?

Does anyone here take their dogs to a holistic vet? If you do, do you see that vet exclusively or do you also go to a western vet? Why did you decide holistic was the right choice?

If you don't, would you ever consider it? Would you put your dog on an herbal medication/ vitamin or do acupuncture on your dog?

No judgment here, I'm strictly curious!

I was at the vet's office a few days ago with my dog and there was a woman with her new puppy. She saw a Home Again microchip brochure in the waiting room and asked me if I had them for my dogs. I said yes, and she proceeded to tell me that her dog's breeder told her not to microchip her dog because it causes cancer.

I told her I'd never heard that before or known any dog that was chipped to have cancer because of it. I also told her a story about a dog who was found 4 months after getting loose, a state away from home, because of her chip. She wasn't sold.

Went home and googled it only to find a study by an anti-chip organization saying that a population of rats and dogs grew malignant tumors at the site of the chip although it was only something like 1% of the population that grew the tumors.

Has anyone heard of this? Are you anti-chip? Do you microchip your dogs? Cats?

What do handlers and owners do with bltches that are in estrus? Obviously there's no way to control their heats so if you've entered a bltch in a show and she happens to go into heat at the time of the show, do you withdraw? Do you continue?

Wouldn't judging be different because of all the physiological changes during a heat? And although show dogs are trained to ignore others, wouldn't their hormones make it harder to control?

Curious, is all!

Whenever someone asks me what my dog is, I tell them she's a mutt. She is. We got her from a rescue and have no real idea of her past lineage.

Most people tend to give me weird looks like "How can you call her that?" Every once in a while I will follow with "Well we think mom was a lab/shepherd mix" and people will soften their expressions and be okay with that.

Why are people so against the term "mutt?" I love my dog, it's not used in a derogatory way. I'm just calling her what she is. And if I, as the dog owner, am okay with it, why can't other people be okay with it as well?

Do you tend to get the same reaction when you tell people your dog is a mutt?

So tonight was the second time I made apple pie using a recipe from a friend. When I made the pie with my friend, it came out really well. But both times I made it on my own, it came out very juicy/watery.

I followed the recipe exactly as my friend did it, and she wrote the recipe down for me. I used different apples each time but the rest of the recipe stayed exactly the same.

What am I doing wrong??

I recently read a book about pet ownership in America and there was a chapter about how pets (dogs mostly) are often a big part of every aspect of everyday life.

For example, people will buy cars based on what comfortably fits their canine companions. Or, people will only take vacations they can bring their dogs on as well.

If you are American: Do you fit this mold?

If you aren't American: do you fit this mold, or do you think your country's sentiment for pets is similar?

We have a bit of a dilemma with our youngest dog. She is now about 7 months old. She has always inhaled her food and although we preferred to wait until she was about a year to switch her to adult food, the smaller kibble of puppy food makes me nervous. Our vet sees no issue with switching her over sooner than a year.

She is currently eating Purina Pro Plan Puppy because that's what the rescue had her on and she did well on it. But making the switch to an adult food makes me want to try to get her on to something a bit healthier with a lot less filler than the Purina.

We tried Fromm for adults and 1) did not realize how small even the adult kibble is and 2) when we gave her the first meal of 90% Purina and 10% Fromm, she had VERY loose stool almost immediately.

We'd like to try another high premium food but have no idea where to start looking again. Did you have to go through tons of brands to find the one your dog liked? How did you come to try the brand you chose? Should we just keep her on Purina because we know she does well on it even though it's not the greatest? We've been on dogfoodanalysis.com which is a pretty good site but hard to navigate and there is such a long list of good foods, we don't know where to start!

Any help would be very much appreciated!

We have a 10 year old dog who has developed a small cyst between his eye and ear. It has grown a bit since I first noticed it but has slowed in its progression considerably in the past month or so. We took him to his regular vet who did not take a sample and said we could set up the surgery to remove it. I went for a second opinion and they did take a sample. Under initial observation the 2nd vet said he did not think it was too serious. The only way to know would be to remove it and send it out to biopsy. If we did do the surgery, it would be at the second animal hospital with a renowned veterinary surgeon.

There is a good chance that because of the cyst's location, surgery would impair a vital nerve in the area and damage eye sight. However, if we wait and it gets bigger, it could be inoperable anymore.

It does not bother him at all. He doesn't scratch at it or cry in pain when we touch it.

Our other issue is that he has a slight heart murmur and is overweight, making anesthesia a bit more risky. We have been trying to get him to lose weight but it's really hard for an older dog who isn't as feisty as he used to be.

Any thoughts? Would you go ahead and do it knowing there are some pretty serious risks (as in all surgeries) or would you leave him be because it doesn't bother him and both vets didn't seem too concerned?

