Funny dog photo

I wonder why people love to pose dogs doing human activities? It is one thing to dress them up but please don't let them smoke cheap Backwoods cigars so they can end up with all sorts of health problems. I think I would much rather see the dog skate boarding or surfing than smoking, but that's just me.

What are those spots?

My family had a black lab 20 years ago that developed boils on her rump. Just small bumps that were not really noticeable until they burst one morning and she was covered in blood all over her back. I had just moved out of the family home and the dog remained with my parents who had no clue as to how she developed the bumps or why they caused blood filled boils.

I was notified of the situation by a frantic phone call from my mother who reported to me that the dog was bleeding to death and wanted me to get there right away. I arrived to find a healthy dog that needed a bath and someone to check where the blood was coming from. After cleaning up the dog and my dad popping his head in the bathroom at one point to suggest a few acne solutions for the problem, at which I told him politely that THAT was not the problem, I checked the dog and found that the boils had sealed back over and were now clean.

After that unknown episode of boils, the dog never had them again. Her skin healed up nicely and she died of old age a few years after that.

Doing some blog housekeeping

I have been going over some old blog posts and removing broken links. I know most bloggers don't bother with cleaning up old posts but I had nothing better to do for the evening so I am putting around the blog. I often don't like it when I click on a link that takes me to nowhere land so I thought my readers wouldn't either. Nothing worse than reading "click here to learn more" and ending up on the opps Google page.

Well, back to housekeeping.....

Strange things your dog might eat

Dogs have different taste buds than us humans. What we would consider pur yuck would become a delicacy in their eyes. You might have seen your dog munching on kitty roca at one time (kitty roca is a term for cat poop covered in kitty litter) and chastised the dog for doing something so foul. In fact rotten meat and other deteriorated items are what a dog might eat if it was a wild dog. Rotting meat to a dog means it is easier to digest and poop from another animal is often still inside a dead animal and it is eaten too.

Other items that dogs will get into and eat thus causing ill health to them are:

• Chocolate
• House Plants
• weight loss supplements
• Human vitamin pills
• Onions

......and a variety of other human medications and chemicals. So keep an eye on what your dog gets into and don't panic if it is a rotting carcass.

Interesting blog comments

A while back I wrote a post about acne breakouts in dogs. I never thought it would get much attention but it has....from blog spammers. I get at least one comment a week for that post with a link in the comment for human acne medication or creams. Give me a break guys, do you ever read the blog? It is about DOGS for goodness sakes. Oh, well back to deleting spam comments.

Indoor dogs that shed

If your dog is kept indoors year round then you are well aware of the fact that your dog sheds year round. On the other hand if your dog was housed outdoors then your dog would only shed twice a year.

The indoor dogs' body has adjusted to the climate control of your home. It no longer has to grow a thick coat for winter to protect it against the elements. Because your indoor dog now sheds year round it is important that you brush your dog everyday otherwise you will be vacuuming everyday the entire house to keep the dog hair under control. You will need to check your furnace filters for dog hair almost every day since dogs can shed quite a bit.

There are a few dog breeds that were strictly developed to be house dogs. They have thin skin and very short coats. They do not fair well as an outdoor dog. If you have such a breed then you just have to take extra precautions to keep your home dog hair free and your dog well groomed.

Looking for good websites about dogs

Don't you just hate typing in a phase or word about a dog or dog breed and getting a whole nice list of websites to choose from only to click on them and it takes you to either another search site or just a list of other websites? That happens to me at least once a day. Most of the websites are what is called link farms. All they do is have links to other websites along with ads on them that could easily be confused as part of their website. The make money from people clicking on the ads. Even some manual directory submission websites are thinly disguised link farms.

Google is slowly weeding those websites out of searches but it will time since people keep making new ones. For the sake of finding some good websites about dogs, I hope Google succeeds.

Dog lovers will do almost anything

Dogs are family, they are treated like any other member of the family. They are fed, housed and given attention, played with and taken to the vet if they are sick. Our dogs are family but I also realize they are still dogs.

On the rise are grown adults that now treat their dogs not only like family but like human children. Industries are now catering to them. Dog clothing (I am not talking about the clothing to protect them from bitter cold) for those dress-up occasions and party kits just for dogs. I even read one woman wanted to have first communion invitations made for her dog as she wanted her dog to be baptized.

Are we, as a society, putting too much human elements into our dog's lives or are we just imitating what royalty has done with their dogs through the ages?

Vitamins for your dog

Are extra supplementary vitamins really necessary for your dog? If your dog is eating a well balanced diet then I would say no. Most vitamins for dogs are just overkill on the part of the dog owner. It is very rare that a dog would be suffered from a vitamin deficiency and still be well fed. The only time a dog would need vitamins is when it is on the verge of starvation, but even then the dog should be given a balanced diet to combat the malnutrition and the food would have all the vitamins the dog would need.

Doggy businesses

There are lots of people that have started businesses that cater to dogs and dog owners. I am happy to report that most of them are NOT puppy mills, but legitimate businesses. A friend of mine used to be a horse trainer professionally and use to adopt several dogs from breed rescues. Her love of dogs soon set her off in another professional direction, one of the doggy boutique.

Her little store was opened up in one of the classier sections of an up scale town and soon she was selling designer items for dogs. She had several local crafts people that would supply her store. I remember one line of dog collars called carolina designs, named after the dog that the crafter owned. Carolina was a prim and proper Standard Poodle and a black one at that.

My friends business flourished for the better part of 10 years then I lost track of her. I hope her business is still doing well in these hard times. Her experiences have shown me how much life changes you and that a dog can be such an influence on your life.

Does your home owners insurance cover your dog

In my last post I talked about the difficulties in obtaining home owners insurance when you own a "dangerous" breed of dog. In that post I was just concerned with getting home owners insurance to cover the house but what about your dog? Does your home owners insurance cover you should your dog get out and either cause an accident, damage property or injure someone? Mine does. In fact it is something you should ask about when you get an insurance quote. Most insurance companies that have a large number of rural customers have that type of an insurance rider on their policies. I know that Farmers Insurance company has that type of policy at no extra charge but other companies charge extra. It is well worth looking into.

A new home for your family and the dog

I have had the experience of being rejected by an insurance company simply because of the breed of dog I had at the time. This was back in 1998 when we had just moved into our new home. When I had called around for home insurance quotes, those companies never asked me if I owned a dog or what breed it was. it was only until a few weeks later that the insurance papers came in the mail for us to fill out. It was on there they asked about pets.

We thought all was well with our new home. The family was settling in and the 3 Chow Chows we had loved roaming the new larger backyard. Then the letter from the home insurance company came and said they could not cover us because the Chow Chow was listed as a dangerous breed of dog. "Dangerous" breed? I quickly called around and found out that other companies did the same thing. I finally found an insurance company that did not care about the breed and they had the same coverage at the same price. While I was frantically searching I was tempted to tell the insurance company that we did not own any dogs or at least come up with a breed that was not on their "list."

Just by going through that ordeal I felt like a criminal and I only owned a dog.