Author: admin

February 13,  2019

 

Take Your Dog to Work? It’s Not a Bad Idea!

More and more, companies around the country are starting to allow employees to bring their dogs with them. The number of U.S. workplaces that have instituted dog-friendly policies jumped from 5% in 2013 to 8% in 2018, and the trend is showing no signs of weakening. Some of the biggest companies in the country are coming around to the pup-friendly office model.

Amazon’s Seattle-based headquarters has over 1,000 dogs that come to work with their owners every day. Ticketmaster not only maintains a pet-friendly office, they offer pet insurance as an employee benefit to help cover major medical expenses. PetSmart, the pet products retailer, not surprisingly allows dogs at their main headquarters. Nestle Purina, one of the largest pet food manufacturers also allows employees to bring their pooches to work.

Glassdoor allows dogs and works around the allergy problem by maintaining a dog-free area in the office where allergy sufferers can work happily and safely. Bissell Homecare, the cleaning-products giant has a designated “Pet Spot” in the office, where employees can bring their dogs for dog treats, water bowls and even doggy ice cream.

The list goes on! And for good reason. There are a number of benefits to allowing dogs in the workplace. We’ll discuss a few of them here and then offer some items to consider if you’re thinking about allowing dogs at your company.

Allowing Dogs in the Office Reduces Stress

According to a 2012 study from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business, groups that allow dogs in the office see a decline in stress levels throughout the day. Interestingly, offices that don’t allow dogs not only see no decrease in stress levels, their employees’ stress levels rise over the course of the day. So, it would seem that having your pooch at your feet as you work not only prevents you from getting stressed it actively relaxes you. And employees that aren’t stressed out are generally better focused and more productive.

Dogs Increase Workplace Satisfaction

A pet is a source of joy for most pet owners. Having to be apart from them throughout the day is a saddening experience. So, when employees are allowed to bring their dogs with them, they bring that joy to the office, and this makes a big difference in how satisfied they are at their jobs. According to a 2016 survey by Banfield Pet Hospital, 53% of employees said that they would be more likely to stay at their jobs if their employers instituted a pet-friendly policy, and 82% of employees said they thought the change would make employees more loyal to the company.

Bringing Dogs to Work Can Be Healthy

Not only does bringing your dog to work decrease stress levels, it can be healthy in other ways. It’s well known that petting an animal can lower blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol. It also positively impacts salivary immunoglobulin levels, an indication of healthy immune function. This interaction with your animal reduces many stress-related hormones, including cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, while boosting serotonin levels.

Healthy employees take fewer sick days, which means allowing dogs in the workplace has the added benefit of getting more productive hours out of employees.

Dogs in the Office Can Promote Creativity

Dogs can’t stay inside all day. They need to get out to exercise and take care of their business. This has the side benefit of guaranteeing occasional work breaks for their owners. In many cases employees don’t take enough breaks. For a lot of workers lunch is the only break they get and many of them spend it working at their desks.

But breaks are key to resetting the mind, to allow it to disengage for a short while. Creativity, it turns out, happens when the mind is allowed to break away. We’re more likely to come up with novel ideas or new ways of approaching a problem when we can distract ourselves and allow our minds to wander.

Dogs Increase Work Hours…Happily

No one wants to stay late, particularly dog owners that need to rush home to let their furry friends out to use the bathroom. But when they can bring their dog to work not only are they freed of that obligation, they’re much happier to stay until their work is done. After all, their best friend is right beside them! Where else do they need to go?

Dogs Increase Employee Socialization and Morale

Dogs are a source of unbridled enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm is contagious. When employees see dogs enjoying themselves in the office it makes them happy. Pets in the office give employees something fun to interact with and to talk about besides work. This lightens the mood in the office and makes people more social. And employees getting out of their little boxes and interacting with their coworkers is a great morale boost.

Things You Need to Consider When Opening Your Office to Dogs

As we’ve seen, instituting a pet-friendly policy can be an excellent move for company productivity, health and morale. But there are a few things to keep in mind if you’re considering opening your own office to dogs.

