Massage involves applying pressure to specific parts of your puppy's body. The amount of pressure used will vary from five grams to five pounds and depends on the size of your puppy, his needs and whether he has a medical condition or injury. His muscles will respond only if he's comfortable and your touch is light and gentle. A firm, harsh, controlling touch is counterproductive.

Preparing your pup for massage. Before your puppy is ready for massage you may have to help him quiet down. Hold your puppy by his muzzle with one hand, and between his front legs with the other. Don't squeeze – just grip him tightly enough to restrain him. If he tries to squirm away, be firm and say: "Stay!" When he understands that you want him to be still, speak softly and gently pet him. Let him know that you're pleased that he's calm by praising him, and maybe offering him a treat.

Stress is a part of daily life for humans as well as canines, and especially for therapy dogs. You have heard wonderful stories about these healing dogs. They help lower blood pressure and encourage abused children to work through problems. Unfortunately, therapy dogs can suffer from stress as a result of their dedicated work.

As with humans, some stress is good. The same goes for therapy dogs. However, too much stress can cause a dog to burn out completely, or burn out on the job at hand.

A Bangkok veterinarian who helps out the Thai Pet partner program, frequently sees dogs that are under stress. “I see the same signs of stress in animals at the veterinary clinic as I do in some therapy animal teams,” he says.

The holiday season is almost upon us, and we can all look forward to sitting down at the table with friends and family and enjoying our favorite delicacies. There's a good chance your dog will want to be part of the festivities. While you may think that a few morsels of "people food" can't hurt, the fact is that some foods can be harmful—even lethal—to dogs. Older dogs and overweight dogs may be especially vulnerable to these food risks.

Foods You Should Never Give Your Dog

Grapes and raisins—Though it isn't clear to scientists just what makes grapes and raisins toxic to dogs, even a relatively small amount can damage their kidneys.

Onions—At certain levels, this common food can destroy a dog's red blood cells and lead to anemia and breathing difficulties.

Ideal Weight, Inappetence – Loss of appetite, Inflammation, In heat, Instinct, Intestinal parasites, Itching

Ideal weight, when a vet is estimating the nutritional condition of a dog, he or she will often consider the ideal weight for that particular dog. This ideal varies according to a dog's age, developmental stage, individual characteristics, and other factors. Puppies and young dogs should on no account be overweight. The following yardsticks may be used to check your dog's weight:

you should be able to feel your pup’s ribs, but they shouldn't be pronounced or visible * your puppy's waist, when viewed from above, should be visible but not too pronounced there should be no substantial fatty deposits on your pup’s body

The Somali Fox-tailed cat, with an uncertain origin. Given their foxy appeal, it is hard to believe exotic cats were at first considered undesirable. Occasionally, a longhaired kitten would appear in a litter of Abyssinians. No one knew how the longhaired gene worked its way into the breed, and it was awkward for breeders to explain the existence of the kittens in their “purebred” lines.

The longhaired trait might have arisen in the Abyssinian breed during World War II. European breeders had trouble maintaining their breeding programs with a limited number of cats during the war. Sometimes, just to keep the lines going, they used cats of other breeds or even domestic cats.

The longhaired kitten soon attracted fans. The Somali is quite hardy and relatively free of any serious diseases or disorders.

With puppies, FRAPs most often happen in the early morning and early evening. Racing around the house, rolling on the rugs and careening off of furniture are all normal parts of the canine FRAP. When you can, sit back and enjoy the show. FRAPs will be gone soon enough and when this happens you'll know that the end of puppyhood is nearing.

You may be able to see a FRAP coming. You may see a glint in your puppy's eye or maybe he'll play bow with his chest on the floor and his tail in the air. Maybe he'll bark or bounce but then … he's off! Spinning in circles, racing up and down the hall, around or over the furniture, barking at you, pouncing at toys before he suddenly changes his mind and races off again. He's a veritable whirlwind of life and few things in life are as full of pure happiness as a good puppy FRAP.

Animal feed producers in China commonly add the industrial chemical melamine to their products to make them appear higher in protein, state media reported Thursday, an indication that the scope of the country's latest food safety scandal could extend beyond milk and eggs.

The practice of mixing melamine into animal feed is an "open secret" in the industry, the Nanfang Daily newspaper reported in an article that was republished on the Web sites of the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Publicizing such a problem is rare in the Chinese media and appears to be a tacit admission by China's central government that melamine contamination is widespread.

Socialization is the term we use to describe how a dog learns to relate to people, other dogs and his environment. Your dog will keep on learning throughout his whole life, but puppyhood is the time when experiences – good or bad – have the biggest impact on him. These experiences are critical to your puppy’s future, and will have a long-lasting effect on his behavior throughout his life. Also, socializing your puppy is great fun, and serves as an excellent chance for you to get to know him really well. Following are some useful tips on puppy socialization.

Expose your puppy to different sights and sounds. In a perfect world your puppy’s socialization would have started in his first months of life but even if your pup is eight months old it’s never too late to socialize him, and the process continues his whole life.

With all that playing and walking, you can imagine the daily beating those soft puppy paws endure. Dog pads are made to be strong and sturdy but puppy pads haven't hardened and may require a little extra care.

Regular paw care
Inspect paws for sharp objects or injuries after each outing. If you find something remove it using tweezers or consult your veterinarian if the paw looks irritated or infected.

Pay attention to changed behavior that may indicate your pup has a sore paw. For example: If your pup is walking differently, or is favoring a leg or foot, he may have an injury that needs to be examined by your veterinarian. Also, paw lifting may mean your puppy wants to play but it could also mean that he has a sore paw he wants you to look at.

Unfortunately, parasite problems are more than skin deep. Forty-five percent of cats have had some type of parasite invade their body. These range from worms that grow several centimeters long to protozoa, tiny invaders visible only under a microscope.

For example roundworms, or Taxocara cati, the most common internal parasites, live in cats' intestines and grow to be 7 to 12 centimeters long. They attack cats that eat infected rodents or the stool of an infected animal. Mother cats can pass them to kittens through milk. Untreated roundworms can cause intestinal blockage, which ultimately can lead to serious complications including death.

Hookworks can grow up to be about 2 centimeter long and live most of their lives in cats' intestines. Although larvae can penetrate skin, cats more commonly pick them up from infected stool.