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Your Dog Is Talking To You – Are You Listening?

Dogs actually have the ability to signal to us precisely how they are feeling at any given time. If we are attuned to their signs we will know what their emotional state is. Dogs can display various emotions including: happiness, sadness, boredom, excitement, and fear.

If you closely watch your dog you will notice that his eyes, ears, body, and tail are in an almost continuous, though subtle movement. This is his way of communicating his emotional feelings. Studies are confirming the fact that animals use a very inconspicuous and refined system of communication. The good news is that with a little effort we can learn to understand our domesticated dogs.

In studies conducted by Jane Goodall and Dr. Michael W. Fox, recognized authority on canine body language, confirmed that wild dogs of Africa and wolves communicated a wide range of attitudes to each other, including affection, dominance, submission, interest, disgust, joy, disappointment, and fear. These emotions were communicated using the slightest body movements.

Although our dogs have lost some sensitivity to the language that would be used if they were living in the wild, they still use much of this inherited form of communication. Learning to read your dog’s body language will require a keen eye and close observation over what is happening at the time that your dog is displaying any given movement.

There are some basic things you can look for but like everything else, not every dog follows the same pattern as the others. Here are a few typical guidelines to get you started. Dogs use their tails to signal that they are happy or afraid. If their tail is wagging they are happy. If it is tucked down they are showing fear and submission. When their tail is proudly held high they are feeling good about themselves. Ears are also very telling when it comes to signaling emotions. Dogs sometimes perk their ears in an adorable quizzical fashion as if to ask a question. They may also tilt their head to the side when puzzled. The ears may be held in a backward direction against the head when the dog is angry.

As you become increasingly skilled at reading your dog’s emotional language or identifying his moods, your bond with him will deepen and grow even stronger. Many professionals that have lots of experience in working with dogs have developed the ability to read canine language very well. This is true of dog behaviorists, dog trainers, veterinarians, groomers, breeders, and even life-long dog owners.

It seems that dogs are able to recognize and appreciate when you correctly read their emotional language. Perhaps this is why dogs seem to automatically like certain individuals. Maybe the dog immediately recognizes when a person understands him.

Your Dog Is Talking To You – Are You Listening courtesy Dog Articles.

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Hunting Dogs and Hand Signals

Training a hunting dog with hand signals is very practical. This can be mixed with verbal commands, when you are initially training your dog, which will reinforce the hand gestures. Though hand signals can be successfully used as the only training method and is a way to train a deaf dog or one that can’t hear well.

You can cue your dog to take a certain action using hand signals. There are several reasons that hand signals are better than using verbal commands with a hunting dog.

When you are hunting, your dog will many times be distanced from you. He might just take off running. Maybe you are in the field with him or on an agility course and he is too far away to hear a verbal command. If he is trained with hand signals, he will watch for your command. It is more probable he will see the hand gesture.

Hand signals are a way to tell the dog what action to take and be quiet. When dogs are worked up, they don’t respond as well to verbal commands, but they do respond  to visual signals. Their listening response is low, but their desire to watch is up. Dogs sometimes just ignore verbal commands but obey visual cues.

Focus is the basis of training your dog. When your dog  is aware that he must look at you to see what you want him to do, then his focus is attuned to you more than if he is listening for the command. Watching for your command makes him less distracted. This makes training him easier to do. When you train your dog with hand signals be consistent. Use the same hand signal for a certain command at all times.

The reason dogs respond so well to hands signals or cues is that it is a type of body language. Dogs already communicate with other dogs through body language; your dog communicates with you through body language like showing his belly to say you are dominant or nudging your hand to get petted.

These are a few of the usual hand training commands.

– Stay: Stretch your hand out at shoulder height. Your palm should face out towards your dog. It looks like the signal given by a crossing guard for traffic to stop.

