5 Reasons To Get a Dog When Retiring

If you are looking for the perfect retirement gift for Mom and/or Dad, you may want to consider getting them a dog. Likewise, if you are the person retiring, this may be the perfect time to adopt a dog from a shelter. A canine friend can enrich a retiring person's life in many ways. 

Here are 5 reasons to get a dog when retiring.

1. A dog can improve your physical health a great deal. Dogs need to be walked a few times a day and it's not something you can put off. This keeps you constantly motivated to take walks. In a way, the dog is walking you, not the other way around! Walking of course is a great way to keep your cardiovascular system in shape, i.e. it is good for human health and for dog health. Walking your dog is also a way to ensure you'll get outside and fill your lungs with some healthy fresh air. Even in a tidy house, stale inside air can be highly polluted. Frequently going outside is also great for your psyche. If your dog doesn't seem interested in walking every day, one way to motivate her is to go on a walk right before feeding time when she gets her favorite dog food!

2. Having a dog can also work wonders for your social life. It is very natural for dogs to stop and interact with other dogs as you walk along. This often leads to their humans pleasantly interacting as well. Of course, it is important that a dog be properly trained and socialized so that they get along with other people and different breeds of dogs they will encounter when walking or while playing in the park. There are various techniques that can be used to accomplish this. A friendly dog meet and greet is a great conversation starter. People who would never speak to one another otherwise may quickly become fast friends when they are out and about with their dog. 

3. A dog can also improve your interpersonal life at home too. Often times, when one or both spouses retire, this major change can create new conflict within a marriage. A dog helps to assuage this in much the same way as children do by becoming a shared focus of positive attention. You and your spouse both love the dog and want what's best for him or her, and thus you work cooperatively toward that goal, improving your relationship in the process.

4. Dogs also help older adults remain young at heart. They reduce stress and anxiety by being a constant comfort. The act of gently stroking a dog can make anger and sadness melt away. This is why "therapy dogs" are now being used in nursing homes and hospitals. Interacting with a dog reduces cortisol levels. Cortisol is the "stress hormone" and it can lead to health issues like depression, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, obesity, and heart disease.


5. Dogs can help you keep mentally keen as well. You naturally want to learn more about canine health so you can keep your dog healthier, give them a higher quality of life, and help them live longer. Toward this end, you may end up researching topics like what type of dog feed to feed them, how to keep their fur in good shape, what type of ancestry your particular dog breed may have, the various health issues associated with your dog breed, and how to keep them happy. Learning about dogs and applying this to caring for your own dog becomes a fascinating and rewarding hobby. The best part is that the more you care for your dog, the richer and more rewarding your own life will be.

Be sure to feed your dog a high quality dog food so he or she will stay in top form. A dog fed a lower quality dog food may act sluggish, have persistent, skin allergies, and more easily suffer from disease!

Dog Dental Care For a Pomeranian Husky

A Pomeranian Husky is a very popular designer breed created by crossing a Pomeranian with a Husky. It is well known that Pomeranians are more prone to dental problems than other breeds so special care must be taken to prevent gum disease and tooth loss. Unfortunately, Pomeranian Huskies usually inherit their dental traits from the Pomeranian, not the Husky, so it is extra important to provide regular dog dental care for them.

Give Your Pomeranian High Quality Dog Food

Be sure to give your Pom high quality dog food that contains no corn, soy, fillers, or low quality meat by products. The higher the quality of dog food, the less trouble your dog will have with gum disease and decaying teeth.

Start Them Out As a Puppy

Dogs adapt better to having their teeth cleaned if you start them out as a puppy. For Pomeranian Huskies, you should start around 8 weeks old. To get them used to the idea, for about a week, you can simply rub your finger along their gum line. Talk sweetly to them as you do so and turn it into a bonding time they enjoy. The following week, you can use a finger brush to massage their gums. This will help keep their gums healthy and get them used to a foreign object being inside their mouth. The third week, you can use a dog tooth brush with a small dab of dog toothpaste. There are enzymes in dog toothpaste that kill bacteria and prevent plaque from turning into tartar. Never use human toothpaste because it can hurt, or even kill, your dog.

Get Into a Daily Routine With Your Pomeranian Husky

While it is recommended for all dog breeds that you clean their teeth at least twice a week, with Pomeranian Huskies, you should brush their teeth at least once a day. Make it part of a daily grooming ritual that your dog learns to enjoy because it means being the center of attention with their favorite human. You may also want to combine this ritual with play time and/or a walk outside as a reward for being "good" while you brush their teeth. You should also talk softly to them and praise them as you brush their teeth. Positive reinforcement almost always works better with a dog than scolding them when they don't do want you want them to do.

Never Use Human Toothpaste - It Bears Repeating!

