Dog Care Advice Regarding (homemade dog treats without flour) Fleas PDF Print E-mail
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007
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By Gerry Ronson

  First lets look at some of the ways your dog can pick up fleas. First and foremost moisture around puddles, unsanitary areas, and the woods can have fleas. It is important to keep your dog out of these regions. Dont let your dog play in puddles that have formed around the sides of the street where there is typically a lot of trash. You also want to keep your dog out of the woods during the summer season. Humidity is one of the largest draws for fleas, therefore the summer months are more important for guarding against fleas in areas where their can be a lot of water and of course the words were insects typically thrive. Another place you will find fleas is in homes that are not cleaned. Fleas tend to be in unsanitary areas. This means that if you rarely dust your home, clean the sheets, and wash the dogs bed you are leaving yourself open to a flea infestation depending on where you live or spend your time. Remember fleas can be carried into the home by the owner. So if you have a job where you are required to spend a lot of time at streams and other areas that attract fleas you may want to remove those clothes and wash them before letting them back in the rest of the home. The last place where you may find flea infestations are humane societies, and animal shelters. Typically animal shelters and human societies are a refuge for lost pets as well as abandoned pets. You may find that even with proper care at the facilities the dogs will come home to you with fleas.

Dog care is one of the most important aspects of owning a dog. When you dont properly care for your dog they can have health problems and some of these problems may in turn affect you. When you love your dog and wish for a long life you understand the needs of your dog. Having said that, there are some tips which can make dog care a little easier on you. With fleas you are usually only aware of an infestation when you start to feel the bits on your legs. There are preventative methods that will help your home stay clear of the pests and your dogs safe.

Now that you know how fleas may latch onto your dog lets look at some of the prevention methods you can take. First you will find that there are flea medications that should be used all year round, and most especially during the summer season. These medications are generally a liquid or collar that has flea insecticide. The medication should be administered on a monthly basis. You can find some medications that are taken orally, but these are not always as effective as the liquid. You also have the option of using a flea and tick shampoo. This shampoo offers a medication that latches onto the hair after a bath and will work for about thirty days. As some dog breeds are very sensitive to baths this is the least recommended option.

For other care of fleas you should also take care to brush the dog on a daily basis. If you have gone for a walk you will want to brush the dog before you enter the house. The brushing motion will dislodge any fleas that have attached themselves to the hair. Combined with flea medication you should be worry free from ticks and be keeping your dog in great health. If fleas do manage to get in the house you will need to release a bug bomb, clean all linens, and of course the dogs bed. This will help the infestation from spreading and offer a clean home once again.

Gerry Ronson - puppy and dog supplies.

Stopping Your Dog From Barking
By Tim Harrison

  Though we have looked at training a few different ways in previous articles you will find that in this article of training importance we are looking at a few specific behaviours of dogs. There are some dogs that tend to bark a lot more than other dog breeds. If you are aware of the proper training and take the time to train your dog you will not have to worry about much of the barking. This can be important to you as well as your neighbours based on the fact that many like the peace and quite, rather than incessant dog barking. So how do you go about training out some things a dog just does instinctively?

Well the answer to that is really more in line with behaviour training. You will need to start the training as early as possible. In other words once the dog breed has been weaned from its mother you will want to enter the dog into training. You can go about training in a few different ways. If you feel you are a confident owner that exhibits patience and a consistent hand you may wish to purchase a manual and look on dog training sites for the information. This is one method and most usually the least effective. While books can help during training for dog barking and other instinctual behaviours you really want a professional that will teach you obedience as well as other training methods for your dog. The best approach to any training is going to be a combined method. You also should keep aware that training should never stop. Even though you have been successful in training a dog will go back to the instincts they were born with over training if you dont keep with the training regiment. Most training is considered a daily exercise along with the actual physical exercise the dog needs.

So now that we have looked at training methods lets look at behaviour training a little more in depth. Behaviour training is not just obedience. With behaviour training you are trying to teach the dog the response you would like to have. If the dog barks for know reason you should not reward the behaviour with petting. In actuality you need to discourage the behaviour. Yelling is not a way to do this. You need to find something that the dog does not like. For example with cats water is a good deterrent for bad behaviour because they dont like to be wet. For dogs, it can differ depending on the breed, but usually a tone of voice, that is still at the normal level or the word no will be sufficient to get the bad behaviour stopped when you consider the training you are imparting. Remember that you also want to reward for good behaviour. Good behaviour can be the response to the no command you have issued. In other words if the dog ceases the barking and lies down instead you can reward them with a good dog or a little rub. Treats should be left for special occasions during training.

It can take a few months to get a dog trained to not bark. In some cases dogs will still bark when they hear the approach of a car or stranger. This can be good if they learn to bark once to alert you and then quiet down again. If they continue the insistent barking you may need to continue training. Remember so behaviours are instinctive so that behaviour training must over ride these senses to be effective.

Tim Harrison is a writer for the websites Dog Collars and Ceramic Dog Bowls.

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 05 December 2007 )
 
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