Articles published in this Newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor. Nothing may be copied unless the Editor grants permission. 

Dates & News:

ZimDog News, can be accessed from: www.vanerp.net.

Zimbabwe Kennel Club:

The Zimbabwe Kennel Club office will now only be open on a Tuesday and Friday each week, 14.00-16.00 CAT.
Also they will come to Kennel Club every LAST SUNDAY of each month

Local Shows and Fairs

The working Breeds Club of Mashonaland held their Obedience, jumping and breed Championship show. A fantastic and well run show. Only too few dogs entered. Where are all the dogs??
In breed the Grate Dane got Best in Show, then the Doberman and followed by the German Shepherd.

News:

Some stories found in various websites:

In March this year some 66 house pets were removed from a house in the east of Holland by the police and SPCA. The situation was chaotic. The owner had 7 dogs, 13 cats, 15 rabbits and 20 birds. The dogs were in a small bench, the cats were locked up in the bathroom. Neighbours complained about the smell coming from that house!

You winder why a person has that kind of hobby???

In Germany a Husky killed an 8 weeks old baby after pushing the pram over. The baby died after a short time. The parents had walked home leaving pram and dog out for a short while going inside. When they come out again the baby was on the road, bitten by the dog. Some 4 years ago a Husky killed a 6 days old baby in Holland.

You always hear about the German Shepherd dogs, but this time it were Huskies.

A German Shepherd bit 2 grown ups and 4 children. The bites were serious. It happened during the night while the local had their fair festival. The group of people started to argue with the owner, who was taking hem out for a toilet run. The GSD attached the group while they were arguing with the owner. She couldn’t hold on to the dog. The dog already had a bad name because of its bad behaviour before.

A very amusing video of a dog attacking a police car and tearing the bumper off.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/26/devil_dog/

 

My Dog     I went down this morning to sign up my Dog for welfare. At first the lady said, "Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare".  So I explained to her that my Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify.  My Dog gets his first check Friday. Damn this is a great country.

 

The Ever Varying Sable: Anyone who owns a Sable dog can probably tell you that it went through an amazing number of shades and patterns and colours before settling on it's semi-permanent adult 'look' :) Sable puppies change immensely as they grow, and often end up either darker or lighter than they were as a pup. There is also quite the array of Sable colours, ranging from the lightest Tan to the darkest Black. Repeat from last month: Here I managed to visit a litter of 10 pups. They mostly all turned to become ‘Tan Sables’ and only a few were the ‘Black sable’ colouring. Fascinating to watch their colour change as they grew up.

A dog naps so much because it loves so hard

Hi jan cashel,

When was the last time that you trimmed your dog's nails? If you can't remember then his nails are probably too long by now...The elements can naturally wear down dog’s nails, but the truth is that many dogs spend most of their time indoors, so their nails tend to grow too long. Overgrown nails curl around and can catch in carpets, furniture, clothing etc. If left unchecked the nails can grow long enough to penetrate back into the pad of the foot and cause your dog discomfort. So... you need to add a doggie manicure to your list of pet care responsibilities! But cutting dogs nails can be a bit tricky. The two biggest issues are learning how to handle your dog so he will be "still" long enough to cut his nails and making sure that you do not hurt him by cutting the "quick" inside the nail. The "quick" is within the centre of each toenail and it is the blood and nerve supply. In the example below if you cut where "A" is indicated you will be cutting into the quick and your dog will experience pain and begin bleeding immediately.         

Many of you have asked me about products that make this process easier and minimize the risk of hurting your precious dog. Well, there are a couple of new products in the market that do NOT cut but rather "file" the nail down a bit at a time. One of the products you will see advertised on TV is called PediPaws .I wanted to try PediPaws for myself because sometimes it is difficult to tell the product quality and actual results you get from this type of products. So I asked one of our veterinarians, Dr. Karin Szust, to try it on her 5 dogs. Dr. Szust came into the office this morning and told us that she really liked PediPaws. It did a good job on her dog's nails; the tool filed the nails nicely, was not too loud and did not overheat. Dr. Szust gave PediPaws a thumbs up! I am VERY careful about the things I recommended to my Petplace readers, so I wanted to run PediPaws by one more test. I asked another member of the Petplace team, Angela, to bring in her dog (Zeus) so we could try PediPaws in the office and all see exactly how it worked. Zeus is a 75-pound Rottweiler mix, so if Zeus did not like the PediPaws he was going to let us know in no uncertain terms. To make matters worse, Zeus' nails were Black, which make the "quick" MUCH harder to find.

So what happened? Well I am happy to report that PediPaws worked great and Zeus got his nails trimmed (and Angela is happy!) - see picture below.

So yes, after testing PediPaws I think that PediPaws is an excellent tool for trimming your dog's nails. It is also a great value at $19.99 (which is the lowest price I have seen on tools of this type). There is a webpage with a very nice video that shows how PediPaws works and a dog getting his nails "done". I encourage you to watch the video so you can learn more about PediPaws go to: pedipawsvideo.com. This product is in high demand so I suggest that you act now. If it saves you a trip to the groomer or the vet it will pay for itself many times. For less than $20 dollars it is worth a try, your dog will thank you for it.  To order go to: orderpedipaws.com. Until next time.

Dr. Jon P.S.

Editor: I like the grinder, but have cut with normal nail cutters for years. As long as you do it regularly and make sure you do not cut into the quick, my dogs accept me cutting them all.

Hi jan cashel,

What is the most preventable dog emergency? Well my opinion and that of several emergency docs that I know. Torn nails! Yes, torn nails are a very common emergency. In fact, I stopped by to drop off some cookies to a friend at a local emergency clinic this past Thanksgiving weekend and while I was visiting - I saw two different dogs come in with torn nails (the photo below shows gauze sponge with a torn nail).

Torn nails are common. When the nails get too long - they are sharp, irregular and easily caught on items such as bedding, blankets, and carpet. Carpeting, throw rugs, carpeting, knitted items and especially crocheted items are common items that nails get caught on but they can literally be caught on anything. For example one of the dogs I saw this past weekend was "Duke" - a 40 pound mixed breed dog, he was outside and came in with a torn nail. They don't know what happened. The other dog was "Dandy" and he got his paw stepped on, they must have stepped on the nail and tore it off. Otherwise the foot was fine. When a nail is long, it gets caught and torn from its attachment. And it bleeds (and many times bleeds and bleeds and bleeds some more). And to top it off - it hurts and dogs don't want you to touch it or look at it. And the toe continues to bleed as he walks all over your house. If you ever had this happen to you - you know exactly what I'm talking about. So...the dog and owner ends up at the vet clinic or vet emergency room . The treatment is pretty simple - the torn nail is removed, the area is gently cleaned and a soft bandage is put on to minimize bleeding and provide comfort for a day. The nail will grow back and things will be fine.

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