test,” says Lori Blackburn, director of Purebred Rescue Organization of Ohio, Inc. Arrange for spaying or neutering, the Humane Society of the United States recommends.

4.  Take it easy. Bring your rescue dog home when you have a few full days to get used to each other. For the first two days, let only immediate family have contact with him. “Slowly introduce the new dog to other pets during short supervised sessions,” Parsons says.

5.  Give him security. “If the dog is used to sleeping in a crate, continue making his crate available,” Blackburn suggests. Your dog will feel protected there.

6.  Give him frequent potty breaks. Assume the dog is not housetrained. Take him outdoors often to eliminate to help prevent accidents and learn how to signal to you that he needs to go. “Dogs don’t know which door to go to in a new home,” Parsons says.

7.  Walk, don’t sit. Your companion needs to run and play with you. Those activities not only boost his health, but also strengthen the bond between you.

8.  Go to school. Enroll in obedience classes, even if your dog already knows the basics, the Humane Society suggests. Learning together establishes you as the leader.

9.  Keep him leashed. “Don’t let the dog run free too soon,” Parsons says. If you must chase him, escapes become a game. “When people manage their dogs well, the dogs naturally fall into the kind of behavior people want from them,” she says.

10.  Be patient. Give the dog time to adjust to his new life, the Humane Society recommends. Just as with people, taking your time helps you both to ease into a happy lifelong relationship.

Evo, a 6-year-old Boxer mix, had gained weight and lost his get up and go, according to owner Jan Hargis of Johnson City, Texas. She took him to the veterinarian for a geriatric checkup.

With the exception of arthritis and some weight gain, the veterinarian gave the Boxer a clean bill of health, recommending a lower-fat senior diet, which would help reduce Evos weight, and thus, his joint pain. Within a few weeks, Evo had lost 5 pounds and his activity level had climbed. As Hargis puts it, He was back to his young self again.

As pets age, their metabolisms slow down and activity levels drop. As with people, their diet must change to meet the needs of their changing lifestyles, says Linda P. Case, M.S., of the University of Illinois College Veterinary Medicine, author of Canine & Feline Nutrition: A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals (C.V. Mosby, 2000, $69.95).
But when should you change your dogs diet and what kind of senior diet should you look for?

No Magic Number
Most commercial diets label a 7-year-old dog as a senior, but the actual age varies depending on the size and breed of the dog, says Rebecca Remillard, DVM, Ph.D., senior staff nutritionist at Angell Animal Medical Centers in Boston. I’m not an advocate of changing to a senior diet just because a dog has reached a certain age, Remillard says. Each dog should be monitored individually.

Your veterinarian can help you determine whether your dog is ready for a senior diet, based on his breed, weight, activity level, and overall health.

What Seniors Need
Senior diets are often equated with chronic renal disease in which a reduction of protein is prescribed. Many people mistakenly think that senior dogs need a low protein diet, Case says. But protein requirements don’t necessarily decrease with age if the dog is healthy. Senior dogs still need protein to maintain good muscle mass.

Protein transforms food into energy, and the amount of energy needed depends on a dogs size, activity level, and health. A specially formulated senior diet with less protein might, for example, be appropriate for a small, sedentary dog, but not suitable for an older, active search-and-rescue dog.

Without good nutrition, your dog can suffer from a number of problems, including allergies, malnutrition, skin and coat problems, and obesity. Nutrition-related problems can affect any dog, no matter the size.

While dogs can be allergic to many things, some have food allergies to different meats, grains, dairy products, and artificial additives such as colorings, flavorings, and preservatives. Dogs with food allergies often develop skin problems such as rashes, hives, chronic itching, and hot spots (painful, warm infected areas of skin). Some dogs develop allergies to protein and carbohydrate sources after being exposed to them for a long time, so simply changing the protein and carbohydrate sources of your food from beef and corn to turkey and rice, for example, may be enough to halt the allergic reaction. Many dogs with severe skin allergies finally find relief when their owners switch to feeding them a homemade diet.

Most pet dogs are more likely to become overweight than malnourished, but when a dog is fed a diet lacking in basic nutrients, he can become malnourished. Malnutrition can be caused by a diet that is not complete and unbalanced or by a limited diet (for example, meat only). Dogs who aren’t fed enough, often due to neglect or other poor conditions, are likely to become malnourished.

On the other hand, too much protein may contribute to kidney disease in some dogs. Some dogs, especially the large and giant breeds, can develop bone problems if they were fed too much calcium as puppies. Some puppies, especially the toy breeds, need many small, frequent, nutrient-dense meals to avoid hypoglycemia. A lack of antioxidants like vitamins C and E could possibly contribute to an increased cancer risk (studies suggest this could be true for people), and inadequate fat can result in a dull, dry coat and itchy, sensitive skin. Some dogs are sensitive to too much copper or a dificiency of zinc in their diet.

