All posts by The Dog Lady

Human or Doggy Nature

Sounds Like An Even Trade…

Leave a comment

From Greenacres, FL:  When Linda Urioste’s Labrador was picked up by animal control officers, she thought she had lost the dog forever.  After a few days, the dog was adopted by another couple.  Upon learning that Ms. Urioste was looking for the dog, the couple thought about giving him back, until Ms. Urioste yelled at them and threatened to sue.

 

After awhile, the couple who had the dog realized that their cat was missing.  Ms. Urioste called and left them a message that they would only get their cat back when she got her dog back.

 

Needless to say, now Ms. Urioste is in the pokey, charged with theft and extortion.  No word yet as to who has the animals

 

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Dog Fun

Boating with Bonzo

Leave a comment

Riding in the bow of the boat, wind whipping up all kinds of good smells, hair blowing in the breeze…no wonder dogs like to go out boating with you! Here are a few safety tips to keep in mind.

1. Regardless of whether or not you bring the dog, DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. It’s just as dangerous in a boat as it is in a car, and your dog needs you to come home tonight.

2. Keep an eye on your dog, especially while the boat is moving. If he falls overboard, he had a good chance of getting nipped by the propeller.

3. Try a short trip first, to see if your dog enjoys it. If he’s scared, plan to leave him home next time.

4. Use a personal flotation device, even if your dog is a good swimmer. He may not know his limitations and may become tired before he makes it back to the boat. Try to find a PFD that has a handle on the back, allowing you to lift the dog out of the water.

5. Provide shade so the dog does not get overheated. If you have a hairless dog, use sunscreen.

6. Provide stable footing for the dog by laying a piece of carpet or a rubber mat over a fiberglass deck.

7. Make sure your dog has a legible ID tag and / or a microchip, in case you get separated from him.

Enjoy the lake!

Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!

Dog News, Health

Another problem with global warming…

Leave a comment

As the earth warms up, it appears more slugs and snails are migrating to Scotland.  Which wouldn’t be so bad, except that they carry an tapeworm known as “French heartworm”.  This parasite has never before been seen in Scotland, but was confirmed by the vet finding larvae in the feces of a Weimeraner. 

 

The dog had never left the city of Glasgow, so they are sure he contracted the disease there.  Vets speculate that he may have eaten a slug or eaten grass that had a slug trail on it.  (Yuck!!)

 

So far, there are no reports of this organism infecting dogs in North America, but symptoms include coughing, breathing difficulty, and unexplained bleeding.

 

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Dog Fun, Human or Doggy Nature

Poll: Your relationship to your pets

1 Comment

I saw an interesting poll on my local news website yesterday and wondered how Doggies.com people would respond.  Please use the comments section below:

 

How would you describe your relationship to your pets:

Owner

Guardian

Parent

Locally, people were overwhelmingly picking the last choice (72%), with the remaining 28% split evenly between owner and guardian.  The bad part about polls the way this one was presented is that you can only select a choice, but not give an explanation.  Please tell us your choice and tell us why you chose it in the comments section below.  (Hey, we’re low tech here – no fancy calculations to give instant results!)

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Behavior and Psychology, Breed Specific, Human or Doggy Nature, Top Ten List

Least Aggressive Dogs

8 Comments

As promised yesterday, here are the dogs that scored very low on the aggression scale in the study recently reported in the Applied Animal Behavior Science journal.  This study, compiled by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, involved asking 6,000 dog owners about their dog’s behavior.  Thirty-three different breeds were catalogued and rated according to how aggressive they are.

 

The dogs that were least aggressive were:

 

Basset Hound

Golden Retriever

Labradors

Siberian Huskies

Greyhounds

 

The Rottweiler, often assumed to be very aggressive, ranked average in its hostility towards strangers. 

 

The researchers did note, however, that even though small dogs headed the most aggressive list and big dogs headed the least aggressive list, the bites from the larger dogs were more likely to have required medical attention than those from the smaller dogs.

 

Until next time,

Good day, and good dog!

Behavior and Psychology, Breed Specific, Dog News, Human or Doggy Nature, Top Ten List

Top Ten Most Aggressive Dogs

78 Comments

I think most of us would agree that dogs are not born aggressive, they are made that way by the environment in which they are raised.  However, there are some breeds that are more prone to aggresion than others.  The Daily Telegraph in Great Britain reports on a study published by Applied Animal Behavior Science, ranking 33 breeds of dogs according to their owners’ answers to behavioral questions.

Continue reading Top Ten Most Aggressive Dogs →

Behavior and Psychology, Human or Doggy Nature, Training

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Leave a comment

Having trouble keeping your landscaping nice because Fido doesn’t understand you just paid someone $1000 to spruce up the yard?  Even if you’re just growing a few vegetables, you’d probably rather the dog didn’t eat them all before you got a chance to harvest them.

Two of my dogs have figured out a way to get over the chicken wire into the garden, but only one has figured out a way to get back out.  More often than not, I have to rescue Penny (the beagle) or she just sits there and howls.  So, I appreciated this article in the Detroit Free Press a few days ago. 

Continue reading How Does Your Garden Grow? →

Health

Hot dog?

Leave a comment

Summertime is upon us, and at least in the Midwestern US, it is finally starting to heat up outside. 

Because dogs don’t sweat, they have to lower their body temperatures by panting, which is much less efficient.  This makes them much more susceptible to heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke.  Dogs with short muzzles and those with any type of airway disease are particularly affected.

Continue reading Hot dog? →