I Am Dog, Hear Me Bark

I’ve been reading about how dogs communicate. Human use their voices to talk to each other and to us dogs and we get pretty good at understanding what they say. Dogs understand about 100 words.

Although we dogs use our voices too, we mostly use body language. We use out tails, ears, eyes and faces more.

How we hold our tails or ears mean important things. Like, if a dog’s ears are raised he could be relaxed or listening.

And not all tail wags mean the same thing. If we wag more to the right, it might mean something positive while if we wag more to the left, it could mean negative feelings.

That’s complicated even for me.

Let me tell you how I communicate with my Mom and Dad.

If I am sitting in front of the cookie jar or lick my lips, it means I want a cookie. I taught DixieLee how to lick her lips when she wants a cookie too. 

It is very effective when I stare and Mom says “What?” and we both lick our lips. There is little room for misunderstanding at that point.

If I am staring at you when you are eating, it means I want you to share your food.

If I am sitting in front of the cabinet where we keep the dog food or look at the clock, it means it’s dinner time.

If I am sitting in front of the door, it means I want to go out.

If I am looking at the leash hanging on the hook, it means that I want to go for a walk.

It I throw the ball at you, it means I want to play.

See how easy that is.

I have to admit it can get slightly more complicated when I bark. 

My barks mostly mean “DANGER, DANGER, DANGER” but Mom or Dad have different ideas about our how dangerous things are.

They don’t think the mail person stealing our mail, or a squirrel eating bird seed is as dangerous as I do.

DixieLee barks way more than I do. 

She barks when she wants to go outside. She also barks when she want to go for a walk or wants to play.

You can tell the barks are different because she is usually standing by the door when she barks to go outside or she has a toy picked out from the toy chest when she wants to play.

I bet you have ways that you communicate with your humans that are easy to understand to. Let us know what they are. They may be easier than how we are communicating and we all want communication to be easily understood.

Right now I am smiling (see photo) because I am done with my work for today and can nap.

Love

Zeva

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Don't Be A Dope

Mom keeps the television on for us all day to keep us entertained. We watch lots of news. Stories about making it okay for peoples to have marijuana seems to be getting lots of attention as more and more places say it is okay.

There are stories about making it okay for people who are sick to use marijuana and other stories about recreational use.

We understand that marijuana is good for helping peoples who have nerve pain or bad diseases like cancer. We were wondering what would happen if a dog got curious and ate some of their human’s marijuana or if they smelled some when their human was smoking it.

Like most questions, the answer is, it depends. The size of the dog and how much they ate or smelled is important. A dog that got some marijuana COULD be in real trouble. Marijuana could lower their heart rate and blood pressure and could make them go into a coma or have seizures.

Veterinarians know how to treat dogs for marijuana that eat too much and get poisoned.

Dogs can get high too. Getting high can be a very scary experience because they wouldn’t know what was happening to them. They might stumble around and be scared by sudden noises.

If the marijuana they eat is baked into a yummy treat it can be really bad. Dogs love to eat so they may eat way too much and if it has chocolate baked in, it is really, really bad. We all know that chocolate is poison to dogs all by itself.

Can medical marijuana be good for dogs? Doctors and scientists are checking into it. Medical marijuana would be really helpful for dogs who get cancer but since dogs react differently than humans, there needs to be more checking about how much would be safe.

This subject is way too much for my brain to figure right now and besides,  North Woods Law New Hampshire is coming on the television. It’s one of our favorite programs. They show how Animal Police help humans and undomesticated animals live together better.

If I can get Mom to give us a cookie, we’ll be all set.

Stay healthy,

Love

Zeva

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A Real Bargain

Some peoples think that they should be able to go to a shelter and get a good dog for free. After all, shelters are full and there are so many homeless animal, they think that the shelters would want to give pets away.

Different shelters in different parts of the country charge different money. Sometimes special needs or senior dogs cost less because they have a harder time getting adopted. Puppies usually cost most because everyone thinks puppies are better to have. I don’t think that is always true. For example, senior dogs are a good match for senior peoples.

There are lots of reasons shelters need to charge money to adopt a pet.

1. The shelter is a home and everyone knows that it costs money to live in a home. The shelters have to pay bills like regular peoples.

2. Even though lots of shelters have volunteers who feed and walk the dogs, some body has to be the boss. Bosses and other employees who take care of the day to day operations need to be paid. These are the people who make sure the animals are taken care of properly and that they get adopted to good homes.

