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So your dog knows some tricks, eh? Feeling pretty smug? Alright smart guy, why don’t we work towards something a little more challenging? Anybody can get the basic tricks down: sit, stay, shake, lie down, and come. Those aren’t that tough so here comes the curve ball.

You’re going to teach your dog to heel.

Training a dog to heel takes a lot of concentration from your pooch, and a lot of patience from you. There’s tons of repetition, variability, treat giving, and affectionate praise involved so get ready for a long endeavor. Like most tricks, it’s not the difficulty involved that makes it so tasking to teach your dog. It’s the sheer redundancy and time spent that really has you pulling your hair out. So long as you’re prepared for that you should do just fine. So let’s get started.

The objective in training a dog to heel is to teach your dog to come immediately when called and stay right by your side. This is a handy skill for an excitable hound who, left unattended, may just tackle your neighbor’s toddler. Begin with your dog in the Heel position, adjacent to your leg, but not touching you.  Keep one of the hound’s favorite snacks in hand at about waist height with plenty more in reserve.. Take two steps forward, leading the dog with the treat. Always teach your dog to heel on one side, left or right according to your preference.

 

When the dog follows your lead and comes to a stop at your side reward the behavior with a treat and verbal praise. Did you enjoy that? Good, while training a dog to heel you’ll be doing it thousands of times. Once you’re comfortable with the pup’s ability at two steps, increase the distance. As you’re leading the dog, consistently keep its attention by calling its name and making kissing, clicking, or whistling noises. Don’t add the verbal command, “Heel” until you teach your dog to consistently and correctly perform the trick. The concept behind this is to establish the behavior before cementing the trick with the command.

Continue this process until you’re blue in the gills, rewarding your dog every time it gets it right. If they lag behind or run too far ahead, simply stand up straight, patiently say “no” and restart the process. Once your dog has the trick down to a distance of ten paces or more, you can add in the verbal command. Begin telling it to heel as it’s following you. Slowly but surely the idea will sink into the dog’s mind.

Once that’s done, it’s time to test your dog’s commitment to treat-getting. Take them to different locations, practice in front of other people or animals, adjust your speed, heel longer before restarting, and add in some turns while walking. If your pup manages to stay obedient through all that, then congratulations, you can officially start calling yourself a dog whisperer and lobby animal planet for your own reality show. That is one well behaved doggy!

Congratulations on your new puppy! You’re in luck, because learning how to train your dog from scratch is much easier than trying to get them to unlearn bad habits. Puppies are obsessed with getting your attention, and are very eager to please. This makes it the ideal time to begin puppy leash training when they’re young. As with every other type of training, leash training a puppy takes consistency and patience. It’s a little difficult at first, but keep at it and you’ll have a perfectly behaved pup padding along on a slack leash at your side during every walk.

Start off by understanding the psychology of how to train your dog. All animals in nature work off of reward systems. If they behave in a certain way that brings about a desired result, their brains will give them a massive jolt of pleasure. Keeping that in mind, you have to remember to never reward your puppy for an undesirable behavior. In this case you must avoid rewarding your puppy for pulling against the leash. It will cause the both of you discomfort and will set you back a good deal in leash training a puppy.

So before taking your puppy on its first walk, get it used to the leash by letting the pup wear it around the house. They’ll drag it around, chew on it, and generally act cute but eventually the walking implement will be forgotten. Once they’ve achieved a level of comfort with the leash, take up your end and walk around the house with them. Figuring out how to train your dog is about getting them used to being right by your side with a lot of slack on the leash. Doing this in a controlled environment free of all the distractions in the outside world will do wonders for their self-control.

 

While you’re performing the puppy leash training exercises, it’s important to reward your puppy for the proper behavior. Keep a package of their favorite treats on you, and reward them every time they find themselves in the correct position. However, if their tendency is to pull away and keep the leash taut you’ll have to do the most frustrating thing imaginable for both of you.

Keep still.

