Probably the most important thing is to select a veterinarian and schedule appropriate check-ups. By having a good relationship with a canine health expert who knows your dog, you will be able to catch potential problems earlier and be better prepared to deal with them.

Heartworm
One of the most common problems for dogs is heartworm, a dangerous mosquito-borne disease. Getting rid of heartworms once a dog has become infected takes powerful drugs and even hospitalization. Start with an annual test to see if your dog is already carrying these deadly worms. If the test is negative, your veterinarian will recommend a preventive heartworm medication. This may be given either once a month or daily. These medications keep heartworms from maturing. Some veterinarians recommend giving your dog the medication year-round, but it should definitely be given during the months when mosquitoes are active.

Fleas and Other Allergies
Allergies are also fairly common among dogs. Watch your dog for typical allergic reactions, such as excessive scratching, licking or rubbing. (Naturally, all of these are typical dog activities when practiced in moderation. You want to watch for near constant scratching or other signs, such as hair loss or reddened skin.) The most common allergy is from flea bites. Consult your veterinarian about how best to control fleas, be it collars, shampoos or area foggers.

The latest research suggests that fleas spend most of their time on your pet, but are constantly shedding their eggs in the house and yard. This provides a continuous source of re-infestation. So if you don’t treat the environment, you may never get the fleas under control. Be sure to consider area treatment as well as treating your dog directly, but consult your vet before using multiple treatment methods; the combinations can be harmful to your dog.

Other common allergies include inhalant allergies (such as pollen, ragweed, dust and mold), contact allergies (such as paint, soap, wool nylon carpets and insecticides), and, less frequently, food allergies. If your pet is exhibiting behavior or symptoms associated with allergies, work with your veterinarian to identify the cause of the allergy and eliminate it, if possible. If it is not possible to eliminate the allergen, your vet may be able to recommend drugs to help your dog live more comfortably.

Rare allergies include hormonal hypersensitivity (where the dog is allergic to its own hormones), parasitic hypersensitivity (where the dog becomes allergic to numerous parasites), and autoimmune diseases, in which the dog becomes allergic to itself. There are more complex treatments for these allergies that your vet can recommend.

Administering Medication
Giving pills to your dog is simple when you know how. You can fool most dogs most of the time by hiding it in a bit of food. Usually the dog won’t even notice. If the medication is liquid, simply put it in a spoon and hold it out to the dog. Usually, he will just lick it right off. If that doesn’t work, try disguising it in some applesauce or other food.
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First visit:
You should have selected a vet even before bringing your puppy home. Once your puppy is home, the first meeting of vet and puppy should happen as soon as possible - ideally within 24 hours. In addition to a general check up and examination for parasites, you and the vet should work out a specific schedule at that first meeting.

First three months:
In the first three months of your puppy’s life, your vet will probably want to meet every two or three weeks for vaccinations. Initial vaccinations for many diseases start at about six weeks and are repeated every two to three weeks until 14 weeks of age.

Three to six months:
Rabies vaccinations sometimes are regulated by local laws and often begin between three and six months. Between four and six months, your puppy should be checked again for parasites and your vet may recommend heartworm treatment. Also watch for your puppy’s permanent teeth to come in.

Spaying or neutering is recommended between four and six months. The procedure is simple, and males usually recover in a day. Females may take two or three days. This is an important decision. With the number of unwanted dogs born every year, having your puppy sterilized is the responsible thing to do.

Six months to a year:
After six months, the vet visits usually taper off. There are boosters at about one year, and these will be repeated on an annual basis. In general, it is a good idea for adult dogs to make at least one visit a year to maintain the healthy start they got as puppies.

Your veterinarian may provide routine vaccinations for canine distemper, infectious canine hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus, coronavirus, parainfluenza, Bordetella, Lyme disease and rabies. Remember, most vaccines must be given over a period of time and require multiple veterinary visits. So check with your veterinarian and get ready for a happy, rewarding friendship with your pet.

Distemper
A highly contagious, often fatal virus that affects a dog’s respiratory, gastrointestinal, and nervous system. Generally this virus spreads as an airborne infection, so vaccination is the only effective control.