Knowing what to feed your dog may be one of the most confusing and conflicting areas of dog ownership. But it’s also one of the most important things you can do to positively impact your dog’s health and well-being. Here is a comprehensive guide to help you navigate the maze of canine nutrition, from choosing a food, reading a label, and preparing a homemade diet, to staying up on commercial pet food recalls.

Choices abound
Store shelves heave with hundreds of dog foods, requiring choices beyond merely dry food versus canned. With so many offerings — exotic venison and bison, weight control formulas, dental diets, premium products, bargain fare, and so on — how can you determine the best food for your dog?

Lots of pet owners don’t take at face value the claims they hear, whether from manufacturers, critics, or ordinary websites purporting to offer expert advice. But there are some basic guidelines to consider:

Know your dog’s age, size, and activity level. A gangly puppy with growing bones needs up to twice the energy intake as an adult, so choose a food formulated for pups. Small breeds — under 20 pounds — reach adult size in nine months to a year; giant breeds may take until age 2. Adult dogs with normal activity levels need a lower-energy diet, so look for foods marked with the term “maintenance.” Ask your veterinarian for guidance on whether to switch to a food specially formulated for seniors when your dog gets older. Generally, senior status occurs when dogs less than 50 pounds reach age 7, large dogs hit age 6, and giant breeds mark their fifth birthdays.

Healthy dogs need a high-quality, balanced diet. Dry or canned or pouch — it’s your call. Pick a brand that you’ve heard of, advises Ana Hill, DVM, Ph.D., who lectures on nutrition at Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences. Most well-known brands devote research to the product and have quality controls in place, creating consistency from container to container and better accountability, she says.

Look at the ingredients panel. Choose a food with the words “AAFCO” — the Association of American Feed Control Officials — printed on the label. This means the food meets the basic requirements for providing complete, balanced nutrition for dogs. Also  check out the top four or five ingredients listed. Maybe you don’t want your dog eating “animal byproducts,” which may contain feet, heads, and other parts — though the protein quality sometimes is superior to muscle meat, according to FDA Consumer magazine. Or maybe you prefer foods with natural preservatives such as vitamin C instead of BHA or BHT — though natural preservatives have a shorter shelf life. Go with a food whose ingredients you’re comfortable with. As long as the AAFCO assurance appears on the label, it’s really a matter of personal preference.

It is worthwhile, however, to keep an eye on which ingredients potentially contain the toxins that prompted the latest pet food recalls, advises board-certified veterinary nutritionist Tony Buffington, DVM, Ph.D., a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition and professor of clinical nutrition at Ohio State University Veterinary Hospital. Until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has assured consumers that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten and rice protein ingredients are no longer being used in pet foods, “I would not” feed products containing them, Buffington said in May. (To see a list of recalled dog foods, go to www.fda.gov)

Price isn’t everything. The most expensive foods aren’t necessarily best. Price is the last thing to consider. Nutrition and quality aren’t necessarily higher in pricier foods, Hill says. A better judge: Does the bag or can mention AAFCO, meaning the food is formulated to be complete and balanced? Foods that meet or exceed standards are generally priced in the same ballpark — $1 to $1.50 per pound for dry dog food; 75 cents to $1 for canned food, Hill says. “Premium,” “natural,” and “gourmet” are marketing terms that aren’t regulated and have no standard meaning.

Keep your dog’s health problems in mind. Ask your veterinarian whether a special diet is advisable for your pet’s health issues. For instance, does your dog’s breath smell foul because of gum disease, which can lead to infections and other issues? The Veterinary Oral Health Council gives its seal of approval to 11 dog foods and treats that meet standards for retarding plaque and tartar (www.vohc.org/accepted_products.htm).

Factor in obesity risk, and make your dog work for his meal. An estimated 25 to 40 percent of dogs are overweight — which can lead to a host of problems, including diabetes, arthritis, herniated discs, and ruptured ligaments. You should be able to feel your dog’s ribs under a thin layer of fat. Preventing obesity is ideal, and as any human knows, it’s easier to keep off weight than to take it off. Ask your veterinarian whether she recommends feeding a “light” food.

Nutritionist Sarah Abood, DVM, Ph.D., of Michigan State University, suggests providing your dog thumbnail portions of regular food as treats, and making him do a trick for every meal. Give him the trio command: Sit, Down, Sit, which are like doggie pushups, Abood notes. It’s exercise — and fun.

In the end, there is no single best dog food. Every owner has his own preferences and often chooses foods based on personal experience, referrals from friends, or recommendations from vets. And despite the high-profile pet food recall, it affected only about 1 percent of all commercial dog and cat food available at the time, and most recalled foods weren’t associated with illness or death, according to various sources, including the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. There are still many safe pet foods and treats available, assures the American Veterinary Medical Association.

