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What your dog eats can make a huge difference to her state of health and her ability to fight off any form of the disease. It can affect how she feels and behaves.

Dogs need the right amount of fat, protein, amino acids and vitamins. You could potentially cook all of this up yourself, but most owners go the route of buying 'complete' pet food from a pet-food manufacturer. This ensures that your pet-food is balanced with the right levels of nutrition. The disadvantage of purchasing prepared food is that they often contain preservatives which are artificial and have chemicals to provide color and flavor. It is also all pre-cooked which can rob it of some nutrients. The good thing is that they are so convenient and contain all the food that your dog needs for a balanced diet.

You can choose from dry mixes or moist tinned varieties. There are also sachets and organic ready-made foods. There also specific foods available for senior dogs and puppies. This is great as their requirements for food do differ at these key stages in the dog's life. There is also the BARF diet which stands for bones and raw food. This is claimed by some to be healthier for your dog due to its fresh approach; however home-prepared diets need to be carefully balanced between protein, fat, vitamins and amino acids.

There is only a limited amount of scientific evidence which suggests the effects of diet on your dog's behavior. Food that can appear to suit one dog may cause another dog to be difficult and badly behaved. If you are having issues with your pet dog around behavior it is definitely worth considering altering your dog's diet. If your dog shows unwanted behavior half an hour after eating, every time he eats then your dog may be allergic to the food you are giving him.

You have to be resilient when it comes to feeding your dog. Different breeds of dogs have varying energy requirements. For instance, a nursing mother will need much more energy to feed her puppies and a working dog such as a police dog will need more energy as it is working all day. If you have had your dog neutered they will also need less energy than a dog that has not been neutered. Always be conscious that you need to try and keep your dog at his ideal weight. If you practice lots of training with him, you could allow for extra treats during training.



What Is the Correct Food for Dog?



Giving the best possible care for your female dog and her litter of puppies starts before you even choose the right dog to breed her. The first step is to make sure she is healthy, which includes worming, vaccinating and having her health checked. If there are any nutritional concerns it is important to address them with your vet at that time since pregnancy will be a nutritional drain on her body.

If you get the go-ahead it is important to have her fit and within a healthy weight range. Once she is bred you also do need to keep a calendar so you know approximately what to expect and when to make changes in her feeding schedule prior to the arrival of the puppies.

Canines are pregnant for approximately 62 days, give or take about five days depending on the breed and the individual female. It is essential to avoid overfeeding and under-exercising your dog for the first month to five weeks of pregnancy, it should literally be business as usual. Do not provide additional food or change food, just keep her on a high-quality kibble that is mostly meat based, or feed a homemade balanced diet or a BARF diet as she has been eating. Changing the diet at this time is not recommended unless there is a specific reason as recommended by a vet.

Typically most females will experience a sort of dog version of morning sickness at about week three and she may start to refuse food. As long as she is eating a bit at least once a day all is probably fine, however, if she skips more than two feeding sessions contact your vet immediately.

The last month of the pregnancy is the biggest strain on the female since this is when the puppies really have a growth spurt. Gradually begin to increase her food intake, but keep the food to about 30% more than her average daily intake. At the same time switch her to a high-quality puppy food in the same quantity. This will provide the additional caloric and protein intake she needs to keep her weight as well as provide the nutrients needed for the rapidly growing puppies. She should be on full meat based high-quality puppy kibble by the second week before her due date.

During this time her abdomen will really become stretched so she may have a much smaller stomach area than she did prior to the pregnancy. Some vets recommend allowing her free choice access to food so she can eat all day, just place the daily ration or half the daily ration out in the morning, then do the same at dinner time to give her a controlled amount of food to nibble on. Avoid just dumping a huge quantity of food since you cannot monitor how much she is eating or if she is skipping any meals.

Weighing the dog may also be a good idea, she should not begin to lose weight at any time after the third to fourth week of pregnancy. Any rapid weight loss or weight gain at this time should be checked out by your vet as soon as possible.



How to Feed Pregnant Dogs


Although you treat your dog well and make sure that he eats right and exercises, you can be shocked to see that your pet has dog cancer symptoms. Sometimes you cannot prevent this, no matter how much love you have to give.

Now you have to learn how to take care of your sick dog and know the progression of cancer to help treat it. Brain cancer has no causes within medical science at this time. It is thought that brain cancer is a genetic disorder in cells that mutate, but there is no cause that veterinarians are able to find.

Dog Cancer Symptoms for Brain Cancer:

Meningioma or brain cancer is a tumor cell that forms in different parts of the brain that can go from the base of the spine to any part of the brain. Mutated cells turn to cancer and continue to grow without treatment.

This type of cancer is always malignant and means that it will always grow in the brain until your dog perishes from cancer or the pressure on the brain that causes aneurysms. You should know and look for the symptoms to keep suffering to a minimum for your best friend.

