Top Reasons Why Dogs Eat Poop!

Does your mutts eat their own or some other dog's poop? As disgusting and abnormal as this may sound, dogs sometimes will eat feces for a variety of reasons. Go through the list below and see if you can pin point which reasons may apply to your cute and loving mutt:

• Malnutrition - A lot of times when dogs are not getting enough nutrients and/or vitamin deficiencies, they resort to eating their poop. Some pups go grow rapidly and their appetites may increase at a fast speed too, so keep an eye out for how much you're suppose to be feeding your mutts.
• Parasites - If you feel like you're feeding your mutts plenty of healthy foods but they are still behaving this way, you should consider visiting the vet to check for parasites. Parasites can be a cause for possible malnutrition.
• Health Conditions - Dogs that have health conditions like diabetes or thyroid disease are more prone to eating poop. In this situation, consult your trusted vet on how to properly treat their health conditions to help stop the unwanted behavior.
• Get Attention - Some mutts will resort to chewing on poop as a way to get attention from you when they are bored or as a way of "acting out" if they were recently punished. In this case, make some more time to walk and play with your dogs so they are not thinking about eating poop.
• Copy Cats - Mom dogs will a lot of times eat their newborns' poop for nutrients. So another possibility could be that the new pups are just copying their mother's behavior as a way of exploring different things. Proper training would be a way to overcome the poop-eating in this scenario.

Regardless of the what the reasons may be for why your mutts are eating poop, you should still schedule a visit with your trust vet to ensure your pets health.

Keeping your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!

Hot Summer Safety Tips for Your Dogs

As daily temperatures continue to climb up well into the 80s, 90s, and even over 100 degrees, making sure to adapt your mutts living situations to the heat should be at the top of your priority list. While we may be cooling off inside our air conditioned rooms inside, our little furry friends may be stuck outside in the backyard with no appropriate place to relax.

Below are some safety concerns to keep in mind as summer arrives:

• A comfortable backyard - be sure to have large, shady spots around the backyard throughout the entire day to give your dogs a place to get out of the sun. Dog houses that are outside are NOT a good option as they can trap heat and make it more miserable for your mutts to lay in. Another idea would be to fill a small, blow-up pool with fresh water so your mutts can jump in and cool off from time to time. 
• Appropriate times to exercise - during the summer, avoiding activities with your mutts during the hottest time of the day is best for yours and their health. Not only is the heat unbearable in the middle of the day, but also when temperatures become extreme, the roads get over heated and can actually burn your dogs paws. So do your best to reschedule your routines to exercising with your dogs in the mornings or evenings when the heat waves are less intense. 
• H2O - giving plenty of fresh, cool water for your dogs that are outside is essential to their health during the hot days. So don't forget to double and triple check their bowls more often than usual to help keep them comfortable.
• Grooming needs - scheduling maybe two or three more than usual haircuts for your dogs can help tremendously with keeping your mutts cool in the summer. Remember, they are the ones with the fur coat covering their entire bodies!
• No leaving dogs in cars - a closed vehicle (or even a car with windows cracked) can rise to over 100 degrees within minutes of you shutting off the A/C. Many dogs have become extremely sick, or have even died, in cars because of the heat. So just keep in mind, if you can't stand to be in there, they most certainly can't either!

Keep your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!

Tips on How to Choose the Right Dog Food

As we browse down the pet aisle at the grocery or pet store, we are bombarded with shelves after shelves of different dog food brands with all of them saying that THEY are the ones providing the best nutrients for your loving mutts.

So how do we (as loving and responsible dog owners who just want the best for our furry little friends) differentiate between all the pet food companies so we can provide the best diet for our mutts? While most dogs are different and require different types of nutrients, below are some general tips as to what to keep in mind when shopping for a good dog food brand:

1. Read the labels - While the cheapest brands or the cutest dog food bag can be very appealing to us consumers, these companies may not always have the best nutritional value to their products. It is essential to read the labels on the bag that interests you to see if the product truly has a well-balanced diet of whole meats, vegetables, fruits, grains, and a high-quality source of dietary fats. 
2. Dog Allergies & Needs - If your dog has certain allergies to certain types of foods, it's important to NOT feed them anything that would make their allergies worse. Skin and coat problems are common among mutts. So one way to help with this is to eliminate products like chicken, beef, lamb, corn, soy, wheat, egg, and dairy and replace them with plenty of vitamins and fatty acids (or fish oils). 
3. Feeding Amount - Depending on the age and situation of your mutts, it's also important to monitor the feeding amount for your dogs. Old mutts and mutts who have been neutered usually require less food to avoid obesity since their metabolisms and activity levels have gone down. 

