Getting your dog home safely

I was recently on a message board that I frequent and was totally amazed at the lack of common sense that some people have when they find a lost pet. The woman showed a photo of the small dog that had shown up at her house a few days ago. The dog had no tags or collar and she was wondering if anyone knew of a rescue shelter she could take it to.

The first thing I thought of, was why wasn't this woman at least making the effort to find the owner? I wrote a message back encouraging her to take the dog to a local vet and see if the dog had been micro-chipped. While at the vet she can ask if anyone had reported a lost dog and even put up a flyer in the vets office.

Of course if you are a dog owner and you lose your dog, you want to make sure that the dog can be identified and returned to you. The first thing of course is to get dog tag for your dogs collar. Make sure you look at dog tags for dogs and not the human metal ones. There are also customized dog tags for dogs for those owners who want a bit more than the standard information. They might want to include any special medical condition the dog has.

If you happen to find a lost pet, please use some common sense and help that pet to reunited with their family.

Do you clip your long haired dog?

Years ago when I owned Chow Chows I use to give them a body clip in the summer. My main reason was to keep down the grooming maintenance for me and be able to have better control over their flea population. This was the time before spot-on flea treatments. Our next breeds of dogs were all short hair so I didn't have to worry about clipping them.

I was in a local Pet Supplies store and happen to notice a woman with a body clipped Pomeranian. We got to talking and I asked her why her little dog was clipped. I had mentioned that I use to clip my Chows in the summer but this was going into winter. She lived on a farm and most of the area around the house got very muddy. Clipping her little dog made it easier to keep the dog clean when the mud got on his legs and belly.

So, do you have any interesting reasons why you have your dog body clipped?

Odd trivia facts about dogs

It is fun fact time.

Dogs cannot sweat. They have no sweat glands. In order to keep their bodies from over heating, they pant. The excess heat is dispelled from their bodies in the form of hot air.

Some breeds of dogs have eyelashes and some do not. My miniature pincher does not have any signs of eyelashes, yet my daughter's Aussie has long eyelashes. She looks like she could be a commercial for an eyelash growth formula.

You can use fly and flea sprays on dogs that can also be used on horses but those same sprays cannot be used on cats. The same thing with wound ointments, horses and dogs can use the same products (most of the time).

Novelty gifts for dog lovers

It is getting close to Christmas and as we get closer, more and more novelty gifts start showing up for dog owners and lovers of the different dog breeds. I fell in love with a watch that had a watch face of a husky on it. The only problem was that it was a cheaply made watch that was libel to fail about 6 months after I put it on. Then I started to wonder why don't the well known brands of watches put photo faces on them. It would be nice to see a Timex or citizen watches that have a bit more of a different look to them for dog fanciers.

Hey, maybe one day they will.