This is where your patience is key. Puppy leash training will drive you to your wits end if you have a particularly stubborn pup, and the first few sessions are going to be tasking no matter what.  Still the best way to break them of bad leash training habits is to let their undesirable behavior go unrewarded. They have to realize that whenever they pull in the wrong direction, they won’t go anywhere. So when a puppy begins pulling, stop in your tracks and call them back. Once they return to your side reward them with plenty of praise and a tasty treat. Repeat this process until your brain is numb and you’ll have a perfectly leash trained puppy.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to keep your favorite pet worm free. Those pesky parasites seem to pop up wherever and whenever they’re least expected; and repeated vet visits can be a tiring and costly chore. Thankfully, many powerful worming medications are readily available at the vet’s office as well as online. Though the massive multiplicity of medications for dogs or cats with worms presents another problem. Which of these meds is best for your dog or cat? Well, the most popular and effective, according to most consumer reviews, are the products produced under the Drontal name brand which have a very high success rate, and near 100% customer satisfaction.

Drontal has a lot of different products under its broad umbrella. Drontal plus, Drontal Allwormer  Cats, Drontal Chewables Dogs, and Drontal Worming Suspension Puppies are just a few of the flagship products made by the Bayer subsidiary. Since worms in dogs often share many attributes with cat worms, the same active ingredients can work in both species. These 3 active ingredients are: praziquantel, pyrantel pamoate, and febantel. Though one important exception would be that febantel isn’t present in the Drontal products for cats.

These products are just as tough on the worms in dogs and cats as they are to pronounce. The first active ingredient in Drontal, praziquantel, starts off the treatment by roughing up the tapeworms. This stuff is quickly absorbed into a dog or cat’s system and metabolized through their livers. Once metabolized it enters into the digestive tract through the bile. There it begins the assault on tapeworms, rendering them unable to avoid being digested.  Tapeworms rely on their ability to withstand the acidic environment of an animal’s stomach. Once robbed of that ability they are ground up and excreted like so much waste.

 

Next up the Pyrantel Pamoate goes after the hookworms by blasting through their nervous systems. Once Pyrantel Pamoate effectively paralyses the hookworms, it’s a simple matter of waiting for peristalsis to pass them on to the other side, or to the outside in this case.

Finally, the clean-up hitter for Drontal Plus, febantel, finishes the job by whipping up on the whipworms. Febantel works similarly to the praziquantel in the way it’s metabolized, but then it eliminates the whipworms by blocking their energy processing power. Without the ability to metabolize their own energy the whipworms are forced to hit the bricks, or the grass, or the pine straw, or the litter box. Wherever your pet does its business.

Drontal Plus is a three punch combination that sends these intestinal parasites flying out the backdoor without delay. Dosage is determined by size, species, and the age of the pet. So pay attention to the package labeling and remember to check your pet consistently for symptoms of these parasites. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got cats with worms or worms in dogs, either way the wide variety of Drontal products will see you through to a healthier pet and a happier home.

Anyone that’s ever rented an apartment knows about the pet clause. There are breeds that many leasing offices won’t tolerate. These so called “dangerous dogs” are blacklisted and treated a little more like animals than usual. However, this overarching reactionary attitude begs the question: is this kind of puppy profiling helpful in preventing dog bites? Does an animal’s bad attitude spring from the womb, or is does theproblem lie elsewhere? Is the label, “dangerous breed” an arbitrary and inaccurate term?

German Shepherds, Doberman Pinchers, Pit Bulls, Rottweiler, Huskies, and Chow Chows have all at one time or another been lambasted as aggressive or dangerous dogs.  This is due to a study performed by the CDC that recorded dog-related deaths between 1979 and 1988. These animals were near the top of the list. But the list didn’t properly reflect the rare nature of dog attacks. Pit bulls were rated the most dangerous dog with 66 deaths. That’s less death in a decade than can be attributed to bee stings in a single year.