Brain cancer symptoms in dogs include stress and aggression, shyness and depression or personality changes. You will also see lethargy or lameness as well as appetite changes and nosebleeds, heart trouble, and coordination problems. Muscle twitches and facial or eye problems can also be seen. Early symptoms to be recalled to your vet include appetite changes, weight loss or personality differences.

When cancer progresses, there are more changes and normally extremely weak muscles. Since the brain is the center for the body, when a small portion is troubled, it can throw off many other functions in the body like heart and lungs or immune system and the liver. The brain cancer can just as easily be a secondary mass that branched from cancer somewhere else in the body. Symptoms are normally determined by where the brain cancer is located on the brain.

Although you treat your dog well and make sure that he eats right and exercises, you can be shocked to see that your dog has cancer. Sometimes you cannot prevent this, no matter how much love you have to give. Now you have to learn how to take care of your sick dog and know the progression of cancer to help treat it., so treatment is vital to survival for your dog.

There are few choices in treatment such as surgery. But this is hard on dogs because the mass must be removed, and thus a portion of the brain is also removed that causes a lifelong effect. Many owners just decide to go with care and medicines. There are some medicines made to prevent the cycle of mutation that the cells go through with cancer.

This medicine doesn't reduce the number of already formed cells but prevents the regrowth. This medication and radiation combined will need adjustments from time to time such as diet changes and less exercise for your dog. When your dog feels bad, they want to lie down, so always let them have more rest as well as those short walks. Realize that some of the illness they feel can be from treatment, and they need you to be loving to help with the vomiting and other side effects. Remember they can't help it, and they were always there for you when you felt bad.



Symptoms of Cancer in Dogs


Do you really know the best methods for teaching puppies not to bite? Do you really have an understanding as to why puppies tend to bite? Well, don't worry continue reading and you will discover the following...

Why teaching puppies not to bite is important?
Why puppies bite?
Things you can refrain from doing that will encourage puppy biting
Tips that can help your puppy stop biting

Let's begin...

Before we can get to any training techniques you need to know why puppies bite. Puppies learn to bite from when they are born, this is the way they communicate with their mother and the other puppies. As puppies get older they begin teething just like toddlers and just like a toddler who puts everything in their mouth for relief, puppies chew and bite on things for their relief.

So why is training puppies not to bite so important? Statistics show that as many as 4.7 million people each year get bitten by a dog. Now would this happen if these dogs were taught not to bite when they were puppies? No! So that is why it's important to teach your puppy not to bite.

Let's discuss the things you should not do when teaching puppies not to bite.

1. You never want to let your puppy play with any garments of clothing or shoes. Most importantly you do not want your puppy to bite and play with your hands, legs, toes or fingers. If you find that your puppy is trying to play with any of these you will want to substitute with a toy immediately.

2. Avoid wrestling with your puppy. Children have the tendency to wrestle with their puppies but you have to refrain from doing this because it will encourage your puppy to bite.

3. Never ever use physical force against your puppy. This will only make the puppy angry and want to bite.

Let's continue on to a few puppy training techniques to teaching puppies not to bite, but first, you should start training your puppy at about 6 weeks old if you wait for them to get older it is only going to be harder to train them.

1. You also want to give your puppy an ample amount of exercise. Exercise is not only great for your puppy but a puppy that is tried is a puppy that is less likely to bite.

2. You should begin to socialize your puppy with other people and other animals. This will let your puppy know that other individuals are nice and friendly and your puppy will be less likely to get scared around others and will also be less likely to bite anyone.

3. Get your puppy some chew toys. Instead of having your puppy bite on your fingers and hands you want to give him a chew toy.

I believe that you have a better understanding of why teaching puppies not to bite is so important.

How to Teach Your Puppies not to bite



Electric dog collars, also known as shock collars or remote training collars, are highly popular among pet enthusiasts across the world. These collars are primarily used to train dogs to stay within a property. With it, dogs learn to observe boundaries and limitations based on the installed fences.

Putting a stop to excessive barking is also resolved with the help of this pet equipment. The dog will feel a mild correction when he begins barking and the frequency may increase as he gets louder and louder.

Should electric shock dog collars be banned? I say yes. And I don't just say yes in a mild manner, I strongly say yes. The equipment should be banned because it's cruel and unreliable.

Using pain to discourage unwanted behavior is simply wrong. You could and should be using rewards to encourage good behavior instead of relying on punishment to train. The bottom line is that you can and absolutely should train your dog without the use of painful shock therapy.

The concept of how these equipment works are simply horrific. It allows the trainer or owner to remotely deliver an electric shock to a dog in order to suppress an undesirable behavior. Shock collars train a dog to respond out of fear of further pain and even allow increasing the pain level if the dog continues its bad behavior.

