Day #6 of Helpful Tips For You And Your Pet – Is Your Dog Suitable for Pet Therapy?

Although studies have shown pets help us lead healthier and happier lives, anyone who has a pet probably already knows this.  Have you ever thought about bringing this joy you experience with your pet to someone else in need?  Pet Therapy is very common in convalescent homes as well as children’s hospitals, centers for youths in distress and more.

Day #6: Is Your Dog Suitable for Pet Therapy?

If you are interested in having your pet be a Therapy Pet, there are a few things you should first consider.  Not every pet is suitable for therapy and there are many volunteer organizations that will screen both the volunteers and the pets.  Your future therapy pet should include these qualities:

-Your therapy pet should love attention from anyone.  Plain and simple, he or she should simply love being around people and the attention they provide.

-Make sure your pet gets along with other pets.  He or she needs to be well socialized and able to tolerate other dogs, cats and even rabbits.

-Your pet must be well mannered and know basic commands such as sit, stay, down and come.  They should most importantly know the word “no”.

-Making sure your pet responds okay to loud, strange or sudden noises and all types of handling is key to making sure your pet is ready to be a therapy pet.

Your pet will go through a screening process to ensure he or she is ready to be a therapy pet.  Pets have a calming and loving quality about them that others in a tumultuous state of life can benefit from.  Check your local organizations to see if your pet should be a Therapy Pet.

Day #3 of Helpful Tips For You And Your Pet

We are happy to announce Day #3 of our Helpful Pet Owning Tips.  Each day we will have a new helpful tip for you and your pet to keep in mind.

Day #3: Preparing for a New Pet

Before you bring you new furry friend home, you need to prepare your home to prevent any confusion and stress that may arise from your pet being in its new environment.

Supplies – You need to make sure you have For example, if you are bringing a new cat home, make sure the litter box is all set up.  Make sure to have food, food and water bowls, leash, harness/collar, brushes and so on.

Delegate Tasks – Make sure it is decided who will be in charge of what for your new pet.  This is important to establish before you start looking for your new pet.  Who will do the grooming, feeding, exercising, cleaning, playtime, etc.

Pet-Proof – Make sure you make your home safe for your new friend.  There are many household items that people are not aware of that can make your pet extremely sick or cause death.  Check out our Day #1 Tip for a list of these items.

Handling – Everyone in the family needs to know how to safely pick up your pet.  There are certain times, such as during feeding, that your pet should be left alone.  Make sure everyone in the family is knowledgeable on how to handle your new family pet.

Other Pets – Not only will your new pet be nervous at first in his/her new home, if you have any existing pets, they will probably at first be ticked off that there is another animal being brought into the house.  At first, it will be helpful to keep them separated and gradually introduce them for short amounts of time.

Of course if your new pet has an accident in the house, please use Clear The Air’s Odor Remover to completely eliminate any foul odors.  Good luck with your new pet!

Fun Dog Facts

Did you know these Fun Dog Facts?

Dogs are amazing animals and companions.  Read up on these great Dog Facts we came across:

• A dog’s heart beats between 70 and 120 times a minute, compared with a human heart which beats 70 to 80 times a minute.
• A dog’s normal body temperature is 100.5 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A female carries her young about 60 days before the puppies are born.
• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the smallest dog on record was a Yorkshire Terrier in Great Britain who, at the age of 2, weighed just 4 ounces.
• The longest lived dog, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was an Australian Cattle Dog, named Bluey, who lived to be 29.
• An adult dog has 42 teeth.
• It is a myth that dogs are color blind. They can actually see in color, just not as vividly as humans. It is akin to our vision at dusk.
• If never spayed or neutered, a female dog, her mate, and their puppies could produce over 66,000 dogs in 6 years!
• The only sweat glands a dog has are between the paw pads.
• In 1957, Laika became the first living being in space via an earth satellite
• The world’s smartest dogs are thought to be (1) the border collie, (2) the poodle, and (3) the golden retriever.
• A dog’s smell is more than 100,000 times stronger than that of a human’s
• Chocolate contains a substance known as theobromine (similar to caffeine) which can kill dogs or at the very least make them violently ill.
• Dogs’ sense of hearing is more than ten times more acute than a human’s
• More than 1 in 3 American families own a dog.
• Dogs don’t like rain because the sound is amplified and hurts their very sensitive ears.
• The ten most popular dogs (AKC, 2007) are in order:
  Labrador Retriever, Yorkshire Terrier, German Shepherd,
  Golden Retriever, Beagle, Boxer, Dachshund, Poodle,
  Shih Tzu, and Bulldog.
• Dogs were the first animals domesticated by people.
• A greyhound can run as fast as 45 miles an hour.
• Spaying/neutering your dog before the age of 6 months can help prevent cancer in your dog.
• Puppies acquire a full mouth of permanent teeth between four and seven months old.
• Small dogs live the longest. Toy breeds live up to 16 years or more. Larger dogs average is 7 – 12 years. Veterinary medicine have extended this estimate by about three years. However, some breeds, such as Tibetan terrier live as long as twenty years.
• Eighty percent of dog owners buy their dog a present for holidays and birthdays. More than half of them sign letters and cards from themselves and their pets.
• The dog name “Fido” is from Latin and means “fidelity.”
• The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world.
• Most pet owners (94 percent) say their pet makes them smile more than once a day.
• Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible.
• It has been established that people who own pets live longer, have less stress, and have fewer heart attacks.
• All dogs can be traced back 40 million years ago to a weasel-like animal called the Miacis which dwelled in trees and dens. The Miacis later evolved into the Tomarctus,a direct forbearer of the genus Canis, which includes the wolf and jackal as well as the dog.
• Seventy percent of people sign their pet’s name on greeting cards and 58 percent include their pets in family and holiday portraits, according to a survey done by the American Animal Hospital Association.
• A dog’s whiskers are touch-sensitive hairs called vibrissae. They are found on the muzzle, above the eyes and below the jaws, and can actually sense tiny changes in airflow.
• The origin of amputating a dog’s tail may go back to the Roman writer Lucius Columella’s (A.D. 4-70) assertion that tail docking prevented rabies.
• Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.

Dog Tales Therapy Helps Children to Read in Pittsburgh

The Western PA Humane Society has teamed up with Sewickley Public Library to help children improve their reading by practicing the skill in a fun, nonjudgmental environment. The dogs are brought in for children to snuggle up with while reading.

Read more from the article by Jane Miller, for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

…Butter is a rescued therapy dog owned by 13-year-old Maggie Dobbins, who started “Dog Tales” as a Girl Scout service-award project at Sewickley Public Library.

…”The younger children are often more comfortable, because a dog doesn’t correct them,” Maggie says. “I’m listening to them read, and I think, ‘Oh, you missed that word.’ But I don’t say anything because it’s the dog they are reading to — and a dog wouldn’t correct them.”

For the past month, nearly two dozen children in kindergarten through third grade, have benefitted each week, as Maggie, Butter, and adult handlers with their therapy dogs representing the Western PA Humane Society, spread out over the floor of the library to listen to a different child read every 15 minutes.

“It is just wonderful to have this program for the library,” children’s librarian Rita Crawford says. Earlier in the fall, Maggie had approached her, and together they picked out appropriate books.

“We have all sorts of dog books — chapter books and picture books — and some kids bring their own books,” Maggie, a seventh grader in Quaker Valley Middle School, says.