Off The Chain - Dog Fighting Documentary

This is a documentary on dog fighting. This documentary is in six parts and was taken from savethecreatures's Channel on YouTube.

WARNING: THIS DOCUMENTARY CONTAINS GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING IMAGES

Please help stop dog fighting in your area.

Knock Out Dog Fighting program by For Pits Sake

These are a couple of videos by For Pits Sake, on their Knock Out Dog Fighting program. The second video is 7.5 minutes long, but well worth watching. Please help stop dog fighting in your area.

Dogs Speak Out Against Dog Fighting from For Pits Sake on Vimeo.

Knock Out Dog Fighting program from For Pits Sake on Vimeo.

Microchipping Your Pet

This is "Dodger." Last week I found "Dodger" running along one of the busiest roads in the area. "Dodger" had already crossed 2 equally busy roads, dodging cars along the way. Unfortunately, he did not have a collar. No problem, I figured I'd just get his microchip scanned and contact his owner. OK, now there's a problem. He doesn't have a microchip! This poor little guy was professionally groomed, well fed and very well behaved. He was obviously someone's pet and I imagine they were missing him dearly.

I worked the entire day and much of the next trying to find this little guy's owners. In the end I couldn't find the owner so I called a local Bichon Frise Rescue, since I already had two dogs and one was not to happy with "Dodger" being in the house. The Rescue took "Dodger" and 2 days later there was an ad in the paper for a lost little white dog who had been received as a Mother's Day present. The Recuse contacted the person who ran the ad and it was "Dodger's" owner! "Dodger" was reunited with his family that day and the story had a happy ending. Unfortunately, many of these stories don't have happy endings and the dog is never reuinted with it's family. All because the person the dog depends on didn't bother or thought it was too expensive to get it implanted with a microchip.

Unfortunately, 1 in 3 dogs get lost during their lifetimes, and according to the American Humane Society, only 17% of them are ever recovered.

How can you beat the odds of this happening to your pet? Number one priority: Have your pet wear an ID tag with a phone number where you can be contacted. Unfortunately, many people forget to check their dog's tags on a regular basis--they often rust, get scratched, or even come totally off, leaving no way for anyone who finds the dog to find you. More and more pet owners are opting to up their chances of recovering a lost pet by having their veterinarian implant an identifying microchip.

Exactly what is a microchip?
A microchip is a tiny computer chip--about the size of a grain of rice--that your vet can implant between your pet's shoulder blades. Each microchip has a unique number, which is entered in an international database. Veterinary hospitals, animal shelters and humane societies have microchip readers, scanners that can quickly be run over the dog's shoulder blades, allowing the scanner to read your dog's individual microchip number. The number allows the person scanning your dog to know which database your pet is registered with. They can then call a toll-free number, and the database will match your pet's number with your name and phone number so you can be contacted.

Is it truly a permanent method of identification?
Yes, one microchip should last for your pet's lifetime, and once you have sent in the initial registration, your only future responsibility is keeping the registry informed of any changes in your contact numbers. Although a properly implanted chip cannot be lost or damaged, very rarely a microchip will migrate. It is a good idea to have your veterinarian scan your dog each year when they go for their annual exam, to make sure that the chip is still in the correct location.

Is microchipping a new practice?
No, microchipping pets has been a common practice in Canada and Great Britain for many years, and becomes more and more popular each year in the United States. These tiny computer chips are actually quite amazing, as they can hold large amounts of information. There is no worry about duplicate numbers, as there are so many possible combinations that there are billions of identification numbers available--more than enough to make sure each pet has a unique number.

Will it hurt your pet?
No, the procedure is simple and fairly painless, not requiring any anesthesia. It is much like getting a vaccination and most animals show absolutely no reaction at all.

Worried about cost?
The average cost to have a microchip implanted falls between $25 and $50. Some veterinarians discount this rate if it is being done at the same time as the pet is being spayed, or put under anesthesia for something routine such as dental work. Humane societies in some areas also offer microchip clinics from time to time, much like a rabies clinic, where the procedure may be offered for as little as $10 or $15.

There may also be a small one-time fee to register your information with the database, but in the long run, the microchip process is still much less expensive than all the things you would need to do if your pet was lost without any identification.

Are there any downsides?
The only downside to a microchip is that this form of identification will not work unless your pet is taken to someone who has a scanner. Animal shelters and veterinarians are offered the microchip readers for free, or for a very small fee, so 99% of them have readers available. If your pet is picked up by an individual who is not familiar with microchips (and thus does not take your pet in to be scanned) then of course your dog cannot be identified through their chip. This is why it is still recommended that all dogs wear collars with ID tags. Your microchip should also come with a tag for your dog's collar, which has a toll-free number listed. If someone should find your dog and call that number, they can call this number and give the identifying number on the tag.

