The "Fading Puppy" Syndrome

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The "Fading Puppy" Syndrome

One of the most common causes of newborn puppy deaths is what has been named as the "fading puppy syndrome." Many of the unexplained puppy deaths that fall into this category would undoubtedly go elsewhere if only an accurate diagnosis could be made. Unfortunately, many of these poor little pets die so rapidly that no diagnosis can be made.

The fact is that whether or not the fading puppy syndrome is actually a distinct disease is still questionable. Many believe that it is what happens to any puppy that is unprepared, for whatever the reason, to face the stress of living in the world outside of his mother's womb. Whether or not the failure in preparation occurs before or after the pup is born depends on the reason for the puppy's fading,

Successfully saving the fading puppy that can be saved depends on recognizing the condition early enough and implementing proper remedial action. As a dog owner, you have to be very perceptive in order to recognize early enough the signs of a potential syndrome puppy. Below are some of the things to look out for:

1. An absence of the flight reaction: When normal puppies are taken from their mother and released, they will usually make every effort to scurry back to her. On the other hand, the syndrome puppy will not attempt to go anywhere.

2. Abandonment by the mother: A healthy, normal puppy is licked and protected by his mother. The syndrome puppy is left out of the litter and left in the corner to die.

3. "Slow-motion" activity: A healthy, normal pup is always busy and does not move slowly to do anything while a fading puppy makes slow, deliberate movements, almost like in a slow-motion picture.

4. Hypothermia: Most puppies can survive considerable hypothermia, and normal puppies in a litter usually feel warm and have ample supply of energy to keep their bodies from getting cold. The syndrome puppy does not like to eat and feels cold to the touch.

When you have recognized a puppy that is in the early stages of the fading puppy syndrome, you need to take him away from his mother and littermates and handle him just as if he were an orphan. In order for him to survive, you will have to raise him and feed him yourself by means of either bottle or stomach tube.

Worms Resulting From Fad Diets

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Worms Resulting From Fad Diets

Internal parasites are a constant threat to dogs because of their natural habits. Moderate infestations with intestinal worms may go unnoticed unless the dog is eating a deficient diet. When puppies are infested with only moderate amounts of roundworms, fed diets containing inadequate protein, the injury resulting from the worms is far greater than the injury would be in puppies eating an adequate diet. This is because the protein deficiency favors the rapid growth and build-up of the parasites.

Every new parasite further decreases the effective value of what little protein the dog does eat. Feeding the infested dog a diet adequate in protein stops the injuries and weight loss being caused by the worms, but will not reverse these effects until the dog is wormed. On the other hand, dogs that are fed adequate levels of energy and protein show very little adverse effects from even heavy infestations with roundworms, except for being slightly underweight. This is immediately corrected when the dog is wormed.

Dietary considerations should be made from the viewpoint of prevention rather than from the viewpoint of treatment. Dogs that are being fed with diet adequate in protein and energy have far less susceptibility to either roundworms or hookworms, and are much more capable of resisting potential infestations.

The Weaning Procedure

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The Weaning Procedure

Most dog owners allow their pups to eat directly from the mother's bowl as soon as they are able to do so. This enables them to learn, by observation, how to eat. However, continuing this practice for more than a few days after the puppies begin to eat has several objectionable features. First, the mother usually is not eating the same diet that her puppies should be eating. Second, the mother often resents her puppies eating from her bowl and will snarl and snap at them when they start to investigate or experiment with her food. Such behavior is hardly conducive to an atmosphere for teaching little puppies that the food pan is one of the best places to know. Finally, feeding containers for mothers are seldom fitting for tiny pups, and vice versa.

If the suckling puppy's diet has contained some solid food beginning three to four weeks after he was whelped, he will be weaned by six to seven weeks of age. If the pup has been orphaned and hand-fed, he will have to be trained by hand to eat solid foods. Similarly, if the pup is abruptly snatched from his mother at six or seven weeks of age and has had little or no solid food beforehand, he too will need to be taught to eat solid foods.

Teaching the young puppy to eat can be a very funny experience. To some dog owners, it may also seem like a time-wasting step in raising a dog. By individually hand-training each pup, however, you can ensure that no pup will fall behind nutritionally simply because he does not know how to eat food from a pan.

Infant puppies should get their first lesson in eating from a pan on an individual basis and without the distraction from littermates. Place the pup up to the pan of food and stick his muzzle in. Try not to get his nose in, if that's possible. Some puppies tend to splatter and fuss when milk hits them in the face for the first time! Repeat the dunking several times. Once the puppy gets the idea, let him have his own way to explore and experiment with the pan full of food. Some puppies get the hang of pan-feeding almost instantly. One lick of their tongues and they are after the milk mixture as if it was their first meal in a week. Other pups may appear to miss the idea entirely, and would rather bathe in the pan than drink from it.

