Ozzie, my four-month old Rottweiler peered up at me with his big brown eyes, as I temporarily left him for a very important surgical procedure. As much as it broke my heart to drop off my “baby” at the local humane society, I know it was the responsible thing to do.
What Ozzie doesn’t know is that today is the first day of the rest of his life. He is being neutered.
Being a rescue volunteer, I’ve acquired a rather large brood of dogs into my family circle. Having adopted six boys and two girls of the canine species, I’ve come to complete understanding of the importance of spaying and neutering our furry companions.
Persons who come in contact with me and my animals will ask, “how can you spay and neuter these beautiful animals? You could breed them and make a profit.”
When I encounter these folks, I tend to get a little testy and become a bit wordy with an explanation to the multiple reasons behind my choice as a responsible pet owner:
- (All animals are beautiful, but unless an individual has the time, funding or resources to “breed” puppies, it is not a good idea to permit one’s animals to produce offspring that may end up in a “puppy mill” environment.
(For more information on “Puppy Mills,” go to www.puppymillrescue.com)
- Spaying or neutering is a fairly inexpensive procedure if done at your local shelter or Humane Society Spay or Neuter Clinic. Furthermore, spaying and neutering has minimal risks and is one of the most common, animal surgical procedures.
(For the address of your local Humane Society, click here: www.napcc.aspca.org )
- A spayed or neutered animal behaves better. While unsterilized males tend to roam in search of a mate, they risk injury or death due to traffic and fight incidents. They also tend to mark territory with urine, and can be quite embarrassing when they decide to mount objects and human legs when excited. Unsterilized females will also roam, have bloody discharge, will yowl and urinate more often during heat cycles; and have a tendancy to tear or chew their way out of an enclosure. Neutered or spayed dogs and cats focus primarily on their human counterparts and do not exhibit behavior patterns as mentioned above.
- My main reason for spaying or neutering: Spayed or Neutered animals live longer, healthier lives. “…By neutering a male cat or dog before six months of age prevents testicular cancer and prostate disease. Spaying a female cat or dog helps prevent pyometra and breast cancer…” (Facts from ASPCA® “Why Spay or Neuter?” Flyer) Additionally, spaying or neutering your animals can prolong their lives by an average of two to three years.
- Responsibility. Millions of animals needlessly suffer and die every year. Why? Everybody loves cuddly puppies and cute kittens, but when these once-adorable babies grow up, children and adults, alike may lose interest in caring for them. Usually, these animals end up in shelters where they may be euthanized - or worse, get “put out” where they end up as strays. Strays, unfortunately, may die from starvation, disease, weather exposure or being hit by traffic.
When I was younger, I used to watch Bob Barker’s “The Price is Right” on television. At the end of each and every show, I candidly recall Mr. Barker reiterating, “Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered today.” What a profound and responsible statement that is. You see, if you do your part by helping control the pet population, you may just save a life. Do you love your animal companion(s)? I do.
©2004 - All Rights Reserved
Love your Animal Companion? Spay or Neuter
C. Bailey-Lloyd
About the Author:
C. Bailey-Lloyd - Author of “Somewhere Along the Beaten Path”
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When a dog begs, whether its at the dinner table or when folks are snacking around the super-bowl, it can be very annoying not only to you but to your guests also. If you step back and take a look at what leads to begging it is quite simple. Begging starts when someone offers a dog a taste of “people food”.
The number one rule is; DO NOT reward the behavior. This is easiest to begin if you are starting with a new puppy, but you can do things with older, more established dogs. Basically if you offer a dog a taste of whatever it is that you are eating while it is staring with those sad eyes, it will become an addiction that is very difficult to break. I realize that it is very tough to not give your best friend something that you find scrumptious. After all, this is your most loyal companion. (Don’t tell your spouse this, rule number 2)
Coupled with the number one rule is; DO NOT give your dog “people food”. If you follow this advice alone it will avoid the problem from developing in the first place. You must also not resort to dipping into the dog treat bag to reward a begging behavior. This will create the addiction just as well as people food will. Following guidelines such as this will lead to a inherent type of “lifestyle” dog training that will make things much easier for you and your dog.
