Choosing the Right Dog Breed for You
It is amazing how many dog breeds there are out there, and each one comes with its personality trait, lifestyle requirements, and susceptibilities to certain medical conditions. All of the above should be considered when you are considering getting a puppy or older dog for yourself or your family.
It is a commitment on your part for the next 15 years to care for and look after this new mate. Over the decades, as people’s lives have become busier and housing has become more concentrated, many dog laws are now in place. This certainly has had an effect on dog ownership and the dogs themselves.
Personalities and Size
Dogs need to suit your personality, your lifestyle, your housing situation, and your family in general. Reading dog psychology to understand how they think and act is a good idea.
Please get in touch with us anytime for some free advice on how to pick the right dog breed for you.
It is advisable to research dog breeds in general. Breeds have evolved over hundreds to thousands of years due to their special abilities in certain areas.
Stimulation and Exercise
No longer is it OK to let “Sparky” roam around the neighbourhood, meet up with other dogs, or have an exciting sniff at someone else’s house or in a park. These days dogs need to be confined to our backyards. They rely on us to stimulate them by taking them for regular walks and keeping the boredom at bay while we are away at work.
For example, by choosing a breed that requires a much higher degree of mental stimulation (e.g., working dog breeds), we may inadvertently create little monsters who are so bored that they start to bark continuously, dig up our yards, and rip the washing off the lines.
Some breeds are naturally timid, and a lack of training and socialisation from an early age may have caused them to become nervous and scared of other dogs or even people, resulting in “fear aggression.”
There Are Seven Groups Dog Breeds Are Categorised Into:
Small in size and adorable in looks, their primary function is to give sheer enjoyment. Although small, they can be tough as nails and have a very determined bark to scare off many a large intruder or visitor.
Their key advantage is their small size, as inner suburban living is becoming more common. Smaller will also be the amount of hair shed, messes made, and food bills. And training aside, it will always be easier to manage a 5 kg dog than one five times that size.
Terriers have a unique personality of being feisty and energetic and can often be relatively small in size. They often have little tolerance for other animals, including dogs, as they were bred to hunt and kill vermin.
Most have wiry coats and need regular grooming and clipping, and as they are very energetic and engaging pets, they require owners with a matching determination.
These dogs are naturally active, alert, pleasant, and well-rounded companions.
They have great instincts in water and forests and are still actively used in hunting and other field activities. Potential owners must realise that most would require regular and invigorating exercise.
Their ancestral trait is being used extensively for hunting. Some have phenomenal scenting powers, and others have incredible stamina.
Hounds are a very diverse lot, some of which bay instead of barking, so it would pay as a potential owner to sample this sound first. It will also pay to know that some hounds are tough to handle off the lead. If they pick up a scent, it can render them incomprehensible.
These dogs share a fantastic ability to coordinate the movement of other animals. Most of these “herding dogs” are often household pets who have often never seen a farm animal. Still, pure instinct prompts many of these dogs to herd their owners, especially the family's children, gently.
These intelligent dogs generally make excellent companions, although they often require mental stimulation and plenty of exercise. They respond beautifully to training exercises.
These dogs were bred to guard, perform rescues, and even pull sleighs, which have often been invaluable to man. They are quick to learn, very intelligent, and often make great companions.
Their often large size and strength alone make many utility dogs unsuitable as pets for average families. These dogs must be properly trained!
Often known to be very sturdy with many different personalities and looks. Their characteristics are best looked up under the individual breeds.
Please note that we in no way encourage solely purebreds as pets. Crosses can often be more versatile and better suited to you. Instead of looking up one breed, you may have to look up the traits of two or even three breeds.
Desexing Your Dog or Puppy
Why Desex?
Every year at vet clinics, animal shelters, and dog pounds around Australia, many unwanted dogs are euthanised.
Why? Too often, a bitch has accidentally gotten pregnant, or a dog has jumped into someone’s yard and mated with the bitch on heat, and thus many unwanted litters are created.
Veterinarians subsidise desexing surgeries to encourage responsible pet ownership.
Advantages of Desexing
- It prevents unwanted litters
- It prevents medical problems associated with breeding infected uterus (pyometra)
- Mastitis
- Birthing problems, possibly needing a costly caesarean
- In females, it reduces the chance of breast and uterine cancer drastically
- In males, it prevents prostatic disease later in life
- It stops male dogs from wandering, looking for on-heat females, and getting into fights, run over, or shot
- Early desexing reduces behavioural problems
- Desexing does not cause weight gain! There is no weight gain unless you overfeed your dog
This very effective surgical procedure requires high levels of skill and should incorporate a high standard of care. Without a doubt, for many dogs that live a healthy and uneventful life, desexing will be their most significant surgical procedure.
We are confident that what we do here at Petfocus Vetcare makes a difference for your pet and yourself. Please let us know if you haven’t been on a clinic tour to see our facilities.