After a few minutes, or before your patience runs out, pick the puppy up and wipe off the excess milk with a damp cloth. Dry the dampened hair and put the pup back with his litter mates. Then try another, until every pup in the litter has had a turn. Once you have succeeded in training one or two pups to become proficient eaters, it may help to put a slow learned pup up to the bowl with one of the good eaters. Puppies learn by example, and since an empty stomach is one of the greatest motivating forces known to them, the "see and do" method often does the job.

The Proper Feeding Procedure For your Puppy

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The Proper Feeding Procedure For your Puppy

The growing puppy should be weighed once a week for the first six months of his life. The weekly growth rate, which starts from weaning to six months, should be very constant that it forms a straight line when plotted on a graph. The amount of food consumed by a fast growing puppy should be increased at almost the same rate as the puppy's growth. The only way to make sure this increase in food consumption happens at the proper rate is to feed a puppy from a self-feeder. Whenever a puppy eats everything he is fed, add a little more, so that you are always offering the puppy just a little more than he will eat.

Puppies obtained after weaning should already have an established feeding program from the previous owner. You should make every effort to find out everything you can about the type of feeding program from the old owner. The old owner should provide you with information that includes the type of food that the puppy is currently eating as well as the feeding times. In addition, the previous owner should tell you the amount of food given, so that you can duplicate them for at least a few days until the puppy has become used to his new surroundings.

Do not be afraid to change the old routine, however. Such a change is one of those that are considered acceptable when it comes to dog feeding. Do not be misled into feeding your new puppy exactly the same way his previous owner was feeding him, just because you feel that the breeder is an experienced dog feeder. Just because that person is a breeder does not necessary make him/her an expert in dog feeding. In many cases, most breeders, in their innocent ignorance, felt they were doing one of their puppies and his new owner a favor by passing their misinformation along. If you feel that there is a need to change your new puppy's diet or feeding method, feel free to do so. Once the puppy is familiar to his new home and the people that go with it, you can begin introducing him to a new feeding habit. Just remember to do it slowly, one step at a time.

The Growing Puppy

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The Growing Puppy

After the puppy has been weaned, he can begin to learn how to handle and digest different types of new foods. During the next 12 to 18 months of his life, he will continue to learn how to cope with the variety of new foods he eats. For the first six to eight months of that period the puppy will be both growing and using nutrients and energy at an incredible rate. If a food is fed containing ingredients to which a puppy is not used to or nutrients that are difficult to digest, he may be unable to obtain sufficient nutrients and energy to sustain his rapid growth. In such cases the puppies are usually stunted.

In addition, foods containing too many ingredients which the puppy has not yet learned to digest can cause another problem called "hurry diarrhea". When a dog owner gets in too big a hurry to feed adult dog food to a puppy, excessive amounts of indigestible materials are usually introduced into the puppy's digestive tract. These materials irritate the sensitive intestine of the inexperienced puppy and produce a diarrhea.

Formulating a suitable diet for a puppy is one of the most important steps in starting a dog's life. The only source of nourishment a rapidly growing puppy receives comes exclusively from what his owner provides him. His health and growth will be a reflection of how well the owner is doing his job. If you provide your pet with poor materials during this building period your puppy will be destined to carry inferior parts for the rest of its life.

A growing puppy needs twice as much energy and nutrients as an adult dog. Simply feeding him twice as much as an adult dog's food is not enough, however. The energy and nutrients must be in a form that is digestible by the puppy's inexperienced and sensitive digestive tract. However, as the puppy grows older, the diet can include foods that are more and more difficult for a dog to digest. Continue to feed your growing puppy the same food that was used to wean him, but gradually add additional foods to train the puppy's inexperienced digestive system. Just as the food fed to an adult is not suitable for a puppy, the food fed to a puppy is not suitable for an adult dog.

By the time the puppy has reached maturity, his digestive system should be thoroughly trained to handle all of the foods it will be fed during his adult life. Generally, canned and soft-moist foods contain ingredients of higher digestibility than dry foods. Canned foods are usually more suitable to feed to growing puppies than soft-moist foods. There are exceptions, however, and a few dry foods containing easily digestible nutrients are much better for feeding fast growing puppies than numerous canned foods containing poorly digestible nutrients.

