The saying that you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks couldn’t be more misguided. As long as you know the proper way to do it, old dogs can learn just as well as puppies. In fact, some pet owners would argue that training an older dog is a lot easier than teaching an overexcited and energized pup.
With patience, and a whole bag of treats, you can train your fur buddy to pull off an amazing range of tricks. Your senior dog may have physical limitations, but as long as you have a clear goal and consistency, your old buddy will learn new tricks soon enough. This video outlines concrete steps that you can take to teach your dog new tricks. Check it out for yourself!
Understanding The Best: Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine
Acupuncture, acupressure, food energy therapy, moxibustion—these are only some of the types of traditional Chinese veterinary medicine that are popular among vets and pet owners. But how effective are these senior dog treatments, really?
Veterinary acupuncture is arguably the most popular of the lot. By inserting needles, the body is allowed to heal by itself after carefully balancing blood circulation, relieving hormones, and stimulating the nervous system. During veterinary acupuncture, your body’s muscles are relaxed and pain is thus relieved. What’s more, the effects of your pet’s medications and supplements won’t be adversely affected by the acupuncture treatment.
While the most popular type of acupuncture treatment is the insertion of needles, there are many other types, such as acupressure, aquapuncture, moxibustion, electrostimulation and laser.
Acupressure involves inserting needles to acupuncture points that are hard to reach and for dogs that are hard to control. In aquapuncture, liquids that contain a mixture of nutrients and medications are inserted to push the tissue out of the way. Moxibustion is about applying heated Chinese herbs to the needles. Electrostimulation, on the other hand, is about coursing electric currents in the dog’s body to relax muscle spasms. Lastly, in laser acupuncture, laser energy is used to stimulate the body’s acupuncture points.
Acupuncture is great for a lot of medical conditions, like arthritis, degenerative joint disease, trauma, cancer and metabolic disease—all recurrent among older dogs. No wonder it’s been hugely popular among senior dogs!
Understanding The Best: Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine
What Environment is Best for Veterinary Acupuncture Treatment?
House call based veterinary acupuncture alleviates the physical and behavioral stress associated with transportation to and from a veterinary facility. Additionally, as animal hospitals are traditionally places of illness, the potential for exposure infectious disease is reduced when a pet is treated at home.
How Frequently Does My Pet Need Veterinary Acupuncture Treatment?
Dogs and cats start with more frequent treatments then are tapered off to a less frequent interval for maintenance. Most patients benefit from one to three sessions per week during the initial few weeks. The goal is to achieve the greatest duration of time where a pet’s condition appears improved or has resolved. (Read more here)
Veterinary acupuncture has firmly established its place in veterinary medicine. If you’re not comfortable with it just yet, it’s perfectly fine to consult veterinarians or talk to other people who have tried it out. After all, we all want what’s best for our fur babies, right?
A concern among dogs in their golden years is the presence of sores at the bottom of their paws and cuts on their toes. This is but part of the aging process; as dogs grow old, their body’s resistance and joints weaken, and that includes their paws. Fortunately, there are senior dog treatments that can protect your dog’s precious paws and allow your fur buddy to live a normal life. Even something as simple as rubber coated dog socks will ease the ill effects of old age. Check out the video for yourself, and you might want to consider getting one for your older buddy as well.
Hydrotherapy, one of the best senior dog treatments
Are you looking for senior dog treatments that are low impact, and appropriate for your senior dog recovering from an injury or suffering from arthritis? You might want to consider hydrotherapy, an easy and affordable type of physiotherapy that allows your dog to exercise the muscle joints as the body weight is supported by the water.
Hydrotherapy has several benefits for senior dogs. It’s an excellent complementary therapy for old dogs that have just gone through orthopaedic surgery, arthritis, or degenerative joint disease.
Hydrotherapy, one of the best senior dog treatments
Is your dog becoming stiff or suffering from arthritis? Why not bring your dog to do Hydrotherapy for Dog, I’m sure your pet will be thankful. Animals with arthritis have very swollen and painful joints. Walking and Exercise becomes very uncomfortable for them and they may also find it difficult to get back up after lying down for long periods of time. Most animals gain weight as they are much less active, putting even more pressure on their joints this is where hydrotherapy for dog helps with this problem.
