A dog swims with a dolphin in the sea at Tory Island, County Donegal, in the northwest of Ireland on Monday. - Associated Press


"The dog is a done deal...who is walking the dog, that's what we're concerned about."

-Barack Obama, on his promise to get his daughters a pet when the campaign is over.

Is There a Goldendoodle in the Obamas' Future?
Los Angeles Times

Pet Tales: Things We Do for Love
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Chicken Envy
SF Gate

Introduction of Pet Nutrition: Every Pet Owner Should Know
by Nicole Chen

The science of pet nutrition covers so wide a field. Not does it help maintain the pet's health, but also manage to control health problems. Pets are the same as human beings which gain nutrition from the food ingredients, such as protein, fat and fiber. Ingredients are media that delivers the nutritious substances into the body. So pet foods with ingredients that deliver balanced nutrition are the best choices.

Like human beings, each pet has its specific nutrition requirement. For example, foods for puppies are unsuitable for aged dogs with heart diseases. Both over-nutrition and under-nutrition are harmful for pets' health. Don't think adding as much nutrition as you can to pet foods, because over-nutrition will generate toxins. And nutrition each dog requires is different, which depends on its ages, health conditions and activities.

Nutrition comes from food mixture that maintains lives. The six type of nutrition as follows play an important role in pets' health.

1. Protein: the main substance to construct body tissues, such as muscle, blood, skins, organs, hairs, fingernails. Protein consist of twenty five types of amino acids, and ten of them are essential which can't be replaced or composed by other amino acid. Dogs can digest 90 to 95% animal protein, but can only digest 60 to 80% vegetable protein. Taking too much protein will cause stomachache or diarrhea.

2. Carbohydrate: contains sugar, amylum and fiber. It provides energy to bodies. Taking too much lactose will cause diarrhea.

3. Fat: transport vitamins, keeping the moisture of skin and hair, adding favor to tastes and providing energies.

4. Water: the most important nutrition.

5. Vitamins: contributes to metabolism and growth.

6. Mineral: an essential for skin, hair and bone health.

About the Author
Nicole works as nutrition specialist in Jitai Forage, http://www.jitaifeed.com/e-index.htm




Are You Training Your Dog the Wrong Way Without Even Knowing?
by Jake Cessner

It's true, you could be training your dog to react the wrong way and negatively to certain situations without even know that you're doing it. There are many situations and circumstances in everyday life that are training your dog and shaping his behavior in the wrong way based on your reactions to certain situations. By the time you finish reading this article, you'll understand exactly when these situations may occur and how to respond to them correctly.
Think about this next statement for a second: "Your dog only knows what happens when." This means that your dog relates what will happen next time based on what happened this time.

As an example, lets say that you are expecting company. The guests finally arrive and then knock at the door. WOOF WOOF!!! Your dog then starts barking and running excitedly around the house wondering who is at the door. Then in a loud voice you tell your dog to "QUIET DOWN, LOOK OUT" as you kind of shove him aside and go to open up the door. OK.. So then you open the door and invite your guests in. Your dog, excited to see them too, jumps up to them and showers them with kisses. As a response to your dog jumping on your guests you yell at your dog and then decide to put him in the basement because he was over-excited an unruly.

Soon enough what will happen is that your dog will become anxious and even more out of control whenever someone comes over to visit if the scenario described above keeps happening. Your dog could possibly even become aggressive towards guests as a result. What your dog understands is that whenever you and your family are alone with him everything is great! But, what he has concluded about when visitors come over is that he always gets yelled at and locked in the basement. Thus, you have taught your dog that whenever you have guests over, he'll get yelled at and locked in the basement. Now, in your dogs mind, guests are a negative situation for him.

The whole point I am trying to make here is that you need to be aware how you handle your dog with each and every situation to ensure that you aren't creating a negative experience for him. It's not easy to do but if you start with just making yourself aware and conscious of how you handle your canine, that's a start. I can't possibly cover every situation to look out for or how to properly handle them in this article. Think about other situations that pop up and how you interact with your dog during those situations. You'll probably realize there are more times than not that you can correct your reaction to help you and your dog to have a much better life together. That being said, I hope to have shed some light on how you may be training your dog the wrong way without even knowing it.

About the Author
Jake Cessner is a long time dog owner who has acquired extensive knowledge in dog training through training his own dogs over the years, who were very troublesome at times. More information on this subject and others is available @ www.dogtrainingpark.com/dogblog

SitStayFetch!

A dog of the Saint Bernard hospice has fun in the snow on the Great St. Bernard Pass between Switzerland and Italy after returning from their winter quarters in Martigny, Switzerland, Monday. The dogs will spent their summertime on the pass and return to Martigny at the onset of winter for their search and rescue duties. The Saint Bernhard dogs were formerly bred in the travelers' hospice on the pass as rescue dogs for avalanche victims. - AP