Dog Facts & Tips

[Daniel E.]

Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode:

What Time of Day Should You Feed Your Dog?

Does it matter if you feed your dog once or twice a day? What about at a certain time? Experts weigh in on what's best.

www.southernliving.com

Researchers think dogs may tell time for things like dinner and walks using their circadian rhythm as an internal body clock or by "smelling time" (the way each part of the day smells helps them identify what should be happening next).

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Cats are easier. Whenever they can see the bottom of the dish through whatever food is still left in there, that is the overruling definition of "breakfast time for pussycats" or "supper time for pussycats" as the case may be (Feline Universal Proclamation 101, Part 1, Paragraph 1).

That's how I announce meals are served to Mindy.

 

[Daniel E.]

My young adult tabby will play bite if he is hungry during the day (for a treat or wet food), but he will never try to wake me up and rarely meows. The calico will rub my nose by 4:30 am to wake me up to feed her wet food. She is nice while being assertive since she will not give up

 

[Daniel E.]

In my area, most dogs who get heartworm were traveling with their owners to warmer places like Phoenix. Climate change is becoming another factor.

Heartworm Infection Among Domestic Dogs in Canada with a Focus on Ontario: Temporal Trend, Spatial Distribution and Risk Factors | Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar extracted view of "Heartworm Infection Among Domestic Dogs in Canada with a Focus on Ontario: Temporal Trend, Spatial Distribution and Risk Factors" by Erin McGill

www.semanticscholar.org

 

[Daniel E.]

Pleistocene wolf - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Daniel E.]

Dog - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Compared to wolves, dogs from agricultural societies have extra copies of amylase and other genes involved in starch digestion that contribute to an increased ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet.[11] Similar to humans, some dog breeds produce amylase in their saliva and are classified as having a high starch diet.[88] However, more like cats and less like other omnivores, dogs can only produce bile acid with taurine and they cannot produce vitamin D, which they obtain from animal flesh. Also, more like cats, dogs require arginine to maintain its nitrogen balance. These nutritional requirements place dogs halfway between carnivores and omnivores.

 

[Daniel E.]

From yaps to howls: what your dog’s bark means – and how to get them to tone it down

With the rise in dog ownership has come a rise in doggy noise. Could interpreting their growls and yelps make life more harmonious? And how do you stop them barking at delivery drivers?

www.theguardian.com

Blue Cross’s official advice includes encouraging noisy dogs (through treats, believe it or not) to focus on neutral tasks, such as playing fetch or going to their bed, in situations when their barking becomes problematic. For attention-seeking dogs, barking should never be rewarded with attention – this includes shouting back. In time, your attention becomes a reward dished out only upon calm behaviour. If all else fails, seek help from an accredited animal behaviour expert or a vet.

 

[Daniel E.]

Laser Therapy for Dogs - TuftsYourDog

Dogs, like people, experience all kinds of pain because of conditions that range from arthritis to neurological disorders, and their owners want to do what they can to relieve their discomfort, and sometimes out-and-out suffering. Can laser therapy help?

www.tuftsyourdog.com

Forty to 50 percent of dogs experience an improvement in lameness with a placebo treatment, at least according to owner perceptions. Owners may feel they did something for their dog, they spent money; therefore, the dog feels better.

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Uses, evidence, and safety of laser therapy

At its simplest, laser therapy is the application of light to living organisms to improve health. However, great detail exists behind this simple idea. The wavelength and power of the laser, the location and duration of exposure, the number of treatments, and many other variables are crucial to...

www.veterinarypracticenews.com

Extensive research done in humans has so far produced limited evidence to support the use of lasers in a few conditions. Experimental evidence in veterinary species is mixed, and there are no systematic reviews of clinical trials validating laser therapy for specific indications.

 

[Daniel E.]

Wet Versus Dry Pet Food: Is One Better for Your Pet?

