No doubt having a furry dog requires more maintenance like having baths more often and having a hair cut once in a while but generally choosing a dog requires a bit of fact finding before anything.One excellent furry dog is the Chow Chow with it's strange looking blue blackish tongue that looks like he is not feeling well when he is actually 100% healthy. Of course the biggest problem is his diet where he like the doggy paste that looks like colgate tooth paste. The biggest question will be how do I change his diet to doggy food?
Once this has been achieved, you will find the amount of benefits that will come. One of his characteristic is that it is an intelligent gentle giant like a gentle goliath. If you have a puppy in your home, rest assured he will be gentle to the pup. Excellent with children but it will scare the life out of any thief with the bearish look.
Another is whether the type of dog would suit your life pattern, whether you want a guard dog or watch dog which has different roles. A guard dog can be used to protect property aggressively where else a watch dog is one that sounds the alarm when strangers are around.
Next is the question, do you want an outdoor dog or an indoor one? I mean, buying a dog is relatively easy if you have the cash but, to own a dog is a life time commitment as the dogs are more intelligent than we humans think.
Of course everyone who has a love for nature and has worked closely with animals has stories to tell. I once worked with in a dog society that has more than 2oo dogs and guess what? Each of the dogs has a character of it’s own! Even the male and female dogs. Strange ya? I will share it as we go along this documentary or story. If you want an intelligent dog, but you don't know how to train it, the dog will train you how you should take care of him! Thereby reversing the cycle - Dog your trainer, you the lesser one.... auuughhh!
Once I was approached by a lady on how to throw away a dog because the dog was being spoilt by her mother! And in the end, the dog became the girl's master. - True Story (Source: happened while I was working with animals in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia)
Added on 02/09/2007
So how can-ah? In matters so desperate as this, omigosh! Any way I did really give an advice to settle her doggy's problem and the next week, she came back.... beaming! 'Ha! it really did work!'.
Here is the answer we have all been waiting for, how do you train a dog as such? Tough question, huh? The first thing is not to let the dog bully the master…. stupid answer. Every thing, every playtime or plaything must be observed by not allowing the animal to get too engrossed with it. For example, you got a new toy. First thing when you go home is NOT TO LET your dog play with the toy. ONLY at a fixed time say in the evening at 5.00pm, you allow to play with it for 30 to 45 minutes. Why? Let me tell you this, what message you are giving to the dog is that the toy belongs to you, you are the master. The toy does not belong to the dog! But there will be a time when you cannot retrieve the toy so the only way is to let him play with it until he gets tired of it. When he is asleep or not aware of it take away the toy and wash it as we don't want any bacteria to grow on it and keep it at a safe place where all his other toys are.....
Added on 03/09/2007
That is not all, everytime when you get a toy to play on any other day, take a different toy as to a dog everyday is a new day and they will certainly get excited with the toy! Only take a toy at a time, never give a whole bunch of toys for your dog to play. The reason is that we don't want your dog to get bored of any toy we buy, but to give him varieties of endless fun!
Next never spoil your dog by giving treats unnecessarily! Once in a while may be fine but never too frequently. Always tell your dog to do something to get the treat. What you are also telling the dog is that you are the master of the food, 'I will only give it whenever it pleases me, you are my dog. To put it vaguely you are creating a hierarchy with the dog!'. And one more thing, 'Never give too many treats or good food as it can create a dog that is choosy on food whereby making you a servant to his choice of food.
Added story..... (04-09-2007)
Now we handle the issue, why do the doggy bought at the shop, howl at the top of their lungs? No joke but especially when it also howls in the night.... 'auuugghhhh! Gotta get some sleep!'. Hmm... in all honesty, I would also lament at your current situation but the fact is that when any new animal or pets is brought in, the first thing is to get it accustomed to the surroundings. When I first brought my pet to his new home, goodness! He howls when everyone is asleep! So how do we deal with it?
There is no quick way out of this, I remember that I use to exercise the dog by playing with it. This may sound unusual to you but this is what I really did to my dog who has strong legs, I held both of the hind legs, and did the cycle motion until the dog seems out of breath. Next I ran round the car with him chasing or with me chasing and sometimes playfully push him away. Then after that, I made him a cup of milk to drink. Leave the front porch light switched on and then seat nearby and watch the dog laze. After some time, I slowly sneak away and hopefully pray that he falls asleep which sometimes he doesn't!
