For decades, owners have relied on identification tags around their canines’ necks to minimize the likelihood of losing their pets. The tags normally hang from collars. If an animal control officer finds your pet, a quick look at the tag will identify you as the owner. A single phone call may be all it takes to be reunited with your canine. Why, then, are so few pets reunited with their owners after becoming separated from them? Some are fortunate enough to be placed within new homes. Others are euthanized.

This can occur for a number of reasons. Collars can break, or fall from a dog’s neck. Identification tags may be damaged. The tags can also become worn down to the point of being unreadable. For this and other reasons, microchipping pets has become popular. In this article, we’ll explain how it works, and clarify a few common concerns owners have about them.

How Microchips Work

The chip is very small; it is no bigger than a grain of rice. It is inserted under your dog’s skin between his shoulder blades, and emits radio waves that carry information about your pet. The chip, built of silicon, can be implanted with a specially-loaded syringe by a veterinarian or a trained employee at a qualified animal shelter. Doing so only requires a few seconds, and poses no more discomfort than a typical vaccination shot.

The radio waves transmitted by the microchip are coded to be read by a special scanner. When the scanner is held over the chip, an alphanumeric code is displayed. This code is unique to your dog, and can be cross-referenced with a database. The database entry lists your name and contact information, all of which you provide at the time of the chip’s implantation.

If your canine becomes lost, and ends up at an animal shelter, the shelter employee can use the scanner to read his chip. Even in the event your pet’s collar has fallen off, and his I.D. tags are too worn to read, the chip will give the employee everything he or she needs in order to contact you.

What Happens To The Microchip Over Time?

The chip is designed to remain under your canine’s skin throughout his life. It does not need to be recharged, cleaned, or removed for any purpose. Normally, the tissue underneath the skin binds with the chip, and thus prevents it from migrating to other areas of your dog’s body. This binding process usually occurs within the first twenty-four hours following implantation.

There are times, however, when the chip moves, though this seldom causes a problem. The microchip will not become lost or migrate outside your canine’s body. Moreover, animal shelters and veterinary clinics realize there is a chance of migration. If they are unable to locate the microchip between your dog’s shoulder blades, they will usually scan his entire body.

What Is A Universal Scanner?

The microchips are designed by different manufacturers. Each manufacturer designs their chip so that it transmits the radio waves on a different frequency. When the microchips first debuted, each frequency required a different scanner. This created a problem. For many animal shelters and veterinarians, buying a separate scanner to read each manufacturer’s chip was cost-prohibitive. As a result, many stray pets with microchips implanted arrived at shelters and clinics that lacked the necessary scanners to read them.

This problem led to the design of a universal scanner that was capable of reading each manufacturer’s microchip. Animal shelters and veterinary clinics could now purchase a single reader, which helped ensure all strays were scanned. This development has no doubt prevented many lost pets from being euthanized.

It’s important to realize that microchipping, while being a valuable method for identifying lost canines, is fallible. Mistakes can occur. For this reason, continue to use ID tags on your pooch, even after having him microchipped.

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Canines “run away” for many reasons, most of which are misunderstood by their owners. Many people believe their pets run in order to escape from an environment they dislike. In reality, dogs are only doing what is in their nature. We’ll cover this in more detail below.

This article will first explain why the term “running away” is a bit of a misnomer. While some canines do actually abandon their homes, most roam. This difference forms the core of why the behavior is so often misunderstood. We’ll also explain the most common reasons pets roam, and provide a few tips for curbing the behavior.

Roaming Versus Running Away

Dogs are descendants of wolves. They are pack animals, and thus roaming is natural to them. Outside the confines of domesticated life, it is a large part of their daily existence. They roam from their dens to hunt food, scout for potential dangers, and to explore their surroundings. In most cases, they stay within a few miles of their dens, and can easily find their way home through natural instinct.

In the city where pavement has replaced the range, and vehicles cloud the environment with pollutants, it is much more difficult for a canine to find his way home. Making matters worse, roaming is far more dangerous since it can lead to capture, injury, or death.

When dogs actually run away (as opposed to roam), they usually do so for one of two reasons. First, they run to escape elements they perceive to be dangerous. This might be the case if they feel threatened by their owners, or their immediate environments. Second, they run away to acquire a reward they deem more desirable than their current circumstances.

Understanding the differences between roaming and running away is essential to understanding the triggers that spur canines to do the former.

