Edie MacKenzie

Edie MacKenzie is a published author, traveler, dog lover, and tortoise enthusiast. Passionate about what she does, her books provide peopel a firm grounding in the dog breed and their unique characteristics with a nice touch of humor.

Making Your Home Friendly For Dogs

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Dogs have sharp claws, sharp teeth, and unlimited amount of energy and curiosity.  The combination can be very dangerous, especially when they are left unsupervised.  The following are recommendations that you can take to prevent accidents from happening and to keep your dogs safe around the house.

1.  Keep all garbage cans closed.  If possible, make sure that they are tightly closed and out of reach.  This includes garbage cans inside and outside of your house.  To dogs, the contents of your garbage cans are like a gourmet meal, the smellier it is, the more he will go after it. 

2.  Keep all household products and chemicals out of sight, especially antifreeze and pesticides which are very toxic to pets.  Clean up spills immediately before your dogs get a chance to clean it up himself.

3.  Dogs, especially puppies, will chew and bite into almost anything, including electrical cords.  It is very important to unplug appliances when you are not using them.  You should also cover exposed cords using a strip wide electrical tape which makes them harder to chew.

4.  Keep all medicines and medicine cabinets closed.  Remember that just because they are child-proof does not mean they are pet-proof.

5.  Keep your dogs away from water unless he is supervised.  Although he is capable of swimming, dogs have difficulty climbing back out if they fall.

Commercial Dog Food – Do You Know The Truth About Dog Food Yet?

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As a kid growing up in a family full of dogs, I remember the old days when mom and pop used to feed our dogs any type of table scraps that we had from our meals; not acknowledging any degree of dog health.  And sometimes, the dogs would all have their meals prepared ahead of time. We ate all types of food and back in those days so did our animals, except for one major difference of today’s house pets – they didn’t eat a bite of commercial dog food.

Interestingly enough, three out of the four dogs we owned lived to the age of 18 and 19 years of age, with one dog reaching 21 years of age. And the only reason why the fourth did not hit these high numbers was because of bone cancer. Now our experience with these dogs does not negate any type of nutritional value that commercial dog food may provide, especially considering the leap in information and nutritional research that we have today, but it is a little ironic that standard human food did so well just a few years back.

Pet Food Advertising Has Brainwashed Us

A lot has changed over the past 20 or 30 years.  Most dog owners feel that feeding their pets commercial dog food makes the most sense.  They believe that high quality dog food sold in stores is not only the most convenient way to feed their animals, but it also is thought to give their dogs and puppies the best nutritional value offered, even better than human food.  They believe that this decision is the right thing to do.

You hear this sort of thing over and over again whenever a discussion takes place about dog food and dog health.  Just the other day I was discussing some dog tricks with my neighbor and the subject switched to what we fed our dogs.  One comment that he made which is quite redundant is that “I feed my dog ‘dog food’ because it’s for dogs. Why would I feed him human food?”  My neighbor goes on to display his sense of knowledge about nutrition for dogs by insisting that my way of feeding Charlie (my dog) table scraps was cheating him of the proper foods he needs for energy and growth.

Processed Food is still Processed Food

I realized that there was little chance of me convincing my neighbor of his falsely believed notions about proper nutrition and his dogs.  Try convincing one of these people that a dog and a human both need similar nutritional foods.  It’s not that easy. However, I did get across one point in which he understood and that was about processed food.

No matter how you look at it, or what you believe a dog should eat as opposed to humans, processed food is still processed food! This stuff is manufactured, which means it goes through various steps of processing, preservatives, and other additives before it hits the can and is packaged.  Every step that is taken to get this food to the store shelves reduces its quality and nullifies most of its nutritional value, degrading proper dog health.

When Dogs Meet Other Dogs: What Are They Saying To Each Other?

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How can you tell if your puppy’s encounter with an unfamiliar dog will be a delight or a disaster? That depends on how the other dog acts and how your puppy responds.

Pet dogs, though domesticated, interact with each other according to pack protocol. The pack (the basic canine social unit) is structured around a hierarchy of dominance and subordinance (submission).

Every pack member is dominant to some and subordinate to others, with the exception of the alpha male (who is dominant to all) and the lowest-ranking pack member (who is subordinate to all). Social rank is communicated and enforced through body language ? a complex combination of movements, posture and other physical signals.

When two dogs meet for the first time, the outcome depends on several factors:

1) Age: Most adult dogs tolerate puppies, but this isn’t always the case. If your puppy is approaching maturity and tries to out some dominant behaviors, an older dog may feel obligated to put your youngster in its place. However, puppies of similar ages usually get along well with each other, because puppies usually don’t attempt to dominate each other.

2) Sex: Adult dogs often have friendlier interactions with dogs of the opposite sex than those of the same sex. Because this characteristic is related to maturity, it doesn’t affect interactions involving young puppies

3) Location: Dogs naturally try to protect their own territory (their house and yard), so they often get along better when they meet on neutral ground, such as a park. This tactic doesn’t work, however, if either dog decides that a frequently visited public location is part of its territory. Most puppies, especially young ones, aren’t really territorial, but an adult dog may still regard your youngster as an intruder.

4) Owner Presence: And finally, some dogs are more amiable with one another when their owners aren’t around. This may be due to decreased feelings of jealousy or protectiveness. It may also be that socialization proceeds more smoothly without human interference.

A friendly dog will approach your puppy with a slightly crouched posture, low wagging tail, laid-back ears and a soft, indirect gaze. A not-so-friendly dog will approach standing tall, with its tail and ears erect. It’s gaze will be direct and staring; it may snarl or growl as it approaches.

Your puppy will probably respond to either of these dogs with submissive behavior, which is similar to that of the friendly dog, but more pronounced. Your puppy may even roll over on its back or urinate a bit -signs of complete submission. Even the most aggressive dog won’t attack another dog in this position.

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