Training Your Dog With Positivity

Training anyone is challenging, whether it’s for a job, or as an educator – and that’s if you speak the same language as the person you’re training! Training your dog is even more challenging, because it is a meeting of minds between two entirely separate species! So how do you bridge the gap between human and animal to train your dog?

Psychology has all kinds of great studies about this. It is called operant conditioning, and it means we buttress behaviors with positive (adding something) or negative (taking something away) reinforcement or punishment. Further studies have shown that positive reinforcement works better than any other kind of training or learning. So how can you train your dog in a completely positive way?

Positive reinforcement includes all the fun things we love! Treats, hugs, and petting can all do far more to help your dog learn tricks and positive behaviors than yelling at it or punishing it when it does something bad. Furthermore, once you have taught the dog the behavior, verbal cues will suffice most of the time to ensure the dog continues the behavior whether you reward it or not!

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Why Feeding Your Dog With Homemade Dog Food Is Important

Dog Drinking From Large Food PotMore often than not, dogs are referred to as man’s best friend. This case is true for many dog owners since their dogs are essential members of their family. As a dog owner, you must ensure that your dog feeds on a complete and balanced diet. A proper nutritional meal is as vital for you as it is for your dog. Dogs require a particular combination of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, water and minerals in a bid to function normally. The only way to ensure that your dog gets the appropriate diet is to consider homemade dog food as an ideal alternative to commercial pet foods.

The increased number of cases regarding the recall of dog food by many pet food manufacturers has created a cause for alarm among pet owners. As a result, most dog owners have embarked on making food for their dogs as opposed to buying commercial foods. Here are some of the benefits of opting for homemade dog food.

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Should You Be Giving Your Dog an Omega 3 Supplement?

Dog Outdoors

As with us humans, changes in the fields of diet and medicine are allowing dogs to live longer than ever. As dogs grow old, they begin to experience age-related diseases that can impair their quality of life. Regular exercise and a healthy diet are the fundamental in maintaining good overall health, but can Omega 3 supplementation provide any additional benefits to your dog?

One of the most common and earliest issues dogs experience as they age is joint pain, also known as arthritis. Joint pain can impair a dog’s ability to move around as they once did, so owners see a decline in activity and play as the dog ages. Omega 3 fatty acid supplements can reduce joint pain, and people often see their pets pick up the pace again after just a few weeks of being on supplements.

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4 Creative Ways You & Your Dog Can Get Fit

Getting outside and having fun with your beloved pooch is a great idea. You’ll both enjoy some healthy exercise, an increased level of fitness, a decreased waist line and most importantly you two will be able to make the most of your time together. But, instead of performing the same old exercises or activities over and over again, why not spice things up? Keep reading as we hope to unravel and open your mind to the many different and exciting ways you can get fit with your favorite pet.

Attend a Dog/Owner Fitness Class

Some communities have exercise classes where dogs and their owners get together and exercise. One example is a dog boot camp, whereby dogs and owners are led through exercises which are fun for both to do. While every community may not have these classes, plenty of them do these days and they are a really fun way to socialize with other dog owners, as you work out alongside your pet.

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Wildlife and Pets: Protecting Your Animals From Outdoor Threats

Many of us are too young to remember the Hitchcock horror classic, The Birds, when flocks of psychotic flying predators began randomly attacking people in a small, northern California town. While this example is pure fiction, in real life birds can be particularly problematic, causing some homeowners and some businesses to hire professionals to remove them from their premises.

Flock of Birds

While our so-called feathered friends can cause structural damage, annoying noises and carry a number of different diseases, larger predatory species are capable of carrying off a kitten, cat or small dog. Depending on where you live, these smaller pets are better off left indoors during daylight hours.

What are some other ways our pets could be at risk from wildlife when they’re outdoors and how can we protect them from these threats? Here are some tips for keeping our companion animals safe from the dangers some types of wildlife can present:

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About The Zika Virus: Does This Infection Pose a Threat To Pets?

There has been a lot of press recently about the Zika virus, a disease passed through the bite of an infected mosquito. It can also be spread from a pregnant woman to her unborn fetus and can be sexually transmitted from one partner to another. It is believed that it can infect a person through a blood transfusion, but this has yet to be proven as a fact, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

What is also unknown, is whether or not animals, pets and livestock are susceptible to infection. The simple truth is that we simply don’t have enough information yet to determine if this is either a possibility or a problem. A researcher from the CDC, Robert Barrera, had this to say on the topic. “Certainly there’s the potential for a pet to become infected, (but) what we don’t know is what that means for the health of the animal.”

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How To Stop Kindness From Killing Our Canines

Overweight Chihuahua

When we think of what could be placing our pets at the highest health risk, we might imagine cancer or heart disease as the culprit, but it’s actually many instances of them becoming overweight and obese that’s putting their lives in jeopardy. According to APOP (Association for Preventing Pet Obesity), they estimate that 54% of dogs are either overweight or obese in America.

Feeding them table scraps, too many unhealthy treats and a lack of exercise seem to be the biggest causes for this growing problem. Even if they are eating only kibble and regular processed pet foods, some owners are leaving out an open buffet for them to eat from all day long and this is also contributing to their growing size. While an extra pound or two may not seem that much to us as humans, for animals it can be 10% or more of their entire body weight.

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The Pit Bull Story That Touched Our Heart

Pit bulls often get a bad rap, with the media often portraying them as a vicious bully breed capable of mauling innocent individuals. Yes, they are strong, but they aren’t inherently mean, despite what some may say.

Aggressive behavior is not a starting point, but the consequence of different factors. Many are trained for some really horrible things, like dog fighting, whereas others are just not trained properly.

Despite the common belief these dogs are mean, many pit bulls are sensitive, gentle, loyal and devoted dogs.

Don’t believe me? Here is one of the best Pit Bull stories that have touched our hearts.

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Tips on Getting Active & Exercising More With Your Dog

Especially in the warmer months, sometimes it’s difficult to get more active and exercise with our dogs due to the extreme heat. But becoming overweight or obese is a growing problem for many of today’s pets and sometimes their owners may follow suit. Animals gaining too much weight face the same type of health risks as their human counterparts, so it’s best for all of us if we can stay active and get more exercise.

Often when we think of exercising with our four-legged friend, we may imagine the traditional dog walk, which is always a good method, but there’s plenty of other ways we can get active with our animals. Here’s some tips on some more unusual methods of staying active with them:
Dog Diving Off Dock

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What Is Giardia and How Can You Prevent It?

What is Giardia?

Giardia in dogs is a barely discernible disease normally found in dogs and puppies. Contaminated water is one of the major causes of giardia in puppies in addition to general contact to the disease in the environment such as contact to infected surfaces in parks or even in your dog’s food.

Cause of Giardia

The most widespread causes of giardia in dogs are from drinking water outside, such as from a pond or stream that has been contaminated with another infected animals feces. The feces contain a cyst that enters the gastrointestinal tract of your dog. The cysts sheath Trophozoites which cause the situation. Puppies are very vulnerable as their immune system has yet to build up to its full capacity so Giardia typically transmits to dogs that are less than a year old.

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