Common Reasons Canines Roam

The drive to reproduce is instinctive in canines. This is the reason intact male dogs are more inclined to roam than those that have been neutered. When they become aware of estrogen in the air, their instinct prompts them to pursue it.

Another reason dogs roam is the promise of food. If your pet has identified a reliable source of food in a location other than your home, he may be motivated to visit it. This behavior is rarely a reflection of hunger. Instead, many dogs have a persistent craving for food, and will go to great lengths to satisfy it.

Lack of mental stimulation is another common trigger. If you routinely leave your canine home alone during the day with nothing to occupy his time, he will become bored. He’ll begin to look for an alternative source of stimulation beyond the confines of your backyard.

All dogs have an innate predatory instinct. This, too, can motivate them to roam. Given the opportunity, your pet might escape in order to hunt for prey. His goal is not to kill or eat his prey, but simply to track, chase, and catch it. If you take him to a park, you may observe him doing this with resident squirrels and other rodents.

Steps To Take To Curb Persistent Roaming

If your canine has developed a habit or escaping and roaming the neighborhood, invest the time to curb the behavior. First, make sure the fence surrounding your yard is tall and durable. This is important for keeping your pet inside, and keeping other animals from gaining entry.

Second, provide your pet with a number of toys with which he can play during times when he is left alone. Make sure he also has easy access to plenty of drinking water and food if you leave him for long periods.

Third, take him for a walk each day. Routine exercise is critical for his long-term health, but will also help him burn off pent-up energy that might otherwise prompt him to roam.

Fourth, have your canine neutered. As mentioned earlier, intact male dogs are more likely to roam due to their reproductive drive.

By taking the above four measures, you can successfully curb your dog’s tendency to escape. This will help ensure he avoids possible injury or worse.

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Landlords and property management companies often disallow tenants with dogs from living in the apartments they oversee. The reasons are varied, but most focus on whether the pets will create an atmosphere that is unpleasant to other tenants. Moreover, some landlords have had less-than-ideal experiences in the past with other tenants who were pet owners.

Despite some resistance, canines and apartment living can go together. Many property managers are willing to rent their units to owners as long as specific conditions are clearly defined in the rental contracts. We’ll approach this issue from two perspectives below. First, we’ll assume you already own a dog, and are looking for an apartment to rent. We’ll then assume you already rent an apartment, and would like to adopt a canine.

When You’re Looking For An Apartment

The most important thing to do when searching for an apartment for you and your pet is to be forthright with the property manager. A lot of owners, fearful they may be turned away, attempt to move in with their dogs in tow. If discovered, and your rental or lease contract prohibits canines, you can be evicted.

Be honest. Ask the landlord whether pets are allowed prior to moving in. If you’re using a broker to help you find a rental unit, make sure you inform that person of your pet.

Once you find a facility that accepts dogs, take the time to carefully review their pet policies. Don’t assume you know what it includes. Read it point by point to uncover any specifics that may be problematic. For example, if the facility limits the size of the pets on their grounds, and you own a Great Dane, you may risk a violation, fine, and even eviction. It is far simpler to familiarize yourself the expectations upfront.

When You Already Live In An Apartment, And Want A Dog

Suppose you’re currently a tenant, and would like to adopt a canine. Don’t assume your apartment complex accepts pets. A surprisingly large number of tenants adopt dogs without finding out whether pets are welcome at their facilities. They then find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to abandon their pets, or find another place to live.

First, carefully review your rental contract. Are pets mentioned? Are they allowed? If so, what restrictions apply? Second, check with your landlord or property manager, regardless of what is detailed within your rental agreement. The reason is because policies often change. Your original contract may prohibit canines, but your property manager may have since begun allowing them.

Being A Responsible Tenant And Pet Owner

Now suppose you’re living with your dog in your apartment. You’ll need to juggle being a responsible tenant and meeting your pet’s needs. For example, your neighbors will frown upon constant or late-night barking. If it persists, they will complain to your landlord.

You’ll also need to be vigilant about picking up after your canine. Two or three mistakes may be all that is needed for complaints to reach your landlord about you and your dog.

Also, make sure you keep your pet on a leash when you’re outside unless doing otherwise is explicitly allowed. One of your property manager’s main concerns is the threat of a lawsuit should a tenant’s pet harm someone on the property.