Where to Poo?

Before you can allow dogs into your business you need to consider the logistics of their “business”. Is there a good outdoor area near your office where owners can take their dogs to relieve themselves? If your office is downtown in a high-rise, puppy pooping may not be practical. Yes, you could design a spot in the office for them to do their doo, but it needs to be very well insulated from the rest of the office. No one is going to want to smell that. If you can’t resolve this issue, then dogs in your office may not be feasible.

Allergies and Other Employee Concerns

There are plenty of people that suffer from pet allergies. You need to consider whether your office is large enough to be certain these people can work in a dog-friendly office without having an allergy attack every day. Many offices solve this problem by designating pet-free areas, but this only works if the allergy sufferers don’t need to travel into other parts of the office to get their work done.

You also must consider employees who are afraid of dogs. This is more common than you might think. For these people a dog-friendly policy would not have the relaxing effect that it has for other employees. Because of these and other issues, you need to make sure the bulk of employees actually want dogs to join them.

Disruptions and Distractions

It’s nice to think that if we let dogs into our office they’ll simply lounge around all day, happily eating and sleeping and mostly staying out of the way. But that isn’t the case. Particularly when groups of dogs get around each other things can get raucous. This can be disturbing to normal business operations.

Things can get broken. Food may get stolen off desks. Plus, you may frequently find people engaging with their or other people’s dogs instead of working. In general, you have to consider whether the productivity gains allowing dogs can outweigh the productivity disruptions they can cause.

Is a Dog-Friendly Office Right for You?

It very well could be. If you can make the logistics work you could have a happy, satisfied, productive labor force on your hands. But it can also go off the rails. Just be certain that if you’re a business owner considering allowing dogs you fully think through the consequences before making the leap. The last thing you want to do is allow dogs and then renege later on because it isn’t working. That can be a serious punch to morale. We helped McAfee successfully launch their P.A.W. Program by providing, servicing and maintaining dog waste stations on their campus. If you’re ready to adopt a pets-at-work policy, we can help put a strategy in place for pet waste management. What are you waiting for, let’s talk!

Common Parasites and How They Affect Dogs and Their Owners

There are several parasites that can infect our canine friends. Some infections may cause no symptoms at all while others can be very dangerous. It’s important to know what to look for and to see your vet if you suspect an infection may be present. Below you’ll find information about six of the most common parasites your dog is likely to encounter, and what symptoms you can expect in them and potentially in you.

Hookworm

Hookworms are small intestinal parasites that infect their hosts either orally or through skin contact. Their name comes from the hook-like mouthpiece they use to latch onto the intestinal lining and feed off the small capillaries near the surface.

Hookworms lay their eggs into their host’s digestive system, which hatch into larvae and are transmitted into the environment through fecal excretion. New animals are infected when they sniff or eat infected feces or soil, groom their paws after walking over an infected area, or lay in an infected location, allowing the larvae to burrow in through the skin. They can also be passed in utero from mother to child and via the mother’s milk.

How Hookworms Affect Dogs

Hookworms feed fairly heavily and can cause severe anemia in infected animals. While hookworm infections aren’t generally life-threatening, one of the three common species of the worm can be fatal in puppies. In general, it’s a good idea to seek treatment as soon as a hookworm infection is suspected. There are a number of symptoms that can indicate infection. If any of these are present in your animal, it’s wise to seek veterinary counsel.

Anemia

Weight loss

Weakness

Pale gums

Bloody diarrhea

Itchy paws

How Hookworms Affect Owners

Hookworms can infect humans, normally entering the body through the skin of the feet as you walk barefoot around your yard. If you’re infected, you’ll feel a tingling or itching sensation where the larvae burrowed into your skin. In general, they’re not much of a threat to people and treatment is fairly simple.

