pet connection

Friendly dragons? Absolutely… and they’re the main event in this week’s Pet Connection syndicated column:

Reptilian pets are intriguing and mysterious to some, intimidating and frightening to others. If there’s one reptile perfect for changing the minds of those in the latter group, it’s the bearded dragon.

Affectionately called “beardeds” by their fans, these lizards are not only tame around humans, but many also seem to enjoy the contact. Even better, they’re relatively easy keepers, suitable for almost any pet lover or family situation.

In addition to basic care information for these appealing lizards, Dr. Becker and Mikkel Becker Shannon help a reader get to the bottom of her dog’s thinning hair, discuss the benefits of prolotherapy, take a look at veterinary salaries, and share these words of comfort for time-strapped (or lazy) pet owners everywhere:

Would you rather work out or indulge in heavy petting? According to Prevention magazine, 67 percent of us say having a pet is better for long-term health than having a personal trainer.

Gina reminds pet owners to rule out medical causes for behavior changes before looking at training as a solution, and shares the top six places bird owners get information about their feathered family members (hint: their bird’s veterinarian comes in last). She also shares some advice I can’t echo loudly enough:

Almost 30 years ago I bought a stainless steel bowl for the first dog who was “mine,” not my family’s. I still use that bowl every day to water the dogs I have now.

Stainless steel bowls offer lifelong quality: They’re durable and chew-proof, and they sterilize wonderfully in the dishwasher. “Crock”-style bowls of high-impact plastic are another good choice, with the added benefit of offering the choice of colors.

I’m still using 25-year-old stainless bowls. They’re the best!

All this and more in our Pet Connection newspaper feature, which you can read on the Universal Press Syndicate Web site.

This week in our Pet Connection syndicated newspaper feature:

Here’s a rule to remember when it comes to dealing with feline aggression: Never, ever hit your cat.

While it may make you feel better — at least in the short run — a smack won’t help you change a cat who appears to delight in sinking teeth and claws into you at seemingly unpredictable moments.

Fear and pain can cause a cat to lash out. The best way to deal with a scared cat is to let him be, while a sick cat needs a veterinarian. But most times what we see as “meanness” in a cat is just part of being a cat. You can change this behavior, but only if you understand what’s behind it and react properly.

Along with a look at the causes of feline “meanness,” Gina and Dr. Becker have suggestions for redirecting and learning not to trigger aggressive behavior.

Gina also discusses the ins and outs of working with veterinary specialists, and in The Pet Buzz, Dr. Becker and Mikkel Becker Shannon raise an issue that came up many times during last year’s pet food recall:

In his farewell address as president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Ronald M. Davis stressed the importance of physicians and veterinarians working together for public health. Speaking of the AMA’s new relationship with the American Veterinary Medical Association, Davis stressed that of the roughly 1,500 diseases now recognized in humans, about 60 percent move across species. During the past three decades, he said, three-quarters of newly emerging human infectious diseases have been animal diseases transmitted to humans.

Check out facts about feline obesity, a discussion of rabies vaccines for cats, and my review of Dr. Nick Trout’s book “Tell Me Where It Hurts”:

The phone rings in the middle of the night, and veterinary surgical specialist Dr. Nick Trout races to Angell Animal Medical Center. Sage, an old German shepherd, the deathbed gift of her owner’s late wife, is fighting for her life.

When Trout arrives, he finds the dog panting in agony, her stomach twisted and bloated. He kneels to examine her and, as their eyes meet, her tail thumps in greeting.

“This selfless creature placed more importance on the simplicity of a human connection than on the unrelenting pain she was more than prepared to endure,” he writes in “Tell Me Where It Hurts” (Broadway Books, $23). “If ever a dog deserved a chance, this dog did.”

Find out what happened to Sage, and more, in this week’s Pet Connection!

Once upon a time, the family dog might have been able to spend his days helping dad with the farm chores and meeting the kids at the school bus stop. Today’s dog is likely to be face 9 hours or more of alone time every day — not the best situation for one of nature’s most social animals. Still, given enough love and exercise when his folks are around, most dogs adjust.

But some pets not only can’t handle a whole day without mom and dad, they freak out when you just make a quick run to pick up the dry cleaning. In this week’s Pet Connection syndicated feature, you’ll find advice on coping with canine separation anxiety from Gina and Dr. Marty:

Dogs who stress out when left alone may cause significant damage to themselves or their surroundings. Others may fill their time alone by frantically barking themselves to exhaustion. Faced with nonstop destruction or complaints from neighbors, some dog owners feel no choice but to take their pet to a shelter, where a dog with a serious behavior problem is a poor prospect for re-homing.

But it doesn’t have to come to that.

If your dog has a hard time staying alone, you’ll need patience, a plan, and possibly the help of a veterinary behaviorist, who can help you with that plan and prescribe medication to ease your dog’s transition to good behavior.

Next, a reader asks the question: can you really train a cat to walk on a leash? You bet, says Gina:

Indoor cats can indeed be trained to enjoy an outdoor outing on leash, and for this treat, you need a harness to go with that leash you were looking at. Choose a harness designed for cats, not for dogs, in a figure-eight design, or a comfortable cat harness vest. (Cat collars are made to allow escape, and that’s not good!)

Don’t expect your cat to walk on leash like a dog, however. Walking a cat consists of encouraging your pet to explore, with you following, offering plenty of praise and maybe a treat or two.