A decade ago, BARF was the acronym that raw-feeders used to describe feeding raw, meaty bones to their canine companions. Coined by Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst, it stood for “Bones and Raw Food,” which later morphed to the eggheady-sounding “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.” But now, everyone pretty much just calls it “raw.”

Labels aside, the raw pet food movement got a lot of attention this spring, when wide-scale pet food recalls prompted many owners to rethink commercial foods. Suddenly, the idea of feeding a fresh, well-hydrated, varied, raw diet, whose enzymes and amino acids have not been altered by cooking, didn’t seem like such a radical idea anymore.

Owners often switch to raw feeding in times of crisis, such as when their dogs have been diagnosed with deep-seated problems like allergies, says Monica Segal, author of “Optimal Nutrition, Raw and Cooked Canine Diets: The Next Level” (Doggie Diner, 2007). But more and more owners are becoming proactive. “They’re asking themselves, ‘If a method of feeding is being touted as good when an animal is ill, why not when it’s healthy?’”

Still, despite the interest — and the growing number of companies that offer frozen and freeze-dried raw diets — many vets are still uncomfortable with the idea of feeding dogs a diet that mimics what they would eat in the wild: basically, raw meat, uncooked bones, and pulverized vegetables and fruit. Among their concerns are the risk of bacterial contamination, dietary imbalances, and internal injury from inadequately chewed bones.

Not every dog is cut out for a raw diet, agrees Segal, who is certified in animal healthcare by the University of Guelph and formulates raw diets for her clients.

“If you have a really immune-compromised dog, it might not be the way to go.”

When it comes to objections about raw feeding, its advocates note that good hygiene is important when handling any raw meat. Most healthy dogs can handle bacteria such as Salmonella or E. coli, and grinding raw meaty bones into a hamburger-like consistency eliminates any choking risk. (Never feed cooked bones, which are brittle and can splinter.)

Nutritional balance is also a concern: Not having an adequate calcium source, for example, can leave a dog at risk for severe orthopedic problems. The key is never to embark on a raw diet without doing adequate research. In addition to Segal’s writings, a good introduction for wannabe raw feeders is “Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats” by Kymythy Schultze (Hay House, 1999).

One of the biggest drawbacks to raw feeding is cost. Segal notes: If you do it right, but don’t have affordable meat sources, feeding your dog can be as costly as feeding yourself.

From the canine point of view, though, the pluses of raw feeding are pretty obvious. “Very few dogs,” Segal says with a grin, “will turn their noses up at it.”

Be honest. Most owners dread trimming their pup’s nails. It looks difficult and, well, puppies are so wiggly! The truth is, nail trimming isn’t difficult if you know how. The first piece of advice is this: Begin early. Don’t wait until your puppy is 6 months old to trim its nails. Begin trimming the first week it comes home, even if there isn’t much to trim, and trim the nails weekly to get the pup accustomed to this routine.

Several types of nail trimmers are on the market, available at pet-supply stores. Some are better suited to small breeds, others are made with large breeds in mind. Guillotine trimmers (one blade) are better for small breeds because they are small and easy to use on tiny paws. Clippers with two cutting edges are better suited for large breeds. They are larger than guillotine trimmers and are made more like hedge clippers, giving plenty of leverage for large, tough nails. However, in skilled hands either trimmer can be used on any size dogit’s a matter of preference.

Puppy toenails are sometimes soft and extremely small, which makes trimming with regular-sized canine toenail trimmers difficult. The adult-sized trimmers can tear the nail instead of clipping it. Human fingernail trimmers are helpful, especially on small breeds, such as Toy Poodles or Yorkshire Terriers. Ask your veterinarian to recommend an appropriate size and style for your puppy.

When you purchase nail trimmers you’ll also need to buy styptic powder. Styptic powder is a coagulant that will stop the bleeding if you accidentally trim your pup’s nails too short and nick the quick, the vein inside the nail. How do you know where the quick is? It’s easiest to determine in pups with light nailsthe quick appears as the pink line down the center of the nail. Cut right below the pink line.

Dark nails are more difficult, but a rule of thumb is to cut right below where the nail starts to curve. Trim a little at a time to avoid cutting the quick. Be aware that as a nail grows, so does the quick, so frequent nail clipping means the quick stays short and out of the way. To trim your puppy’s nails, hold a paw firmly in one hand. (It will help to hold your pup close to your body with that arm.) Place your thumb on top of the foot and fingers underneath to spread the toes. With the nail clippers in the other hand, snip the nails one at a time with short, decisive strokes. Clip right where the nail starts to curve; the quick usually hasn’t grown past that. If it has, the nail will bleed when cut, but don’t panic (though puppy may be unhappy because cutting the quick hurts). Simply use your finger to apply a pinch of styptic powder to the end of the nail and apply pressure. Hold for 30 seconds or until the bleeding stops.