While dogs and cats can be desexed as early as six weeks of age, we desex most pets at around six months.
To find out more on the desexing process at Petfocus, click here.
Heartworm Kills: Make Sure Your Dog Is on Prevention!
The heartworm is a parasitic bloodworm, not associated with the common gut worm parasites (roundworms, hookworms, and tapeworms). Heartworms typically live free, floating in a section of the heart (right ventricle) and nearby vessels.
Even if your dog never comes in contact with other dogs, heartworm can still be passed to your dog, as mosquitoes transmit heartworm. Prevalence in unprotected dog populations living along rivers is often much higher than in populations living away from rivers.
The life cycle of the heartworm is complex. Adult heartworms, once mature (at six months), produce “babies” called microfilaria, which swim around the bloodstream.
As a mosquito bites your dog, it sucks out blood containing this microfilaria, which will be injected into the next dog the mosquito bites. Again, these larval stages take six months to mature into adults.
Tests cannot detect this larval stage, so in the first six months of infection, heartworm cannot be tested for.
Therefore, heartworm preventatives are initiated first, and tests to detect heartworm in your dog are carried out 6 to 12 months after prevention has commenced.
Dogs not on preventatives will eventually succumb to heart failure and death. The earliest pathological changes associated with heartworm are usually due to inflammatory processes in and around the arteries of the lower portion of the lungs. Later, heart enlargement will result, the heart will become very weak due to an increased workload, and congestive heart failure may occur, leading to death over time.
Prevention
This is easily achieved with a yearly injection, which can be commenced in your dog as early as three months old without any testing procedures.
Older dogs who have not been on heartworm preventatives before will need a heartworm test done before the yearly heartworm injection begins and a repeat test 12 months later. If yearly heartworm injections are kept up after that, no further testing will be required.
Vaccinations
Why Vaccinate Your Dog?
There are several serious viral diseases puppies and dogs are at risk of. However, a simple vaccination programme can easily protect them from most of these diseases.
These days, dogs and their owners are often quite mobile, and your pet will likely come into contact with infections present in unvaccinated puppies and dogs or in the environment.
Vaccinating is a cost-effective way of protecting your dog or puppy against potentially fatal diseases and the possible high costs involved in their treatment.
Coronavirus and leptospirosis may be included in your puppy’s vaccination at Petfocus Vetcare as a 7-in-1 (C7) vaccination. A C7 vaccination for your puppy is recommended if you plan to travel with your puppy or dog.
Hepatitis
This highly infectious disease causes liver damage in dogs. Puppies are most at risk, and signs of infection include fever, ocular lesions, respiratory symptoms, jaundice, depression, lack of appetite, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain (due to liver enlargement).
The virus is passed by contact with infected dogs and through contact with the urine of infected dogs. It can continue to infect dogs for months after apparent recovery from the disease. This virus can also cause long-term kidney and liver problems in older dogs.
Parvovirus
This virus is still very commonly seen and often associated with outbreaks. It causes severe, debilitating diseases in dogs of all ages. Young puppies are most susceptible to infection and the development of severe disease and can die within days of contracting the disease.
Symptoms include vomiting, watery bloody diarrhoea, severe abdominal pain, depression, and death.
Canine parvovirus can remain in the environment for over 12 months.
Kennel Cough
This disease complex is caused by various viruses and bacteria, namely the parainfluenza (type II) virus and Bordetella bronchiseptica. It is not confined to kennels, as the name suggests. It is transmitted very easily by dogs coughing on one another. Therefore, it is most prevalent where there are a lot of dogs present, e.g., obedience clubs, dog shows, the pound, boarding kennels, etc.
This disease is characterised by a persistent hacking cough, which often sounds like a ‘goose honking.’ It is not usually fatal, but it causes significant distress to the dog and owner. Some animals will stop eating and may become depressed and lethargic. Kennel cough can be treated with antibiotics, nursing, and rest. However, it is best to try to prevent the disease in the first instance, mainly because it is highly contagious.
The above five mentioned viral diseases (distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus, and kennel cough—PI2 & BB) are most commonly vaccinated against and often known as a C5 vaccination.
Coronavirus
This virus causes severe bloody watery diarrhoea, shock, abdominal pain, and vomiting and is most commonly seen at a very young age (approx. 6 to 10 weeks). There is variable mortality amongst puppies and older dogs. Signs appear very suddenly. The diarrhoea looks and smells just like parvovirus.
Leptospirosis
Leptospirosis is a disease associated with dogs that come into contact with rats and native rodents. It is prevalent in areas around rubbish tips and areas of annual crop harvests. This component is often administered in conjunction with coronavirus.
Learn everything you need to know about dogs from our experts. Browse our dog information page and get tips to keep your furry friend happy and healthy!