Every time you take your cat to the veterinarian, it’s a learning experience for her.  Whether that experience is good or bad is up to you.  Although it may never be a place kitty loves, you can do some training to help lower her stress level.  Bring some treats, baby food, canned food or even just pieces of her kibble.  Offer her a treat while in the waiting room.

When in the examination room, have the technician offer more treats before beginning to handle her.  One way to help a cat who is very nervous about procedures such as temperature taking  is to offer a small spoonful of baby food or canned food.  Even the vet can help reduce the cat’s stress level by greeting the cat and offering treats.

Dog Outdoors

As we approach the summer season, it is most likely that our pets will be outdoor more often than usual.

Not too many summer activities are more enjoyable than a walk though the woods with your pooch. But, as the caretakers of our pets, it is important that we be on guard against deer ticks, the woodland arachnids that transmit Lyme disease.

They are so tiny that in most cases of a tick bite, the tick is never found. Left undetected, Lyme disease can lead to kidney failure as well as vascular and nervous system issues. Symptoms include a loss of appetite, lameness that appears suddenly, a temperature of 103 degrees and swelling of the joints.

The best way to prevent tick bites is through a properly administered tick control program. Consult with your veterinarian regarding proper tick control methods.

The allergies I am talking about has nothing to do with hay fever or runny noses but instead skin issues. If your dog is constantly itching and scratching, losing hair at key sites on his or her body, and licking excessively you may be dealing with an allergy.

Allergies are a major cause of skin disease, discomfort and distress in dogs. Puritis or intense itching is the most characteristic sign of allergies. The itching is caused by the release of histamines from mast cells located throughout the body. Hair loss, redness and skin infections may result secondary to the allergy.

The treatments include antihistamines. This is a good time to take your dog to your vet for consultation and treatment.

Why Won’t My Dog Listen To Me?

This is a common question that most first-time dog owners ask me. Before I answer your question, let me ask you a few instead:

If your answers are mostly in the negative, its time you seriously reconsider your role as a sincere Dog trainer and an ideal pet parent.

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Get Your Dog To Listen To You

Before you begin any training, you must first establish yourself as the “ALPHA dog” of your family. Your Dog must know that you’re the leader of the pack and it is YOU who is in charge.

Here is a list of simple DO’s and DONT’s that you must follow if you want to be the Alpha:

Once you successfully established yourself as the Alpha, training your Dog and making him listen will be a lot easier than you can imagine. Remember, if your Dog does not learn to “listen”, all your training efforts will be in vain!

Does your Dog know his name? Does your Dog look at you whenever you call him by his name? This is the first and the most critical step involved in Dog Training. If your Dog doesn’t respond to his name, you cannot have his attention for teaching him any other commands.

To make sure that your Dog recognizes his name, take a treat in your hand and hold it away from your body. Call your Dog’s name. He is most likely to look at the treat in your hand. Continue calling his name until he turns and looks at your eyes. Give him the treat immediately. Repeat this exercise by holding the treat in the other hand. Once you’re sure that your Dog has learned to recognize his name, just call his name and reward him for looking at you by petting or with a hug.

You must understand that dogs respond far better to positive reinforcement than they do to coercion or force.

Bird nutrition is vital for your pet bird to remain happy and healthy. A balanced diet will ensure that your bird will live a long healthy life and be able to cope with mental and physical stress. An unbalanced diet will lead to poor health and perhaps even death.

Of importance is the fact that seed alone will not provide sufficient nutrition for seed eating birds, even if a variety of seed is offered. To supply your bird with the necessary vitamins and minerals, include pellets, fruit and vegetables as part of its diet. Formulated diets consist of seeds, grains, vegetables, fruits and proteins. Fresh fruits and vegetables must be washed and remnants left in the cage must be thrown away before it begins to rot.

Non seed eating birds are fed on a formula which is served either dry or moistened.

Also important for your bird’s nutritional need is water. Fresh water must be given daily or more frequently if your bird fouls up the water.

Gardening For Cats Safety And Pleasure

Spring is just around the corner and it’s the time of year when our thoughts turn to outdoors. Gardeners generally fall into two categories:those who enjoy watch their cats sniffing and luxuriating in the greenery, and those who will be happiest if cats just give their gardens a wide berth.
There are many ways to solve this problem. First you can plant kitty grass which is much safer than eating the lawn grass, which may have harmful chemicals. You can purchase ready made trays of wheat grass in health fool stores, and some pet outlets offers both wheat and oat grass kits on their web site, both in containers and also packages of seed.

