I was lucky to stumble upon a forwarded message from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) mailing list regarding pet CPR and the basic steps on how to administer it. The instructions seemed to have been forwarded from a certain Dr. Andrew Jones’ email message.

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Pet CPR

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is the most important First Aid technique that every pet owner should be comfortable with. Chances are that you will never have to use it, but it will save your pet’s life if a ball is lodged in his airway.

There are some very basic steps:

1. Assess responsiveness
2. Establish a patent airway
3. Perform rescue breathing
4. Cardiac massage – establishing circulation

STEP 1: RESPONSIVENESS
The first step is making sure that your pet is truly unresponsive.

1. CHECK his breathing by placing your hand in front of his mouth and nose.

2. CHECK for his heartbeat by placing your ear against the left side of his chest. This is the area where his left elbow touches his chest, immediately behind his left armpit.

STEP 2: AIRWAY
The second step in CPR is obtaining a patent airway.

1. PULL the tongue out of your pet’s mouth, but be careful to not get bitten.

2. STRAIGHTEN the neck by moving the head to be in line with the neck. DO NOT HYPEREXTEND IN CASES OF NECK TRAUMA.

3. PERFORM two rescue breaths, by closing the mouth and performing mouth to nose ventilations. IF they continue, then proceed to STEP 3, BREATHING. If there are no breaths, then look into the mouth.

4. VISIBLY inspect the mouth and look down the throat for a foreign body. If you see something, reach into the airway and remove it.

5. IF the airway is still not open, attempt HEIMLICH (shown in following steps).

6. TURN your pet upside down, with back against your chest.

7. WITH both arms, give sharp thrusts to the abdomen.

8. AFTER 5 thrusts, stop and check to see if the object is visible in the airway. If so remove it and give 2 mouth-to-nose rescue breaths. If the breaths do not go in, repeat HEIMLICH.

STEP 3: BREATHING
After achieving a patent airway, perform RESCUE BREATHING.

1. CLOSE your pet’s mouth and breathe directly into his nose until his chest expands. If the chest doesn’t expand then go back to STEP 2 – AIRWAY.

2. VENTILATE at 15 breaths per minute. One BREATH every 4 seconds.

3. PROCEED to STEP 4 – CIRCULATION

STEP 4: CIRCULATION

1. ENSURE there are no major points of bleeding. Control as necessary.

2. GENTLY lay your pet on his right side.

3. LOCATE the heart, which is found on the lower half of the chest on the left side, behind the elbow of the front left leg. Place one hand below the heart to support the chest; place the other hand over the heart.

4. COMPRESS the chest 15 times followed by 2 rescue breaths. 3 compressions every 2 seconds. Compress the chest 1/2 inch for small pets and 1 1/2 inches for large pets.

5. EVERY 15 times follow up with 2 rescue breaths.

Continue heart massage compressions and the rescue breathing until you hear a heart beat and feel regular breathing. Once your pet is breathing and his heart is beating, CALL your veterinarian immediately!

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Hope that helps!

Do you own a spoiled dog? Well, I do. Actually, all of our dogs are spoiled, in my opinion. All of them sleep inside the house. Harry gets a slice of loaf bread whenever he wants one from my sister, and Choknat even has his own Bonsai tree. Shantee has enough dog clothes to merit her own closet. My late Sheero has her own shrine in our garden. But none of them have Designer dog beds (Shantee has a dog pillow though, and all of the other dogs like sleeping on the sofa or on padded chairs).

If you’re a Filipino born in the ‘80s, you’re probably familiar with the TV commercial of Salem bed mattress for humans. There was this elephant in the commercial stomping on the mattress to prove that it’s really sturdy (the Salem elephant passed away already, by the way). Sorry, that was off-topic—but I just couldn’t help but remember that elephant when reviewing the Mammoth dog bed site… It’s like a dog version of that commercial (there’s an elephant on their advertising materials too!) Ah. Don’t mind me!

Well, moving on… Back to the review

I have actually seen a lot of dog beds from grooming salons, but they’re quite expensive. I can honestly say that I can create those myself using my mom’s scrap textiles and foam—kind of like the same way that it’s easy to create a pillow for a human. But the thing is, it won’t be orthopedic and the foam will eventually shrink through time and usage.

Same thing with dog beds. You can make one on your own, or buy a cheap one, but it’s not going to last (I’m actually preparing to make a new pillow for Shantee in case hers shrink and get too worn out). The Designer dog beds that Mammoth sells were made to last from non-balling high memory furniture upholstery fiber fill, which makes sure that the bed bounces back after every use. They also assure that their beds’ covers don’t shrink when washed, which is a good thing since you will eventually have to wash it so it won’t stink

The Designer dog beds sold at pet shops here are very expensive—especially for those large breeds like Coal, Scout and Crunchie who are Labrador Retrievers. The ones that Mammoth offers are actually half the price of those I see at local pet shops for large breeds. You’ll also have the convenience of ordering online, and having the dog bed delivered straight to your doorstep.

