Dog Health Articles

Your Dog Health Insurance Buyers Guide
Dog health insurance saves you money.As with just about all other costs, veterinary expenses have increased rapidly in recent years. Without dog medical insurance (or more accurately, veterinary insurance), you are responsible for paying for everything: routine checkups, preventive procedures, emergency care and disease treatments. Some policies even consider the dog's lifestyle; for instance, whether your dog is purely a pet or a watchdog, too. With all these options, it is important you check out the various dog health insurance companies, their pet insurance policies and corresponding dog healthcare plans. In short, if you care about your dog, you should care about his health.

Discover which Parasites Love Your Dog And Why
Your dog might not love them, but there are many common parasites that love your dog. With proper care and prevention, your dog will be generally free and safe from parasites and diseases but if you do notice your dog acting strangly, not eating or scratching too much, it's best to get him to the vet right away. We all know fido gets fleas and ticks in the summer, but ticks can pose more serious problems than due to diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Lyme disease. Ask your veterinarian to put your pet on a good flea-control program and be aware that fleas could become resistant to some products over time.

Dooley The Labradoodles Story
Breeder Judy Hickey of Snug Harbor Labradoodles owns an F1 Labradoodle, Dooley and breeds Australian Multi-Generational Labradoodles. Judy Hickey: "I have a first cross and when I got him, I was very much like you, I could surround myself by dogs. The cost was really prohibitive and how could I talk to my husband into that." But when I see the difference in the temperament, I mean Dooley is very sketchy, he has got a temperament issue. I think if you can meet a breeder that has dogs with the temperament and all, it's worth every penny that's spent to get a well-tempered dog.

How To Deal With Ear Parasites
It might be time to take a closer look at his ears, and consider the possibility that he has ear mites. If you have more than one dog in your home, or your dog frequently comes in contact with other dogs, he may be at risk. Puppies are at an even greater risk because ear mites can easily transfer from the mother's ear to her young. Hence, ear mites are responsible for the majority of ear infections in puppies and young dogs. Once the diagnosis of ear mites has been established, your vet will prescribe a treatment for you to continue at home.

A Puppy for the Holidays
The holidays are coming and what better gift for Christmas or Chanukah than a puppy...right? There are lots of distractions for the humans and bobbles that shouldn't be eaten by puppies! Activities in the home are, at the very least, different from the normal routine. Now, before you dub me Edie the Grinch, I have a recommendation for you that I think you may like. This makes it very easy to wrap things up and truly surprise your loved one without having to manage a scared wee puppy during the chaos of the holidays. Then make arrangements with your breeder to go and pick up the puppy after the New Year.

Dog Food Ingredients
Feed items include dry and fresh food. The fresh dog food prepared in homes generally consists of ingredients like freshly cut chicken pieces in addition to the cranberry juices, blue-green algae, etc. If you come across any unique types of preservatives and your Doodle develops the signs of a food allergy, suspect an unwanted ingredient in the feed items. Many premium type of dog food preparations contain essential fatty acids, carbohydrates with adequate fiber contents, vitamins like A, D, E and B complex vitamins.

Parvovirus In Dogs
Parvovirus is a viral disease that affects dogs. As the virus attacks and kills these cells it causes massive diarrhea and halts or slows the creation of white blood cells. In young puppies it can often directly infect the heart, leading to death. The dog will usually experience a loss of appetite as well and then eventually show more sever signs like vomiting and diarrhea which is often bloody. Sometimes an adult dog can be infected by the virus and show no symptoms but act as a carrier transmitting the virus to the other animals it comes into contact with. That treatment primarily consists of providing fluids, giving repeated blood transfusions, and preventing dehydration.

Porcupines And Your Dog
They seem to enjoy teasing a dog into attacking them, and when our unlucky dog takes the bait they'll find his mouth and body full of porcupine quills. When a quill penetrates the skin of the victim, the muscle movements draw it deeper, and the angle at which the barbs are set prevent it from backing out of the flesh. Most veterinarians, when in the woods without surgical equipment, will simply pull the quills with a pair of electrician's pliers. No dog owner should venture with his pet into the woods where porcupines are known to live without also carrying a quality pair of pliers.

Puppy training Schools
Warning: Puppy ownership is not for the faint of heart. A knack for seeing the brighter side of things also is useful in those times when the world's smartest 4-month-old dog suddenly draws a blank at the words "come," "sit" and "lie down" -- even when she just obeyed the same commands 60 times the day before. Don't open the gate before the dog is on leash, and she won't have a chance to piddle in the neighbor's yards unfettered. Actually spend time teaching her the "off" command (however deaf she may be to this particular rule), and you won't need the yucky spray that's apparently delicious when paired with the taste of $800 chaise lounge.

Teaching Your Dog To Speak
A dog which is slow in barking can be encouraged to do so by your imitating a bark, as the chances are he will reply to it, and if you reward him he will learn to bark as soon as he hears the word "speak." After a dog has been taught to bark once, you can teach him to bark any number of times, for when he has learned to expect a reward after barking once and you do not give it to him he is apt to bark again or until you give him a signal to stop. Try to imitate a whine yourself and try to get him to imitate the noise you make and to a certain degree, reach the pitch and style of noise make by you, be it a howl, whine or bark and with constant practice, a dog can and will learn to follow your tone quite accurately.

Vaccinating Your Dog
The concerns that some dog owners have is whether the repeated dog vaccinations are really necessary and whether they are, in fact, doing more harm than good. Stimulating the immune system this way comes at a price - the actual introduction of the offending agent in some form to the dog's system, leading to the concerns of dog lovers and vets alike. The questions on the minds of those concerned are "is it dangerous to repeatedly vaccinate my dog each year" and "how much vaccine should a dog receive and how often?" While there are rare cases of dogs that have become very ill or even died as a result of vaccination, there is no evidence to suggest that this practice poses any real danger to the dog.

Xylitol - A Common Sugar Substitute is Toxic to Dogs
Xylitol is a sugar replacement used in numerous products such as chewing gum, mints, nicotine gum, chewable vitamins, and oral-care products. Xylitol has grown in popularity in the last few years, because it's considered a good sugar substitute for people on a low-carbohydrate diet or concerned with the glycemic index of foods. Xylitol is also popular among diabetics because it does not cause large spikes of insulin production after consumption.Nevertheless, as the popularity and number of products containing xylitol has increased so has the number of reported toxic exposures to dogs. And during the first half of 2006, they received 114 reported cases of xylitol poisoning in dogs. After ingesting xylitol dogs can begin to vomit and develop hypoglycemia within 30 to 60 minutes.

A Few Good Dog Exercise Tips
Fetch is a great way to get your dog aerobic exercise and here's a simple way to do it.. Get an old tennis racket to get some real distance on those tennis balls. Jogging is another way to get canine hearts pumping. If you don't jog and your dog is well-behaved on his leash, you may have a friend or neighbor who'd welcome the company and the added security. Swimming is a natural for retriever types, and if you're lucky enough to be near an off-leash dog park, play with other dogs is a first-rate exercise option.

Good Health Practices
The first step to solving a behavior problem with your dog is to make sure that it's not a health problem. For example, a dog who starts throwing fits when you try to brush out the mats that form in the feathery hair behind his ears may have a painful ear infection. Two more examples: Some kinds of chewing can be attributed to nutritional deficiencies, and some house-soiling problems can be the result of a urinary-tract infection.

Dealing With Heat Stroke In Your Dog
This is most frequent in short-nosed dogs, especially bulldogs. Immediate action is important as collapse and heart failure may occur quite rapidly. Remove the dog to as cool a spot as possible.