Fear of Nail Cutting

Swimming, particularly in warm water, can help your dog relax and also drain her energy. If you have a small dog, you don’t even need a pool. You can use a small tub of water. Simply hold the dog by the sides and let her paddle. If your dog is uncertain about the water, start by holding her on an incline, just let her bottom half touch the water. Wait until your dog begins to paddle with his front legs, and then you can slowly lower her front half into the water. If the dog begins to splash around and panic, calmly return the dog to the inclined position again – with the back half of the dog touching the water. Then once the dog relaxes and begins paddling with the front legs again, send her back in! Continue this until she becomes comfortable with the water.

Once your dog has reached the lowest level of energy, begin by holding a paw and presenting the nail clipper to it without cutting anything. Then send her right back into the water to drain even more energy. At the same time, you are softening her nails, so they will actually be easier to trim. Then, after another round of swimming, you present the nail clippers again. This time cut a little bit, just to let her experience it and see her reaction. If she panics, send her right back in for more water therapy, but if the dog remains calm, do the whole foot – and then send her back into the water! This way, you’re not giving the dog time to focus on the nail clipping, instead she is focusing on the water. We are exchanging one challenge for another! Your dog can learn to associate the nail trimmings with the time in between swims that she gets to relax and collect herself.

Keep repeating this process – allow your dog to swim, trim the nails, and put her right back in – until you’ve trimmed all four paws.

I encourage you to visualize the scenario going well before attempting it. Don’t panic or feel sorry if your dog is stressed. Instead, make your dog feel safe by maintaining the calm and assertive energy of a pack leader.

House Plants That Are Toxic to Dogs

House plants that add natural fragrance and color to the home may pose a health risk to the family pet. Before adding new greenery to your home, check the plant’s label for toxicity warnings. If your pet accidentally ingests leaves, stems or flowering portions of a house plant, contact a veterinarian promptly for assistance

Common House Plants

• Although the blooms of azaleas and rhododendrons add color to your decor, keep these potted favorites outside and away from your dog’s play areas. If a pet eats just a few leaves of these plants, it may experience heart failure, paralysis, shock, diarrhea, drooling or a coma. Other flowering plants that contain cardenolides also will poison a dog. Flowering plants to avoid include fresh-cut bouquets of lily of the valley, milkweed or decorative cuttings from burning bushes. Dogs also should avoid aloe vera, mums and daffodils.

Indoor Herbs

• Take at peek at your kitchen window sills. Those miniature pots of fresh herbs may spice up your cooking but also can make your dog sick. Growing herbs that contain N-propyl disulfide can make a dog anemic, cause cardiac arrhythmia or upset digestion, according to VetInfo. Onion-flavored plants, including chives, shallots, green onions or leeks, contain N-propyl disulfide.

Holiday House Plants

• When guests gather in your home for the holidays, avoid enhancing the decor with live plants. If a red, blushing poinsettia or bunch of mistletoe completes your winter holiday decor, put them high out of the family dog’s reach. Mistletoe can upset digestion and cause heart trouble, among other symptoms. Poinsettias produce sap that can upset stomachs and blister mouths. The Humane Society of the United States warns against displaying both of these toxic plants inside. Evergreen tree needles can cause stomach and mouth lacerations, notes Pet Education. An artificial Christmas tree, wreaths and centerpieces reduce the risk of a holiday spoiled by an emergency vet visit. Other seasonal favorites that make dogs ill include cuttings of bittersweet, holly berries or the winter-blooming amaryllis.

This is for all my favorite dog owners!!!!

HOW TO PROPERLY TRIM YOUR DOGS NAILS

 

Unless your dog runs around on hard surfaces that help keep toenails short, you have to clip them about once a week — if you hear them clicking on a hard surface, it’s time for a trim.

Most dogs detest having their feet handled, so clipping may never be your favorite shared activity, but getting your dog used to this ritual at an early stage helps you both weather the process. Try giving your dog a yummy treat after the trimming session, along with a big hug, a boisterous “Good dog!” and a healthy scratch behind the ears.

Before attempting a trim yourself, ask your veterinarian or a groomer to show you how to trim your pup’s toenails them to the right length.

A dog’s toenail is made up of the nail itself and the quick, the pink (when it’s visible) part of your dog’s toenails that provides the blood supply to the nail. Avoid cutting into the quick because it bleeds quite a bit and it’s quite sensitive.

 

The quick is the dark part inside the nail — the blood supply to avoid!

If you can’t do all your dog’s nails at once, never fear — you can clip them one paw at a time, with other activities or a resting period in between.

To trim your dog’s nails:

1. Hold the foot steady, but hold it gently.
2. Snip off a small bit of the end of each toenail.Using either the guillotine or scissors-type clippers, place a tiny bit of the nail in the nail clipper and snip.If the nail feels spongy while you’re trying to cut it, stop immediately — you’re cutting the quick!
3. Stop any bleeding immediately.If you cut the quick (often called quicking), you’ll have an unhappy dog and a bloody mess. The quick bleeds a great deal, so if you cut it, you need either a nail cauterizer — a tool that stops the bleeding by applying heat — or styptic powder you can apply with a cotton swab. Have a damp washcloth at hand ready to clean up styptic powder and blood as necessary.Quicking hurts a lot, and most dogs remember the experience long afterward.

