Is Your Dog Struggling with Obesity? Over half of our dogs are clinically obese, which by definition means they are 15 percent or more above their ideal weight. Being 10 percent overweight decreases a dog’s life span by one third and predisposes them to heart, liver, and kidney disease as well as arthritis.

More females are affected than males. Hormones, genetics and individual variations in metabolism and appetite are predisposing factors. But, the most common cause of obesity by far is owners who indulge their dogs with treats, table scraps and oversized portions.

CAUSES

* Overeating excess amounts of food is the number one cause.
* Lack of exercise.
* Neutering can promote weight gain.
* Hormonal disorders especially low levels of thyroid hormone.

TIP: Don’t sit on a sofa one day and decide to take a 10-mile hike the next. Increase your dog’s level of activity gradually a little bit each day.

IS YOUR DOG OVERWEIGHT?

To determine whether or not your dog is overweight, give him a rib check. You should be able to easily feel but not see each rib. Dogs should have a waist, which is the tucked up area behind the ribs. If your dog has lost his waist and/or if you can pinch more than an inch, it’s time to cut back.

Preventing excess weight gain initially is much easier than trying to lose weight. Weigh and record your dog’s weight each time you visit your vet.

Before beginning any weight-loss program, confirm your suspicions with your vet and rule out medical problems that mimic obesity including heart and liver disease, Thyroid disorders, Diabetes, and Cushing’s Disease.

TIP: Regular weight checks help monitor your dog’s body weight.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

You should feed your dog a diet consisting of lean protein and high-fiber (over 15 percent), with low fat; less than 10 percent. Increasing the fiber provides bulk which fills him up and keeps him happy but spares calories at the same time.

You need to decrease your dog’s total number of calories by 20 percent to lose weight. Set a maximum initial weight loss at 15 percent and calculate your feedings and exercise to achieve this goal.

Increase the number of meals up to six per day ‘ the more meals you eat, the more your metabolism is stimulated which requires energy and burns calories.

Don’t free-feed. Leave meals out for 20 minutes, and then pick them up. Throw table scraps into the garbage and keep snacks to less than 5 percent of the total daily diet. Feed healthy snacks like white asparagus tips, cantaloupe slices, carrots and pumpkin.

Monitor your dog’s weight weekly: post a chart on the refrigerator door. It’s also fun to take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. When your dog reaches his target weight, change from the reducing diet to a weight maintenance diet.

Monitor weight changes carefully for the first 60 days. Record his weight once a month for the first six months, then four times a year.

Aim for a minimum of 20 minutes of exercise each day. Two 10-minute walks is a good start and you can gradually build up from there.

Local canine sport clubs are fun for the whole family and offer activities for all breeds. Agility, fly ball and terrier trials are popular and lure coursing is a favorite for site hounds. Some fitness centers and health spas now offer packages to get you and your dog into tip top shape.

Copyright 2007 Dr. Carol Osborne

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For outdoor dogs, the likelihood of encountering a tick on their daily adventures is fairly high. As you may know, ticks are extremely small and difficult to detect and they can carry and transmit a number of harmful diseases. Probably the most dangerous and well known is Lyme disease.

But ticks can transmit a number of other potentially fatal diseases including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and babesiosis, a blood disorder. How does it happen? Well, there are many different types of ticks, some with names of animals like the deer tick and the dog tick. These pesky little insects are like leeches, in that they feed on the blood of animals; and when they feed they often transfer the diseases they carry to the host.
Ticks attached themselves to a host animal by stealth, hiding in the woods, the brush, or even indoors. And, although they cannot fly, glide or jump, they have a knack for locating a healthy host animal and feeding on them until the health of the animal is affected.

As we mentioned, probably the most notorious disease transmitted by ticks is Lyme disease. The name itself is an eponym that was coined after the first outbreak of the disease in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. When the disease was first encountered, it had local doctors baffled, since infected residents were complaining of something that resembled rheumatoid arthritis, even when they had no history of the disease.

After humans were treated, it was discovered that a large number of dogs from the same area had been infected with the disease and were suffering from similar symptoms. In the ensuing years, Lyme disease has become a common disease, especially in wooded areas. It is easily transmitted to either humans or dogs, but dogs are particularly susceptible to it for obvious reasons. The most obvious of the obvious reasons is the fur coat. Ticks can hide in the coats’ of canines for weeks while they slowly feed on their blood and infect them with diseases.

Some of the most common symptoms that your animal is infected with Lyme disease include: lethargy, fever, loss of appetite, and lameness. The good news, however, is that vaccinations for the disease are available for your furry friends. So, if you live in a wooded area, it is probably a good idea to take your dog to the veterinarian and have him get a shot or two.

After Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever is probably the most deadly disease that dogs can contract. Fortunately, however, it is a regional disease that is often only found in New England and in pockets of the West. Again, dogs that reside in wooded areas are more likely to come down with the disease as ticks that are carriers can be found in these environs. The most common symptoms of the disease include: fever, rashes, joint discomfort, lethargy and depression.

But Rocky Mountain spotted fever is normally not as dangerous as Lyme disease because the symptoms are more pronounced and thusly far easier to identify. If it is caught in the early stages, a simple shot from the vet will put your dog on the road to recovery within twelve to twenty-four hours.

When canine cancer hits your family, the results can be devastating. Hearing that your beloved friend is sick is never going to be easy to deal with. However, the good news is that there are practical steps that you can take to help your dog’s cancer immediately. Focusing in on key vitamins and minerals can help your dog’s immune system fight off his or her bout with canine cancer. Let’s take a look at some of the key vitamins and minerals that your dog will need for fighting off dogs cancer .

No matter what course of dog’s cancer treatment you ultimately decide to follow, help your pet get the best nutrition possible. This is an absolute must so that he or she will have a robust immune system. While all vitamins and minerals are important, there are a few that stand out as being critical. These nutritional components should be added to your fight against canine cancer.

Vitamin C Isn’t Just Good For Fighting Off Colds and Flues

As it turns out, good old vitamin C does more than give a cold a run for its money. Due to the fact that vitamin C helps boost the immune system, it is possible for vitamin C to play a rather significant role in fighting your dog’s cancer. Studies have shown that vitamin C has been able to extend the lives of patients with terminal cancer. It can be administered either through an I.V. or through pills. In terms of safety, vitamin C is a very safe compound and if too much is consumed or administered it can generally be flushed out of your dog’s system fairly quickly.

Vitamin E Is An Immune System Stimulate

Your immune system and that of your dog’s will both love vitamin E as it can effectively boost the immune system. Additionally vitamin E works as an antioxidant to help prevent the free radicals that are at the heart of cancer. Current research indicates that vitamin E can effectively stop cancer cell growth and division. This remarkable fact should be put in the forefront of your mind in regards to treating dogs cancer as vitamin E may very well have the ability to stop the disease. Here is a word of caution however. Too much vitamin E can cause serious medical consequences. Therefore, caution should be exercised.

Selenium-A Quiet Heavyweight

You might not hear too much about selenium, but selenium can deliver a real punch against dog’s cancer. There have been over one hundred studies done in animals that yielded some fascinating results. As it turns out selenium has the ability to prevent numerous types of cancer including beast and liver. How important is selenium in the fight against cancer? One study found that high doses of selenium were able to stop breast cancer from forming by eighty to ninety percent.

You Can Help Your dogs cancerThrough Nutrition

There are many ways that you can help your dog in his or her battle against dog’s cancer. One of those key ways that you can help your dog is through the proper and judicious use of nutrition. Through nutrition you can help you dog boost his or her own immune system naturally.

Caninecancercenter.com is one of the leading canine Cancer Care.Center for dog cancer.. We provide the latest technology of cancer care that remains your dog happy and healthy.

Lyme disease in puppies is a sickness that is newly recognized. This type of dog disease is transmitted by deer ticks. Lyme disease in pets not only infects puppies but could also infect humans. The two seasons for the largest number of exposure to Lyme disease in pets is during spring through fall.

This dog disease appears mostly in the Midwestern and northwestern part of the US. Since 1975, several cases of Lyme disease in pets have been reported in more than 40 states.

White-footed mice and white-tailed deer are the hosts for the deer tick that is the direct cause for transmitting Lyme disease in pets. Since the ticks do not fly or hop, they wait on the ground where plants grow in tall-grassed or wooded areas that are heavily inhabited by mice, deer, and ticks. They wait patiently and eagerly to stick on to anything that brushes up against them.

Deer ticks can strike a dog on any part of the body, although they often attach and bite at his head, ears, neck and even his feet. This is where Lyme disease in a dog begins. A tick’s bite barely causes sensation, unlike the painful bites from bees and mosquitoes. Dogs and other animals can be saturated with ticks and not show any distress.

Symptoms of Lyme disease in pets include fever, slowness, and sudden onset of lameness mixed with warmth, pain, and swelling in his joints. Sometimes a round area of inflamed skin around the tick bite may emerge with Lyme disease in pets, even though it may be hard to notice this due to the thickness of a dog’s coat.

