When most people think of dogs these days, they think of lovable companion animals – man’s best friend. But few people realize that all domestic dogs are directly descended from the grey wolf, the famed hunter. No one knows exactly how or when dogs were domesticated and there are quite a few theories.
When we take a look at the differences between domestic dogs and wolves, it seems clear that many of the behaviors we see in dogs were first visible in dogs. We have bred dogs to be social and loyal to humans. While most wolves are not particularly social and very few could ever be called loyal, it makes sense that there may have been some more social or more brave wolves who perhaps ventured close to human settlements when there was little food to be hunted.
Wolves may have raided trash heaps or even gotten hand outs from humans and these humans may have taken these animals in as some early form of a pet. Social wolves would be bread with other social wolves and over thousands of years these animals were bred for a variety of traits, initially to breed out certain traits such as dominance and aggression in favor of more submissive and docile animals.
As breeding continued, some decided to breed these dogs for specific tasks and eventually dogs were bred with a predisposition towards tasks like hunting, herding, guarding, tracking, swimming, or simply companionship. In the present day fewer and fewer dog owners still use traditional herding dogs for sheep herding or other jobs. Most dog owners are now more interested in having a dog as a companion.
The dog is descended directly from the wolf.
Over the thousands of years of breeding many dogs now have such a miniscule amount of resemblance to their wolf ancestors that it can be hard to imagine that wolves really are related – and so closely. Wolves and dogs are separated only by a difference in DNA of about 0.2%. The key to remember is that dogs are bred with submission in mind. We want dogs to look at people as their leaders instead of being dominated. Wolves on the other hand are most interested in finding the best leader and will continually test their leader to make sure he or she is up to snuff.
The domestic dog has now made its way into millions of homes world wide and continues to be an immensely popular form of pet.
It can be difficult to get a nervous dog to swim, but once it has learned to enjoy the water, you need to begin thinking about water safety. Unless the lake is a steady two feet deep throughout and no and nothing else can be found there, dogs are at some risk when they swim. An out of shape dog might experience a cramped muscle and not make it back to shore, or an intoxicated or distracted motor boat operator may fail to see Fido as he doggy paddles around contentedly.
Fortunately there are a number of ways of ensuring Fido’s continued safety and happiness in the water.
Doggy Life Preservers
While everyone knows that it is a good idea to where a life preserver, also known as a personal flotation device or PFD, when out on the water for any extended period of time, few people consider it necessary for dogs. If you are going to bring your dog along for a spin in the boat, consider picking up a doggy life preserver. While the idea is the same for dogs and humans, you will want to purchase one specifically designed for dogs. Human life preservers will not fit correctly on a dog and may slip off at just the wrong time.
Even on experienced canine swimmers this can be a good idea. Cold water temperatures might shock your pup or your dog may end up overestimating his swimming ability and end up tired or scared and far from shore. Letting Fido swim around with his life jacket on will keep him safe and keep you much more worry free. Remember that a dog that begins to drag its tail in the water is a dog that needs to get out of the water quickly.
Dogs usually keep their tails up in the water.
Hazards
Before you let Fido off his leash in the water, take a look around to make sure things are safe. Are there broken bottles, scrap metal, or other debris that could cause Fido some serious harm? If so, begin to look for a different swimming spot. Also take a look at how many people are in their boats. A boat can seriously injure a dog in a number of ways, so make sure you keep Fido close to shore. Your dog should be very responsive to your commands before you allow him to swim on his own. If you have trouble calling him back when he is off leash, consider swimming with him, possibly with a leash attached to the life jacket. Be aware that the leash does not get tangled in his legs and also that pulling on the leash could pull Fido under. Only use it to gently direct him back to shore or away from danger.
Despite the expected life spans of different breeds and sizes of dogs, most dogs undergo the same sort of aging process as any other. As your dog moves into its later years, it can often be very helpful for a pet owner to know what to expect.
The most basic thing you can expect to see in an older dog is simply a slowing down. Young dogs typically have quite a bit of energy and as they age they lose a little bit of that pep. For one, metabolism slows down in older dogs. This means that your dog will likely eat less than when he was younger and that food will take longer to turn into energy. Slowing of metabolism will also make your dog shed more slowly. It is not uncommon for older shedding dogs not to lose a winter coat until late summer or even autumn.
Older dogs often begin to slow down.
Arthritis is also not uncommon in dogs and will contribute to your dog’s slowness. Wild dogs typically don’t live as long as their domestic counterparts which means that arthritis is not terribly common in the wild populations. This can be an uncomfortable disease for many dogs and your veterinarian should be able to give you some guidance and possibly some medications that will help your dog feel more comfortable.