But like any other outside-the-Philippines online store, the only thing I have a problem with this is the shipping costs. It really is expensive getting products delivered across the globe. BUT, there’s still a “work-around.” If you got relatives in the US who are visiting the Philippines soon, you can always ask them to receive the delivery for you and just bring it here when they travel. The only risk there is when they have a lot of baggage and adding your dog bed will make them exceed their luggage weight limit.

I’ve slept on an orthopedic bed already (of course, the one I slept on was for humans not dogs!), and I have never slept as comfortably as I did on that bed. If you got some extra cash to spare, why not let your dog experience such comfort too? I would get each and every one of my dogs if only I had a lot of money! For now, all other dogs will have to just sleep on the coach and padded chairs and Shantee on her little home-made golden dog pillow

We had fun, but it wouldn’t have been as much as fun if we were able to bring Shantee along.

That’s actually one of the downsides of going on luxury vacations—you just can’t bring your furry friend along. It’s possible, but it isn’t easy.

I asked the representative from SEAIR how it would go about should somebody want to bring a dog. SEAIR targets luxury travelers, so it’s really not that far out to think that some rich person nuts about his/her dog would like to bring a pooch along. According to her, the first thing you’ll have to consider is the cost. The cost of a dog’s flight is almost as much as the cost of his owner’s. Not really a problem if you got the money right? But here’s another thing to worry about: the quarantine. Your dog needs to have all the necessary documents before he can set paw in Boracay, or any other new place for that matter.

Then, the plane travel itself. You can’t have your dog with you while on the plane. The poor pooch will be kept in a dog carrier along with the baggages. Now that convinced me not to take my dog along on a plane if I could help it. Although sometimes it’s really necessary (say, the family is moving and plane travel is the only way to go), I don’t think I can still bear leaving my dogs together with my baggage. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve seen a dog needing psychological help after air freight in an episode of a dog TV show on the Animal Planet Channel—I guess I just can’t help but worry.

Since Shantee couldn’t come with us, we left her with my sister, which I think was a good decision. Entrusting a pet to somebody you know and whom the dog knows is probably the best way to go. I think there are pet hotels out there (or grooming salons offering overnight lounging services), but I’m not too sure which offers those services. You can also leave your dog at the vet (I’ve seen a healthy Shih Tzu lounging at Horseshoe Pet Clinic when I brought Shantee in for her shots).

Fireworks are pretty, and LOUD. And they have to be, since tradition says that the loud noise will scare away evil spirits and bad luck for a prosperous New Year. But the thing is, loud noise not only scare evil spirits and bad luck, but our canine friends as well.

Dogs are a whole lot more sensitive than us humans. A loud bang from a labintador may be tolerable noise for us, but for dogs, that’s like the beginning of World War III. For them, the noise is magnified—you can just imagine how scary it is for our pets come New Year’s Eve.

Military dogs are trained to withstand the noise from a gun shot even if their handlers are the ones taking the shot. But our sweet pets at home don’t have that kind of training—loud noises from fireworks can really scare them. As responsible pet owners, it’s our job to help our little canine friends cope with New Year’s Eve.

If you’re familiar with a dog’s behavior in a pack, you’d know that “subordinate” dogs look up to their “alpha leader.” Aside from letting the alpha leader get first dibs on everything, the subordinates feel that it is their alpha leader who will protect them from harm. Dogs see their masters as their alpha leaders (unless you let your dog dominate you), so they do look up to you for protection. So come New Year’s Eve, you’d have to know what to do in order to help your dog cope with the loud bangs from fireworks. Here are some ideas:

• If your dog normally stays outside in the garden, bring them inside the house (at least just for the night). They would feel more “protected” inside instead of outside where they get full blasts of the noise.
• If your dog has a cage, cover it with cloth.
• For small dogs, it’s best to keep them inside the bedroom or something. Our dogs (even the medium-sized ones) like to hide under the bed in packs whenever it’s New Year’s Eve
• Take some time off lighting and watching fireworks, and accompany your dog in his/her “corner.” Your dog will most likely find a dark corner in your house to hide, and it would really make them feel better if you take some time sitting with them. When Sheero was still alive, I used to let her and Harry cuddle up under my blanket on New Year’s Eve. I sometimes stay with them under the blanket (see the photos above). I missed some of the best fireworks displays, but seeing how scared my dogs were (Sheero was shaking and Harry’s heart was beating so fast I was afraid he’d have a heart attack), it was worth it
• There are some dogs, like Choknat, who respond to fireworks with curiosity instead of fear. The loud bangs made him jump, but his curiosity outweighs his fear—I had to drag him away from the window or keep him from getting sparks on his fur. He wanted to be part of the celebration, so my sister and I had to keep him on a leash under control while watching the fireworks and lighting up sparklers in the garden. Curious dogs like Choknat have to be kept under control as well on New Year’s Eve. They could easily be burned by fireworks (and God forbid, get hit by a stray bullet) if you let their curiosity run away with them.

