Blogs

    When you are planning to get your first dog, you need to consider what breed to get in order to match your lifestyle and expectations. Although many people have sung paeans to the “mutt”, the author has seen many of these mixed-breed dogs with little to recommend them, and many purebreds who were far more personable, intelligent, and interesting to be around.

    A large, white dog that strongly resembles the Great Pyrenees, Maremma, Hungarian Kuvasz, and Tatra Sheepdog, the Akbash is a hefty, long-legged dog breed from Turkey, whose origins are as a guard for flocks of sheep. They have the classic dog-shaped head with a long muzzle and rather broad forehead. The ears are small to medium and hang down, and the coat is medium-length and has a feathery appearance, while the tail is plumed.

When you are planning on showing a dog, then you need a very different animal from a pet or hunting or working dog. In the case of a pet or working dog, personality is paramount, and any small quirks of appearance just help to give the pooch a bit more individuality. You don’t want an actually deformed dog, but a slightly funny-looking canine can still be a superb companion.

A dog with a slightly crooked jaw, a cast in one eye, or a pinkish rather than blackish nose may have a marvelous personality, but they will never win a ribbon, either.

    One of the most important parts of keeping your favorite pooch healthy – other than genetic predisposition and luck – is how you feed them. Dog feeding is a crucial part of the health equation, and also one of your dog’s favorite activities. There is no doubt that finding the right food for your dog will not only keep him or her in better shape, but can also perform such vital things as keeping fur in good condition.

Dogs, as living creatures, are just as subject to injuries and accidents as people are. In some ways, they are less susceptible – the author has seen dogs take falls which would have injured him badly but did no more than startle them – and more susceptible – not understanding human artifacts and technology beyond the most basic level, they are far more likely to be struck by cars, eat something poisonous, or otherwise run afoul of things in the human environment than we are using a bug out backpack.

Treated with reverence thanks to its highly developed advertising campaign, which makes it out to be absolutely the best conceivable food for your cat in every way, Science Diet cat food is not quite as incredible as its promoters would depict it, but is still very good and has given good results to many owners (though of course, there have been exceptions).

One of the most unusual dog breeds in the world is the New Guinea Singing Dog, a rare dog from the remote tropical island best known to the world from the book “Under the Mountain Wall”. The New Guinea Singing Dog – or “Singer” as it is usually known – is a rather generic-looking pooch, with upright fox-like ears, a wide head, and small, slightly slanted eyes. They stand around 16 inches tall and weigh up to 25 pounds.

Moving a horse from place to place along a modern road and highway system is a somewhat more complicated issue than moving humans or even dogs over the same routes. Horses are large, heavy, and skittish, and furthermore need to arrive at the place you are going in as pristine condition as possible.

The original horse blanket was no more than a blanket – a rectangle of cloth thrown over the back of a steed to keep the beast warm or ward off biting insects. Modern horse blankets are considerably more sophisticated, and come in a variety of weights and configurations, meant for many different situations. Many of them resemble the caparisons of medieval warhorses – a resemblance which is furthered when hoods are added to the ensemble.

The American Cocker Spaniel is a smallish beast, standing only fifteen inches high, and is distinguished by its sweeps of silky fur and the long, wavy hair on its drooping ears. Like the golden retriever, this small dog was bred as a gun dog for hunting birds, and can still be used for that purpose if you have a mind to.