Owners Danger Mistakes 1 of 3

Letting Your Dog Walk You

A poorly trained dog can pull you over while you’re out for a stroll. According to the CDC, tens of thousands of people end up in the ER every year because of pet-related falls. Many of these falls occur during walks -- either when a person trips over a dog or is pulled or pushed by one. Experts say obedience training is the best way to make sure your pooch doesn’t take you down during the morning walk.

Overlooking Ticks

After a walk in the woods, you check yourself for ticks, right? Don't forget about your dog. Tick bites put your dog at risk for Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and a handful of other diseases. They can also cause serious illnesses in cats. If your pet has infected ticks, this puts the rest of the family at risk. If you find a tick, remove it carefully with tweezers, being careful to get all of the head and not to crush it. Ask the vet about tick control.

Ignoring Ringworm and Roundworms

If your pet has a round bald patch, ringworm could be to blame. Leave this fungus untreated, and you're putting your family at risk. People can get ringworm from dogs or cats by touching their skin or fur. Ringworm usually causes a reddish, ring-shaped rash on the skin or bald spots if it infects the scalp. If your pet has hair loss, take him to your vet to see if it could be ringworm.

Roundworms are common parasites in both dogs and cats. They cause diarrhea and vomiting and may lead to serious illness. But many people don't realize these worms are a threat to humans, too. An infected pet can contaminate soil or sand with tiny eggs. Kids may ingest the eggs by putting dirty fingers in their mouths. When the worms hatch inside people, they can cause blindness and other tissue damage. Ask your vet about regular deworming.

Skipping Flea Medicine

Skip your pets' flea medicine, and they aren't the only ones who will pay the price. Fleas will quickly set up shop on untreated pets, particularly in summer and fall, and fill your house with their eggs and young. Some people wind up covered in itchy sores. Fleas can also transmit serious diseases to people including bubonic plague. Ask your vet about long term flea medication and put a routine reminder on your calendar.

Not Spaying or Neutering Your Pet

Millions of cats and dogs live on the street or end up euthanized because of unwanted litters. Still, many people are reluctant to spay or neuter their pets. The fact is, spaying and neutering is a healthy choice for your pet. It reduces the risk of breast cancer in females and testicular cancer in males. Neutered males are also less likely to run away from home, mark their territory, or exhibit aggressive behaviors.

Keeping the Food Bowl Full

With the best intentions, some people keep their pets' food bowls full at all times. This is one of the most common mistakes pet owners make. The problem is that cats and dogs often eat more than they need. If food is constantly available, they will take in too many calories and put on too much weight.

Forcing Cats to Be Vegetarian

Vegetarian people sometimes want their pets to share their lifestyle. The trouble is cats are "obligate carnivores." This means they must eat meat to survive. They depend on nutrients, such as the amino acid taurine, that are only found in animal tissue. Dogs may be able to handle a well-balanced vegetarian diet, but check with your vet first.

Providing Too Little Exercise

Just like people, pets need exercise to stay healthy. Couch potato pets are prone to obesity, which raises their risk of respiratory problems and joint problems. The right amount of exercise for a dog depends on the breed and size, but vets recommend at least a half-hour each day. Taking brisk walks with your dog can help you get in shape, too.

How to Help Kids Cope with Pet Loss

Cope with Pet Loss

Losing a beloved pet, whether it’s a dog or a gerbil, is never easy. For many children, a goldfish or favorite cat dying is often their first taste of death and it can be devastating for them. It’s difficult to see your little one mourn. Fortunately, you can take steps to ensure that your child comes to terms with the loss in a healthy way and is able to move on. Here are a few tips to follow to help your children cope with losing a pet.

Let your child grieve

It’s okay to feel sad when you lose someone you love and this should be conveyed to your child. If you were close to the pet, you can let them see that you are sad, as well. Avoid being sad for too long. Your children should learn how long they can grieve and how to live after the death of the pet or person they love.

Allow your child to be a part of the death

It’s important that children know what is going on. If a pet is deathly ill or is about to be put down, make sure you explain it to your child in terms he or she can understand. It may be difficult, especially if your child is highly sensitive, but this will lessen the impact later on.

Create a memento

Remember that special pet with something made to memorialize them. A scrapbook with memories written in it and photos of the pet can be a helpful reminder of the good days. Collect photos of your deceased animal and help your child put together a fun photo album that will help everyone remember the great times you all enjoyed. Add stickers and captions to make the book special. If you aren’t up to doing a full photo album, something like a photo frame or even one page of photos to hang on the fridge can be a good alternative.

Hold a memorial service

While you may feel silly holding a service for a mouse or fish, it can be a useful tool for helping a child move on. A service may include a burial, depending on how you decide to handle the animal’s remains. Have each person say something about the pet. Children can read an appropriate poem or lay flowers on the grave. If there is no burial, have the service in front of a photo of the pet.

Don’t get a replacement

It may be appropriate to get a new animal later on, but don’t rush to replace the lost pet. It’s important that your child have time to grieve. It is also a good idea to show children that death is part of life and that you can’t just buy a new creature to take away the pain. A rapid purchase can cause children to worry that if they die, they will also be replaced and you won’t feel their loss.

Make sure your child doesn’t feel responsible

Children tend to be fairly self-centered and this can lead to assuming that the pet’s death was their fault. Be sure to let your little one know that pets do die and that it’s normal, though unpleasant and sad. Make sure your child doesn’t blame himself for the pet’s passing.

Talk about the pet

Sometimes, when an animal or loved one dies, that part of life becomes closed and no one talks about it. For most children, it’s important to explain that they can share their good memories of their pet and talk about what happened. This will help them work through the pain and gradually move on. Ensure that your child understands death is final

Continue with regular activities

While your child may want to stay home and grieve, it’s best if he goes to school and after school activities, the same as usual. Returning to a normal schedule can help kids see that life goes on, even after a devastating loss. It will also give them something else to focus on.

