Do Not Give Your Dog A Toxic Treat On Holidays

Holidays are a day of showing love and affection. For many dog owners, it is hard to resist giving our beloved pet a little treat on a holiday and few things say I love you as well as chocolate.

Unfortunately, what giving a well-intentioned gift of chocolate to your dog actually says is, I am poisoning you.

How much poison is OK?

Coca, a major ingredient in chocolate, contains theobromine-and that is the poisonous part. The concentration of theobromine varies by the type of chocolate, with white chocolate having very little and dark chocolate having as much as 10 times the concentration that milk chocolate has.

So how much is dangerous? A mere 52 milligrams of theobromine per pound of a dog's body weight can be deadly. Per pound of a dog's weight, that is about 1 ounce of milk chocolate and about one-tenth of an ounce of dark chocolate.

But remember, that is when it reaches potentially fatal levels. There are many things that can happen at lower levels.

Not deadly-but certainly not good

Additional effects of theobromine poisoning include:

    Hyperactivity
    Agitation
    Tremors
    Seizures
    Vomiting
    Diarrhea

The asterisked words are red flags to contact your veterinarian immediately. If the dog is not vomiting, then induce vomiting. (Keeping a bottle of syrup of ipecac on-hand is always a good precaution.)

There is no specific antidote for theobromine poisoning.

While a Great Dane is unlikely to die from eating a few chocolate kisses, it is important to remember that some dogs are more sensitive to theobromine than other dogs. Even a large dog may have a life-threatening reaction to a relatively small dose of the poison. With small dogs, it is easy to hit deadly levels while ingesting what to a person may seem like a small amount of chocolate.

Hoard your stash

It is also important to remember that dogs are gorgers. If a dog takes a box of chocolates or finds a stash of chocolate bars, it is likely to eat the entire thing in one gluttonous meal. For that reason, it is important to your dog's safety that chocolate be kept inaccessible at all times.

There are many foods that are toxic to dogs. For this reason, it is best to feed dogs food and treats that are made specifically to meet their dietary requirements. But with certain holidays comes a desire to share a human treat with our dog, and chocolate is such a pleasure for so many people.

Remember, if you love your dog, then do not give it poi

3 Surefire Tips in Dealing With Your Dog During His Training

Having a pet and taking good care of it is not an easy task. Pets such as dogs need to be trained and disciplined. They need to be well behaved in every situation they are put in such as when they meet new guests in the house. This is where this dog training guide and the tips on how to train your dog in a gentle manner so they may thoroughly learn to discipline themselves comes in.

It is not a good idea to have your pet suffer in pain during dog training.

Not only does this hurt him, it may also cause him not to follow your instructions all the more. Your dog could rebel against you and your orders if you tried to harm him during the course of his training. The question now is this: how do you, the dog's master, train him well enough so that he would learn from the training? Here are some ways on how to go about a dog training guide that is gentle and yet thorough in training pet dogs:

    Acquire a decent understanding of your pet's attitude or behavior. It is important that you understand how your pet behave before you begin training him to follow basic commands or even to behave. Dogs are like humans. They need to be understood as well as they have feelings, too. Your dog would be with you for a long time so you must learn to accept your dog the way he is. The dog's behavior can be easily understood by observing them, how they respond. Once you have a thorough understanding of how your dog behaves then you can begin with the training.
    Do not inflict harm on your pet dog. If your dog committed something that is not good in your eyes, it is important that you do not deal too harshly with him. Dogs need someone who can understand them, not someone who can add more to their stress when they are already in a lot of it. Dogs can be frisky when they are stressed after all, it's much the same way with their human counterparts or masters. It's best not to give them more stress lest you would want them to be even harder to manage.
    Be patient with your dog's training. An important trait that one has to have when dog training is patience with the dog being trained. This is often an integral reminder to most owners who subject their dogs to the training guide. If you are seeing through your dog's training then as his master and trainer in one, you have to be patient in teaching him how to behave. The dog will not learn anything from you or from any dog trainer that you employ for his sake if you constantly blow up on him for not understanding and following commands properly.

Your dog will be a more well-behaved and disciplined pet when you subject to proper dog training. You can learn the art of training dogs on your own by taking the challenge to train your own pet or you can employ someone else to see through your dog's training. It is all up to you as to how you would like your dog trained. You just have to make sure to treat your dog nicely throughout his training so he would learn well.