Cat vs. Ice Cream

Ice cream loving cat get his head stuck in a tub of Haagen Daz.

By Juan. Posted in Cats, Random

Winter Pet Care

After the coldest December in Ireland in almost 30 years and as the cold snap continues and temperatures dip to well below zero again tonight here are some tips to keep your pets safe and warm. As we all wrap up in our winter woolies and light the open fires spare a thought for our pets that can’t tell us how cold they are.

Dogs and Cats

• Outdoor or roaming cats often climb up into the engine of a vehicle to keep warm, so before you set off, honk the horn or bang on the bonnet to alert any cat, that might be there. In fact, if your cat knows this trick already you will have to open the bonnet and do a full check as a cat can at best be lost (when car stops in strange place and your cat jumps out) or even be killed.
• Ensure your pet’s water container is not frozen over, as even in cold weather they should have access to fresh clean drinking water.
• Even in the frost and snow a dog needs to be walked but please ensure that you check your dog’s paws afterwards as snow and ice can build up between the toes and form ice balls. Applying vaseline or cooking oil can help prevent this. If you walk your dog on footpaths or roads that have been salted you will need to wash your dog’s paws when you return, as the salt be very irritating to skin.
• Anti-freeze is highly toxic to pets and even small amounts can prove fatal if ingested. It is sweet tasting and so it will be readily ingested by pets if some is spilt or an open container is knocked over or but can also be ingested when cleaning their paws. Poisoning causes depression and loss of coordination and renal failure soon follows.
• Old, thin, young or short-haired dogs e.g Greyhounds or Chihuahuas will naturally feel the cold more and breeds who would normally have thick coats e.g Bichon Frises which have been clipped short will also have little protection in cold weather. Even dogs who should have thick coats but who are mostly inside and are constantly shedding their coats and so are not used to inclement weather will be at risk of hypothermia. Provide these pets with a warm waterproof jacket. Breeds such as Alaskan Malamutes and Bermese Mountain dogs will love the colder weather but remember they too must be given shelter from the cold, wind and rain.
• Ensure arthritic or debilitated pets have somewhere warm, soft and draft free to sleep as they are unable to move around to keep warm and drafty cold environments can aggravate their condition.
• Food amounts may need to be adjusted. Those outdoors may need extra food in order to provide energy to keep themselves warm. However dogs who cannot go out for there usual long walks will need less food as they will be burning less calories.
• Extreme care should be taken of frozen ponds, as thin ice may break under your dog’s weight and he may fall in and be unable to get out.

Small Furries

• Ensure rabbits and guinea pigs in outdoor hutches are warm enough. If the hutch is insulated, elevated off the ground, provided with extra straw, has protection from prevailing winds and is fully waterproof it will probably be ok outside. Otherwise the hutch will need to be brought into a garden shed or garage or into the house.
• Ensure their water bottle isn’t frozen.

Wildlife

• Don’t forget wildlife in the winter. Birds find it difficult to find food in the cold weather particularly with snow on the ground. Leave out some table scraps or provide bird seed or peanuts. Make sure any food is out of reach of cats.
• Make sure the water in the bird bath isn’t frozen over.

Horses

• Check under their rugs to make sure they are warm enough and not soaked through. They can often cope with the cold as long as they are dry, but a horse that is wet will get cold very quickly. Horses, particularly thoroughbreds and horses that have been clipped, may need to be given an extra or heavier rug or brought into a stable or shelter.
• Make sure there feet is picked out daily as snow or frozen mud can build up in their hoofs. . Feel through any long winter cats to make sure they are not getting thin.
• Extra hay and feed will almost certainly be required in cold weather particularly for those kept at grass.
• Ensure their water doesn’t freeze over. Try floating a football in their water trough to help prevent the top freezing over and remove any ice if it does freeze.
• Be very cautious when dealing with horses on icy yards or on the roads particularly when riding as horses, especially those shod, will have little grip (unless they have studs) and may slip.
• Keep an eye out on your horse’s legs and heels for mud fever which can be a problem if the fields are badly poached, forcing your horse to stand in water or mud constantly and so not allowing the skin to dry out.

By Una. Posted in Cats, Dogs, Horses, Pet Care

Ninja Cat Video

Inexplicably popular, this video of a cat stalking the camera man has amassed over 11million viewers on YouTube last year alone. Cats appear to be some of the most popular videos on YouTube so here’s another cat-tastic video for all you cat lovers.

