Search Results for: blog grooming your dog s ears

How Not to Clean Your Dog’s Ears

My dog Moose has been doing that head shake lately — the one that says ear mites might be to blame. If you’re a dog owner, you may know what I’m talking about: one ear at half mast, frantic head shaking, lots of ear scratching. A quick swipe with a baby wipe showed me that he has debris in the wonky ear. Ear mite debris is usually very dark, and looks a bit like coffee grinds. This was lighter in color, so maybe ear mites aren’t to blame. Maybe he’s got an excess of ear wax, or some other kind … Continue reading →

Celebrating a Second Anniversary as a Pets Blogger

Two years ago today I officially started on with Families.com as one of their newest Pets Bloggers. Ironically enough, two years later on my anniversary date, here I’ve turned in my two weeks notice. (I just realized as I started writing this that I did that on my start date anniversary.) It’s been a good ride, a very fun ride, and an amazingly informative one. I’ll still be around for the next couple of weeks, but I wanted to take a moment and reflect on some of my favorite blogs from the past couple of years. A Few of My … Continue reading →

Do You Ever Feel Your Dog’s Not Living Up to His Full Potential?

I get both really inspired and really down on myself after I interview people like Beth Terrell or Joani Ascher. Inspired because they’re doing neat things with their dogs, like teaching them how to dance or grooming puppies to be Seeing Eye dogs. Down because Murph’s one of the smartest dogs I’ve ever had. I often wonder if I’m holding him back from living up to his full potential. At the beginning of this year I resolved to change that. I was determined to look into enrolling Murph and myself in a pet therapy program. Then my mom got sick … Continue reading →

Is Your Dog a Beach Bum?

My dogs Moose and Lally have never been to the beach. I don’t trust Moose to romp off-leash in an unfenced area; Lally is not a fan of water as it is. My old dog Miko was another story. He loved the beach, and would chase waves as they ebbed and flowed — as long as he didn’t get his feet wet. It was adorable! If your dog loves the beach — and especially the water — you may have some extra grooming on your hands. If your pup stays dry, sand can more or less be brushed off the … Continue reading →

Cleaning Around Your Pets

I was changing the sheets on my bed when Lally (my boxer/shar-pei mix) decided to help… by jumping into the middle of the bed. I gave her a gentle push off the bed, and she jumped right back up. This is fun! Pets can make even the most routine household chores more entertaining, and more challenging. I feel like my apartment is in a constant state of disarray — simply because of all the hair! Here are some tricks I’ve come up with over the past few years to help keep things clean. Change your sheets every week — especially … Continue reading →

The Dog at the B&B

Last week at the cats only boarding facility, I had a quick refresher on computer stuff — how to add a new client to the system, how to input various charges, how to check someone out, how to put a guest on the schedule. For practice, we pretended that I was a new client and added me to the system. Of course, you may notice that I don’t have any cats to add. So we used Moose. To my surprise, the computer program the boarding facility uses already has codes for dogs. It must be a program that any animal … Continue reading →

Dog Breed: English Springer Spaniel

James the English Springer Spaniel is a shining star in the dog world — he just took the Westminster Kennel Club Best in Show as a follow-up to his victory at the American Kennel Club Eukanuba National Championship. James is only the third dog to win both titles; the first was a Bichon Frise in 2001 and the second was a Kerry Blue Terrier in 2003. The English Springer Spaniel is a member of the American Kennel Club’s sporting group, which includes spaniels, setters, and retrievers. The breed was officially recognized by the AKC in 1910; over in England, the … Continue reading →

Dog Breed: Akita

In Japan, seven breeds of dog are designated National Monuments. The Akita is one of them. At one time, only the Imperial family and ruling aristocracy could own an Akita; special leashes signified the rank and standing of the Akita’s owner. These days, the dog is an affectionate family member all around the world! The Akita comes from the mountains of northern Japan, and was bred to be intelligent and adaptable for hunting. This breed has a spiritual significance in Japan; they are regarded as loyal companions, protectors of the home, and a symbol of good health. When a child … Continue reading →

Unusual Pet Products

On a recent MSN list of “unusual ways to make a buck,” 5 of the 21 items on the list were about pets.  That doesn’t seem like that many, but it’s the largest single category on the list.  The pet inventions are Pet Rocks, Doggles, Petite Amande, Pet Butler, and Neuticles.  Given the age of that first item, it doesn’t require much explanation; we all know what it is. Let’s look at the other pet products on the list in increasing order of ridiculousness.  That means Pet Butler is up next.  It might seem crazy – a butler for your … Continue reading →

Developing Cat Allergies in Adulthood

Here’s an even better reason to expose your children to pets at an early age: adults never exposed to them have a higher chance of developing allergies if they get pets. A team from the University Hospital of Verona (in Italy) studied more than 6,000 adults twice in nine years. It found that people who had never lived with cats before, and then adopted them in adulthood, doubled their chances of becoming allergic to the cat. The chances were even higher if the adults had other allergies or asthma. The process of becoming allergic to something when previously you weren’t … Continue reading →