Canine Joint DiseaseWritten by Mark Woodcock
Joint disease can be a problem faced by many dogs. Hip dysplasia is most common that people are familiar with as a cause of rear limb lameness. Its front limb counterpart is elbow dysplasia. Elbow dysplasia has only been recognized as a disease in dogs in last 10 to 15 years or so, whereas hip dysplasia has been diagnosed for last 30 to 40 years. Dysplasia means a developmental abnormality, it can be in size, shape, or formation. Elbow dysplasia is a combination of four developmental abnormalities: an ununited anconeal process, osteochondrodystrophy (OCD) of distal humoral condyle, a fragmented medial coronoid process, and elbow incongruity. Dogs may have just one abnormality or in some cases all four. In English, anconeal and coronoid processes are bony bumps on ulna located near elbow. The ulna is arm bone that runs from your little finger upto elbow. The humoral condyle is a bump found at end of humerus near elbow. The humorus is large arm bone extending from shoulder to elbow. Problems with humoral condyle and coronoid process are normally due to abnormal cartilage formation. Sometimes bones do not fit together properly resulting in elbow incongruity or an ununited anconeal process. Classic presentations of elbow dysplasia is an active large breed dog. Rottweilers are posterchild of this disease. Other commonly affected breeds are Bernese Mountain dogs, Laboradors, and Golden Retrievers. There is a breeder certification process available and an elbow registry. It is important for dog owners to check breeder's certification to insure that elbow dysplasia is not present somewhere in breeding line. Problems usually begin in dogs at around 6 months of age or older.
| | Dog Training Basics Written by Robert Kempe
All positive commands should be spoken sharply and distinctly during training. Make sure you also use a positive tone. Your dog will recognize your moods and associate them to their behavior by your tone of voice. The first word puppy should learn is their name. They actually learn sound of their name and associate that as a directive towards them for their attention. This will come naturally over time since family will be calling pup by its name day it arrives in your home. I suggest that before you start training verbal commands that you understand your puppy’s personality. Ask yourself if they are timid, aggressive, quiet, sensitive, playful, etc? These traits will affect type and speed of training with your dog. Understanding dog that is being trained is a vitally important talent of a good trainer. As soon as you are able to touch and feel puppy, call them by their name. Constantly give them affection and praise with tone of your voice. Keep repeating their name over and over and over until pup understands that when they hear their name, it is addressing them. When you prepare meals for them, call them by name and then distinctly say word “come.” This is probably simplest and easiest commands to teach because it is associated with something puppy wants or gets excited when they hear that command. This theory and type of training is used in all generic commands. Remember to always keep praising them when they obey a command and make sure they feel rewarded. House breaking a puppy is probably most stressful for a new trainer. However, good news is that most dogs are generally clean in nature and sense that house is not place to do their thing. Knowing that canines tend to have their bowel movements in same place that they or some other dogs have previously defecated, you need to understand that sent left behind from previous mistakes will signal to pup that is where they are supposed to be defecating. So when you do catch them doing something in house that you do not want, scold them in a simple command such as “shame.” The puppy will hear your tone of voice and feel bad. Usher them outside as fast as you can. Praise them when they defecate outside. Do not use command “no” since that is a command to have puppy stop current act. “Shame” is used after you have found evidence of unwanted act. This is a common mistake a lot of armature dog trainers have.
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