As a preventative measure or even to help treat the arthritis, you may consider giving your pet a joint supplement. These vitamins, formulated to strengthen joints, may help your dog move a little more easily.
The senses often start to wane a little bit in the later years of a dog. Hearing is often one of the first senses to become a little more dull, but vision problems including cataracts are not uncommon in senior dogs. While cataracts can be treated, eye surgery on an older dog is sometimes discouraged as it could be very stressful for a senior dog.
Your dog will likely start greying around the face and muzzle around middle age. This happens to just about all dogs and is simply a natural part of growing old.
In older age dogs become much more prone to a number of diseases including thyroid issues and diabetes. Scheduling regular visits to the veterinary clinic for canine checkups can help to catch these diseases early and to treat them accordingly. Make a note of anything you notice as being out of place with your dog, even minor things. Even if they are simply part of aging, your vet might pick up on signs that your dog is developing a more serious health condition.
Learning that your pet requires an amputation is never pleasant and is often one of the scariest moments for a pet owner. Doubtless an owner’s entire idea of pet ownership is to change overnight. Amputations, while not abundant, are nonetheless a fact of veterinary care. Pets hit by cars or suffering from debilitating disease or even pets with cancer might have a leg amputated in order to save the pet’s life. But, as any veterinarian will tell you, in many cases losing a leg is not so bad.
The most important thing to realize is that dogs do not have the kind of emotional attachment to their legs or limbs like humans do. A human who must have a limb amputated often feels incomplete and the amputation can often lead to a number of psychological difficulties. This is simply not so for a dog. While a dog with four legs will be much faster and will be able to maneuver far more easily than its three legged counterparts, losing a leg seems to phase a dog very little. Many pet owners find that their recent amputee dogs are up and moving around as happy as can be in only a couple of weeks.
Immediately after an amputation is always a difficult time for both dog and owner. Amputating a leg will create a let of pain after many nerves have been severed. Fortunately, veterinary pain killers are often more than up to the task of managing this pain and as long as an owner is diligent in administering these medications, your pet should feel relatively comfortable.
As with any wound, your dog will very likely want to lick the incision. Most veterinarians after any type of surgery will provide a plastic cone to be fitted around your pet’s head. The cone prevents licking and biting at the incision which could cause infection or remove stitches both of which could be quite dangerous.
Your dog might also feel a little down after the surgery. Trauma of any sort often has a debilitating effect on the psyche and, while your pet will certainly recover from this, it is important to stay positive in the mean time. Dogs pick up on our energy levels and respond accordingly.
Your veterinarian will likely send you home with many instructions and tips. These might include keeping your dog from moving much, and giving medications. Follow these instructions to the letter as they are designed to help you pup recover fast. If you have any concerns or questions, do not hesitate to contact the veterinarian.
As difficult as dog ownership can be and as much of a responsibility as it may be, having a dog at home can be a great opportunity to experience a little more of life. Besides the companionship a dog provides and the warmth they provide as they snuggle up with you at night, they will give you a sense of purpose and responsibility.
Mostly, dogs want a little love and companionship.
It is not difficult to form a strong bond with a dog. When raising a dog from a puppy, it is very easy to forge and maintain trust and loyalty between a human and a dog. Wild canines will stay with their parents for several years before setting off on their own, but we tend to separate puppies from their mothers after only eight weeks or so. The reason for this is that those weeks and months of puppyhood are extremely important for a dog and being around a human means that that pup will look up to you for love, support, encouragement, and direction.
It can be more difficult to form a strong bond with an adult dog that you have rescued or adopted, but it really comes down to the individual dog. If you have adopted a pet after its previous owner died or had to give up pet ownership, that dog may have been very attached to its previous owner and will feel a lot of separation anxiety which can be very trying for the new owner. If the dog was rescued from a difficult situation, especially one that involved animal abuse, then the dog may feel nervous or scared of people.
We have bred dogs to be submissive to people, which means that they like someone else to be in charge. This is not to say that your dog won’t try to be the top dog in the family, but simply that they would like you to be a good leader. If you don’t seem to be a good leader for your dog’s pack, your dog may decide that he has to be in charge. If you maintain a strong leadership role – not letting your dog get away with bad behavior – then your dog will respect you.
Respect is the first step in bonding with a dog. Your dog must respect you as the boss, but you also must respect that your dog is indeed a dog and not a human.
After this point, your dog will just want love and attention. Stroking and petting your dog, speaking to him, giving him the occasional treat, and letting him spend time with you are all very important. Walking a dog is also an excellent time to forge a relationship. As long as you remain the leader on the walk, your dog will look forward to these times as an opportunity to spend time with you and get a little fun exercise.