Another good reason to avoid people food is that you will not risk giving your dog something that is potentially toxic which can lead to complications or death. A few examples of foods that are dangerous to dogs are: garlic, onions, pork, chocolate, grapes, raisins, heavily salted foods and walnuts. Chocolate can be the most dangerous depending upon how much is ingested per the size of the dog. It is not the chocolate itself that can produce problems, but Theobromine. Theobromine is an alkaloid compound that is harmless to humans but can be deadly to dogs. It is known to cause seizures and cardiac arrythmia in high enough concentrations.
Also avoid chicken, turkey or beef fat, since large amounts of these can bring on acute pancreatitis in your dog. It is a miserable illness to witness, and I have seen it cut the life short of a wonderful schnauzer at ten years old. (It raided the garbage can of chicken fat) Check out the book referenced in the previous paragraph for what to do in such occurrences.
The commercial dog foods that I prefer are Hill’s Science Diet. They have a wonderful range of “stage of life” foods for dogs (puppy, adult, senior) as well as foods geared toward specific lifestyles. (Sensitive stomach, Arthritic, Dental Formulas, etc…) The Science Diet foods tend to be less “moist” and seem much better to me and all dogs I’ve experienced seem to love it. I use the dental treats when I do choose to engage in reward training.
If your dog already has the begging response engrained within it, you can still break the habit but it will take some time and patience. If your dog is a chronic beggar, do not let it near the dinner table when you and/ or your family are having meals. You can try giving your dog it’s food while you are eating (feed it in a different room), but this will require you synchronize your dog’s meal schedule(s) with yours.
Keep your dog in a separate area from your dining area for several weeks and gradually try letting the dog roam free as you eat your meals. If the begging behavior re-0ccurs, simple say NO! sternly and gently place the dog back into the separation area. Never hit or be violent with your dog, since this can lead to aggressive behavior. You can also stress “keywords” such as LIE DOWN as you place the dog in it’s separation area. After awhile, your dog will surprisingly start to obey the keyword phrase and retreat to the area in which you’ve trained her to stay while you enjoy your meals.
If you are having parties and prefer that your dog not beg (given it is a beggar) simply practice the same techniques as mentioned above for several weeks and you will start to see behavioral changes. If you are having guests that you suspect may not prefer the companionship of canines, you may wish to keep your dog separated from the engagement altogether, eliminating the problem completely.
In summary, if you are starting fresh with a puppy, you should have no problem with begging if you stick to the number one rule of not rewarding begging behavior/NO people food. If you are dealing with the problem with an established dog, the dog training advice in this article will certainly help as long as you practice patience, understanding and have a stick with it attitude.
Dog Training
http://www.dogsrus-dogtraining.blogspot.com
Guarding food or toys from other animals is a normal canine
behavior. The instinct is triggered when a dog is put into a
situation where other animals pose a threat to the food. In a
wild pack, dogs guard food in order to eat it and survive,
rather than starve to death. Dogs higher in the pack hierarchy
may exercise the right to take the food from lower-ranking
members. A pack requires strong leaders in order to survive.
Life with dogs in our homes is safer when dogs do not guard
their food. A confrontational attitude toward training has long
maintained that people should force dogs to give up their food
to humans, and punish a dog in various ways for not doing so.
The sad result of this is to push the dog to guard food more and
more ferociously. Happily, we have a wonderful alternative that
works extremely well. We simply condition the dog to expect and
to fully believe that humans are the givers of food, not the
takers.
Prevention
When you first get a dog of any age, hopefully the dog will not
have a strong tendency to guard food. Organizations with the
responsibility of finding adoptive homes for dogs avoid placing
dogs with this problem, unless the new home is informed of the
problem and capable of dealing with it. If that’s the case with
your new dog, you’ll want to move on to the rehabilitation
instructions.
