I love eating…especially when my owners have chicken for dinner and give me a little bite…like I said in the post before this one, I do beg, but I don’t get what I want until the owners are ready to cut it up and give it to me.
One thing dogs and their owners should know about many dog foods that you buy in the store is that they are heated up a lot while processing, and my nutritionist owner can tell you that kills a lot of the vitamins and nutrients that are in the food.
If your food doesn’t have the nutrients in it that your body needs, it can lead to many problems, including shedding and itchy skin. All dogs with fur (not hair like me, my hair grows like a human) shed when the weather gets warmer, but there are some dogs that shed all the time…their skin is dry because of missing essential oils and other nutrients in food.
So, like humans, dogs and even cats need supplements. One supplemental source you will want to look into is Dinovite.
You can learn more by going to the solutions center and completing the customized solution guide.
We depend on our human owners to take good care of us, because we can’t go out and find our own food…we have to eat whatever you give us, whether it’s healthy or not…why not help us out by giving us foods that are healthy, and when you aren’t sure whether they are healthy enough, giving us the pet supplements we need?
I’m not very excited about my owner sharing this article with you, I’m the “queen” of begging, and she says she thinks she’s guilty of thinking my begging is cute…it may be too late for me (I hope) but not for your dog. Enjoy the article and let us know if it helps.
Your Dog’s Behavior:
Why You Should Never Let Your Dog Beg For Food & Attention
By: Kelly Marshall
Unless they are trained not to do so, most dogs will form the habit of begging for attention and food. Some dog owners actually allow this behavior and think it s cute…not. Many people get extremely annoyed very quickly when their dog begins to beg every time he wants love, attention, and especially when he smells something delicious coming from your kitchen.
What is wrong with a begging dog?
Everything! Begging is another form of demanding and it gives your dog an aspect of control within the family pack . I describe a family as a pack because that is exactly how your dog sees it. While it may seem cute when Rex rolls over on his back expecting a belly rub every time you enter the room, or just sits all teary eyed staring straight at your hero sandwich when you re eating during the Super Bowl game, this behavior has the possibility to gain momentum and become hostile.
Just how hostile can a dog actually become?
If you do not think that your dog could ever actually bite your hand because he expects you to give him a fun snack every time he begs, think again. For years a friend of mine would hand feed his dog pieces of food at any time of the day he was eating. If it were breakfast, his dog would get a two pieces of toast. At lunch time my friend would hand feed his dog a few bites of his Rueben sandwich. The same went for super.
Months later, his dog matured and grew larger, and my friend did not realize that he was reinforcing a dominant leadership role into his dog every time he gave in to begging. Once he decided to alter this behavior with his dog, he learned very fast just how dangerous the situation was. At one of his meals, my friend refused to feed his dog anything and the begging and crying turned into hostile barking. Then without suddenly his dog jumped up onto his plate and snapped at his cheeseburger, taking a little bit of my friend’s finger along with it.
Begging can be eliminated with proper training
The example of my friend may seem a bit extreme and you still probably could never imagine you re cute dog biting you in the attempt to get a meal that he was wanting. This can develop into a real problem and you must start early in your dog’s life with instilling the rules when it comes to begging.
During meal time, you need to train your dog to sit and stay in a separate area when the family is eating food. This may take some time but eventually he will remain in a sit position until after your dinner is over and then of course you should praise his actions by offering him up a delicious meal that he can eat in his “own” food bowl, and only after everybody else is finished eating their meal.
Once again, my owner is feeding birds. I don’t mind too much, the fun thing about it is that sometimes squirrels will come and eat the seeds from one of the bird feeders, and I can bark at them…one of my favorite things to do.
It’s a very cloudy, rainy day today, but there’s a bright red feeder outside full of sweet liquid that the hummingbirds are coming too. I’m not sure that it’s a glass hummingbird feeder, it’s one that we’ve had for a very long time and will need to be replaced soon. All of the bird feeders that we are using…except the hummingbird feeder, are from birdfeeders.com. My owner really likes them a LOT, and loves to get their newsletter by email because it has a lot of educational information about birds. That’s how she knew that the hummingbirds had migrated into our area, they had a map in one of the newsletters telling us all the states where they hummingbirds had returned for the summer. There is an entire section about hummingbirds at the site, and a lot about other birds, too.
I’m glad she feeds me well, or I might get a little jealous of all the attention the animals outside get.
Click here is another post we did months ago with a video of me opening a box we received with a birdfeeders.com feeder in it.
Actually, I’m being nice…my owner has been lazy, she’s the one that does my typing for me, and she’s been busy doing other things. It has been hard enough to get her to take me for my walks, give me my snacks and give me my “tummy rubs” lately, and getting her to type for me has been impossible.
Oh don’t worry, she hasn’t totally ignored me. The weather is nice now, and sometimes she just wants to be outside, so we’ve been taking walks more. Other times she lets me run around the yard while she watches, because she knows I’ll sneak next door or run out in the road if I see a cat or something fun to chase. We have bears around here, too, so she does have to keep a close eye on me just because she loves me.
But we’ve missed blogging together, so will try to do better, and hope you are having a good summer so far.
My owner wants me to tell you about something called a “Manta”. At first, she thought it was some kind of an animal, because it is something new at Seaworld this month. I helped her realize that it’s not an animal…not a “manna” ray (she always says it wrong), or Manatee, or any other animal she kept thinking of. Brilliant of me, right? I knew what it wasn’t but didn’t know what it was. So we went and visited this Manta link to find out.
