Keeping Your Pet Healthy, Happy & Safe

10 Tips to Care for Your Dog

Your dog depends on you for a safe and happy life. Here are some tips to help make it as easy as possible for both of you.

1. Knowing your Dog's Personality

There are some instances when opposites definitely do not attract. Such is the case when choosing a new dog. Before you decide to add one to your family, be sure to study up on the common personality traits of your potential pup's breed. Here are some of the most popular breeds to help you get started.

2. Cracking the Canine Code.

If you're like us, you love your dog so much it's easy to forget he's not human—until he hikes a leg or rolls around in something funky in the yard. Then you face the facts: your dog is a whole other breed (literally). But what's behind those crazy dog antics? Here's a quick breakdown of dog behavior and what it could mean.

3. Teaching Your Large Dog Table Manners

Think it's impossible to have a well-behaved dog around the dinner table? Think again! This article is full of large dog behavior tips that will help you and your family share a more peaceful meal together.

4. Leaving Your Pal in Good Hands

Many people love traveling with their dogs. Unfortunately, sometimes bringing your pooch along with you just isn't possible. Find out what to look for in a kennel, or pet sitter, so you can leave your dog with confidence.

5. Training Your Dog Not to Bark

Barking is normal behavior and just one way dogs communicate. But what if your dog holds routine bark fests in the backyard? Understanding why he barks is the first step to solving the problem. Here are some tips on how you can help stop the barking.

6. Lawn Alert

Your backyard, with its colorful bursts of flowers, chirping birds and sunny disposition, may seem like a perfect springtime retreat. But it can be a big, bad world for your pet. Everything from lawn chemicals to the fence around your private sanctuary can be dangerous to your dog.

7. Dogs and Chewing

Chewing is a very normal behavior for puppies and dogs. They use their mouths for grasping food, gaining information about the environment, relieving boredom and reducing tension. However, chewing could become a major problem when valued objects are damaged. Find out what to do and not to do.

8. Leaving Your Dog Home Alone

When you get ready to leave your house, does your dog whine or act depressed? When you come home, are there holes in the carpet or wet stains on the rug? Your dog could be suffering from separation anxiety. Separation anxiety affects nearly one out of 15 dogs, but you can alleviate the stress your pal feels when you're away.

9. Pampered Pups

These days, pet parents everywhere use services like luxurious doggie bed-and-breakfasts and exclusive canine camps to show their best friends how much they love them. But you don't necessarily have to leave home to totally indulge them.

10. Common Behavior Problems

Dogs have a big dilemma. Many of the things they love to do instinctively are just the things people can't tolerate. To live happily in human society, the dog must learn to curb these instinctive behaviors. Here are some solutions to these common inter-species culture clashes.