For the dog who doesn’t yet guard food, your task is to keep
this problem from starting. Here’s how:
1. Whenever you feed the dog, ensure adequate privacy from other
animals (including cats), so the dog does not have to fret about
others approaching the food. Instill in your dog the confidence
that mealtimes are reliable and that you will provide the
necessary structure. Control the environment around the dog’s
mealtimes so that the dog’s instincts to protect food don’t get
triggered in the first place. This applies to puppies, too. Feed
the dog regular meals instead of leaving a food dish out with
food in it.
2. Walk by your dog during a few meals, and see how the dog
reacts. Any tension in the dog’s body is cause for concern. If
you see this, be sure to do the prevention exercises thoroughly,
and frequently for the life of the dog. Also stay alert to
changes in the household that might result in other animals or
little kids disturbing the dog during meals. Remember to
maintain the dog’s trust that meals are provided without the
need to defend them!
3. Walk by your dog while the dog is eating and drop something a
little smellier and tastier than the regular food into the dish.
Do this many, many times. Add the treats in small amounts. The
idea is that each time a person approaches the dish, a good
thing happens. That good thing does NOT need to be a jackpot
amount of food.
4. When you feel comfortable trying it (not too soon with an
adult dog), touch the dog affectionately while the dog is
eating. Add a treat to the dish at the same time. If the dog
accepts this easily, continue to do it when you approach the
eating dog, and start letting a second, two seconds, three
seconds, four seconds, and finally five seconds, pass before you
add the treat to the dish.
5. Include your children in the activity of walking by the dish
and adding a treat, but only AFTER you are confident the dog
will not react aggressively. It is extremely important that a
dog in a home with children is approachable during meals, but
rushing the program could get a child hurt, and we certainly
don’t want that.
For safety’s sake, teach young children to leave dogs alone
during meals, except when they are doing this exercise with your
help. Kids don’t fully understand consequences, and certainly
don’t understand that a dog is much more the victim of instinct
than a human is. A dog will instinctively react to what a child
might think is a fun teasing game around the food dish.
There are certain situations in which a dog can’t intellectually
understand to play nice, and this is certainly one. Condition
your dog to accept the approach of kids during eating for
safety’s sake-but also for safety’s sake, teach your kids not to
do it! In case a child does occasionally err-or an adult errs by
not supervising the child-the conditioning you’ve done can save
the day.
6. Feed the dog occasionally at various places in the house,
outside the house, and on outings. The idea is to keep the dog
from thinking of one place as being the inner sanctum of meals.
The result in some cases is a dog guarding that special
meal-place. It’s also better for the dog to feel comfortable
eating in different places so that the dog will eat on trips,
when boarded, or in other situations outside the daily routine.
7. Do the prevention exercises with your dog’s toys, too. Have
an adult ask the dog for the toy, gently take it, look at it,
give the dog a treat, and then return the toy. Eventually
include the children, but maintain a high level of adult
supervision when you do this, and teach the kids not to take the
dog’s toys at other times. If a dog shows a strong tendency to
guard any particular toy, that toy must be removed. Better the
dog lose the enjoyment of a toy than to lose the dog’s life when
the dog becomes too dangerous. You may be able to allow the dog
to enjoy it strictly in a private place such as the dog’s crate.
8. Never chase a dog down to get something the dog has stolen.
This triggers the same instincts as food guarding, and also
teaches your dog to run from you. Condition your dog instead to
bring things to you for great trades, plus praise and other
rewards.
9. When humans eat, develop a sensible plan for the dog,
depending on how the particular dog responds-and how family
members behave. When people give dogs some of the humans’ food,
not only does it teach the dogs to beg, but also it can trigger
food-guarding instincts. Some dogs will develop the attitude
that ALL food should be dog food! If you cannot prevent your
family members from feeding the dog at the human dinner table,
place the dog in another area when humans eat. Watch out for
human behavior around picnics, backyard barbecues, parties, and
TV snacking, too. If the people can’t behave, they don’t get to
enjoy the company of the dog! Place the dog in a safe confined
area with a nice treat to enjoy.
10. Teach your dog to “sit” and also to “down,” and from time to
time have the dog perform one of these actions prior to your
setting the food dish down for the dog to eat. This is an
especially great way to help the dog enjoy learning the “down”
cue.
