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| answered a question | What are your tips for dealing with leash aggressive dogs? Your body language tells your dog a lot. Dogs are extremely observant, and are always watching us. If you see someone coming towards you with another dog, and you start tensing up (shoulders go rigid, breathing differently, voice pitch changes, standing completely still, etc.) your dog will notice and it will put him on edge. So that's something to keep in mind. Keeping a loose, confident movement to you and ignoring other dogs can help your dog follow suit. My understanding is that when a dog is leashed, they feel constrained and are basically put into a position where they cannot size up and greet another dog the way they would naturally. If you note the way your dog greets other dogs off leash, they usually approach each other to the side, and sniff bottoms. They don't approach each other head on, face to face, as they may be forced to do while on leash. This is a very aggressive, dominant approach in doggy-world and this alone can cause aggressive behavior. If you can allow your dog to get a good back side sniffing and keep the dog's fronts away from each other, that can help a lot too. Another thing that you can practice, is teaching your dog to be okay with other dogs in the area by getting their attention on you whenever another dog walks by. The best and easiest way to do this with some more control, is if you can get a friend and their dog to practice with you. Walk by each other several times from opposite sides of the street, and each time their dog is walking by, distract yours with treats. When your dog can be calm with the other dog walking nearby, praise them like crazy and give them plenty of treats. A really great resource for me was Patricia B. McConnells' book "The Other End of the Leash". She's an animal behaviorist that has worked thousands of cases, helping people with their dog's and studied dog behaviour and psychology all over the world. Her book is a fun, easy read, and extremely informative :) Hope this helped a bit - best of luck! |
| answered a question | are there any natural home remedies for a dog that scratches excessively? We need more information to provide the best answer! Is her skin red and inflamed? Is there a smell that you notice (like moldy bread or fritos, or possible even a sweet yeasty smell)? Is she losing her hair? How long has this been going on for? Has anything changed recently? Does it appear to perhaps be seasonal? Etc... A few things I can throw out there - Most issues with skin and coat can be relieved with a change of diet. You can help alleviate the discomfort in the meantime with some of the above suggestions (I recommend avoiding oatmeal until you've ruled out a yeast problem, though) - coconut oil on the skin and in the food can't hurt and as it's anti-fungal and antibacterial as well as incredibly moisturizing, I highly recommend it for a plethora of issues. However, getting to the root of the issue, instead of relieving the symptoms, is preferable. If you suspect yeast (red skin, odd smell I mentioned earlier - often most present in paws and ears) then the first thing to do is reduce the sugar in your dog's diet. Yeast feeds off of sugar, and unfortunately, kibble (dry) is chock-full of carb-laden ingredients that very quickly break down into sugar. If you are uncomfortable with switching to a raw diet, I'd recommend finding a formula that uses lentils and chickpeas, or perhaps garbanzo beans, instead of grains or potatoes. These are complex carbs that break down much slower and are far more fibrous and far less starchy than potatoes. Keep up the new diet for at least 12 weeks to see how she does on it. If you'd like brand suggestions, let me know! :) if you are comfortable with the idea of raw, or are already feeding raw, then I recommend something similar which is removing the starch out of the diet - no grains, no potatoes (sweet or white), and make sure your treats are meat-only to reduce carbs. The other thing I wanted to throw out there, would be seasonal/environmental/inhalant allergies, which are far more common than food allergies, which only happens in about 3-6% of dogs and cats. The tests done on dogs and cats for these allergies are often inconclusive, so I don't recommend wasting your time on them. Though it's a much longer process, food elimination diets are cheaper and yield more accurate results. Now, with the external allergens I mentioned, changing the diet is still beneficial, because if your dog is on a healthy, easily digestible food that works well with her body, it will help her combat the allergies better anyway. The top things to keep in mind when picking a dog food are to ensure that you have a high protein (30% or high), moderate fat (15% - 20%), low carb (they don't list this on pet food. You have to take the amount of protein, fat, moisture, and fiber from 100% and basically what you ... |
| commented answer | When you post feedback on a dog, can the owners view it? Unless you change the sorting option from the default of most voted showing first, or scouring through the answers, you don't see Jessica's answer right away. |
| commented answer | When you post feedback on a dog, can the owners view it? Fantastic line of thought and very well stated. I agree very much with this. |
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| commented question | When you post feedback on a dog, can the owners view it? That's awful.. your poor dog :( It sucks you had that experience.. there are some seriously awesome pet sitters on Rover. But I would never use one with less than 5 years of experience, and less than 10 reviews - which must be all 5 stars. I wont trust my dog to a stranger with minimal credentials. |