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.

Focus on the Bernese Mountain Dog

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The Bernese Mountain Dog originated in Switzerland, and is named after the Swiss capital city, Berne.

These large, friendly dogs were originally used as all-purpose farm dogs and excel at all kinds of jobs, including, guarding, herding sheep and cattle, and pulling heavy loads. Perhaps surprisingly, given their amiable personalities, the breed was also once used by the Romans as military dogs, accompanying their legions into battle.

The Berner Sennehund, as it is known in its native land, first came to America in 1926 and achieved AKC status in 1937.

With its striking tri-color coat, the Bernese is an easily recognizable dog. The coat is mainly black with rust coloration on the face and chest, as well as the lower legs and paws. The coat is thick and heavy, to withstand the freezing Alpine temperature, while the fluffy tail and folded ears also offer protection from the weather.

These are loyal, devoted and gentle pets who are exceptionally good with children and also get on well with other dogs and with non-canine pets. The Bernese is renowned for its happy disposition and kind nature.

The Bernese is a very playful dog which makes him an excellent choice for a family with kids. They are also very adaptable, meaning they’ll fit in to most living arrangements, as long as they are close to their human family.

The Bernese requires quite a lot of grooming. They are heavy shedders, with particularly heavy shedding occurring in the spring. Expect to brush your dog every day if you want to keep dog hair off your clothes and furnishings. When grooming your dog, pay special attention to cleaning the ears, which are susceptible to infections.

Bernese, unfortunately, have a very short lifespan, with a median 6-8 years. They are particularly prone to canine cancers, and also commonly suffer from a number of other serious health issues. Musculoskeletal ailments, like arthritis, hip dysplasia, and cruciate ligament rupture, are a particular problem with this breed. They are also prone eye and ear problems.

As with many large dogs, the Bernese can develop into a first class couch potato if it is allowed to. But the breed actually enjoys activity and is particularly fond of walking. You may even consider training your Bernese to pull a cart, as they were once bred to do.

A big plus point with this breed is their temperament. They are affectionate, loyal, friendly, balanced, and intelligent dogs with a genuine love of people. They respond well to reward based training, but can sometimes be a challenge to train because of their playfulness. It has been said that a Bernese remains a puppy throughout his life.

Good names for a Bernese Mountain Dog can be hard to find. The best advice is to search one of the online puppy names, sites, and my personal favorite is Puppy Names HQ. This site has thousands of excellent dog names, including a mega-database of male dog names to pick from.

Heartworm Treatment For Canines Infected By Mature Heartworms

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Immiticide is the single drug that has got approval from FDA with regards to the treatment of heartworm in your dog. Another name for this drug would be Melarsomine. This drug must not be confused with the heartworm preventative medicines administered to pet dogs. It is purely effective to fight adult worms, this doesn’t affect the juvenile larvae that are killed by the preventive medicines also it will have to be administered by your veterinary.

Despite the fact this medication is a prescription drug primarily based on a poison, arsenic, it really is much, much safer compared to earlier remedies with arsenic and unlike past treatment options, will not result in toxicosis (that’s only another way of stating that this doesn’t result in health issues as a consequence of poisoning). Nevertheless, the drug is definitely not approved for any other species than dogs and is definitely not permitted with regards to use in people.

Even though, as mentioned in this article, this drug is a good deal safer as compared with its forerunners, it does have a number of adverse reactions, the most frequent of which is the congestion of blood vessels because of dead worms getting moved around inside the dog’s bloodstream. A blockage of this particular kind is known as a thromboembolus and whenever a few are produced, they’re known as thromboemboli. Owing to where adult heartworms lodge, inside the heart as well as the arterial blood vessels around it, these kinds of thromboemboli are likely to form inside the lungs (pulmonary thromboemboli) since dead worms end up getting transported away from the heart – and can certainly turn out to be deadly.

Various other side effects are generally not so critical and can include pain and swelling where the injection of the drug was administered, general malaise for example a fever and nausea and sleepiness, decrease of appetite as well as a cough. To read more concerning side effects of heartworm treatment in dogs, take a look at this article.

The standard technique of giving the medication for dogs that do not have a really large load of worms is simply by means of only one injection then a second injection after twenty-four hours. In canines where a significant worm burden has been clinically determined, only one injection will be used and then after thirty days an additional single injection followed in twenty-four hours by an additional, as previously mentioned.

