Can dogs enjoy baths?

We’ve all seen those videos where the owner says ‘bath time’ and the dog runs a mile. There’s no avoiding the fact that most dogs do not enjoy being bathed, but is this down to their natural instinct or the owner?

If you were to start a grooming session with a bath each and every month, you’ll help them familiarise themselves with the tub, and if you were to give them treats throughout the course of ‘bath time’ you may find that they actually start to enjoy it and behave a bit better. You do need to be careful when you’re bathing a dog, as you would a baby, because you don’t want to burn them, irritate their skin or scare them, so keeping the water lukewarm, shallow and using dog only products is a good start. They will then need to be dried straight after, not with a blow dryer because this will irritate them, but with a towel. Try these tricks and you may find your dog starts to enjoy their bath.

Ringworm On A Dog

Ringworm is the common name given to a fungal infection of the superficial layers of the skin, hair and nails. Ringworm infections can occur in humans and in all domesticated species of animals. The name comes from the classical appearance of the round, red, raised ‘ring’ marking the boundary of inflammation in people infected with the disease. The common name of ringworm is somewhat misleading, in that it is not an infection caused by a worm, and the infected areas are not always ring-shaped. The organisms that cause ringworm infections belong to a specialized group of fungi known as dermatophytes, so the medical name for this disease is dermatophytosis.

Some species of dermatophytes are species-specific, meaning that they will only infect one species, whereas others can be spread between different species of animals or from animals to man. In cats, one species of dermatophyte, called Microsporum canis, is responsible for almost all ringworm infections, and this species is infectious to cats, dogs and man. Occasionally ringworm infections in cats may be caused by species such as Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Both of these species are zoonotic, meaning that they can also infect humans.

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Is Training your Dog to Sleep Outside Right?

This is a question which a lot of dog lovers will answer in the negative, but there is a right and a wrong way of doing this. If you begin to teach your dog to sleep outside in a doghouse at an early age, they can adjust to the situation quite easily and be perfectly happy with their space. If you try and force an elderly dog to change their sleeping habits, then it can be a very stressful experience.

There are a lot of important things to take account of if you decide to put your dog in a doghouse. It is important that it is well sheltered, i.e. it doesn’t have any any leaks, and isn’t exposed to the wind and rain. It also needs to have plenty of bedding, particularly in the colder periods of the year, so that they can stay warm and dry.

For the bedding that you use, it is important that it doesn’t soak up water like a sponge, as that would end up working against keeping your dog warm. There are plenty of online pet product stores which will sell you dog bedding which is suitable for doghouses.

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How Dogs React to Death

While this is an uncomfortable subject to cover, it is worth doing based upon how it can have a massive impact on your dog’s well-being. Whether the death is of another dog or a member of your family; grieving is something that they share with humans, and just like humans dogs can react in a irrational way. Often times dogs will become listless, unmotivated or anxious, and you need to be prepared to help them.

The best way to get dogs going again following a death is to make sure that they get back to their regular routine. Generally speaking, dogs are able to bounce back from loss far more than people, but routines like walking and feeding schedules are very important for their sense of security and well being.

Another thing to note, is that some dogs who have become faithful companions to a person who has suddenly passed away, may have to be euthanased due to their age, and how fast their health will decline with the loss of their owners; it’s not a nice thing to do but sometimes it’s necessary. Though you can always try to help your dog instead by comforting them in the way their owner did, even if their owner and their effect can’t be replaced.

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Pet Humanisation: a Positivity For The Pet Industry

Seems like the pet industry events in the United Kingdom are in for a very bright future, as new reports do show that the total amount of spending on pet care purposes in the country is projected to attain an ultimate record high of £4.6 billion by the end of the year 2015; this a projected 3% increase in comparison to 2014 and a generally significant growth of 25% since the year 2010, adds the reports.

The United Kingdom’s consumers did allocate £3.71 billion of the near £4.6 billion spent in 2014 to purchase pet food and an extra £1 billion on non-food items for example pet grooming, clothes, day care, and toys; expenses that generally portray the on-going trend of the much emphasis on humanisation of pets in the country and consequently a bright future for pet industry events. Gina Westbrook who is a director of strategy briefings at the Euromonitor was once quoted in an interview with The Telegraph saying that pet owners are increasingly taking care and treating their dogs, cats and even other small mammals as members of their family, he further emphasised on the opportunity of commercialising this developing new trend into a wide range of goods and services; be it investing in dog beer or cat counselling or rather pet weddings and social pet working , which can gain quite successful mileage for any company that can position itself properly to gain absolute credibility among this rising demographic. Read More