Call your vet right away when you notice any symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs. Those who recognize the early stages of Lyme disease can prevent your dog from suffering. When Lyme disease in your dog reaches its progressive stages of infection, your dog could suffer from paralysis. If this disease is left untreated, Lyme disease can attack the front and hind limbs. It will then attack the muscles in the chest area and even disable the respiratory muscles. This can cause the dog to suffocate.

If you believe your dog has Lyme disease and that the disease is in its progressive stages of infection, immediately call your vet. Hospitalization is necessary for progressive stages of Lyme disease in a dog.

To learn more, head to Amazon.com and search for books on, “lyme disease and dogs” to see which are the most popular choices. Using the tool in their drop-down menu on their search results page, you can rank their listings accordingly and choose what you like.

Funds short for shopping? No problem. Key in titles you find form Amazon into your local public library search box. Borrow the books and read more at your leisure at home or during break times at the office.

Other places to search are eBay.com – for new and used books, videos, cassettes and more on the topic. And MySimon.com, a price comparison site.

Just like humans, some dogs are naturally shyer than others. Shyness can be a devastating trait for dog and owner, making both nervous about daily walks, trips to the dog park, and even inviting others into the home. If your dog is scared of strangers, do not be disheartened.

With proper socialization, obedience training, and leadership (from you, considered to be the alpha dog), your pooch can overcome his fear of strangers, and become your calm, self-assured and happy companion. Although many dog owners assume that a fearful, cautious dog has endured some type of abuse during his life, this is not always the case, but it doesn’t hurt to look into.

Fearful behavior can be caused by many things such as genetics, physical ailments, or lack of socialization as a puppy. It can be learned from the mother’s behavior, and dog breeders see that boldness runs in certain bloodlines, while timidity and nervousness run in others.

Deafness, ear infections, epilepsy, and thyroid problems can cause a more nervous dog, so be sure to have your dog checked by a veterinarian if he suddenly exhibits fearful behavior, when he didn’t before.

The problem with fear in dogs is that the fear may lead to aggression when your dog’s fight or flight response kicks in. A scared dog will often run away from strangers, cower to look small, or even hide behind its owner for safety. If the dog ever feels trapped, which may only be imagined, but is quite real for the dog, he may lash out by growling, charging, or biting at whomever he feels is trapping him.

If this person backs away, the dog will learn that this behavior is effective at getting what he wants (for the stranger to go away), and a new habit of fear aggression will be formed. To avoid this potentially dangerous habit, you must prevent your dog from becoming scared, and also prevent positive rewards for Aggressive Behavior. Early socialization is vital to prevent fear in dogs.

Socialization allows your dog to develop interactive skills with other dogs, other kinds of animals, and people of all sizes and ages. Puppies, like children or other baby animals, will form memories and associations to what they learn at a young age.

If they learn to trust and interact with different people, they will be comfortable with humans later on in life. On the other hand, isolated puppies that have little interaction with people tend to become attached to one person only, the owner.

Unfortunately for the dog, he will inevitable have to interact with other people all the way through his life, like the vet or groomer. However, one great characteristic of dogs is their ability to learn new behavior at any age. If your dog is scared of strangers, it is time to socialize.

A major part of overcoming your dog’s fear is overcoming your own anxiety and fear about your dog’s actions toward others. Pay attention to your own actions while walking your dog; do you shorten the leash and tense up when a stranger approaches in anticipation of your dog’s behavior?

Do you get nervous before company comes to your home because you are fearful of how your dog will interact with them? Just as your dog will grow more fearful by sensing your anxiety and stress, he will find confidence in your strong, assertive leadership. You must show that your dog can relax knowing that he is safe under your care. Ascertain your dominance through walks and obedience training, and be aware of your own mental state during interactions with strangers.

During personal interactions, instruct others on how to behave with your dog. On the first meeting, there should be no eye contact or touching; the stranger should act impartial in your dog. This allows your dog to have his own personal space, and not to be threatened by what he perceives to be a dominant stranger. Remember, you know your dog better than anyone else, so be aware of his mental state at all times.

If your dog is afraid of children, hats, or loud noises, begin to expose him to just those things, in very small doses at first. Increase exposure only as your dog becomes more comfortable. Take your dog for a walk past a school while children are outside. To keep his mind from focusing on the children, ask him to sit, or lay down; as long as he is focusing on you and the rewards for his good behavior, his mind cannot be consumed with fear.

It is enormously important to remain upbeat and positive during these training sessions, as your dog will feed off of your mood. You can correct your dog for not obeying a command, but do not punish for fearful behavior, as this will only increase anxiety. Socialization is a life long process; the learning never ends for your dog, and as long as you can help alleviate his fear, he can continue living his life to the fullest.