The Dog Blog

Far from just sitting under the dinner table and hovering up the dropped scraps of food, the odd vegetable or scrap of meat if they’re lucky, our doggie pals have been known to take a liking to consuming the strangest of objects which as you’d expect often result in a bad belly and a trip to the vet. Funnily enough though, despite the old excuse, there are no recorded cases of finding homework in a dog’s stomach.

From child’s toys and golf balls to cutlery, we now take a look at just five of the strangest things to be found in the stomach of a dog….

Homer Simpson

While it’s a well-known fact that chocolate can be lethal to dogs, this 10 year old Dalmatian collie couldn’t resist tucking into a chocolate egg, after all why can’t dogs enjoy Easter just as much as humans?

What Dixie didn’t realise was the surprise hiding inside the egg, a figurine of cartoon favourite Homer Simpson.

Continue Reading

It’s National Puppy Awareness Week this week (8^th – 15^th September 2012). Too many puppies end up abandoned and homeless after their owners buy them for the wrong reasons and from the wrong places before realising that they cannot cope. The Kennel Club’s National Puppy Awareness Week tries to make sure that a dog stays with its owner for the rest of its life.

Find The Right Breed

Finding the right breed of dog to suit your lifestyle is important. There are over 210 pedigree breeds of dog and many crossbreeds as well. Pedigree dogs are the best breeds to get when you want a dog with specific characteristics and personality as they are bred to behave a certain way. Crossbreeds are more unpredictable.

Continue Reading

Dog Beds are delighted to announce that we have teamed up with Pennies – the electronic charity box. Pennies provide an easy and secure way to give a little something to others when you pay online. A few pennies here and there from shoppers can be powerful so Dog Beds wanted to choose a charity our customers can benefit from. 

Going walking with your dog in the great British countryside is fantastic. But sometimes thing can go wrong. If you are walking on your own and you slip or have an accident you may be miles away from help. The weather may turn and you could end up trapped and unable to find your way back. This is where Mountain Rescue can help – anyone can call them if assistance is needed. Despite their name, many of the Mountain Rescue teams' annual call outs come from or for those on non-mountainous terrain such as countryside that people may not be familiar with.

Continue Reading

1. America has the highest dog population in the World

2. Dogs are mentioned in the bible 14 times

3. 70% of people also sign their pets name when sending friends and families greeting cards

4. At the end of  “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles, Paul McCartney recorded a high-pitched dog whistle for his sheepdog

5. Dogs do not have a sense of time

6. Dogs are not in fact colour blind, their sight is just the equivalent of ours at dusk.

Continue Reading

So you’ve picked your puppy from the litter and now you have the joy of bringing it home to meet the family. You’ve stocked up on puppy food, toys and a brand spanking new cosy bed for it to sleep in, booked the vet for its shots and bought your pet insurance policy. Yet despite getting all this there’s still one thing nagging away at you... What are you going to call your new furry friend?

Do they look more like a Bruce than a Bouncer or a Molly than a Missy? Don’t worry though; help is at hand with the Pet Name Generator from Confused.com.

It’s as simple as answering five questions and your new canine friend will have a brand new name to adorn their collar.

To see it in action, let’s take this cute puppy as an example...

Continue Reading

According to research, the breed of dog that you choose says something about you and reflects your personality. We tend to go for dogs that are a bit like us and that fit into our lifestyle. If you are an outgoing and loud person, you are unlikely to want a small quiet dog and if you are a quiet person it may drive you mad to have a loud bouncy dog to look after every day.

From a Pug to a Newfoundland, dogs come in all shapes and sizes with a range of personalities and temperaments.

Here are a few matches for you to compare your dogs against:

Labradors and Golden Retrievers

These breeds are very friendly and good-natured and make the ideal family pet. Those who choose these breeds tend to be family orientated and laid back. A love for the outdoors is common and Labradors and golden retrievers love bounding around in the countryside making friends and being sociable. Their owners also tend to be honest, friendly people.

Continue Reading

Dogs are very loving animals, of all the pets they have been labelled "man's best friend" because they are loyal and affectionate. Dogs make it fairly obvious when they love you but there are also some common signs of affection they display:

Following you

Like with humans, when you love someone, they are the person you want to be around. This behaviour is typical of dogs. Dogs follow you around in order to stay with you and be by your side. It can also be seen as a sign of protection by staying with you.

Licking

When puppies want to be fed they lick their mothers. When they are older they will lick other dogs as a sign of respect. This acknowledges the status of an older dog within their pack. Dogs can also lick you when they are anxious or stressed, but the most likely case is in a relaxed form when they are just licking you as a sign or affection and respect.

Continue Reading

National Microchipping Month is June 2012. This campaign encourages and promotes responsibility within pet ownership by supporting microchipping as a preferred method of permanent pet identification.

According to recent stats, 126,000 stray dogs were handled by authorities in the last year. Unfortunately 7.5 thousand of them had to be put to sleep and it was reported that 77% of those lost had not been microchipped.

The first country to put into practice microchipping was Denmark, they made it compulsory to have all puppies microchipped before they left their mothers at the age of 8 weeks old. By 2012 there were no stray dogs and only a couple of hundred that were lost.

The other countries that have also made microchipping compulsory include Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Ireland and Spain. In the UK it is still being considered.

Continue Reading

A stray dog has completed a 1,100 mile trek across China with a group of cyclists. The dog ran with the group for over 20 days climbing over 12 mountains on their journey along the Sichuan-Tibet highway through all manners of weather.

The brave little dog who has been named "Xiaosa" or "Little Sa" met the cyclists near the beginning of their journey. All it took was for one of them to feed her a little snack for her to dedicate herself to the rest of their journey running alongside their bikes. The litte dog soon became a national hero in China known as a mascot to the cyclists.

One of the cyclists created a blog about his journey where he documented the dogs adventures - by the end of this race the blog had received over 40,000 fans! Little Sa's breed and age are unknown but this once hungry and lonely dog has now been adopted by one of the cyclists after receiving a clean bill of health from a vet.

Continue Reading