Should your pet become lost, be sure to notify your microchip provider. Some will send out an e-mail alert to animal shelters, veterinary clinics and other members of their network that are within a 25 mile radius of where your pet was lost (this is sent out immediately when you call them to tell them the pet is lost). They may also have available a Lost Pet Poster service and other benefits.

The advantages to a microchip far outweigh any inconvenience or minor expense. To find out more, give your veterinarian's office a call today.

Source: Adapted from the American Animal Hospital Association

Socializing Your Dog

Socialization is the first step in raising a well-behaved dog. During the first weeks of their lives, puppies go through a critical period of development. When a puppy is exposed to new people, places, and situations in a positive way during this period, there’s a good chance he’ll be calm and accepting when he experiences them again later in life.

What Is Socialization?
Socialization is just what it sounds like – socializing. Your puppy should meet and interact with as many types of people, animals, and environments as possible. By the time he reaches about 4 months old, your puppy should learn to accept being petted by strangers, meeting other dogs, being handled by a veterinarian or groomer, and meeting a wide variety of people.

When Should Socialization Take Place?
Puppy socialization should take place when your dog is between 8 and 16 weeks old. Because puppies have not received all their vaccinations, you should talk to your veterinarian about when it’s safe to expose your puppy to new people and places.

Why Is Socialization So Important?
Socializing your puppy helps him to become a happy, healthy, and well-behaved member of your family. Properly socialized puppies are less likely to develop behavior problems as they grow into adults. Dogs who don’t get early socialization may react with fear or aggression when they are exposed to new things. It is much easier to teach your puppy to accept new things now than it is to retrain him after bad habits develop.

How Should a Puppy Be Socialized?
Socialization should involve as many people and situations as possible. Introduce your puppy to a wide variety of people, including men, women, children of all ages, people in wheelchairs, men with beards, and people wearing all kinds of clothing (e.g., uniforms, sunglasses, raincoats and umbrellas, hats and gloves, etc.). Before your puppy has gotten all of his vaccinations, you can begin to socialize him by inviting people to your home to meet him.

Handling exercises are another important part of socializing. Think the ways your dog may be handled in his lifetime – a child could pull his tail, a veterinarian might need to restrain him, you may need to hold his feet to clip his nails. If you get your puppy used to being handled in a gentle manner now, you will be less likely to have trouble handling him when he has reached adulthood.
Once your veterinarian approves taking your puppy to new places, you can begin socializing him outside your home. This is a good time to get him used to riding in the car, meeting other dogs, visiting the groomer and pet supply store, and taking walks in your neighborhood.

Socialization should always be kept positive. Allow your puppy to approach new things in his own time. You can use treats and praise to encourage your puppy to approach unfamiliar people and objects. Never push your puppy past his comfort level or he may become fearful of the things you are trying to get him to accept.

Can a Dog Trainer Help With Socialization?
Puppy training classes are a great way to enhance your puppy’s socialization. Dog trainers usually refer to these classes as “Puppy Kindergarten.” They should touch on the usual concerns of the new puppy parent, like housetraining and curbing destructive behavior. A good puppy kindergarten will also help your puppy to get comfortable with new people and being handled. Your veterinarian or local animal shelter should be able to help you find a good puppy kindergarten class.

Removing Pet Stains and Odors

The minute you turn your back, your pet decides that your new carpet's the perfect place to relieve himself. You clean and clean, but you can't get rid of that smell. What can you do?

Where'd it happen?
You need to find which areas are soiled, and then re-train your pet to avoid eliminating in those areas. And to do that, you'll have to clean those areas, and clean them well.

Here are the steps you'll need to take:

Use your nose and eyes to find soiled areas. You might want to use a black light, which you can purchase at a home supply store. A black light will usually show even old urine stains. Turn out all of the lights in the room; use the black light to identify soiled areas, and lightly outline the areas with chalk.
Clean the soiled areas to remove the odors.
Visit your veterinarian to rule out medical causes for the behavior.

Cleaning up
Make the "accident zone" unattractive and/or unavailable to your pet and the appropriate "bathroom" area attractive as a way to retrain your pet. Then use positive reinforcement techniques to show him the appropriate place to eliminate. To do this successfully, follow our recommendations for retraining your pet.

To be successful, you need to follow all of these steps. If you fail to completely clean the area, your re-training efforts will be useless.