Adenovirus
(Also know as infection hepatitis) A viral disease that affects the liver and cells lining the blood vessels, causing high fever, thirst, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, liver damage, and hemorrhage.

Coronavirus
A highly contagious viral infection of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, high fever and dehydration.

Leptospirosis
An extremely contagious disease that spreads through contact with nasal secretions, urine or saliva of infected animals, and can affect humans as well. The ailment causes inflamed kidneys, fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Liver damage can also occur.

Parvovirus
A common and deadly viral infection whose symptoms include diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Parvovirus can kill puppies very quickly.

Parinfluenza
This virus is one of a number of infectious agents that cause what is often called "kennel cough." The disease is highly contagious and attacks the respiratory system.

Rabies
A fatal infection of the central nervous system that affects all mammals, especially raccoons, bats, skunks, foxes, domestic dogs and cats, and humans. Since rabies poses a serious public health threat, it is imperative that your puppy be vaccinated. Most states require it.

Newborn puppies receive disease-fighting antibodies from their mother’s milk. These antibodies normally last only six to sixteen weeks, however. After that, your puppy needs vaccinations to help protect him from disease.

Lyme disease is characterized by inflammation of many body systems, causing a variety of symptoms — or clinical signs — across joints, lymph nodes, the central nervous system, the heart and other tissues. The inflammation sparked by Borreliosis may lead to long-term disease including arthritis and heart or kidney failure. It can even be transmitted by pregnant dogs to their unborn offspring via the uterus. Such generalized disease may at first appear only as lameness and loss of appetite; the characteristic “bulls-eye lesion” or rash is rarely apparent in animals.

Just how worried should you be about Lyme disease? Because its clinical signs are nonspecific, a diagnosis may be overlooked until the disease has done some measurable and long-term damage. For this reason, it is particularly important to be aware of Lyme disease if you happen to live in a high-risk region. Areas of the United States in which Lyme disease is currently endemic (present in high numbers) include California and Oregon, the mid-Atlantic states and New England, and a midwestern band running down through Minnesota, Michigan and Missouri.

If you live in an endemic area (or if you are planning to travel with your pet), talk to your veterinarian about a vaccination for Lyme disease. Although vaccination does not provide complete protection against disease (few vaccines do), it may partially protect your dog and give you some peace of mind. Because many tick bites occur close to home, it may help to remove tall grass and brush around your home and yard. Avoid tick-infested areas especially during the months of late spring and early summer, and examine your dog (and yourself) frequently for signs of ticks. If you do find a tick, remove it immediately (ticks must be attached at least 24 hours to transfer the spirochete) and keep it in a jar for identification.

Fortunately, Lyme disease is relatively uncommon. Even if your dog is bitten by an infected deer tick, chances that the spirochete will be transmitted are small; fewer than 5 per cent of bitten animals go on to acquire active infection. Also fortunate is the fact that, particularly if caught early, Lyme disease can be successfully treated with antibiotics.

Ralston Purina funds and supports canine genetic research independently and through the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation, and leads the effort to encourage collaboration among scientists worldwide. With a goal of helping breeders produce healthier dogs, Purina is committed to addressing the challenges of genetic disease through sound breeding programs, nutritional management and medical therapy.

Dog breeders have known for years that the critical determinants of a dog’s longevity often relate to its development as a puppy, which is influenced partly by nutrition. Though a dog’s genetic makeup and family history contribute to its geriatric performance, the impact of diet can be key in determining the expression of certain characteristics or conditions.

An adult dog has the same genetic makeup as when it was a puppy. As a dog ages, however, some genes may be "turned up" or "down" - up-regulated or down-regulated - in response to changes in the environment experienced repeatedly over time. By utilizing or instilling lifelong good nutrition and health practices, dog owners may be able to minimize or stave off some senior dog conditions such as arthritis, obesity and some types of cancer.