Because of the possibility of dead worms becoming transported in to the lungs and causing an embolus, your dog is required to be kept extremely quiet as well as caged. Following the initial few days your dog may possibly be permitted out of the cage and will not be permitted to run or even play for many weeks. When your pet dog has been checked out following medication with Immiticide, Ivermectin (a heartworm preventative drug) will be supplied to destroy juvenile larvae and your dog must continue to be on the heartworm protection plan for the remainder of its life.

Lately, Immiticide shortages have been in the news, with pets going on the waiting list to get treatment. To get more information about the shortage and heartworm treatment expense 2010, please visit http://heartwormtreatment-fordogs.com today.

Finding the Right Golden Retriever Breeder

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Whether it is the persistence of your children or your individual longing for companionship that prompts you to bring home a golden retriever, the next step would be to find the right breeder.

It is advisable to shortlist more than one possible golden retriever breeder. You may have to sign up on the waiting list, but if you want the best then you need to be patient. There may be times where you may get lucky and find one right away, but that is just what it may be, pure luck. When it comes to golden retriever breeding it is a first-come, first-serve situation.

A quality golden retriever breeder in most cases will have a waiting list, which is obviously the first sign of a reputed breeder. Of course, he doesn’t need to be on the list of breeders that cater to the Whitehouse or Buckingham Palace, but must be fairly well known on the breeding circuit.  Finding one could be challenging, but it is important to get a healthy dog that is going to be a family member for the next 15 years or more.

The first step is to become an educated buyer if you want to find a quality golden retriever. Read as much as you can about the breed, their health issues, and temperament. If you have children, there is a possibility that they have already been convinced by your neighbor’s or friend’s golden. These places could form the basis of your observation and determine whether your home environment is conducive to rearing a golden.



Nelson Williams offers more info at : http://goldenretrievertrainingcenter.com/golden-retriever-breeder. He and his family live in Vermont. He brought home their first Golden Retriever when his now grown daughters were babies. His family has bred and cared for more Golden Retrievers than they can remember. With years of experience and volumes of research, the Williams offer for free, ‘Secrets of Raising Golden Retrievers’: http://www.goldenretrievertrainingcenter.com.

Use Dog Training Collar to Reduce Excessive Barking

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Some dogs either bark too often, or too loud, when boring or when you want to sleep.
If so, then you should definitely consider a dog training collar. You also have other anti barking methods or devices at your choice, but this is one of the most effective.
While you can say the following are the drawbacks of other types of anti-barking tools, they are also reasons to choose an anti-barking collar.

1. Some health problems may occur

People think that some of the tools and methods used to modify this behavior are not safe to use with their dogs.
Various health issues may occur while using them, and this is not acceptable.
On the other hand, anti-barking collars provide a stimulus that’s just strong enough to get your dog’s attention. So you won’t have to worry about your dog becoming ill or injured when wearing the collar. Your dog’s safety is likely one of your top priorities, and that includes when you’re training it. During the use of a dog training collar the health of your dog has no reason to alter.

2. They’re ineffective.

Many anti-barking methods on the market simply aren’t effective. When you buy these products you expect effects. Scientific studies have been performed to compare the effectiveness of different tools designed to reduce excessive barking. These studies show what are the most effective anti barking tools.
Some Dog Training Collar types abolish almost 90% of the inappropriate barking of the dog. That figure’s quite amazing when you consider that few behavior modification products have a 90% success rate.

3. They’re unaffordable.

An obedience training school for pets can cost up to several hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially when they guarantee a high rate of success. On the other hand, you should also consider that the success rate of such schools could be substantially lower than for anti-barking collars. You only need to dispose of about $100 to get a simple anti barking collar. You cannot find a less costly offer on the dog training market today.

4. They may be considered inhumane

It’s important to note that while certain anti-barking techniques are effective, they’re also inhumane. Owners who love their dog pets won’t allow the use of harming or discomforting methods or device during the anti-barking training of their dogs. When you use anti-barking collars, the stimulus is subtle. Incentives like ultrasounds or the citronella oil are employed by such collars.
There is no doubt that these types of Dog Training Collar are humane and efficient.

5. They are not so simple

Few people would prefer a complicated mechanism to an undemanding one to do quite the same thing. You may mistake while using a complicated device or method.
The dog training collar is an easy to use simple device.

The microphone incorporated detects your dog’s barking and the battery powers the system.
According to your settings, the device will issue warning beeps or aversive stimuli if the dog barks too much, often, loud or when not allowed. These collars are quite simple mechanisms, but very effective in reducing dog excessive barking.
They really do the job you paid for.

Dog Health Food – Don’t Let Your Beagle Suffer From The Wrong Food

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Your Beagle could be suffering from the side effects of toxic additives put into commercial dog food. Many people are turning towards dog health food as a way to be sure about what is going into your pet food.