Don’t forget the dewclaws if your dog has them. They tend to grow long because they don’t normally touch the ground and if you fail to cut them, they will eventually grow back into your dog’s foot, which is quite painful.

If you use a nail grinder rather than clippers, use the same method — hold your dog’s foot, turn on the grinder, and grind a little off each nail.

PUPPY PROOFING YOUR HOME

Well its that time of year again, SPRING! Many of you are thinking about getting a new puppy or you may have already picked one up, here are a few thing I think you need to know about keeping your new addition safe. Consider this your spring cleaning! Here is a website that I found very helpful for all the new puppy and dog owners.

Puppies are especially vulnerable because of their natural curiosity, lack of training and experience, small size, and still-developing bodies. Before you bring a puppy — or a dog, for that matter — home, look around your house and grounds with an eye for potential dangers: plants, pills, and poisons are the most typical. Make sure they’re put away securely — well out of your dog’s reach — and always put back where they were. A good place to start dog-proofing is with houseplants and yard plants. Many common plants are poisonousto dogs. To protect your pooch, you can remove poisonous plants from the premises, move them out of reach (in a hanging basket, for instance), put them behind a dog-proof barrier, or supervise the dog closely when he’s around them. Here are some more dog-safety tips.

 

Poisonous Plants

We’ve already talked about how much dogs enjoy eating plants and grass. If you have a green thumb, you probably have lots of ornamental plants in and around the house. Since you grow them for show and never try to eat them, you might never have thought about whether they were poisonous. The leaves and stems of some plants contain substances that can be irritating and even toxic to the pet who chews on them. Common houseplants that can be harmful if swallowed include: dieffenbachia (or dumb cane), philodendron,caladium, and elephant’s ear. Many yard plants such as flowers, shrubs, and trees are also dangerous to dogs.

The bulbs of flowers such as amaryllis, daffodils, jonquils, narcissus, hyacinth, and iris are poisonous, as are azaleas, holly berries, hydrangea, ligustrum, privet hedges, oleander, English ivy, jasmine, and wisteria. Of course, mushrooms and toadstools growing in the yard may be deadly. If your dog is the curious type, be extra careful about the kind of plants you keep around.

 

Other Dangers

Next, search the house for pills or poisons that might be accessible to a puppy. Household staples such asaspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol and similar products), ibuprofen (Advil and similar products), cold or cough medications, diet pills, even chocolate and macadamia nuts can make your dog very sick or even kill him. Some household poisons are more obvious — snail bait, ant and rodent poisons, insecticides, and herbicides. Others — most notably cleansers and solvents — may not seem to pose a hazard but are attractive to dogs and extremely dangerous. There’s still an annual death toll among dogs from antifreeze poisoning. The sweet odor and taste make puddles of spilled or discarded antifreeze a deadly temptation for animals.

The chocoholics among us would never think of the rich, dark stuff of our magnificent obsession to be anything but food of the gods. But the fact is, chocolate contains two compounds toxic to dogs: theobromine and caffeine. Baker’s chocolate is among the purest — it hasn’t been sweetened with sugar or mixed with other ingredients — and therefore the most dangerous. Just three ounces of baker’s chocolate can kill a 20-pound dog. Although milk chocolate is less toxic by virtue of added ingredients, it’s actually more dangerous because the milk and sugar make it more palatable.

The bitter taste of baker’s chocolate — or even semi-sweet chocolate — may discourage a dog from eating a fatal dose. You’ve heard the saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’ll get.” Well, when a pooch bites into a box of chocolates, you know just exactly what he’ll get: sick as a dog. Signs of chocolate poisoning include rapid heartbeat, muscle tremors, vomiting, and seizures. Without treatment, the dog can lapse into a coma and die. So keep anything chocolate out of paw’s reach, especially at popular chocolate gift-giving times like Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Hanukkah, or Christmas.

Who would think those yummy Macadamia nuts would be poisonous to some dogs, but they can be. Although somewhat rare, it can happen. As with chocolate, the degree of toxicity varies with the amount of nuts ingested. Common symptoms include weakness, depression, vomiting, staggering, tremors, and fever. Most symptoms occur less than 12 hours after ingestion. Call your vet immediately if you see your dog eating macadamia nuts or if you suspect he has eaten them.

While most dog owners can understand why any living creature, dog or human, would be attracted to chocolate, many make the tragic mistake of assuming their dogs won’t be attracted to potentially dangerous substances that don’t seem to be edible. Because dogs don’t have hands, they use their mouths to investigate new things. The safest course of action is to put anything that isn’t dog food or a dog toy safely out of reach. Poisons — including household cleaners, bleach, and the like — are best kept on high shelves or in cabinets secured with child safety locks.

Post your veterinarian’s number by the phone, and keep a good pet first-aid book on hand — one that includes a comprehensive list of common poisons and what to do if your dog swallows them. If you know what the dog ate, take the container with you to the veterinarian. If your puppy is vomiting but you don’t know what he ate, take a sample of the vomit to help the veterinarian make a diagnosis.