Treating Hookworm

If hookworms are suspected in your dog your vet will perform a fecal float to look for hookworm eggs in your dog’s feces. If found treatment is fairly simple, involving a course of oral deworming medication. Since these medications don’t kill larvae, a second course is normally prescribed a few weeks later to kill new adult worms that the existing larvae mature into. What’s most important, and can be tricky, is preventing reinfection. Since the worm is spread through infected feces, you’ll need to clean your yard and other places your dog defecates, removing as much of the infected material as possible. Depending on conditions, hookworm larvae can live for months in the environment, so it’s a good idea to add a hookworm preventative medicine to your dog’s treatment, which helps prevent reinfection while you wait for the outdoor larvae to die.

Roundworm

Roundworms are also intestinal parasites, but grow to be significantly larger than hookworms, often reaching several inches in length. Roundworms feed not on blood, but on incompletely digested food as it passes through the small intestines. As a result, roundworms can cause malnourishment problems, particularly in young puppies.

Roundworms are extremely common in dogs. Nearly every dog will have roundworms at least once in its life, most commonly in puppyhood, passed from the mother either in utero or through her milk. A unique feature of roundworm physiology allows larvae to encyst in the infected dog’s tissues, entering a dormant state. During certain illnesses or pregnancy these encysted larvae reactivate and reinfect the mother and then her puppies. Therefore, it’s recommended to treat puppies and their mothers for roundworm as a matter of course.

Dogs can also become infected by eating soil polluted by infected feces or by eating smaller animals, like mice, that can carry worm eggs.

How Roundworms Affect Dogs

Roundworms can grow fairly large and eat quite a bit, depriving the infected dog of much of the food it eats on a daily basis, causing malnourishment. The worms are also known to migrate to the lungs where they can cause irritation, coughing, and in extreme cases, pneumonia. Symptoms to look for include:

Signs of malnutrition: weakness, stunted growth, weight loss

A pot-bellied appearance due to an abundance of worms

Coughing

Diarrhea

Vomiting

Worms in vomit or stool

How Roundworms Affect Owners

There are two different species of roundworm. Only one, Toxocara canis can be transmitted to humans. The worm can’t complete its life cycle in humans, but the larvae can encyst in human tissues, which can cause a host of problems. Roundworm infects humans orally, most often when children play in soil mixed with dog droppings. It’s recommended that children’s hands be washed well and promptly whenever they’ve been playing in outdoor areas frequented by dogs.

Treating Roundworm

Treating roundworm is easy. A simple deworming medication will handle the infection. There are also heartworm control medications that included ingredients to prevent roundworms as well.

Whipworm

Unlike the last two parasites, whipworms opt for the large intestine instead of the small. The worms get their name from their shape, which resembles a whip. In order to leave their mouth free to feed, whipworms embed the thicker end of their body into the mucosal lining of the cecum and colon, causing dogs a good bit of irritation. In large numbers the discomfort the worms cause can be quite severe, leading to anemia, bloody stools, and weight loss.

Whipworm infections are primarily oral, caused by ingestion of the embryonic form of the worm from the environment. Once in the large intestine the worms become prolific egg layers, and these eggs are passed back to the environment to reinfect the host dog and infect new animals. 

How Whipworms Affect Dogs

Many dogs carrying whipworm are asymptomatic. It’s not until the infection grows large enough that visible symptoms begin to occur. That’s why regular parasite checks at your vet’s office are recommended to catch a whipworm infection before it begins to cause problems. But if you see any of the following symptoms you should get your pet checked out.

Bloody stools

Anemia

Weight loss

Diarrhea

How Whipworms Affect Owners

It’s extremely rare for canine whipworms to infect humans, so rare in fact that it’s not something that people generally need to worry about.

Treating Whipworm

Like roundworms and hookworms, whipworms are easily killed with deworming medications. However, whipworm eggs are extremely durable, capable of surviving in the environment for many years. As a result, if preventative measures aren’t taken consistently the chances for reinfection are high. It’s important to treat dogs with a monthly heartworm medication that also prevents whipworms.