Scientific research confirms that this method is painful and can influence the animal's well being negatively in the long term. There is clear evidence that the use of this devices is unsafe, unnecessary and inhumane.

Experiments showed that shocks can cause responses associated with fear and distress such as yelping, struggling, hiding, biting, freezing, trembling, cowering, defecation and urination, just to name a few. They can make a dog scared of almost anything that they are looking at or smelling when they get shocked.

Shock collars also have a high potential for misuse, especially if they get into the hands of owners who may be inexperienced, impatient, angry, frustrated or even sadistic. Regrettably, they often do.

All experts agree that there is absolutely no need to use this sort of equipment. Positive, reward-based training methods are far more effective than punishment or negative reinforcement methods.

I have no doubt that shock collar training can be at least superficially effective, but your dog could end up being afraid of you or even damaged in the long term. The use of reward-based training is far more effective and results in a more positive relationship between the dog and the owner.

Luckily, shock collars have already been subjected to ban or control in a number of countries in Europe, including France and Germany. But they are still widely available and used in the US.

I would never consider using a shock collar on my dogs. I've always used positive reinforcement to train them and had nothing but great results. Remember, dogs need training, not punishment.



Why Electric Shock Dog Collars Should be banned



Officials in the small Italian city of Malenate have a new approach to identifying dog owners who do not clean their pets poop: use the dog's DNA.

Earlier this year, Malnate's Environment Department asked all dog-loving inhabitants to register their puppies in the city's database. The 2,156 dogs registered in the city had to give a saliva sample and owners, who did not willingly bring their dogs within the fixed time, were fined $58 for not complying with the new order.

The issue of dog poop has been a concern for city officials in Italy and throughout Europe. Excessive fines have been imposed, but it can be difficult to enforce the law unless the offending dog and its owner are caught in the act. In Malnate dog owners who refuse or forget to clean up now know that they can be tracked down.

"The preventive effect is considerable. Knowing that the local dogs are now identifiable has led a lot of dog owners to behave properly and the walkways are cleaner," Giuseppe Riggi, Malnate's environmental commissioner, in recent times told reporters. "At the same time, pet owners thank us because now the other citizens look at them with less distrust."

City officials estimate that the number of dogs in Malnate increases by 150 dogs every year. The plan is to work with resident veterinarians to collect DNA samples from new arrivals in order to keep the saliva swab collection up to date.

So far, the city has collected 12 samples that were left on local walkways, and a laboratory test was able to extract DNA from nine of those samples. Then by cross-referencing the DNA with the city records, seven matches were made and fines were sent to the dog owners. And recently Malnate has received requests from 83 other municipalities across Italy about the program.


DNA Tests for Dog Poop Offenders

Anyone who has ever seen dogs and their owners walking through town, getting on a bus or waiting to cross the road cannot have failed to be amazed at how clever and highly intelligent those dogs are. I for one find them highly fascinating. This is another story about our furry friend that proves that a dog is really a best friend.

A group of firefighters was trying to bring down a tree and it seemed they were struggling a bit. Fortunately, a dog who was passing by with its owner simply decided to help them out and join their efforts to bring down the tree.

The firemen were dragging on a rope tied around the tree as much as they could but did not move. When the pooch saw the extra length of the rope, he decided to contribute its strength. The dog owner could be seen trying to drag his dog away but it was in vain, the dog tenacity was just too awesome.

Firefighters group couldn’t stop laughing when a passing dog decided to give them a helping hand



Dogs use their tails in pretty much the same way humans use their hands. Both hands and tails are used by humans and dogs respectively to communicate and to express themselves. Of course, communicating is easier done by humans. Our furry friends also use other parts of their bodies to impart their message. Apart from tail wagging barking, whining and growling are used by the dog to communicate. Tail wagging, however, is commonly used.

Dogs wag their tails more than any other animals with tails do. Notice how dogs would wag their tails when they meet another dog. This is their way of saying "how are you?" and very similar to the handshake of humans. With the wagging tail, dogs can communicate and understand each other even at a distance. Dogs with relatively short tails communicate with the human family, with other dogs and animals by using other parts of the bodies like the head and the ears.

Aside from being a form of communication, tail wagging also conveys the emotional state of the dog. Commonly, a wagging tail signifies happiness and a friendly attitude. The dog would certainly gladly meet the owner with a wagging tail. The wagging tail, in this case, denotes the good spirit of the dog. The dog may be asking the owner to play with him or entreating the owner to give him a treat. However, a wagging tail is not an ultimate sign that the dog is friendly. Take care in approaching a strange dog even if it is wagging its tail. Many people get bitten by dogs this way.