This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer From improving their joints to making fur shine, dog and cat food companies load their products up with bold claims and flashy buzzwords. Even if you’ve managed to avoid the often-pseudoscientific trends such as raw diets, organic pet...

www.mcgill.ca

Whatever the reason, pets often enjoy wet food more than dry. So, if you have a sick, elderly, or underweight animal that needs encouragement to eat, wet food (either on its own or mixed into kibble) could be a good option.

Studies have shown that both cats and dogs prefer novel foods over the same ones they’ve been fed repeatedly. So, you may wish to rotate the brands or flavours of food your pet eats, something that is much easier with wet food.

 

[Daniel E.]

Nutrition | Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

vetnutrition.tufts.edu

Many websites and other resources about feeding pets advise that you should avoid foods that contain by-products, but the truth is that by-products can be healthy, tasty additions to pet foods.

By-products (mainly organ meats and entrails) often provide more nutrients than muscle meats on a per-weight basis and are important components (and even delicacies) of human diets in other countries. One only need to travel abroad and visit a meat market to see that many of the foods that we are squeamish about feeding to our pets are eaten with gusto by people in other countries. The term “by-product” comes from the fact that they are the leftovers from animal carcasses once the desirable (for Americans) muscle meat has been removed, not because these parts of the animal are inferior in quality, safety, or nutrition.

Interestingly enough, a number of companies use organ meats and other ingredients that fit within the definitions of by-products in their foods, but to avoid the stigma of “by-product” list them as liver, heart, kidney, plasma, etc. Some of these companies even then advertise that they do not contain by-product. Don’t be fooled by a by-product by a different name – they are appropriate to include in pet food under any name...

 

[Daniel E.]

5 Ways Animal Shelters Keep Their Doors Open (and How You Can Help)

By Jackie Kelly A common misconception among pet adopters as well as the community at large, is that animal shelters are funded by tax payer dollars and adoption fees. However, unless the shelter in question is run by, or has a deal with the municipality, most don’t receive government funding...

www.petmd.com

Providing assistance walking dogs or playing with cats is what most people think of when they think volunteering at an animal shelter. However, shelters count on volunteers for everything ranging from administrative support, working fundraisers or conducting adoptions to photographing adoptable animals. This assistance means there’s one less person on the payroll but the care the animals need isn’t compromised.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I have two sisters and a niece here in Ontario that volunteer quite heavily to animal shelters, plus at least one more in Scotland who also does.

They find it very rewarding and fulfilling because whatever they give to the animals is returned 10-fold, if only because they are so grateful to be approached and handled in a positive, loving, humane way. I don't think I even want to hear what trauma many of them have experienced before landing at the shelter.

 

[Daniel E.]

I like to donate "calming beds" for dogs and cats.

I don't know how calming they are, but my pets find them very comfortable.

Round Calming Dog Bed

Round Raised Calming Dog Bed "I can't believe how great this bed is. Coco used to struggle to get off to sleep each night with myself and my partner upstairs. Now as you can see, she's loving the comfort of this bed. Thanks Big Ralph" - Sophie Does your pet struggle to sleep at night? Do you...

bigralph.co.uk

 

[Daniel E.]

Lenawee Humane Society raises $10,000 in #BettyWhiteChallenge

The Lenawee Humane Society raised just under $10,000 on what would have been Betty White's 100th birthday, Jan. 17.

www.lenconnect.com

“Our small organization raised $10,000 in one day. Can you imagine what the total was across the country when you add up all the shelters together? It’s just insane. What a huge impact she’s had on animal shelters even after she’s gone.”

 

[Daniel E.]

They find it very rewarding and fulfilling because whatever they give to the animals is returned 10-fold, if only because they are so grateful to be approached and handled in a positive, loving, humane way.

Excellent point.

In April, the humane society where I recently adopted a senior Dachshund is having their annual dog fashion show (outside with social distancing). It is dogs for adoption walking the runway in clothing from a local dog boutique. I am going since it doesn't get any more surreal than that (except for my vivid dream where dogs could be trained to read)

 

[Daniel E.]