Tapeworms

Tapeworms are the largest of the canine worm parasites, growing up to 28 inches in length. These segmented worms live in the intestines, eating from the dog’s ingested food as it passes through the digestive system.

The tapeworm life cycle is the most interesting of the canine intestinal parasites. A dog becomes infected when it ingests a flea that carries an immature worm. This generally happens when the dog is grooming itself or another animal, or when it eats a smaller animal like a rabbit or a mouse. Once the flea has been digested the worm takes up residence inside the dog’s intestines and begins to grow. As it does segments break off and are passed out of the body in the feces. These segments look like small grains of rice and are dead giveaway for a tapeworm infection. The segments contain the tapeworm’s eggs, and these eggs will get stuck to the dogs’ fur where they can infect a new flea, restarting the cycle.

How Tapeworms Affect Dogs

Generally, tapeworm infections are asymptomatic and don’t cause any specific illness, but it is common for larger infections to cause weight loss. However, there are certainly ways to tell if your dog has a tapeworm. Look for the rice-like segments in their stool or stuck to the fur around the rectum. The discharged segments can cause irritation, and as a result you may see your dog scooting across the floor or licking and chewing the area.

How Tapeworms Affect Owners

Tapeworms can leap from dogs to humans, but it’s rare and occurs most frequently in children if they accidentally ingest feces infected with tapeworm eggs. Make certain to wash children’s hands frequently if they’ve been rolling around on the ground in locations where tapeworm contamination is possible

Treating Tapeworms

There are several medications that can eliminate tapeworms from your dog’s system. Once treated it’s important to try and prevent reinfection, or prevent infection in the first place. The easiest way is to treat your animal for fleas, and to keep them away from other dogs known to have fleas. A dog without fleas is much less likely to come into contact with infected insects. Also, to avoid the risk of environmental infection try to keep your dogs away from dead and decaying animals.

Giardia

Giardia is a single-celled parasite that multiplies in your dog’s intestines. As the mature parasites, called trophozoites flourish and spread they begin to form cysts, which are passed from the body in the dog’s feces. These cysts contaminate the environment where they can be consumed by other dogs either when they drink from puddles or other contaminated water sources, eat grass, pick up sticks in their mouths or mouth other objects that have come into contact with infected poop. These cysts travel into the intestines where they start the life cycle over again.

How Giardia Affects Dogs

Giardia often causes no symptoms in dogs, but if they develop giardiasis, the symptoms are unpleasant. Giardiasis causes occasional or continual diarrhea, and a reduced ability to absorb water and nutrients. Both conditions can be dangerous and possibly life threatening in puppies, elderly animals or animals with compromised immune systems. Symptoms to look for include:

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Dehydration

Weight Loss

A poor looking coat

How Giardia Affects Owners

Humans can become infected with giardia, but the infection rarely comes from our pets. However, it’s still good practice to wash your hands thoroughly after handling your dog’s droppings.

Treating Giardia

Giardiasis and giardia infections are treatable conditions. It’s important to talk with your vet about your options. In terms of preventing giardia, you want to make sure your dog has access to fresh water all the time, reducing the likelihood that he or she will be motivated to drink from contaminated puddles. Also, you’ll want to clean up any dog waste in areas where your dogs play as quickly as possible to reduce the chances that cysts get spread around the environment. Giardia isn’t something you can prevent with a pill like you can with many of the worm parasites, so maintaining proper hygiene standards is your best bet for controlling giardia infections.

Coccidia

Coccidia is another single-celled organism that invades a dog’s intestines and takes up residence among the cells of the intestinal lining. Like giardia, coccidia is spread in a cyst state through contaminated feces. Coccidia oocysts are hardier than giardia cysts and survive in the environment for quite some time. However, they only become infective when conditions are right, so a local contamination does not automatically mean the organism is in an infective state.

