Even though the big difference dogs have from hamsters, these two popular pets still have some common characteristics which make them similar! Both dogs and hamsters have long hair coats. One may find different long haired dogs and also long haired hamsters which are called “Teddy Bear Hamsters”. Both long haired dogs and hamsters need grooming.

Grooming a long coated dog:
Lift the outer hair and start by brushing the undercoat on the back legs with a body brush. Brush the top coat down with a bristle brush and then comb the coat from the roots to the tips of the hair. Brush the undercoat on the front legs with a body brush. Brush the top coat down with a bristle brush and then comb the coat from the roots to the tips of the hair. Supporting the dogÂ’s head to keep it out of the way, brush the neck and chest. Use the bristle brush, gently brush along the dogÂ’s stomach without tickling it. Using a body brush, groom the undercoat across the shoulders and along the back. Gently comb the hair around the ears and face. Gently comb the tail, taking care not to tug at any tangles. Wipe away any staining and loose hair using a damp cotton wool/absorbent cotton pad for each eye.
Read the rest of this entry »

Eggs: Eggs for feeding dogs can be bought by the dozen in the grocery store, by the hundreds from hatcheries or by the thousands from egg ranches. Regardless of how many or where they are obtained, an egg should never be fed to a dog raw. Raw egg whites react with the vitamin, biotin, and prevent a dog from using it. In fact, feeding raw egg whites is the exact way scientists produce experimental biotin deficiency in a laboratory.

Milk: Much controversy has raged over feeding milk to dogs. Milk has been accessed of causing diarrhea and other digestive upsets. While it may produce these problems in large amounts, if milk is kept to about two ounces of fluid milk or two tablespoons of dry milk per pound of food, few problems will be encountered. The value of the milk, when fed in proper amounts, exceeds the risk of upset. Milk supplies calcium and phosphorus in the proper ratio and amounts, a host of vitamins, and also a protein which approaches the value of whole egg.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to take just a minute to cover some typical dog training mistakes that occur when dealing with working dogs. We often see failure or poor performance from working dog teams because of a failure to properly train. It is usually pretty simple to correct these mistakes by simply thinking about what it is exactly that we are conditioning the dog to do.

For example, all too often I see police patrol dog teams training for building searches incorrectly. They set up scenarios to mimic a building search of a house or other structure by hiding a “suspect” inside of the building. The dog goes into the building, finds the suspect, gets the apprehension and the dog is placed back in the patrol car. End of training session. As many of you know, in this day and age, burglaries and break-ins are rarely committed alone. Generally, there are multiple suspects to be dealt with when searching buildings that have been broken in to. The problem arises when we have two or more criminals hiding inside a building and we are attempting to search it with a dog that is trained in the manner described above. Typically this dog team can successfully locate and apprehend the first suspect, but the handler will often have a very difficult time redirecting the dog back into the building to search for any other criminals that are hiding. That’s because the dog has been conditioned through training to locate a suspect, apprehend them and the exercise is then complete. In order to correct this we should constantly vary the number of “suspect” that we have hiding in buildings during training. This will keep the patrol dog proficient and will have them wanting to continue to search even more during actual deployments.

Read the rest of this entry »

List of more common ailments in dogs is to be taken care of by the dog owners. The dog owner often needs to prepare a list of such problems even before the purchase of the dogs.

When the list of more common dog ailments is to be prepared, consult other pet owners who have some experience in the dog rearing. The list should reflect the problems that are often encountered in the dogs of that region.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dogs are suffering from different kind of diseases. As a pet lover, you should know the list of common diseases of dog and also how to prevent the same. You should also know the first aid tips.

Read the rest of this entry »

Most newborn puppies are very weak and are vulnerable to health problems. Prevention is always better than cure as recommended; to prevent the opportunity of infections or other health problems, basic to intermediate knowledge about caring for your new born puppy is very important.

Here are some of the few common puppy health problems and diseases that a weak puppy might be susceptible to.

Hypothermia:

Hypothermia is one of the major problems. A tiny new born puppy has difficulty regulating it’s body temperature as it’s thermoregulatory system may not be fully developed yet. One common solution is to keep a new born puppy in a moderate heated environment of 85-90F degrees for the first two to three weeks.

Read the rest of this entry »