Many human toothpastes use xylitol, a sugar substitute, to make it sweet tasting. While xylitol is not toxic to humans, it is harmful, even deadly, to dogs. Also, even if you use a human toothpaste that states it does not have xylitol, you should not use it on your Pomsky. This is because of the grit particles used in virtually all brands of human toothpaste. We spit this out so it does not hurt us. However, dogs swallow toothpaste and this grit can cause abdominal damage and pain.

Professional Teeth Cleanings

It is generally recommended that dogs have their teeth professionally cleaned once a year. However, with the Pomeranian Husky's propensity for dental issues, you should keep a very close watch for any plaque build-up. It can be helpful to examine your Huskeranian's teeth with a bright light and a magnifying glass. If you notice any plaque build-up, regardless of regular brushing at home, you may want to talk with your veterinarian about having your dog's teeth professionally cleaned at least twice a year. Be careful not to add sweet things to your Pom's dog food as this will increase their plaque.

Final Thoughts

Dog dental care is important for all breeds of dog. However, it is even more important for Pomeranian Huskies since they are so prone to plaque build-up leading to gum disease and loose teeth. For this reason, you should be sure to be extra diligent about cleaning the teeth of your precious little Pomsky!

Dog Food: The Importance Of Not Leaving It Out In the Summertime

I recently visited a friend who has a toy poodle. She loves her dog dearly but she was doing something that I just had to say something about. She was leaving canned dog food out for her poodle all the time. In the month of August, when she leaves the house, she leaves her thermostat on about seventy-five degrees to save money and the house actually gets much hotter than that due to the fact that she has several uncovered sky lights and lots of picture windows. It's basically like a greenhouse in there. I could see that the edges of the dog food in her dog's bowl was hard and crusty.

Pathogens will start to attack dog food almost as soon as you set the bowl down. Therefore, if you put so much dog food down that your dog can't finish it all in one meal, you may very well end up with spoiled dog food. You may also end up with a very sick dog due to food poisoning!

During the summer months, be sure to only put out just enough dog food that your dog can finish it it immediately. Also, be sure to wash the bowl thoroughly between feedings. It only takes a small amount of pathogenic bacteria to make your dog sick. Finally, store the dog food in the refrigerator. If your dog doesn't like cold food, take out a portion about thirty to forty minutes before you serve it.

What Are the Dirtiest Secrets of the Dog Food Industry? You Need To Protect Your Dog From These Dog Food Ingredients!

I need to prepare you for the dog food ingredients information you are about to receive. What I'm going to tell you is really going to gross you out. It is going to make you not want to buy any more commercial dog food, or at least not buy 99% of all the dog food brands out there. You are going to be shocked and disgusted. You are going to get angry that it can actually happen. You are going to wonder why the government isn't protecting you and your dog. You are going to wonder how this could happen without more people knowing about it. You are going to want to take immediate action to protect your dog. It is disturbing information and yes, before you even ask, these facts are 100% true.

Dead Dogs Are Included In Dog Food Ingredients

When dogs don't get adopted at dog shelters, they usually get euthanized. It is very expensive to bury these euthanized dogs so they often get picked up by rendering companies and used to make dog food and other animal feed. They get "rendered" by throwing them into huge vats along with other ingredients at very high temperatures and then chopped up and melted down into one big conglomerate rendered soup. So, dead dogs get "recycled" back into dog food. The term "recycled" is an industry term. When you feed your dog commercial dog food, you may very well be feeding dog to your dog, although "dog" or "canine" will never be listed specifically in the ingredients. At one point, the city of Los Angeles alone was sending 400,000 pounds of euthanized dogs and cats to rendering factories. The $2.4 billion dollar per year rendering business doesn't mention these figures anywhere on their websites that tout "recycling" and the multi-billion dollar pet food industry (more than $13 billion per year in the United States alone) keeps this a hush hush secret.

When treasured family pets get terminally ill and the family decides to euthanize them or when pet dogs die on the operating table, the bereft family often leaves the dead dog with the vet. However, most of these dogs do not get buried or honored in any special way. Just like the fate of the unwanted shelter dogs, euthanized pet dogs at the vet's office often get sent to rendering plants to be turned into dog food. That's right... beloved family pets get turned into dog food. Never leave your pet dog at the vet's office no matter what.

Believe it or not, it gets even worse. The barbiturate that is used to euthanize dogs (and other animals included in dog food such as zoo animals), sodium pentobarbital, does not fully break down in the rendering process. In other words, high temperature does not break down sodium pentobarbital. So, when you feed your dog, there is a very high likelihood it is laced with a residue of the chemical used to euthanize dogs!

