4 The Love of Animals- animal rescue, wildlife, pets, and more!

I got an interesting email recently from Ashley about protecting your pets from ticks. We live in the mountains, so it was good information for us, but ticks live in a lot of other places too!

As a fellow pet owner, I wanted to let you know about a growing issue that affects the health of your pets and your family. In these cold winter months, pet owners like us are taking comfort (and warmth) in snuggling up with our closest companions. But there’s something important to consider before we let our dogs too close, and it’s this: are our dogs tick free? Of course ticks are a nuisance — I mean, who of us would want them in our beds? But the problem is even greater now for two reasons: 1) there are a growing number of ticks in this country; which translates into 2) a growing threat of the diseases associated with them.

“In the past few years, we have seen a remarkable increase in CVBD across the country,” said Susan Little, DVM, professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University. “Ticks thrive in humid and brushy areas. The overall rise in global climate shifts is one of the leading factors to the spread of ticks and the diseases they carry,” added Dr. Little.

So, the bottom line is figuring out how to protect ourselves. For humans, the CDC recommends the use of repellents to protect us from ticks.

But what about protecting our dogs - our friends who bring the ticks into our homes in the first place? Pet owners who are unsure which parasites are active in their area should seek the advice of their veterinarian and follow the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) guideline of year-round treatment with a flea and tick preventative.

For more information on Lyme disease and how you can protect your pet from ticks that carry the organisms that transmit disease, please visit www.petparents.com or www.lymediseaseassociation.org.

Thanks for the information! I hope that it can help keep people and pets safe.

It’s official folks, we have one of the 10 messiest offices in the US and Canada. And now we need your votes to prove that we have the messiest! I entered my husband’s messy office into The Messy Office Contest . If we win, we would get $10,000!

Watch the little movie that I made for it on YouTube and then be sure to tell all your friends to vote for us too. Each email can enter a vote once.

If we win, I am sure that I will never again get to complain about my hubby’s messy office. After all, who could complain about the thing that won $10,000? So, if you want to free my hubby from nagging be sure to vote for us. To vote for our office, click the button next to the name Aimee Gertsch on the voting page: found here.

Please spread the word so we have a chance to win! Thanks!!

Thanks Petside.com!

The following is a paid review for orthopedic dog beds.

Mammoth Outlet has a great selection of orthopedic dog beds. An orthopedic dog bed helps support your dog’s skeletal system, while also providing a comfortable place for your dog to sleep. Their beds are even vet recommended! Mammoth Outlet offers all kinds of dog beds, all of them offer orthopedic qualities of support for dogs of any size. Read the rest of this entry »

I got a great email recently about some ground breaking research done about the effects of sound on dogs. Joshua Leeds, a sound researcher, Susan Wagner a veterinary neurologist and Lisa Spector a pianist, have taken this work to heart and have presented it in a book along with a 45 minute starter CD for calming canines. It’s called Through a Dog’s Ear and will be released on March 1, 2008.

Here are some excerpts from the press release that I found interesting.

Through a Dog’s Ear: Using Sound to Improve the Health & Behavior of Your Canine Companion (Sounds True, March 1, 2008, $18.95) is the first book of its kind to take a close-up look at sound and its effect on our loyal friends, shedding new light on the link between modern sensory overload and the uptick of psychological and physiological problems in the canine population. A 45-minute starter CD of music—specifically designed to calm dogs—accompanies the book. Clinical trials of the music conducted in kennels, shelters, clinics, and in homes produced results that were…well, like music to any dog-lover’s ears. Seventy percent of dogs in kennels and 85% in households showed a reduction in stressed-out behavior, including thunderstorm trembling, excitement with visitors, and separation anxiety.

With the television blaring an average of six hours a day in the American home and the cell phone ringing 24/7, Through a Dog’s Ear suggests we examine our environments to determine whether we’ve created an uncomfortable sensory space for our pets and ourselves. The authors tell us to listen with our dog’s ears while taking a Sonic Inventory—an assessment of all the sounds inside and outside the home—by doing the following:

1. Sit quietly for 30 minutes, pen and pad in hand.
2. Tune into the sounds you hear inside your home and outside on the street—the hum of the fridge, the cycle prompt of the dishwasher, the beat of a dryer, the alarm clock, hair dryer, vacuum, television, telephones, computers, video games, traffic, car alarms, air traffic, screaming children, stereos, etc.
3. Notice your dog’s behavior. Does he actively respond to the sounds? Is there a lack of reaction, or an overreaction to sounds you take in stride? When TV, radio or music is playing, does your dog move closer to the source or away from it?
4. Rate the sounds from one to ten, ten being the most disturbing, one the least noticeable. Use two columns—one for your pooch and one for yourself.
5. Ask yourself how you can make your home a calmer, more peaceful place. Which sounds can you change? Which can you avoid, turn down, or mask? Often, just by listening, we become more sonically aware, an important first step.

Joshua Leeds, a psychoacoustic expert, has spent the last two decades studying the psychological and physiological effects of sound and music on the human nervous system. Approached by award-winning concert pianist and dog-lover Lisa Spector to create “intentional” music for dogs in the hopes of modifying Fido’s dysfunctional, anxiety-caused behavior, Leeds was intrigued.

“I couldn’t help but wonder,” says Leeds, “if music could change a dog’s heart rate and brainwaves, and reduce levels of stress just as it so easily does with people. I wanted to see if the psychoacoustic techniques that I’d honed so effectively with humans could also be effective with dogs.”

Sounds like a great book and CD for people who have dogs that are stressed out by noises! I’m sure it would be nice for the humans in the pack too!

Lucky number 9, Harry Weisenheimmer, is the winner of the custom pet blanket from Peternity.com. It was so great to read all the comments about their website. They are truly doing a wonderful thing for pet owners, and I feel very happy to be able to help spread the word about them! Congrats Harry, I hope that you adore your blanket!