Choosing your pet

Certain pets can often undergo particular demand due to popular TV shows or movies, for example the very cute French Bulldog who’s a character in the TV series Modern Family, or the St. Bernard in the movie Beethoven. Fish sales increased after the release of the movie Finding Nemo. Labradors have always been popular and became even more so after Marley and Me hit the bookshelves and screens.

The problem with this trend is that for a pet to fit comfortably into a family’s or individual’s life, and for the whole arrangement to work well, a lot of thought needs to go into the choice of pet, both the type and possibly the particular breed. Your pet must suit your lifestyle. Pet ownership brings responsibility as well as joy. Depending on the typical lifecycle, this can be long term. You need to consider many factors before choosing. Too many animals end up having to leave the home they’ve become accustomed to because their needs cannot be met or their habits or presence cause a problem for the owners. Or because people don’t see past the excitement of having a pet and are faced with a commitment they didn’t allow for. This in turn creates an extra workload and expense for animal welfare groups.

Checklist for pet choosing

1. Are you considering a domesticated pet like a cat, dog or rabbit?

2. Or a caged pet like a guinea pig, hamster, mouse or terrapin?

3. Maybe a pet whose instincts haven’t been altered to adapt to a human relationship, like fish, insects or reptiles? These types are more likely to be a hobby, rather than provide companionship.

4. Is everyone in the household in favour of this type of pet?

5. How many members will actively involve themselves in taking care of the pet?

6. Can responsibilities be shared and assigned to different people, reliably?

7. How often will the pet be unattended? Will these times be an issue for your particular choice?

8. Will your pet, e.g. a cat, dog or rabbit, need access to the outdoors as well as indoors when you’re not there? How will you arrange this? What about security?

9. Do you have the appropriate amount of space for the pet?

10. What about when you go away, on business, on family trips, on vacation? Can you bring the pet with you? If not, can you easily make arrangements for its care?

11. Will it disturb you at night time?

12. How much will it cost to buy and to support on an ongoing basis – food, vet’s bills, equipment, care when you’re away, grooming, and insurance?

13. Does it suit your climate?

14. Will it suit your activity level? This is especially relevant to dogs. Do thorough investigation into the different exercise needs of different breeds. Giving dogs the required amount of exercise daily for up to 16 years or so is a big commitment. Know what you can manage so you and doggie are happy and satisfied. You can’t blame a dog for being hyper if, for example, he’s a Springer Spaniel, has the energy and enthusiasm to run several miles every day and gets naturally disruptive if he doesn’t get it.

15. Can you chew-proof your home?

16.Shedding – this applies mostly to dogs and cats. How much can you cope with in your home? Investigate tendencies and seasonal patterns in different breeds.

17. How will the pet fit your life/lives as time goes on? When children are older? When they move away? When you retire? If you want to consider moving to a new home/ country?

18. If it turns out it’s not a good idea for you to adopt a pet, there are other ways to have a fulfilling relationship with animals:

• Encourage birds to your garden with inviting food – ask your pet store. 
• Volunteer to help at an animal rescue centre. 
• Become a pet sitter. 
• Foster a pet for a certain length of time. 

It’s a good idea to talk to a vet before making a decision – she or he will probably be able to answer most of your questions. Also, do research in your library and on the internet; there’s lots of information available that will help you make a decision. Talk to people you know who have the kind of pet you’re thinking of.

When you’re choosing your pet, please give thought to where it has come from. There are many animals in rescue shelters in need of a loving home. The love you’ll get in return is immeasurable. 

Avoid ruthless and unethical dog breeders! 

Many puppies are bred in simply heart breaking conditions for them and their mothers and treated in ways we find too difficult to outline here. But take our word for it, there are people who, for example, ‘manufacture’ dogs purely to make money and pay no mind to their welfare. The more people buy their pups, the more encouraged they are to continue. Take all the steps you can to find a pet from a place where they’ve been lovingly and responsibly cared for and support animal rescue organisations as much as you can.

