Tips On How To Groom Your Cat

Before we begin to give you additional information on this topic, take a moment to think about what you already know.

Cats are basically very tidy creatures. They are in the habit of grooming themselves by licking every part of their body clean with their tongue.

This habit of tongue-bathing has several benefits to your pet cat:

- promotes better circulation of the blood
- gets rid of dead skin cells
- removes excess/dead hair on their coat
- tones their muscles
- keeps the fur soft and clean

Although your feline friends groom on their own, you should still do your part in keeping your cat clean and well-groomed.

Here are several ways to keep your cat well-groomed:

1. Brushing

Depending on the breed, your cat can either have long or short hair. Make sure that you brush your cat's coat well enough to promote proper grooming.

-For cats with short hair, use a brush with soft bristles so that the skin will not be scratched or hurt in the grooming process.

Use soft, gentle strokes while brushing. This should make them purr in pleasure and you will have an easier job of grooming your pet cat.

After brushing the coat with a comb, you can finish the job by wiping the fur with a dry, soft and clean piece of cloth. This should maintain the shine on your cat's coat.

-As compared to cats with shorter hair, long-haired cats would require more brushing time.

For this, use a comb with wide-teeth that is specially designed for cats. This should initially remove the knots and tangles on their fur.

Afterwards, you can use a fine-toothed comb to work the smaller knots on the fur and eliminate the more stubborn knots.

Do not forget to brush the hair around the face with a smaller comb or a toothbrush.

Avoid the eye and whisker area when brushing.

Brushing your cats fur on a regular basis will help keep their coat shiny and healthy, and will also give the owner and the pet some bonding time together.

2. Bathing

Cats do not often require bathing because they basically take good care of themselves when it comes to grooming.

However, there are some cases wherein you need to give them a bath no matter how you – and your pet – dread the chore.

You need to bath your cat if the coat has excessive dirt.

Sometimes, a substance that can possibly poison them sticks on the fur and it is vital to give them a bath in this case.

Another instance where you need to bath your cat is in case of fleas, ticks and lice clinging to their skin.

3. Cleaning the eyes and ears.

For the eyes and ears which are the most sensitive areas in your cat's body, there are solutions that you may use.

Choose one which is specifically designed to prevent cats with light-colored eyes to develop stains.

For the ears, cats collect a considerable amount or wax so you have to take care of it when grooming.

Removing this would maintain your cat's health and help prevent infections.

There are also cat wipes that you can use for the ears, eyes and teeth.

4. Keeping the paws clean.

Cats are in the habit of scratching surfaces so it is better to keep them away from the furniture items in the house. It would also help if you keep those paws clean and trim their nails.

You can go to a pet store and buy a nail trimmer specially designed for cats.

Ask your veterinarian for the proper way to trim your cats nails so as not to hurt them in the process.

If you find that your cat exhibits a not-so-healthy clawing habit, you may go for the option of declawing your cat.

This is a surgical procedure where the nails are permanently removed so that it will not grow back.

However, you should still ask your vets advice if you want to go for declawing because with this, cats will lose a natural defense mechanism.

A better and kinder option is to regularly trim the cat's nails, have them use a wooden post for scratching, or crate-training to prevent them from clawing at your most-treasured possessions.

By following these tips and making time in your busy schedule to groom your cat, you would have a healthy and happy cat and be a happy owner as well.

About The Author
Ken Charnely is webmaster at two of Internet's popular article directories. For more articles on this topic and for free content for your website visit http://www.articleteller.com/ and http://www.contentwow.com/

Dog obedience training

Which dog owner won't feel proud of his disciplined dog? Reversely, who won't feel ashamed of an unruly dog? It is very important for your dog to be absolutely obedient to commands of his owner. You can't expect your dog to be obedient by birth or nature. You have to take pains to make him understand obey your commands.

Obedience training to your dog can be imparted in many ways - two of the more popular methods are typically carrot and stick methods. First method heavily depends on the stick or punishment approach. Second method deals with the reward system for the dog.

Leash and collar method of dog obedience training has survived for a long time now. It is primitive but still mostly followed. The premises of this training method are based here - leash will be the mode of communication with the dog. Dog must understand the commands, and if not obeyed to, leash should be put to action. Using leash alone is not sufficient - dog must be made aware of the good and bad behavior. Once tracked on the path to bad behavior, dog can be punished with the leash.

Reward system doesn't believe in punishing the dog. It follows psychological approach to deal with dog training. Dog is made to know the good parts of behavior and rewarded for the same. His ugly behavior is neglected in the form of psychological treatment. The trainer or owner walks away from the dog immediately after the show of bad behavior. Dog is an intelligent animal to understand the difference between the bad and good behavior.

Whatever technique is used for dog obedience training, it is important to know that the training must be consistent. Dogs get easily confused due to double standards employed. If you expect your dog never to jump on the bed, never let or invite him on the bed. Ensure that your dog never reaches the bed.

Obedience training starts on the fundamental issues like sitting, standing, walking, listening to your commands & following those, sitting in the car, etc.

The dog owner can easily impart obedience training. You may find alternates to this by getting your dog enrolled with some obedience classes or dog instructor. Evaluate all the training techniques, methods, equipment, infrastructure, experience, etc before taking the final decision on outside help. Remember, the most ideal way will be yourself to be the instructor. Your dog will love it.