As long as your pet can smell his personal scent, he'll continue to return to the "accident zone." Even if you can't smell traces of urine, your pet can. Your most important chore is to follow these steps to remove (neutralize) that odor:

To clean washable items
Machine wash as usual, adding a one-pound box of baking soda to your regular detergent. It's best to air dry these items if possible. If you can still see the stain or smell the urine, machine wash the item again, and add an enzymatic cleaner (available at pet supply stores) that breaks down pet-waste odors. Be sure to follow the directions carefully.

If your pet urinates or defecates on the sheets or blankets on a bed, then cover the bed with a vinyl, flannel-backed tablecloth when you begin the re-training period. It's machine washable, inexpensive and unattractive to your pet.

To clean carpeted areas and upholstery
For "new" stains (those that are still wet):

- Soak up as much of the urine as possible with a combination of newspaper and paper towels. The more fresh urine you can remove before it dries, especially from carpet, the easier it will be to remove the odor. Place a thick layer of paper towels on the wet spot, and cover that with a thick layer of newspaper. If possible, put newspaper under the soiled area as well. Stand on this padding for about a minute. Remove the padding, and repeat the process until the area is barely damp.
- If possible, put the fresh, urine-soaked paper towel in the area where it belongs—your dog's designated outdoor "bathroom area." This will help remind your pet that eliminating isn't a "bad" behavior as long as it's done in the right place.
- Rinse the "accident zone" thoroughly with clean, cool water. After rinsing, remove as much of the water as possible by blotting or by using a wet vac.

For stains that have already set:
- Consider renting an extractor or wet vac to remove all traces of heavy stains in carpeting (get one from a local hardware store). This machine works much like a vacuum cleaner and is efficient and economical. Extracting/wet vac machines do the best job of forcing clean water through your carpet and then forcing the dirty water back out. When you use these machines or cleaners, carefully follow the instructions. Don't use any chemicals with these machines; they work much better with plain water.
- Use a high-quality pet odor neutralizer once the area is really clean (available at pet supply stores). Be sure to read and follow the cleaner's directions for use, including testing the cleaner on a small, hidden portion of fabric first to be sure it doesn't stain.
- Try any good carpet stain remover if the area still looks stained after it's completely dry from extracting and neutralizing.
- Avoid using steam cleaners to clean urine odors from carpet or upholstery. The heat will permanently set the stain and the odor by bonding the protein into any man-made fibers.
- Avoid using cleaning chemicals, especially those with strong odors such as ammonia or vinegar. From your pet's perspective, these don't effectively eliminate or cover the urine odor and may actually encourage your pet to reinforce the urine scent mark in that area.
- Neutralizing cleaners won't work until you've rinsed every trace of the old cleaner from the carpet if you've previously used cleaners or chemicals of any kind on the area. Even if you haven't used chemicals recently, any trace of a non-protein-based substance will weaken the effect of the enzymatic cleaner. The cleaner will use up its "energy" on the old cleaners, instead of on the protein stains you want removed.
- Your job will be more difficult if urine has soaked down into the padding underneath your carpet. In some cases, you may need to take the drastic step of removing and replacing that portion of the carpet and padding.

To clean floors and walls
If the wood on your furniture, walls, baseboard or floor is discolored, the varnish or paint has reacted to the acid in the urine. You may need to remove and replace the layer of varnish or paint. If you do so, make sure the new product is safe for pets.

Employees at your local hardware or home improvement store can help you identify and match your needs with appropriate removers and replacements.

Washable enamel paints and some washable wallpapers may respond favorably to enzymatic cleaners. Read the instructions before you use these products. You should also test them in an invisible area.

Re-train your pet
Finally, along with cleaning, teach your pet where you want him to eliminate. To do this, make the "accident zone" unattractive and the appropriate "bathroom" area attractive. For help, check these previous posts:
Housetraining puppies
Housetraining adult or senior dogs

The re-training period may take a week or more. Remember, it took time to build the bad habit, and it will take time to replace that habit with a new, more acceptable behavior.

Treat your pet with patience and encourage him!


Adapted from material originally developed by applied animal behaviorists at the Dumb Friends League, Denver, Colo. All rights reserved.

Urine-Marking and How To Prevent It

Dogs are territorial animals. They "stake a claim" to a particular space, area, or object by marking it, using a variety of methods at different levels of intensity.

For example, a dog may bark to drive away what he perceives to be intruders in his territory. Some dogs may go to the extreme of urinating or defecating on something to say "mine!."

