4th of July..not so happy for pets...

Many dog owners feel that July 4th is the worst day of the year for their dogs. On the days leading up to this holiday, Veterinarian offices across America are packed with dog owners looking for salvation. That salvation is usually in the form of drugs to calm their jittery dogs during the noisy fireworks. The Humane Society has confirmed that July 4th is a very busy time for them as well, as more dogs are found wandering loose than on any other day of the year.



Here are 7 tips to keep your furry child happy and calm:



1. Give your dog lots of exercise earlier in the day.



2. During noisy fireworks, keep your dog inside, preferably with human companionship. It’s never a good idea to bring your dog to a fireworks celebration.



3. Put on the air conditioning, it will help drown out the noise.



4. Put on some soothing music, as a comfort and also to help drown out the noise.



5. Make sure your dog has a “safe place” in which to find sanctuary from the noise. When frightened of sounds they’re not familiar with, dogs often prefer small enclosed spaces.



6. Keep the curtains and windows closed.



7. Play with your dog, do something he loves to do.



Peace and Pet Love Ya'll!

Theo needs a home!

Meet Theo...I rescued Theo from Orange County Animal Services when he was literally being walked to the euthanasia room. Unfortunately Theo had a raging case of Demodex Mange and even though he was barely three month's old, no one wanted him. Luckily he was added to the list of several other dogs that were about to loose their life that day. You see there are many volunteers all over the USA that go into high kill shelters and take photographs of animals that are on death row. They then post their photos and stories all over social media sites and of course e-mail lists. The hope is for rescue groups to pull these animals from the various shelters and get them to safety. Through fostering programs and other rescues that have physical shelters many animals can be saved. I received Theo's XXX URGENT e-mail just in time. I took one look at that face and knew I had to save him. Poor Theo didn't have much hair, he was mostly bald with open sores, especially on his face and neck. I got him home and gave him a nice soothing bath. Theo was so sweet, I wanted to just make it all better. Within 2 weeks his coat started coming back, and he was feeling much better. Theo has been with me for 3 month's and he is now 6 month's old; Theo needs to find his new family. He is fully vetted, gets along with other animals, loves to go to the dog park, and snuggle with me. Theo is a bit shy, but once he gets to know you he will be your best friend forever.

Our Stress, Depression, Joy...Can Dogs Tell?

After a hard day at work, you come home and find that your dog had quite a day himself – at your expense. He took a vacation from his potty training, made mincemeat of your shoes and slobbered all over that blanket your grandmother knitted for you.

You get angry and your dog gives you the classic hangdog, guilty look. He knows you're mad. So does that mean your dog can sense your emotions? The answer is not as clear. Your reaction made it clear you – the pack leader – are upset, and your dog is desperate to appease you (he probably doesn't know or care why you're angry).

But what if you're stressed or sad about something else, not involving your dog? He may sense something is wrong, but again, may not know why.

Examples of dogs sensing our emotions:

Almost every dog owner has found out that when they are really sad, their dog acts differently toward them.

• He may approach them with a concerned look and, quite out of character, hunker down next to them, presumably to provide some support. It is as if they are saying, "I know there's something wrong, I don't know what but I'm here for you anyway."
• Fear-aggressive dogs are more often aggressive to people who fear them. By observation, they pick up from a person's demeanor that they are not comfortable and capitalize on their weakness. Perhaps it is because the person has a pained expression; perhaps because the person is a little tenuous; or perhaps the dog reads fear from the large diameter of the person's pupils. For whatever reason, under-confident dogs "know" when a person is afraid of them and will move forward on them, perhaps to attack.
  
  
• Top trainer William (Bill) Campbell is well known for his "jolly routine" approach to treating fear in dogs. Most people think that this involves being jolly with your dog, but actually that's not so. The real jolly routine means that all the people in the house should behave in a happy, jolly manner with each other. The dog, sensing their apparent happiness, figures out that nothing bad is going to happen and relaxes. The fact that the technique works is testimony to the fact that dogs are influenced by our emotions and behavior. When we're "up," they're "up."
  
  
• Many dogs slink away and hide or sulk when their human "parents" argue. A major fight between adults really seems to take its toll on some dogs who seem to know that there's trouble afoot. The appearance of the dog's behavior is as if he understands discord and does not want to be around it.
  
