Lifestyle

No dog should be left outdoors in freezing weather. An insulated and/or heated dog house can keep your dog comfortable if your dog does spend a significant amount of time outside on winter days.

The arguments against bait bags are not so obvious. The most compelling is that the presence of a bait bag is like a flashing neon sign - an obvious cue to your dog that it's training time and treats are handy. I stand firmly in the middle of the bait bag debate. I shop for lots of lightweight, loose-fitting jackets with large pockets so I can stash my bags of treats comfortably on my person without turning on the neon sign. Of course, my dogs know that I have treats in my pockets, but I always have treats in my pockets, so the presence of treats is not the cue that training is happening.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to our beloved canine companions, we can never have too many memories preserved in perpetuity. Like people, dogs have unique personalities. Learning to capture your dog’s attitude, spirit and charm can make the difference between a so-so photo and a memory you just have to blow up and frame. The following tips will help you take your best shot. When you want jaw-dropping photos, it never hurts to let the true professionals work their magic by scheduling a professional photo shoot for your pet.

however.üIt can be a sign of immune problems if a dog's nose is normally black

Taking care of a dog in an apartment can be complicated. Apartments often have limited outdoor areas for dogs to run in, less indoor space to play or train in, and a plethora of human and canine neighbors to try to get along with.

Hands-free dog walking belts are worn around the waist to provide a place to attach a dog’s leash so it doesn’t have to be hand-held. Some of these dog walking belts are as simple as a nylon strap with a single buckle fastener, one piece of adjustment hardware, and a lone D-ring where the wearer can use a carabineer or clip to attach the dog’s leash. Others offer padding, pockets, and multiple attachment points for dog leashes, and accessories

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Here are our top picks for basic dog-training and dog-walking equipment that every dog owner should have, including collars, harnesses, leashes, long lines, clickers, and treat bags.

Adding a new dog to the family is an exciting time. It also has the potential to be a little stressful, especially as everyone is getting to know each other, or when you’re welcoming an older dog rather than a puppy.

A purebred dogs is simply a dog bred from parents of the same phenotype while a mixed breed dog is bred from two or more phenotypes.

All of our dogs are capable of far more than we ever ask of them. Their senses, especially their hearing and ability to smell, are so highly developed that they can perform feats that appear miraculous to us. Their physical abilities can cause us to gape in awe, as demonstrated by the prowess of highly-skilled Frisbee and Agility dogs. And they have all kinds of talents that, unless we look for them, we may never notice; hidden talents that reveal their versatility and breadth of their potential to think, reason and learn.

Once upon a time, a harness was the last thing you wanted to use for a dog who pulled, because they were designed to make pulling comfortable. By distributing pressure evenly across the chest they removed pressure from the throat, where damage could be done to a dog's trachea – sometimes even to the point of tracheal collapse. Harnesses are better for the dog from a health perspective, but from a training viewpoint, a standard harness actually encourages pulling. There's a reason sled dogs wear harnesses! Head halters were introduced in the late 1990s as a gentle control tool. While they did, indeed, work well to control a dog's head (and where the head goes, the body follows), some trainers noticed that a significant number of dogs found head halters to be fairly aversive, requiring, in many cases, extensive conditioning to convince the dog to accept them.