Dogs need exercise. This is a commonly known fact. When a dog isn’t exercised enough, dog owners typically find that behavioral problems can become a real problem. Walking a dog often and long enough often provides a way to curb this energy, but some people have a little more time on their hands and want to find something that will allow them to have more fun while still exercising the dog.
Agility training is one such method of fun and engaging exercise. Dogs need not only physical exercise but also mental exercise. Sometimes this takes the form of puzzle toys or obedience training, but agility training is hands down the most fun for owner and dog.
There are a number of competitions on both the local and national levels for dogs and their handlers in the field of agility. These competitions typically involve a specially designed course with many obstacles including jumps, hoops, tunnels, and even things like see saws which a dog must travel through. The goal is that the dog finish the course as quickly as he can while making the fewest number of mistakes. A handler stands aside and directs the dog with voice commands and hand signals.
Agility courses are a lot of fun for dogs
Owners of large or seemingly cumbersome dogs such as Saint Bernards might think that their dogs are incapable of being agile but this is simply not true. Any dog can take part in agility training. True, not all dogs will be good enough to compete, but competition is only a small part of agility training. The most important aspects are the great physical and mental exercise you give your dog and the great bond of trust forged between dog and owner.
Dogs who go through agility training often become much more confident, even outside of the agility course. A dog who successfully completes an obstacle after having had trouble with it for a long time gains a great boost in the same way as a human might. This confidence can easily be seen in other aspects of life where a shy or fearful dog may begin to be more outgoing and comfortable around other people.
It is much wiser to look for agility training classes before attempting to train your dog yourself. Even if your dog only takes an introductory course and you take over afterwards, you will save quite a bit of time and frustration. Professional agility trainers are very experienced with dogs and will be patient where you might be frustrated which will make for a better beginning environment for your dog.
Fleas are a nightmare for any pet owner. The tiny little creatures burrow through your dog’s fur, biting, drawing blood, and causing your little kitty a whole lot of discomfort. Not only that, but they can also make their way to the other creatures in the house, including humans. As much of a pain as these little things are, learning to eliminate them from your household is relatively easy.
Unless you have actually seen a flea crawling across your dog’s fur, it may be difficult to know if fleas really are the cause of your dog’s constant itching and discomfort. Take a trip to your local pet supply store and you will be able to find a product known as a flea comb. These combs are specifically designed to pick out fleas from a pet’s fur. While the comb may not be effective in eliminating all the fleas from your dog, it will at least let you know if there are indeed fleas on your dog.
Because the first stage of a flea’s life is as an egg, your first step in ridding your home of these little biters is to get rid of the eggs. Consider all the places that your pet tends to spend time. Wash sheets, blankets, the dog bed, towels, and other materials your pet comes in contact with. Next, vacuum under those same areas. If your pet sleeps on the bed, thoroughly vacuum the mattress. Next turn the vacuum on all the carpeted areas of your home in rooms that your pet is allowed into. This is not a time to pass by a hard to reach area, vacuum until you have passed over each inch of the exposed carpet, and throw the vacuum bag away.
A bath will help rid your pet of fleas
At this point you may consider using a steam cleaner. There may still be eggs left over after the vacuuming, but the heat of a steam cleaning should kill any of these eggs. If you are still worried about latent eggs, consider hiring a professional exterminator. Exterminators have products specifically designed for use against fleas, and also products known to be safe around cats.
Now it’s time to get rid of the adults. Use your flea comb to get rid of as many fleas as possible. Put them in a secure place like a bowl of water or jar. Next, give your dog a quick bath. You can use a flea shampoo if you’d like, but a regular dog shampoo also works well. The idea is that your are drowning the fleas, not necessarily killing them with chemicals.
Flea prevention is also important. Talk to your veterinarian about which products are best suited for your dog.
Walking is perhaps the most important thing you can do with your dog. It develops a close bond between human and dog, exercises the dog (and the human!), and gives your chance to sniff around and find out what’s been going on in the neighborhood. But in order to enjoy a good walk, it is important that you and your dog respect each other’s position in the relationship. You, the human, must be the dog in charge, and the dog must be the submissive one who acknowledges that the owner is in charge.
Once these rules are set, you can begin to have good walks. Heeling will not be an issue and you can begin to curb pulling and other unwanted behaviors. Some dogs can be difficult however. Stock and strong dogs and very large dogs sometimes do not notice that they are pulling you because they are using so little effort. In these cases, it may be wise to use a training collar.
A regular collar may not be enough
A training collar differs from an ordinary collar in that it uses some form of pressure or other stimulation to get your dog to stop. Let’s take a look at the different kinds you might find at the pet shop.