Feeding Your Puppy

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Feeding Your Puppy

A puppy always tells his dog owner whether he is getting too much or too little food in several ways. Crying is one of the most often recognized, but least likely to be always accurate. Although hungry puppies do cry, so do cold puppies, hot puppies, puppies that were disturbed from a nap, lost puppies, sad puppies, etc. Crying is simply nature's way of giving a puppy a means of telling everybody that he is unhappy. Anything that makes a puppy unhappy will probably also make him cry, even having his tummy too full. Therefore, to say that a puppy is crying because he is hungry requires a judgment on the owner’s part. And since we do not think like a puppy, we have to use the reactions of the puppy's system to determine whether or not he is getting enough to eat.

Every time you feed a puppy, two things should happen. First, he should have a bowel movement and second, he should urinate. Sometimes a puppy may need a little encouragement by rubbing his anal area, but he should always perform both acts if everything is going right. The makeup and amount of his feces and urine are important clues that tell you how well you are doing when it comes to properly feeding your pet. For one thing, the puppy's stool should be formed as it is expelled, but its consistency should be soft and pasty. The color will depend to some extent on what you are feeding him. But in every case, it should not vary from a pale tan to a mahogany brown. The inside of the stool may be yellow-brown in many cases. Stools that are green, bluish-white or clear signal trouble. Even tan or brownish stools that are watery, lumpy, hard or curdled may indicate something is not right. Whenever either off-color or off-form stools occur, stop feeding immediately and skip the next feeding entirely.

Begin the following feeding with a formula that has been diluted one-half with boiled water. Continue to feed the same quantity as you did the undiluted food. If this fails to produce an improvement in the stool, reduce the quantity you are feeding by 25 % at each feeding. If stools continue to be off-color or off-form, consult your vet.

A puppy's urination is an indicator of his water balance. The quantity should be about the same each time the puppy urinates. It might be pale yellow to almost clear, but should never be deep yellow or orange. Also, it should always be like water and never like syrup and should smell like urine. Urine that is scanty, dark in color, or syrupy, indicates that the pup is not getting enough water. More water should be supplied, either added to the formula or fed separately. If the urine seems excessive in amount, unduly clear, or thin, the water concentration of the formula should be re-checked to make sure that he is not getting too much water. If urine production stops altogether for longer than four feedings, take the puppy to a vet as soon as possible.

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Your Puppy’s Diet

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Your Puppy’s Diet

Liver is a very important part of your growing puppy’s diet. Whether it is chopped, raw or slightly braised, liver adds an essential nutrient to his meal that cannot be found from any other source. The only problem a dog owner may encounter when feeding liver to a puppy is diarrhea. Because of this, they should be trained slowly to eat liver and should not be fed amounts so great that their quantity, alone, produces a loose stool.

If you are feeding your puppy commercial foods, such foods should be improved by adding one tablespoonful of liver and one tablespoonful of corn oil per pound of dry matter. This is equivalent to approximately ผ tablespoonful per can of canned food and 2/3 tablespoonful per 16 ounces of soft-moist.

The amount of good-quality protein may also need to be increased in some commercial foods fed to puppies. This can be achieved by adding two ounces of any one of the following to each pound of canned food: cottage cheese, hard-boiled egg, processed American cheese, ground chuck, fried or baked fish or chipped roast beef. Four tablespoonfuls of dried, skimmed milk also add an adequate amount of extra protein to a dry food being used to feed a fast growing puppy.

Three Steps To Determine How Much Food To Give Your Puppy

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Three Steps To Determine How Much Food To Give Your Puppy
To determine the amount of food to begin with when you start feeding a growing puppy, apply the following steps:

Step 1: Find a puppy feeding chart and determine the number of calories per pound of body weight your puppy should have for his age. For example, a 7-week-old pup weighing five pounds needs 400 calories every day.

Step 2: Divide the number of calories contained in a pound of the food you are feeding into the number of calories your puppy needs every day to find out how much food you should offer to begin with. For instance, if the 7-week-old pup is being fed a food containing 600 calories per pound, he needs about 400/600 cal per Ib. or.66 pounds of food each day.

Step 3: Divide the amount of food needed each day into the appropriate number of daily feedings, according to the following rule: If the puppy is from six weeks to four months of age, feed him four times per day. If the pup is from four months to 12 months, feed it three times daily. When the pup is over 12 months, feed him twice daily for the rest of his life, 1/3 in the morning and 2/3 in the evening.

Puppies do not need to be fed six to eight times daily. Although such frequent feedings may improve slightly the efficiency with which the puppy uses the food, it is to such a small degree that the extra time spent in preparing and feeding so many meals is not worth the effort. Puppies have been raised successfully with only two or three daily feedings immediately from weaning, but four seems to be the number that provides the best growth for the least effort by the dog owner. If a puppy cleans up every bit of food offered for three days in a row, add five% more food to the daily feeding. If he continues to eat everything he is offered for three more days, add five% more food.

