Posts Tagged ‘year’
Aloe For Dogs
Posted on: January 29, 2011
By Pamela Glynn
What’s Aloe Vera? It’s a kind of cactus, isn’t it? How can a cactus help Sam’s stiff limbs?”
Those were my words of about ten years ago. I said them to my daughter, Joanna, who was gleefully holding up a chubby yellow tub. She seemed to think its Aloe contents held the answer to my 8-year-old Bearded Collie’s arthritic problem. I disagreed. My reason? I knew that Joanna had been drinking Aloe Vera for her IBS – and that it had helped the condition. At that stage I saw no connection whatsoever between Sam’s stiffness and her stomach!
I had a lot to learn. My ‘Aloe education’ began with the 60 mls of the drink that I eventually agreed to pour over Sam’s dinner. A finicky dog, he often refused food initially and almost never pounced on it like so many of his friends and relatives seemed to do. I’m not suggesting that he pounced now … but to my astonishment he ambled over quite soon and, after sniffing this ‘new food’, polished it off quickly (for him) and even licked his bowl clean.
Having tasted the Aloe in the tub, I found Sam’s apparent enthusiasm for it mystifying and dismissed it as a very temporary blip. But I was wrong, because he was enthusiastic again the next night … and the next. Did he know something I didn’t?
Suspecting that he and Joanna shared a secret that excluded me because of my inbred skepticism about ‘alternative’ products, I did some digging.
In the process I learned that, far from being a cactus, Aloe Barbadensis Miller (the true Aloe Vera) is a member of the lily family, related to garlic, onions and asparagus.
Having been around for thousands of years, it has been used for centuries to maintain health and enhance beauty. Cleopatra is said to have bathed in it, while Dioscorides, the Ancient Greek physician, is reputed to have used it in his pills and potions.
But we’d moved on since then, hadn’t we – and now vets dealt with animal health? Well, yes, and they do that brilliantly! All the same, while reading about Aloe Vera’s natural anti-inflammatory properties (which seemed perhaps to explain Joanna’s insistence that this drink might benefit both her IBS and Sam’s stiffness) I was witnessing a difference in Sam.
In the two or so weeks that had elapsed his ‘bounce’ had come back! For the uninitiated, I’ll just mention that Bearded Collies in good health do seem to have paws with inbuilt springs – and now Sam was bouncing around like a young thing. Still disbelieving, I said nothing to anyone, fully expecting this to be a very temporary phenomenon. But it wasn’t – and my fellow dog-walkers started commenting, as well as asking questions that I wasn’t yet equipped to answer.
Before long, even Sam’s vet wanted to know what I was doing differently – and, as often happens in life, one thing led to another …
? P.G. Glynn 2008
About the Author: I am a published author, both of a novel in hardback and many articles, some about Aloe Vera, which I’ve now been marketing for 10 years. Please visit my new website to read Sam’s story (told in his own words)and learn more about animals and Aloe. Free Aloe Brochure. http://www.my-aloe-vera.com
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For The Love Of Dogs
Posted on: January 29, 2011
By Miss Debra Rae
Dogs and humans have been together for centuries. Why are we such pals? Dogs dig, bark, lick, steal burgers from the grill, get fleas, worms, ticks. Dogs have to be trained to do their business outside and then it has to be cleaned up. They have to be fed, bathed, brushed, walked, played with and watered. Dogs need attention, a veterinarian and must be cared for when you go on vacation or away for the night or a weekend.
Through all this, the human/dog bond is stronger than ever. Its estimated people are spending over $2 billion a year on their family pets and this number increases yearly. Some say within the next 5 years people will spend in excess of $8 billion a year on their furry family members without blinking an eye. Those that pamper their pets are an example to all of how to say “thank you” to man’s best friend.
A well cared for dog will do anything to protect their human pack. Recently, a Chihuahua took on a rattlesnake to protect one of its family members and nearly lost its little canine life. Dogs are among the heroes after a disaster such as the twin towers or an avalanche. Dogs find the dead for a proper burial and the living who are covered with so much rubble or snow that no human could ever find them without the super sniffer of the dog. The stories about canine heroes are in the thousands and occur every day. How many people would not be alive today without the wonderful dog? Our lives are richer, happier, and so much better with our pal the dog.
Dogs have been guiding the blind and deaf for decades. These canine kings and queens create a quality of life and a safety net not found with any other animal. Dogs help people with Cerebral palsy and severe anxiety. Dogs calm children and adults with autism, bi-polar disorders and other challenges. It’s stated that by simply petting a dog, a human becomes more relaxed and blood pressure drops. Dogs warn us when someone is at the door or when an intruder has entered the house. Dogs sniff out bombs and drugs. Dogs seem to know when someone has ill intent. Dogs are looking out for us at all times. Always on alert. Dogs are the ultimate protectors. Dog is indeed man’s best friend and brings out the best in people. The love for a dog brings tears to the eyes of the most jaded & hardened people. This love can also drive a hard-core military man to break every rule in the book to protect a stray dog who has become a family member. Dogs are exceptional.