If certain breeds really are more vicious then why do so many people love and adore their particular dogs? Dogs that never show their teeth to anybody, not even the mailman. Luckily, insurance companies applied common sense to the situation and started keeping dangerous dog registries, rather than blanket dangerous breed labeling. Despite these advances in the battle against doggy discrimination there are still pockets of resistance against greater understanding of the complex relationship dynamics between people and canines.

The state of Ohio labels Pit bulls as dangerous dogs, and requires a whole slew of state ordinances for bull owners to abide by. Now to be fair to the legislature, Pit bulls have long been bred for aggression. A “game” pit bull is a particularly prized possession for certain seedier denizens of back alleys. Generations of this sort of breeding have taken place for the sole purpose of creating fighting dogs. Whereas thousands of years of domestication moved dogs toward docility and sociability, it’s only taken several generations to turn Pit bulls into some savage competitors.

 

Despite the terrible mistreatment many of these “dangerous dogs” must endure, they are still extremely amiable companions to a properly educated human. They’ve been trained and bred to fight other dogs, and usually don’t make for the best pets in homes with multiple animals or children, but to their adult owners they are fiercely loyal. It takes a strong hand and a cool head to handle one of these rescued fighters, but it just goes to show that no amount of mistreatment is as powerful as kindness.

With even the most terrible treatment, no dog is beyond salvage. This makes the pit bull its own greatest advocate. If a dog bred over several generations for fierce aggression and unbridled savagery can, within its own lifetime, become a loving companion, it proves that every animal needs to be dealt with on an individual basis. Even a dangerous dog can beat a bad rap through the simple application of love.

As you learned yesterday, cat history is a multifaceted and complicated subject. As far as science is concerned, the earliest sign of cat domestication began in ancient Greece with the advent of agricultural societies. Later in the history of the cat, ancient Egyptians began to worship them as gods, and for the first time in the history of the cat, felines got a taste of the royal treatment.

This history of the cat’s worship began as a totemic practice, (the worship of an animal as a spiritual symbol) but was later further organized with the cat holding a legitimate spot in the Egyptian pantheon. There were three cat goddesses of note: Mafdet, Bast, and Sehkmet. Mafdet was the goddess of Justice. Bast began as a lion goddess but eventually became more cat-like as her role was marginalized. She was the protective patron deity of Lower Egypt, as well as a handmaiden and protector of the sun god, Ra. Sehkmet also began as a lioness, but ended up becoming more cat-like over time. She replaced Bast as the protector of Ra and the pharaohs.

Around the year390 BC the main cult in ancient Egypt that worshiped cats was disbanded, and kitties began to lose their significance, although their influence never completely fizzled out. Because of their awesome hunting skills, cats have always been valued residents of whatever culture and time period they happen to inhabit. Cat history is filled with owners thankful to be pest-free.

 

The history of the cat isn’t limited to a single location though. They are valued companions all over the globe. During the Song Dynasty in China around a thousand years ago, cats were treated as the favored pets among nobility. They went so far as to advertise and sell fish exclusively for cat feeding in the ancient Chinese markets. In much of Europe and the United States, cats enjoyed a more infamous sort of notoriety. They became associated with witches as familiars and servants of the devil.

This superstition persists in culture even today, as people will always assume a black cat crossing their path is an ill omen. Myths even include stories of cats sadistically smothering infant children by stealing all of the air from their noses. The crazy thing about that one is it may actually be rooted in reality. Cats have been known to lie on top of infant children for warmth, in some cases suffocating the child. However, in the United Kingdom it is considered good luck for a black cat to enter a home or climb aboard a ship. It seems human beings are often as ambivalent toward cats as they are towards us.

It’s plain to see that cat history is a rich and varied subject of study. Throughout these two blog posts we’ve hardly scratched the surface of the multitudes of stories and folklore surrounding our favorite felines. One thing is for certain; whether it’s bad press or preferential treatment, our complicated relationship with these cats isn’t ending anytime soon.