How Coccidia Affects Dogs

Even more so than with giardiasis, coccidiosis, the disease caused by coccidia isn’t common and often isn’t particularly severe, frequently going away without treatment. However, it can be life threatening for young puppies and elderly or infirm dogs if the infection is severe enough. Diarrhea is the most common symptom, but in severe cases dehydration and vomiting can occur.

How Coccidia Affects Owners

Cross species infection with coccidia is impossible for all but one genera of the protozoa, and even then, it’s rare. Like with giardia, cleaning your hands after handling droppings and maintaining proper hygiene should eliminate the possibility of the microbe leaping from dog to person.

Treating Coccidia

Coccidiosis often runs its course and goes away naturally in otherwise healthy animals but in more severe cases it’s generally treated with a course of antibiotics. Because in most cases dogs with coccidia are entirely asymptomatic it’s important to do regular parasite checks with your vet to determine if an infection exists.

Parvovirus (Parvo)

Parvo is a highly contagious virus. It causes an infectious gastrointestinal (GI) illness in puppies and young dogs, and without treatment, it is potentially deadly.

Part of what makes the virus so dangerous is the ease with which it is spread through the canine population. The virus spreads either by direct contact with an infected dog, or through feces, and an infected dog can begin shedding the virus four-to-five days after exposure — often before the dog starts exhibiting any clinical signs of infection. The dog will continue to shed the virus while he is sick and for up to 10 days after he has recovered. This means that accurate diagnosis and quarantine are essential for the health of your dog and of other dogs, as well.

How Parvo Affects Dogs

The virus manifests itself in two different forms. The more common form is the intestinal form, which is characterized by vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and lack of appetite (anorexia). The less common form is the cardiac form, which attacks the heart muscles of fetuses and very young puppies, often leading to death.

Most cases are seen in puppies that are between six weeks and six months old. The incidence of canine parvovirus infections has been reduced radically by early vaccination in young puppies.

The major symptoms associated with the intestinal form of a canine parvovirus infection include:

Severe, bloody diarrhea

Lethargy

Anorexia

Fever

Vomiting

Severe weight loss

How Parvo Affects Owners

In most children, parvovirus infection is mild and requires little treatment. However, in some adults, the infection can be serious. Parvovirus infection in some pregnant women can lead to serious health problems for the fetus. Parvovirus infection is also more serious for people with some kinds of anemia or who have a compromised immune system.

Treating Parvo

Pets with parvo often require intravenous fluids to keep them hydrated; antibiotics to treat infections that can occur as a result of the damage to the intestines; and plasma transfusions to replace protein lost in the vomit or diarrhea and to provide immune support. They may need constant nutritional support as well, to provide them with the nutrients they need to fight off the disease and heal their intestines.

Why Do Dogs Scoot?

Most dog owners have experienced this situation at least once. You’re lounging around the house, entertaining friends. Maybe it’s a dinner party. Maybe it’s a game day gathering or a child’s birthday party. Everyone’s enjoying themselves when your four-legged friend wanders into room, plops itself down on the ground and, in full view of all your guests, starts dragging it’s butt across the floor, smearing who knows what into your clean, white carpet..

Whether you’re angered, embarrassed, or entertained depends on how much you know about scooting and how much you like your carpet. The sight of your dog scooting around the house can certainly make you chuckle, but know that your dog isn’t laughing…or wouldn’t be laughing if it was capable of laughing. Because scooting almost always indicates pain or discomfort.

Common Causes of Scooting

Dogs scoot to relieve pain or itching around the anus. There are several common causes, and it’s often possible to determine what’s going on with a simple visual, and unfortunately olfactory inspection. So get yourself a good flashlight and take a big whiff. You’re nose won’t thank you but your dog will.

Anal Sac Issues

These are by far the most common cause of scooting. A dog’s anal sac can become impacted, abscessed or blocked, causing a good deal of pain and irritation. If scooting is accompanied by swelling around the anus and a strong, foul odor, anal sac issues are the likely cause. If there’s impaction or a blockage the anal sacs can be manually expressed. You can do this yourself if you’re feeling brave, or have it done at your vet’s office. Warm compresses can also help break up the offending material, as well as relieve discomfort. If anal sac issues aren’t something you’re comfortable with a trip to the vet is probably in order.