The best way to acquire a good dog food brand is to consult with your trusted vet.

Keep your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!

Tips on How to Prevent Heartworms in Puppies!

Buying or adopting a new puppy into the family can be an exciting and fun event. However, puppies are extremely susceptible to heartworms, and usually 9 out of 10 puppies have some sort of internal parasites such as roundworms and hookworms growing inside them.

Some symptoms to look for to see if your pup has heartworm include vomiting, diarrhea, unable to gain weight, lack of energy for play and exercise, and/or poor hair coat quality. Some ways to help prevent parasites is to avoid areas that are contaminated and to keep the backyard clean of feces.

If your puppy has any of these symptoms, be sure to take your little mutt to your trusted vet as soon as possible. Even if your pup does not have these signs, it's still wise to schedule a doctor's appointment for a check up. It doesn't hurt either to have your vet give your new pup some medicine for heartworm to flush the parasites out of their tiny bodies.

Keep your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!

Most Common Worm Symptoms in Your Dogs!

Being a happy, playful, and spirited mutt, it's not uncommon that your dog would susceptible to getting worms as a health problem. With five common worms like heartworms, tapeworms, whipworms, roundworms, and hookworms, it is crucial to keep an eye out for the symptoms listed below to ensure your mutts' are nursed back to health:

• Vomitting
• Diarrhea
• Change in appetite
• Coughing
• Big bellied
• Lack of energy
• Itchy skin or other skin irritations
• Visible worms in poop
• Unintentional weight loss

It is important to take your dogs to your trusted vet for a check up as soon as possible if you notice any other irregular health concerns or behaviors from your mutts. Normally the vet will just give your dogs an appropriate prescription to get rid of the worms.

Keep your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!

Healthy Human Foods for Dogs

As responsible pet owners, we all know that a lot of human foods out there are bad for our mutts. Most of them are even bad for us to consume as humans! But then, there are some foods we can, and are even encouraged, to feed our little furry friends.

Below are three foods that can be added to your dogs' regular diet for an even more nutritional bowl:

• Yogurt - Yogurt is a good sources of calcium and protein for humans and your mutts. Be sure to feed your dogs yogurts that have live active bacteria and no sugar or artificial sweeteners. It's also healthier to feed your mutts fat free yogurt.
• Apples - Apples are a great sources of vitamin A, C, and fibre for the body. However, it's best to NOT feed your mutts the core of the apples since the seeds contain cyanide and are hard on their digestive systems. When feeding pieces of apples to your dogs, keep the skin on the apples because they contain chemicals that are healthy, (the skin is also known to help with reducing risk of cancer for humans).
• Oatmeal - Oatmeal has soluble fibre and serves as a good alternative for grains in the diet for dogs that are allergic to wheat. It's important to feed your mutts fully cooked oatmeal with no sugar or flavor added to receive the full nutritional benefits of the food.

Keep in mind that all of these foods are NOT to replace your mutts' regular diet, but to compliment it and be used as a tasty treat. Feed these foods in moderation, and be sure to consult your trusted vet if your dogs have specific allergies,  upset stomachs, and/or have shown other irregular health changes.

Keep your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!

Benefits to Walking a Dog on a Treadmill

While the best method to exercising your dog is by taking a walk outside three times a day, we all know that the chances of that happening everyday for twelve or fifteen years is not realistic. Dog owners may be too busy, may have physical limitations, may run into extreme weather conditions, and/or are just too lazy to do so. Whatever the reason, getting your dog exercise is still better than having them sit around all day and doing nothing.

Even though you shouldn't replace this method permanently with going out for walks, having your mutts exercise on a treadmill can be a temporary option to get your dogs to move. If you have a high energy dog that needs more than three-times-a-day walk and you (for whatever reason) cannot provide that, then the treadmill can also be a really good addition. Sometimes treadmill exercises are also essential to helping a dog rehabilitate from an injury or aging. To find out what types of treadmills are best for your mutts, visit http://cmln.co/Z0bL5c

A lot of times shelters would use a treadmill to help walk their dogs because their are either short-staffed or need to help drain the energy from their hyper mutts. Taking care of a dog is a long-term commitment, so making sure that your mutts are healthy through exercise is the key to a happy and well-balanced dog.

Keep your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!