Everyone knows that cats are great companions: aloof and precocious, as well as excellent hunters. However, not many people have as much knowledge on exactly how the common house cat achieved its position of influence and allure. The funny thing is the history of the cat and its relationship with humankind goes back so far, no one is really even sure of when it began. Cat history is an intriguing and diverting mystery with many questions unanswered, and plenty of fascinating recorded facts.

Most scientists agree that every variety of common housecat and many of their feral cousins came from just five different ancient wildcats. The earliest record of their domestication comes from the Greek isle of Cyprus. This evidence currently goes back as far as 12,000 years!  That’s 7500 BC for those of you keeping track.

What’s odd about that number is that it’s been pushed back several times. Every few years or so there is a new archeological finding of a fossilized cat small enough to be domesticated, and in close enough proximity to the remains of a human being as to start speculating on an even older starting point for the history of the cat’s domestication. With archeologists finding new large megalithic structures indicating that agricultural societies might have been around much longer than the current academic model assumes, it’s quite possible that the origin of domesticated cat history may get pushed back even further.

While it’s fascinating to speculate on the beginning of our complicated relationship with domestic cats, we don’t have to guess as to how it happened. The overwhelming g consensus on the subject is that initially domestic cats took root at about the same time humans settled into agrarian societies. As soon as people started farming, they started storing surplus crops. When crops had to be stored, rodents and vermin began to start swiping valuable grains. Cats started moving into the storehouses and picking of the especially plump ones. Over time, humans began to breed the ones that showed more docility.

 

From then on it was a rich and diverse history for domestic cats. They continued to interbreed with their feral counterparts, muddying up the bloodlines and making their exact origins difficult to pin down. This seems in keeping with their mysterious personalities, which ironically is probably why they were so endeared them to the human species.

Another better known chapter in the history of the cat is their connection to and deification within ancient Egypt. Domestic cats were revered to the point of worship. Ironically, the Egyptian word for cat was “Mao” a bit of a cognate for meow. It’s said that there was even a death penalty for killing a cat. Cats were considered sacred animals, in all probability because of their ability to keep down the rodent population as well as their proficiency at killing cobras. Not bad company to keep when your fields are being overrun by asps.

That’s it for today’s history lesson. Check back tomorrow for part 2 of The History of the Cat!
 

Here’s a common scenario: you’re at the supermarket in the dog food aisle. You’re looking at a bunch of different brightly colored bags, labeled with funny terminology you don’t quite understand. One reads, “All-Natural Puppy Food for Large Breeds” another says, “Holistic Lamb and Rice for Smaller Dogs.” Meanwhile, you’re left wondering which one offers the most nutrition for dogs. All of these bags seem virtually the same so you grab the one with the most recognizable name.

Sound familiar?

Keeping up with nutritional value is hard enough to do in your own diet; knowing the facts about nutrition for dogs means adding another mouth with significantly sharper teeth into the mix. That’s a sure recipe for confusion. All of these odd little labels and miniscule differences between largely identical name brands is enough to make anybody’s head spin. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information online to help you traverse the maze of mongrel mastication. Unfortunately, it’s still pretty complicated. So in the interest of brevity, here are some of the most important considerations when shopping for a nutritious dog food.

What Are Your Nutrient Needs?
When it comes to nutrition for dogs, you must first know what you’re looking for. It’s easy to forget because of their uniform geniality, but dogs are actually individuals. If you’re dog has joint problems, needs a shinier coat, is still growing, is elderly, has urinary tract problems, and so on—these are things you need to consider. Think of any nutrient needs or special attributes of your dog and take those into account before purchasing their food.

 

Holistic, Organic, and All Natural Shenanigans
The next thing to do is avoid the marketing schemes. Believe it or not, there is no law or regulation in place to keep greedy dog food makers from placing meaningless labels onto their products. The terms “Holistic” and “Organic” mean effectively nothing when stamped on the side of your favorite puppy chow. They are undefined and disingenuous. “All Natural” is kind of tricky too. It can mean that there aren’t any synthetic ingredients in the feed, but it can also mean there is only a small amount.

