Insurance with your dog in mind

When you buy insurance do you have your dog in mind? Not many dog owners do. Quite frankly most people are looking for the cheapest auto insurance or homeowners insurance they can find. They often don't realize that some auto insurance policies will cover their dog should they be also involved in an auto accident with you. Some homeowners insurance policies actually discriminate against dog ownership.

The next time you are shopping for insurance, keep your dog in mind and ask questions. Often the cheapest policy is not the best.

A touch of personalization

Call me a bling fanatic, but I love little touches of personalization for my dogs. After all, they all wear dog tags with their name and my contact info on their collars. One of them has a food mat with his name on it (presented to me by a good friend) and another one has everything color coordinated.

Of course I love giving personalized gifts too. One friend had a dog that would always get out so I got him a dog collar for his dog that had the dog's name and his phone number on it, in neon, because the dog was always getting out at night. It actually came in handy once when he got a phone call from the local vet. Someone had found the dog and turned her over to the vet to call the owner. The people were just traveling through and did not have the time to wait for the owner.

Walking the dog, or how to explore a healthier lifestyle

I have a neighbor who has, to my recent knowledge, only just started to walk his dog. He is, or should I say WAS, a portly young man in his late 20's. I started to notice that he was losing weight and his dog was getting muscles.

I managed to talk to him just yesterday as he was passing by with his dog. I remarked how good looking his dog was getting. The conversation went on for another 5 minutes when he confessed that his doctor put him on a diet pill and that one of the diet pill side effects was excessive energy. His solution was to take his dog for long walks.

So now not only is he benefiting from his doctor's orders and pill but his dog is too. He did confess to me that he enjoys the walks so much that he will continue them after he is off of the diet pill. I am such that his dog will like that too.

Dog stories that inspire

A few years ago I was contacted by a wonderful woman that represented an animal shelter. She had a brilliant idea to raise money for the shelter. She decided to publish a series of books about the dogs that had been saved from animal shelters. She went one step further and contacted websites and blogs so that she could get the word out that she needed stories. She asked people to submit their own dog rescue stories for inclusion in a series of books. Each of the dog books were to be separated according to breed. So far there are books about pugs, pit bulls, dachshunds and ......... well you get the idea.

It did not surprise me when I found out last year that her books were now on Amazon and they are doing rather well. The proceeds from the sales of those books benefit dogs in animal shelters. Here are just a few of the books:




Just click on any of the books to find out more about them. I wish much more success to Kyla Duffy, editor of Happy Tails Books and the Lost Soul series of books.

Free books for dog owners on Amazon

Did you know that Amazon is a great place to find free books? They have lots of free dog related book for you and they are FREE, FREE, FREE.

First up is this list of FREE, yes I said free books for your Kindle (what, you don't have a Kindle!). Psssst, if you don't have a Kindle, Amazon has a free download that you can read those Kindle books on your iPhone, iPod touch and even your computer.



Now for that list of FREE dog books:
The Dog Crusoe and His Master A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies
True Stories about Dogs and Cats
Dog of St. Bernard and Other Stories
Rags (The Story Of A Dog)
Dogs and All about Them
A Dog of Flanders
Beautiful Joe An Autobiography of a Dog

Well, what are you waiting for............go and download and start reading!!

Notes and thoughts on becoming a vet tech

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Ashworth College. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you love dogs enough to work with them everyday? Ever thought about becoming a vet tech? I have, and I have also looked more into the subject. There are 3 ways you can become a certified veterinarian technician. The first way is to attend your local community college. Expect to attend for about 26 weeks of 8 hour days and the cost is usually around $5K or less. You can also attend an online college like Ashworth, which does have a very comprehensive vet tech course. The third way is to be hired by a veterinarian and learn on the job with the ability to test at the end of 2 years for the vet tech certification/license. 

In all 3 cases you will want to find out what your particular state's requirements are for working as a vet tech. Some states, like Oregon, require an on hands vet tech course so online learning would not work in that state. In California, a friend of mine attended a vet tech school part time and it took her close to 2 years to complete the course. Most states will require you to be employed by a vet for an "X" amount of time before they will allow you to take the state licensing test for vet techs.

