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The selection of a particular sex usually presents no special problem. If a person is determined to raise a family of dogs, the choice must obviously fall on a female. But so far as personality is concerned, there are no consistent differences between male and female. It is commonly said that males are somewhat more rambunctious than females and that females tend to be more docile and obedient. But the plain fact of the matter is that the behavior of the individual animal will be determined more by the training that it receives than by any differences in natural disposition due to sex. It is true, however, that the female will come into heat a couple of times a year for periods of three weeks each, and that these heat periods may prove rather messy and troublesome to some owners. If the owner is the least bit squeamish in this regard, then the problem can be permanently eliminated by having the animal spayed. But even the female in heat will not be particularly annoying if the animal is obedience trained, and properly restrained by a leash while outside the confines of home. The male, on the other hand, will be on the prowl for females if permitted to run loose. So obedience training and leash restraint are just as necessary for the male as for the female. The selection of a dog according to sex, therefore, would not appear to be an especially crucial problem.
The fairly thin tongue of the dog is used mainly for guiding food to the throat, for licking the coat clean, and for perspiration. When a dog is overheated, it cools off by hanging its tongue out and panting. As it pants, the evaporation of perspiration from its tongue cools the animal. The dog also sweats through the pads on its paws and--slightly--through its skin.
The trait of burying bones is an instinct acquired in ancient times when a dog was compelled to do so to make sure of a future meal. It is not true, as has sometimes been suggested, that the dog did this because he preferred his meat “ripe.” The fact is that the dog prefers his food fresh and will resort to stale food only when fresh food is not available. The dog of long ago buried food simply as a security measure so that he could have something to come back to when fresh food was lacking. The modern dog still buries bones, but he does so by force of ancestral habit. He will dig them up only when insufficient fresh food is forthcoming. If he is well fed he will ignore his buried treasure.
dog breeders
During the pregnancy period the animal should be given moderate exercise, and in the first month there should be no drastic change in the normal routine. However, as the abdomen starts to become uncomfortably large, it is advisable to increase the number of feedings while cutting down the quantity of food at each meal. The result will be that the animal will eat more in total quantity, but never too much at any one time. The purpose of this kind of feeding is not to overload the animal at meal time so that it is not made too uncomfortable in carrying its extra burden. The animal should also be given plenty of milk so that it will have sufficient calcium for milk production. It might even be advisable to give the animal a calcium supplement in the form of calcium gluconate or dicalcium phosphate. The dose will depend on the size of the animal and should be determined by the veterinarian.
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Where the flow of urine is abnormally abundant, the source of difficulty is usually in the kidney. By urine analysis the veterinarian determines just what the ailment of the kidney happens to be, and by the application of appropriate medications often corrects the condition. Since the ailments of the kidney are exceedingly technical and complex, it is sufficient to indicate here that the most common variety of kidney ailments can be distinguished mainly by urine analysis, and it is on the basis of the diagnosis made in this manner that the veterinarian regulates his course of treatment.
dog breeders
Vitamin D and Rickets: Any person who has ever raised a child knows that the physician will prescribe some sort of vitamin supplement for the infant. Though the vitamins serve as a general body tonic, one of their main purposes is to prevent rickets. Rickets in dogs and children are very similar conditions.
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