Allow your child to keep something special

A favorite pet blanket, chew toy or collar can be a good thing for a child to hold onto. Don’t be surprised if he wants to sleep with the pet’s item. Keeping something special like a collar close by can bring comfort to the grieving child. It’s usually fine to let kids hang onto a few keepsakes.

It’s never easy when a much loved member of the family dies. Children who are experiencing loss for the first time are more likely to have a hard time accepting that their friend is gone. It’s up to you to console them and ensure that they understand exactly what happened. Answer their questions to avoid children coming up with fearful ideas of their own.

Vaccination

Which vaccines my dog ​​need to take?

 

And if he has never been vaccinated?

 

When are these vaccines?

Learn more and see the vaccination schedule for your dog.

It is important to know which vaccines your dog should receive and the intervals between doses should be at the discretion of the veterinarian who takes care of your dog. Here at All About Dogs seek answer your questions and provide a vaccination schedule for you to follow the vaccines your dog. Indepentemente of vaccines that your veterinarian will apply the multiple vaccines (V8 or V10) and anti-rabies vaccination is mandatory in any scheme.
Adults who have never been vaccinated dogs or puppies that have passed the correct time to vaccinate need to receive two doses of multiple vaccine (with an interval of 21 days between them) and a dose of rabies vaccine. This also applies to dogs "unknown" when it is not known whether they were vaccinated one day.

In these vaccines, there immunization against leishmaniasis or kala-azar, an important zoonosis (disease that can be transmitted from animal to humans). This vaccine is applied in regions where the disease is common and should be preceded by tests to detect if the dog already has the disease.

One should not vaccinate puppies under 45 days of age unless the bitch that gave birth to the puppies have never been vaccinated because the vaccines can be inactivated by antibodies passed from the mother to the offspring.

All domestic animals, usually the canines and felines, require extra protection with regard to your health ... and health of their owners. Yes, because a dog or cat unvaccinated run not only much greater risk that they will incur serious and highly contagious diseases, as well as come to contract zoonoses, or diseases transmissible to humans (as is the case of rabies).

Vaccination of domestic animals contributed, throughout the twentieth century to prevent the deaths of millions of animals, according to experts estimate. And pet owners should not fail to vaccinate the dog or cat against rabies just because this disease has been eradicated from the country where they live, without evidence of any cases today. Diseases like this are highly contagious and anger, in particular, comes from animals like bats and foxes. Therefore, the vaccination will also give more freedom to your pet as it may cause increased security what we like best: play and travel.

So, know that preventable diseases through vaccination are several, such as anger (no known cure), leptospirosis (highly dangerous, transmitted from infected rats, can also infect humans), canine distemper (often fatal and most common in winter), parvovirus (the animal dies in diarrhea sequence plentiful), Coronavirosis (similar to the previous, but with a more benign character), infectious hepatitis (can cause irreversible eye damage) and canine influenza (highly contagious among dogs and more frequent in wet and cold days). The classic vaccination schedule prevents all these diseases, but sometimes the veterinarian may consider that the characteristics of the animal or the region where he lives require extra vaccines (to prevent diseases such as feline leukemia, giardia or leishmaniasis).

Animals should see its reinforced vaccination every year, since studies point to the duration of immunity to one year. However, know that the veterinarian who treats your pet is who will decide the right time to revaccination. This will be decided depending on the animal's lifestyle: if it's homemade, whether it is animal exposure and contests, whether it is animal hunting.
Finally, know that vaccination in very rare cases, such as vaccination administered in humans, could entail some risks and even trigger severe crises in animals. But the disastrous occurrences are uncommon and the risk-protection gains greater expression when we think the risks that entails an animal is not vaccinated.

How to discover the kind of dog i have

With the excess of dogs in the world today, little wonder that a large portion of these dogs are mutts, which are dogs who aren't purebred. However, you may still be curious what your dog's background is. In addition, knowing your dog's background can help you assess what genetic diseases he's predisposed for, and it can also help you better understand behavioral problems. You can look at your dog's looks to help you identify his background, or you can turn to a genetic testing company to find out more.

Check your dog's size.

Your dog's size is related to your dog's breeds.

 

You can't have a large mutt without him having a large-breed dog as a part of his genetic makeup.
For instance, if your dog is very small (in the 5 to 10 pound range), he likely has some influence from the toy breeds, such as toy poodles, chihuahuas, papillons, and Shih Tzus.

 If your dog is mid-range, in the 10 to 50 pound range, he likely has some influence from a mid-range size dog, such as a terrier or spaniel.Large dogs, in the 65 to 100-pound range, include dogs such as setters, retrievers, and shepherds.The biggest dogs, the ones that come close to 200 pounds, likely have some giant dog in their mix, such as Saint Bernard, komondor, or mastiff.

Nonetheless, mutts can come in any size, and if your dog is mid-range, it may be harder to determine what breeds contributed to his genetic makeup based on size.

Look at your dog's ears.

 

Different breeds have different types of ears. Your mutt's ears can be an indicator of what breeds contributed to his looks.
Bat ears are large ears that stand upright on a dog's head. 

They are large in proportion to the head. 

They may be slightly rounded. Chihuahuas and Cardigan West Corgis have these ears.Prick ears stand upright and are pointed. 

You'll see these ears on malamutes and Siberian huskies, as well as some terriers. 

Sometimes, prick ears are made by cutting part of the ear, and those ears are called cropped. 

Great Danes and Doberman pinschers often have their ears cropped.

Another variation on prick ears is hooded ears, which curve slightly in at the bottom, like on basenji dogs.

Round-tip or blunt-tip ears are upright ears that are rounded on the ends, seen on chow chows or French bulldogs.

