Dogs aren’t man’s bestfriend for nothing. We pet owners love to share stories about our pets and very often we exchange not just facts, but myths or fiction about our pals and pet ownership as well. These are the top 5 myths I hear very often:

5. Dogs must have bones!

The most common thing associated with dogs is the bone. We see pictures, animations and illustrations showing dogs biting bones so often that most people start to believe that it’s okay to give a dog a bone to feast on. But did you know that bones are actually damaging to dogs? Unless you are working with a veterinarian or are experienced in raw feeding do not give dogs raw food or bones. Dogs have dental care needs just like humans and their teeth wear down or even break from chewing hard bones. Even cooked bones should never be given to dogs. Cooking changes the chemical and physical properties of bones and they resist digestion and cannot be chewed properly. If your dog loves to chew on something, buy him soft chew toys or nylon bones.

4. Is your dog healthy? Touch his nose!

People say that a cold, wet nose indicates a healthy dog. But truth is, just like human’s, a dog’s nose is at normal body temperature unless he is out in cold, wintry air. Therefore, it is not a wet nose that tells you your dog is healthy, but rather a dry, hot nose is a sign that something may be wrong.

3. Pit bulls have locking jaws. So if you ever must get bitten by a dog, never by a pit bull!

Dog neurologists and dog behaviorists debunked this myth. Dogs do not have jaw locking mechanisms and there is no such thing as jaw locking.

2. Dog’s age multiplied by 7 equals the dog’s equivalent human age.

The formula above is so wrong. If you want to compute your dog’s age in human terms, count the first year at 15; his second year as 10, and add 5 for each year after.

1. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

Oh we hear this very often! Just like us humans, dogs undergo behavioral, physiological, and neurological changes as they grow older. We cannot feed our older dog the same way we fed him when he was a puppy. If older dogs ignore his owner’s commands, it’s probably not because he is old, but because of hearing loss that often happens during aging. It is possible to teach older dogs new tricks using different methodologies. Hand signal is one good example. So yes, no matter how old they are, they can still be trained.

What other myths do you hear?

Types of Animal Cruelty continued…

6. Burning (Fire or Fireworks) – This happens when a human tries to injure an animal by setting him on fire or using fireworks to harm him. An example of this is if a human purposely left a dog or a cat inside a burning house.

7. Stabbing – This is when a human tries to kill an animal through stabbing or hitting him with a pointed object such as a knife. An example of this is intentionally thrusting a dagger on any part of an animal’s body.

8. Vehicular – This happens when a human uses any type of vehicle to harm or injure an animal. An example of this is when a human drags a dog behind his truck just to harm the animal.

9. Fighting – This type refers to illegal animal fighting which is a blood-sport in which animals are specifically bred and trained to fight each other within an enclosed pit or ring. This is done solely for the benefit of individuals who place
bets on the animal they believe will win. The fights are extremely brutal which in worst cases may cause death to the  animal involved. Pitbull fights are popular example of this type of animal cruelty.

10. Burning (Caustic Substance) – This one happens when a human tries to harm an animal using a substance that can cause his body to be burned or damaged severely. An example of this is if a human pour a harmful chemical on the face of a dog or cat.

Animal cruelty can be prevented for as long as there are people who care for the welfare of animals. We can help stop this nonsense by reporting animal cruelty to authorities and making sure that our own pets are safe in our homes.

To be continued…

*Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

Animal cruelty has a lot of faces. How do you recognize it?

Below are the common cruelty types in cases of offleash/unconfined cats and dogs according to Pet-Abuse.com:

1. Shooting – Comprising 57.8% of the total 798 reported cases of abuse, shooting is the most common type of animal cruelty, either deliberately or by accident. All animal cruelty is tragic, but cases involving the shooting of a companion animal are often even more tragic because in most situations, the act could have been prevented.

2. Poisoning – this type of cruelty usually happens when pet owners allow their animal companions to go outside unsupervised putting them in real danger of being harmed by people who are irritated by animals’ barking, defecating in yards, digging in flowerbeds, or bothering other animals.

3. Mutilation/Torture – comprises 8.3% of the total cases, which constitutes 114 reported cases of abuse. The act of torturing or mutilating the animal by inflicting severe damage on the animal’s body such as cropping the ear or cutting the arms and legs.

4. Beating – This happens when a human inflicts severe force towards an animal like hitting it with bare hands or with the use of a sturdy material such as a baseball bat, metal pole, etc. Beating can also be associated with punching the animal in any part of his body. Couple of months ago, there was this animal video circulating online showing a man beating his pet dog repeatedly.  Concerned netizens tried to identify the people involved in this heartless act of animal cruelty and local organisations and law enforcement units are working together to track these people down and save the animal.