Look for Nutritional Value
Thirdly, read the ingredient list. A good indicator is if they have a meat, fish, egg, or some type of meat meal or fish meal as either the first or second ingredient. These are high quality foodstuffs that provide plenty of nutrition for dogs. There will also be a percentage of each ingredient listed. Check this an make sure that at least 10% of the dog’s daily diet, by weight, would be protein, and 5.5% would be fat.

Lastly, keep this quick list of helpful dog nutrition tips in mind:

• Wet food– more fat and protein than dry food. It therefore costs more, and requires less feeding per meal than dry food. Although it’s mostly water and not usually recommended by vets.
• Semi-wet food– will always contain a sugar preservative
• Dry food -will always contain starch
• Look for the AAFCO statement. This shows that the food is approved by a governing body.

 

Just about everyone is aware of how dangerous it is to feed a dog chocolate, but as it turns out there’s a plethora of dog poisons.  In fact poison and dogs are pretty close bedfellows. Here, compiled for your information and the public safety of canines everywhere, is a list of items okay for human consumption, but dangerously toxic for dogs.

First on the list is Caffeine. Caffeine is that helpful compound that keeps you from killing your fellow employees in the morning. However, in your panting pet partner, caffeine is all kinds of deadly. This means that giving a dog chocolate, coffee, many soft drinks, and a lot of different teas is off limits. The precise reason for caffeine’s status as a dog poison is methylxanthines.

Methylxanthines are molecules contained in caffeine that cause all sorts of caustic complications in your pets. If this particular dog poison enters your canine’s system then prepare to take a trip to the vet, or at least make a call to poison control. The effects of this molecule on animals include: vomiting, diarrhea, panting, major thirst, and abnormally frequent urination, hyperactivity, irregular heart rhythm, trembles, seizures and in the worst cases expiration.

Another dog poison that shouldn’t come as a surprise to the seasoned pet owner is alcohol. Alcohol isn’t exactly good for people, (though excessive consumption does occasionally have a well-known side effect of making you an awesome dancer) so it should come as no surprise that it is absolutely terrible for dogs. Also unsurprisingly, just as people are inexorably drawn to booze, dogs love it too.

 

The rest of the items on the list are a little less obvious. Raisons, grapes, yeast dough, avocados, chives, onion, garlic, milk, salt, raw meat, eggs, the sweetener xylitol, chicken bones, and macadamia nuts all have a serious impact on an unsuspecting canine that consumes them.  It’s a dog’s life, eh? That’s quite a number of allergies to keep up with. Best keep to dry food for the time being.  

Here’s a quick breakdown of some other dog poisons:

Avocados give you a healthy dose of monounsaturated fats, but give one to a dog and you’ll be dealing with leakage from both ends. Macadamia nuts are awesome in cookies, but are known to cause hyperthermia, weakness, depression, vomiting, and trembling in dogs. Grapes/raisons will cause kidney failure. Yeast dough will expand in a dog’s stomach and cause serious complications. Salmonella and E. coli can get to a dog just like a human, so avoid raw meat and eggs yolks. Chicken bones will splinter into shards and cut a pup up from the inside. Xylitol leads to liver failure due to insulin release. Onions, garlic, and chives will hurt red blood cells. Milk is terrible for digestion. And a ton of salt is just as poisonous to dogs as it is to human.

So remember to keep these foodstuffs safely out of reach from your dog, and tune in next time for more helpful pet tips!
 
 

Have you ever felt like your dog was more than just your faithful family companion? Did you ever get the feeling that the house hound was more like a kid than a big dumb drooling animal? Relax. You aren’t a crazy pet person. Well, maybe you are, but there is scientific data saying that it’s pretty normal to act that way. A fascinating and incredible fact you probably wouldn’t have expected to find out about dogs lies beneath the chemical makeup of the bond between man and his best friend.