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism means to transfer human characteristics, emotions, behaviour or motivation to non human creatures, especially to our pets. It’s probable that much of the challenging behaviour our pets show is down to our anthropomorphism, giving rise to more focus on animal psychology. 

Without an emotional bond, we are unlikely to have pets, except perhaps purely for a function, like a guard dog or a cat to keep away vermin. Yet, this emotional bond can lead to issues. Many people look on and treat their pets like little people. There could be a correlation between the fact that the number of children per household in the western world is reducing and the number of pets is increasing. Pet owners affectionately refer to themselves as moms and dads to their loved creatures. 

When we do share such a deep emotional space with animals, it’s easy to understand how some blurring occurs between our objective and logical understanding of how an animal operates and what we project onto them. For example, owners who treat a dog like a person might project a sense of responsibility that the dog is incapable of understanding, like punishing him when he ‘knows he’s done something wrong.’ He may have no idea it’s wrong, just cowers when he senses your displeasure. We might see a response in a dog that we attribute to a human emotion, but can just be an example of how dogs imitate us.

Mostly, anthropomorphism involves interpreting animals’ actions, expressions and motivations with more depth than they are capable of feeling. Dogs, particularly, are so good at blending happily into human lives it’s easy to understand why we believe their motivations and feelings are the same as ours.

In a Swiss study, 64 dog owners were shown pictures and video clips of dogs interacting with other dogs and humans. Non dog owners were shown the same visuals. Both groups correctly identified dogs’ facial expressions with things like fear and curiosity. However, the dog owners also attributed feelings like anger and jealousy, which the non dog owners did not.

The commercial world takes advantage of peoples’ emotional relationship with pets and uses it to sell products, adding to their ‘humanisation’. Adverts and movies portray pets as humans and the retail industry sells human clothes and accessories designed for them.

Much as we love them, pets are not human, they are animals and only capable of feeling and thinking like an animal of their species. It creates a much more harmonious environment for both humans and pets when we understand this. These points illustrate how you can develop a healthy, loving human/animal relationship with your pet:

• From a pet’s point of view, when they arrive at your home they become a member of your pack (rather than family). They will be instinctively working out who holds what place in the pecking order of that pack. 
• Naturally, you want to establish yourself as pack leader. If you give constant affection without any limits or rules, a dog in particular will interpret this as him being equal to you which could lead to trouble. 
• Animals need boundaries and limitations to let them know, first of all that you’re in charge and you make the rules and secondly to know how they must behave in order to be accepted in the pack. This must always be done in a ‘loving guidance’ kind of way. 
• Feeding time is a big signal to animals as to who’s ahead of them in the pack hierarchy. Those who eat first are at the top – never feed your animal ahead of yourself or your family. Wait until you’ve had at least some food before feeding them. 
• Animals are equipped with the ability to deal independently with situations and stresses. If you believe your dog is anxious, for example, and comfort her, you deny her the ability to develop resilience herself so she withstands the next similar situation. She gets the message that she needs you to make it alright and stays anxious. By sharing the fear, she also sees you as a weak pack leader - not good.

What’s important to remember is that interpreting your pet’s behaviour or reactions through a human lens instead of an animal lens can lead to misinterpretation of what’s really going on. Small issues can turn into ongoing ones and challenging behaviour can escalate. We hope that by the end of this course, you’ll have a better understanding of your pet and can enjoy a truly loving bond that benefits both of you.

Breeding

The process of selective breeding or artificial breeding refers to human decision to control the propagation of a species by selecting those with particular traits or characteristics for reproduction. In the wild, dogs, for example would choose mates according to their natural instincts, not because of a docile nature, particular shade of fur or cute eyes. They would have spread the gene pool widely, retained independence and succumbed to the survival of the fittest rule of nature, ensuring health and an ability to evolve to adapt successfully to their environment.