Another way of course which is the humane way is to take a toy from his fun toy box and toss it further away and chase him or tell him to retrieve the toy or playfully remove the toy from his mouth, it could also be considered a training to the pet to allow you to remove things from his mouth, when it comes to food well, I would very much prefer if you keep your distance.
At the time, the best thing to do is to repeat the play cycle of the hind legs again and vice versa.
Another is to take a long midnight walk. When you get back, empty the dog's kennel bowl and fix your pet a glass of milk. Next hope to god he doesn't howl in the middle of the morning. This will
continue on until your pet gets adapted to his new home which maybe a few days to 1 to 2 weeks and after that.... it will be smooth sailing, no more howls.
At last I gotta get my sleep after all and probably the dogs must be making monkey faces behind my back........ to be continued tomorrowAdded on 05/09/2007
What would happen if you get a new dog when you have already got one? How will it affect the balance?
Once we got have already a dog when I was a kid and the dog was a real help but one day a stray female dog came to our house. Seeing that she doesn't have a home, we allowed her to stay at our house. Most of the time both the dogs will be in our home but we gave more attention to the female dog as she is more playful.
After sometime, she came with a litter of puppies, that was big trouble! My family paid more attention to the puppies than the first dog that we had. Because of neglection, one day we found out that the first dog has run away from home which was the result of focussing too much attention on the puppy and neglecting our older faithful one.....
Added 06/09/2007
Ya! This is Chow Chow, anyone who owns this dog will only be able to really enjoy the benefits of this gentle giant. Why? First, dog owners will be tested on a battle of wills over his choice of doggy paste to dog food and after that it will be a breeze after that.
As you can see now, his tongue is blue blackish, sometimes making me mimick putting my hand on his forehead like the nurse as ask 'Hey doggy, are you alright?'.
The origins of this bear like dog comes from Mongolia, many thousands of years ago, it was when the chinese invaded mongolia in the Ming dynasty that this dog was brought into china and the chinese started to proclaim this dog as chinese, too bad he doesn't speak mandarin, the chinese language.
But there's a hitch though, even though as a puppy, straight after weaning him, his favourite food is the expensive doggy paste which would be gone in a few days and he is extremely fussy about any change of his food. Goodness......... How-ah?
Yawwnnn........ I think I'm gonna hibernate for a season in some cave....... I will continue tommorrow for the challenge of will.......
08-09-2007
Hi, I'm back. By now you must be anxious how to deal with this tough issue. Actually I can only recommend method of adaptation only to those really experienced dog handlers as it requires a tremendous amount of patience and consistency who will be able to work in through the appetites and challenge of this gentle giant as there is no real short cuts unless if one might be the lucky one in a billion.
The only way to change the appetite of this dog is through... starvation! Call it animal rights or whatever but based on a true story, the chow chow dog has a very remarkable and resilient nature and also quite stubborn in refusing to change it's diet of doggy paste.
So the only way to wean him out from the doggy paste is through starvation! And guess what?
He still refuses to eat doggy food and would rather die than change his diet! 3 times we used this method where we nursed him back to health. And after he is healthy we did the whole procedure again and he fell sick again, refusing to eat any doggy food and back to medical and better treatment again.
These all happened for a long period of a month and a half. On the fourth time, we were almost at breaking point even the vet doctor was wondering what to do. We gave one last shot before nearing to put this gentle giant to sleep, we gave dog food to him and he ate! No more doggy paste! Ha! What a relief!
Will continue tomorrow.....
09-09-2007
For those who really like dogs, try not to touch strays as there is no knowing whether they have been vaccinated against diseases. Which if bitten by them, the disease can progress to life threatening dilemma therefore it is very much advisable to get a jab against animal borne disease once any strange symptoms appear. Generally in some countries, the laws of vaccination can be strict and in others, it is not observed at all.
10-09-2007
Speaking of stray dogs, they are more intelligent than you think! No, though dog breeds may have a higher intelligent yet some strays are cleverer in some ways. But I must add that at times it requires a hundred commands to get a stray to sit than to just give a command to a breed dog and he obeys at once! When that happens, we feel that he might be stupider than breed dogs.
One thing that I enjoy most in taking in a doggy pet is that he gives me great companionship regardless of what you are. In my bad days, I talk to my dog and I can be sure that he won't tell anyone else. Now, you must be thinking how silly I am. But I will tell you another story of how one dog communicated with me in the next story of my life with dogs.