If the dead dogs included in dog food had cancerous tumors or contagious diseases, it doesn't matter. They are still sent to the rendering factory. If the dead dogs had been treated with powerful antibiodics and other strong medications, these are included in the vat at the rendering plant. If the dog was wearing a chain around its neck, had surgical pins containing heavy metals inserted, had a flea collar on, it doesn't matter. Nothing is removed. It is all just dumped in with the rest, mechanically chopped up, heated to very high temperatures, and turned into dog food and other products like cosmetics. If the dog died of mad cow disease, the dog would still be picked up by the rendering plants because vets don't even call it mad cow disease. Instead, they euphemistically call it "Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS)." The FDA is in complete denial on this subject.

Diseased and Dying Animals Are Intentionally Included As Dog Food Ingredients

Farm animals so sick they can't stand up are often picked up for the rendering plants without even being tested to see what is making them so sick. Often the animal will lay there until half rotten before it is picked up and taken to the rendering plant. Zoo animals that die of mysterious causes are often taken to the rendering plant. If you feed your dog commercial dog food, you may very well be feeding them diseased cattle, diseased horses, diseased giraffe, diseased hippopotamus, diseased lions, etc, etc. Diseased animals are fair game for the pet food industry and rendering plants will gladly accept the carcasses no matter the condition. There is no law against it so they do it because it is profitable to them to do so.

Road Kill Is Included In Dog Food Ingredients

Raccoons, skunks, snakes, rats, birds, possums, armadillos, you name it, if it is killed by a car on a highway, it has probably found its way into dog food via the rendering plants. Road crews come by and pick up the animals and then give them to the rendering plants. However, they often don't get to the animals until they've been laying there for a few days or even weeks. The dead animals may have already be half eaten by maggots but off to the rendering plant they will go. The dead animals may be diseased but they are still taken to the rendering plants. None of these animals are tested before they are turned into food for dogs and other products.

Rotten Grocery Store Meat Gets Included In Dog Food

Did you think they threw the rotten meat away at the grocery store? No, of course not. After they mark it down, "reduced for quick sale," if it rots beyond the point they can sale it, they give it to the rendering plants. But here's the real clencher... the rendering plants don't even take off the plastic wrapping or Styrofoam containers before they throw it into the rendering vat. Removing the packaging would take time and therefore make it less profitable for them.

Can Dogs Get Mad Cow Disease From Eating Commercial Dog Food

Many concerned pet owners are asking the question, "Can dogs get mad cow disease from eating dog food?" The simple answer is "yes, they can" but you deserve to know more detail so you can do something about it and protect your beloved dog from this terrible fate.

First of all, many dogs have already gotten mad cow disease from eating dog food. Your vet is more likely to call it, "Canine Cognitive Disorder" or "Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome" abbreviated as CD or CDS. However, when autopsies have been done, it has been proven to be the same exact thing as mad cow disease.

Governmental agencies are loathe to admit dogs are getting mad cow disease. From 1991 to 1997, the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food withheld the results of a study of 444 hunting dogs that clearly demonstrated that many had died of mad cow disease. In fact, it wasn't until a Norwegian scientist figured out that a golden retriever had died from mad cow disease by eating pet food made with cattle imported from Britain that they finally disclosed this information to the public. The American USDA hasn't been any better about disclosing information to the American public and the pet food industry has kept this hush hush as well. Big money talks. Bottom line, governmental agencies and industry groups are not reliable sources of information about mad cow disease in dogs.

Here's why your dog can get mad cow disease from commercial food. Mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is caused by ingesting abnormal proteins called prions that behave like viruses. These are concentrated in the neural tissue of animals that have died from the disease or were carriers of the disease. These concentrations occur mainly in the brain and the spinal cord. To prevent these prions from entering the human food supply, most governments around the world, including the US government and the British government, have now banned brains and spinal cords from cattle from being put into food intended for human consumption. However, they have NOT banned this tissue from being added to food supplies used in the making of pet food. To make matters worse, these prions are incredibly resistant and often survive even the intense temperatures used in rendering factories.

Don't be fooled into believing that your particular brand of dog food couldn't contain tainted meat because it most definitely could as it is still legal for pet food to contain brain, spinal cord, and other neural tissue from cattle. Additionally, cows are not the only animals where this tissue can come from. Euthanized dogs, goats, sheep, road kill, and zoo animals, all of which could contain the deadly prions, can be legally included in dog food although you will not see these specially listed on the ingredients list! Almost all brands of dog food are subject to this type of contamination. In fact, there are only a few brands that you can be absolutely certain do not contain this type of diseased tissue that could cause mad cow disease in your dog.