Human intervention has changed all that. For both practical reasons and emotional, over the centuries we have carefully chosen the kind of dogs with the kind of characteristics that we want more of – sizes, natures, shapes, attractive looks, colours - and manipulated their breeding among these pools.

As it became apparent that continual interbreeding of a particular type of dog weakened the gene pool, also breeding inherent lines of disease, cross breeding has become popular.

When breeding was started by kennel clubs around 150 years ago, the classifications reflected how dogs were integrated into human society:

• Hounds, bred to hunt using scent or sight 
• Dogs used for herding Gundogs, trained to find or retrieve wounded game 
• Working dogs, bred to guard and protect 
• Terriers, bred to hunt for vermin 
• Toy dogs, bred for a convenient size without a particular function 
• Utilitarian dogs, a mix of many non-sporting breeds 

Though controversial, certain types of dog are still bred for fighting.

Every dog, cat and rabbit owner will tell you how much love and joy they feel from their relationship with their pet. The sense of companionship, loyalty, friendship and fun pets give us is undeniable. Our pets go further than this for us though:

Studies have shown time and again that a relationship with an animal is actually therapeutic, just like yoga, meditation or journaling.

• Playing with or stroking an animal has been scientifically proven to increase levels of the stress reducing hormone oxytocin and decrease production of the stress hormone cortisol, improving physical health. 
• Patients with high blood pressure have been found to reduce or avoid spikes in readings during times of mental stress when they have pets. Heart attack survivors with pets are likely to add one year more to their lives than those without. 
• Dogs have been found to have a marked beneficial effect on autistic children and to the disposition of elderly people and patients in nursing homes, hospitals and hospices. They relieve loneliness, ease grief and give a safe outlet for the expression of feelings. They create a friendly, warm and homely atmosphere which most humans respond to. 
• Pets help children to see outside of themselves and to develop responsibility and compassion. Animals have, on many occasions, relieved depression and suicidal tendencies by giving a sense of purpose and boosting self esteem.

Dogs in agriculture

About 9,000 years ago, having established this mutually beneficial relationship, humans began to trust dogs to help with agricultural work. Getting used to a more settled than nomadic existence, instead of moving to follow herds of animals for hunting, they started to domesticate and breed sheep and goats, and later pigs (boar) and cattle (wild oxen). They later included horses and this gave an added advantage of providing transport. Just as dogs were capable of protecting humans, they also helped protect herds of domesticated animals from predators.

For many centuries dogs have been used by farmers to help in agriculture. Up to the last few centuries, this was the main driving force behind the relationship between dogs and humans. Into our homes, into our hearts In many paintings of the upper classes over the last few hundred years, we can see the dog moving from an outdoor, functional addition to a household to having close involvement in human society.

Over the last 100 years, dogs have crept further and further into human homes, lovingly invited. Dogs have always shown the genetic potential to adapt easily to a range of new environments but their remarkable adaptation to living within a human family and society is still a source of wonder and endearment to dog lovers everywhere! Dog owners know there’s something unexplainable about the connection between us. Their willingness to please us, love us and share fun with us is one of life’s joys.

The domestication of cats is a similar story to that of dogs, though every cat owner knows they are an entirely different kettle of fish than dogs! They similarly evolved by keeping close to humans. They hunted the small vermin that would have been attracted to the storage of grains and vegetables which formed a symbiotic relationship with us. However, they kept more of a distance and retained more of their wild instincts. While dogs have quite willingly given up their hunting instinct to a large degree, cats still retain the minds of wild hunters. Millions of cats worldwide are not pets but feral scavengers and hunters - wild.

Cats are the most popular species of pet, outnumbering pet dogs by about three to one. About one third of US households and one quarter of UK homes have one or more.

Their relationship with humans is different than that of dogs, showing their differing nature. They show plenty of affection, but retain a self reliance that’s unique. Studies of generations of cats show they very quickly return from domestication to wild once out of direct human contact.

There’s also evidence of cats being kept as pets in the distant past, such as in ancient Egypt, but not as much as of dogs. They haven’t been subjected to the same level of breeding either; hence the smaller number of varieties that exist and their closer resemblance to their wild ancestors.

