Dogs

I am seriously considering adopting a dog but I am having reservations because I will have to leave him/her at home for 8-9 hours a day during the week and I live in an apartment in NYC. Are there any breeds that are best for this situation or any ideas? If its not good for the dog, I won’t adopt.

A cat,fish,or small animals would be a far better choice until there will be someone home more often. =)

Quite honestly,a cat or small animals (ferrets,guinea pigs,rabbits,gerbils,hamsters,chinchillas,etc) would love you for being gone so long and leaving the house quiet.

And how much does it usually cost a month?

Just like any insurance that you buy, you have to pay a monthly premium. (If you can find someone that’s going to give you insurance for free then lucky you!)
For dogs it will usually cost around $20-$50 per month depending on which company you go with and how much you want your plan to cover.
If you want it to cover routine things like dental and shots then it is going to make your monthly premium go up a lot. I have found that it is not really worth it to include routine care in the insurance plan but rather pay for it yourself.

Personally, I recommend Trupanion because it only costs about $25 a month and it has no annual limits so if your pet has a lot of accidents in one year you don’t have to worry about ‘max’ing out your insurance for that year.

I see dogs drinking muddy water at the park all the time. Can this make them sick? How about muddy tennis balls? Have you ever known any dogs that get sick from drinking muddy water? What kind of disease?

My dog got a nasty bacteria from drinking out of a water puddle. he has diarreah for a week or so and I decided to take him into the Vet. They tested his stool and confirmed it. It tooks several rounds of meds as it was a fast moving bacteria and my poor guy lost 10 pounds before it was out of his system! VACCINES have nothing to do with a bacterial infection. The Vet said they can get it from lakes, the beach, etc. Nothing serious of treated:)

My dog has this awful smell and we looked it up online. We saw that it was very common for the type of dog we have to get yeast infections, but we aren’t sure if that’s what he has. He seems to show the symptoms for it. He is also very old.

Depends on the location. It usually causes redness, dark brownish-red discharge in the ears. On the skin, it prefers warm places, like the arm pit or groin area, but can affect anywhere. The skin gets red, irritated and itchy ( of course!), and has a sweet odor. With chronic infections, the skin will darken, and get thick, like elephant skin.

The easiest way to tell is to have your vet look at a swab of the skin/ears, to see if there is any yeast. There are many treatments, most topical unless the condition is severe. Please go to the vet, for his comfort.

I didn’t know a Maltipoo or a Schnoodle or any other half breed mistake can command hundreds or are owners just trying to make a quick buck?

As long as there are people that will pay for a mixed breed, then there will be puppy mills and BYBs that will breed them. It is called supply and demand. It is hard to believe that people will pay for a mutt. There are plenty of mutts in the shelters that need homes and are not hundreds of dollars. It is like pups in pet stores too. If people stop buying them then the mills would stop breeding them. People buying pups at a pet store are just giving the store more money to buy another from the mill creating the demand.

I don’t have any pets of my own but my sister and her partner have said that they are safer than other dogs but I have read of cases of boxer dogs killing children so im not sure.

A good handful of dogs can be good with children if trained properly. Just make sure your children don’t get to rough with the boxer because the boxer will get rougher with the children and we don’t want any accidentals bites or knockdowns.

How big do Maltese dogs get to be? in pounds and in length?
Thanks!

Vital Statistics:

Life span: 12-15 years

Adult weight: 4-7 pounds

Adult height: 5-8 inches

My dog obey’s me ok at home and at the dog park. That is until we get around other dogs. Once she starts running around with other dogs, she completely ignores me. It’s ok that she runs around with other dogs and they all play well together, but I need to make sure she stays some what close to me and will come when called. Any suggestions on how to get her to obey a "come" command when she’s around other dogs?

a really reliable recall is necessary without distraction before she can be expected to come with distractions. practice with only one other dog at first so that you can go get her if necessary. high value rewards are critical for success. and calling her to come only when you’re ready to leave sends the message that coming means the fun is over. call her over to you several times before actually leaving so she can learn that coming is a good thing and she can still play. always praise when she comes (even if she did not come on her own). and do not call her to come when you can’t enforce the command. see the link for help getting started.

I am staying in a housing complex consisting of more than 200 apartments. Some of the residents keeping pet dogs come out with their pet dogs and dirty the neighborhood as if it is their birth right. They claim that these pets are as good as their family members. If so, will it not be possible for them to train these pets to use toilets like any other member of their family? Request suggestions from real dog-lovers.

Never met a real live dog before,eh?
NO!
Dogs can NOT use a toilet.They’re animals.

This is My top ten favorite dog breeds

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