Dogs are extremely social animals. They rarely wag their tails when they are alone. In the presence of the alpha male, a dog wags its tail as a sign of submission. In this instance, the tail is held low and wagged stiffly. A tail that is held high with only the tip wagging is a sign that the dog is aggressive and showing his dominance over another dog in the pack. Dog experts theorize that tail wagging may also mean that the dog is in conflict. The tail that wags from side to side is a sign that the dog is confused whether to go or to stay.

Tail wagging serves another purpose for the dog. Take note of the dog's action when they meet another dog. They sniff each other's behinds. When the tail is raised to wag, the anal glands are squeezed, releasing a bit of the anal juice along with the unique scent of the dog. This scent is unique to every dog and serves as the dog's identification very similar to the fingerprints of humans




Why Do Dogs Wag Their Tail?


When I watch our dog, Max, noses his way in the garden around my homestead, I sometimes try to imagine what he smells. He is like a Shopaholic at a rummage sale, smelling anything and everything that comes its way. And almost every dog I met knows the best way to uncover and get its favorite thing is through its nose.

From the moment they are born, dogs have a wonderful sense of smell. Even though the new born puppies can't see, they can still detect their mother's smell and heat and locate her easily! Their sense of smell improves as it grows and develops to such a point that some say that it's up to a million times betters than humans.

A pooch’s sense of smell is so acute because dogs have about 25 times more olfactory receptors than humans. Its nose can even distinguish between the cheese, meat and ketchup on a cheeseburger. That is why they are considered man's best friend, some of them are trained, working side by side with humans to recover survivors under rubble, drugs tracking, and even landmines detection work! There are many sniffer dogs that devote their lives to serious work like tracking down escaped criminals, or missing (or drowned) persons for the police force. Dogs can effectively identify bombs, firearms and drugs by sniffing for tiny odor traces at international borders and in airports. They are loyal crime fighting partners, performing tough tasks as only our best friends can!

 Dogs can detect and distinguish smell in 2 ways, by an air scent left behind by something that has just passed by or a ground scent. Puppies and grown dogs use their sense of smell to communicate between themselves. With their nose, they can read the messages that other dog have left behind. Their way of shaking hands or presenting themselves is by smelling each other.

The length of a dog's snout can have an effect on his ability to smell. Longer-nosed dogs have more scent-reception cells. Even short-nosed dogs can smell hundreds of times better than a human.
Nose nutrition for your dog '

Remember that, as a dog ages, he loses some or all of his ability to smell. It can also be a sign of immune problems if a dog's nose is normally black, but starts losing pigment; bring him to the vet.

Ensure your pup continues to drink and eat when he's suffering from any kind of nasal problem; keep in mind that most of dog's ability to "taste" food resides in the nose, and if she can't smell the food, she may not want to eat it. Furthermore, even a mild fever will quickly dehydrate a sick animal, and if you can't get her to drink at home, consider a trip to the vet for fluids. Adult dogs may need to be tempted to eat, and some seem to find spicy foods more palatable.

A wholesome diet is recommended to improve its overall nose sense and overall health. The best "nutrition" we can give to a dog's nose is a daily dose of natural odors, generated from nature - the perfect way to build your dog's smell sense is a strong and useful tool for the pooches. Mostly, the dog whiffing and sniffing ways are basically a part of its nature.

Why Dog Whiff?



The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns pet owners that dog food without grain can increase the risk of heart disease.

In this case, the U.S federal agency is investigating the condition after numerous cases of a condition known as DCM or dilated cardiomyopathy have been related to such food.

The disease is more common in giant dogs, according to the FDA. But lately, other dogs have been affected, such as bulldog and Golden Labrador Retrievers.

“The first reports from veterinary cardiology society show that affected dogs always ate foods that contain lentils, peas, potatoes and other legumes as key components in the basic source of their nutrition for periods of time ranging from months to years,” explained by Food and Drug Administration earlier this month.

He added that non-grain pet foods often contain "peas, lentils, other legumes or potatoes as their main ingredients." This food is often advertised with a label that specifically says "no grain."

According to Lisa Freeman, a US-base veterinarian in an article, she explained that "DCM" is a "serious heart disease" that causes the heart to expand as well as weakens the heartbeats.

Lisa explained that non-grained pet food seems to grow as a fad diet for animals, but in reality, there is no evidence to show that it is better.

“While grain has been blamed for causing almost all known dogs disease, grains do not contribute to any health problems and are used in pet foods as a rich source of vitamins, protein, and minerals.” Lisa wrote on a blog manage by Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

In a discussion with Global News, Patricia Alderson, of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Society, explained that all dietary changes should be made after consultation.

“There is not a single diet suitable for every dog breed." Alderson said People should talk to veterinarians.”
She added that pet owners should be careful when it comes to fad diets, such as giving raw food to pets.

FDA Warn that Grain-Free Dog Foods May Be Linked to Dog Heart Disease

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