While you’re preventing your canine from becoming a nuisance to other tenants, you’ll need to care for his long-term health. This means taking him for daily walks, and providing veterinary care and grooming. It also means preventing him from consuming pesticides and other chemicals that may be used on the property’s grounds.

In the end, you’ll find renting an apartment while caring for a dog is a rewarding experience. While doing so requires patience, effort, and attentiveness, it also provides the type of companionship only a canine can offer.

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One of the most common problems that dog owners have to tackle is separation anxiety. Separation Anxiety is one of the major causes of a dog’s unpleasant behavior. A very common display of separation anxiety is excessive barking when you leave the house. Neglecting to address this behavior will make your dog even worse to the point that even your neighbors will be disturbed.

The Sources of Dog Separation Anxiety

Dogs are social animals. They have that certain sense of attachment to their master. Because of this attachment, it has a tendency to get overly agitated when left behind. It is important to note that anxiety is not caused by the mere attachment of the dog to its master, but by specific actions or pattern of events you take that it can connect to your absence. Dogs don’t want to be left behind, but its anxiety is not directly connected to your departure.

One particular reason for this behavior is the attention you give to your dog before you depart and upon your return. Going through the same pattern of activity before you leave has made you very predictable for your dog to understand that you are leaving. These routines accumulate on a daily basis and can be too much for your dog to handle that he becomes agitated or anxious as you leave the house.

Reducing Dog Separation Anxiety

Dealing with separation anxiety comes in many ways. Here are a few tips to consider:

Change Your Routine. Make changes to your routines, especially your pre-departure habits. Dogs are very attentive creatures. They can tag a pattern of a series of activities that are repeated overtime. Make sure to change your daily pre-departure activities so that the dog can not retain a particular pattern of your activities. This will help to slowly reduce your dog’s anxiety.

Don’t Reinforce it. Petting your dog before you leave only reinforces its anxious behavior. Separation anxiety can be removed or avoided if the dog cannot establish a connection between your arrival or departure and the lavish attention it receives. One way to do it is to ignore your dog for at least 10 upon your arrival or prior to your departure. Another way to eliminate separation anxiety is to put your dog through crate training or by isolating your dog in a separate room to make it lose its attachment to the attention and petting you accorded it.

Building Up to Longer Times. Alter your dog’s anticipations of your return. If the dog detects that you are about to leave, spend more time to stay before finally leaving, but do not pay attention to your dog on that period, because it will only add to its anxiety. You can also shorten the intervals that you will be away. Your dog’s anxiety will subside upon seeing you return within a short period. You can always extend the period that you will be away without your dog noticing it any longer.

You’re Not Being Mean

Separation anxiety is a behavior that should be stopped, and the way to eliminate it is not an act of cruelty. It is a way of helping your dog to behave normally and be free from stress. The act of altering predictable activity patterns and refraining from giving the dog lavish attention is a display of authority that the dog knows by instinct. Dogs that are free from anxiety and stress are happy pets.

It is important to note that persistent, severe anxiety issues warrants immediate action from you. Teaching your dog not to associate your departure or arrival with its sense of survival can greatly lessen its separation anxiety. It can be traced to a dog’s feeling of being abandoned.

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If you own a dog that is not well trained, you obviously have a lot of headaches dealing with its constant barking, right? You are not alone. Most dog owners who haven’t taken the time to learn how to properly train their dogs are also suffering from the problem of barking. If your dog is properly trained, it won’t be barking as other untrained dogs do. One of dog training techniques that work for barking in particular is the crate for punishment technique. Many who have used it say it works very well for them.

Whenever you see a dog that is very happy and loved by the owner, that dog is obviously a well trained dog. Your dog will bring you joy if it’s properly trained. But if not, it will bring you a lot of headache and misery. Yes, dogs can be incredibly irresponsible if they are not properly trained. That’s why dog training is very important, if you want to enjoy owning a dog. To make you and your dog happy, then give it the right training.

Dog training, to be done effectively, entails possessing a lot of patience. Dogs are not humans and so can’t hear you when you speak. You have to teach your dog how to understand you when you speak and by what you say or the gestures you use. So, you can’t succeed in training your dog within hours or even days. It takes time and a great deal of patience. But when it’s done, it’s done. When properly trained, you can rest assured that your dog will remain properly trained

When training your dog, you also have to spend the time to learn the dog’s language. It also demands that you take the time to teach it your language, since both of you don’t speak nor understand the same language. Proper dog training allows you to bridge that gap between you and your dog. By so doing, communication is improved.