11-09-2007
First I will relate what happened while I was working with the 200 dog at the dog society.
When I first worked at the society, to tell you the truth, none of the dogs there ever had a bath before I came..... they smells terrible. Guess what? Straight way I bought doggy shampoo and bath them? Wrong! Since at the time I was a newbie there, it would take a while for the dogs to get used to my presence as there are some fierce and some real weird or funny ones!
In the beginning it was real tough getting to know them as I have to keep track on some dogs character what's more there are about 2oo of them! After a few weeks I wanted to bath them but I was skeptical as I have never bath 200 different dogs at one time. Phew! How do I get rid of the smell! Couldn't get around to put it to action yet.
So the daily process continues, feeding, cleaning and sometimes a staff disappears, more work but the pay never increases as it is a non profit organisation yet of course, there was a time when all the staff disappear and I have to do most of the work! Of course I was pissed off working for a tyrant with no pay increase!!! Then I gave an ultimatum one week before pay day, increase or I leave! The rest is history....
12-09-2007
I worked until end of month and the tyrant seeing that she has no other option, she begged me to stay which I flatly refused as I had been working the job of an extra 2 men without any pay increase for more than one or two months. In the end she relented from her stance and gave in to my demands.
Shortly after that, about a week later one staff came back and the rest came trickling back after a few days to a week later. Then the manager had another meeting with me with her forsaken sorry tale of a non-profit organisation lah and all the struggling days etc to coax me into submitting her demands of back to normal pay but I refused as all the staff had ran away before because of extra work load, another staff leaving would mean another stampede of run away staffs. In the end, no salary change!
Back to work as normal before....... another situation.
13-09-2007
Ah.... now is the time when I could bathe the stinko doggys! Actually to tell you the truth, it was about a month later as there was still some dogs that I am not really familiar with. As for those that is friendly, I gave preference to bathing them first as I was still skeptical about the rest.
In the begining I bathed about 2 to 3 dogs per day. As I began to get familiar to them as all the other dogs started to get real jealous of the fragrance of the bathed dogs, they started barking real hard everytime when it's bathing time! (seriously and really speaking truth.)
In the beginning I didn't really bothered at all. Well, I don't know, somehow I noticed that everytime after I bathed a dog and take him back to his pen of about 4 to 5 dogs, all the unbathed dogs will gather around the clean doggy and start sniffing the fragrance of the doggy bar soap and the clean doggy would trot to the hot sun as though it is sun bathing and then it would start preening itself and lazing in the hot sun!
From that time on, I bathed about 4 to 6 different dogs a day on a rotation basis..... to be continued
15-09-2007
Ah... now the interesting part, let me tell you about the character of each of the dogs.
Hmm... most are friendly, males belong to the all male pens, the females though castrated to prevent unwanted pregnancies, they belong to all female pens. Looks like we are depriving the males of sex, eh? Not so really, it's just that we try to prevent dog fights when males start to fight for supremacy and the right to always mate first. Most of the times, it can get nasty and vicious. So the only way is to separate males and females, doggy.
Some dogs have different temperament! Not all dogs are the same. Some dogs are really nice and some are mean. The nice ones, we let them run around the pen as they will always avoid dog fights. As for the mean ones, we put all the mean ones in the mean doggy pen, right? Wrong! We would mix the mean dog with the nice dogs except that we chain it to the fence so that, that guy eh.... I mean dog will not look for quarrels with the nice ones.
Well, by now you must be wondering why I called a dog a guy. To those who has a love for nature and understand the dog's habits and intellligence, we then to take our companions like a person.
Back to doggy tales. Most of the dogs in the society are female ones as people have a tendency to retain male dogs. Reason is that people don't want a population boom. Discarding dogs is a bad way of doing things but sadly speaking, there are all kinds of people, mean to nice types.
Some dogs, don't like to be teased! That's a fact! Once I was bathing this doggy who is quite shy, always running around when approached by people. At first I thought it was alright, so I teased it by saying, 'hey.. you ah! why are you so frighten of people? They cannot come and touch you, meh? You see people don't want to buy you already......' and straight way the dog jolted and ran to one end of the pen that I was bathing and it kept trying to avoid me, making me chase after him with the doggy bar! If the dog didn't understand me, it would continue allowing me to bath it...... I will continue my real experiences with dogs, not fairy tales but as it happened.