3. Pets need to eat and food costs money. Some pets need special food which costs more.

4. And don’t forget toys! Pets need toys and beds and dishes and leashes and collars and stuff, just like dogs who live in houses.

5. One of the most important thing for an owner to do is to keep their pets healthy and shelters have to do that too. All of the pets need to have shots and be checked to make sure they don’t have heartworm or ticks or mites or any other buggies. They should also be tested for stuff like lyme disease and other diseases.

If a pet has heartworm, or lyme or something bad, then they need to have medicine until they are better. All of that costs money,

6. Some pets enter the shelter in really bad shape. They have been mistreated so bad that they need medical treatment to get better. They may need things like x-rays or antibiotics or other medical things to help them heal.

7. Most shelters make sure that pets are spayed or neutered. More puppies or kittens would only mean more need for shelters. Although many shelters have vets who give reduced rates, surgery and medicines are still expensive.

8. And most shelters microchip all pets before they get adopted. They know how easy it is for a pet to get lost and end up in another shelter.

So, when you pay to get a pet from a shelter, you are giving that shelter money so that it can take in another animal and give it good care until someone comes along to adopt them.

For all the love and affection that shelter pets give, I think you are getting a real bargain.

Love,

Zeva

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You Are What You Eat

If you follow our Paw Pals Boutique Facebook page you know that we re-post articles about recalls and other important information about pet food.

I was really upset when I read the one about dog food companies that use dyes to make kibble look better to humans and smell better to dogs. They think that kibble is boring looking to humans so they add colors to make it prettier.

I like pretty colors. We use pretty colored ribbons to make our gift baskets look extra special but I don’t think dying kibbles green and orange to make them seem like peas and carrots is a good thing to do. Science people say that Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 2 are dyes that cause cancer. That is BAD.

And where is the meat? Dogs like meat and meat is actually good for dogs. Lots of dog food today is “plant based” or made with “meat by products”. Plant based means stuff like corn and meat by products could dead zoo animals, hooves or other not so good stuff. That’s cheating!

Mom is a label reader. She reads labels on packages. She does it to make sure that the food she buys for our house, for the peoples and for the dogs, has lots of good, nutritious things in them, AND, just as important, does not have any bad things, like dyes in them.

Peoples who sell pet food want to sell more so they try to make their food look better than other kinds you can buy. They use words like “gourmet’ and “natural” which are just words and don’t mean that the food is so special.

One word you can look for is AAFCO. That is actually a bunch of words which are Association of American Feed Control Officials. They have “official” in their name but they are not government peoples. They look at how the food is made and say if it meets basic nutritional requirements. Check your food to see if it says AAFCO.

Keeping our food fresh is also important. We buy a big bag of food that DixieLee and I share and a small bag of food just for me. Mom says I gain weight when I eat too much regular food so I have half of my food be a “weight control” kind. We eat up a bag pretty quick but if you don’t, you should make sure the bag is sealed up tight so your food doesn’t get stale.

All this talk about food is making me hungry. I know Dad is going to tell me I have a big minute until supper but you never know….

Bone appetite,

Zeva

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Easter Bunnies

Our friend Fluffy asked me to help spread the word about Easter Bunnies. Bunnies are cute and cuddly looking and peoples like to buy them for childrens at Easter time but Fluffy wanted you to know that bunnies aren’t always good pets for childrens.

People think that bunnies are easy to take care of but they are not. Bunnies need as much care as a dog or cat. Like dogs and cats, bunnies need to be fed and their houses need to be kept clean. Bunnies need to go to the Vet too. Although some bunnies go for walks with their humans, most don’t.

Lots of time childrens s get tired of their bunny after a few weeks but bunnies can live for like 10 years so too many end up in shelters or let free outside. Domestic bunnies aren’t good at living in the wild and get eaten by other animals and if they are not adopted from the shelter, they get died there too. How sad!

Fluffy says that bunnies make really good pets and he loves his human family but here are lots of things peoples should know about bunnies before they bring one home.

Like dogs and cats, it takes money to raise a bunny. Like we said, they need food and shelter. Some bunnies live in their human’s houses and some have their own houses, called hutches.

Bunnies that have the run of the house need to be watched closely because, like puppies they tend to like to chew on things when bored. Things like your computer cables or your woodwork. I haven’t really looked to see what toys bunnies like but Fluffy says he likes the cardboard thing that comes with paper towels. Hmmmm so does DixieLee.