Continue to add food at this rate until the puppy leaves a tiny bit at each meal. It is entirely possible in a growing puppy, that you may never reach a point at which he will leave any food, until he is almost grown. There is no need to worry as long as the puppy gains about the same amount of weight each week as he did the week before. Between 10 and 12 months of age, the rate at which a puppy grows starts to slow down. At the same time the dog's food consumption also begins to drop. This is a normal occurrence, brought about by the reduction in the dog's need for extra nutrients and energy required for growth. The reduction is simply an indication that the puppy is reaching maturity.

Some dog owners may mistake this reduction in food consumption as an indication of illness. This fear becomes even more pronounced when the maturing process makes the dog less active, as well. Novice dog owners usually forget that human adolescents go through the same steps on their way to becoming adults. Other dog owners may forget the fact that the maturing process in the dog requires only about 12 months to complete, while in humans it usually takes 20 years!

What is Colostrum?

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What is Colostrum?

No matter how close a puppy’s formula resembles the mother's milk, there is one ingredient that the dog owner cannot provide his puppy. This formula is the colostrum. Colostrum is found in the first few days of the mother's milk and protects her puppies from disease while their tiny bodies are learning to protect themselves.

There is no substitute for colostrum. Whenever possible, every newborn puppy should nurse a newly freshened female dog, even if she is not the puppy's own mother, for at least the first 24 hours of the puppy’s life. The losses among hand-fed puppies that fail to get colostrum during that first 24 hours are incredibly higher than among those that do. On the other hand, even colostrum cannot protect newborn puppies against the more dangerous bacteria. Also, colostrum cannot protect the puppy against overwhelming numbers of the less dangerous ones, such as numbers that come with unclean utensils and feeding equipment. When colostrum-filled milk is not available, the necessity for cleanliness and proper handling of all items used to house and feed the newborn puppies is increased ten-fold.

How To Change A Dog's Diet

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How To Change A Dog's Diet

There are five basic steps when it comes to changing your dog's diet. They are as follows:

Step 1: lf a dog is in a new environment, has a new owner, or is being required to undergo some other emotional or physical strain, food changes should be postponed until the stress has been eliminated or the dog has adapted to it. With changes in ownership, the diet fed by the previous owner should be obtained if at all possible and fed until the dog becomes accustomed to its new surroundings.

Step 2: Once the dog is in a proper emotional state to accept a dietary change it should be accomplished without delay. Start by substituting 25 percent of the old food with new food. Mix the two thoroughly making every attempt to conceal the new food within the old. This mixture should be fed until the dog eats the mixture with the same relish that it ate its previous food. For some dogs this may be the first time the mixture is fed; for others it may take several days or even weeks. Don't hurry the procedure. After all, the dog may have had 24 months to get accustomed to its old diet. Don't expect it to change all of that in just 24 hours. Once the dog is eating the 25:75 mixture as well as it did its previous food, proceed to step three

Step 3: During the third step, 50 percent of the old food is replaced by new food and slightly less effort is made to conceal it within the old food. Again, when the dog is eating the 50:50 mixture with the same gusto it did its previous food, proceed to step four.

Step 4: Now 75 percent of the new food is present in the mixture being fed, and little if any effort is made to conceal the new food except to mix it evenly with the ordinal food. By now, most dogs will readily accept the increased mixture the first time it is fed. If the dog accepted the 50:50 mixture at the first feeding, step four can be eliminated and you can proceed directly to step five.

Step 5: This is the final step, the one in which all of the old food is eliminated from the dog's diet. One hundred percent of the new food is fed from then on. For some dogs this procedure may take only three days and require only steps two, three and five. For others it may take longer and must progress through each step separately. Do not become discouraged. With dogs, food likes and dislikes are mostly learned from previous experiences. Changing a food is a process of unlearning and relearning, and such things cannot be hurried.
The third general consideration that should be made by all dog feeders any time they feed a dog has more to do with human behavior than it does with a dog's.

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Puppy Feeding Program

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Puppy Feeding Program

The best time to determine the proper feeding programs for your pet is during puppy hood. Meanwhile, the average time for the dog owner to assume the responsibility of feeding a dog is at weaning. Sometimes, this task begins at birth or shortly right after. In some unfortunate circumstances where a puppy is orphaned, or in situations where the mother whelps so many puppies that she cannot feed them all, the dog owner may have to begin his feeding chores while the puppy is still only hours old.

Bur whether the puppy is five hours, five weeks or five months old, there are three basic feeding steps that are essential in any puppy feeding program. The first step is to weigh each puppy. A record of his weight and the date it was taken should be kept on a separate record for each one. The second step is to determine the type of diet to give to the puppy. This will depend on the stage of growth the puppy has attained. The third and final step in puppy feeding is to determine the quantity of food needed to start the program. This will depend on the age of the puppy, his weigh, and the caloric density of the food.