Rehabilitation
If your dog already has a problem with food guarding, you will
certainly need to continue the prevention exercises and
management for the life of the dog. Initially, it may be too
dangerous to walk up to the dog’s dish at all while the dog is
eating, and we certainly don’t want you hurt. In such cases,
enlist the help of a behavior specialist in person, to evaluate
the dog and the situation and to add an extra measure of safety
for the people involved.
For the food-guarding dog, remove the dog dish from the floor
between meals. Leaving the dish out gives the dog something to
guard, and our goal is to lull the whole food-guarding instinct
to sleep.
If this is a fairly moderate problem, start by putting the food
dish on the floor at mealtime-with nothing in it! Walk several
feet away, and have the dog’s food with you. Also have some
means of giving the food to the dog in small bits. For a dog who
reacts to a hand reaching toward the dish, get the help of a
behavior specialist. But one way to work it would be to use
something long to put the food into the dish, rather than your
hand. A reaching tool for people with disabilities may be an
option, depending on the food you’re using. These tools are not
expensive.
When the dog realizes there is no food in the dish and looks at
you, walk up to the dish and put a small amount of food in it
before walking away again. When the dog finishes that bit and
looks at you again, walk up and place another bit in the bowl
and go back to your position several feet away from the dish.
You’re conditioning the dog to accept having a person
approaching the dish and putting a hand down to the dish. You
don’t want to just stand next to the dish dispensing food. You
want to include an approach to the dish each time, in order to
turn the approach of a person at mealtime into a positive event
in the dog’s mind. A good way to end the meal would be to give
the dog an especially tasty treat as you pick the bowl up off
the floor. This is to condition the dog that having the bowl
removed is a good thing, too, and also to let the dog know the
meal is finished.
If your dog is extra-touchy about the person’s approach or some
other aspect of the exercise, you can start by taking a step
back from doing it as described above, or more than one step
back. Here are some ideas for “back up steps”:
1. For the dog who has become defensive about the dish itself,
you could start with no dog dish, and feed the dog from your
hand. In order to switch the dog to safely eating from a dish,
you would gradually include the dish. After the dog gets used to
eating from your hand, you could place the dish on a surface
nearby and gradually move the hand with the food closer to the
dish for successive bits of food.
Start holding the dish in your other hand, and gradually move
the dish to the floor level. Eventually set the dog dish on the
floor, and continue gradual steps until the dog is ready for you
to start setting the empty dish on the floor and moving several
steps away.
Take these steps slowly. You want to do the whole process over
as long as period of time as it takes, as slowly as necessary,
to avoid triggering the dog into a food-guarding or
dish-guarding reaction. Such a reaction is a big setback to
training. Slower is faster in this case, because taking the
steps slowly will achieve the desired effects much more quickly
than if you rush things.
2. You could hold the dog dish in your hand rather than setting
it on the floor, and have the dog come to you for food rather
than you walking up to the dog. You may want to move around,
stepping away from the dog, having the dog come with you to a
new spot for each bite.
A next step would be to teach the dog a simple “stay” and have
the dog hold the “stay” while you walk up with the dish and
still hold it for the dog to eat. Now you’re introducing the
approach, but the dog has nothing to guard as you approach,
because you still have the dish and the food with you.
Gradually you would put the dish closer to the floor, and then
eventually on the floor. When using a “stay” with training on
food guarding, avoid creating a situation that rewards the dog
at the release from the “stay.” This can make a dog somewhat
explosive, exactly what you do not want.
Always bring your dog out of a “stay” command calmly. Do the
same whenever you bring a dog out of a crate or other
confinement. Exploding dogs can be dangerous, and we sometimes
unknowingly condition this reaction by making the release too
rewarding. Give the dog something calm to do immediately on
release from the “stay” or the confined area.
3. It could enhance an adult’s safety to place the dish on a
raised surface for early training, so that you’re not bending
down and putting your face near dog teeth, and so that you’re
less physically off balance when you deposit food into the dish.