Fecal Matting

Look for fur matted with feces around your dog’s anus. This can lead to itching and discomfort when left unchecked. Thankfully relief is as easy as a thorough cleansing of the area as well as trim of the fur close to the anus to prevent recontamination. However, if there’s discharge or other signs of infection, see your vet.

Worms

Tapeworm infection is another cause of scooting. If you see small, rice-like segments, or obvious, writhing worms around your dog’s anus, it’s almost certainly infected. Worms can be treated easily with medication.

Rectal Prolapse

If a fleshy, tube-like structure can be seen protruding from your dog’s anus, your dog is likely suffering a rectal prolapse. This happens when a short length of your dog’s rectum emerges through the anus. It’s uncomfortable and can certainly lead to scooting behavior. Your vet will be able to properly reinsert the rectum, and has various means available to him or her to prevent future prolapsing.

What if Everything Looks Fine?

If your inspection doesn’t reveal any obvious redness, swelling, discharge or unusually strong odor then it’s possible your dog is just itchy, a condition that may be temporary. The best thing to do is clean the area well and then keep an eye on the problem. The scooting behavior may cease in a day or two. If it doesn’t, keep watching your dog’s nether regions. If signs of something problematic do eventually materialize, you now know what to do. And if you’re still worried it never hurts to make an appointment with your vet.

 

Canine heroes of the military are trained to keep U.S. soldiers safe. Today’s military dogs undergo rigorous training to be able to find bombs, various substances, track humans, and attack in emergencies. Here are five things you may have never known about the brave military dogs that help keep our country safe.

Military Dogs Have a Long History

The official use of military dogs dates back to the Civil War. Dogs have been seen in combat in some of the earliest battles of the United States. According to Low VA Loan Rates, “military dogs were used in the Seminole War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, and both World Wars.” Canine soldiers were first used to send messages efficiently and effectively. Due to their intelligence and keen tracking abilities, dogs were a perfect way to easily carry information. Today, dogs have even more advanced training to perform specific tasks.

Crunching the Numbers on Military Dogs

You may have known about the United States using canines to help troops overseas, but you might not know just how many dogs the nation currently used. There are approximately 2,500 dogs serving in the U.S. military today, according to National Geographic. At any time, 700 dogs can be found serving in destinations abroad.

Honoring Military Dogs

Military war dogs and the canine heroes of the military can receive honors just like our human military heroes. A decorated war dog named Chips was used in World War II to serve as a sentry dog. Inside Edition explains, his heroism was honored with a Purple Heart and Silver Star among other honors. Chips saw combat all over Europe and even visited North Africa.

A Home for Every Hero

In the event a military war dog has reached the age of retirement, they are often offered to be adopted by their handler. If a handler can’t adopt their canine hero, the Department of Defense has a program designed to find a suitable home. 1,312 canine heroes have been awarded for their service by finding loving homes. 252 dogs went on to have another career with the police after their service in the military.

Not Everyone Makes the Cut

The military has a rigorous selection process for its human troops. Dogs must undergo a similar selection process. CertaPet explains that only about 50% of dogs make it through the training. In order to be a military dog, a canine must be able to perform a variety of different tasks. They also must have a very acute sense of smell and be able to take direction well. Dogs must be able to handle stress well and be able to take orders. One of the nice things about adopting a dog that didn’t make the cut is that not only are they house trained and taught other basic commands, but they are usually fully trained in a list of helpful activities including noticing when something is wrong, reacting to dangerous situations like fires or natural disasters, and protecting your family.

Not only can adopting one of these dogs help the dog feel loved and welcomed into your home, but could help protect and keep your family safe. If you’re considering adoption in the future, a military dog could be a great idea!