A dog’s genetic makeup is unique. While one dog may thrive on a nutrient-dense diet, another dog could become overweight. Breeds that are genetically susceptible to obesity should be closely monitored through each life stage. Older dogs that gain too much weight should be fed diets for senior dogs, weight-reduction or maintenance.

Depending on an individual dog’s phenotype, sometimes simply changing the molecular component of the diet can help correct a health problem, such as food allergy. Although food allergies are rare, those that occur commonly involve reactions to meat proteins. Feeding a diet with a modified protein, such as soy protein, may be less likely to cause an allergic response in those predisposed dogs.

Genetic research has led to the development of diagnostic tests for 15 of the more than 300 inherited canine diseases. Scientists are able to use deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) material from an individual dog and determine whether that dog carries the gene responsible for conditions such as cystinuria or von Willebrand’s disease.

Cystinuria, found in Newfoundlands, mastiffs, English bulldogs, chihuahuas, dachshunds and basset hounds, is a disease characterized by stones in the kidney, urethra and bladder. Canine von Willebrand’s disease is a blood-clotting disorder that sometimes causes fatal bleeding. It occurs in breeds such as poodles, Manchester terriers, Pembroke Welsh corgis and Doberman pinschers.

For most inherited canine diseases, the underlying genetic cause is yet to be determined. Learning the causes of these diseases will require careful screening of the entire genome in pedigrees of dogs carrying the disease — particularly since many of these diseases are inherited from recessive genes.

Though many genetic diseases are not influenced by diet, breeders who can identify dogs that carry the gene for a particular disease can develop stronger breeding programs. As scientists learn more about the location of genes responsible for disease, the development of more specific diagnostic tests may become available. In addition, as new methods in molecular genetics become available, it is probable that a future generation of purebred dogs will be healthier and longer-lived than their predecessors.

A canine genetic counselor might advise otherwise. Genetic counselors advocate using sound genetic principles in assessing breeding risks. If a bitch is a carrier of a recessive genetic disorder, a breeder has options that can reduce the propagation of the defective gene, and eliminate the loss of desirable traits.

Advances in canine genetic research have resulted in more diagnostic tests to help breeders identify carriers of genetic disease and determine safe breeding practices. Breakthroughs are possible because breeders and owners of purebred dogs spend millions annually to diagnose and correct genetic disease in their breeds.

Many breed clubs have become active educators about genetic disease. Cathy Lewis of Elkhorn, Wis., a member of Purina Pro Club and the English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association, says the group includes an educational program each year at its annual meeting. Information from a 1998 program on genetics was printed in ESSFTA’s "The Springer Spotlight" newsletter and was posted on the group’s Web site at www.essfta.org. Links to breed-related health and genetic topics also are featured on the Web site.

Jerold Bell, D.V.M., a canine genetic counselor and course director for clinical veterinary genetics at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, Mass., presented the ESSFTA program on "The Proper Use of Genetic Tests in Making Breeding Decisions."

"Defective genes were not created by breeders," Bell says. "They are due to mutations, bottlenecking and founders effects in the development of breeds." A genetic bottleneck occurs when a breed is reduced to a limited number of breeding stock from which to repopulate, he says. Bottlenecking most often occurs when a breed is imported or introduced to another country and a limited genetic pool is available.

While the pedigree of the breed may remain large, the ancestral genes are limited to those carried by the imported dogs. This process also can cause a rare gene in the original population to be widely propagated in the new population, which is called the founders effect.

Founders effect also can occur through the overuse of a breeding dog in a population. Called popular sire syndrome, this effect can cause genetic drift, which is a shifting and loss of genes in the gene pool, and can propagate previously rare genes and establish breed-related genetic disorders.
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2 When cleaning your house, never allow your cat access to the area where cleaning agents are used or stored. Cleaning agents have a variety of properties. Some may only cause a mild stomach upset, while others could cause severe burns of the tongue, mouth, and stomach.

3 When using rat or mouse baits, ant or roach traps, or snail and slug baits, place the products in areas that are inaccessible to your cat. Most baits contain sweet-smelling, inert ingredients, such as jelly, peanut butter, and sugars, which can be very attractive to your pet.

