Article on choosing a dog

What to Consider When Picking a New Dog When You Have Children

Dogs are great and often become our “children” for those of us who don’t have kids or whose kids have already grown up and moved out of the house. But when you have small children at home, you have to seriously consider the type of dog that you bring home because not all dogs get along with all children. However unintentional it may be, dogs can hurt children and children can hurt dogs, so it’s a good idea to look at the breed of dog and the age of your child before bringing home a new pet. The main thing that dogs and small kids have in common is that they are each unpredictable.

Even small dogs can have bad temperaments. Sometimes certain breeds are more nervous by nature and don’t handle the teasing or roughhousing that children can bring. The following breeds of dogs are not recommended if you have young kids (under age 12) in your household: Yorkshire terrier, schnauzer, chow, pekingese, lhasa apso, akita, afghan hound, shih tzu, and basenji.

Some dogs are naturally bred to be herders and work well with children under 12 because they herd the children and enjoy the interaction with them. You just have to be careful that you don’t choose a herding dog whose instinct while herding is to nip. Terriers are the most common herding breed. Among those dog breeds recommended for children under 12 are the Australian terrier, welsh terrier, collie, golden retriever and irish terrier.

With children above age 12, most breeds work well with them and are well suited as household pets. They are loving and protective companions while still being playful enough to want to interact with your kids. These breeds include nearly all retrievers and herding dogs, Dalmatians, English cocker spaniels, border collies, and pembroke welsh corgis.

If you have children under six in the household, you should avoid large dogs that have a history of being aggressive such as rottweilers, pit bulls, and german shepherds. Even if they don’t bite your children, they are large, high-energy dogs that could knock your children over, potentially hurting them.

Dogs bite children (and adults) out of either fear or aggression. Young children haven’t yet learned boundaries or consequences and often pull on a dog’s tail or hit a dog too hard, causing the pet to respond inappropriately. To solve this problem, you should teach your children about their behavior around the dog and train the dog to understand that you won’t tolerate aggression against the child.

Now we’re going to focus on some specific problems that arise between dogs and children and how to resolve them:

• If your dog begs from the table or steals your child’s food, simply keep the dog out of the kitchen during dinner and keep an area just for him with treats and his own food.

• If your dog jumps up on the kids, teach the kids to raise their knees and jump their hip toward the dog when he jumps. Next, train your dog to not jump on anyone – adult or child.

• If the dog knocks your child down, separate the dog from the child before he jumps if you see that he’s getting excitable. Teach your child to calmly command the dog to “sit” when he starts to lunge toward him.

It’s just a general good rule not to leave your small children along with the family pet. Even the cutest most wonderful dog in the world can have a bad day if provoked. Dogs and children can form special long-lasting relationships if each understands his role and the behaviors that need to be exhibited around the other.

rticle provided by Nick Johnson of www.pet-super-store.com: Find great deals onElevated Dog Feeders and Dog Beds

BOX TRICK

THIS IS JAZZ.

SEE JAZZ SLEEP.

SEE JAZZ PLAY.

SEE JAZZ BE BORED TO TEARS!.

JAZZ GETS A NEW BOX TO PLAY WITH.

JAZZ LOVES BOXES!

THIS BOX GETS JAZZ!

JAZZ KILLS THE BOX!

THE END

An unpleasant visitor but quite amusing!

Cindy has agreed to let me place her email story here in hopes of helping someone else who might have a simular experience. Lexi is a tri collie, daughter of Winston and Susie. Sasha is a blue merle, daughter of Pearl and Winston. I cannot help myself, I find it funny and I've read it again to see why.

Hi Gerry;

I’m sure your month of December is very busy and exciting for you. I just wanted to give you a quick update as to our latest adventure. This past Saturday night, we came home rather late after working at a Christmas tour at my parent’s house.

We came home, let Lexi and Sasha outside one last time before we called it a night. Well, we had a visitor on our patio that we were unaware of. Let’s just say I can tell you the recipe for removing skunk from collies. You probably already know this but we found out first hand!! In case you haven’t run across this, for each collie you need a quart (yes Quart!) of peroxide, ¼ cup of baking soda and a teaspoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid. Mix well, and rub all over coat. Then you bathe them as normal. I called the Critical Care Animal Hospital in Collinsville around midnight and that is what they recommend. It worked but what an ordeal. Poor Don had to run to every convenience store in town to come up with quarts of peroxide. I think he cleared every shelf! By the end of the night, you couldn’t buy a bottle of peroxide in New Baden on a bet!

It’s funny now but when all this was going on, I thought I was going to croak! To boot, they chased it to the side of the house where the furnace intake is located so for the rest of the night, every time the furnace kicked on, guess what we smelled??? Finally, Sunday morning I told Don to go uptown and get some Fabreeze and we sprayed it on a new furnace filter and then things started to get better. What a mess!!

Thought I’d share this story just in case you have someone who runs across this and wants to know what to do.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Holiday Season!! Good Luck to Jamie and all of your soon to be additions!!

Sincerely,

Cindy and the Stinkers!!

My Girl Susie having a good day.

An Update from Helen in MA, owner of Sadie

Hi Gerry,
I cannot believe that our girl is almost 1 ! I wanted to take a moment to tell you all about her. Sadie is the most happy ,confident collie I have ever seen. She lives large and loves life. She is of the opinion that everyone will adore her and she is right.

She loves every other dog big or small. She adores birds and will stop in her tracks to watch them fly. She nibbles first and gives kisses later and talks nonstop. Also she is very athletic and jumps off the ground to catch the frisbee/ all legs in the air. She jogs beside me yet when Mark tries to jog with her she jumps on him to play :)

She did have a bout with Lyme disease back in January. Every dog around here gets it. It is frustrating because we do the tick prevention , she is brushed daily and checked constantly and professionally groomed on an every 3 month schedule...ticks serve no purpose and we are loaded with them here ugh!!!

Sadie loves the water cooler and will often go over to it and try to drink from it because she knows the water comes from there. She is 58lbs and tall ...the vet is very pleased with her and she loves to run run run and play with Oreo. She snuggles like a puppy and she will lie on her back for rubs which is her favorite...she also puts her arms around your neck when you pet her belly.

She is very different from our late Sandy yet also reminds us of Sandy in her love and sweetness...she is a more confident girl for sure and that makes me happy. She is a bit of a houligan and definitely has her own agenda at times , so we have to really work with her which is fine because it is one of our favorite things to do.

We are forever grateful that we were able to have her . She gets all excited when I look at her and say out of the blue , " Oh my Sadie Girl...you are pretty!" She goes nuts for it. I will send some pics when time allows because I'd love to see her on the page as the pups turn 1 .

I am sooooo relieved that Renee's Sadie is ok..scary. Also ,I cried when I saw that one of the new pups is named Sandy....it really is a great collie name, sometimes I still can't believe my Sandy is gone. But then there's my girl Sadie ....my showgirl (she is a big fan favorite at the dogpark:):)

Take care Gerry! Helen B:)

An Important email from Renee

Dear Gerry, I wanted to share with you and everyone I know, just how important the Heimlich Maneuver is to know. I thought I had puppy proofed our home quite well, yesterday I had the scare of my life. My love Sadie, got into trouble that almost cost us and her the worse moment anyone can imagine. She was found on the floor under our floor vent, a suction cup, well needless to say she had it in her mouth, and it got caught in her throat. She almost choked to death. But Thank God ,I had watched emergency rescue for dogs and cats on Animal Planet, and saw the Heimlich Maneuver. I suddenly started doing it on her, out came the suction cup, with little time to spare. I nearly had a stroke, but she is fine. I also dumped a teaspoon of salt down her throat which made her vomit within seconds. Please share this with all you know. Needless to say I have gone through my house with a fine toothed comb looking for anything else that could become a problem. For the rest of the day she would not leave my side, we are sole mates her and I. I felt so guilty all day and spent most of the rest of the crying and thanking God for answering my prayers just in time. Fondly Renee

Ear Tipping by Shasta:

Tipping the ears. Why bother.
Well it’s required for conformation competition but besides that, tipped ears add character and expression to an already beautiful collie, like me. Some collies have the genes for naturally tipped ears but most us do not. We need a little help from you the owner but only until the end of our teething stage.
There are several options for training our ears and each one has its benefit. The options which require the most work are geared for hard core competitors. These methods involve bracing the ears together and gluing most of the ear closed. We collies can’t stand these methods. The collies that say they like it are all lying. The options we collies like better are those which add weight to the tip of the ear thereby forcing it to flop over. While you don’t get full control of how our ears are going to tip, you can get pretty darn close.
The easiest option as suggested by another Goldleaf collie owner is to add a bit of floral clay to the tip of each ear. Simply tear off a small amount of clay, roll it into a ball, and flatten it like a pancake on the tip of each ear. Eventually the clay will fall off and you will need to repeat the application. Floral clay is available in rolls at craft stores like Michaels. You can also purchase it online.
For those who get tired of constantly reapplying the clay, you can add weeks between applications with a modification to the above steps. This method requires a roll of floral clay, moleskin, Osto-Bond, Uni-Solv and AloeCetic. The glue, solvent and antiseptic products are available online through Revival Animal Health at http://www.revivalanimal.com/.
1. Cut two round quarter size pieces of moleskin. 2. Assuming the roll of floral clay is half an inch wide, tear off an inch and roll it into a ball. 3. Sandwich the ball like a pancake between the two pieces of moleskin with the smooth end showing on one side and the sticky end on the other. You will have to peal off the moleskin’s protective paper for one of the inside pieces before putting the parts together. 4. Peal off the remaining protective paper, add a small amount of Osto-Bond to the sticky side and attach it to the tip of the ear. Hold it for about 30 seconds while keeping your collie busy with special treats. 5. Repeat the process for the other ear.

Between applications, use Uni-solv to remove the residual glue left on the ear. Follow up with AloeCetic to clean the entire ear. Wait one day between applications and then check the ear for infections such as red irritated skin. If the ears are in good shape, repeat the ear tipping application. If not, wait until the condition clears. Please note that since our ears are being tipped, there is a greater likely hood of infection inside the ear. Using an ear cleaner is not only highly recommended but a good practice for ongoing general hygiene.

Happy Ear Tipping From Shasta, Mountain Shadow