Setting Good Eating Habits

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Setting Good Eating Habits

A dog's eating habits are controlled by three things: its brain, its experiences, and its environment. The very first experiment in behavioral psychology was done by a scientist named Pavlov who taught dogs to get ready to eat when they heard a certain sound. Since that initial experiment, scientists have observed over and over how important the things happening around, and to, a dog are when it comes to affecting the dog's eating habits.

Once, when dogs were wild, most of their daily activity was devoted to obtaining a meal. While the need for this activity has practically disappeared, mealtime still constitutes one of the most important events in a dog's life. And, many of a dog's behavioral responses are still linked to its eating routine.

Today's dogs have become creatures of habit. They thrive on monotony and are most comfortable when things remain the same. Few dogs appreciate a sudden change in their sleeping quarters or the surprise of a new food in their bowl. The more that can be done to prevent change in a dog's feeding program, the better it will be for both the dog and its owner. Regularity in feeding promotes good appetite, good digestion and regular eliminations. Therefore, the first general consideration to be made when feeding any dog should be the establishment of a regular feeding schedule and should stay that way without being altered.

Puppies have conventionally been fed small portions of their daily diet at frequent intervals during the day. The rationalization behind this is sound, but the frequency of feedings often is too high. Even newborn puppies do quite well when fed only four times daily. Some breeders even reduce this to three times daily, but unless your schedule absolutely prohibits it, a minimum of four feedings should be the limit. The feedings need not be separated exactly six hours apart, but it is desirable to space the feedings as evenly as possible throughout the 24-hour time period. For example, my own schedule usually works out best when I feed around 7:00 A.M., 12:00 Noon, 6:00 P.M., and 1:00 P.M. Yours may be different.

The frequency of feedings should not be reduced to three a day until the puppies are weaned. Whether you are feeding newborn puppies four times daily, or older puppies three times, once the pattern of feedings has been set, it should not be changed, but should occur at the same time every day.

How To Feed The “Outdoor Dog”

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How To Feed The “Outdoor Dog”

The dog that is kept outdoors all of the time, or an exclusive diet of dry food, does not need to be restricted to portion control feeding. These dogs will do quite well when self-fed. One precaution should be pointed out about outdoor pets that are put on self-feeding programs. If they have not been eating dry food, their water consumption will jump considerably when they begin to eat it. A special effort should be made to keep plenty of cool, fresh water before these dogs at all times.

Outdoor dogs require even more water during the summer because a dog's body-cooling processes that depend on water. When outdoor pets are individually fed they can be fed by either ad libitum or portion control. The feeding location should be under some kind of shelter. This will keep the direct sunlight, dust, and dirt to a minimum.

Outdoor feeding locations should also be located away from garbage cans. A back porch, back steps, or corner of the garage may be convenient, but if there are garbage cans nearby such places are unsuitable as dog feeding locations. First, such places allow flies of all descriptions to contaminate the food. Flies are not particularly objectionable to a dog. Most outdoor dogs go through life snapping up and swallowing a fly now and then. Ordinarily this is no cause for alarm, but around garbage cans flies become so numerous in a dog's food that they constitute a disease danger.

With dogs that are fed outdoors, it is of particular importance to pick up any food remaining uneaten after 20 or 30 minutes. Food served at room temperature, then allowed to stand outdoors, quickly warms to temperatures at which contaminating bacteria rapidly multiply. Most dogs do not find the odor of over-ripe dog food unpleasant. Many, in fact, consider the smell quite desirable. The toxins and other waste products produced by bacteria, at the same time they are creating that smell, may have a distinctly detrimental effect on the dog.

There is perhaps more important reason for feeding an outdoor house-pet at the same time and place every day and allowing the food to remain before the dog only 20 or 30 minutes. It is to train your dog to eat only at that time and at that place. lf the dog does not, it learns quickly that it must wait until the next feeding before it gets anything more to eat. Your dog will soon become accustomed to eating at only a specified time, and will come to the specified place every day around that time anticipating its food.

Determining The Amount Of Dog Food Needed For Your Dog

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Determining The Amount Of Dog Food Needed For Your Dog

The pet dog has the same nutritional needs as any other dog. The only difference is the reduced number of calories it uses because of the type of life a dog leads as a household pet. The house dog living exclusively indoors is probably one of the least active animals in the world. More inactive, even, than its owner.