It’s called Oxytocin. This crazy little chemical is responsible for the bond between parents and children, social awareness, and empathy. It’s released in the brain at birth and during the child’s maturation. It’s a handy evolutionary add on that helps human beings to feel affection for the annoying little rascals that show up suddenly to turn your nights sleepless, and make you change large quantities of overflowing diapers. A potent antithesis to post-partum depression.

And Guess what? The same chemical makeup that is responsible for a mother’s love  plays a big role in the feelings between you and your dog. Recent scientific studies performed by the fine Swedish scientists at Uppsalla University show that after only 10 minutes with an adorable little doggy there are sizable increases in the levels of oxytocin in both the brain of the human and the dog!

 

Similar findings in lab rats could indicate that oxytocin is actually responsible for all human/animal bonding. People have always known how therapeutic owning a dog or cat can be. Observable effects on pet owners throughout the years have included longer life, lower stress, and an overall  better level of health. However, now that science is finally catching up to common sense we can actually learn the chemistry behind our most powerful emotions.  That’s a handful of fascination that you might not have expected from ol’ Fido.

The implications of this study are pretty huge. Animal based therapies have been in place for a long while and have had some incredible results for the elderly and infirm especially. Now that we are attaining a better understanding of oxytocin and its role in our brain’s chemical makeup as well as our social interactions will only increase the effectiveness of such therapies.

Now that we’re catching on to the effectiveness of an oxytocin treatment it’s only a matter of time before it’s monetized and sold for millions. However, in the meantime there’s no oxytocin tablet available for sale. Which really kind of puts an even more positive spin on owning a dog. After all, you don’t need a prescription for a puppy, and they’re a lot cheaper than going to a high priced shrink to endeavor to eliminate your social anxieties and help you better bond with your fellow man. 

In the meantime, your doctor recommends you pet your puppy 40 times per minute for 5 minutes and call him in the morning.

Don’t you just love a fat cat? Aren’t you just smitten with kittens? When you get home from work, do you make a B-line for your feline?

All cutesy kitty poetry aside, cats are great companions who can provide hours of entertainment. Don’t you wish you could share in some more group activities? Maybe you should teach them some cat tricks. You must be thinking: “How do I train cats?” Well, you’ve read this far basically on the momentum of the poetry, but what if you found out that learning to train cats is easy?

While cat training is fairly easy, it can be frustrating as well. Cats are not dogs. They do not wait on your beck and call. Whereas a puppy might decide to play dead in order to get a smile and a word of affirmation, cat tricks will require a more substantial bribe. Finicky creatures that they are, you’ll have to choose your treats wisely. Tuna snacks are a popular choice, and there is no lack of cat treat recipes online.

So how to train cats? Well, it’s a simple process that takes time and repetition to complete. First thing’s first. You’ve got to get kitty to sit. Sitting is a foundation of all other cat tricks. It’s required to get your cat’s attention. The cat will need to be standing still to begin any sort of training. Since Kitty is more likely to do this in a sitting position rather than standing, it makes more sense to teach this cat trick first. Secondly, a lot of the other tricks must be performed from the sitting position.

To train cats to sit, utter the command and put light pressure on the cat’s rump. It may take time, but eventually the cat will either sit of its own volition or due to your prompting. Once that’s accomplished, immediately reward your cat with a tasty treat, a pat on the head, and exclaim in your sweetest tone of baby talk:” Good kitty!” You can also say “Good Sit!” Or “Hallelujah!” if your cat is particularly stubborn.

 

Whatever you like, really. It’s your cat, go nuts.

Once you’ve got sit down, (no pun intended) the other tricks come pretty naturally. After sit, learning how to train cats is a breeze. Begin with sitting, then just say the command while performing the following actions, and always reward with petting, treats, and kind words.

• You can have them shake by placing your hand behind their front leg and bumping a paw,
• You can hold out a hand palm upward for a “low five,”
• Hold it outstretched for a “high five,”
• Hold a treat above the cat’s head to have him “Sit Up,”
• And hold a treat at eye level to get the cat to “wave.”