Contaminated dog food can be in circulation for months before it gets picked up, and often it’s only when there’s a number of dogs getting sick and dying from the food that a recall is issued. Often quality is being sacrificed for the sake of profits.

In a bid to increase profits, many dog food manufacturers are using cheap by products from human food production and adding it as a protein source. This is can do your dog a lot of harm over the long term, leading to allergies and other chronic health issues.

In 2007, over 100 different types of dog food were recalled after melamine, which is a type of plastic, was found in many batches. Eventually the food was found to be tainted from imported rice protein. There are large questions about whether there is really any nutritional value in rice protein for dogs in the first place. But what this really means is that there is a chance that anything could end up in our dog food.

You may be thinking that this happened in China so I won’t affect you, but many companies around the world are using imported ingredients from China and other countries that don’t have the same regulation of their food products that we do in the western world. When you think about the tainted milk powder that was found recently, it’s only a matter of time before another batch of deadly food gets onto the market.

Even if there’s no accidental contamination, your Beagle could still be at risk from additives that are put into the dog food, before it reaches the factory. Ethoxyquin is routinely added to fish meal. Fish meal is then often promoted as a healthy form of protein. However they neglect to mention that ethoxyquin has been linked to serious allergic reactions, cancer and liver failure in dogs. And that it has been banned for human consumption for decades.

So have a quick look and see if your dog food has fish meal in it. And be aware that if it does then your dog is almost certainly getting a dose of a known carcinogen with every meal.

For the sake of your Beagle and it’s long term health, you really need to get educated about dog health food. It is our responsibility to know what is going into our dog’s food and to make sure that there are no toxic additives. or preservatives. We all want our best friend’s to live a long and healthy life and it’s not hard with a bit of knowledge.

How would you feel if your dog died at a young age and it was completely preventable? We need to know what goes into the food that we feed our dogs and if it’s making them sick. Our dog health food newsletter is chock full of tips for healthy eating, delicious recipes and information about what really goes into commercial dog food. Click here to subscribe http://www.dog-health-food.com

Article Source: Dog Health Food – Don’t Let Your Beagle Suffer From The Wrong Food

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Eye And Heart Disease In Golden Retrievers

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Golden Retrievers Health Issues

Eye disease is very common with Golden Retrievers.  Most Golden’s will generally have hereditary cataracts, which is a common eye problem.  At an early age, with affected Golden’s, one type of hereditary cataract will appear.  Even though it may not cause interference with the vision of the Golden Retriever, some dogs will progress into total and quite possibly severe loss of vision.

Sometimes, Golden Retrievers can get affected by non hereditary cataracts, although an examination by a board certified veterinarian can determine just how bad the cataracts really are.  If cataracts are indeed suspected with a Golden Retriever, then breeding won’t be recommended.  Breeding Golden Retrievers who have this condition can lead to serious problems, such as passing it on to the pups.

Several families of the Golden Retriever breed have been known to carry genes for CPRA (Central Progressive Retinal Atrophy), which affects the retina, and can result in permanent blindness for Golden’s at a young age.  There are other types of eye defects as well, such as retinal dysplasia, which prevents Golden Retrievers from breeding.

Trouble with both the eyelid and eyelashes are also a possibility with Golden Retrievers, with some being the result of hereditary factors.  The eyelids rotating in or out, or the eyelashes rubbing on or in the eye are both common problems with the breed.  Even though surgery can help to fix these types of problems, dogs that are experiencing this type of problem shouldn’t be allowed to breed nor compete in shows under any type of AKC rules.

You should always have your Golden Retriever checked annually for eye disease, as it can develop during any age.  When you take your Golden to have him examined for eye disease, you should have a veterinary ophthalmologist do the exam.  He has all of the necessary equipment, and the proper training needed to make sure that your dog gets the best examination possible.

Heart disease
SAS (Subvalvular Aortic Stenosis) is the most common and widespread form of heart disease within the entire Golden Retriever species.  Before you breed your Golden Retriever, you should always have him examined for heart disease by a certified veterinary cardiologist.  If the cardiologist detects a heart murmur, he will recommend additional tests for your dog.

In the event that the results prove negative, it doesn’t necessarily rule heart disease out, as some milder forms may still be present, although undetectable.  If a Golden Retriever is diagnosed to have any type of heart disease, he should not breed.  Breeding Golden Retrievers who have heart disease can lead to serious and sometimes fatal results.  To be on the safe side, you should always have your Golden tested for his disease before you plan on breeding.
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