Plants Attractive To Cats

• Catnip
• Creeping Rosemary
• Alyssium
• Heather

Many plant nurseries have resident cats.  If your local nursery has a cat try to find out what plants that cat prefers.

As you enjoy your pet’s companionship a little extra effort on your part will  teach her to be a good neighbor.

Most communities require each cat in a household to be registered and some have limits on the number of cats one household can own.  Keeping your cat indoors avoids problems with neighbors and  protects your cat from being hit by a car, encounters with unfriendly  dogs, or attacks by other animals.  If your cat is allowed outdoors, train her to wear a safety collar with an expansion device and a tag that gives your cat’s name and your telephone number to distinguish your cat from stray cats.  Proper identification enables someone to contact you if your pet wanders far from home.

Cats who are allowed to roam may damage neighbors’ gardens or use planters as their litter boxes.  If you allow your cat outside, keep a watchful eye on her.  If she leaves to visit a neighbor, bring her back to her own yard.

A cat who is not neutered or spayed may become an undesirable neighbor.  Female cats come into their first heat cycle between five and seven months of age and may have several heat cycles throughout the year.  Spaying eliminates the problem of a female in heat who attracts male cats and annoys the neighbors.  A male cat who is not neutered can be prone to roam and fight.  He also sprays urine, which has  strong, unpleasant odor.

Keep you cat well nourished by feeding a nutritionally complete and balanced quality pet food.  Take her to your veterinarian regularly to keep her vaccinations current and to be certain she is free from internal and external parasites and in general good health.

House Training a puppy or adult Dog is such an essential issue for its owner that even a single exclusive tip turns out to be extremely helpful.

The first step in making your Dog fit for polite company would be to potty train him. Some see this training as a hassle and some as a challenge.

For me, it is part of bringing up a pet.

There are a few things you need to know before you actually start potty training a puppy or adult Dog. I enumerate these below:

Now we will move on to how to potty train puppies and adult dogs.

Potty Training A Puppy:

Irrespective of breeds, house training a puppy is considered to be one of the biggest challenges by dog owners. If you think house training your puppy simply involves a steady supply of old newspapers, then think again.

A puppy does not develop full control over his bladder until it is over 4 or 5 months old. Since they are growing and developing rapidly at this time, puppies eat more, burn more calories and need to eliminate more frequently than an adult Dog.

After each nap, meal, drink or play, take your puppy to his designated area (indoors or outdoors, wherever you have decided) and stay there until it eliminates. Then bring him to his crate.

Repeat this situation everyday until he has developed a habit out of it.

How Well Is Your Dog Groomed?

The reason one should groom his/her Dog is simple – your dog’s physical state influences the way he feels and the way you look at your dog. Extreme cases, where lack of proper care, cleaning and grooming can directly affect the behavior of your Dog, are not rare.

Proper grooming not only infuses a healthy glow to your dog’s appearance, but also helps develop his self-esteem; while it makes you a very proud parent, when you show off your Dog to others.

The first step involved in dog grooming is: Brushing!

Brushing has been universally acknowledged by expert dog groomers as the single most important step in grooming.

The benefits of brushing are many. To name a few:

• Better blood circulation
• Shinier and healthier coat
• Better bonding

Basics of Dog Training

It’s essential for Dog parents like you to know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your Dog and can go a long way in training him effectively.

Before you begin training your Dog, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your Dog to have complete trust in you.

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How To Bond With Your Dog

Building a bond with your Dog is the first and the most crucial step involved in training him successfully. As soon as you bring your Dog home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.

When Dogs are secure in the knowledge that they belong to the family, they are more likely to respond better to their owners’ training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your Dog.

Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.

Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your Dog is almost impossible.

4 Golden Rules To Building A Relationship With Your Dog :

Love Your Dog and He Will Love You back

Once you’re succesful in building a bond with your Dog, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.

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How Your Dog Learns…

Your Dog’s learning period can be divided into five phases:

The Teaching Phase – This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your Dog exactly what you want him to do.

The Practicing Phase – Practice makes Perfect. Once a lesson is learnt, practice with your Dog what you have just taught him.

The Generalizing Phase – Here you must continue practicing with your Dog in different locations and in an environment with a few distractions. You can take your Dog out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you’ve taught him.

Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help him learn and retain lessons better .

The Testing Phase – Once you’re sure that your Dog has achieved almost 90% success….he responds correctly almost every time you give a command, you must start testing his accuracy in newer locations with a lot of distractions.

Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response the very first time you do this, but you must not lose hope.

The idea is to test your Dog to see how he responds in an environment which is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your Dog.

There are only 2 possibilities:

Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the 3 Ps – patience, persistence, praise.

Internalizing Phase – Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your Dog does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.

Remember: