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What You Need To Know About Dog Food Allergies

by Wayne Booth on September 20, 2011

We all know that people develop allergies to food, but did you know that dogs also develop food allergies? Your dog can be just as likely to develop a harmful food allergy as a person, if their body decides that there’s something in the food that isn’t good for them.

The question is, how can you tell if your dog has a food allergy? And, if he does have a food allergy, is there anything you can do about it? After all, your dog can’t tell you he’s allergic to something. He can’t say, “I think this food is making me itchy.” That’s why it’s up to you to pay attention to the way your dog acts and make any needed changes to your dog’s food.

Recognizing Food Allergies

Food allergies are the third most common form of allergies in dogs, behind flea bite allergies and inhalant allergies. Experts estimate that about 10 percent of the allergies seen in dogs are food-related. Food allergies are believed to account for about 20 percent of the skin problems in dogs that result in itching in scratching.

Food allergies can start at any time in your dog’s life after your dog is about five months old. They can even start as late as when your dog is 12 years old. There doesn’t seem to be any connection to particular breeds, genders, or even a dog’s medical history. Food allergies can occur in just about any dog. However, if a dog does have a food allergy, he may also have other kinds of allergies, too.

Just to be clear, there is a difference between a food allergy and intolerance. A dog can be intolerant of a food and he may have diarrhea and vomiting. Allergies, however, usually affect the skin and cause itching and redness. Both intolerances and allergies are usually treated in similar ways, but intolerances can be more dangerous for your dog.

Common Foods

Dogs can become allergic to just about any kind of food but in the case of food allergies they usually become allergic to the foods that they eat most often. These are usually common foods such as beef, chicken, fish, and lamb — foods that are found in most dog foods. They can also become allergic to dairy products, chicken eggs, wheat, corn, and soy, which are also found in dog foods.

In most cases, dogs won’t be allergic to foods they haven’t eaten before. They haven’t come in contact with these foods. A dog usually has to be exposed to a food, and its proteins, a certain number of times before they start to become allergic to it. This is how people start to develop allergies to foods when they’re children.

Allergy Symptoms

Allergy symptoms usually include itching skin around the dog’s face, paws, legs, ears, and anus. Dogs also frequently experience repeated ear infections, lose their hair, have hot spots, and may have lesions that become infected and keep coming back after any antibiotics are gone.

Although these symptoms may sound specific, it can be difficult to diagnose a food allergy. The symptoms are very similar to the symptoms for an allergic reaction to flea bites or an inhalant allergy, as when a dog inhales pollen. One sign of a food allergy that does not usually occur with the other kinds of allergies, however, is a yeast infection in the dog’s ears. This is a frequent sign of a food allergy, along with extreme skin problems and symptoms that last all year long.

Dealing With A Food Allergy

You can help your dog with a food allergy by using a food trial test. These trials are a long process that involve removing outside sources of food from what you feed your dog. You’ll need to take away all treats, rawhides, flavored medications, toothpastes, and food.

Once you have removed these outside sources from your dog’s diet, you can put your dog on a diet prescribed by your vet that features one strong protein. Feed your dog this diet for 12 weeks. Then you can start reintroducing your dog’s usual diet. If your dog starts showing symptoms again you can start to find out which food in their diet is causing the symptoms.

This method is a great help in determining which foods are causing your dog’s symptoms. Your dog can’t tell you that he doesn’t feel well. You can use blood tests to isolate certain antibodies causing your dog’s allergies but this method is not as accurate as using a food trial.

If you think that your dog may have food allergies, see your veterinarian right away to talk about food allergies and your dog’s health.

About the Author: Wayne Booth is owner of Canine Behavior Specialists in Nashville, TN. Wayne has been teaching people how to become Professional Dog Trainers since 1990 and he is the Training Director of Canine Behavior Specialists Network, www.K9-University.com

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Teaching Your Dog To Play Fetch

by Wayne Booth on September 14, 2011

One of the neatest tricks you can teach your dog is to fetch a toy or ball and drop it at your feet. This is a great way to give your dog some exercise without becoming completely worn out yourself. Plus, it gives your dog a chance to let out a bit of excess energy.

You will need to train your dog carefully so he understands not just the fetching behavior but also that he’s supposed to drop the item on command. Here are a few tips to help you get started. Then you can move on to some fun games that will help be stimulating for your dog’s mind.

Tell us about your experiences with teaching your dog to fetch in the comments section below.

*Fetch is not the same as Keep Away: From reading this you might get the idea that your dog already knows how to fetch but that’s not the case. Some dogs chase after a ball, bring it back to you, and then they try to keep it for themselves. That is not fetch. That’s keep away and most dogs can already do that. That’s not what you’re aiming for.

Unhappily, that’s a behavior that can be very frustrating. It can cut short your play sessions with your dog and lead to a lot of chewed up tennis balls. Before you do anything else you need to teach your dog to “drop it.”

*Drop It: There are a couple of options when you teach your dog to “drop it.” You can teach your dog to drop it by using a treat or a toy for a reward. You’ll need one of your dog’s favorite toys and some time to work with your dog.

To teach “drop it” you should wait for your dog to pick up his favorite toy and then ask him to drop it. Give your dog the command to drop the toy. When your dog does drop the toy, give your dog a reward. It may take some time for this to work because your dog may not make the connections between the two actions immediately.

You can also teach your dog to “drop it” by having two tennis balls and sort of tricking him into dropping one. Throw the first tennis ball and send your dog to retrieve it. Most dogs are already good at this part of the game.

If your dog won’t drop the tennis ball when he comes back to you, pull out the second tennis ball and start ignoring your dog. Play with the second tennis ball and act like you’re having a great time. It usually only takes a few seconds to get your dog’s attention. As soon as your dog is paying attention, throw the second ball and send them to fetch it.

Very quickly your dog will start to realize that when you say “drop it” you’re going to throw another tennis ball. It won’t be long before you’ll be able to use the same ball each time.

*Don’t Bore Your Dog: Some dogs love to play fetch so much that they can play for hours and never get bored. Other dogs can retrieve the ball three or four times and they’re ready to take a nap. You’ll need to try to figure out how soon your dog gets bored with playing fetch and stop playing before your dog decides he wants to stop.

If you can always manage to end the game while your dog is still interested in play, you’ll keep your dog interested in playing fetch the next time you pull out the tennis ball. That will make the game a lot more fun for both of you.

*Keeping Control: More than anything else, you need to make sure that you stay in control of the game. If your dog refuses to drop the ball, don’t spend time trying to take it away form him. Just wait until your dog drops the ball. Don’t let your dog feel like he can control the situation or decide what will happen in the game.

Fetch is a great game that is lots of fun for both you and your dog. If you take just a small amount of time to teach your dog to “drop it” and then confirm your commands each time you throw the ball, you’ll both have a lot of fun when you go outside to play.

Until next time…..

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Foods Your Dog Should NEVER Eat

by Wayne Booth on September 6, 2011

While dogs may be famous for eating a lot of naughty things, there are plenty of things that your dog should never eat. For example, most people know that they should never give a dog chocolate or allow them to go through the garbage can. In fact, there are a lot of foods that can be very bad for your dog and lead to serious health problems, illness, or even cause death if your dog ingests them.

Fortunately, some foods won’t appeal to your dog, which is a kind of natural protection from things that could poison him. However, there are some dogs that seem to lack this instinct or they may eat things anyway, without caring if the food appeals to them. With some foods, such as chocolate, it may seem like the more you try to keep it away from your dog, the harder they will try to get the food.

The Do Not Eat List

With a view to all of the table scraps and processed foods you probably have in your kitchen, here is a list of the foods that you should not feed your dog:

Alcohol - Even small amounts alcohol can cause organ damage and may lead to possible coma or death.

Baby Food - Baby food often contains both garlic and onion powder, causing dangerous results.

Bones - Cooked bones can chip or splinter when swallowed and lead to obstructions, cuts, and intestinal blockages.

Cat Food - Cat food is much richer and fattier than most dog foods and is too high in protein for dogs to properly digest.

Chocolate and Caffeine - The active ingredients in chocolate and caffeine — caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline — are all toxic to dogs. They can cause heart or nervous system failure even in small amounts. The darker the chocolate, the more dangerous for your dog.

Citrus Oil Extracts - May cause your dog to vomit.

Fat Trimmings - May cause pancreatitis.

Grapes or Raisins - Contain a toxin that has not yet been fully identified that can cause kidney damage.

Hops - May cause increased heart rate, panting, fever, and seizures. In some cases it may even cause death.

Liver - Too much liver can cause vitamin A toxicity, affecting the dog’s bones and muscles.

Macadamia Nuts - May affect the dog’s digestive system, the muscles, and the nervous system.

Molds - Molds may be toxic and can cause diarrhea and vomiting. Ingesting molds can cause organ damage.

Mushrooms - Some mushrooms are toxic, and can cause nervous system failure, shock, and even death in severe cases.

Onions and Garlic - Onions and garlic contain sulfoxides and disulfides that can cause anemia and blood damage in both cats and dogs.

Peaches and Plums - Peaches and plums contains pits which can be dangerous to your dog. The fruit is not harmful but the pits are. The same is true with other pitted fruits.

Persimmons - The seeds of the persimmon can cause intestinal blockage and enteritis.

Potato, Rhubarb and Tomato Leaves - These plants contain oxalates and ingesting them can lead to numerous digestive and urinary problems.

Raw Eggs - Raw eggs contain the avidin enzyme. Eating this enzyme can reduce biotin absorption and lead to hair and skin problems. Eating raw eggs also raises the possibility of salmonella.

Raw Fish - Feeding your dog raw fish can lead to a thiamine deficiency. This can cause your dog to lose his appetite, have seizures, and can even lead to death if your dog eats raw fish regularly.

Salt - Giving your dog salt can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalances which can impair the nervous system.

Vitamin Supplements with Iron - Too much iron can cause iron poisoning which can damage organs throughout the body.

Xylitol - Xylitol, an artificial sweetener, can cause liver failure.

Yeast - Yeast can cause swelling and pain in the stomach. There is the potential for a stomach rupture.

The list provided here is only a partial list of foods that can cause direct damage to a dog’s organs. If you give your dog an excessive amount of table scraps or overfeed your dog, you are also putting your dog at risk.

As someone who loves your dog, it’s up to you to make sure your dog is fed well, but you need to make sure you only feed your dog foods that are safe. Dogs are usually happy to eat whatever you feed them. Rich, fatty foods from your plate can be just as bad for your dog as some of the foods on the Do Not Eat list, so be careful what you give to your dog.

Until next time…..

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Handling Multiple Dogs In Your Home?

by Wayne Booth on August 23, 2011

From the start you need to assert your own control over your dogs. Your alpha leadership begins with your body language. Assert yourself with a calm exterior and your dogs will have to listen to you. Your goal should be to show your dogs that you can’t be manipulated.

There’s no need to yell at your dogs or punish them, but you should correct them when necessary. The best way to manage and control your home is for you to believe that you’re the one in charge. You have to be consistent with every command you give your dogs and “own” the space around you.

“Owning your space” may sound simple but it will have a major impact on a dog. Your dog takes 95 percent of his cues from reading your body language and not from your words.

Even more important, if you have more than one dog, your dogs may try to compete with each other for dominance in your household. But if you have already made it clear that YOU are dominant, they have nothing to fight about. If your dogs have a clear pack leader (You), they should be best buddies from the start.

Dealing With Problems

If your dogs do have some problems with each other, you do have some options. Optimally, if you are in command and in the alpha position, that should stop most problems your dogs are having, but it may not solve all problems. Here are a few tips to help you:

Aggression: If your dogs are showing basic aggression, such as nipping or growling, you can almost always handle by making clear your own alpha position. If you are bringing a new dog into the house that doesn’t have a clear position yet, try taking both dogs for a walk first so they can get to know each other in a neutral place.

In many cases if the dogs have this time together on the leash it lets them get to know each other on neutral ground, outside your living quarters. This can be important for your dog who may feel that there’s an outside dog moving in on his space.

Food Aggression: If you’re dealing with food aggression you should be careful. Being an alpha leader doesn’t always work in this case. Instead of showing your alpha position, it’s best to separate your dogs and try to remove the cause of the aggression. Only after you have separated them should you try to reintroduce them to each other.

Barking: Dogs can stir up a lot of trouble by barking at each other. Once they start barking back and forth it can be very hard to control them. However, if you separate them and make sure they aren’t bored or anxious; you can reduce their reasons for barking. This usually calms them and stops the barking.

Walking: Some dogs don’t like to walk together on a leash. If your dogs have issues with walking together you need to make sure that you have control of the leashes. You may need to retrain each dog separately, making sure they walk calmly with you or behind you. Teach each dog to walk on a loose leash and not to lash out or react to other dogs. Then you can go back to walking the dogs together.

In many cases problems walking on a leash come from one dog trying to be dominant and wanting to walk ahead of the other dog. If you’re in control and walking in front, the dogs have nothing to fight about.

In the end, dogs that have problems with each other can be handled together when you take control of the household. If your dogs don’t adapt to the situation you may need to go over the ground rules some more or considering getting in touch with a dog trainer or expert who can help your dog learn to accept their roles.

Until next time…..

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How Can I Find a Drug Dog to Search My Home?

by Wayne Booth on June 22, 2011

Considering the amount of drug use that occurs among kids today, many parents are concerned about keeping their children drug-free. One effective approach is to have a drug dog search your home. But, where can parents find a drug dog? That’s where DrugDogForHire.com comes in.

DrugDogForHire.com is a nationwide service that connects you with a local company in your area that can bring a drug detection dog to your home. DrugDogForHire.com works with schools, businesses, and with parents in their homes. You can hire the local company to do a single search or have an annual contract. Each search is discreet. Law enforcement is not involved.

The dogs used by DrugDogForHire.com are certified drug detection dogs and they are worked daily to maintain their proficiency. The nose of a dog is hundreds of times more sensitive than the nose of a human. These dogs are specially trained to be able to local substances such as marijuana, hash, cocaine, crack, heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs. The dogs are able to locate the most minute amounts of these drugs. They can also indicate the presence of drug residue and residual odors on clothing and other personal items.

Using a drug detection dog is the most effective and the least expensive method to find out if illegal drugs are present anywhere in your environment.

You can contact DrugDogForHire.com by visiting www.drugdogforhire.com or calling 1-888-250-4481, or by e-mailing info@drugdogforhire.com.

DrugDogForHire.com can help you keep your kids away from drugs. A highly trained drug detection dog can search anywhere your kids go. They can search your children’s rooms, the house, the yard, and places they play. One of these trained drug dogs will pick up and alert the handler if they find drug residue on your kids’ possessions or if they smell residual odors on your children’s clothing. There really is no better way to know if your kids have been around drugs.

DrugDogForHire.com is always discreet. They work for you. Their service is private and it is intended to help you handle situations privately.

DrugDogForHire.com is a nationwide service that puts you in touch with a local company in your area to perform a service for you. In addition to searching homes, DrugDogForHire.com also searches schools and businesses.

If you are concerned about your children and you want to find out if they have been near drugs, contact DrugDogForHire.com and arrange for a home search. The dogs of DrugDogForHire.com can give you peace of mind.

Until next time…..

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Dealing With Dog Separation Anxiety

by Wayne Booth on June 14, 2011

Many owners are under stress due to the separation anxiety that their dogs experience. Dogs who have separation can be very anxious and owners often don’t know how to deal with the problem.

People have to work, shop, and care for their families. How can you teach your dog that they will be all right when you leave the house, and that you will soon be home? How can you teach them that they don’t need to worry? Separation anxiety can be a difficult problem to overcome and lots of people have lots of opinions.

Eventually it comes down to being supportive of your dog and reinforcing him as he learns that you will return.

Separation Anxiety Can Be Dangerous

In some cases, separation anxiety can be mistaken for other emotional conditions, such as excitability. For example, when you come home at the end of the day and your dog is jumping up and down and wagging his tail, you probably think that your dog is very happy to see you. This is often the case, but sometimes the kind of behavior is a sign of excitability. This kind of excitability could be due to deeply felt feelings of anguish your dog felt while you were away.

This kind of anguish could occur when a dog is left alone. Your dog’s instincts may be telling him that he has been abandoned, which is a terrible situation for a pack animal like a dog. However, there is no need to feel guilty when you leave your dog alone. Most dogs are able to cope with being left alone very well. Even dogs that do have problems with being left alone can learn to deal with it.

On the other hand, if you simply ignore the excitement that your dog shows or let your dog keep showing this kind of excitement, it can be harmful to your dog’s health. It can develop into depression and anxiety, and it can also lead to destructive behavior.

Why Do Dogs Become Anxious?

It helps to understand separation anxiety when you remember that dogs are pack animals and have a pack mentality. When a dog is left alone, they can feel that they have been left out of the pack. On another level, your dog may become anxious if you don’t show them that you are a pack leader who is strong and in command.

In nature, the pack’s leader may need to leave the pack in order to hunt or look ahead. If your dog is getting upset when you leave the house, it may be because your dog does not see you as the pack leader. Your dog may think that he has that position and that you are supposed to be a follower.

It’s up to you to be in charge of the situation and let your dog know that you are the pack leader and you will return each time you leave. Dogs that embrace their owner as the pack leader usually have much less stress and anxiety than other dogs. They put their faith in you to handle the issues that may crop up.

Other cases of separation may not involved pack leader roles. In some cases separation anxiety may be related to how much exercise your dog is getting. Dogs that don’t get enough exercise can become upset when the owner leaves the house. They may busy themselves while the owner is away with destructive behavior.

In these cases the easiest solution is to make sure your dog gets a good walk before you leave the house. Take your dog for at least a 30 minute walk first. Then walk your dog for 30 minutes after you come home.

Providing What Your Dog Needs

As a dog owner, your job is to make sure your dog gets what he needs, and not just what he wants. The things dogs want aren’t always what’s best for them. Treating your dog as a dog, and not a s person, is better for your dog. It will give your dog the stability he needs, and build the trust that the two you depend on in your relationship.

By providing what your dog needs, your dog will be able to relax when you leave the house. And you’ll be able to relax, knowing that your dog won’t be engaging in destructive behavior when you’re away from home.

If your dog is suffering from Separation Anxiety there is help. I have a SPECIAL REPORT that I wrote to help you address the issues you and your dog are dealing with. You can get your copy here: www.MyDogHasSeparationAnxiety.com .

Until next time……

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