Guess what? My owner was almost right, it’s a new exciting-looking ride, and it looks like a huge Manta Ray…it’s like your riding under the belly of this huge flying ray! I will never understand why humans like to go on rides like that, my owner says it gives them an “adrenaline rush”…anyway, the great thing that we really want you to know is that you can win a front-line pass to this ride by doing the 6 fun things they tell you to do at the site…just visit and look under the big flying ray. You have to do 2 of the things suggested to win a picture of Manta, and 6 of them to win the front-line pass.
Be sure to check out our friend, Ted, and some of his friends experiencing “Manta” in the video below.
My owner has some art prints listed on ebay that she wants me to tell you about. They are all prints of dogs by an artist named Gladys Emerson Cook who lived from 1899-1976. She did many wonderful animal pictures, and other beautiful art.
They are original prints, and when you click on the picture that interests you as they scroll by in the widget below, you can see more information about the picture.
The price she is asking for the prints is much lower than others that she has seen, so she thinks it’s a fair price. Have fun looking, oh, and we hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend.
We’re sure sorry we didn’t get this post to you last week when the Home Again Web Site was supporting the American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Week® by donating $1 for every pet that was registered to the program, but that sure doesn’t mean that bringpetshome.com isn’t a site worth visiting.
There are things that you can do to “be kind to animals”, including your pet not only on a week set aside to focus on the subject, but every day of every week:
Make sure your pets are properly identified with something that will last, that will not get lost, and is easy to read.
With hot months coming to parts of the US where seasons change, PLEASE DO NOT leave your pet out in the car with windows closed. This is a thought that gives my owner and I nightmares!
If you leave your dog out for long periods of time in warm weather, make sure they have a shady spot to rest…and not just an enclosed doghouse, they can get warm inside if they are in direct sun, but if it’s not terribly hot, are better than nothing. If it’s very hot, keep you pet inside where it’s cool…treat them like you’d treat yourself.
Also, if outside provide water to drink during the day.
PLEASE make sure that your pets are protected from fleas and ticks.
You can find many things to help you protect and care for your pet at bringpetshome.com and when you purchase, you are benefiting animals in need, animals that are living in shelters waiting for someone to bring them home and give them love. It doesn’t cost you anything extra with your purchase to provide food and medical care to needy animals.
Did you know that HomeAgain.com has helped recover more than 500,000 lost pets? They provide a pet-recovery service that goes beyond microchipping, which, by the way, is an excellent way to protect your pet from getting lost. For a reasonable yearly fee, you have access to pet-recovery specialists and emergency medical assistance 24/7…the program also includes up to $3,000 (- $50 deductible) in medical insurance for lost pets, and more.
Please do visit my sponsors site for so many more wonderful details!
Today I want to share with you a story about two little dogs that belong(ed) to a friend of mine. She shared it in an email a long while ago, and I just stumbled on it, and thought you’d like it, as it shows how two dogs can learn to get along. After I post it, we’ll track our friend down and have her come read it and update on the latest news about these two little furbabies in a comment…it picks up a bit into the story about her adopted Chihuahua mix, Zeena. Enjoy!
We only know for sure that Zeena’s mom is a Chihuahua. (Dad is from a nice neighborhood.) The vet is convinced that her dad is a dachshund, because of her growing features, but we are not really sure. The vet said we could do DNA testing to find out, but I really don’t care. She’s my fur baby and she’s a doll! When I got her at 3 weeks old, she was less than a pound and looked just like a Chihuahua puppy. As she grew she changed a lot. Now, she is 5.5 lbs., completely healthy and loves everyone she comes into contact with. Very smart and very active!
Bernie, (Bernadette) my toy poodle has been with me for 3 years. She was rescued from an abusive home where apparently the young man or teen living in the home kicked her down a long flight of stairs. That was when they took her away—who knows what kind of stuff happened behind closed doors. Bernie has always shied away from men, but she knew she had me tied around her front paws the minute I held her. She needed a lot of medical care for ear infections, bad teeth and is almost toothless now. I wanted to breed her at first, but the vet said she was too old and had her spayed instead. She is not a very bright dog, but she and I are bonded and I take very good care of her, so no one can ever hurt her again. We think she is around 8 years old, but are not sure. She is very loyal to me.
When I brought Zeena into our family, Bernie wasn’t sure what to do about her. I knew she was jealous of Zeena, because I kept her near me, or carried her around most of the day when she was a baby. She had to be bottle fed every 2-3 hrs. the first week. I think Bernie thought she was a squeaky toy—I didn’t notice any mothering instinct at all! I kept them separated for the first two months, except when I was right there to help Zeena.
Now that Zeena is older, the two of them play all day long and only get mad at each other when I pay more attention to one and not the other. Bernie is not lonely when I have to leave for the day and Zeena is just non-stop fun! Geeze, I could write all day about their antics, but I have to stop for now. I like the idea of Aspen’s blog and was thinking about maybe doing one for my babies—they give me so much enjoyment! (Teri, if you still have your fur-babies, doing a blog about them is a bright spot in the middle of whatever life brings your way…luv, Aspen)
I love eating…especially when my owners have chicken for dinner and give me a little bite…like I said in the post before this one, I do beg, but I don’t get what I want until the owners are ready to cut it up and give it to me.