 Candle flame ears are pointed ears, but they pinch in slightly at the bottom, making them look like a candle flame.

 English toy terriers have these ears.Button ears stand up, but the top part flops down, covering the ear canal. They're seen in fox terriers and jack Russell terriers, for example.Cocked, semi-cropped, or semi-pricked ear stands upright, but folds just slightly over at the top, as seen in rough collies and pitbulls.

Drop ears or pendant ears drop down beside the side of the face, such as in the basset hound Another type of ear that is usually a drop style is a v-shaped ear, which is a elongated ear in a triangle shape, seen in bull mastiffs. 

A folded ear is much like a drop ear. However, the ear hangs down in ruffles rather than straight down. You'll see these ears in dogs like field spaniels.Filbert-shaped ears hang down, but they have an usual shape, looking like filberts. You'll find these ears in breeds like Bedlington terriers.

Rose ears are a type of drop ears, but they fold back instead of forward. You see these ears on greyhounds.

Check your dog's tail.

Your dog's tail can also be an indicator of its breed. Dog tails come in several varieties.

Curly tails make a little corkscrew. You see this type of tail in pugs, akitas, and chow chows, for instance.

Bobtails are short tails that look cut-off. You see this tail on dogs such as Australian shepherds and Pembroke Welsh corgis.

Flagpole tails are long and straight and stand up like, well, a flagpole. You'll see these tails on dogs like beagles.

Rat tails hang down, and they have very little hair. These tails are prominent on Irish water spaniels and Afghans.

You might also see saber tails and sickle tails. Saber tails hang down but curve slightly upward and are covered in fur; German shepherds have these tails. Sickle tails curve upward over the body and are covered in fur; Siberian huskies and chihuahuas have these tails.

Look at your dog's head.

The shape of your dog's head can also indicate the breed type of your dog. Head shape varies from apple-headed to blocky-headed.
Apple heads are very rounded. In fact, they look like domes. These heads are often seen on chihuahuas.
A square-shaped head is known as a blocky head, seen in Boston terriers.

Dogs with noses sunk into their heads and an undershot jaw are called broken-up faces, as seen in Pekingese.

Snippy-faced dogs have sharp muzzles that aren't very wide, such as Salukis.
Dogs that have faces that are concave are called dish-faced, as seen in pointers.

Dogs with down face have convex faces.

Their faces are curved outward from the nose to the top of their head, as with bull terriers.

Realize you won't be able to identify your dog 100 percent. 

While you may be able to pull out some of the breeds of your dog just by looking at him, it is difficult to decipher ancestry in mixed-breed dogs. When dogs are mixed, they can produce interesting characteristics that you wouldn't necessarily associate with the original breed.

Tips To Improve Your Dog’s Diet Today

Improve Your Dog’s Diet Today

Deciding what to feed your dog – or anyone in your care for that matter, isn’t something you should take lightly. 
Apart from exercise and mental health, diet is the biggest contributor to wellbeing. The eating habits we set up can mean the difference between a long and healthy life and programming our loved ones for failure.
I’d like to share with you some of the most important principles that I apply in pursuit of the perfect canine diet. I lead by example; all three of my dogs are lean, healthy and energy filled cuddle-monsters.

My aim is to inspire you to produce your own dog’s meals. If you’re happy with the current food you’re feeding, then incorporating even some of these suggestions will benefit your dog. Remember, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Do what you can, when you can. Some change is better than no change.

Here are my top tips to improve your dog’s diet today…

1. Discard the marketing hype and take the label test

 

No matter how entertaining, relying on advertisements for nutritional information is not ideal. Why? Because the people that produce the ads didn’t formulate the food. Their job is to make even the worst products appear healthy.
Carefully examining the labels on your dog’s food and treats will help you make more informed purchases.
Product labels always list the ingredients in order, from the largest to the smallest.
Google-search each of the first five ingredients. First, type in each ingredient followed by “bad for dogs” and then “good for dogs.” The results may surprise you.
When you start researching, you’ll soon see why I’m against prescription foods sold by vets. They may suit a diagnosed condition but can cause many other problems (and that’s not even taking into account the cooking processes or packaging).
Discuss the ingredients with the person or company recommending the products. If they can’t explain what each ingredient is, its source, why and how it’s good for dogs, then rely on your own research and judgment.

2. Avoid feeding shelf-stable foods as a staple diet

 

Thanks to clever marketing, the average consumer often overlooks the alarming reasons why processed food has a 12 to 24 month shelf life.
Marketing has conditioned us to believe that shelf-stable foods provide everything dogs need to live long and healthy lives. Actually, the opposite is true. While there will always be the rare exception to the rule, don’t count on your dog being one of them.
Shelf-stable products have no live enzymes due to their industrial cooking processes. They’re dead foods that rely on synthetic supplementation to meet the supposedly “balanced” nutritional standards set out by AAFCO.
My gripe with these products is not that they exist, but the way they’re marketed … as a staple, daily diet. After all, if we could pack all the nutrition the body needs for optimum health into a pellet or a can, then there would be thousands of companies out there producing human “food” and promoting it as a staple diet.
Biscuits, kibble and canned foods have their place – in shelters, charities, on long trips, or on occasions when we’re pressed for time – but they should not be fed as a staple diet.

3. Introduce fresh whole foods

 

Fresh whole foods such as vegetables and fruit are full of live enzymes and will add a new dimension to your dog’s health. Whole foods are also full of fiber, which aids digestion, encourages pooping and improves stools.
Many of the nutrients are destroyed by the cooking processes that create shelf-stable foods. So the manufacturers add synthetic nutrients back into the products. These nutrients are synthetic imitations of those found in nature … and this is the vast difference between whole foods and industrially-produced foods.
Unlike most synthetic nutrients, whole foods contain nutritional co-factors that work synergistically to help the body absorb, assimilate and make use of nutrients.
You are not simply what you eat, but more importantly, you are what you can absorb. Do your own research on safe whole foods for dogs. There are certain fruits and vegetables that dogs must avoid; also, you’ll be amazed at which parts of the vegetables are the most nutritious. For example, broccoli stems contain more nutrients than the head, and beetroot leaves are full of goodness.
Puree vegetables for maximum nutrient absorption or feed whole as a bone substitute for teeth and gum maintenance.