When animals have Hydrotherapy for Dog the water supports the weight of their body so that they are able to move and exercise their joints easily. The warm water also helps reduce some of the swelling in the joints. The increased exercise makes joint movement easier, helps regain fitness and can help them to lose weight they may have gained. (Read more here)
A great example of hydrotherapy would be swimming sessions, where senior dogs can exercise by chasing each other or playing with toys. As a matter of fact, research has shown that a 5-minute has the same health effects as a 5-mile run.
When doing hydrotherapy, a warm swimming pool (about 30°c) would be preferable to seas and lakes, which can easily cause a list of health problems, such as gastroenteritis and dermatitis. The senior dog should also wear a life jacket and have a nurse to help them with the swimming the entire time.
If you’re looking for an alternative therapy and your vet approves of it, hydrotherapy is one way of letting your senior dog recover from illness, all while having fun in the process, don’t you think?
Training an older dog is anything but impossible. You might even be surprised at how easy teaching basic tricks can be. You can start with teaching your older buddy to lie down or drop. As you can see in this video, it’s not as difficult as you would think. Older dogs are more behaved, more composed, and generally easier to teach. While they may have physical limitations, these can easily be overcome with consistent training and a positive outlook. Your older buddy’s learning days are not over just yet; go on and teach your fur baby a trick or two.
This quick video just confirms what I’ve known all along: complementary therapies like veterinary acupuncture are quickly becoming a trend in senior dog treatments. In the recently concluded Western Veterinary Conference, several veterinarians expressed interest in learning this form of therapy.
In veterinary medicine, it has gone past being a mere pain relieving technique to a proven way of treating seizures, liver and kidney disease, and allergies. Its effectiveness and success, of course, largely depend on the skill of the veterinarian practitioner. When bringing your pet dog to the vet, look for a certification that he has finished a course on acupuncture. You can also ask your friends for referrals on who can perform acupuncture on your fur baby.
The video reveals a sad reality: that hundreds of dogs have to be euthanized because of their old age. You might not consider senior dogs as a viable option when adopting dogs, but did you know that they’re fairly easier to train and well-behaved than younger, more energetic dogs?
Muttville is a senior dog rescue charity that’s dedicated to saving these old and reliable canines from getting euthanized. There are many ways for you to help: you can donate, foster, or adopt. It has helped several families find a senior dog they absolutely love and adore. And with Muttville’s help, who knows? You just might find the old buddy you’ve always wanted.
No matter how you try to move forward from your pet’s loss, you simply can’t forget the pain. Dealing with the grief and losing a pet might be too heavy a burden for you to carry. Don’t feel silly or ridiculous about it. It’s a feeling shared by many other people, and you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
Although the feeling of grief over the loss of a beloved pet is quite common, there is an apparent lack of counseling services for pet grief.
Today, there are a number of services that can help you deal with the grief in a healthy way. The stages of grieving the loss of a pet are similar to that of a human: it starts with denial, anger, bargaining and depression. However, the final stage in grieving is resolution: the decision that you want to move forward and do better. There are many other ways for you to deal with the loss.
How to deal with grief and losing a pet
1. Join a support group
The Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement offers a list of pet bereavement support groups in several states. Most humane societies also offer group sessions. Psychotherapist Marcia Breitenbach recommends this approach because it allows pet owners to see that they are not alone. If your community does not have a pet grief group, she suggests attending bereavement group sessions, which typically are offered at churches or hospitals.
“It’s important to be around people who are dealing with the same thing in the sense that the feelings are identical,” Breitenbach says. (Read more here)
2. Take time to grieve
Other people might make you feel as if losing a pet is not something you grieve about. But you can’t change the way you feel, especially if your fur baby has been with you through thick and thin. Your senior dog pet was your family, and it’s okay to grieve your loss.
3. Let others know the stage you are in
In connection with the previous point, you should let your friends, relatives, and your colleagues know about the situation you are in. Some of them would fail to understand your situation and be unsupportive about what you’re going through. This isn’t because they intend anything bad, but because of a misunderstanding of the process of grieving the loss of a pet.