– Come: There are two ways to perform this hand command. Hold both arms out in front of you and next bring them in and touch your stomach. Or stretch one arm out parallel to the ground and then bring your arm inward and touch your opposite shoulder. Either method should be performed slowly until your dog has caught on to the signal. After that, you can do it quicker.

– Sit: Put your arm to your side with your fingers pointing towards the ground. Move your hand in an arch that goes across your dog’s face and over his head. Hold a treat so that he will naturally follow the movement of your hand. This will cause him to naturally sit down.

– Down: This can be an exaggerated movement, if you like. Point your finger down or raise your hand up some first and point downward.

Remember to reinforce these hand signals with verbal commands at first.

Hunting Dogs and Hand Signals courtesy Dog Articles.

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Grooming Your Golden Retriever

Grooming your Golden Retriever is a never ending process.  The entire process should be down once or twice a week, and will take you around a ½ an hour of time.  Brushing your dog while he is shedding will help to control shedding quite a bit.  While outside, if your Golden Retriever manages to get burs or other defects in his hair, you should instantly take a few moments of your time and get the burs or other matter out of his coat.

When you groom your pet, you should always start with a good brushing.  Brush his entire body, then once you have finished brushing you can switch to a comb to get out any loose hair that remains in the coat.  While you are getting out the hair, you can also inspect your pet for ticks, fleas, and other types of skin ailments.  If you wish, you can also check his ears and trim his nails as well.

Bathing your Golden is essential to grooming, and can be somewhat complicated.  Before you attempt to give him a bath, you should always brush him first, to get rid of tangles.  During shampooing, you should always use shampoos that are specifically for dogs, since human shampoo can dry a dog’s skin out.  You don’t need to bathe your dog often, once every other week is good enough.  If you properly maintain your Golden’s coat, you’ll find it’s much easier to clean.

To prevent matting, which is very common with Golden Retrievers, you should always make sure that you brush your pet on a daily basis.  Metal combs and brushes work extremely well, and will help you to get a great deal of the hair out.  Although some people choose to use scissors and cut the mats, you can easily injure your Golden if he happens to move or jerk.  Scissors aren’t recommended, as brushing and proper bathing will help to prevent matting of the hair better than anything else.

When you cut your dogs nails, you should trim them a great deal, all the while avoiding going down into the quick.  You should never let your Golden’s nails get too long, as long nails can easily take the shape of the dog’s foot, resulting in a splay.  Therefore, you should always check your Golden Retriever’s nails and trim them every few weeks.  If you trim them just right, you’ll have at least 2 weeks before they need to be trimmed again.  If you do happen to trim the nails past the quick, bleeding will occur.  To stop the bleeding, always keep some styptic powder on hand to make sure that you are prepared if you do make a mistake.

With other types of grooming, you should also make sure that you clean your Golden’s ears as well.  They can get ear infections quite easily, if you don’t clean their ears on a regular basis.  To get the best results and protect your pet from ear infections, you should clean his ears once a week using a quality cleansing solution.  This way, you can rest assured that your Golden has healthy ears.

Grooming is an essential aspect to the health of every Golden Retriever.  All it takes is a little bit of time from your day to groom your pet and keep him healthy.  If you don’t have the time to groom your Golden, you can always take him to a professional.  Whether you do it yourself or take your Golden to a pro – grooming is something that simply must be done.

Grooming Your Golden Retriever courtesy Dog Articles.

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Dogs and Allergies: What You Should Know

Your dog may have an allergic reaction to anything at any time.  He can even have an allergic reaction tomorrow to the dog food that he’s eaten all his life. He can have a reaction to the detergent that you use to wash your blankets.  He may suddenly have a reaction to the grass in your yard.  As a matter of fact, you may suddenly develop an allergy to you dog.