Never leave your cat tethered and unattended. This leaves him vulnerable to attack or to a terrifying time of hanging suspended from his harness should he try to get over a fence.

Plus: a dazzling array of trivia from Dr. Marty and Mikkel, including a report of a new diagnostic test for proventricular dilatation disease (PDD), a wasting disease that affects many psittacine species, such as macaws, cockatiels, budgerigars and other parrots; coping with pet fur on your clothing; tips on training your dog to stop begging from Dr. Rolan and Susan Tripp; and my review of Dr. Nancy Kay’s new guide to helping you become a better medical advocate for your dog, “Speaking for Spot.”

It’s all here!

Aiii-yeeee! October is going to be a busy month!

Oct. 1 is the official release date of “The Ultimate Dog Lover” and “The Ultimate Cat Lover” (”The Ultimate Horse Lover” launches on Nov. 1). Our Dr. Becker will be on “Good Morning America” on Oct. 8 to officially unveil the first two books, talking about the exclusive “must-know” information we have in both. He’ll also be celebrating his 11th year as the show’s veterinary correspondent, many congrats!

Our syndicated pet-care feature with Universal Press will have a two-parter (running in our client newspapers the weeks of Oct. 6 and Oct. 13) excerpting some of that information as well. And we’ll have a sampler from each of the books — with some pictures, “must-know” information from top experts and a couple of the stories — up on this Web site by next weekend.

Dr. Becker will pretty much be a non-stop media machine in October, with lots of appearances following the GMA one to talk about the new books.

And then, for whatever crazy reason, I’m going to Phoenix to cover the World Cynosport Games, the international celebration of the very best teams competing in agility, flyball and dock-diving, with exhibitions in many other sports as well. I’m taking along Pet Connection Director of Photography Morgan Ong, so we will have some fantastic pictures as well.

The weekend before that, our book publisher has invited me, racing fan that I am, to be his guest at the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held this year at historic Santa Anita in Southern California. Go Between (owned by our publisher, Peter Vegso) won the big race of the Del Mar meet, the $1 million win-and-you’re-in Pacific Classic. That sets Go Between up for a try at the top race on the BC card, the Classic, where he’ll likely compete again Curlin and possibly Derby-Preakness winner Big Brown. Check out this picture of Go Between winning the Pacific Classic, with top jockey Garret Gomez aboard. I’m trying to get a print, so I can get it signed by everyone except the horse himself. This will be the first time I’ve ever had anything like primo seats for a major event of any kind (with the exception of those I was covering).

Tomorrow, McKenzie and I will be in competition for our first junior hunter leg. Because of my hit-and-miss training schedule — eight books in two years will do that! — the poor girl is not near ready. So wish us luck, because we’ll need it. I’ve got a $50 side bet with Otter’s forever mom as to whose dog will be a junior hunter first. Otter already has her first leg (you need four). Drat, I should have sabotaged that puppy while I was raising her …

Pictured at top: McKenzie, the tennis-ball maniac. Bonus picture below: Welcome to my life. Clara on the dog bed, and McKenzie sound asleep with a tennis ball in her mouth.

Dogs bite and snap and snarl at each other from puppyhood on. It’s part of the canine vocabulary — but one they have to learn to control when they’re around human beings, with our furless, sensitive skin and litigious society. And nowhere do they need to learn that control more than when around those most provocative and vulnerable members of the human family, children.

The secret to keeping your kids safe from dog bites is two-fold: Teach your children dog safety, and, if you have dogs, teach them to be safe around children. In this week’s Pet Connection, Dr. Rolan and Susan Tripp lay out a parental plan of action to accomplish exactly that:

Every year about a thousand people a day turn up in emergency rooms with dog bites, from pets of all sizes, shapes, breeds and mixes. Most of these victims are school-aged children, with bites to the face being the most common, and boys being seen more often than girls.

Many of these bites could have been prevented, with some parental guidance and care beforehand. How can parents help dogs and children to get along? Make sure your children know the basics for enjoying time with dogs safely:

Play by the rules. Children and dogs benefit from the exercise and enjoyment of playtime. Rough play and dog wrestling are against the rules. So is running around shrieking and waving arms wildly. Your children must learn to be calm and relaxed around dogs, and that play must stop if a dog gets wound up or is uncomfortable with the level of activity.

Along with the rest of the tips for raising kid-safe dogs and dog-safe kids, you’ll find: tips on preventing chewing and other forms of canine destructive behavior; a new “pet hotel” opening at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport; a report on where pet owners get advice about their animals; a how-to guide on making kitten toys; and a review of the fascinating and the practical in new animal books:

Authors John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are the authors of The New York Times best-selling “Book of General Ignorance,” and their beastly follow-up is full of often unbelievable (but absolutely true) facts about the animal kingdom. It’s a can’t-put-it-down read.

Did you know, for instance, that a female komodo dragon doesn’t need a male to reproduce? That an elephant’s trunk is powerful enough to kill a lion with a single blow, yet delicate enough to pick up a grain of rice? That a mole will die if it goes more than eight hours without eating? Now you do.

What if your search for animal knowledge is more practical in nature? If, like most dog or cat owners, you need information on how to cut your pet’s nails rather than on the mating habits of the hyena? Two new books from Arden Moore have you covered.

All that and yes… MORE… over at Universal Press Syndicate’s Pet Connection, written by the team that produces this blog.