Dog Breeds

People have been breeding dogs for ages. Once people domesticated dogs, or as some would argue, dogs domesticated themselves, we started to selectively breed dogs for certain favourable characteristics. A lot of early dog breeds were bred for working. Many dog breeds were bred for working on farms and helped farmers by herding cattle. Other dog breeds were specially made for hunting or fishing. Today, these dog breeds still exist but are used as show dogs or kept as family pets rather than serving the purpose they were bred for. There are however, still a lot of working dogs, including search and rescue dogs, herding dogs, and therapy dogs. Dogs that were commonly used by hunters to sniff out animals are now used by police to sniff out escaped criminals, missing persons, and illegal substances. One dog breed that’s known for its incredible sense of smell is the bloodhound. Other dogs are used as therapy dogs, to comfort the ill or guide the blind. Almost any dog, whether purebred or not, can be a therapy dog if properly trained and well behaved. The golden retriever is an especially good therapy dog because the breed s known for being very friendly, trainable, and good-humoured.

Dog Shows

Other dogs are not bred for working, but for showing. For dog shows, breeding is more serious because dog show dogs must look a certain way and must be pure bred. People come up with a set of criteria for each dog breed that a dog must meet in order to represent its breed in a dog show. The greatest dangers associated with this kind of strict breeding are inherited genetic disorders that result from too much inbreeding. That’s why it’s important that a dog breeder be very knowledgeable about the breed of dog.

Dog Food

Dogs need dog food because our food is often too rich for them and can make them sick. Also, dog food is less expensive than our food, usually, and is specially designed for dogs. If you buy dog food from the vet it can also get quite expensive and with the recent poisoned dog food scare, many dog owners are making their own dog food. Making dog food is easy and takes a lot less time and effort than you’d expect. You just need to pick up some suitable healthy ingredients, make a big stew of it and let it cook for a few hours. If you make a big batch of dog food at once, you can divide it into small portions and freeze them so that you won’t have to do it again for a couple weeks. If you need ideas for dog food recipes, there are plenty on the internet.

Dog Training

Dog training is essential if you are to have a good relationship with your dog. Dogs can be trained to do just about anything, but some dogs pick things up faster than others. It’s important that you train your dog when it’s a puppy because it will be much harder to train your dog when they’re already full-grown, especially if it’s a big dog. House training your puppy is probably one of the things you’ll want to teach your puppy first. Later, you can move onto teaching your puppy not to run into traffic, and not to jump upon people or bite them. If you’re puppy is fairly bright and picks things up fast, you can start to teach them tricks like rollover and what not.

Dog Recreation

And what do dogs do for recreation? Most of a dog’s life is spent on recreational activities. Some popular dog recreation activities include napping, digging, eating, going for walks, napping, eating, napping, and chasing cars. A good way to keep your dog active and healthy is to take part in dog recreation activities in your community, like going to dog obedience school. Some dogs also enjoy swimming. Many of the dog breeds that enjoy swimming the most are the ones that were bred to be swimmers so that they could work for fishermen by retrieving their nets from the water.

Dog Travel

While most dogs would rather travel with you than stay in a kennel while you’re away, traveling with your dog is not always possible. Dog travel becomes especially difficult if you have a big dog, like a Labrador or a chow chow. If you have a small dog, you can usually bring them along on family road trips without too much trouble, but check with the hotel in advance to see if they allow dogs. In general, most dogs don’t mind road trips – in fact, most of them love to go for a joyride. Planes, on the other hand, are rarely a good experience for any dog. People often bring their dogs overseas by plane if they’re moving to a new country and don’t want to leave their dog behind. This can be expensive and normally requires you to leave your dog in quarantine for a time before you’re allowed to pick it up to make sure its not bringing any strange diseases into the country. While most dogs travel in the cargo compartment of the plane, some airlines will allow very small dogs to travel with their owner if they have a carrying case for them. They might ask you to give your dog some sedatives and place it in a crate under your seat so that it doesn’t disturb the other passengers. Even so, this is likely a much less stressful trip for your dog because it knows you’re nearby.

Dog Aging and Illness

Dogs age a lot faster than humans and a healthy dog usually only has a lifespan of about ten to twenty years. Bigger dogs tend not to live as long as small dogs. One way to prolong your dog’s life and avoid health problems for your dog is to feed your dog a healthy balanced diet and exercise your dog regularly. Also, if you buy your dog from a breeder, make sure they’re trustworthy and knowledgeable and that your new puppy is healthy to start off with.