4. Feed a variety of ingredients rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties

 

Inflammation is a major cause of disease so it’s important to research all ingredients in your dog’s diet, along with the manufacturing processes. Inflammation is the leading cause of premature aging, not only in dogs, but in people, too.
As you’re probably now aware, processed commercial foods are inherently inflammatory. Pancreatitis and arthritis are common when you feed processed food too often.
If you must use commercial food it’s best to at least offset its ill effects by adding naturally anti-inflammatory whole foods into the mix. Whole foods high in antioxidants also help reduce inflammation in the body.
Keep your dog young and healthy by feeding a variety of whole foods that are high in antioxidants and anti- inflammatories.

5. Avoid cooking meats

 

All species on the planet eat raw food except for humans. When we cook our food to please our palates, we lose many beneficial nutrients. It’s the same when we cook food for our dogs. While certain whole foods may release more nutrients once cooked, it’s best to avoid cooking meat for your dog whenever possible.
Irrespective of the stated nutritional values, here’s one of many reasons why commercial pet foods are fundamentally flawed:

“When the muscles of mammals, fish, or birds are cooked at high temperatures, carcinogenic chemicals called heterocyclic amines are created that may increase the risk of breast, colon, lung, pancreatic, and prostate cancer. Risky cooking methods don’t just include barbequing, frying, and grilling. Even just baking chicken at around 350 deg F for 15 minutes leads to significant production of these cancer-causing compounds.”

-Michael Greger MD

If you prefer to cook meat for your dog, just lightly sear it instead of cooking it through.

6. Use certified organic vegetables and fruit when possible

 

Many of the non-organic fruit and vegetables on the market are genetically modified, and with no labeling laws in place it’s impossible to know exactly what we and our dogs are eating. Although approved for human consumption, evidence suggests that genetically modified foods are not safe. If you’re concerned for the wellbeing of your family and pets, I encourage you to investigate the GMO issue for yourself.

“The process of genetic engineering can disrupt the functioning of the DNA in dramatic ways – it can turn genes off, permanently turn them on, change their levels of expression, and create all sorts of unpredicted allergies, toxins, carcinogens, nutrient problems etc.”

– Jeffrey Smith, Author, Seeds of Deception

Dogs’ lifespans are typically about one-eighth the length of human lifespans. The health problems we see emerging in dogs exposed to GM foods today will no doubt be seen in people in many years to come.
Findings show that 5th and 6th generation offspring of lab mice are affected by the genetically modified food consumed by their ancestors.

7. Wash non-organic produce in apple cider vinegar

 

We can’t always afford or find organic produce so we have to make what we can get safer.
Plants produce allelochemicals, which help prevent toxic substances including pesticides from penetrating their surface. You can scrub the pesticides off non-organic fruit and vegetables with a clean soft brush while soaking them in one part apple cider vinegar and four parts water for a minute, then rinsing.

8. Avoid gluten

 

Have you ever joked about how smelly your dog’s farts and poops are?
Many dry pet foods contain gluten meal. This dried residue made from corn is added to pet food to prevent inferior, unstable fats from becoming rancid; this causes waste products to be retained and can strain the liver and kidneys.
Corn gluten even in small quantities may harm your dog’s organs; to make matters worse, GMO corn is often used in pet food.

9. Replace rice with organic green lentils

 

Dogs don’t need grains at all to be healthy. They don’t eat them in the wild, and most are allergic to wheat. When a dog has an upset tummy it baffles me why many vets still recommend boiled chicken and rice.
A great protein-rich substitute is green lentils. Just like rice, green lentils require boiling, so your preparation time is similar. It’s best to soak them first and rinse before cooking, then rinse again after cooking.
Lentils are one of the most nutritionally valuable leguminous plants. They have the highest protein content. They’re also rich in fiber and minerals, particularly iron and magnesium.
They’re rich in lysine, an essential amino acid that can help boost the immune system. It can prevent and treat cold sores, herpes and shingles in humans. Athletes also take it to improve performance.

10. Add raw coconut oil as a source of fat

 

Unlike animal fats and other vegetable fats, raw coconut oil (virgin cold-pressed) is truly unique. While it’s high in saturated fat, it’s a healthy saturated fat that mainly contains medium-chain fatty acids that the body doesn’t store.
Coconut oil can help you manage your dog’s weight. Raw coconut oil goes straight to the liver where it gets converted into energy. The more energy your dog has, the more he exercises; the more he exercises, the leaner he stays; the leaner he stays, the less chance of obesity-related diseases.
Note: you will still need to provide your dog with a source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Since fish oils can turn rancid very easily, consider sources of Omega-3 oils like chia seed, flaxseed or hempseed. You can also add small amounts of (preferably fresh) sardines.

11. Do not over-feed … and limit treats

 

Feed your dog according to whether he needs to gain or lose weight. If he’s overweight, feed him earlier in the day so he has more time to work it off. If your dog needs to gain weight then feed more regularly and especially before bedtime, preventing the dog from burning off those calories.
Within reason, don’t worry about your dog being too skinny. It’s ok for your dog to be very slim, especially in his younger, more active years. As he grows older, he’ll gain weight more easily, so don’t set him up for failure by trying to make him heavier too early – it will come naturally over time
Just like marketing gurus once convinced mothers they should be putting snacks in their children’s lunchboxes, they’ve tricked dog owners into believing that giving our dogs treats is normal. The worst part is that it’s near impossible to find ready-made healthy treats.
So let me ask you… when you’re feeling guilty for not spending enough time with your dog, is compensating with a treat about how you feel or about how your dog feels?
Without realizing it, many of us are slowly poisoning our dogs with treats. It can be easy to spot the dog who gets far too many treats – usually it’s the obese one. If you’d like to feed treats, consider making fresh and healthy treats at home. Dried coconut flakes are a great choice.
It’s fun to give dogs treats, but use them sparingly. Lean dogs are healthier dogs.