  
• If an owner comes home and finds their home trashed by their dog, the guilty party will often be found hiding, perhaps with a hangdog look. Owners believe their dog is feeling guilty about what he has done and I tend to agree. If you accept the guilt explanation, you must also accept that the dog is projecting your feelings of disappointment or anger. Hard line behaviorists naturally would disagree with this interpretation, preferring to believe that the dog simply associates his owner, the damage, and his own presence with past punishment and acts submissively. This would be all fair and well, but I know dogs that have never been punished who still act in this way. Sure, their owners may have been disappointed and disheartened by the damage, but that's about it. The dogs must have read this disappointment because they sure weren't responding to punishment of any form.
  
  
• Some naughty dogs do not appreciate their owners hugging or kissing each other. They seem to know that the people concerned are experiencing some pleasure and they want to be part of it. So, they try to leverage themselves into the situation by shoving, pushing, pawing, and jumping. This behavior looks like jealousy but many mainstream behaviorists disagree, preferring explanations like possessiveness, which sounds very similar to jealousy to me, or conflict-induced behavior, because the dog "cannot predict what will happen next."
  
  Examples of dogs seemingly picking up on our emotions are endless but still the scientific proof is not there. The case against animals having the ability to glean our mood and mindset is based on lack of evidence to the effect that it happens rather than conclusive evidence to the contrary.
  From an evolutionary point of view, it would be very strange if dogs did not have the ability to sense mood and that it suddenly occurred for the first and only time in the human animal. It would also not make sense to have a pack animal like a dog not realize when he was getting into trouble with another dog or when his behavior was having the desired effect. If dogs feel what we feel, then they would be happy when we're happy, sad when we're sad, and on the lookout (or hiding) when we're angry. All of the above appears to hold true.....PEACE AND PET LOVE YA"LL

You can do it!...Foster a Shelter Animal...Save a Life...

What is a Foster Parent?

A foster parent provides a temporary home for kittens, puppies,dogs, cats, or other animals in need. The length of fostering can vary from a few days to several months depending on the amount of care or behavioral modification that is needed. The devotion and care given during this time allows the animal a second chance to be adopted by a loving home. The rewards of being a foster parent are many. They include offering an animal a second chance and the added benefit of receiving the love and attention right back from the animal you nurture.

Why are Foster Parents Needed? Temporary foster families are needed for a variety of reasons. The three most common reasons are:

Limited shelter space—The number of animals received at a shelter is sometimes overwhelming and adequate housing is not available. Foster homes provide shelters with an additional option until a space becomes available.

Treatment and care after an illness or injury—Foster parents provide sick and injured animals with the additional time,medication,and space they need to recover. This may include time to recover from emotional, fear, or stress based situations that the animal may have encountered in the past.

Extremely young animals—Young animals, such as kittens and puppies, which are not yet weaned, require special attention. One of the greatest rewards of nurturing these young animals is knowing that you are giving them a great start in life.

Without the additional time and care provided by temporary foster families, many of the animals that fall into the above three categories would be euthanized.

Ok, now that I have explained WHY fostering is so important, I'm putting you to work..

My very good friends from Underdog Rescue (A SMALL DOG RESCUE GROUP) is in desperate need of foster parents.

Underdog takes care of all the Vetting, grooming, etc. whatever the animal needs. If you can't afford food, they will pick up the tab for that as well. All you have to do is provide a safe environment and lots and lots of love. It's a NO BRAINER..If you have any interest please visit the Underdog Rescue website and fill out a foster application.

The following dogs are available for fostering IMMEDIATELY:

Male Chihuahua
Female Chihuahua
2 tiny Rat Terriers that are husband and wife- they don't like cats
Shasta- American staffardshire Terrier - finishing heartworm treatment
Stan-Schnauzer x
Ollie Schnauzer x
Big Boy -large Doxie X
Lafayette- Terrier/Chi looking dog- she doesn't like chickens..haha I guess that means she can't stay with you Wes..
Scooter- cute corgi x small

Please open your heart and Foster today!!

Peace and Pet Love!

Dog-Gone...How to prevent a Dog/Cat-Napping

Just before walking into a Starbucks, a woman ties her Hound Mix to a newspaper machine outside the store. She grabs a coffee, pays for it and walks out. Total time: about 5 minutes.The dog is gone without a trace. She never sees him again. Unfortunately, this is not a made-up scenario to highlight a growing problem. "This happens frequently," notes Linda Fields, a journalist who founded FindFido.com, a nonprofit pet locater site, where people can post pictures and notices of lost pets.

Dog theft is a crime that is hard to measure in statistics. Some have put the number of total pet thefts at 2 million a year. (Because pets are considered property, the numbers are lumped with other property crimes). However, it is often hard to discern whether a pet was stolen or simply wandered off and got lost. In her experience, Fields estimates that about 10 percent of the 1,460 dogs listed on http://www.findfido.com/ were stolen.