About The Author
Ted Belfour is the founder of http://www.house-training-puppy.info and http://www.training-a-puppy.info websites providing information on dog training.
tedbelfour@yahoo.ca

How To Get Rid Of Fleas

If you own a pet you will have fleas in the house from time to time. In some cases you may become infested with fleas. We have had as many as four cats at our house and we have been infested with fleas a few times. We only have two cats now so it is not as bad, but we still have to use the process I am about to tell you about.

You really don't have any control if your pet goes out of your yard, but you will need to spray your own yard about two times during the summer months with a good flea insecticide. If you kill all the fleas in your house with out killing the little pest in the yard you will continue to have a problem inside.

One of the main reasons a house will become infested with fleas is, after you vaccum your house and put the vaccum away, every flea that was in the vaccum bag will crawl right back out of the vaccum cleaner and into the house and start multiplying.

The way to stop this is to take the bag out, spray some flea insecticide in the bag and tape the hole of the bag up. Then spray the insecticide around the house. If you will repeat this process every two or three days for two weeks you will not be infested with fleas any more.

You can resume your normal schedule of vaccuming after you clear up the infestation, but you will still need to tape the vaccum bag up just in case you pet brings a couple of fleas in from outside.

About The Author
Clint Pollard is the webmaster of http://ncave.com/sites/germanshepherd.html.

How To Find A Puggle Dog

For those of you who don't know what a " Puggle " is, a puggle is a mix-breed dog in which a pug dog is bred with a beagle.

Puggles have been the biggest rage in Hollywood as well as dog breed lovers alike.

Many ask where to find a good puggle dog and we have some good puggle answers. Puggles belong to the family of mixed breed dogs known as Designer Dogs and are often very expensive if bought at a pet shop. The problem with just buying these dogs from a pet shop is that there are many great mixed breed dogs that can easily be found at your local animal shelter or humane society.

I recently inquired about finding such dogs at a local shelter and they will even take down a wish-list of the type of dog you would like, so when your puggle shows up (or any other dog for that matter), you will be promptly notified. This is definitely a very humane method that gets overlooked often. Many upon many dog lovers have found their best companion from a animal shelter in which they would have been doomed for sure.

If you need a puggle puppy for sale quicker, check the paper, check the pet stores, check specific breeders of puggles but always remember to learn about their genetic history first.

A common problem that often exist is that people who are not commonly breeders will try to mate a pug and beagle without knowing anything about dog breeding and with little dog breed information. What often ends up happening as a result, the puggle will often have genetic disorders and problems as they get older. Another thing that many unskilled dog breeders overlook is temperment testing and finding the right mix to come out right. Puggle dogs are great animals and like any great animal they should be bred with respect and dignity.

It may seem like a contridiction in terms jumping from a animal shelter view to a qualified breeder view, but it all depends on the needs of the buyer. I personally would never want to see a love capable dog be put to sleep, however you do want a healthy dog that will be with you quite a long time. It is a catch 22 I guess.

Puggle breeders are often very trained breeders who take pride in breeding a very nice puppy. Much controversy has been brought up from purebred owners in claims that puggles are simply a mutt. This is somewhat true however Puggle dogs can be well bred like any other dog plus have less of a tendency to be inbred due to overbreeding. This makes a smarter dog with less emotional problems often times.

One thing is for certain though, puggle puppies are cute! Puggle puppies are sooo incredibley cute that they touch the hearts of all they come in counter with.

About The Author
Gage Killian
Pet Enthusiast, Web Designer
http://www.caninefacts.com
http://www.puggleluv.com
http://www.bpuggley.info

Finding A Dog Breeder

If you're in the market for a purebred dog, you'll need to find a breeder from which to purchase the animal. This can often be as easy as opening the classified advertising section of your local newspaper, but you'll want to be sure that the breeder you've chosen is reputable. There are several ways to help ensure that the breeder you've found knows his stuff and is reliable, professional, and trustworthy.

Ask for References

Any good breeder will be able to provide you references of clients he has worked with in the past. These will be people who have purchased a puppy or utilized stud services and will be happy to share their experiences with you. Choosing a breeder that was used by someone you know is a good choice as well. If your friend or family member was happy with the service and treatment he or she received from the breeder, the odds are good that you will be as well.

Prepare to be Asked Questions

A good breeder will have as many questions for you as you have for him, perhaps more. Good breeders work to ensure that the dogs they breed are placed with the correct people. They may ask whether you have children, what size home or yard you have, and numerous other questions to help them let you know whether the dog you're seeking is right for you and your family. A breeder that doesn't ask these types of questions may be looking just for the money from the sale of the dog and is probably not the sort of breeder you want to do business with. A good breeder always has the best interest of both the dog and the clients in mind.

Guarantees

A good breeder will have had the puppies checked for potential health risks before ever selling the animal. Some problems, however, simply are not detectable until later in life. If you purchase a golden retriever pup, for example, and six months later discover that it has hip dysplasia (a genetic defect in the animals hip joints, it is often nearly undetectable until the animal is several months old), a good breeder will issue a refund to you, no questions asked. Genetic defects like this are avoided by the use of selective breeding (hip dysplasia in dogs has between a 25% and 85% chance that it is genetic in origin), but sometimes a pup will display the disorder even if there is no trace of it in either parent's history.

Other Sources

Aside from looking in the newspaper of on the internet for a dog breeder, breeders can be found through veterinarian's offices, pet supply stores, and at dog shows. Dog shows are a very good choice since the breeders that attend these events are often showing one of their dogs or are there to see the performance of one that they bred and sold in the past.

About The Author
Kirsten Hawkins is a dog lover and animal expert from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.doghealth411.com/ for more information on dog health, the care of dogs, and dog travel.