Dogs

It's in the AccessoriesIs your dog panting in the heat of summer or trying to keep warm on cold winter nights? You can add comfort to your dog's sleeping arrangements by adding accessories to their sleep area. Heated beds are available to keep your pooch warm and toasty. Just plug them in and let your dog enjoy the warmth. To keep your canine nice and cool, try a cooler mat. Some are designed to be soaked in water and air-dried and will keep their chilling power for days.
Scrap the Scraps

Those soulful, pleading eyes may melt your heart, but it's best not to feed your dog human food. It can lead to canine obesity, intestinal upsets and nutritional imbalances. Unlike people, dogs are content eating a similar diet every day, especially if it offers the wide range of flavors and textures in Eukanuba® Dog Foods.

Another reason to avoid inappropriate feeding of human food is that some foods can be harmful or fatal to dogs, such as:

* Chocolate
* Onions
* Cooked bones


Good Foods:
Raw meat bones particularly beef bones and raw meat are part of a natural and necessary diet.
Raw poultry ie neck bones and carcasses are also good for the dogs.

Controlling Begging

If you allow begging at the table to start, soon every meal may be accompanied by whining and pawing. To help stop begging, eliminate all feeding from the table and follow these tips:

* Exercise your dog before mealtime, and feed him at the same time the family eats.
* Give him toys to play with while you're eating.
* Totally ignore the dog if the begging persists - don't even make eye contact.
* Confine him to his crate during family meals as a last resort.

Cats

Angry When Wet
Cats mix with water like, well...oil and water. Take Beadle. Beadle can often be found with his little white paws on the edge of the tub, marveling at the water spraying from the shower head, but according to his owner, the tabby's interest in water stops at observing. He never wants to get wet. To send him running, she says, "all we have to do is wet our hands and flick a few drops of water at him."

Why Cats Avoid Water
According to experts, there are several reasons why our house cats avoid getting wet. Theories include the fact that cats:

* Descend from arid regions
* Have land-based prey
* Are fussy groomers

Ancestors Lived Without Water
So why do cats take an interest in water but don't mix with it? Bonnie Beaver, DVM, a professor of small animal medicine and surgery at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and the author of Feline Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians, says it's not that cats don't like water. After all, they drink it every day. It's just that they don't really need to get wet.

According to Dr. Beaver, ancestors of our modern house cats lived in semi-arid regions of Africa. These wild cats took water from their food. By necessity, they learned to live without a source of drinking water. Our pets would have been very different, says Dr. Beaver, if they had evolved from tigers, which live in wet jungles and are quite comfortable with water.

Prey is Land Based
Wayne Hunthausen, DVM, who practices in Westwood, Kansas, and has co-authored the Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat, also notes that cats aren't forced to swim for their dinner. "Their prey is land-based," he says, "and they don't need to swim in the water to hunt for food."

So cats don't hate the water. It just seems that way because instinct they inherited from over hundreds of generations tells them there's no good reason to dip their toes in water.

Cats are Notoriously Nit-Picky
And don't forget about cats fussy grooming habits, the doctors say. Water can rub a cats coat the wrong way. That means lots of licks to get every hair back in place.

So it's really no wonder at all that James Madison behaves the way he does. Yes, he's curious enough to watch the washing machine drain into the basement utility sink, but not so curious that he'll go against his nature. "He may stick his head close," Jerde says, "but he never reaches with his paws for the water."