The prong collar is, quite simply, a collar with prongs. While at rest, the prongs of the collar rest easily on the dog’s neck without providing any pressure. This is the goal for the entire walk, that no pressure need be placed. When the dog starts to pull, the entire collar is tightened slightly such that the prongs press down on the neck. The goal is not to hurt the dog or to choke the dog, but simply that the dog begins to associate pulling with discomfort. These collars can be abused and you should know what you are doing before you attempt to use one.
A shock collar uses a small electric box attached to the collar and two electric prongs that touch the dog’s neck. At the touch of a button, a small electric shock is sent between the two prongs so that the dog feels a discomfort in his neck. Again, the point is not to hurt the dog, but to grow an association between an unwanted behavior and discomfort.
Other collars exist including choke chains, which tighten around a dog’s neck when pulled on, harnesses, which might put pressure on a dog’s chest or shoulders when pulling, and harnesses that affix to the face so that a dog’s head is pulled when the dog tries to pull.
Spring is coming and with the flowers and the warm weather come mosquitoes. These whining little pests are the bane of anyone who lives in an even somewhat humid climate. Born in stagnant water; they swarm madly into the air and bite anyone and anything with blood. Every year some new mosquito prevention device comes out from the million different brands of insect repellant to candles to small bits of plastic which emit a mosquito repelling noise, nothing seems to convince these little insects to give up their attack all together.
As annoying as these pests are, it is not only the pain, the itching, and noise that we detest but too the fact that mosquitoes can carry disease. Whether it be the Dengue Fever laden Aedes mosquito to more common varieties in North America, these insects suck blood and so can transport disease fairly easily.
Your dog is often just as susceptible to mosquito bites and diseases as a human is and the misfortune is that most insect repellants are unsafe to apply to a dog who will likely try to lick the substance out of his fur. How then can we keep our pets safe?
Prevention is your first step. After every rainstorm, walk around the yard and find where standing water has collected. Dump this water out. Because mosquitoes breed in water like that, this can help limit the mosquitoes in the immediate area. If you notice standing water in your neighbor’s yard, ask them to kindly dump it out. Also make sure your gutters are clean. If there is standing water in the gutters, you will doubtless have a large mosquito population.
If you have areas of standing water which are intentional such as bird baths or water dishes, make a point to empty, wash, and refill these daily.
You can purchase a number of different types of mosquito traps to place in the yard. These attract mosquitoes by a variety of different means and trap them. You can also purchase a number of different mosquito repellants, but make sure these are formulated specifically for your dog. Read the label carefully as some products that are formulated for adult dogs may still be dangerous for puppies or other animals.
If your pet does get bitten, make sure you pay attention to any changes in behavior, diet, or other aspects of his life in the off chance that he has become ill.
If you own a large breed of dog, especially an animal with German Shepherd or Husky genes, chances are that someone has asked you at least once if your pet is a wolf. As common as it is to see these dogs, very few people actually are capable of distinguishing wolf characteristics from characteristics of your everyday domestic dog.
It is important to realize that the domestic dog has only one direct ancestor – the grey wolf. While we have spent thousands of years breeding these animals into the pets we know and love today, wolves and dogs have very few and only very small genetic differences. The difference is so small in fact that the wolf and the dog are not considered different species at all. Instead, the dog is simply one of many wolf subspecies, which means that wolves and dogs can interbreed without any difficulty. For this reason, the common term “wolf-dog hybrid” is inaccurate. A hybrid is defined as a cross between two different species of animal.
So if there is such a small genetic difference between these animals, how is one to tell them apart? Let’s take a moment and look at what kinds of physical characteristics wolves always have.
Eyes
An animal’s eyes are often the first clue that an animal is at least part dog. Wolves typically have some shade of amber, yellow, or orange in their eyes. Occasionally you will find a wolf with grey, green, or a very light brown color, but these are all uncommon. Dark brown eyes and blue eyes are dog colors.
Ears
Dogs can have all sorts of ears from floppy to stiff, from pointy to rounded, big and small. Wolves have large ears with rounded tips and dense fur within. If you reach your finger down the ear of a wolf, you will feel fur as far as you can reach.
Legs
The legs of a wolf, and the way it moves, are generally very distinct from their dog brothers. Wolves have very long and lanky legs and their chest is very narrow such that their shoulders are very close together. The back legs on the other hand typically splay out giving the wolf almost a triangle shape. Wolf paws are typically very large with webbing and fur between the toes and while running, the wolf will run on its toes instead of the pads of the feet.
Wolf behavior is also very distinct from dog behavior. Dogs have been bred often to be submissive and loyal to humans. By contrast, a wolf has no interest in pleasing a human and even if the wolf understands the human to be in charge, will not be loyal.
Behavior is the most difficult distinction between these animals as one wolf-dog can easily act much like a dog while another acts almost exactly like a wolf and any combination of behaviors in between are possible.
