PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

Halloween’s coming, and that means pet owners should be thinking about their pets’ safety as well as holiday fun. Treats like chocolate and caramel can be harmful or even fatal to some types of pets. In addition, excitement and activities surrounding Halloween may frighten pets or place them in harm’s way. For a safe and fun Halloween with your pets, follow these simple suggestions.

Keep Pets Safe from Candy

Put all Halloween candy on a high shelf that pets can’t access until it’s time to start handing out sweets to trick-or-treaters. When it’s time to give out candy at the door, put dogs in their crates or a safe room, and shut cats in a safe room with food and water. Caged pets should remain securely caged. This will ensure that the pets don’t snatch a treat while you’re not looking. It’ll also prevent them from dashing out the door or frightening a child.

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Most dogs enjoy a visit to the dog park. Outdoor fun with a compatible group of dogs– what could be better? Unfortunately, dog parks are also often the site of serious injuries to dogs or to humans, and some dogs have become seriously ill after visiting dog parks. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of visiting dog parks.

Pros:

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Okay, we all know that you can donate a bag of dog food or a cat carrier to the animal shelter, or that you can volunteer or foster, right? But the truth is, shelters can put a variety of items to good use, many of which have nothing to do directly with pets. I’m willing to bet you even have at least one item on this list lying around the house unused.

1. Blankets and Bedding:

If you’ve got an old sheet set from a mattress given away years ago, extra receiving blankets from your nephew’s arrival, or the puke green afghan Aunt Sally gave you for your wedding gathering dust, you’ve got a perfect donation for your favorite animal shelter. Concrete floors are no fun to sleep on, so shelters collect pet beds and blankets for the animals. Baby receiving blankets are perfect for most shelters’ cat cages. Larger blankets will be put in dogs’ runs, where they can sleep on them or play with them, providing enrichment as well as comfort. Crowded municipal shelters are particularly in need of bedding, because most pets won’t have a bed or toys unless some are donated.
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As worldwide financial panic continues, so does our series on pet ownership in a down economy. Last time, we talked about making pet toys at home. That’s a great way to save some money, but you can’t make everything your pets need. For example, vet care is an absolute necessity. This time, we’ll look at ways to save on the necessities that you can’t make at home.

Vet Care Deals

In an emergency, there’s no time to worry about price. But when your pet is due for a routine procedure like a spay/neuter or vaccinations, you have many options. Start by throwing the idea that your pet needs to get all his or her yearly vaccinations at once out the window. It’s easier on the immune system to give vaccines one at a time, with about three weeks between jabs to recover. Unless doing vaccinations separately would result in a larger total number of injections, it’s okay to do one at a time for adult pets. This gives you the leeway to budget monthly for shots, and to go to monthly low-cost clinics for those immunizations. For example, Petco stores host vaccination clinics monthly in most areas.

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With the current financial crisis, if you’re not cutting back on expenses already, it’s likely that you will be soon. Pet parents are feeling the crunch even more than those without pets. It can be hard to justify spending extra money for fancy pet toys, especially when some families and pets are still coping with the aftermath of Ike and Gustav. Of course, to make matters worse, prices are going up on just about everything, and show no signs of coming down any time soon.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to save money on pet care without compromising your pets’ health or happiness. Making pet toys at home is one way to cut costs while keeping pets happy and stimulated. More →

If you intend to compete in performance or conformation events, or simply wish to have a well-behaved dog and understand its behavior, choosing a great trainer is one of the most important things you can do for your dog’s future. It’s perfectly possible to train your own dog without a trainer’s advice, but, even for experienced owners, an extra set of knowledgeable eyes may reveal mistakes you’re making in your dog’s training. Even professionals take lessons from one another from time to time in order to sharpen their technique. I recommend at least a basic puppy class for every pet parent.

So, then, how do you choose a trainer? It can be a difficult decision, particularly if you aspire to show your dog or compete in an event like agility. These six questions provide a starting point. If the answers to these questions are acceptable, you’ll still need to make sure you and the trainer are compatible by observing a class and checking his or her references. More →

Dear PetLvr Mailbag …

When we got our 2nd Papillon dog, Sophie .. it was mid September as a puppy (she was born late July). We then had the coldest winter and earliest snowfall that year and she didn’t get outside socializing much.

Now .. with her ’super-Krypto-like-hearing’ .. whenever she hears other dogs with collars that jingle, she goes crazy and barks and barks and barks. If she’s off the leash outside, she will run out ‘close’ to where the dog with the noisy collar is, and just barks. It’s quite annoying, and not only because of the noise levels .. sometimes a bigger dog with the collar that jingles might not take a liking to that.

I’d like to know how to get her ‘cured’ of this. Most other times she’s the cutest thing since sliced bread of course.

Signed: PetLvr’s very own HART!

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Sometimes dogs refuse food. Failing to eat can be indicative of as little as a mild upset tummy, or of conditions as serious as bloat or organ failure. So, how do you tell the difference? When in doubt, always consult a vet. However, you may be able to determine the cause of your dog’s loss of appetite on your own, by observing the dog and the surrounding environment carefully.

Is it a small dog, and/or is the food different?

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No matter how much you love your pet, chances are, you hate shedding. Unless you own a non-shedding breed like a Standard Poodle, there’s also a good chance shedding is a fact of life. However, sometimes a pet develops a shedding problem that defies logic and the vacuum cleaner. If your pet is dropping hair like it’s going out of style, you may need to take some extra steps to keep a little more hair on the dog or the groomer’s floor, rather than on your dry-clean only pants.

1. Rule out a Health Problem

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I have a raw-fed dog.

We’ll talk more seriously about the choice to go raw and how to do so without sacrificing optimum nutrition later, as well as about the home-cooked alternative, but for now I’d like to share some of the wacky adventures I’ve had while seeking out the right meats, bones, and organs to feed to Augustin. If you’re a fellow raw feeder, you probably have similar stories of your own. If you’re considering raw, here’s what you’ve got to look forward to! If you’re neither a raw feeder nor likely to switch, go ahead and roll your eyes and chuckle. It’s okay– we rawbies are used to a few laughs about the lengths to which we’ll go to get a meal for our dogs.

Craigslist Meat

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