What causes allergic reactions?  An allergic reaction is the body’s response to an “invader.”  Your body, or your dog’s body, mounts a defense against what it perceives to be as an attacker — whether it’s a flea bite or the corn in his dog food.  That defense can be a rash, hives, itching, watery eyes, and so on.  The body is reacting to the offending allergen by trying to get rid of it in some way.  Yes, the body is overreacting, but that goes along with having an allergic reaction to something.

Why does a dog or someone develop an allergy when they haven’t been allergic previously?  Their body may suddenly decide that something that they previously accepted is no longer acceptable.  The body may suddenly have an intolerance for a specific ingredient. Whatever the body is allergic to, it may only take a very small amount to get a big reaction.

Dogs are most commonly allergic to flea bites which results in flea bite dermatitis — itching, redness, rash, and loss of hair around the rear quarters and over the tail.  According to one vet, for a dog with flea bite dermatitis, or an allergy to fleas, if one flea bites a dog on the nose, the dog will itch like crazy around his tail.  This allergy makes a dog miserable.  Good flea control is absolutely essential for a dog that is allergic to fleas.

Dogs are also commonly allergic to some typical ingredients in dog food.  One of the most common ingredients in dog food is corn in various forms.  Corn can be found as whole corn, ground corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal and so on. If your dog is allergic to corn he will react to any of these kinds of corn. You may have to read the ingredient labels carefully to find some of the corn since it can be slipped in almost unnoticeably.

Dogs may be allergic to other grains and cereals in dog food, so you may need to try your dog on different foods to gauge his reaction.

Dogs can also be allergic to different kinds of meat protein.  Some dogs are now allergic to chicken or lamb since these have been so commonly used as primary dog food ingredients. If your dog is allergic to one of these meat ingredients there are plenty of other meat proteins from which to choose.  Some dog food companies specialize in making foods with novel proteins such as emu meat, kangaroo, venison and others.

If your dog is on good flea control and you have tried different foods but you still suspect that your dog is suffering from allergies, it’s time to see the vet. Your vet can test your dog to see what he may be allergic to.  It could be a cleaning product, something you use in your yard, or one of a dozen other things that we use daily. Your vet will be able to help you identify the cause of your dog’s allergy.

Allergies are a problem for both people and pets but they can be overcome with a little effort. By identifying the cause of the allergy we can eliminate it and make our dogs much happier.

Dogs and Allergies: What You Should Know courtesy Dog Articles.

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My Dog Won’t Stop Mouthing Me!

Some dogs are very “mouthy.”  That doesn’t mean they talk or bark a lot.  It means that they use their mouths on everything, trying to taste things, or put their mouths on things.  Usually these dogs have not been completely taught bite inhibition.  Bite inhibition is when a puppy is taught that nipping and biting others hurts and that they shouldn’t go around using their mouths on things.  They generally learn it from their mothers and littermates, and later from their owners.  Singleton pups (one-puppy litters) may have a harder time learning bite inhibition since they don’t have littermates.

Dogs can also be mouthy as a way of showing affection.  Wolves tend to show affection to each other by mouthing muzzles, necks and paws.

Whatever the cause, mouthing people’s hands and feet, or any other part of their bodies, can be annoying.  Your dog may not use his teeth, but it does tend to cover you in dog slobber.  Having a dog grab you with his mouth is also simply not very good manners.

There are a few simple methods for teaching your dog not to mouth you.

Some people like to use Bitter Apple, a spray or cream product.  You can put this on your hands if that’s where your dog grabs you.  Most dogs hate the taste and your dog should stop grabbing at your hands.

Another method of dealing with mouthiness is to turn to stone whenever your dog grabs you with his mouth.  If your dog gets no feedback he will likely lose interest.

You can also use clicker training to teach your dog not to be mouthy.  When your dog grabs your hand or wrist being mouthy wait for him to let go.  Wait for a couple of seconds and then Click and tell him he’s a good dog.  Give him a treat.  Keep clicking and treating when he stops the mouthing behavior.  He will get the message.

