Better Quality Equals Less Mess

To get your dawg the healthiest he can be, consider feeding him a high quality natural dog food that is typically found at a specialty pet store.

Because these foods have less preservatives and fillers, your pet will excrete less waste. That makes clean-up quicker and easier. Your canine will enjoy a healthier, more nutritious diet and you have less mess to deal with!

To find out where your food rates, check these reviews out.

Here are some signs your dog is thriving on well-balanced, nutritious dog food:

1. A shiny coat and healthy skin If your dog has a dull, dry and brittle coat with flaking skin, diet could be to blame. Stress can also be a factor. Look for omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in dog food. Your pet needs these essential fats. Flaky skin could be a sign of a zinc deficiency, a problem with home-cooked diets. Consider adding a bit of wild salmon oil.

2. If your dawg poops more than twice a day, that’s an indication your dawgs food might not contain enough protein in forms it can use.

3. A resilient immune system Vitamin E and antioxidants will help your dog stave off illness, building its immune system. Research has found that a diet rich in antioxidants, such as beta-carotene, improves immune system responses. This is particularly important as your dog ages, since a dog’s ability to fight illnesses weakens as it grows older.

4. Calcium and vitamin D make for strong bones in your dawg, just as they do for you. Dawg owners who simply feed their dawg meat, rather than a well-balanced food, run the risk of their pet suffering soft bones, resulting in fractures, experts say. A well-balanced dawg food will include all such essential nutrients.

5. Your dog’s teeth should be strong and white, with healthy, pink gums covering the roots. If you notice a reddening of the gums, a buildup of tartar on the teeth or bad breath, it can indicate dental problems. Some dry foods and dog treats are designed to slow the progress of dental disease, so look for products that specifically mention dental care or tartar-fighting properties. You should be brushing daily or using a product that helps reduce tartar.

6. Great figures aren’t just for movie stars. Your dog should maintain good muscle tone. Obese dogs have lost the tucked up appearance just after the ribcage, when viewed from the side. You should be able to feel your dog’s ribs but not see them. If your dog is eating a lot but looks too thin, you’re probably not feeding a high-quality dog food.

7. A well-balanced, complete dog food will include protein, calcium, amino acids, fatty acids, potassium and sodium to promote heart health.

Start looking at that label.

Grooming Conditioning

It's important to condition your dawg to grooming. It can be as simple as sitting watching TV and brushing a section at a time. Make it a fun experience but don't let your dawg control the experience.

The first time you groom him you may have to hold him firmly in place and go one section at a time. Look in his ears, open his mouth, play around with his toes and tummy. Get him used to the experience.

Training: Why Bother?

Training Builds Confidence

If a dog is using growling, snapping or even biting the air or contact, your dawg most likely lacks confidence. He needs to be confident enough to know you can and will handle any unforeseen circumstances.

A dog that is trained is welcomed in many environments. This allows you greater freedom for both of you.

Education is key but instead of spending all your time fixing what is wrong, be sure to set your dawg up to achieve. It's simply not fair to correct a dawg unless he's learned what is right. Balance is key. In example do not leave food out on the table unless you are willing to train him to 'leave it.' The answer is to educate him in what you expect and reward, reward and reward when he does. Always try to end a training session with a positive that he can reach and leave something he didn't achieve till the next day to try it again.

If a dawg keeps doing something, it means he finds it rewarding in some way.

Don't make lessons harder till easier stages are mastered. It is usually easier to do training in steps.

Why train? Your dawg is what you put into it. You can have an amazing dawg. It just takes time and reinforcement and what you get with training is a well behaved dawg that everyone loves.

It's worth the effort...believe me!

Building Trust

If you want your dawg to behave appropriately, you must define what is appropriate not your dawg.

That sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo but it isn't.

Think of it this way. You like your dawg to jump up on you. Then suddenly you put a dress on with nylons and that cutie pie jumps on you and rips your nylons. It's your last pair of nylons and you have an important interview.

Suddenly it's not so cute any longer.

To be fair, your dawg can't distinguish between your grungy pants and your nylons. You are still you and you allowed it YESTERDAY.

You need to teach your dawg to jump up on invitation not when he decides to. This way when Aunt Myrtle comes over and she isn't crazy about dawgs, yours will act appropriately.

Rules, Boundaries and Limitations...

Be consistent always. Protect your dawg from unsafe situations. Do not coddle or you will reinforce their fears. But instead be there to redirect. Build his confidence from slow conditioning. It works..really!

Give him the tools to help him deal with the world. You will be glad you did!
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We are filling you in with tips daily till we have puppy news with preggie dawgs and then we will go back to making this the maternity area of information.

No is Not a Four Letter Word

Saying no can be the most loving word we can say at times. It doesn't seem that way but it is. It's our responsibility to keep our dawg safe from harm.

When a puppy or an adult dawg does something that he shouldn't do, it's up to us to build a positive relationship filled with trust and teach them right from wrong. That includes teaching them not to chew things they shouldn't, stealing food, using your house as a toilet and much more.

Our dawgs are what we make of them but of course they each have their very own unique personalities that do play a part in the mix.

Some dawgs are step over the line dawgs and others are eager to please every chance they get. As humans, each of us like different types of dawgs due to lifestyles and our own personalities but even with that in mind, the dawgs still need rules and boundaries and consistency.

How do you get 'no' across in a positive way? When you say firmly 'no' and interrupt a behavior, he'll learn to associate the word 'no' with stop and look to you for direction. You can then use affection or a treat as a reward.

Even the most spirited dawg should never be man handled. What you will get in return is a fearful dawg. Fearful dawgs either use flight or bite to deal with fear or worse. Neither is what you want to achieve. What you want is a positive relationship where your dawg looks forward to doing what you want and living by your rules. Once he realizes that by doing so there are many rewards then the rest of the training gets easier.

Sure we all get frustrated but as someone who has seen way too many dawgs that are fearful, positive training is always the way to go.

More tomorrow.>>

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