Dry Vs. Wet Dog Foods: Which Is The Right Choice? Part 3

In Part 3 of her series on Dry vs. Wet dog food, Sabine Contreras, Canine Care and Nutrition Consultant, goes over a few popular myths of feeding wet food, and leaves us with some tips to keep in mind. Debunking The Myths Incorrect information about wet food ranges from simple misinformation to...

www.petguide.com

The most common cause for soft stools or diarrhea is overfeeding—regardless whether you feed dry or wet food.

 

[Daniel E.]

How Fluoxetine Treats A Number Of Behavioral Issues In Animals

Originally published in the April 2013 issue of Veterinary Practice News By now, almost everyone has heard about Prozac, though the veterinary brand name Reconcile is less well recognized. Personally, I prefer prescribing Reconcile to manage certain behavior problems because it is licensed for...

www.veterinarypracticenews.com

Former Tufts Dean Franklin Loew used to say that Prozac is to behavioral medicine what ivermectin was to parasitology. He was right.

Homer Simpson had a neat saying, too. His was “Is there anything a doughnut can't do?” I say, “Is there anything fluoxetine can't do?”

 

[Daniel E.]

Want to Adopt a Pet? Prepare for a Full Background Check. (Published 2021)

Overlong applications, home inspections and fecal samples from existing pets are all fair game in finding a cat’s or dog’s “forever home.”

www.nytimes.com

American Humane Association research shows that about 1 in 10 adopted pets are returned or re-homed after six months

 

[Daniel E.]

The existing research shows that the restrictive, delaying policies of most private animal rescues do not provide better outcomes than simply communicating with potential adopters (like most local humane societies or shelters do with same-visit adoptions).

When I adopted from a private rescue, they did:

~ A criminal background check

~ A property records check to verify I owned my own home (if you rent, they will call your landlord instead)

~ An application with distrustful questions -- like "What brand of food would you provide?"

I was actually lucky. Some rescues require an inspection of your home, which delays things even further.

Meanwhile, many of the people who volunteer at rescues would not technically qualify to adopt from their own organization, such as from not having a fenced yard for a dog.

To me, it's a classic problem of loss aversion. Generally, private rescues are too worried about what may go wrong than about the countless homeless pets outside their doors (and any competition with dog/cat breeders who don't ask any questions).

 

[Daniel E.]

Animal Welfare Is Turning Away Good Adopters While Animals Die in Shelters - HASS

27 Common Barriers to Adoption, and How to Bust Them

www.humananimalsupportservices.org

27 Extremely Common Animal Welfare Adoption Practices and Policies That Exclude Adopters

1. Mandatory background checks
2. Mandatory home inspections
3. Fenced yard requirements (which sometimes even require a fence be six or eight feet high)
4. Proof of vaccine and sterilization status of existing pets
5. Veterinary reference checks
6. Landlord or HOA reference checks
7. No adopters with children (or small children)
8. No adopters under a certain age (commonly 21 to 25)
9. No adopters in college
10. No adopters in the military
11. Mandating older adopters adopt only “senior” pets (sometimes called “seniors for seniors”)
12. No adopters who work full time outside the home
13. No adopters who will keep pets outside (partly or solely)
14. Over-inclusive “do not adopt” lists (people are often permanently placed on these for surrendering a pet or getting any citation)
15. Unfriendly, rude, or hostile treatment by a staff member or volunteer
16. High adoption fees and no sliding scale or fee reduction system
17. “Ghosting” potential adopters by not responding to communication
18. Intimidating or scaring potential adopters in order to prevent them from adopting
19. Sharing misinformation or lying to potential adopters to prevent them from adopting
20. Asking for an adopter’s medical history, criminal history, employment status, income, or other unnecessary personal information
21. Any other form of discrimination based on real or perceived race, ethnicity, economic status, housing status, gender, sexuality, sex, size, appearance, age, disability, or health status
22. Operating only during standard business hours (no weekend or evening hours)
23. Requiring multiple visits to the shelter before adoption
24. Requiring “meet and greets” with an entire family, or all existing pets, before adoption
25. Long or overly burdensome adoption applications or processes
26. Unwelcoming or uncommunicative staff and/or volunteers
27. Mandatory waiting periods before an animal can go home