4. Use it as a learning experience. Let go.
Losing a dog is likened to losing a child, as most pet owners have developed a sense of attachment akin to a parent. One way to deal with this painful feeling is by writing a letter to the pet, and subsequently a letter from the pet.
If your kids are involved in this entire ordeal, don’t rule them out. Don’t rule them out in the grieving process, and explain to them what happened to your beloved pet—that it’s body is no longer working well, and had to say goodbye. They will have their own ways of grieving, and it’s important to involve your kids in the process.
It might take a while. But don’t resist the grieving process. Go through it, start pursuing other activities, perhaps even consider another pet in the future. For now, soak it all in, and with the mentioned tips, you’ll surely get by and get better.
Why A Do It Yourself Pet Urns Is One of the Best Pet Urns
Cremations are one way of commemorating the wonderful life of your senior dog. To make the memorial even more meaningful and personal, you might want to put the ashes in an urn you did yourself.
Traditional pet urns, which cost somewhere between $80 to $400, might be too expensive for some pet owners. On the other hand, a do it yourself pet urn will only cost a fraction of that price and will also help you cope with the loss of your fur buddy.
In order to take a more personal approach to preserving your dog’s cremains, you might want to consider having a customized memorial created by a do it yourself pet urn retailer.
Why A Do It Yourself Pet Urns Is One of the Best Pet Urns
Companies like this give you a variety of options to personalize your dog’s final resting place.
Vessels can be customized with your pet’s:
Name
Birth and death dates
[[Dog Pictures|Image]]
Dog tags
Favorite toy
Many companies will also let you add let you add a favorite verse, quote or prayer to the design. (Read more here)
Yet one more option is to create a pet urn by yourself. You can do this in two ways: by creating an urn from scratch, or by choosing a container, and with a touch of creativity, transforming it into a beautiful urn.
If you are gifted in either pottery or woodwork, making a pet urn should be easy for you. You can even put in embellishments, glazes, and personalized designs to make the resting place of your beloved pet truly meaningful.
A pet cremation is a beautiful way to say goodbye to your fur baby. Some pet owners opt to sprinkle the ashes of their beloved pet, while others put it in an urn. Pet urns are of varied styles and designs, and if you want a beautiful resting place for your beloved pet, you should consider biodegradable urns.
Biodegradable urns are a gesture of kindness and love not only to your pet but also to Mother Nature. They are made of recycled materials and sourced from products that will be organically replaced, while maintaining its quiet and elegant beauty.
You’d be impressed with the range of urn styles and designs that can reflect your fur friend’s personality and commemorate the beauty of your beloved pet’s life.
Choosing biodegrable pet urns
Going green gives humans the opportunity to be kind to a planet that is kind to us. In our everyday lives, as inhabitants of the planet, we can make choices that will sustain its resources. Life and death are a natural cycle for all of us and we must remember that our pets are a living breathing part of this planet that we love so much. If going green is important to you and your family, a biodegradable urn, is the perfect way to provide a beautiful and stylish resting home for your pet family member, in an environmentally-friendly way. (Read more here)
Indeed, there’s no better way to celebrate the life of your pet but by also celebrating the beauty of Mother Nature. And guess what? A biodegradable urn is a celebration of your pet, as well as of the environment.
The summer never bodes well for senior dogs. For pet owners, this means they have to deal with fleas on their fur buddies. If you can’t find a suitable flea spray in the grocery or don’t have the time to run to the store to buy one, here’s a video of how to make a homemade flea spray.
It’s hard not to love this homemade flea spray! It’s made under the supervision of a veterinarian, and contains no harmful chemicals. Only good and natural ingredients are needed to create this flea treatment. Senior dog care has never been this easy, not to mention inexpensive.
Anti-flea dog biscuits? Believe it! For dog owners who are struggling to find a fix for their fur buddies who are infested with fleas, here’s a dog recipe that will finally put an end to your problem once and for all. It’s also a perfect senior dog food—you don’t have to worry about disrupting your old buddy’s diet. It’s the perfect treat not only for your dog’s good behavior but also for your dog’s health. It’s also a treat for you, a stressed out pet owner who doesn’t know how to deal with your dog’s flea problem!