According to National Pet Recovery, a private pet recovery company, about 41 percent of the cases reported to them involved a stolen dog. About 47 percent of lost dogs were those allowed to run loose. Whatever the numbers, dogs are stolen for several reasons:

1)Money. This may take the form of an outright ransom, but the usual method is to wait for a reward to be posted, then call the dog's owners and say they found him wandering around.
2)Dog fighting. This may seem unusual because most stolen dogs have sweet temperaments – otherwise a thief may be deterred. Unfortunately, dogs are either "conditioned" to fight by cruel training methods, or used as "bait" to train other dogs to fight.
3)Cult rituals. Often done for kicks, black dogs (and cats) are at particular risk around Halloween.
4) Laboratory Testing. Animal rights and welfare people also say that stolen dogs often wind up at laboratories across the country. Under a procurement practice called "random source collection," the U.S. Department of Agriculture licenses individuals to sell animals to laboratories. There are two types of licenses: Class A and Class B. Class A are breeders. Class B are individuals who obtain dogs and other animals from various other sources. The USDA investigates to ensure the animals are legally obtained. However, animal groups contend that pets are being stolen and sold for profit by Class B licensees (called "bunchers"). A bill, HR 594, is under consideration now in Congress to eliminate Class B licenses. I highly suggest to everyone to watch the HBO Documentary (Dealing Dogs) this will for sure open your eyes to just how EVIL people can really be, especially when it comes to COLD HARD CASH!!!

Sometimes theft is no more complicated than an angry neighbor who takes your dog to the pound when you're not around.

Tips for keeping your pets safe

1) Secure your yard. Ring it with a fence and make sure the gate is closed (and preferably locked).
2)Don't leave your dogs/cats outside when you're not around.
3)Never leave your dog/cat unattended. It takes only a moment to untie him and lead him off.
4)Be aware. Make sure your neighbors are aware of the problem of pet theft. Let your neighbors know if you are expecting people on your property if you are not around, so they know to call the police if someone unexpected shows up.
5)Never allow your dog/cat to roam free in the neighborhood for everyone's sake.
6)Never leave your dog unattended in a car.
7) ID Tags/Micro-chipping. Always make sure your pet wears a collar with his ID tags, and for sure you might want to consider implanting a microchip under his skin. Shelters and veterinary hospitals use microchips to identify lost animals and reunite them with their owners.
8)Keep recent photos of your dog/cat. Take photos from different angles that clearly show coat type and coloring, close-ups of the face and any exceptional physical characteristics.

Keep all your proof-of-ownership papers (adoption, breeding contract, bill of sale) in one place to prove ownership.If the unthinkable happens, don't panic. Call the police if you believe your dog /cat has been stolen, then begin your own search. Search the area, talk to neighbors and passersby. Walk or drive slowly through the area several times daily. Hand out copies of recent photographs.You should also post notices with pictures of your dog throughout the neighborhood, in newspapers ( SHT allows a free posting for lost or found pets) and with radio stations. The Internet has become a more widely used tool to track down lost pets in recent years. There are a number of free sites on which people post images and exchange information.

Three sites of these sites include:
http://www.petfinder.com/
http://www.missingpet.net/
http://www.findfido.com/

I hope these tips help you to keep your pets safe and sound, it's beyond heartbreaking when a pet disappears and you NEVER find out exactly what happened to them.

Peace and Pet Love!

I kissed a dog...and I liked it....

The old saying, a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's, likely comes from the observation that a canine will ceaselessly lick his wounds until they heal—or until a veterinarian fits him with a plastic lampshade. Reflecting on the adage, I instantly remember a relevant fact: a dog's mouth is filthy. Suppose your dog has been eating fecal material, taste testing a dead animal, licking your shoe or simply chewing on a stick that has been decomposing on the ground - your dog could have a slew of harmful bacteria cultivating within his mouth. While alternating between licking the kitchen floor and his private parts, a dog's idea of a winning lotto ticket is a partially decayed squirrel. If the prize can't be released from the pavement for a victory lap, an old-fashioned wallow and roll will do nicely. Later in the afterglow, his thorough squirrel-juice-removing tongue bath is rewarded by a couple of cat box tootsie rolls. After a day like this, it seems doubtful a dog's mouth could be any cleaner than a human's (with the obvious exception of Colin Farrell).