12. Get creative for teeth and gum health

 

Some commercial treats claim to benefit teeth and gum health but their unhealthy ingredients and cooking processes can cause other health problems. Marketing does it again!
If you ask any dentist how to best keep teeth plaque-free and gums healthy they’ll recommend brushing. The same rules apply for dogs.
It isn’t always possible or practical to brush your dog’s teeth so bones come in a close second. Gnawing on raw bones will help keep your dog’s teeth sparkling white. 
Another good solution is to give your dog whole foods like carrots and zucchini to chomp on. You see, it’s all about the rubbing and sloughing action on the teeth.
You can make fresh treats for your dog to gnaw on to help remove plaque. Try cutting some holes in vegetables and cover them with melted raw coconut oil. Place in the freezer for five minutes then serve.
These treats can also satisfy a dog’s need to grind and chomp, and they aren’t as harsh on teeth as bones. Be warned – there will be bits of vegetables everywhere … but that’s ok, you’re not feeding these primarily for nutrition purposes.
In the unlikely event your dog rejects these natural treats at first, don’t give up. Play games with the treats, throwing them to encourage a fetching game, or even play hide and seek.
Raw coconut oil also acts as a wonderful canine toothpaste because it has antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties – plus most dogs love the taste!
Allowing your dog to lick hardened coconut oil off a bowl for 20 seconds after each meal is a great way to help with bad breath.

13. Rethink your water

 

Water is the most important aspect of a healthy diet yet it’s the most overlooked. There are well over 150 chemicals in most tap waters, depending on where you live.
We can argue all day about the safety of that healthy, naturally-occurring stuff called fluoride, or we can shift our focus towards its nasty, toxic waste version that’s in our water supply … hydrofluorosilicic acid.
97% of Europe refuses to put it in their water supply. It’s a byproduct of fertilizer manufacturing and it contains traces of arsenic and lead, and also increases the body’s uptake of aluminium.
Of course all homes should have a water filter to remove unwanted chemicals but in an ideal scenario having pure water to begin with is better.
I prefer to pour an imported alkaline water for my dogs (Saka is a good brand if you can find it) and it’s the only water they drink. While feeding alkaline water to dogs may go against the grain, I can see the benefits.
A very cost effective alternative to water filters is Willard Water^® – one of the most unusual products you’ll ever find. In essence it is just water, but add a few drops of it into your dog’s water bowl and special things start to happen. It purifies water, makes it alkaline, and also helps with nutrient absorption, among many other benefits.

14. Wash bowls with vinegar

 

A good white vinegar is a chemical-free alternative to commercial cleaning products. Among other things, you can use it to wash your dishes and clean surfaces, including dog bowls and floors. It disinfects and is odorless when dry.
Dogs can be sensitive to commercial cleaning products so replace as many of these as possible with natural alternatives. Apart from vinegar, you can Google search organic and safe, ready-made cleaning products.

15. Take Charge

 

You know your dog better than anyone so it makes sense that you should be in control of your dog’s diet.

Animals can become mental ill

Flint was hit hard when his mother Flo passed away. He became withdrawn and stared into space. He also stopped eating and became weak. After a few days, Flint rested close to where his mother had lain, and died.

Flint was a chimpanzee living in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. His story was described by primatologist Jane Goodall in her 2010 book Through a Window. She contends that he was suffering from depression.

To our eyes, many animals seem to suffer from forms of mental illness. Whether they are pets, or animals kept in ill-managed zoos and circuses, they can become excessively sad, anxious, or even traumatised.

We have tended to think of psychological illnesses as a uniquely human trait. But that may be wrong. There is growing evidence that many animals can suffer from mental health disorders similar to those seen in humans. These unfortunate animals could help us understand how and why humans become mentally ill, and why these debilitating disorders ever evolved at all.Many of us have seen or heard of pets that become sad after the loss of a companion. Sometimes, their loss is too deep to recover from, and they may even die – as Flint apparently did.But animal mental illness can take many forms. Some pet birds obsessively pluck their feathers, and some dogs obsessively lick their tails or paws, much as some humans obsessively clean their hands. Some animals are also known to self-harm, for instance pulling out their own hair.

It seems that animal mental illness can be triggered by many of the same factors that unleash mental illness in humans. That includes the loss of family or companions, loss of freedom, stress, trauma and abuse.

This is most easily seen in animals that are held in captivity.In a 2011 study, scientists found signs of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in chimpanzees that had been used in laboratory research, orphaned, trapped by snares, or been part of illegal trade.Stressful events can even leave marks on animals' genes. In 2014, researchers found that African grey parrots that were housed alone suffered more genetic damage than parrots that were housed in pairs.The researchers examined the parrots' telomeres: caps on the ends of their chromosomes that slowly deteriorate with age or stress. 9-year-old parrots that were raised alone had telomeres as short as pair-housed birds that were 23 years older.It seems that social deprivation is stressful for parrots, just as it is for humans. Other stressful events can also leave their mark on animals.For example, many military dogs are thought to be suffering from a canine form of PTSD. They behave similarly to war-traumatised soldiers. Some of these dogs are being treated using drugs used to cure panic attacks and anxiety in humans.

Similar behaviours, such as shaking with fear, are often seen in civilian dogs that have been through a natural disaster or been abandoned by their owners.

