Search Results for: blog being a dog

Farmers Insurance No Longer Covers Certain Dog Breeds

Let me start off by saying that this appears to be specific to California (as far as I can tell). Farmers Insurance has decided to stop providing liability coverage in a homeowners policy for dog owners of Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, or Wolf hybrids. A homeowners insurance policy will cover many things. It can help you with the cost of replacing items that have been stolen from your home. It covers the cost of repairing your home due to damage from a storm, a fire, or even a vehicle that has driven into your house. This coverage includes damages to your … Continue reading →

Meeting the Neighbor Dogs: Part 2

A month or two ago I wrote about how the neighbor’s dog began visiting our yard during the day.  I thought maybe interacting with him could help Chihiro calm down about other dogs.  Unfortunately, I think the opposite has happened. I really should have known better.  Chihiro has been wary of other dogs ever since getting attacked by one (even though she won the fight, because the dog that started it was a little Puggle), so when teaching her to feel comfortable again around other dogs, I should take her to neutral territory with dogs I know and trust. For … Continue reading →

Should You Get Your Dog A Flu Shot?

Today in “vaccines I didn’t know existed for dogs” (last time it was for Lyme disease): canine influenza. That’s right, you can get a flu shot for your dog. Pet website ZooToo takes a look at it. Apparently, dog flu is a thing. I have to say I’ve never heard of it, not the way I’ve heard about bird or even pig flus. The difference is that while those strains can pass to humans, canine influenza doesn’t. It’s basically just dogs getting the flu, in a particular strain that won’t infect us. So while we might have to worry about … Continue reading →

Meeting the Neighbor Dogs

I’ve blogged before about my neighbor’s dogs, the ones she lets roam free through the neighborhood. Sometimes I see them in our yard. Yesterday while I was working, I noticed one of them, the tan one, out the window. I went outside to greet it, as I always do whenever I see any of the neighborhood pets. They all, cats and dogs included, run away from me. This dog did the usual, but I thought of something: I called for it to come here. I didn’t think it was a dangerous dog, because our neighbor said he isn’t. He also … Continue reading →

Service Dogs for Veterans

Training future service dogs Last month my mom sent me an interesting article from Smithsonian Magazine that she thought would make a good topic for the Pets blog (thanks Mom!) It was about the growing movement to provide service dogs to combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. I’ve written before about two topics very close to this one: rescue organizations dedicated to providing dogs to veterans, and military dogs developing PTSD. Now the two are combined. The dogs provided by Pets for Patriots aren’t necessarily service dogs, though they do deliver a wonderful service for veterans. In this case, more … Continue reading →

Living with Dogs Might Improve Baby Health

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a real reason to keep our dogs around our babies? Some people are terrified of the idea, thinking that it’s dangerous to let dogs around small children. At first it’s best never to leave dogs alone with babies, to make sure the animals know to be gentle around them. However, we pet owners know that some dogs are great with babies. There have already been some studies about how being around dogs in the first year of infancy can help reduce the chances of a child later developing allergies to dogs, but what about … Continue reading →

Salmonella in Dog Food Infects Humans

Remember that giant Diamond Pet foods recall from earlier in the year? It stretched from December through May, and covered a staggering variety of pet foods. It wasn’t just that hundreds of specific bags of pet food were affected, but also that so many different brands of kibble were all infected. I thought the story was finally over in May when it seemed like we’d heard the last of the recalls. I’m not writing today to inform you that another recall has been announced, but to update the story. At the time although some dogs were reported as coming down … Continue reading →

Cat People vs. Dog People

I’ve already debunked the whole cats and dogs can never get along theory. What about whether you’re a cat person or a dog person, and what that says about your personality? I recently caught part of a NOVA documentary exploring that very thing, and I wish I’d seen more of it. The opening was full of cat people and dog people talking about the respective attributes of their favorite mammals, before examining what life is like at home for each of them. Although the concept was fascinating, I felt a little put out. What about me? I love dogs and … Continue reading →

What Your Dog Says About You

I don’t know if this is a new trend or an old one experiencing a revival, but lately I’ve seen a lot of “what does your dog’s breed say about you?” style articles. I’ve even seen a few ones related to romance: what does your boyfriend’s dog say about him, or about his sex life? While I find the latter a bit of a stretch, I think maybe there might be some truth in the former. The breed of one’s dog might say a bit more about one’s living situation than personality, so that two vastly different people might both … Continue reading →

Special Needs Blog Week in Review – June 24 – 30, 2012

Posted on by

Every week, the Special Needs Blog Week in Review brings you a quick summary of each of the blogs that were posted here in the past seven days. It makes it easier for you to find out about the ones that you might have missed. The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on June 25, 2012. This week, I’d like to point out an episode of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday”. The episode was called “Planes, Patience, and Slightly Kid-Friendlier Security”. This is a good one to listen to for parents who will be traveling by plane with their children this … Continue reading →