If your dog is mouthing other things in your home, such as walls or furniture, you can try the Bitter Apple on them.  The bad-tasting product usually discourages dogs from mouthing and chewing things.

Remember that puppy nipping and mouthing are normal behaviors up to a point.  If you have a puppy who is nipping and mouthing you can work on bite inhibition.  When your puppy nips or mouths you all you have to do is make it perfectly clear that it HURTS when he does it.  Let out an OUCH to curl your puppy’s hair.  Leave him in no doubt that what he did really hurt you.  This is the same thing that his littermates would do if he played too rough with them.  If he does it the next time you play with him, get up and leave.  Puppies don’t play with a puppy that is too rough and you shouldn’t either.

For mouthy adolescent or grown dogs, the tips offered here should work.  Give them a try and it should stop the mouthiness.

My Dog Won’t Stop Mouthing Me courtesy Dog Articles.

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Should I Feed My Dog A Vegetarian Dog Food?

Although dogs are considered to be omnivores their bodies require a great deal of protein in order to stay healthy.  They are not the obligate carnivores that cats are (an animal that must eat a regular meat diet in order to survive), but even as scavengers dogs have a preference for meat.  Ethologists never get tired of telling us that dogs are descended from wolves.  As such they are predators and they hunted animals for food.  They were able to get by on eating other things, but they preferred to eat meat when they could kill it.

For the most part, dog foods which contain a great deal of corn or other grains are considered inferior products.  Corn is usually a cheaper source of protein than meat sources, such as lamb and chicken.  For this reason some dog food manufacturers use it as a filler ingredient in one of its forms, such as whole yellow corn, ground corn or corn gluten.  It does provide protein but dogs can only digest 54 percent of the nutrients in corn.  The rest passes through the dog and is deposited in your backyard or when you walk your dog.  Dogs fed diets high in cereal and grains typically have large, soft stools because they do not digest all of the food.  On the other hand, dogs fed food that is higher in meat protein can digest much more of the food.  Stools are smaller and firmer because the dog is able to digest much more of the food.

There is currently a popular move toward feeding grain-free dog foods.  The thinking is that all grains are bad for dogs and that dogs should eat food that has as much meat protein content as possible.  This is probably an over-reaction.  It’s not necessary for a pet dog to eat dog food that is 40 percent protein.  The government’s nutritional guidelines for feeding dogs recommends that an adult dog eat food that is 18 percent protein.  A performance dog should have food that is 25 percent protein.  Even a racing sled dog is only recommended to have food that is 35 percent protein.  It’s a mystery why any dog would need 40 percent (or more!) protein in his diet.  As others have pointed out, meat is the most expensive ingredient in dog food so when you buy dog food that has all of this extra meat protein, without a good reason, you are simply paying for the meat.  Why buy it when your dog doesn’t need it?  You can buy a steak for your dog cheaper than you can buy some of these grain-free dog foods.

Vegetarian foods are not recommended for dogs.  They do require meat content in order to be healthy.  Make sure that you are buying dog food that has named meat sources, such as chicken meal, lamb meal, beef and so on.  Be careful about buying the “exotic” protein sources, such as kangaroo meat, duck, venison, etc.  These novel protein sources are really intended for dogs that have allergies to the common sources of protein for dogs.  If you feed your dog a regular diet of duck, kangaroo and other unusual meat sources, what will you do if he develops an allergy to them?  You will have no more exotic meat sources left to try.

If you are a vegetarian and you have a dog it’s recommended that you do what is best for your dog, regardless of your own beliefs.  Take into account his health and welfare and feed him a good dog food.  If it makes you feel better there are many good foods that feature holistic sources of meat.  Some foods are even made from free range chicken or come from meat sources grown by small producers.  You may not find a food you like in the large pet superstores but if you look online or visit a small boutique dog food seller they may be able to special order a high quality dog food for your dog.

Should I Feed My Dog A Vegetarian Dog Food courtesy of Dog Articles.

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