Once you have trimmed each nail, file the nails with an emery board to remove sharp edges. Normal canine nails should be intact all the way into the foot, not bleeding, cracked or split. Without doubt, your puppy will wiggle, whine, even yelp when you trim its nails. Don’t be alarmed by these antics. Talk quietly and soothingly, and hold your puppy firmly. Praise your puppy lavishly when the job is done, and give it a treat. You want the puppy to remember each nail trimming as a positive, fun experience!

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Doggie odor is a frequent complaint veterinarians and groomers hear from clients.

The good news is that in most cases a twofold solution – giving your dog regular baths and cleaning your home weekly – will solve the problem.

How can my sweet dog smell so bad?
Doggie odor happens when bacteria and yeast normally found on the skin start to break down surface oils. The oxidation of fat creates the foul smell.

It’s the same thing that causes body odor in humans, says Lowell Ackerman, DVM, American College of Veterinary Dermatology diplomate, and clinical assistant professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, Mass. If we didn’t wash regularly, wed be a lot more smelly than we are, and the same is true in animals.

While not all dogs have a strong odor, some definitely smell worse than others, such as Labrador Retrievers, Basset Hounds, and Cocker Spaniels, because of heavier sebaceous gland secretion. Breeds that produce less oil include Doberman Pinschers and Poodles.

Regardless of breed, bathe your dog whenever he stinks. As long as you use a proper shampoo and rinse thoroughly, don’t worry about drying out his coat. Today’s canine shampoos are gentler than ever before, allowing you to lather him up as often as necessary. For some dogs that means once a week; others, once a month.

Finding the right shampoo isn’t difficult. Wendy Booth, a certified master groomer in Colorado Springs, Colo., recommends buying a formula specifically for dogs from a pet-supply store.

They have gobs of choices, and every last one of them should clean well, as long as the owner rinses well, she says, adding that residue left behind can cause skin and coat problems.

Other Things That Raise a Stink
If your dog still smells after his bath, an infection somewhere on his body might be the cause. Use your nose to sniff out where the foul smell is coming from. Here are a few places to check:

Mouth: Heavy tarter buildup on teeth can produce a strong odor. Make an appointment with your veterinarian for a dental cleaning; he or she will check for diseased gums and teeth, which can also cause bad breath.  

Ears: Wax buildup can cause an unpleasant smell. First, try cleaning your dogs ears. If that doesn’t get rid of the odor, make an appointment with your veterinarian, who can check your dogs ears for an infection.

Anal sacs: These two small sacs, one located on each side of the rectum, contain pungent oil. When your dog defecates, the sacs compress and release the oil. Try washing the hair around your dogs bottom. If that doesn’t get rid of the smell, see your veterinarian. The sacs might be infected.

Skin:The most common causes of malodor are bacterial and yeast skin infections stemming from allergies or endocrine problems, says Joy Barbet, DVM, ACVD diplomate, and assistant professor at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, in Gainesville.

Barbet estimates 25 to 35 percent of odor-related cases seen in small-animal practices are related to skin and ear problems. That number jumps to about 50 percent during warmer months, she says, when fleas proliferate and allergies to pollens and house dust flare.

Along with scratching, which causes local trauma to the normal skin barrier, allergic reactions actually change the immune chemistry of the skin in such a way that microbes may grow more easily, resulting in infections and more odor, she says.

Take the Odor Battle to the Home Front
After you’ve figured out the cause of your dogs odor and address the problem, the next step is to get your home smelling good, too.

No one knows how to tackle tough indoor doggie odor better than business owners and purebred hobbyists.

George Bernard, owner of Silver Trails: The Animal Inn, washes the floors and walls of his Westbrook, Conn. kennel with a food-handling product that kills bacteria and odors on contact.

It’s the same thing that’s used on butcher blocks in butcher shops, so its edible, says Bernard, whose boarding facility houses up to 150 animals. You can actually have a dog lick the floor and he won’t get sick.

Booth, a groomer for 26 years, doesn’t use any special cleaning liquids. Instead, she plugs in an ionic air purifier to help freshen her 300 square-foot shop.

Dalmatian breeder Elaine Gewirtz tries to prevent odors before they start by cleaning her Southern California home on a regular basis. Every week she vacuums carpets and washes floors. Each of her three dogs beds has removable covers, making them easy to launder. She also opens windows frequently to air out the home.

Gewirtz has noticed that dogs left outside during the day while their owners are at work pick up unpleasant odors, which they then bring indoors. She recommends brushing or wiping down dogs with a damp cloth before letting them in the house.

By tackling odors in your home and on your pet, it won’t be long before you not only love just your dog, but how he smells too.