A raised dish and a reaching tool to add the food would be
additional safety. Note that raising the dish could put it
closer to a child’s face, and therefore not be a good idea. You
wouldn’t be including the child in the conditioning process at
the early stages anyway, though. The child should not be brought
into the exercises until the dog is completely steady with
adults.
4. You could tether the dog before putting down the dish, so
that the dog cannot nail you with teeth as long as you stay out
of reach. Again, if you feel this is necessary, get a behavior
specialist to help you with the dog rather than going it alone.
5. For extra safety, you could use a head halter or muzzle that
allows the dog to eat but prevents the dog from biting you. If
you want to try this option, work with a behavior specialist-and
have that person help you fit the mouth-controlling device so
that you don’t get a nasty surprise if it accidentally comes off
at the worst possible moment.
Remember, too, that conditioning might quickly seem complete
with the mouth-controlling device on, and fall apart appallingly
quickly when the device is removed. Don’t try to take short cuts
on the conditioning. If a dog has this big a problem with
food-guarding, it’s going to be a long process to make that dog
safer.
6. Keep confrontation and punishment strictly out of this
process. No matter how difficult the dog or how serious you
might consider a particular transgression the dog has committed,
human aggression toward the dog over food or toys is virtually
guaranteed to make the problem worse. It is quite often what
causes the problem in the first place.
Happy Dog, Happy Family
With a little effort-most of it quite enjoyable, since dogs love
to eat and people love to see dogs happy-food-guarding can be
prevented in the first place. Where it has emerged, it may not
be completely curable-instincts are POWERFUL-but it can be made
safer.
Once a dog is calm about people approaching the dish during
meals, continue to practice good management, including whenever
you have guests, the household is rearranged for any reason, you
get another animal, or someone new joins the family. For the
life of the dog, continue at least occasionally to walk up to
the dish and add something nice. Keep it uppermost in your dog’s
mind that the approach of a person during meals always carries
the possibility of a bonus!
The above is general veterinary information. Do not begin
any course of treatment without consulting your regular
veterinarian. All animals should be examined at least once every
12 months.
To most of the world, the phrase “global pet recovery” has no meaning, but it should if they are pet owners that take an active interest in the safe return of lost pets. The mistake the pet owners who do know about this phrase make is, they do not registering their pets prior to them becoming lost. Thus, the active marketing of Global Pet Recovery Services for owners to register pets as soon as they are acquired; these services specialize in the safe and quick return of lost pets.
The advent of global pet recovery is based on the increased popularity of the internet, and its worldwide reach. No longer is searching for a lost pet confined to the local neighborhood, but it can encompass an entire metropolitan city or even a state or country. With companies that specialize in global pet recovery like RecoveryPets.Com, no longer are the boundaries of countries or borders relevant, and pets can be registered with this service anywhere in the world.
So what exactly is global pet recovery? It is simply the name branding of a company in the pet recovery field; it is establishing a company like RecoveryPets.Com in a global environment as the one source for pet recovery. And, pet recovery is the utilization of available tools to help in the safe return of lost pets to their owners.
By having a service that has global reach, and a database of registered pets makes it easier for finders of lost pets to establish where the owners of the pets are located. One aspect of this service that benefits pet owners that travel with their pets is that, if the pet becomes lost abroad, the finder can immediately recognize the tag and know that the pet is registered with a global pet recovery service.
These services provide a description of the pet, along with a photograph, and the contact information of the pets’ owner. The services are aimed primarily at pet owners that take an active interest in ensuring that their pets are safe and secure, and if they are ever lost, that they will be returned to them as quickly as possible. Global pet recovery is not a new concept, but it is a growing field as the world becomes increasingly wired due to the internet, which makes protecting our pets a little bit easier.
To take advantage of the advent of global pet recovery contact a registration company like Recoverypets.Com to register your pet for their services, and read related articles about pet recovery services at their website located at http://www.recoverypets.com. There you will find more information on the need to register a pet as soon as they are acquired in the event they should ever become lost at home or while traveling.
About the Author: Thaddeus Collins is the owner of RecoveryPets.Com and they specialize in the global recovery of lost pets using a unique tracking number. For more information visit http://www.recoverypets.com
Source: www.isnare.com
