Search Results for: blog the dog park conundrum

A People Dog

My dog is a people dog. She loves people. If she can hear someone, her tail wags and butt wiggles until she’s able to see that person. Sometimes her enthusiasm gets a bit out of control; she jumps, she barks, she rolls around, until she’s able to bask in that much-desired attention. All of this is great, right? Definitely. However, Chihiro’s deep love of people – seriously, I know a lot of families with dogs and I go to the dog park and I’ve met few other dogs as desperate for human attention as Chihiro – seems to come at … Continue reading →

The Dog Park: Take Two

When Chihiro was a puppy I took her to the dog park to socialize her. But my experiences there were disheartening; my little puppy was rushed by several much larger dogs upon her entrance each time, and their owners did nothing to hold their dogs back until she adjusted. Add this on top of the fact that my hound dog would rather wander and sniff than bound and play in the fenced-in dog park, and the trip just didn’t seem worth the effort. Two years later things are different. Over the summer Chihiro learned some negative behaviors from a friend’s … Continue reading →

A Dog’s Role in American Indian Tribes

Here’s an interesting topic I don’t often get to cover on the pets blog: pet history. In today’s world sometimes it seems like pets are over-pampered, taken to expensive salons or left giant inheritances. Some might consider this contrary to how humans used to view pets, merely as tools. A new study by a professor of archeology and anthropology asserts otherwise, at least in some cases. The Sacramento Bee published the recent findings of Professor Paul Langenwalter of Biola University on the relationship local Californian American Indian tribes had with their pet dogs. He found evidence to suggest that among … Continue reading →

The Dog Park Conundrum

Having a local dog park is the dream of every dog owner. It’s a municipally-maintained safely-enclosed spot to take your dog where it can run around to its heart’s content and receive plenty of interaction with other dogs. Today I want to ask: do you take your dog to dog parks? To start off, I’ll share my experience with them. Our initial trips to the dog park ended up being unexciting. I first went in the middle of the day during the week, and so no one was there. Still, I thought this could be a good experience for Chihiro: … Continue reading →

My Life as a Pets Blogger, Part II: Oh, The Tales I Hear

In Part I I talked about how I’ve come to claim myself as a writer via my Pets Blogging position with Families.com. The responses are very different than they once used to be when I simply said, “I’m a writer.” Is My Pet Normal? Take last week when I went to get my haircut for instance. Once the hairstylist heard I wrote about pets, she did what many do: assumed I’m some sort of expert. Before I knew it she was confiding in me about her cat Seymour. She started with anecdotes about him playing fetch. I’ve heard of cats … Continue reading →

My Canine Ice Breaker

Before we bought our house we used to live in a bustling development. However, I’m a bit shy so it took me some time to work up the courage to speak with our neighbors. Then I got a dog, and she did the work for me. Others would walk up to me, say hello, and immediately kneel to pat my dog. Sure, we might strike up a stilted, if polite, conversation, but really the person was talking to my dog. I doubt I would have been approached if she wasn’t out on the walk with me. Sometimes people talking to … Continue reading →

Fitness Programs for Pets

Just like with humans, one half of the key to pets losing weight is for them to receive more exercise. Did you know that many veterinary centers and other groups across the country actually offer pet fitness programs? If you’re not sure how to help your pets lose weight, if everything you’re doing just doesn’t seem to work, or maybe you just don’t have the extra time to spend to help your pet shed those pounds, check to see if you have any such programs in your area. Public pet fitness programs have the added benefit of being extra social … Continue reading →

“Psychic” Pets

A recent poll reported by Newser.com and conducted by The Associated Press and Petside.com concluded that many American pet owners believe that their pets are psychic or have a sixth sense on some level. The actual details vary depending on what questions people were asked. According to the poll, 2/3 of American pet owners believe that animals have a sixth sense about bad weather, and 43% of the people polled say their pets can predict bad news. Owners of both cats and dogs claimed that their feline or canine pets warned them either about poor weather or upcoming bad news. … Continue reading →

Adopting When Renting

As I’ve stated many times before, I’ve been an animal lover for as long as I can remember. I began the process for adopting a dog and then a cat as soon as I knew I would be able to take good care of them. I knew that my husband and I wouldn’t have the easiest time adopting a dog because we were renting an apartment. I thought it might help that our apartment was part of an actual house; our landlords were fine with most breeds of dogs and had their own cat. Many rescues in our area, however, … Continue reading →

The Basics of Horse Care, Pt. 3

Today I conclude my interview with Professional Hunt Seat Horse Trainer Holly Stello on the basics of horse care, and why anyone who wants to can own a horse. You can work your way up to having the knowledge needed to have a horse as a pet. Having that knowledge influences the cost, because then you could pay less to board it by doing more for your horse on your own. Or you could always just be a working student and still get to spend a lot of time around horses. Holly says working students are common in the equestrian … Continue reading →