By Juan. Posted in Cats, Random

Puppy Biting

Puppies bite. This is not a form of aggression, but a form of play and communication. It’s important to train a puppy not to bite in play or to communicate, as this behaviour can become unacceptable and even dangerous in an adult dog. This is a very important lesson for a puppy to learn.

For many puppies, all it takes is the owner “Yiping” when puppy teeth touch human skin for them to stop this behaviour. Give a “Yipe!” and stop the game for about 15 minutes after you’ve had to yipe to get pup to take teeth off you. That’s what another puppy would do, and it helps the puppy understand.

This sound needs to be what a puppy would do when the idea is “Ouch! That hurts! I don’t like it! Stop it right now!”

In the litter, that offended puppy would then retaliate in some way, or refuse to play with the rough puppy for awhile. Some puppies have strong predatory instincts that are over stimulated when a person yipes, and for these puppies this would then not be an appropriate method.

Also, make sure no one is playing “mouth games” with the puppy, encouraging it to put teeth on humans for any reason. You need to react with your “yipe” or other intervention every time teeth touch a human, whether it hurts or not, so the puppy will understand this vital concept: no teeth on people. Even a gentle touch could get someone hurt if they jerk their hand away, and people will do that, especially kids.

My favourite intervention for a dog putting teeth on people in play is not a quick fix, but it has nice benefits and is very safe to do with most dogs. I simply hold the mouth closed for 15 seconds (work up to this time–at first it might frighten the dog to hold for more than about 5 seconds), while praising the dog. I say “[Dog's name], Close Your Mouth. GOOD Close Your Mouth!”

This teaches the dog the words for the behaviour I want–and eventually you can remind the dog about the mouth by just saying those words. But that stage won’t last long, because if you are very consistent about doing this intervention every time the puppy puts teeth on people, eventually the puppy will never do so at all.

By handling the mouthing from a positive point of view with praise–although it’s still a correction: done every time the dog mouths a person’s skin, it shows the dog the correct behaviour of keeping teeth off people and praises the dog for doing it–you gain other benefits, such as accustoming your dog to being comfortable having someone control its mouth.

You do have to be consistent and stay with this over a period of time to get really solid results. Dogs not taught about teeth on people do not automatically outgrow it, so this is time very well spent training your dog. This method works on adult dogs as well as puppies, and is much safer for both you and the dog than harsh corrections.

Teaching a dog never to put teeth on humans is for family dogs. For some types of work dogs might do, the trainer may not want to create this strong inhibition against putting teeth on human skin. In those cases, the trainer may manage the puppy mouthing behaviour by simply putting a toy in the dog’s mouth. We can definitely take a cue from these trainers by redirecting our dogs’ mouthing behaviour into their toys, after we have carefully shown the dog not to mouth us.

I also find it useful to teach the dog the word “Kiss” for licking. When the dog is highly stimulated in play and seems to need to touch me in some manner, I can remind the dog “Kiss” and then praise the dog for licking me.

In the early stages of working on mouthing behaviour with a puppy or new dog, keep in mind that you want to teach any new behaviour/command in a quiet situation with minimal distractions. So start teaching “Close Your Mouth” with the praise at times when the dog is quiet. Soon you can do it quickly and smoothly whenever mouthing occurs, even if the dog is excited. But you will in the process be bringing the dog’s excitement level down and helping your dog develop self-control.

The praise is important to helping the puppy or dog learn to have no fear of a human taking control of its mouth. You are praising the puppy for accepting the restraint at that instant, not for the mouthing done 3 seconds ago.

And be sure you don’t cause your dog to bite its lips or tongue when you restrain the mouth–it should be comfortable for the dog, as it should be any time you require your dog to obey any command of yours.

This blog post was contributed by Liam Moriarty MVB. For more pet care advice visit www.myvet.ie.

By Juan. Posted in Dogs, Pet Care

Lost and Found Maps

We have just finished rolling out our lost and found animals map search. This unique and very helpful feature will make searching for and locating lost animals easier then ever before!

Currently, on Pets.ie, all lost and found ads allow advertisers to mark exactly where, on a street, they last saw or found an animal. Pets.ie have taken all these locations and placed them on a single map of Ireland which users can view and navigate around.

To make searching even easier, we have also included filters which allow you to display a map of your area while only showing ( for example ) “lost dogs” or “found cats”.

At this point I think it makes more sense to show you exactly what I’m talking about. See the lost and found animals map of Ireland, all the dogs lost in Dublin and all cats found in Cork.

By Juan. Posted in Lost & Found, Pets.ie