Most of a house dog's time is spent sleeping. Its greatest effort, in many instances, consists of a 10-foot walk from the back door three times a day for eliminations, and a 10-foot walk from the family room couch to its food bowl in the kitchen. As a consequence the house dog is the most overfed and suffers from the greatest overweight problems of all the house-pets.

The dog that spends most of its daylight activities outdoors, but comes in at night, has a higher energy need than the pet kept indoors constantly. Not only does it get more exercise, but it requires extra energy to maintain its body temperature during cooler weather outdoors. Even with such additional requirements it is not uncommon to find indoor/outdoor pets that are fed too much and are borderline overweights.

The dog that stays outdoors all of the time is the pet least likely to develop obesity. As an outdoor dog it enjoys the same, or more exercise as the indoors/outdoors dog. In addition, outdoor dogs have a considerably increased need for energy to maintain body heat.

This need for extra energy for body heat becomes especially high at night and in colder weather. In fact, there are occasional instances where outdoor dogs, when improperly fed, begin to appear just like the undernourished farm hounds of a past era of dog feeding.

Calculation: The quantity of food a house dog needs is determined by the same things that determine the amount of food any other dog eat, which is its optimum body weight and the caloric density of the food it eats. The amount is calculated in the same manner as for other dogs. Determine the number of calories a dog needs daily to maintain its optimum weight. Then divide that number by the number of calories in a pound of food you are feeding. The results will be the quantity of food you should feed, measured in pounds.

4 Important Tips When Feeding Your Dog

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4 Important Tips When Feeding Your Dog

Rule 1: A dog should be fed by the same person at every feeding. This rule is not nearly as important where a couple of house pets are being fed by several members of the same family, as it is where large numbers of dogs are being fed by numerous different kennel personnel. It is particularly applicable where dogs are in strange environments such as boarding kennels, veterinary hospitals, or show arenas. Dogs that have become accustomed to one feeder may exhibit all sorts of erratic eating behavior if that person is changed.

Rule 2: Every dog should have its own food and water container. This precaution is not only sound behavioral psychology, it also is just plain good hygiene. It is especially wise to assign food bowls on an individual basis when your feeding containers are noticeably different from one another. Besides improved feeding technique, certain practical benefits are to be gained from following this rule. In racing stables, for example, where maintenance of body weight is so important, feeding instructions can be written on the bottom or the side of each dog's feeding container, right next to its name or number.


Rule 3: A dog should be fed in the same place every time it is fed. Whether it be the corner of the kitchen, beside the back-door steps, at the rear of a kennel run, or along the left-side wall of a cage, the site where the food container is placed should remain the same every day. In fact, everything that's done with the food container should be identical at each feeding. lf you use a push cart or wagon to carry the tub of food to the dogs, always use the same cart and tub. lf you pre-fill food bowls in the diet kitchen and carry them on the cart, don't decide one day to carry the tub of food on the cart and fill each bowl as you reach the dog. It may have become boring to you, but to your dog it has become the way of life. A change only serves to disrupt his way of life and to create cause for insecurity.

Rule 4: No dog should ever have its food changed without a good reason. Contrary to popular opinion, dogs do not need a change in food from time to time to keep them from growing tired of the same food all the time. Many dogs have lived normal, healthy lives by eating the same food throughout their entire lifetimes. In many instances where a dog owner thinks a dog has gotten sick and tired of a food, the dog has just gotten sick from the food. Not so sick, perhaps, that it really showed, but sick enough to stop eating. When a dog food is deficient, it is not uncommon for a dog eating that food to lose its appetite. Of course, nutritional deficiencies are not the only thing that will cause a dog to lose its appetite.

Dog Carsickness

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Dog Carsickness

While car sickness is not considered a behavioral problem, it sure is something that is just as important to deal with as any type of other issue with your dog. Having to clean up your dog's mess with every car ride is not fun at all.

A dog that gets carsick is a genuine victim of motion sickness (rare in dogs), a leader-type animal that becomes ill as a psychosomatic response to its inability to control its circumstances, or one that has experienced traumatic reinforcement in a car or at the journey's end. A prime example of a trauma victim is a dog that always gets ill on the way to the veterinarian, but seldom on the way home. In several cases, this predictable reaction was used in correction. The dogs were driven away from home, in the opposite direction from the clinic, then back toward home and thence on to the doctor. No illness occurred. Different routes were used on later trips.

Most carsickness cases are not so easily corrected. Where no emotional basis is found for the problem, administration of motion sickness medication has proved helpful. If excessive salivation accompanies vomiting, atropine sulfate (by veterinary prescription) may alleviate the problem. In cases involving behavioral relationships, a combination of general environmental and leadership adjustments succeeds.

