Let us talk about pets

Let your puppy settle in

Bringing home a new puppy or even an older dog is an important family occasion. Every one wants to touch, stroke and hold the new member of the family. However it is necessary to take things slowly. One step at a time.

In the case of the puppy, this will be the first instance he will be away from the only environment he has known and his mother and litter mates. The world will seem huge and frightening for him. If it is an older dog, there are still some adjustments he will have to face.

Bring the puppy home while there are only a few people vacant and introduce the fellow to his new environment in as relaxed a manner as possible. Let him look and sniff around.

Offer him something to eat whether he accepts or not. Allow him to have a run around the garden. Bring your family members and friend to meet the puppy, one or two at a time. Give him time to make friends with them before introducing anyone else.

Once the settling process has begun, interrupt the dog's established routine as little as possible. If you have a puppy, follow the breeder's feeding regime, giving the same number of feeds at the same time each day. Start with the same type of food and eventually make any dietary changes gradually if you wish.

Clean water should always be available. Let the dog know where its bowl of water is. Make sure that not only is the water bowl always full, but that it is washed regularly because dogs are messy drinkers and the bowl will soon get dirty.

Some breeds are very splashy drinkers and tend to spill more water around the bowl than they swallow. So choose the site of water bowl and its size carefully. The Ideal water bowl may be made of ceramic or non-rust metal.

Feed bowls may be much the same as water bowls. Give the dog the idea that both types of bowls must not be treated as toys and carried around. Otherwise if the bowl is carted around, you would never find it when you want to feed the dog!

The new dog's bed is very important as it is the animal's special place in your home. It is essential to introduce the dog to its bed as soon as it arrives and to insist that the bed is where he sleeps. This may be difficult but is you give in and let him sleep at another place like your bed for instance; you would most likely be stuck with him each night for the rest of the years!

The best method in making sure that the dog uses his bed is to shut him in a room on the first night with nothing else to choose for a comfortable sleep but the bed.

Toys to keep your dogs entertained are important. Some dogs are obsessive about a particular toy mostly dogs have a rather short attention span, dropping one object for another after a short spell of play. There is no certain winner. Each dog has a different fancy, but always bear in mind the following safety guidelines.

The jaws and teeth of nearly all breeds of dogs are much stronger than you think, so toys should be tough.

Make sure that the toy does not include part that can be detached and swallowed. It has to be solid enough.

Balls are popular toys for dogs because the owner can join in with a game of "fetch". Always make sure that the ball is large enough not even to be half swallowed by the dog. A dog being rushed to the veterinary surgeon choking on a tennis ball that is stuck in its throat is a common emergency.

If you hope to provide the dog with a bone as a toy, make sure that it is a large bone so that the dog cannot chew off pieces and swallow them. Use the thigh bone of a bull.

Keep several bones handy in your refrigerator and boil them before giving them to the dog. Give the dog the bone in the morning and change it to another bone the following day.