16-09-2007
But one thing which I don't really understand, I have bathed the dog before, which is a female. Even though I tried coaxing the dog after teasing it, from that day on, the doggy continued to be shy, I mean real shy towards me. Strange ya? Maybe some dogs can't stand teasing.
I've teased dogs before, but this one's very different maybe it was too sensitive so I asked the manager about this and she informed me that the dog has been abused before by it's previous owner. Maybe that's the reason but anyway, she still enjoys her baths as everytime after bathing her, she will always laze in the hot sun and preen her fur by licking it and nibble here and there, doggy's way of showing that she enjoys the bath and the fragrance.
By now you must be wondering how I manage to bath the female dog at all. Of course everything has a technique. I'll share it in our next episode of doggy stories.
17-09-2007
Then there is a dog who is a real coward to people but a real ruffian to other dogs! And it was the first time I ever encountered this type of dog. Towards people and strangers it cowers himself like a real scaddy cat (frightened). But once we took another friendly male dog near that guy, and phew! a fight ensued. Of course as dog handlers, we separated them and we chained the coward by the shaded fence outside the friendly dog pen.
Then I began to wonder what makes it so coward, 'was it some ba d experience with humans?' which I suspected. Anyway I focused some extra attention on that doggy, bathed it under a hot afternoon with a bucket of water. Of course preferably I would rather use running water from the hose. No! I don't spray water at them but I just let the water fall on them after I have scrubbed the doggy soap onto them. They loved it! Know why? Because everytime I scrub the doggy soap using the tips of my fingers, to those doggies, it's like a refreshing massage to soothe any stiff or tensed muscles! It's true, everytime after drying them with a towel of all the excess dripping water which they thoroughly enjoy, they will always wriggle and twist their bodies.... and guess what! All the rest of the other dogs that have been watching while I bath a dog would go wild barking, 'bath me! bath me!'
Of course I can't bath the 100 dogs in block A all at once as I have my duties to attend to. The most I could do is to bath 8 dogs at a period of time and schedule the remaining ones for another day.
More will be coming soon.......
18-09-2007
Come to think of it, now lets fast forward to the future where I was working at the pet place. Remember Chow-Chow? That sweet dog, one of his favorite past time is to get a massage! No kidding, apart from his once or twice a week baths, you can build a bond with it by just massaging him. All you do is to massage his back gently. He loves it!
Of course, if you do it too frequently, everyone tends to take it for granted. Dogs included! The best you can do, if you own a Chow-chow, massage him about 1 to 2 weeks once. He enjoys it by streacthing his back bone after the massage.
Strange ya? Maybe it is because of his burly body that twitch here and there that needs a refreshing release. Next time I ever see him again, probably I'll ask him to massage me in return - just joking.
19-09-2007
How do I protect my dog from dog nappers? Well, before I answer this question, normally it is the other way round where doggy pets are supposed to take care of your house. But anyway I'll answer this vital question especially when pets now costs thousands of dollars to own one and when actually owners find great joy in raring one.
First, if your garden is quite big and you find it difficult to restrict your doggy's running space from running through your front gate, what you have to do is to partition your garden. Which means fencing up your garden. Example, if you do not want your dog running onto the car pavement, line the boundary of the pavement with a fence tall enough to deter the dog from jumping over.
Two, train your dog to be wary of strangers! How? Never let outsde people apart from your family members to feed it, not even your friends. What you are doing is to set terrritorial grounds to the dog. Though for some dogs like Shih Tzu, most of these dogs will be extremely friendly with strangers, as a toy dog is okay. Watch dog.... maybe you should get another.
21-09-2007
Now we come to the question of doggy shampoo versus doggy soap. Hmm... difficult question but I will answer it anyway no matter how boring it may sound.
Actually the decision on choosing a doggy detergent depends on the sensitivity of the doggy skin. The doggy soap that I used at the society is wonderful on rugged dogs that has overcomed harsh terrains and are sort of battle hardened, you know. So, I use the doggy soap and that's not all! Let me tell you the secret once when you have established that your doggy does not have sensitive skin or fur.
The biggest real reason that I ever wanted to use the doggy bar is that with a bar alone, I could bath about 20 to 30 dogs! And that's not all, it costs only a fraction of a dog shampoo but what do you expect when most of the dogs at the society are extremely mixed breeds and strays. But that does not mean that you straight way bath a dog when it reaches home to build any such bond with the dog unless recommended by the breeder or doggy shop.