Most of the carsickness cases encountered by professionals involve a leader-type dog. Therefore, the first step toward correction is for the owner to gain a dominant leader position. Together with teaching a few simple commands, all general petting of the dog must cease. Any solicitation for attention by the dog must be countered by a command, with a few seconds of petting and praise if the dog responds appropriately.

This regimen impresses on the dog that the owner is in control of the general tenor of life. In addition to command training, the dog should be taken for an upbeat car ride around the block at least twice daily. The owner should act jolly toward the dog throughout the ride, reinforcing happy behavior. These trips may then be extended in time and distance over a 6-week period, after which permanent correction is usually achieved.

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Consistency & Persistence Pays Off When Training Your Dog

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Consistency & Persistence Pays Off When Training Your Dog

If the rules change from day to day, the dog becomes confused. He needs to know how to consistently earn reward and avoid punishment or he will give up responding. The good trainer is consistent and always uses the same command for the same behavior. Most dog owners teach the dog that the command "down" means to be in a prone position. Unfortunately, many dog owners use the same command to mean, lie down, remove thyself from the couch or bed, or stop jumping on people. When a command has many different meanings, the word ceases to have an important message.

Give each behavior its own command. The command "off" can be used to mean paws on the floor, and "down" may remain to define the prone position. After you decide on consistent commands, the next step is to be persistent in using them. Dogs are naturally good at persistent behavior, and even better if rewarded for it.

Many a dog owner has given up trying to correct the dog that barks all day or jumps on people. Dog owners drop out of obedience classes all the time because they are worn down by their dogs' seemingly persistent behaviors, and they give up trying to teach their dogs new behaviors. The key is that the owners gave up, and the dogs learned that persistence pays off. When an owner gives in, the dog's persistent behavior is strengthened and reinforced. Any determined dog owner can wear the dog down. Therefore, it is extremely important that you be more persistent than the dog about continuing the training process until the dog performs the desired behavior.

The dog must learn that the energy he spends engaging in undesirable behavior is not worth the effort, because you will persist. If you correct him for jumping up the first four times and don't correct him for the fifth jump up you simply teach him to jump up five times for the payoff. Similarly, if you correct the dog for barking at the moon sometimes and not at other times, you teach him that sometimes barking is acceptable and sometimes it is not. The dog will continue to bark to determine when barking is acceptable and when it is not acceptable.

Consequently, correcting barking sometimes actually encourages even more barking. If you don't correct the dog for barking in the backyard because you are not at home, he will learn that barking is acceptable when you're away. If you sneak out of the house so as not to cue him that it is acceptable to bark, he only needs to bark twice with no correction to figure out that you are not at home. A behavior will be extinguished or changed only if you persist in correcting the dog every time he misbehaves.

Using Caution When Dealing With Fighting Problems

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Using Caution When Dealing With Fighting Problems

What is in the dog's mind when it attacks every dog it meets or just has one enemy around the corner? Most of it is show of strength, very often a cowardly show of strength aimed at other people's toy dogs who can't answer a bully back. Face that same bully with a big dog likely to answer back and it will disappear into the distance, for the dog knows who will be boss even in its own race, and if it senses superiority of physique or brain, it will automatically be subservient.

That is why young dogs lie on their backs, all four feet in the air, when they meet an older or stronger dog; they know who is boss and are showing the other dog so by exposing the tummy to an enemy. That is why dog owners should know that this trick is not a nice one really and should be checked at an early age, for it is purely one of a weak animal giving in to one stronger in mind and usually an enemy at that.

Few owners would like to think their dogs look upon them as enemies, but that is the case. When a dog no longer looks upon you as a potential enemy it stops this lying on its back as protection, although many dogs in later life do it because their owners have scratched their chests, which they like, and they hope for it again. But primarily it belongs to the defense mechanism of the dog tribe. The mind of a dog that fights always has at the back of it the wish to be the boss of the tribe, and he fights other male dogs who are sexually mature to make sure there is no risk of his being questioned as "lord of all he surveys." Muzzle that dog and let him loose with the dog he has previously fought and nine times out of ten he will realize he is at a disadvantage and show no signs of aggression.

That is why dogs with fighting problems should be muzzled and then freed with trained dogs or non-fighters. They then learn to enjoy themselves in a community and the wish to fight goes away. Often, having muzzled, introduced and trained them for a short time together, formerly bad fighters are lying side by side without muzzles after a few minutes.

Your own personality needs to be strong to deal with fighters, because fighters are usually adult dogs. Few puppies fight, few females fight; therefore your mind must be stronger than that of the potential fighter so that you are the boss, not either of the dogs. If the dog is sex-mad you can do nothing but neuter it. Muzzling is only a stopgap, not a cure. Owners who won't have their fighting dogs neutered should always have them muzzled in public places.