Do you know that you can train a dog to do very interesting things that will amaze many people? Yes, this can be done easily, including teaching it special dog tricks that can be used to entertain money and make you money in the process. For example, a dog can be taught certain tricks that will be surprising to people who are watching. Apart from these though, a dog can be trained to lead people who are blind as well as taught to do wonderful things that many people can’t imagine.

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Surely everyone will agree that dogs are as loveable and are as faithful as any member of the family. But the fact still remains that once they defecate inside your house, they will cause damage to any household. Indoor dog potty should then used in such an event.

As your dog will not understand all of your commands right away, it is but normal that you will feel frustration. You will be in for a challenge as you and your dog work with this new routine. The following are tips which could aid you and your dog while going through with the training.

With the ultimate purpose of helping your dog to stop messing around your home, you must put a limit to his path indoors but not until he is done with the potty training. You may just limit him in a tiny room with clutter-free flooring.

The past spots where your dog has placed his mess before should be kept clean and renewed so that it will steer him away from going back to that old area where he thought was the right potty place. Also, try to play with and feed them in those previous spots so that they would have a different perception of that spot instead of just being a potty place.

Be sure that you inform other members of the house about the indoor dog potty training method that you are currently implementing so that they too will be consistent with the training even when you are not around. Doing so will help your dog not get confused while training because if it does, it would take more time before your dog learns.

Giving it your full and focused attention is vital in the indoor dog potty training’s concept. Training your dogs when they are already older will be tougher than training younger ones.

Make sure that you bring with you enough patience during the training as well as giving your dog appropriate positive reinforcements along the way. Also reward him regularly each time he makes his indoor potty training correctly. After some time, good results will be seen indeed.

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Pet training has many advantages. It allows animals to exercise their intelligence in constructive ways, stops them from engaging in destructive behavior and keeps them under your control. Learning to perform actions or tricks on command can be fun for pets if they get plenty of affection and encouragement in the process. This is why the most successful form of training uses positive reinforcement.

Training with positive reinforcement involves rewarding pets when they perform the right action, rather than punishing them for doing something wrong. Rewards are typically in the form of small food treats combined with praise. Once animals learn to associate certain actions with positive consequences, they become eager to repeat them.

Although you may not be aware of it, you have probably already trained your pet using positive reinforcement. If your dog or cat stands near a door and barks or meows, and you open the door for them, they will associate their actions with the reward of being let in or out. The next time they want you to open the door, they will repeat the same behavior in anticipation of getting the same reward.

Intentional, rather than accidental, training involves getting pets to respond on command. Envision the specific action you want the pet to perform and come up with a single word to trigger it. Cue words of one syllable such as ‘stay’ or ‘come’ are less likely to confuse an animal than more complex commands.

When your pet performs the desired action in response to the command, immediately reward him with verbal praise, swiftly followed by a treat. Consistency and speed are vitally important. If you are trying to teach a dog to respond to the word ‘sit’, and you wait until he is standing again before rewarding him, he won’t know which action to associate with the positive response.

To train an animal to get off the furniture, use a straightforward cue word like ‘off’. When you walk into a room to find your pet sitting on the sofa, get one of her food treats and put it in your pocket. Make sure you have the animal’s attention and clearly speak the word ‘off’ before moving her to the floor. Praise her immediately and present her with the treat. Repeat this procedure every time you find her lounging on the couch. Eventually she will respond to the ‘off’ command by jumping to the floor herself.

When your pet has learned to consistently perform an action in response to a cue word, you can begin to substitute the treat reward with praise and affection alone. Most dogs take pleasure in pleasing their owners. An enthusiastic ‘good dog’ and a pat on the head is all the reward they require. Some cats and birds will also continue to obey a command without the food incentive, depending on how well they have bonded with their trainer.

Pet training requires patience on the part of both the teacher and the pupil. There will be good days and bad days. Do not continue with a dog training Kelowna session if your pet seems tired or distracted. Never resort to scolding or punishment for bad performance. This will cause your animal to associate the cue word with negative consequences. Training should be an enjoyable experience that both you and your pet will be keen to repeat.

Training a puppy can be frustrating, dog training requires discipline and consistancy. When experiencing problems, consult a professional. Bark Busters offer a reliable and affordable service for house puppy training.