Pets aren't people
Dogs don't urinate or defecate out of spite or jealousy. If your dog urinates on your baby's diaper bag, it's not because he is jealous of, or dislikes, your baby. The unfamiliar scents and sounds of a new baby in the home are stressing him out a bit and he feels the need to reaffirm his claim on his territory.

Likewise, if your dog urinates on your new boyfriend's backpack, it doesn't reflect his opinion of your taste in men. Instead, he has perceived the presence of an "intruder," and is letting the intruder know this territory belongs to him.

Urine-marking is not house soiling
House soiling is when your dog empties his bladder or his bowels inside the house. There are a few reasons he may do this:

He's not housebroken.
He has a medical issue.
He's terrified and has lost control of his bladder and/or bowels.

Urine-marking, on the other hand, is a territorial behavior. Your dog feels the need to assert his dominance or ease his anxiety by laying out his boundaries. He does this by depositing small amounts of urine on anything he feels belongs to him—the furniture, the walls, your socks, etc.

Urine-marking is most often associated with male dogs, but females may do it, too. Leg-lifting is the primary way of marking, but even if your pet doesn't lift his leg, he may still be marking.

The amount of urine is small and is found primarily on vertical surfaces, but dogs do sometimes mark on horizontal surfaces.

Reasons for urine-marking
Your dog isn't spayed or neutered. Unneutered dogs are much more assertive and prone to marking than neutered ones.
- There's a new pet in the household.
- Another pet in your home is not spayed or neutered. Even spayed or neutered animals may mark in response to other intact animals in the home.
- Your dog has conflicts with other animals in your home. When there's instability in the pack dynamics, a dog may feel a need to establish his place by marking his territory.
- There's someone new in the house (spouse, baby, roommate); your dog puts his scent on that person’s belongings as a way of proclaiming that the house is his.
- There are new objects in the environment (a shopping bag, a visitor's purse) that have unfamiliar smells or another animal's scent.
- Your dog has contact with other animals outside your home. If your pet sees another animal through a door or window, he may feel a need to mark his territory.

Here's how to prevent urine-marking behaviors before they happen in your house:
(Before doing anything else, take your dog to the veterinarian to rule out any medical causes for the urine-marking behavior. If he gets a clean bill of health, use the following tips to make sure he doesn't start marking his territory. )

Spay (or neuter) first
Spay or neuter your dog as soon as possible. The longer a dog goes before neutering, the more difficult it will be to train him not to mark in the house. Spaying or neutering your dog should reduce urine-marking and may stop it altogether.

But if he has been marking for a long time, a pattern may already be established. Because it has become a learned behavior, spaying or neutering alone won't solve the problem. Use techniques for housetraining an adult dog to modify your dog's marking behavior.

More tips:
- Clean soiled areas thoroughly with a cleaner specifically designed to eliminate urine odor. - Make previously soiled areas inaccessible or unattractive. If this isn't possible, try to change the significance of those areas to your pet. Feed, treat, and play with your pet in the areas where he marks.
- Keep objects likely to cause marking out of reach. Items such as guests' belongings and new purchases should be placed in a closet or cabinet.
- Resolve conflicts between animals in your home. If you've added a new cat or new dog to your family, follow our tip sheets to help them live in harmony.
- Restrict your dog's access to doors and windows so he can't observe animals outside. If this isn't possible, discourage the presence of other animals near your house.
- Make friends. If your pet is marking in response to a new resident in your home (such as a roommate or spouse), have the new resident make friends with your pet by feeding, grooming, and playing with your pet. If you have a new baby, make sure good things happen to your pet when the baby is around.
- Watch your dog when he is indoors for signs that he is thinking about urinating. When he begins to urinate, interrupt him with a loud noise and take him outside. If he urinates outside, praise him and give him a treat.
- When you're unable to watch him, confine your dog (a crate or small room where he has never marked) or tether him to you with a leash.
- Have your dog obey at least one command (such as "sit") before you give him dinner, put on his leash to go for a walk, or throw him a toy.
- If your dog is marking out of anxiety, talk to your vet about medicating him with a short course of anti-anxiety medication. This will calm him down and make behavior modification more effective.
- Consult an animal behaviorist for help with resolving the marking issues.

What not to do
Don't punish your pet after the fact. Punishment administered even a minute after the event is ineffective because your pet won't understand why he is being punished.

If you come home and find that your dog has urinated on all kinds of things, just clean up the mess. Don't take him over to the spots and yell and rub his nose in them. He won't associate the punishment with something he may have done hours ago, leading to confusion and possibly fear.