Domestication - how pets came in from the cold

When dogs came in from the cold.
We can find evidence of the inclusion of dogs in human society dating back to prehistoric cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics. What was it about wolves, above other animals, that meant this close relationship with humans happened? Was it all down to human control and domination or did wolves willingly collaborate in this endearing partnership?

It was when humans began to evolve from a nomadic lifestyle and create permanent settlements that the domestication of dogs began. It’s believed this started about 12,000 years ago. Traditionally nomads and hunters themselves, wolves began to realise that to stick close to human campsites proved a promising habitat for them also – a safe bet when scavenging for food. They chose to follow humans around, even when they moved settlement. As well as scavenging on waste food, they hunted small prey that followed humans for their food also. Their close proximity to us protected them from bigger predators that we kept away. They were beginning to like us.

Naturally, humans would have realised the benefit to wolves clearing their environment of annoying pests and tolerated their presence. Their keen sense of smell and hearing would also have been very useful to humans in alerting them to danger from larger predators.

Beyond that, though, humans would have been charmed by the young and more sociable members of wolf packs and slowly invited them to come closer until they became tame enough to join us as friends. The usual characteristics that we find appealing today like soft fur, engaging eyes, playfulness and friendliness would have ensured the survival of those portraying these aspects. The more we chose to select the ones with the features and personalities we found appealing, the more they evolved into what we related personally to.

Dog ancestry

DNA evidence proves that our domestic dogs do indeed descend from wolves – they share 99.96 % of their genetics. Scientists have traced present days dogs’ ancestors with certainty back to well over 10,000 years ago but it’s believed they could actually trace back millions of years. 

The dog is descended almost entirely from the grey wolf, Canis Lupus. The North American Timber Wolf and the European Grey Wolf are examples of wolves that were introduced to Europe and North America by settlers. They are thought to have evolved from packs that roamed from East Asia to as far west as the Arabian Peninsula many thousands of years before.

Many types of wolf still exist throughout Asia that both resemble and differ from European and North American types. Those that exist in Asia are smaller and quite sociable and survive by scavenging and capturing small prey. It seems their European and American relatives became more efficient and successful at survival, evolving into larger varieties that hunted fearlessly and captured large prey. However, during the last century, wolves have largely been wiped out. 100 years ago there were over 2 million in North America alone; today only one percent survived.

Many people wonder if dogs are related to foxes, jackals and African wild dogs as they bear such a resemblance. The answer is yes. Wolves, foxes, jackals and African Wild dogs all descend from a family called the Canidae.

My Smiling Dog

Have you ever seen a dog can smile when they are happy? This is my fur-kid, her talents are good in understanding of your words and give response using her face expression to answer yes or no. She also loves to watch TV with us and she learnt some obedience tricks like sit, hand, roll-over, stay or call her to bring the toys for me. She is a very smart dog and learn things fast. I'm so appreciated that to have her in my life.

A New Member, the Puppy!

15 JUL 2012 - I was surprised that my beloved boy friend bought me a new puppy. This is Doberman, it is also a guard dog same as Rottweiler, but the body size is more taller, large and slimmer than Rottweiler. Doberman's characters are more alert, active, loyal and intelligence. This breed of dog is easy to train too. But of course, you need more patience to train and be confident and sounds firm when you give any commands to the dog.

At this moment, we haven't give any name of it. My boy friend given the puppy's name "Maxi" which I not really like it as the name sounds like "Maxis"the Malaysia's mobile network. Therefore, I named it as "Venice", "Cody" or "Vennesa". Well till now we still haven't decide which name would be best for the puppy. Find on Internet? Maybe. Just Google it!

Here is the comic that I made for fun. The pink bed which I ordered from a breeder, it suppose belongs to my poodle that it get used to sleep and play over there. But now it's already occupied by Doberman. My poodle got bullied now and jealous of it.