Warm weather means enjoying outdoor activities and for dogs and dog owners alike these are great news! It’s time for pleasant walks outside, outdoor sports and even going for a swim! However the summer heat can be a bit too much for our furry companions so this is an excellent time to remind owners how to recognise the signs of heat stroke and what they should do if they see a dog in distress.
A dog suffering from heat stroke will present excessive panting, drooling an abnormally high heart rate and an anxious behaviour. As the condition progresses the dog may seem confused, uncoordinated and their gums and tongue turn red. Some dogs will present vomiting and diarrhoea. In a small amount of time the dog can collapse, go into shock and ultimately die.

Many of these incidents happen because people are not aware that dogs can’t handle high temperatures very well. Unlike us, dogs can only sweat through their foot pads and they lose body heat mainly through panting. This means that they are unable to lower their body temperature as efficiently as a human would and it means that if the air around them is hot as well, panting becomes very ineffective.

If you notice any of the previously mentioned signs on a dog the first thing you need to do is to remove the dog from the heated area immediately. Then you must gradually bring the dog’s temperature down and take it straight to the vet. Offer the dog frequent but small amounts of cool water at a time and apply cold, wet towels directly to the dog’s skin in the abdominal area, groin, head and neck. You can also use cool fans and air conditioning to help dissipate the heat.If possible, take the dog’s rectal temperature every 10 minutes. As soon as it reaches 103°F (39°C) you can stop with the cooling efforts since from that point on the dog will be able to stabilise its temperature on its own.

Ideally you should proceed with the cooling measures on the way to the vet. Dogs suffering from heat stroke go through severe dehydration, which can cause internal organ damage. Even if a dog seems to have recovered after the cooling process, it is still recommend to be brought to the vet as soon as possible.
This information is very important for all dog owners. If owners are able to quickly recognise the first signs of heat stroke they will be able to act immediately and save that dog’s life!

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Owning a dog can be incredibly rewarding but it is also a huge responsibility! In a recent article by Sainsbury’s Bank you can find lots of useful and important information on everything you need to know and consider before getting a new dog.

Future dog owners must ask themselves if they have the time, the money and the means to deal with such a long term commitment. The average dog has a 12 year lifespan and will need to be walked, groomed, trained and cared for on a daily basis. Expenses such as food, veterinary fees and pet insurance also need to be accounted for.

If the answer to these questions is yes then it is time to decide what type of dog would better suit the owner’s personality and lifestyle. Some owners might be better suited with an older dog rather than a puppy and there are plenty of breeds to choose from.

Once your puppy/dog is chosen it’s important to have all the essential items dog owners will need for their new dog such as a lead, a collar and/or harness, food and water bowls, grooming equipment, etc.

The article then moves on to some very useful tips on how to dog-proof your home:

• Hide electrical cables behind furniture/ tape to baseboards
• Remove all breakable objects that your dog might reach
• Place any household chemicals out of reach
• Remove poisonous/toxic houseplants
• Hide shoes in cupboards

An essential part of your new dog’s arrival is the way he or she is introduced to other family members. It’s important to include children in a puppy’s upbringing, regardless of whether there are any kids in your home or not and you should always insist that the dog approaches the child, rather than the other way round.

As for other dogs the ideal is to introduce them on neutral territory, such as out on a walk. You should not leave them alone together until they’re friendly and separate them if they start to fight. If there are cats in the household, the introduction should be made gradually and carefully. The cat must always be able to remove himself from the situation if he or she is not feeling comfortable.

If you are getting a puppy you’ll need to do some toilet training. Please remember to take your new puppy out as regularly as possible (puppies should be able to relieve themselves at least every two hours) and to give him or her lots of praise when they successfully poo/wee outside.

Other important considerations include:

• Identification – by law dogs must wear a collar and tag in public places, with their owner’s name, address and telephone number on it and microchipping will be compulsory from April 2016 in England, Wales and Scotland
• Check-ups, vaccinations and neutering – most veterinary practices provide health care packages that work alongside your pet insurance, helping to manage the costs of both check-ups and preventative treatments
• Choosing the right insurance – Policies vary when it comes to the level of cover they offer. It’s a good idea to research and compare pet insurance policies before you make a final decision.

To have access to the full Sainsbury’s article with all the information on how to prepare for a new dog please click on the link below:

https://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/library/default/pdf/preparing-for-a-new-dog.pdf

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Never leave you dog locked in the car during the warm season!

Most animal lovers have probably heard of this problem but talking about this and spreading the word around is the best way to save lives: canine lives.

Owners should never leave their dogs unattended and locked in their car during the warm season, even if the windows are left open or if they’re parked in the shade. The problem lies in the fact that many pet owners are not aware of how high temperatures can rise inside a locked car, how fast that can happen and how dangerous this is for a dog left inside.

Dogs don’t sweat like we do. They cool themselves mainly by panting. This means that if the air around them is too hot they are physically unable to regulate their body temperature which is exactly what happens when they are trapped in the car.

A car can become an incredible hot oven quite fast, even when it doesn’t feel that warm to us outside. If it’s 22 degrees outside, the temperature inside the car can reach an amazing 47 degrees within an hour. In a hot day a dog can die of severe dehydration and heat exhaustion in just a few minutes!

Unware owners that need to quickly pop into a store and leave their pet locked in the car in a hot day, can be condemning their pet to suffer an agonising death. It only takes a couple of minutes!

You may also wonder what to do if you ever find a dog under these circumstances. If you ever see a dog locked in a hot car call the police on 999, the Fire brigade or the RSPCA 24-hour cruelty line 0300 1234 999 and stay with the dog until help arrives. If you see that the dog is in severe distress call 999 and ask permission to break the car’s window. You can also alert the manager of any nearby businesses as it is likely for the owner to be somewhere in the shop.