So far, all these examples have come from captive mammals or pets. That probably reflects our own preferences for certain animals.

"It's the animals that we find very charismatic, like elephants or chimpanzees, or animals that we share our homes with, like dogs," that command our attention, says animal behaviour expert Marc Bekoff.But this doesn't mean that animals in the wild cannot suffer from mental illnesses.

"He didn't quite get what it was to be a coyote," says Bekoff. "He was socially very maladaptive, and he didn't seem to understand what other coyotes were saying to him or doing. And he didn't seem to know how to play."

In his 2008 book The Emotional Lives of Animals, (HERE FOR SALE) Bekoff suggested that "Harry suffered from coyote autism".

There may be a simple reason for that: maybe animals with mental disorders don't make it in the wild. They do not necessarily get the care or support that mentally ill humans do, so if they can't perform critical tasks they may not survive long.
That's possible, but it could also be that people simply haven't looked, says Bekoff. Even if they see animals that seem sad or otherwise behaving oddly, they usually don't try to figure out what could be happening.More profoundly, it is difficult to tell if a seemingly abnormal behaviour is a sign of illness, or just out of the ordinary. In many cases we don't know enough about what constitutes "normal behaviour" to decide.Sometimes, "it's very clearly a disease and something is wrong with the animal," says Eric Vallender of the University of Mississippi in Jackson. But what if an animal has been through a stressful experience, yet seems unaffected?"What's unclear then is whether this is because it doesn't look any different to me as an observer, a human watching the animal, but another animal would say that there is something different," says Vallender. "Or if there's truly no difference."

Doctors can ask human patients how they feel, but animals cannot tell us if they are sad or happy, or if they are hallucinating.

"All you can do with animals is to observe them," says Vallender. "Imagine if you could study mental disorders in humans only by observing them. It would be really hard to tell what's going on in their brain."

Faced with these obstacles, scientists have begun looking at animals' genes."A lot of mental disorders can be quite different. But what we do know is that they have a very, very strong genetic component to them," says Jess Nithianantharajah of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia.

All mental disorders, from depression to schizophrenia, involve abnormal behaviours. Those behaviours are influenced by genes just like other behaviours.

So the idea is to identify genes that can cause abnormal behaviours in humans and other animals. By tracing the origins of these genes, we can trace the origins of mental disorders.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that many of the genes implicated in mental illnesses are involved in brain function. Some of the most important parts of our brains are the synapses: junctions between individual brain cells that allow them to transfer information. Synapses are involved in many cognitive processes, such as learning new facts and paying attention.


Many mental health disorders arise when something goes wrong with these aspects of the brain. For example, many children with autism have learning disabilities, and patients with schizophrenia find it difficult to form coherent thoughts.

A host of genes are involved in building synapses. These genes code for proteins that assemble into synaptic junctions, and Nithianantharajah says they are at the core of many cognitive processes.

In a 2012 study, Nithianantharajah and her colleagues reconstructed the history of one family of synapse genes, known as Dlg.Invertebrates – animals like flies and squid that lack backbones – have only one Dlg gene. But all vertebrates – backboned animals like fish, birds and apes – have four.

During the course of evolution, the original Dlg gene was duplicated twice, giving rise to the four copies found in vertebrates, says Nithianantharajah. These gene duplication events happened about 550 million years ago, possibly in a tiny worm living in the sea.

The four Dlg genes found in vertebrates are subtly different, and the team found that each one regulates distinct cognitive behaviours.

"What this means is that we have far more tools in our repertoire to be able to perform different types of complex behaviours, that many invertebrates don't necessarily do," says Nithianantharajah.

But in vertebrates that have four copies of the genes, the genes act like a dimmer switch: they can be turned up and down in different combinations, allowing the animal to fine-tune behaviours.

In short, the genetic duplication events gave vertebrates a wider range of genes, enabling them to have more varied and complex behaviours.But there was a cost. Mutations in these extra Dlg genes can give rise to many psychological disorders.

They also found that the Dlg genes have not changed much over evolutionary time. Nithianantharajah says that is because they are so fundamentally important to animals' brains, so evolution has largely kept them as they were.

Her data suggests that Dlg had its origins in the simplest of animals. That would imply that both intelligence and psychological disorders also began early in animal evolution.Based on that, Nithianantharajah says, it is possible that invertebrates like honeybees and octopuses could also experience mental illness."We know that mutations in certain brain genes, and particularly the synaptic genes, play a large role in disrupting behaviour," says Nithianantharajah. "That's the core of what a mental disorder is. So just like in vertebrates, if you mutate various synaptic genes in invertebrates, you could lead to abnormal behaviour."

So far no such study has been published, but there is observational evidence that invertebrates really do suffer mental disorders.

A 2011 study subjected honeybees to violent shaking, and found that they seemingly became more pessimistic as a result. Faced with a smell they could not identify, they were more likely to behave as if it was unpleasant.

Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising. While we tend to think of invertebrates as "lower" animals, lots of them do have brains and many are far more intelligent than the stereotype would suggest.That said, it is one thing to suggest that animals like dogs or even bees might suffer from emotional disorders like depression or anxiety. Other mental illnesses like schizophrenia seem to affect more complex forms of thought, so we might expect them to be exclusive to humans. But that may not be the case.In a 2014 study, Vallender and his colleague Lisa Ogawa studied genes thought to be associated with schizophrenia and autism in 45 mammalian species.

 
If these genes had changed more in humans than in other species, it would imply that the disorders were exclusively human.

But that was not the case. The genes had changed in humans, but also in Old World monkeys, apes, and even distantly-related mammals like dolphins.

So far it's not clear what this actually means for these animals' mental health, says Vallender. "All we know at this point is that the proteins seem to be changing." There is a long way to go, but genetic studies like these do suggest that all animals with brains have the capacity to experience some form of mental illness.