Watch Out For Those Tricky Dog Food Labels

When shopping for dog food, the first thing you see on the label is the name of the food. For example, the food may be called something like "Gourmet Beef Dinner" but did you know that if it is labelled as "Gourmet Beef Dinner," it can legally contain 70% fish? That's right. I'm not kidding. Dog food called "Gourmet Beef Dinner" can legally contain more fish than beef. It can also legally contain road kill, euthanized dogs and cats, zoo animals, cancerous tumors, and diseased chickens. Depending on the particular batch of food it comes from, "Gourmet Beef Dinner" could contain a healthy dose of dead giraffe from the zoo that died from died from mysterious causes, roadkill skunk (fur and all), or various types of diseased birds (feathers and all).

The way dog food labels read is actually very complicated and difficult for consumers to interpret. It is exceedingly difficult to understand what is really going on. This is absolutely intentional and pet food companies pay lobbyists a lot of money to keep it that way. Although the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does establish some federal regulations (compliance is another ball of worms), by and large the pet food industry polices itself via the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). This is like the fox guarding the hen house.

To give you a sense of how dirty they play, I'm going to describe to you the "rules" they follow for the basic name of the dog food. The name of the product is of course one of the most important factors consumers use in deciding which dog food to buy. I believe this will illustrate how tricky this business really is and how most consumers really have no idea what they are actually feeding to their pets. If they did, I don't think they'd actually feed their beloved dogs the vast majority of commercial canine food out there

95% Rule

The 95% rule applies to dog foods where the main ingredients are derived from mammals, poultry, and fish. It almost always applies to can dog food and not to dry dog food. It includes names like:

Beef For Dogs
Chicken Canine Food
Chicken & Tuna Dog Food

In these examples, at least 95% of the product must be the product(s) listed in the name, not including water. If you exclude the water, it must contain at least 70% of the product listed. So, for example, "Beef For Dogs" must include at least 95% beef, excluding the water content. "Chicken & Tuna Dog Food" must include at least 95% chicken and tuna and there must be more chicken than tuna by weight. Very few dog foods will fall into this category because it is more expensive to make so let's move on.

25% Rule (aka the "dinner rule")

If the ingredient(s) listed in the product name accounts for less than 95% of the total product, excluding water, and more than 25%, excluding water, then the listed ingredient(s) must have a "qualifying descriptive term" such as dinner, entree, or formula. If you count the water, then the listed ingredient(s) must constitute at least 10% of the total product. Here are some examples:

Beef Dinner
Beef Entree
Beef Formula
Beef Platter
Beef Nuggets
Beef Recipe
Chicken and Fish Formula
Beef and Rice Entree

The truth is that a can of dog food that contains beef can also contain dozens of other types of animals. In fact, a product for your dog that lists "beef" in the name with a qualifying descriptive term may in fact have MORE of another type of animal and/or a vegetarian source than beef. So, "beef dinner" could very well be more chicken than beef or if you get the right batch, more roadkill alligator than beef or more corn than beef. In other words, if they add the qualifying descriptive term, the primary ingredient(s) does not have to be the one listed in the name of the product. Each listed ingredient must make up at least 3% of the total product. So "Chicken and Fish Formula" must have at least 25% combined chicken and fish and at least 3% fish. Here's another trick. They can also add a cheaper ingredient of plant origin to bring their cost down. So, "Beef and Rice Entree" might contain only 13% beef and 12% rice to total 25% beef and rice combined.

3% Rule (aka the "with rule")

Now it gets really tricky. You need to be on the look out for the word "with" in the name of the product because it is usually designed to trick you into believing the majority of the product is a certain ingredient where in reality it is only a very small portion of the product, i.e. just 3% of the total product. Consider the following name:

Dog Food With Beef
Hungry Chow With Beef
Stew With Beef

Both of the examples above only have to contain 3% beef to be legal. These names can of course be easily confused with foods containing a much larger percentage of beef like:

Beef Dog Food
Beef Chow
Beef Stew

The Flavor Rule

Under the "flavor rule," a specific percentage is not required. The FDA simply states that the food must contain "an amount sufficient to be able to be detected" and "impart a distinctive characteristic"

So, a food called "Chicken Flavor Dog Food" doesn't even have to have 3% chicken as long as the word "flavor" is included in the name and the print size of it is as large as the rest of the name of the product. A dog food company could simply add some chicken "digest" to give it the taste of chicken and call it this.

Diabetes Dog Symptions - Get Your Dog Tested If You See These

Diabetes in dogs and humans is increasing at an alarming rate.  If you see the following symptoms, your dog may have diabetes and you should have them tested right away:

• Drinking more water - your dog's body may be craving more water to try to wash out the extra sugar.
• Urinating more frequently - your dog may not be able to "hold it" and start urinating in the house.
• Losing weight - you should be especially concerned if your dog is still eating the same amount but they are still losing weight.
• Increased Appetite - If your dog is wanting more food but is still losing weight, this is a definite sign of diabetes and you need to get the blood test.

These diabetes dog symptoms are basically the same as what you would see in people. In fact, dog diabetes is very similar to human diabetes.