Consider a quality Organic Food for your Dog!

Here is a great video to introduce you to Organic Dog Food and then we follow it up with a great article on why you should consider switching your dog over to a healthy organic diet – Choosing organic dog food for your furry friend is one of the best ways you can show your love, loyalty and respect for man?s best friend. Just as more and more humans are choosing to eat less processed foods containing fewer chemicals, pet owners around the world are choosing higher quality foods for their pets. You  can also click on this link to read our article about remedies for dog skin allergies.

First, the video on the advantages of organic pet food

OK so what else is there to Organic Dog Food?

An organic diet promotes total body health and increased vitality. When applied to dog food, “organic” means the ingredients were not grown with, treated by or exposed to pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Food that has been exposed to these toxins can decrease the health of any mammal’s digestion, mental state and hormone balance.

In fact, human food not marked organic contains a great deal of chemicals, pesticides and harmful toxins, too. The same things that decrease your pet?s health, happiness and general well being will also bring you down. Of course, the organic and natural food revolution started with humans first, as more and more people decided their bodies deserved better.

Today, with organic foods available nearly everywhere, pet owners finally have the opportunity to treat their pets with the same nutritional respect. Not only will a healthier diet give pets a happier life, it gives them a longer one, too.

Raw foodists take organic food to the extreme, choosing to feed their pets only uncooked foods. A raw food pet diet includes raw meat and organs, fresh vegetables, some fruit and usually some sort of supplement such as bone meal.

This type of diet is based on the idea that modern day dogs still have the bodies of their ancestors and need to eat like them to be truly healthy. Think about what a wild canine ten thousand years ago would be enjoying on a day to day basis and you?ll have a pretty good idea of what your modern day dog will appreciate.

Raw diet proponents are usually critical of dry dog foods, but any non-puritans will see an improvement in their pet?s health by switching to a higher quality of dry food. Rather than going by what the price tag or advertising says, take a look at the ingredient list. You want something that has no food dye or chemicals. Look for products that don?t contain sugar and whose ingredients are grown organically.

The changes you can expect to see once you switch your dog over to organic dog food include both internal and external symptoms. For instance, a healthier diet means a healthier and more lustrous coat. Better eating can also eliminate skin problems like itching, mites, fleas and more. Your pet?s teeth, too, can benefit from higher quality food. It?s just like humans: the more unhealthy things we eat, the more chemicals and sugars are precious teeth come in contact with. Better food means less chemicals and healthier teeth, healthier gums and better breath.

You can click on this link to go back to our main page to read more articles like this Organic Dog Food article!

OK thats the end of this article on how Organic Food can help your dog.

The Basics of Safe Puppy Training

OK here is a great video on safe puppy training and our own written guide! Puppy training should be done in a manner that is both safe and effective, and ideally should start from the time you bring your puppy home from the store or shelter. Before you start training your puppy, remember that you need to focus on teaching it the right things by rewarding good behavior, and not punishing bad behavior at a time when your puppy still doesn’t know what you exactly want him or her to do. The video below focuses on basic puppy training. A puppy is like a baby. Start slow and don’t expect them to be doing tricks before they are old enough to. you can click on this link to read our article on Training a puppy not to nip!

The video guide to safe puppy training:

Here is our written guide to safely train your puppy

Puppies are different from humans – we should not set out immediately and tell them what’s wrong and mete out the resulting punishment. Every puppy needs a chance to learn on its own, to develop a sense of right and wrong through positive reinforcement.

If you wish that your puppy does the right thing at an early age, avoid saying, or even worse, shouting the word “No” and hitting the puppy. Repeating exercises is a much better way to go about showing a puppy that he or she made a mistake. Do not hold back rewards for partially performed behaviors – reward your puppy whenever he or she does something right, no matter how small it is.

Let us cite an example. You find that your expensive shoes have been chewed up by your puppy. Most dog owners would panic and yell “Nooooo!”, but this is a pitfall that would lead to this consequence.

The first possibility is that your dog would cower in panic and realize that developing permanent teeth shouldn’t be done in your presence. But this will only lead to your puppy repeating the action when you are not at home or in its presence. Take note that your dog didn’t mean anything wrong – it was just following its best judgment.

The above example can also apply to proper crate training and housebreaking – refrain from using the word “NO!” should your puppy do its business in your living room instead of going outside to relieve himself or herself. Instead, focus on positive reinforcement. Reward your puppy’s good deed afterwards so that he or she would have it in mind that he/she needs to go outside to answer the call of nature.

Repeated success puppy training

This is a form of puppy training that is built on repeated success rather than making your pet fear your very presence. You will also be rewarded by a more confident, friendly and respectful puppy.

The repeated training can become a part of your bonding with the puppy and there is no need to make it stressful or something the puppy fears. Make it like a game with rewards such as petting or a small snack when the pup gets it right!

It is not just your dog’s behavior that can benefit much from positive reinforcement and other modern dog training techniques, but also its personality. Start the learning process properly while your puppy is still very young and you can be confident of your puppy growing up to be a mature, friendly, cooperative and well-behaved dog.

You can click on this link to go to our main page to find more dog training articles like this one!

OK thats the end of this puppy training article and video guide!

Here is a free video and a written guide to Dog Skin Problems!

Don’t ignore Your dog scratching or chewing its skin, it could be the sign of a serious skin problem! Just like human, dogs can have skin problems too, and it is super important to understand what the signs and symptoms are of dog skin problems in order to make sure that we keep our pets comfortable and healthy no matter what the situation. Here are some basic irritations to watch for during the course of your dog’s life.

And remember, they can be contagious or non-contagious, and any sort of issue may be present because there is something else wrong that is causing a particular flare up to happen. Some problems are caused by the environment, others by things like parasites, bacteria, fungi, viruses, or things like compulsive licking, which is always a bad one.

Here is the Video on Identifying Dog Skin Problems:

Here is our written guide to identifying why your dog itches

One of the biggest things that causes dog skin problems is allergies, believe it or not. Vets say that one out of every seven dogs has an allergy bad enough to affect its daily life. Just like humans, dogs can be super irritated by things like pollen and what is in foods occasionally.

Another skin condition that dogs occasionally have is something called a hot spot, which is basically an area where there is a rash that the dog makes worse by licking or biting at. It become further infected and can spread rapidly to other parts of the dog’s body, causing a lot of discomfort and it looks particularly ugly in some cases. There are pictures that would make you cringe!

Fleas and ticks are also regular offenders when it comes to things that irritate a dog’s skin, and you can get these little critters from just about anywhere, including other animals out on the street, or out in the woods on any adventures that you may head out to when you’re feeling like a journey to a park.

Hair loss often accompanies skin problems, either because the dog scratches the fur away, or whatever is creating the issue causes the skin cells to have their fur drop out. It can be an indication of many different things, so if you aren’t sure, ask your local veterinarian.

Depending on what the actual cause is, there are many different types of treatment that are appropriate for a dog with skin problems, including shaving the effected area, putting on creams or ointments, and potentially things like shampoo or oral drugs in the dogs food.

So if your dog has skin problems, your best idea is to identify what the issue is as soon as possible and then get the correct treatment, before the condition becomes worse or untreatable in some cases. Your dog deserves love for the love it gives to you!