From our point of view, this may actually be a good thing, because it offers hope for better treatments.

Many of the therapies and drugs that are being developed to treat human mental disorders are being tested on animals. That only makes sense if the animal in question has a brain that works similarly to ours.

"If a human breaks a leg, or if a cat or horse breaks a leg, a broken leg is a broken leg. The species does not matter much," Vallender says. "But mental health is really different. This is because the human brain is very different from other species, and we really need to understand the things that are the same about it and those that are different."

More profoundly, the evolutionary history of mental disorders suggests that we have been looking at human mental illness wrong.

It's still common to see mental illness branded as a form of weakness. We struggle to understand that people with severe depression or anxiety cannot simply "get over it", any more than a person could will themselves to survive a heart attack.

But far from being something limited to pampered modern humans, mental illness can strike many kinds of animals and seems to have been around for hundreds of millions of years. Just like seemingly more physical disorders like cancer, it can be traced back to mechanical things such as genes and proteins within our cells.

Mental disorders seem to be the price animals pay for their intelligence. The same genes that made us smart also predisposed us to mental illness. There's nothing shameful in that.

Domestic Foxes in Russia

In the 1950s a Soviet geneticist began an experiment in guided evolution. He wanted to show how domestication works.

From the richly-plumed red fox to the big-eared fennec fox, foxes look adorable. Because of this, people are sometimes tempted to keep them as pets. However, those who have tried have struggled. Unlike dogs and cats, the different species of fox have not been domesticated. Domestication only happens over a long period of time through selective breeding. Cats and dogs were domesticated by humans thousands of years ago to be pets and companions. Sheep, goats and other animals were domesticated for food.

But there may be more to it than that. People who have tried to simply tame individual foxes often speak of a stubborn wildness that is impossible to get rid of. This suggests that foxes are harder to tame than other animals. However, one extraordinary experiment has found a way to domesticate foxes. This one study could help us understand how our ancestors domesticated other animals, and indeed what domestication is.
Biologist David Macdonald studied foxes at close quarters for years. For a time, he had foxes living at home, which he recounted in his 1987 book Running with the Fox. The foxes did not last long in Macdonald's house. He found that they would tear up the living area and create chaos. Others who have tried living with foxes report the same thing. Richard Bowler, a wildlife photographer based in Wales, looks after a few foxes in a large outside space at his home. He reports that they are nervous and shy. 
The youngest fox, a vixen called Hetty, is extremely shy around people – even though she was captive-bred, and Bowler and his partner fed her through the night from when she was one week old. He describes the temperament of the foxes as "highly wired".

In the UK it is legal to keep a fox as a pet, but that does not mean it is a good idea.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) does not condone the keeping of foxes as pets. "Because foxes are wild animals and do not fare well as domestic pets, they should not be kept as such. Even the most experienced fox experts have had difficulty in keeping adult foxes successfully in captivity as they have very specific needs," it says.Occasionally people connected to wildlife rescue centres report that they have managed to tame foxes. However, usually these animals are recovering from toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that damages the brain, leaving the animals unafraid of human touch.
Meanwhile, Britain's urban foxes are often described as being bold and brazen around humans, compared with their countryside cousins. They will stand and stare at passers-by on the streets and even approach people with food.
It is possible that human behaviour in towns and cities has altered the behaviour of individual foxes: if a fox grows accustomed to being fed by hand by one person, it may be more likely to approach another. However, this does not qualify them as tame.So pet foxes are not generally a good idea. Unless, that is, the fox is from the only tame population in the world, an extraordinary scientific experiment that started life in Soviet Russia.

In the late 1950s, a Russian geneticist called Dmitry K. Belyaev attempted to create a tame fox population.

Through the work of a breeding programme at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics at Novosibirsk, in Russia, he sought to trace the evolutionary pathway of domesticated animals. His test subjects were silver-black foxes, a melanistic version of the red fox that had been bred in farms for the colour of their fur.

Belyaev died in 1985, but the project is still ongoing. It is now overseen by Lyudmila Trut, now in her 80s, who started out as Belyaev's intern.

The Russian fox farm was the first of its kind.

"There is archaeological data that people made individual attempts to domesticate the fox, but this process was not finished," says Anastasiya Kharlamova, one of Trut's research assistants. "Possibly the reason was that the cat was domesticated at a similar time, and supplanted the fox as a possible candidate to be domesticated."

Belyaev's experiment aimed to replay the process of domestication to see how evolutionary changes came about.



There are many unanswered questions relating to domestication. One is what traits or qualities Stone Age people selected for when they set out to domesticate animals. Belyaev believed that selection for just one trait – tameability – would be enough to create a domesticated population.

It was a risky area of research.The study of genetics had been essentially banned in the USSR, as the country's dictator Joseph Stalin sought to discredit the genetic principles set out by Gregor Mendel. Stalin's death in 1953 gave scientists more freedom, but in the early years Belyaev nevertheless worked under the cover that he was breeding foxes to make better fur coats.

First, Belyaev and Trut travelled to various fur farms in the Soviet Union, from Siberia to Moscow and Estonia. There, they chose foxes to take to their own farm in Novosibirsk.

They selected the animals based on how they responded when their cage was opened. About 10% of the foxes displayed a weak "wild-response", meaning they were docile around humans.

"The main task at this stage of selection was eliminating defensive reactions to humans," Trut wrote in 1999. Animals that were friendlier and tolerant to human touch, even to a small degree, were picked out. Those that hid in the corner or made aggressive vocalisations were left in the farm.

Of those friendly foxes, 100 vixens and 30 males were chosen as the first generations of parents.

When the cubs were born, the researchers hand-fed them. They also attempted to touch or pet the foxes when they were two to two-and-a-half months old, for strictly measured periods at a time.