If you are looking into online learning, first make sure that your Online degree will be accepted in your state or where you plan on working.

Why aren't dogs treated the same in the USA s they are in Europe?

I was going to start off ranting about the comments I have been deleting from the blog in the last few days, still more people signing their comments with "best weight loss pill" or other such nonsense. I was going to do that until I saw something. I am sitting outside a Burger King, using their free wifi to blog about what I just saw. A dog left out side tied to a post while the owner pops into the store to get something. Dogs are not allowed in many places here in the USA and some states, cities and counties are even stricter about where a dog is allowed. It seems that the USA has a love hate relationship going on with the dog. They are admired in movies, people turn on their TV's to watch the Westminster Dog Show and yet they will not rent homes to dog owners or allow them into some parks, even if they are on a leash.

In Europe on the other hand dogs are given more rights and privileges.  Anyone want to chime in on this? What do you think?

The dog that destroyed the house

The title should read, "The dog that destroyed part of the living room, a section of the kitchen and dug up part of the backyard, in less than 3 hours," but the title would have been too long.

Yes it happened, to my neighbor a few days ago. He is single and has a full time job. Normally his high energy border collie is dropped at his sister's house for the day while he works. The dog plays with her dog and has several acres to roam around on. A few days ago his sister told him that her dog had to into the vet's and they would be gone most of the morning. He thought that would be fine, he would just leave his dog in the house for a few hours while he did a half a day at work.

When he got home at lunch time he found the following:

• His Ethan Allen couch was destroyed
• His box of Padron cigars was shredded all over the place (I told him he should have quit smoking) 
• Several plants had been either knocked over or mashed into the carpet
• The refrigerator door was open but thankfully nothing disturbed
• The window above the kitchen sink had scratches on it like the dog had tried to get out
• 3 dishes in the sink were broken
• The backdoor was opened (he is at a loss as to how the dog did that one) and the screen door closed but now there was a hole in it where the dog got out into the backyard
• There were several dug holes in the backyard

He was astounded as to why his dog did that and he thinks he found out. His backyard borders a field that normally grows hay. That morning the farmer put a small herd of beef cattle in the field and the mooing might have excited the dog into wanting out.....out to the field of cows.

I only wish he had gotten photos or video of the result of his dog's destruction, I would have loved to see what the dog did.

Taking care of an older dog

Dogs have fairly short lives compared to humans and other animals. For example, horses live to about 20 to 25 years and often older. Dogs on the other hand have a life expectancy of  9 to 16 years. The larger the breed of the dog, the shorter the life span. So giant dog breeds like the Great Dane will only live to about 9 or 10 years old max.

The average dog will start to hit middle age when the hairs on their muzzle start to turn gray. For most breeds that will be at the age of 7 years. A few years later the dog will start to slow down and not be as active as before. At that time their joints will begin to stiffen and it will hurt them more to move about. It is at that stage most people start giving their dogs joint supplements, but what they should have done was to start giving them supplements a few years before the damage to their joints was done. I have found that the best joint supplement for dogs contains yucca, which is an anti-inflammatory.

Older dogs might also have bladder problems so an older dog must be allowed access to a place where they can pee at a moments notice. Older dogs are more intolerant of temperature changes so they will need to be kept warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Keeping those things in mind, there is no reason that your dog cannot live a long an comfortable life.

The Fox Terrier, coats and colors

The dog breed, the Fox Terrier, is often mistaken for 2 different breeds. The smooth coated Fox Terrier (pictured above) is often mistaken for the Jack Russell Terrier. The wire haired Fox Terrier (pictured below) is often called a small Airedale, even though the Airedale is a much larger breed and only has a brown and black coat.

The Fox Terrier comes in a varied color patterns. The smooth coated one pictured at the top of this post is a black and white one. The head of the Fox Terrier must be of a solid color other than white. I have often seen a Fox Terrier with a solid blackhead and an all white body. The wire haired Fox Terrier in the photo above is a tri colored dog. The colors are limited to white, black and brown and must be distinct from each other. Brindle colored dogs are not allowed in the registry at this time. Also all one color dogs are not allowed, such as an all white or all black.