Dogs can be fussy

I always thought that a cat was more fussy than a dog when it came time to sleep. That was until I owned a small breed dog. Our cat doesn't mind sleeping in the gravel near our driveway, yet the dog will pick only the cleanest blanket to wrap himself up in. Forget sleeping straight on the carpet now, he prefers my yoga mats to sleep on. If it wasn't for the matter of him shedding, he would be very welcome to sleep on my bed.

Yes, dogs can be fussy at times and your dog might end up fussier as it gets older.

Spoiled Pets

Guest written by our friend Gladys Fuentes

Dog sitting for my parents is a handful. They have three dogs, weighing between 60 and 80 pounds each. The neighborhood they live in is very nice, but it is situated on the side of a mountain, which makes walking their dogs very difficult. They have a lot of land, but most of it is straight uphill. Luckily, they installed an electronic fence throughout their property at the same time they installed their all home security system. This makes exercising the dogs as easy as letting them out the front door. I always try to go outside with them and throw the ball if they’re interested, too. Now, my parents’ dogs are spoiled rotten and very accustomed to it. Not only do they get green beans on their dry dog food, but also rawhide chews in the morning and organic dog treats at various intervals throughout the day. My dad also puts the cherry on top by saving them each a little bite of his breakfast in the morning, which usually consists of a muffin or scone!

Destructive chewing

Getting a new dog or puppy in the family means 2 things - learning how much a dog knows and teaching correct house manners to the dog or puppy. This often entails housebreaking or re-enforcement of housebreaking habit and finding out if the dog or puppy has any destructive tendencies.

I don't know why, but I manage to adopt dogs that have a chewing habit. This is not something related to teething or being a puppy, no this is in older dogs. I have had a dog who loved to chew plastic. Another dog that loved to chew carpet and yet another who would go into the dirty laundry hamper and find dirty under pants and chew a hole where the stains use to be. All of that was very destructive but not as destructive as a Beagle that my friend owned. That dog would chew on her shoes as soon as she left the house. She got to the point of locking up the shoes and the dog almost chewed a hole in the closet door. She almost got rid of the dog when he destroyed a pair of expensive riding boots. When she saw what the dog did to her equestrian boots she almost called the local rescue to find him another home. Then I talked to her and had her buy the dog a few pairs of used shoes from Goodwill. I told her to leave them out for him to chew on and he would leave her shoes alone. To her surprise - it worked.

Do you know what your dog is drinking?

I have lived in areas with questionable water quality. Everything from city to well water. I use to think that city water was safe until I had it tested. When we moved to the country side I thought that the well water was safe until I found out that the local farmers were using chemicals that was leaching into the aqua fir.

Needless to say, I was concerned about my dogs. What I ended up doing was have a whole house water softener installed. Not only did it give me a piece of mind, the water tasted better to me.

Dogs have such a short life span as it is that I did not want to shorten it by exposing them to carcinogens in the water.