Remember while learning how to train cats, you must be patient and consistent, and never expect Mr. Mittens to perform for laughs. Always have those treats ready, or prepare to face the wrath of kitty!

Need more help? Check out these helpful training videos!

Today’s showcase will be about Trifexis. This little known tablet is the preferred monthly preventative of veterinarians. Puppies coming in for their first checkup will usually be prescribed Trifexis as their very first chewable flea killer. However, there is much more to this vet favorite than just the wholesale slaughter of everyone’s least favorite bloodsucking insect.

Dogs taking Trifexis will have three things less to worry about than the average untreated pup. This powerful monthly treatment stays true to its name and fights off three different kinds of unwanted houseguests. That’s right, the holy trinity of dog terrorism: fleas, heartworms, and the intestinal worms whose names you’ve come to know and loathe. Fully matured hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms all tremble in fear at the sound of this drug’s name.

Ingredients for Success

These dangerous parasites haven’t got a prayer against the combined might of two powerful active ingredients in the makeup of Trifexis. If you’re old enough, you may have heard of spinosad, a powerful insect killer developed in the late nineties to protect agriculture without any adverse environmental effects. Now it’s doing the job inside your dog’s biochemistry with equal cautious care.
The other active ingredient, milbemycin oxime, is a drug produced exclusively for veterinary purposes. It’s the active ingredient inside of Interceptor, another pet preventative favored by proud puppy parents the world over. The drug is metabolized in the liver and acts mainly against the intestinal and heartworms, leaving the insecticidal work to the Spinosad.

 

Affecting Effectiveness

Together these two make a powerful super drug with a broad spectrum of efficacy. However, that scientific mumbo jumbo isn’t really all that important to the drug purchasing laymen. The average pet owner only cares about one thing. Does it work? Sure enough, this drug garners praise and subscriptions from various veterinary facilities for good reason.  The studies (page 3) conducted before the drug was approved by the American Food and Drug Administration showed a 100% effectiveness rating, when properly administered in the suggested intervals.

Doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it? A 100% effective treatment in stark black ink on white paper says that there isn’t much more you could do for your dog than keep him or her safe with this powerful monthly medication.  Your dog will appreciate the fact that it isn’t itching, but it’s more likely to show gratitude for the tablet itself. The tasty flavoring on the outer shell can pretty much assure a popular reception among the canine population.

Benefits:

• Convenient – easy to administer and happily received with a wagging tail.
• Effective—100% effective in the treatment of hookworm, roundworm, whipworm, heartworm, and fleas.
• Fast acting, and consistent—Begins killing parasites within 24 hours and keeps killing them for 30 days!
• Tasty—The Flavored spinosad will kill fleas while maintaining a flavor your dog will flip for.
• And virtually without side effects.

So don’t wait one more second. If your dog needs treatment, grab yourself some Trifexis today!

Tapeworms. What freaking nightmare. They’re tiny little worms that sit in small intestines and eat all the food before their hosts can draw nourishment. It’d be bad enough if they were only infecting your pets, but these dirty little parasites can make their homesteads in your bowels as well. It’s like something out of a horror movie. The marquis would read: “The Worms Within…” Underneath the title there would be a pale, sickly, multi-fanged abomination of nature exploding out of a cute co-ed’s stomach. Shudder in fear, good people. Shudder in fear.

These disgusting parasites are a commonly creepy problem for pets. Fortunately, the worms are more of an annoyance than a legitimate threat. Treatment is relatively painless, and it can be quite reasonable if you head to the right retailer. The problem with the worms is how easy they are to contract. The trouble with tapeworms is all about ingestion.

Flea larvae start out eating fecal matter that contains tapeworm eggs. The eggs mature in flea stomachs, the flea is ingested by a dog or cat and presto chango: your dog is scarping his butt across the carpet in supreme irritation.

