Fireworks and Thunderstorm Phobias in Dogs

•Dogs Fear Of Thunder And Lightning
There are various environmental sounds that cause a dog to become afraid or frightened. It doesn't matter whether the animal is living in a crowded metropolitan city or a spacious rural town; the chance of inclement weather causing physical and/or mental distress is high. A dog's fears of noise and light are big concerns for pet owners, but there are ways to decrease your dog's fear of lightning and thunder. Dog owners worry that a dog will become frightened during a thunderstorm. This fear...

•Mixed Breed or Purebred Dog
Which is better? Mixed breed or purebred? It’s always a question that’s sure to start an argument. Both kinds of dogs have their devoted followers who are ready to jump in and defend their beloved companions. The truth is that both kinds of dogs make great pets. People who love mixed breed dogs will tell you that when you adopt a mixed breed dog you are saving a life. It’s true that an estimated 3.7 million animals are euthanized in shelters in the United States each year. Many people derive...

•Are Cats and Dogs Really Enemies
It’s one of those truisms that we tend to take for granted: cats and dogs fight like, well, cats and dogs. Everybody knows that cats and dogs don’t get along. Don’t they? Isn’t it true? Well, maybe not. New research is casting doubt on this age-old stereotype about two of our best friends. According to researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel, it’s perfectly possible for cats and dogs to get along in the same home. Researchers interviewed some 200 people who owned both cats and dogs for...

•Mutts Versus Purebreds
Both mixed breed dogs and purebreds have their fans but is one kind of dog actually better than the other? Is it possible to live with both kinds of dogs? What about the dogs? Do they know or care if they sport a pedigree or not? Ask a diehard fan of mixed breeds or shelter dogs and they will probably tell you that you can do a lot of good by adopting a dog from a shelter. These dogs are often unwanted and may be euthanized unless they are adopted by someone. Survey data suggests that, in...

•Dogs That Work For a Living
You probably already know that at one time dogs had to work for a living. From the time dogs first began to share their lives with humans they began proving that they were indispensable. Dogs helped humans on the hunt. They guarded their homes and livestock. They provided protection. They worked as pack animals. They even participated in religious ceremonies. That was thousands of years ago. Through the centuries dogs assumed more and more complex roles. It wasn’t enough to have one kind of...

•Caring For Dogs
Anybody who decides to buy a dog has a responsibility to look after it. A healthy, well looked after animal doesn’t need a huge amount of work. But as a dog owner, you need to be aware of your responsibilities, because quite simply, dogs can’t do it themselves. Think about how you care for yourself or the people who are close to you. You: • keep clean, • eat, • make sure your health needs are taken care of, and • if you get sick or have an accident, you make sure they get the assistance that...

•Feeding Dogs Bones
For decades, images of dogs happily chewing on bones have been promoted on television and in motion pictures. As a result, pet owners have been feeding their dogs both raw and cooked bones, thinking that they are providing a natural form of nutrition for their pets. In reality, they are compromising the dog's health and unintentionally risking the animal's life. The consumption of bones by dogs has resulted in vomiting, organ puncture, and cancer. Feeding dogs bones is not a good thing to...

•Chronic Barking
Whether it is your barking dog or someone else’s, a barking dog is aggravating. Little dogs have that yippy, yappy squealing voice that causes your ears to ring while the sheer volume of a big dog bark can almost take your breath away. Curtailing the amount a dog barks depends largely on why it is barking in the first place and what the breed is. Dogs that bark constantly are often bored and alleviating the boredom works wonders is cutting the amount of barking to a manageable amount. More...

•The Origin and Domestication of Dogs
Dogs have been on earth for millions of years, and according to prehistoric studies, were probably first domesticated between 10 000 and 15 000 years ago. Based on archaeological findings of bones and skeletons in prehistoric middens, it seems that the dog was first domesticated in the warmer parts of Europe and Asia. But ancient remains have been found as far away from the Continent as Australia. There are various theories about the origin of the dog. For example, some people say that the...

•What s the Truth About Dog Intelligence
Ask any dog owner which dog is smartest and he’s likely to tell you it’s his dog. That’s just the way dog lovers are. So you can imagine that when it comes to trying to make some objective observations about which dogs or breeds of dogs are most intelligent, it can be hard to find anyone who doesn’t have a dog in the fight, so to speak. Still, there have been some brave souls who have tried to measure dog intelligence. Dr. Stanley Coren wrote a very controversial book in the 1990s called The...