These are just some reminders that could help your dog on New Year’s Eve, just some of the things that my family practices. If you know others, do share so our readers will be in the know come New Year’s Eve.

Happy New Year, everyone! Take care of your dogs, and KEEP SAFE!

What does it really mean when you say “natural dog food?” Some of my dog-loving relatives and friends have tossed this word around, each saying that they’re feeding their dogs the best natural dog food. But do we really know what it means?

When Sheero was still alive, I used to buy her baked doggy snacks from Animal House Clinic every time I happened to be in a branch. Even from the packaging you’d know the goodies were homemade—they came in standard sealed plastics packaged in a decorative brown paper bag. Sheero used to love these all natural goodies, but I couldn’t buy as much for her as I’d like to—these home-baked doggy snacks were pretty pricey.

Unless it’s pretty apparent that the dog food has been home-baked (like the chicken liver dog cookies Sheero used to love), it’s harder to determine if a dog food really is all natural when it comes in commercial packages. We feed our dogs Royal Canin, and it wasn’t because we thought it was all natural—we basically feed them that brand for the simple reason that it’s good for their coats.

The All Natural Dog Food article from Dog Buffs discusses this in detail. It points out important ingredients that could help prove or disprove that the dog food is all natural. It also discusses popular dog food brands which claims that their dog food falls under the “all natural” category.

The article is very informative, but what struck me the most were these lines:

The production of kibble is achieved by one of two methods, by oven baking or by extrusion (high pressure steaming). Oven baking is deemed to be better, but it still makes you wonder whether a manufactured food can be called all natural if it is processed.

I never really thought of it that way, and it does make sense. How can a dog food be called all natural if it is processed? I suppose they’re just describing the ingredients in this case and not the process by which it was made.

Although I’d have appreciated the article more if it had some pictures (sorry, I’m a web designer by profession—I just can’t help it), it did present a lot of stuff about dog food. And by the way, the photo on this post was taken from the Dog Buffs home page (I think the adorable dog’s name is Ruby), which if I may add, is also quite a good read.

Since this is a paid review anyway, allow me to go all out in suggesting things. I love the idea of the site being a treasure throve of dog information (I’m definitely bookmarking that site), but it would be great if the site is liven up a bit. Maybe a little bit more color and photos? The site doesn’t necessarily have to be as flamboyant as Dog Fashionista, but a little bit play in color combination can result to a lively and professional-looking site.

Another suggestion I’d like to make is allowing comments on posts, which encourages interaction from visitors. But if a blog isn’t what the site owners have in mind, an option to subscribe to the site’s RSS feed might help in letting people know that there are site updates. The key to getting traffic to the site is to be able to find a way for people to keep on coming back. Since the homepage isn’t really designed that way (it has a welcome text instead of a series of recently posted entries), an RSS feed will help people get updated—and they will come back for the new piece of useful info.

Hope that helps

Sheero is a mixed breed, but I never really knew what breed exactly was mixed with her Japanese Spitz descent. I once suspected her of having a Terrier parent, but that’s mainly due to her innate hunting skills. Another breed I considered was a Shih Tzu, though I never really had the time to research about that kind till now.

Breeder Retriever’s site is a treasure box full of breed information. I know I’m only supposed to review the page on Shih Tzu, but I can’t help it—I love dogs, and I love reading about them.

The Shih Tzu page that Breeder Retriever provides gives in-depth information for a non-scientific person like me. I usually get lost in technical terms of information found in other sites—I think those were made for die-hard breeders or veterinarians. Since I’m neither of the two, Shih Tzu helped me understand important information that I needed to know about the breed. Which, I must say, made me doubt further if Sheero’s other half is indeed a Terrier—the page shows quite a lot of similarities in temperament with my little white princess.

The page shows that it’s been made for pet aficionados—the first time I saw it I couldn’t help but say, “aww, that’s so cute!” at the adorable Shih Tzu featured on the page. As a web designer, I strongly believe that this is a very effective strategy: appeal to the viewer’s heart strings, then give them the information they needed. The design of the page is simple—pretty straight-forward—though I’d rather have it a tad bit more colorful and cute, which basically shows the personality of the dog through the design. It would be nice to if the colors scheme of the photo gallery and the forums is “happier.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m a strong believer that pets give color to our lives—and a site that’s a bit more colorful shows just that.

Other than these aesthetic quirks (sorry, I can’t help it… Design is my profession), I think this page will be another addition to my “doggy info” bookmarks.