Pet Sense (Archives)
All Creatures Animal Hospital
1894 Ohio Pike 797-(PETS)
Dogs and Kids
The image of your child and dog as inseparable, best friends is a great one that we’d all love to be reality. With the right awareness, our children and pets CAN have the wonderful relationships we hope for. Here are some tips that all families with children and dogs will want to know.
4.7 million people are bitten by a dog each year according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
No child under age five should be left alone with any dog. Not even for a minute. The age may be even older depending on personalities. Young children do not yet understand that a particular action may be hurt a dog. Their innocent tail pulling could lead to aggression or fear and become a recipe for disaster. Supervise all young children when around dogs, even the most gentle pet.
Do your homework.
Research which breeds best suit your family. Pay attention to genetics. Just because you pick a Golden Retriever doesn’t mean he will be exactly like your neighbor’s Golden Retriever. Assess the dog’s personality and that of his parents. All puppies should go through a puppy socialization class. More time invested with your new puppy now will make him a cherished member of your family for years to come.
If you have an older dog, it’s not too late.
All dogs will benefit from training. Have the whole family attend the classes. This way, everyone will know the same commands and how to enforce them. Training will be much more successful if you’re all on the same page. Consider using a Gentle Leader or Halti when walking and training your dog. These are head collars that use gentle pressure. They are wonderful for controlling pulling and even a small child will be able to walk the dog safely if used correctly.
Neutered dogs may be less likely to bite.
Dogs can harbor parasites that are of particular concern to children. Hookworms and roundworms can be transmitted to people. In some cases, they can even lead to blindness in humans. Hookworms and roundworms are intestinal parasites that dogs get from the ground where other infected dogs have defecated.
Children are more prone to ingesting the worm eggs and larvae unknowingly.
Infected dogs will shed eggs and larvae in their stool. A child who has played in that area is at risk for infection if they put their unwashed hands in their mouths. Keep your dog on monthly heartworm preventative year round. It controls hookworm and roundworm infection in your dog.
Ticks can carry diseases, like Lyme disease and Ehrlichia, to which humans are susceptible.
The fix for this is to keep your dog on monthly flea and tick preventative. The risk of an infected tick detaching itself from your dog and attaching to the child will be greatly decreased. Many problems can be prevented by following simple steps. Your children and dogs can have a lifetime of safe, healthy friendship and companionship!
5 Ways to Protect Your Dog’s Hearing
Promote your dog’s hearing by having his ears checked during regular visits to your family veterinarian to:
* Identify any current concerns
* Monitor hearing loss or improvement
* Recommend measures to improve hearing or delay loss of hearing
* Show you how to communicate with a hearing impaired dog
Tips to protect your dog against potential hearing loss:
* Avoid sudden loud noises
* Avoid sharp or high pitched noises
* Provide nutritious meals and snacks for optimum health
* Provide a safe, quiet environment during holiday or family festivities
* Prevent exposure to loud, repetitive noises
The acuity of your family dog’s hearing far surpasses that of humans. Hearing is a critical sense to dogs, and when diminished, will increase dependency on the sense of smell. When a dog hears something, he can hear it without moving his head. Many muscles surrounding the ears help dogs get premium sound reception.
Unlike humans, dogs are able to change the position of their outer ear so they can focus on a specific sound. When a dog lifts his ears or turns them, the outer ear allows him to magnify incoming sounds. Dogs with very long ears usually don’t hear as well as dogs with smaller ears, floppy ears or triangle shaped ears.
“Contrary to popular belief, dogs cannot hear noises from miles away. Dogs and people hear noises coming from the same distance away,” advises Rena Sherwood in How Does A Dog’s Hearing Differ From A Human’s. People hear about 20,000 vibrations of sound per second. Dogs can hear two to five times the number of vibrations!
Animals needed this extensive hearing capability when they lived in the wild. Those living in the wild maintain the acuity just as those living in our homes.
Domestication of dogs as household pets hasn’t changed their excellent hearing abilities. Because our dogs seem to hear sounds before we do, they often seem to warn us of impending danger. Heroic stories are often shared about pets saving their owners or family members from fire, earthquake, predators and intruders.
Hearing loss in dogs is caused by many of the same things that cause hearing loss in humans. Hearing loss may be the result of a variety of causes including infection, trauma, noise, aging, drug toxicity and inherited genetic defects.
According to the Deaf Dog Education Action Fund, “Hearing loss affecting both ears is called bilateral deafness. A bilaterally deaf dog is completely (or mostly) deaf in both ears. Hearing loss occurring in, or affecting only one ear, is called unilateral deafness. A unilaterally deaf dog has hearing loss in only one ear and has full hearing in the other ear.”
Laura Derrington advises in The Structure of Dog Ears, “Excessive ear wax can cause temporary hearing loss, especially in breeds with narrow ear canals, such as poodles. If a dog has a lot of hair around its ear, the ear canal can get blocked. A foreign object such as a toy or stick that becomes lodged in a dog’s ear also can reduce hearing.”
How can we preserve this wondrous hearing capacity our furry family members have? Five tips below will help you ensure your dog’s clear, unimpeded hearing:
1. Prevent your pet’s exposure to sharp, unexpected noises. This includes loud, repetitive noises that can cause trauma in dogs and humans.
2. Shield or protect your pet’s ears from contributors to noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) including: party noise makers, fireworks, explosive devices, fire and police sirens, hammering, jackhammers, always-on loud music, construction site activities, race car engines, airplane engines, and gunfire.
3. Have ears checked regularly and cleaned as necessary by your family veterinarian.
4. Monitor children and toddlers in the dog’s presence so that doggie ears (like a child’s ears) are not used to stash crayons, marbles, coins or other foreign objects.
5. Provide well balanced meals containing the nutritional components your vet specifically recommends for your dog’s good health and well being.
Your dog will feel and perform his best when you work with your vet to do all possible to preserve his health, well being and excellent sense of hearing.