(Added 1 paragraph 22-09-2007)
Ah! Almost forgot to add regarding the usage of the doggy bar over the doggy shampoo though it might be the in fashion stuff that everyone is currently using. As far as the usage of the doggy shampoo is concerned, that most of the ordinary bottle of 500ml to 1liter doggy shampoo would only last from 7 to 15 baths only. And that is not all, it is about 10 times more expensive! Well.... if you find that your doggy does not have sensitive skin, you can opt for the doggy bar and not those facial like stuff. More economical, eh?
Before anything, please ensure that the dog is really accustomed to you before being friendly with it, it might take days or weeks. Phew! Once I got to friendly with a doggy and that old guy took a big bite which had to be stitched and I had to get an injection for animal borne disease. This is the reason why I adviced on getting an immunity injection when bitten by animals....
But in some places where there is strict animal immunisation, it might be more safe just to get stiches alone. But on the other hand if you feel strange or salivating after a few days, then you have to go straight to get a tetanus jab or something like that against the animal borne disease.
22-09-2007
Today my head is not working, don't seem to remember some parts of my memory when I was working with dogs as I do not want to tell tales that has never happened before. Probably I need to go to the car repair shop and get a spanner to tighten all those loose screws in my head.
I only managed to add a paragraph in the doggy story above.
23-09-2007
Ah, got my rusty brain back to sparkling clean again. By the way, to those who are skeptical of my real story about my work with animals, I am really a human. Sometimes the words I use make me sound like a machine, fooled you ya? (Not on purpose, sometimes I just write whatever words that would depict my mind and memory)
Back to the doggy days, for most dogs they are one of the most faithful creatures on earth.... if I had an option I would say that most are even more faithful than humans themselves! The reason is that they will always remain faithful to the end of their days to an owner that the doggy is attached to.
Why? One must understand that to a doggy their owner is their god, someone who is their leader, king and master regardeless of who their master really are. I had a doggy called Ben who died of old age diseases, he lived to 13 years old equivalent to about 60 human years. Even though it is a fierce dog, yet he remained faithful to the end. Still do miss him.
Even though my father has told me to put him to sleep after trying to cure him at the goverment veterinary, I refused and told my brother about it. In the end we took him to another vet doctor with an agreement that I was to bear the cost of the treatment even though I was still schooling at that time.
Everyday I visited him and required about his condition. As he didn't take any of the dog food offered by the vet hospital, I bought him some pork chicken rice every afternoon for about 5 days. On the sixth day, the swelling on his cheek subsided and the doctor gleefully reported to me that it was eating! Will continue tommorow......
25-09-2007
Phew! Almost had a heart attack as my computer's files vital files was changed when I downloaded a software by a reputable software house. Probably the webpage was tempered with hackers or intercepted by pirates or something like that.
Anyway, back to my story of a dog's life, as he seemed well, I paid the vet with my savings but was further advised regarding the swelling of the bone. When I brought my doggy home, it ate well and nicely though a little skinny. He seemed alright but..... after about a week, the swelling on his cheek returned, where I called back the vet and was given the option of continuing the treatment at my expense (which I have very limited savings) which can only temporarily allevate the disease as he is considered an old dog or put him down.
I called my brother and we fixed a later date to return to the vet, during which I sat with the dog giving him as much emotional support and love before the day. It was also a time for me to prepare myself as he was the only dog that was very close to me.
On a weekend, my brother and me with a heavy heart..... took my doggy to the vet to put him to sleep. At the vet, she said I could continue on the treatment but I would need to bring him back each month for a jab which I could not afford as the expenses was eating into my savings where I had to fork out the expenses to cover the hospitalisation and the first phase of the treatment. As there wasn't any option left for me, I had to put the dog to sleep.
While the vet had put the syringe needle into my doggy's vein, I stroked his head gently until he wavered and slept a long sleep......
26-09-2007
When I returned home with my brother empty handed, there was an emptiness in the house. It took sometime to adapt but life had to go on. No other dog could ever replace the one we had. Though it has attacked a lot of my neighbour's chicken who has strayed to our house yet, it just wasn't the same. It's one of the best dogs that I ever had even though it is a mix breed, not that intelligent but yet if there was ever a medal given for faithfulness, he ought to have the biggest one.