4 Never give your animal any medications unless under the directions of a veterinarian. Many medications that are used safely in humans can be deadly when used inappropriately. One extra-strength acetaminophen tablet (500mg) can kill a 7 lb. cat.

5 Keep all prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs out of the reach of your cat, preferably in closed cabinets. Pain-killers, cold medicines, anti-cancer drugs, antidepressants, vitamins, and diet pills are common examples of human medications that could be potentially lethal, even in small dosages.

6 Never leave chocolates unattended. Approximately one half ounce or less of baking chocolate per pound of body weight can cause problems. Even small amounts can cause pancreatic problems.

7 Many common household items have been shown to be lethal in certain species. Miscellaneous items that are highly toxic even in low quantities include pennies (high concentration of zinc), mothballs (contains naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene — one or two balls can be life-threatening in most species), potpourri oils, fabric softener sheets, automatic dish detergents (contain cationic detergents which could cause corrosive lesions), batteries (contain acids or alkali which can also cause corrosive lesions), homemade play dough (contains high quantity of salt), winter heat source agents like hand or foot warmers (contain high levels of iron), cigarettes, coffee grounds, and alcoholic drinks.

8 All automotive products, such as oil, gasoline, and antifreeze, should be stored properly. As little as one teaspoon of antifreeze (ethylene glycol) can be deadly in a 7 lb. cat.

9 Before buying or using flea products on your pet or in your household, contact your veterinarian to discuss what types of flea products are recommended for your pet. Read ALL information before using a product on your animals or in your home. Always follow label instructions. When a product is labeled "for use in dogs only" this means that the product should NEVER be applied to cats. Also, when using a fogger or a house spray, make sure to remove all pets from the area for the time period specified on the container. If you are uncertain about the usage of any product, contact the manufacturer or your veterinarian to clarify the directions BEFORE use of the product.

10 When treating your lawn or garden with fertilizers, herbicides, or insecticides, always keep your animals away from the area until the area dries completely. Discuss usage of products with the manufacturer of the products to be used. Always store such products in an area that will ensure no possible pet exposure.

Researchers have established that small dogs possess a dramatically different metabolism as compared to large breed dogs, due to physiologic effects of body mass. For example, studies have shown that a Great Dane weighing 100 pounds needs to consume about 23 calories per pound of body weight every day to maintain condition, whereas a 6-pound Pomeranian must take in 47 calories per pound of weight every day - more than twice as much. Also, small dogs and particularly toy breeds, have smaller stomachs that cannot handle a large amounts of food at one time. As a result, some highly active, adult small dogs may need to be fed 2-3 times a day to help to meet their unique nutrient and calorie needs. Most dog owners treat their small dog as a family member, preferring to feed their dog during breakfast and dinner times. Timing their meals with your meal will also help to reduce undesirable behaviors, such as begging at the dinner table.

Pregnancy

During pregnancy, the mother should be fed a palatable, digestible and high-energy food. Females should be fed a product specifically for all life stages the will supply the necessary nutrients for all stages of gestation and lactation. It’s important to maintain the bitch in good body condition without allowing her to become over weight during early stages of gestation. Because of their small stature and higher metabolic needs, pregnant small dogs may need to be fed 3 to 4 times a day to get the energy and nutrients needed to maintain increased demands of a healthy pregnancy. After the puppies are born, the mother must still be fed with a nutrient dense high-energy food to help her produce adequate milk for the puppies. The 6 to 8 weeks of nursing puppies is one of the most demanding times of a dog’s life.

Puppyhood

At 3 to 4 weeks of age, puppies usually begin the weaning process by eating their dam’s food. This will help in reducing the demand for mother’s milk, and get the puppies accustomed to eating a solid food that will help keep them in the best condition throughout their lives. This can be done by mixing solid food with warm water to make a soft and easy to chew gruel. The puppies should be fed several time times a day. They will often play with the food, and lick the gruel off of their paws - so make sure that they are eating adequate amounts for proper nourishment. Do not allow food to spoil in the bowl and change frequently to avoid spoilage.
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