Bunnies can be trained to use a litter box like a cat but Fluffy says it’s not easy.

Bunnies are social animals so they need love and attention. They really don’t like to be petted or hugged and they are delicate so they need to be handled very gently.

Like dogs and cats, bunnies should be spayed or neutered. It’s good for their health.

If you would like a bunny for a pet, check with various shelters or rabbit rescue organizations. They will surely have too many abandoned bunnies soon after Easter.

Help Fluffy spread the word about Easter Bunnies and suggest that one made out of chocolate or a plush one might be a better gift for most childrens.

Happy Easter!

Zeva

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Why Dogs?

It’s 4:00 a.m. and Mom and Dad are still sleeping. If it weren’t for DixieLee and me, they would sleep the day away. Mom says we are the cutest alarm clocks, even if we don’t have a snooze button.

Being good alarm clocks aren't the only good things dogs do for their humans.

Dogs help to keep their humans healthy.

They are great exercise buddies. Going for walks or playing games every day help dogs and people stay fit and healthy.

People with dogs recover from being sick faster. Some hospitals are even letting dogs visit their peoples when they are recovering because they see that the peoples get better faster.

Some dogs, called service dogs, are trained to help people with disabilities. They can fetch things like medicines or phones or even help with grocery shopping.

Other dogs are trained to help people with PTSD from getting anxiety and Autistic children from having melt downs.  Dogs can be trained to help Diabetics when their blood sugar is getting too high or too low and others to tell if their human is about to get a migraine or seizure.

Dogs are even being trained to sniff out Cancer!

We are very good at helping to relive stress. Okay, Mom says we cause her stress but she loves it when we run to greet her when she gets home from work. Some offices even let dogs go to work with their humans. When we had our Shoppe, I used to go with Mom every day. I loved to greet the people and some even came by just to see me.

Dogs are great for children. We help them learn responsibility and we are an excellent playmate. I read that kids with a family dog miss less school and are healthier than kids from homes without dogs.

We can help our humans make friends. A dog park or a walk around the neighborhood is a great way to meet people.  Dogs are good conversation starters.

We are super good at guarding our houses. No body can get near our house without us sounding the alarm. We are good at letting Mom and Dad know when the mail arrives and when the UPS truck comes too.

Best of all, dogs are super fun to be around.

Give your humans a hug and have a happy day,

Zeva

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Snoopy, Toto, Lassie, Benji.... What's Your Name?

You all know my name is Zeva but you may not know how I got my name.

When my Mom and Dad first met me, they thought I was very pretty and very smart.  A very pretty actress named Cote dePablo played a character named Ziva David, on TV.  Ziva was a very smart NCIS agent.  So, I got named after her.... only we spell my name differently.

My sister's name is DixieLee.  She got her name because she is a Dixie Dog. A Dixie Dog is a dog that is rescued from high kill shelters in the South and brought North.  She was originally named just plain Dixie but she didn't like that name.  First of all it was "just plain" and Dixie is a place, not a name.

We thought about it and decided that DixieLee was a much prettier name and gave her more of a connection to her Southern heritage.

My friends Bumo and Miu are both from the Himalayan mountain regions of Tibet so their Mom gave them Tibetian names.  Bumo means girl and Miu means doll.  Their names fit them well.

Our friend Beauregard is a very special dog so his Mom named him after her very first dog who was also very special.

There are lots and lots of ways to choose a name for a pet.

Lots of pets have people names or people nicknames.  Some of the most popular dog names are Max, Buddy and Charlie for boys and Bella, Lucy and Molly for girls.

Some favorite cat names are Tigger, Lucy and Molly.  Lots of cats are given names that reflect their appearance or personality.  Names like Shadow, Smoky and Midnight or Comet and Dash.

There are some things that might help people choose a good name.  First, pets respond better to names that have one or two syllables.  Some dogs, especially championship dogs, have really long names.  Their papers may say their name is His Royal Highness Reginald III, his humans probably call him Reggie.

Also it should be a nice name.  How embarrassing it would be to be playing at dog park with a bunch of new firends and have your human yell out "Come here Dog Breath"!  I would run away for sure.
People should choose a name that will grow with their pet.  Even if the puppy is the smallest of the litter, Tiny is not such a good name for a Great Dane or Newfoundland.

Let us know what your name is and how your humans chose it for you.

Love,

Your friend,

Zeva

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