Dealing With Dogs That Hate Either Men or Women

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Dealing With Dogs That Hate Either Men or Women

Hating men or women is the most peculiar form of instability in dogs. They seem to be sweet and happy with one sex and nervous or vicious with the other. What form of neurosis causes this we don't know. What can an owner do to make a dog with this nature livable?

First, examine the owner's mind. Has he or she ever had a grudge against the opposite sex? Did an overpowering schoolteacher make the young boy's or girl's life a misery? Does he or she boast that they only get along with men or women? Alsatians are peculiar in this way and will hate men or women instinctively if thought transference comes from an owner with a similar dislike. Many women like big guard dogs, and the big guard dog thrives in this state of affairs and easily develops a dislike of the sex the owner wishes to dominate.

Corgis do the same. This has been particularly noted in these two breeds, partly because they are highly intelligent breeds and telepathy is very marked and partly because the shepherding instinct is uppermost and they have a natural suspicion of strangers. Correct them firmly when young and one gets no further trouble. Accept their suspicious natures, and you will have dogs that hate men or women, usually women.

Now how do we live with such dogs? The world being what it is, we can't mix with only one sex. Even husbands or wives are a necessity, and it is often against the one or the other that the particular hate is centered. I think the solution is either to send the dog to be boarded or trained by a person of the sex it hates, or else get friends of that sex to feed it or take it for walks. If it shows any signs of being vicious, muzzle it and send it out for a long walk with the person it dislikes. Greet joyously that person when he or she returns and praise the dog. Make the person pat the dog and praise it before saying goodbye and, if possible, give it its food.

Of course there aren't many good friends who will do this, but I think that if an advertisement was put in the local newspaper, some dog lover would respond. It might even help to employ a "dog sitter" of the hated sex when you go out so that when you are out, the only comfort the dog would get would be from the sex it dislikes.

Only by being made to tolerate people will it respond. Obviously, if a female owner has been jilted and hates all men, her dog will naturally pick up this feeling when the owner is talking to a man. In many cases, all these faults in dogs can be traced to some minor mental disturbance of the owner, although the owner may be unaware of it.

Choosing Dog Training Methods

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Choosing Dog Training Methods

Before choosing a particular training method, carefully examine the technique to ensure that it will communicate proper associations. Certain methods may not communicate what you intend. A dog-aggressive Akita was enrolled in a training program that his owner thought was reputable. The trainer convinced the owner that the only way to break the Akita of aggression toward other dogs was to let a more dominant dog put him in his place. The trainer's dog displayed dominance toward other dogs, so she placed him in a room with the Akita and left the two dogs to work things out. When the trainer heard a window crashing, she opened the door to find that her dog was injured, and the Akita had been richly rewarded for his aggressive behavior with a nice victory under his collar.

If this method does not make sense to you, it probably won't make sense to the dog, either. One trainer sent around a flyer giving free advice to the general public on how to stop dogs from digging. The trainer suggested filling the newly dug hole with water and taking the dog over to the hole by the scruff of the neck to dunk his head in the water filled-hole. The next sentence on this flyer cautioned the owner that the dunking probably would not stop the dog from digging; instead, forcing the dog down to the water by the scruff of the neck was a demonstration of dominance, a root cure-all for problem behavior. The trainer thought through the method far enough to figure out that the water would have no effect on future digging. Unfortunately, he did not explain that the dog would learn to mistrust his owner for trying to drown him. Shortly after this flyer was distributed, another trainer was indicted for animal abuse for employing this very correction technique.

Occasionally, even thinking through a method does not result in a clear understanding of how it works. One day a fellow drove up to class in a pickup with his dog in the back. The dog trainer explained to him that it was very dangerous to have the dog in the back of an open pickup. He went through the normal lecture on how the dog's nose and eyes could be damaged from debris in the air, the danger of the dog being thrown out of the truck in an accident, etc. The fellow proudly said, "I fixed the dog from jumping out of the truck. He was jumping out and I would throw him back in. We did this for five or six times when I finally got really mad and threw him in the truck for the seventh time and stuffed a piece of horse manure in his mouth for good measure. After that the dog never jumped out again, and the next time he does something bad, I am going to use that manure trick again."

It was really hard to determine if the dog stopped jumping out of the truck because he got tired of being thrown back in, or if he was grateful for the gourmet horse manure treat. If you are not sure about exactly how or why a method works, it is probably best to avoid the technique altogether. Even the most popular methods use techniques that may not be suited for every breed or temperament of dog. A trainer who evaluates each method based on the efficacy of the associations and motivators will be better equipped to match the appropriate obedience method with the dog's individual temperament.