An animal lover’s first thought would be to immediately break the window and remove the dog from that awful situation. However it is important to keep in mind that only the Police, the Fire Brigade or the RSPCA are allowed to break a car window to access a dog in distress. Members of the public will have to pay for the damage if they break the window without permission.

Have a wonderful summer and keep your dog safe!

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The information on this post might be very useful if you ever come across a stray dog or a lost dog in need of help. Please take the time to read it as it could help a less fortunate canine someday.

If the dog is just lost from its owners it is very likely to be carrying some sort of identification. Check the dog for a collar as it could have the owner’s contact details. If there isn’t a collar or the one on the dog does not have any details, take the dog to a local vet so they can scan it for a microchip. If the dog is chipped and if the registered details are up to date you will be able to reach the owner.

However, if you are not able to reunite the dog with its owner you must contact the local authority dog warden. This is extremely important because it is a legal requirement! You have to report that you have found the dog, describe the circumstances briefly, supply your contact details and arrange for the dog to be collected. If you do not follow this procedure you could be accused of theft of the animal you found.

Many people might think of taking the dog to a rehoming organisation but they can only take dogs in from the local authority dog warden or from the dog’s rightful owner for rehoming.

Once the dog is collected by the dog warden it will be held for a seven day period. If the owner is not found during that period the dog will move on to the kennels where it will be available for adoption.

Once you are done with the legal requirements you can help with the search for the dog’s owner. You can ask neighbours and people on the area if they recognise the dog, put up posters (with the dog’s photo and your contact details) and you can also share the dog’s picture in social media networks like Facebook. You can contact local vets, rescue centres and organisations such as RSPCA or Dogs Trust as they usually have lost and found pet lists. You can even spread the word further using websites designed to reunite lost pets with their owners such as Dog Lost.

If no owner is found and you decide you would like to adopt the dog you will be able to do so by going through the normal adoption procedure of the kennel.

We feel this an excellent opportunity to remind owners to please microchip their dogs! The chip will always be your dog’s best chance to come home if he or she ever gets lost or stolen! 

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On November 23^rd, 2013, Jude Devine was visiting friends in Liverpool when Harvey, her poodle, went missing. Jude was absolutely distraught and she did everything she could think of to find Harvey. She spent more than £8,000 in leaflets, banners, adverts and she even lived in a caravan to be close and search the area.

Her search came to an end when in February 2014. Jude received a Facebook message from a ‘highway patrol officer’. Harvey had been found dead on the M62, less than a mile from where Judy had been staying and just 20 minutes after he had gone missing. Harvey was microchipped and had a collar tag. However, no efforts were made to try and locate its owner.

Months of search and heartache could have been avoided entirely if it weren’t for the inadequate and unenforced procedures of the Highways Agency. Jude only found out what had happened to Harvey because by chance, the events of November 23rd were communicated, as there were no written records with the Highways Agency.

Jude and her friend Nina Blackburn decided to launch a petition demanding it to be compulsory to attempt to identify the dog and inform the owner if pets are killed and found on highways, to file a log report and circulate it to the police and dog warden.

The petition received more than 122,000 signatures and all these voices were heard. It has been announced that pets that are killed in road traffic accidents will have to be identified, collected and their owners informed by the Highways Agency.

The transport minister John Hayes has said that he wants to ensure that this policy is also extended to cats found on the roads.

The recent announcement regarding what has become known as Harvey’s Law is a huge victory for all pet owners that have gone through something similar and for all animal lovers that have been involved in this campaign.

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Most of us are aware that dogs have an incredible sense of smell. Despite this well-known fact, dogs keep surprising us again and again with each new achievement. Just recently a rescue German Shepherd-mix named Frankie was successfully trained to differentiate between benign thyroid disease and thyroid cancer simply by smelling a person’s urine!

Frankie participated on a study with 34 human patients who had suspicious thyroid nodules. These patients underwent normal diagnostic procedures and it was concluded that 19 of them had benign thyroid disease and the other 15 had thyroid cancer. All these patients supplied a urine sample that was sniffed by Frankie.

The urine samples were presented to the dog by a gloved dog handler, one at a time, and neither the dog handler nor the study coordinator, the person responsible for recording the dog’s responses, knew about these patients previous diagnostic results. He was trained to turn away when he smelled a sample with benign thyroid disease and to lie down when he detected metastatic thyroid carcinoma, a common thyroid cancer.

Frankie was able to correctly identify which patients had thyroid cancer and which had a benign disease in 30 out of the 34 urine samples! This means that Frankie had an 88% accuracy and was able to detect a benign sample almost 9 of every 10 times.

The use of scent-trained canines to diagnose thyroid cancer has an incredible potential for many reasons. Current diagnostic procedures for thyroid cancer often give patients uncertain results and lead to a large number of unnecessary thyroid surgeries. The method generally used to detect cancer in a person’s thyroid nodules is a fine-needle aspiration biopsy. In this procedure a thin needle is inserted into the patients thyroid gland (located in the front of the neck) in order to obtain a tissue sample. Canine scent detection is non-invasive, inexpensive and the dog’s diagnostic accuracy is only slightly less than the fine-needle aspiration biopsy.

Although it may be too soon to base major decisions and decide a patient’s treatment based on the canine technique, these dogs can help physicians detect thyroid cancer at an early stage and avoid surgery when unwarranted in a non-invasive way. With the help of these dogs many lives are likely to be saved and our current diagnostic procedures will be much easier for people suffering from these conditions.

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