Fitness health and nutrition training for you and the most loyal friend you have. Your dog. Dog friendly events, 5K running programs and access to personal coaching for a fit, balanced, peaceful lifestyle while living in our urban ways.
Bring out the best in you through your wagging dog.
As a dog trainer here in San Diego my belief is that every moment you are with your dog is a training opportunity. Just like ourselves, we are practicing the way we live our lives every moment of every day. So, take your dog and go and practice having fun.
Many dog owners spend a lot of time researching what kind of diet to feed the dog, how much to feed, and even what nutrients in dog food are actually the best. Yet of all the nutrients in your dog’s diet, water is the most important and tends to be not even on the radar of the owners attention.
Exercise, Climate Temperature, or Anxiety Are Cause for More Water
A dog can lose 6% of body weight before the idea even occurs to them to drink. Like humans who exercise drinking water before exercise, during exercise, and after exercise is necessary to keep proper hydration. Unlike a human, dogs don’t appear to be losing hydration because they do not sweat like we do. They do not have sweat glands in their skin, instead they lose water through their nose, tongue, and paws.
Keeping this in mind, it makes sense that a dog who is exercising, or has high anxiety loses hydration since panting is sweating in dog form. You’ll also notice that a dog who is stressed or is showing signs of anxiety will leave a dog paw print on the floor. That’s another form of sweat leaving your dog’s body. How Much Water Does You Dog Need?
The amount of water your dog needs daily depends on the size of your dog, the amount of exercise, the climate your dog spends time in, and what kind of dog food you are feeding. Considering these variables the amount can change from day to day.
Don’t consider these cold hard numbers but as general guidelines the amount of water your dog should get on a daily basis might something like this:
A 7 lb adult Maltese with activities consisting of one 20 minute slow walk and some light indoor activities, would need approximately 1½ cup of water throughout the day to maintain a proper level of body fluids.
A dog weighing 65 lbs would require approximately 7 cups of water depending on exercise, anxiety, and diet. How Should I Keep My Dog Hydrated?
The challenge in keeping your dog hydrated is that they don’t know when to drink, and most of the time in more strenuous activity or exercise, won’t think to go drink on their own. Here are some things you can do to encourage your dog to drink water, stay hydrated and get out and have some fun.
•Make Sure Your Dog Drinks Before a “Workout” •Take Water & a Frisbee (to use as a water bowl) On Outings •Give Ice Cubes as Treats •Put Ice Cubes in the Water Bowl •If You Are Thirsty During Activity; So Is Your Dog •If You are Hot; Your Dog is Hotter •Put More Than One Bowl of Water Out in Another Location •Put a Treat in the Bottom of the Water Bowl •Play Water Games While Teaching To Drink from the Hose
We did our weekly dog training webcast tonight and again way cool people logged on and asked the coolest questions. I guess one of the reasons our new format on how to train a dog by bringing it right to a lot of people’s homes live every week has not only helped a lot more dogs, but also really helped us a professional dog trainers to think outside the box.
Each week we go along we find more and more things to actually thank the dog for and that ends up being an awesome feeling. The reason we find that such a big deal is because we have also spent a lot of years listening to people complain about their dog and the bad behavior that was so common when people finally came to us.
Now we are not only helping people gain a nicely trained dog, but the way it’s gone about is so much more differently than the old standard drudgery of a dog training class. A wagging tail when everyone “gets it” is a gratifying feeling. Tonight for instance we went over how to get your dog do some tricks and we did it in a way that was really fun for our listening audience to follow along in our online dog training session complete with video.
The kick back from that was the quick response of how by doing this “teach my dog to back up” thing and have fun at it, actually got people understanding how to get the dog to come to them too... and we it taught using an idea of putting the whole process into a picture.
Good stuff all the way around really.
Anyway, if you are one of those people that has a dog and wants to become more active with the things you can do with your dog... think about how to get your dog doing things as though you were painting a picture for the dog to do... like step by step. Big hint, don’t give your dog more than one thing to do before they have completed the first request!
You’ll be amazed at how much easier everyone learns. I know it sounds a little crazy but if you are creative at all it will click in quickly... and if not, no worries there either, we’ve got a whole website and live webcast training for you to have some fun and get a really cool trained dog too....
Now... do everything one step at a time... it’s how you get from where you are to where you want to be. True for you, true for your dog.
The Superbowl draws is on in households all over that never even watch football any other time. It's fun to watch the ads at least... and people do like the fact that it's a really great reason to eat bad food that's really yummy like chips and drink beer!
The family dog is usually even stoked about it since when there is snack food around, there are usually a few that hit the floor to pick up. Even better, the friends that came over to watch can't help themselves from giving the dog a little bite... I mean look how cute that look was.
Very cool work for a dog, and the cool thing is the work they do is based off of some basic games you can teach your own dog. I'm not saying you might be able to join the Super Bowl dog team next year... but by following some of the games we teach in our online dog training programs you can have your own dog show off at your next Super Bowl party to the amazement of everyone.