Tapeworm Symptoms
You might notice that your pet is tapeworm ridden by some of the following signs:

 

• The aforementioned anal itching.
• Dried worm parts crusting around your pet’s sphincter.
• Moving worms in your dog/cat’s fecal matter.
• You could also check out a smear of poo under a microscope, but that seems a bit drastic for the average pet owner. Just look for the other signs and head to the computer to point and click your way to parasite destruction.

  Now how do you treat or prevent tapeworms? Glad you asked. There are many treatment options for tapeworms, and nearly all of them are instantaneous. That means a case of tapeworms isn’t much more than a disgusting inconvenience. Drontal dewormer works quickly, effectively, and definitively. Britain’s #1 dewormer has an awesome track record in taking out intestinal worms of all kinds, and tapeworms are no exception. One dose of Drontal will take out your pet’s parasitic problem in a day flat.

  Tapeworm Treatment
  Other quality dewormers include:

  If you’re thinking more about tapeworms prevention than treatment, you’ll want to stop them at the source. As you’ve already learned, tapeworms are spread through ingestion. If your dog or cat doesn’t have a flea to eat, then there’s very little chance that they can become infected. Make sure to keep them away from feces too. Cats shouldn’t have a problem in this area, but if you have a dog with a penchant for munching on waste… Well, keep a close eye out and nip that behavior in the bud. Remember to keep treating them with monthly worm and flea preventatives as well. The less invaders they have to deal with the better. After all, if they don’t get bit, then they won’t bite and scratch themselves, virtually eliminating the possibility of eating a parasite within a parasite. Avoiding Insect Inseption.

Having an aggressive kitty on your hands can be more than a handful. Cats are usually demure, aloof, and playful little critters, but a few hazardous pitfalls can really ruin their disposition. The fastidious feline nature of your average kitty cat gives them a fragile temperament that can become easily unbalanced. However, with the right motivation and correct information even the meanest of these half feral bad cats can be turned around with relative ease. The goal of this article is to educate you about the potential causes and easy methods to avert an overly aggressive cat.

An angry cat is always the direct result of some untoward stimulus in its environment. Being such sensitive animals their triggers are numerous. Anything from a messy home, loneliness, or even something as simple as an active play session can be factors. The key to figuring out your bad cat’s behavioral puzzle is paying attention to their actions, noting changes in their behavior, and always seeking proper authoritative answers when the trouble becomes serious.

The first stop after determining your cat to be overly aggressive is the Vet’s office. Discussing an aggressive cat with your vet can be informative at the least and powerfully productive in most other scenarios. If your bad cat is hurting or not feeling well, then that’s an obvious answer to their being moody. Keep good notes of any changes in your cat’s daily routines or any abnormal activities going on around it so that you’ll have no lack of information to share with your veterinarian. If there is an ailment related cause to your angry cat, then the vet will be the best, first, and only source you’ll need to consult.

 

Another common cause of angst amongst kitties is an abundance of testosterone. If you’ve got a Tom with an attitude, you should consider getting him fixed. Male cats are inherently more aggressive than females. They have all that tiger blood coursing through their veins making them territorial and unpredictable. Not unlike Charlie Sheen before an interview on 60 Minutes. However, having an angry cat is not a “winning” situation.

Or perhaps your place is a little overcrowded for your cuddly critter. If there is a lack of cat assets then you may have a berserker miniature lion mauling the toes of houseguests at every turn. Make sure that your cat has enough clean litter, food & water/food & water bowls, playthings, sitting spots, etc. Cats are used to being worshiped and pampered. Allow them to live luxuriously.

If all else fails, seek professional help. A bad cat is a big problem. Sometimes people forget that cats, despite being super cute and ultra-adorable, can be dangerous adversaries. Their claws are razor sharp and they are quick, vicious, and hard to catch besides. Look around your area for an animal behaviorist or some such other pet expert. That’s all the cat tips you get for now. Until next time be benevolent owners and vigilant parents to your favorite furry felines!

<–I prefer this kind of cat aggression.