Dogs are more a family member than ever before instead of the old way of the pet who lives outside. People sleep with their dogs, cuddle with their dogs and take them on vacation. People pamper their dogs, dress their dogs and buy them only the best dog food available or make it at home. We thank our dogs every day for their love, companionship and individual personality. We have safety belts for our dogs and dog hammocks for the car. We adore our dogs and they in turn adore us.
This exchange of pure love is why we humans spend billions of dollars on dog supplies, food, and all around spoiling. Our canine family member will die for us, warn us of danger and lead us home if we’re lost. It’s a fair trade to clean up the dog poop, deflea, deworm, detick, walk, water, play, brush, train and fill up the holes they dig.
About the Author: Miss Rae has had animals her entire life & writes continually about them & how they make us better. Dog training, nutrition, supplies, etc.; here at goodpoopy.com.
Source: www.isnare.com
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Dogs Nature
Posted on: January 29, 2011
By Valerie Dancer
Dog Training – A Dog’s Nature
Dogs are surprisingly complex creatures.
Some official estimates of the number of breeds reaches as high as 800 in Western countries alone. Even given that distinguishing one breed from another can be carried to absurd extremes, the variety is astonishing from a human perspective, who have, perhaps, a dozen ‘breeds’.
Complicating the picture still further is the well-known fact that dogs have descended from wolves but began domestic interaction with humans over 10,000 years ago. As a consequence, there are behaviours that develop regardless of circumstances and some that are as unique as the human the dog is paired with. Still, some common traits stand out.
Dogs are predators.
That doesn’t mean they necessarily hunt and attack every passing cat or rat, but the capacity is always in them. With acute hearing and head muscles that allow precise orientation of their ears, dogs can pick up a range of sounds and locate the source quickly and with high accuracy.
A dog’s field of vision is higher than that of humans. Their field of view has been estimated from 180-270 degrees, by comparison to a human’s 100-150 degrees, allowing them to track events better.
And, of course, there’s that famous sense of smell. Citing figures such as having 25 times as many scent-receptor cells or being able to sense concentrations 100 million times smaller than humans conveys the fact one way.
Another is to report behaviour. Golden Retrievers, for example, can smell gophers through two feet of packed snow and a foot of frozen earth. And, they’ll dig through it to get to the gopher. That’s predatory behaviour.
Dogs are social animals.
That’s common knowledge, of course. But, though known, it’s often ignored. Individuals will often lock a lone dog away in a garage or pen, or on a rope in the yard for long periods. This isolation from contact with humans and other animals invariably leads to fear and/or aggression and other forms of maladjustment. Dogs need companionship in order to develop healthy behaviour.
Isolating a dog for brief periods can be a useful training technique. Fear of expulsion from the pack can incense overly assertive, alpha-status seeking dogs into alignment with the trainer’s goals. In any human-dog pair, the human must be the alpha (leader). The alternative is property destruction, human frustration and unsafe conditions for people and dogs.
But excessive time devoid of social interaction with another dog, the human, or even a friendly cat harms the dog’s psychology and leads to unwanted behaviour. Even guard dogs have to be able to distinguish between external ‘threats’ and members of its own ‘pack’.
Dogs are exploratory.
Like the two-year-old humans at roughly their same mental level, dogs learn by exploring their environment. And like those humans, they can engage in destructive behaviour. Dogs are no respecters of property. Training and an appropriately selected set of objects and suitable area can channel that behaviour into something acceptable to humans and healthy for the dog.
Providing toys with characteristics very distinct from human property, such as rawhide bones rather than rubber balls that are hard to tell from children’s, leads to less confusion and misbehaviour. In many cases, however, the problem is solved by scent. The dog’s toys may look like the child’s, but smell very different.
Some amount of digging may be inevitable as part of the dog’s exploration. Be prepared to patch holes in lawn if the dog is unsupervised for very long. Plants can usually be protected with cayenne pepper paste, bitter apple and other preparations.
Dogs are scavengers
Dogs will eat deer droppings, even when they have perfectly sound and ample diets. They’ll chew on dead rats, eat grass and ingest a wide variety of things that their own experience shows causes upset stomachs. And they’ll repeat the behaviour day after day.
Acknowledging their limited ability to connect cause and effect when those are separated in time is a must in order to keep them healthy and safe.
Recognizing a dog’s nature, and working within in it rather than against it leads to less frustration for both human and dog. Enjoying the beneficial aspects, such as spontaneous dog hugs (leaning into a leg), paw offering and a head laid on the lap are just a few of the rewards.
About the Author: I have owned dogs for 42 years. Learning to train from my mother who trained to county level. Over the years I have found that the old ways of training are not always the best, that praise is the best form of training, and the younger the dog, the easier it is to train. http://www.dogtrainingproblems.biz
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