If the cubs continued to show aggressive or evasive responses, even after significant human contact, they were discarded from the population – meaning they were made into fur coats. In each selection, less than 10% of tame individuals were used as parents of the next generation.

"As a result of such rigorous selection, the offspring exhibiting the aggressive and fear avoidance responses were eliminated from the experimental population in just two to three generations of selection," Trut wrote in a study published in 2009.

The foxes at the fox-farm were never trained to become tame. They lived in cages and had minimal contact with humans. Belyaev's aim was to create a genetically-distinct population, so he simply selected for particular behavioural traits.

"Belyaev had one main goal at the beginning of experiment: to reproduce the process of historical domestication at the experiment, during a short time," says Trut. "This goal didn't change. But during the experiment the understanding of evolutionary process changed."

By the fourth generation, the scientists started to see dramatic changes.


The cubs were beginning to behave more like dogs. They wagged their tails and "eagerly" sought contact with humans. They whined, whimpered and licked researchers just like puppies would.

The process was surprisingly quick. "By intense selective breeding, we have compressed into a few decades an ancient process that originally unfolded over thousands of years," wrote Trut in 1999.

These foxes were called the "elite of domestication", and as the generations passed the proportion of these elite cubs grew. By 2005-2006, almost all the foxes were playful, friendly and behaving like domestic dogs. The foxes could "read" human cues and respond correctly to gestures or glances. The vocalisations they made were different to wild foxes.

"The proudest moment for us was creating a unique population of genetically tame foxes, the only the one in the world," says Trut.Brian Hare is associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and author of the 2013 book The Genius of Dogs. He travelled to Russia on the Trans-Siberian railroad to visit the farm, in order to compare fox cubs with dog puppies for a study published in 2005."The fox farm experiment was crucial, in that it told us that domestication can happen relatively quickly in the right circumstances," he says. "The fact that in fifty generations, they were wagging their tails and barking, this is really incredible."

The key point is that the experiment offers a hint as to the stages by which domestication takes place.

"Before, we knew that dogs and wolves were descended from the same ancestor, but we didn't know how," says Hare. "What came first? The fox experiment showed that just by selecting for friendliness, all these other changes, including an increase in social skills, happened by accident."

In fact, Belyaev and Trut soon found that it was not just the foxes' personalities that were changing. Their bodies were too.

"The main surprise was that, together with changing of behaviour, many new morphological traits in tame foxes start to appear from the first steps of selection," said Trut.The domesticated foxes had floppier, drooping ears, which are found in other domestic animals such as dogs, cats, pigs, horses and goats. Curlier tails – also found in dogs and pigs – were also recorded.
What's more, "in only a few generations, the friendly foxes were showing changes in coat colour," says Hare.
The process seems to be ongoing. "At the more advanced steps of selection, changes in the parameters of the skeletal system began to arise," Trut wrote. "They included shortened legs, tail, snout, upper jaw, and widened skull."

The foxes started looking more delicate and, put simply, "cute".

Their reproductive habits also changed. The domesticated foxes became sexually mature about a month earlier than non-domesticated foxes. Their mating season was longer and they could breed out of season. On average, their litters had one more cub.
All these changes were brought on by selecting for one trait: tameability. This gives us a big clue to how domestication works.

The physical traits Belyaev and Trut found, like the floppy ears, were those you would expect in a juvenile. But the domestic foxes carried them through into adulthood, suggesting the selection process had slowed down aspects of their development.

This might have something to do with chemicals in their bodies.

Belyaev reasoned that selecting for tameability changed the mix of hormones and neurotransmitters the foxes' bodies made. He believed behavioural responses were "regulated by a fine balance between neurotransmitters and hormones at the level of the whole organism".
For example, the drooping ears of the domesticated foxes might be a result of slowing down the adrenal glands. This could arrest the cells before the ear has time to stand to attention.
"Selection has even affected the neurochemistry of our foxes' brains," wrote Trut. One example she described was a drop in the "hormone-producing activity of the foxes' adrenal glands."

                                                                               

Domestic foxes also had higher levels of serotonin than farm-bred foxes. That is intriguing, because serotonin is "thought to be the leading mediator inhibiting animals' aggressive behaviour." Serotonin, like other neurotransmitters, is critically involved in shaping an animal's development from its earliest stages.

The project continues to this day. As of August 2016, there are 270 tame vixens and 70 tame males on the farm. However, it has run into financial problems.

"The current situation is not catastrophic, but not stable at the same time," writes Kharlamova. "The main reason of instability is of course the expense of this experiment."


In the 1990s, the institute supported itself by selling fox pelts. At the end of the 1990s, they started to sell the foxes as house pets. At present, a Florida-based company called the Lester Kalmanson Agency Inc imports foxes for those who want to keep them as pets. Each fox costs $8,900, because of the delivery costs.

With the foxes now tame, the researchers are trying to identify the genes that change under selection for tameness. "The main current goals are focused on molecular-genetics mechanisms of domestic behaviour," says Trut.

Belyaev and Trut's experiment may even tell us something about our own evolution.

In particular, one under-appreciated point about our species is that we have, essentially, domesticated ourselves. This is borne out in our behaviour. While we have committed our fair share of atrocities, on the whole we are far less aggressive and violent than our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

This suggests that human evolution selected for cooperation, tolerance and gentleness – and not, necessarily, for intelligence.

"We always assume that intelligence is responsible for our success," says Hare. "That humans became smarter, which… allowed us to invent wheels and agriculture and iPhones. But what if that wasn't what happened?"

Hare suspects that, "like the foxes, and like dogs, we became friendlier first, and then got smarter by accident. This would mean that our prosocial skills, the skills that allow for cooperation and friendliness, were what made us successful."

We do not know if that is true. But it is a rather encouraging thought.