5. Neglect/ Abandonment – This type of animal cruelty involves situations where an animal is left without food, water or shelter, or when proper veterinary care is not given. However, in most cases, the main reason why this cruelty occurs is because of the owner’s ignorance. This is why many animal control officers and humane law enforcement officers will first attempt to educate the neglectful owner rather than immediately arresting him. So if you must leave your house, make sure you leave food for your pet or ask a neighbor or a friend to feed him. Even if you didn’t mean to, neglecting or abandoning your pet is a form of animal cruelty and may be punishable by law.

To be continued…

*Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

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We, at Dog Rescue Newcastle are dedicated to rescuing dogs from death row at pounds and giving them a second chance to find loving homes. We can’t save them all but we can save a few when we foster carers available.

Elly is a tiny Shih Tzu, approximately 6 years old. She spent two weeks in a pound in the middle of winter, in a concrete enclosure with no heating or bedding. She shared her cage with several other small dogs and there were only two trampoline style beds for all of them. Being very timid and frightened, she must have spent all her time cowering in a corner on the cold ground.

After we rescued Elly from the pound, her vet check revealed that she needed surgery to repair the kneecaps on both of her back legs. Poor Elly must have been in pain all her life. This could be one reason why she is so timid. We also don’t know if she has been mistreated. We couldn’t let this dear little girl suffer any longer so we put her on pain medication and scheduled her surgery for as soon as possible. Her surgery will cost our group approximately $1,000. So we need to do fundraising to try to cover this cost.

Elly had the first of two operations on 26/7/10. She will need to heal for 8 weeks and then, if all is going well, she can have her second knee fixed. She is a very frightened little dog who must have had a hard life up until now. She is just beginning to come out of her shell a little. She wags the tip of her tail when her kind and gentle foster carer approaches, but then she hides her face and cowers again.

We believe that in time she will learn to trust people. We have seen other rescue dogs that come into care very frightened dogs then blossom into happy, trusting dogs when they are shown kindness. We expect Elly to make a full recovery from both her operations and to be available for adoption toward the end of November.

In the mean time, we need to raise the $1000 needed to pay for her veterinary care. If you can make a small donation, please go to the Dog Rescue Newcastle home page http://www.dogrescuenewcastle.com.au/ and click on the “Donate” button to donate securely using your credit card, bank account, or Paypal. Alternatively, you can make a direct deposit to our Newcastle Permanent bank account BSB: 650 000, Account: 986245302. Please include “Elly” as a reference. You could also shop at Petitude online pet store and enter coupon code 4ELLY on the last page of the check out process and Petitude will donate 15% of whatever you spend to Elly.

You can see more photos and video of Elly at http://tinyurl.com/dogsnew and can keep track of her progress by joining our Facebook group http://tinyurl.com/dogsface.

Thank you very, very much from all of us at Dog Rescue Newcastle and Elly.

Do you take lots of photographs and videos of your pets? If you want to share these with your friends and family you could try emailing them, but you’ll soon find out that the large file sizes make this impractical. You could compress the files first, but before you do, you should know that there is a better way. Let Google Picasa do the work for you! Instead of emailing large files to people who may not welcome the large download or not know how to handle the attachments, you can put your photos and short videos online. Then you only have to email a link to your online photo albums, not the photos or videos themselves. This is easier and quicker for you and the recipient. When your friend receives your email all they have to do is click on the link and they can instantly see your online album containing as many photos and videos as you want to share.

As an example, see how Dog Rescue Newcastle uses Google Picasa to showcase photos and videos of rescued pets available for adoption: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/DogRescueNewcastle

Picasa is a free photo sharing website and application. It allows you to catalogue all the media (photos, video, etc) on your hard drive, edit your media (crop, remove red eye, rotate, etc.), then upload them to the web so others can see them. You control who can see your photo albums.

To get started with Picasa go to the Google Australia home page http://www.google.com.au/ and click on the Signin link at the top right of the page to create a Google Account for yourself (if you don’t already have one).

After your Google account is established, return to the Google home page and click on the more link along the top of the page (above the big letter “G” in “Google”).

This will display a pull down menu from which you should select Photos.

Follow the instructions for downloading and installing Picasa to your computer. Then you’ll be able to copy your photos from your computer to your Picasa website.

Guest Author: After a long career in IT, Terri now divides her time between bookkeeping for the family business and volunteer work with Dog Rescue Newcastle.