There is good evidence that most beasties present in the dog's mouth are species-specific, meaning they are relatively incapable of causing human illness. We are not exactly impervious to canine microbes, but short of a massive exposure, people with normal immune systems are reasonably resistant. A notable exception is the canine roundworm, Toxocara. Present in the majority of puppies, the eggs of this intestinal parasite are jettisoned into the pup's feces and can quickly end up on the more attractive end of the animal. If ingested by a human, the eggs hatch into larvae that wander aimlessly through your internal organs, never becoming adult worms—a condition called visceral larval migrans. Unless a huge number are swallowed, however, you are unlikely to have symptoms or even know it happened. Still, you'd be wise to use the same caution with a puppy's lips as you might with Mr. Farrell's.

The safety of whom you choose to kiss depends on your concern—infectiousness or mere pollution. The human probably wins Most Likely to Disease, but the canine scores Overall Disgusting. But, if I had to choose, I'd rather get kissed by my doggies any day...

I'm the happy victim of walk-by-lickings on a daily basis.....

Peace and Pet Love

Forget the shrink..I'll take some Pet Therapy..thank you very much...

There are many terms used to describe ways in which animals can help rehabilitate and heal people with special needs. These include 'pet therapy,' 'pet facilitated therapy,' or 'animal-assisted therapy.' Pets can help people with a variety of mental, emotional, and physical disabilities. Fish, birds, pocket pets, rabbits, cats, dogs, and horses have all been employed in pet therapy.

What qualities do companion animals have that make them so therapeutic?

Warm and fuzzy: Animals are warm and fuzzy and alive. Being able to hold and pet another living creature can provide a great deal of comfort. You really don't need another human to COMPLETE you.

Nonjudgmental: Pets are nonjudgmental and do not criticize. So what if those jeans make your ass look big? So what if you didn't recycle? So what if you've been divorced 4 times? Your pet will think no less of you. Pets accept us the way we are...warts and all.

Trusting: Animals are often very trusting and can help build trust in ourselves and others. By watching them we learn we also are dependent and must sometimes rely on others. Not too much of course, but perhaps let your guard down just a bit.

Unconditional love: Pets can often tell when their owners are sad or upset and respond in an attentive way. It is really quite amazing how they can pick up on a person's emotions. Personally I have 5 dogs , and let me tell you when I'm upset they are stuck to me like glue. It's truly amazing, their their capacity to love

Listen: Pets are great listeners. They do not interrupt, or talk over you. They do not feel obligated to share their opinions. They are interested in any and everything you have to say, can you say the same for your human partner?

Help us feel needed and important: It helps to know we are needed. Adopting an animal from a shelter can certainly help you feel that way. A pet's welcome upon coming home from a hard day's work, or even a short errand can be the best part of the day. We may have had a horrendous day at work, or unfriended by a facebook friend, but our pets are happy to see us. And they help us feel needed as we provide them with food, water, grooming, and exercise.

Comedians: Some pets, whether they try to or not, can be real comics. We enjoy watching them and joining in with the play. We allow ourselves to act much sillier in front of our pets than in front of our friends. Pets do not play to be competitive, but just to have fun and be goofballs right along with you. I'm certain my crew think I'm nuts, but they won't judge, they just give me that LOOK ..haha

With these qualities, pets can act as co-therapists for a variety of people with special needs.
Developmentally disabled, children with Down's syndrome and other developmental disabilities can benefit from interactions with animals. Many special education classrooms have a variety of animals, and may have visiting pets as well. The pets can help them learn about nutrition, gentleness, following instructions, and how to care for other living things.

Mentally ill and persons with psychological disorders. The Quakers initiated the use of pet therapy for the mentally ill in the 18th century. Hospitalized patients with a variety of psychological diagnoses who have pet therapy respond well and are less anxious. Pet therapy in a Mental Health setting helps build rapport between the therapist and the patient. When the patient sees the therapist with a pet, the therapist already is viewed 'safer' in the eyes of the patient. The animals can also sense the needs and respond to people with mental illness in ways the therapist cannot.

Physically handicapped or Terminally ill patients. Pets can assist the physically handicapped in a variety of ways. Therapeutic riding is being used for persons with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and others with diminished motor control. It helps to improve their posture, balance, mobility, and function. It also provides significant emotional and cognitive benefits.
Physically handicapped pets have been terrific role models for persons with physical disabilities. They help the person understand, 'if a dog can do it, so can . People with terminal illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, and organ failure, and those who are bedridden are less likely to suffer from depression if they have animals around them. The animals bring a level of comfort and support unique to them.

So I say..save your money, get off the antidepressants and go get yourself a Companion Animal.....This advise is FREE my friends.

Peace and Pet Love!