(Just as an FYI, I am looking for opinions here, not medical advice nor will I base my final decision on answers here. It would just be nice to talk it out and get outsiders' advice!)

I know this is a total long shot but did anybody just watch HIMYM tonight, 5/17? There was a song at the end (before the credits) and the only lyrics I caught were something like "how are you doing these days," female singer. Does anybody know the song/artist?

Thanks in advance!

I was reading an article in BARK magazine about how many humane organizations, like HSUS and ASPCA, believe that within the next 5-10 years, America could become a no-kill country. This would mean that no homeless animals that are healthy or treatable would be euthanized. According to the article, "treatable" means behavioral and/or medical issues in an animal are fixable, albeit for a cost.

It's a nice idea that no animals would be euthanized if healthy, but I have a seriously hard time agreeing. Not only are we dealing with overcrowding in shelters across the country, both healthy and sick animals, but we also have intact strays and crappy breeders who will always replace the animals.

I think these people are out of touch with reality. What do you think? Do you believe we could become a no-kill country within the next decade? Or ever?

I just read the question about Greekman's training and several people said their dogs are too "soft" for his type of training. What does that mean exactly?

The rescue I work with has taken in a yorkie poodle mix and has been calling it a yorkiepoo. I cannot stand those dumb designer names and think it's irresponsible to encourage the fad.

Would you agree or do you think it's a necessary evil to maybe "spruce up" the little guy's profile? I would think someone wanting to adopt would understand more about designer idiocy but then again, that would be assuming a whole lot on my part....

Legit (just in case that's not legit enough for the critics): We've got about a foot and a half of snow today here in Northeast America and our Sheltie is LOVING it. How are your dogs enjoying the weather??

Two years after graduating, my school has sent me an e-mail saying they are deleting my account at the end of the month. I use this account as my primary e-mail so it's imperative that I find a way to move everything from that account to my new gmail account.

I've already e-mailed everyone in my address book my new address but is there a way for me to transfer all of my folders and saved e-mails from my college account to my gmail account? When I tried to sync the accounts through gmail, it didn't recognize the server and asked for ipop or whatever it is, and I have absolutely no idea how to find those.

Can anyone help me, please?

Let me preface this question by saying I do not endorse a particular brand of dog food.

Recently I've been thinking about dog food and how so many people have differing opinions about what is best for their dogs' health and well-being.

We used to feed our dog a mainstream pet store brand. He did fine on it. Then I learned that there were better foods out there that had better ingredients. We switched to a "premium" brand. He doesn't seem to have changed much from the food change, maybe a nicer coat.

Now I work at an animal hospital and I went to a seminar led by a prescription brands' veterinarians. Obviously they were biased but I couldn't help thinking that these foods can't be as bad as people would think. They also have a line of non-prescription foods that have been shot down by the critics as being one of the worst brands out there.

Then there are those that feed only raw. Dogs have been domesticated for hundreds of years now, so why the necessity for raw? Is it only for the lack of preservatives a raw diet consists of?

I guess I'm trying to figure out what, as a good dog owner, I should be feeding without compromising my dog's health and my marketing/ingredient naivete. I have no problem shelling out the big bucks for the top brands, but are they really all that spectacular?

What do you feed your dogs and why? Where did you learn about the food you've chosen? Have you seen a noticeable change in your dog's behavior/appearance if you have changed from one method to another like I did?

I am devastated to have learned that one of my foster dogs passed away a few days ago. He was young and the people only had him for less than a year. It is a total shock and completely saddening. He had the most wonderful life with them and died on the most dog-heavenly property ever.

I want to do something for them but I'm not sure what. They live a few states away so visiting them is not really an option (not even sure they would want that). I was thinking, since I still have some pictures of the dog, of framing a picture in a memorial-type frame. Any other ideas?

Thank you.

I recently heard one of the vets I work with tell a client that having a larger male will not affect the smaller female's pregnancy or delivery. Forget that the client wanted to breed her dog with a "fullbred teacup chihuahua" (disgusting), is this true? I can see a large breed hurting a small breed, but I wonder if it's true for a larger male of the same breed?

P.S. I do not condone breeders like the above client who knows nothing and only breeds to breed. What I'm wondering is if this vet was correct to an extent or if it was a bunch of BS.

How do you do it?

I was fostering for a rescue group for about a year when I had a part time job and could bring the fosters with me (dog day care).

Now I've moved back home and have a full time, 9-5, 5 days a week job. I would absolutely love to continue fostering but I feel like it would be unfair to the foster dog. I do live in a household where someone comes home around 2pm everyday, but I can't put that responsibility on that person when fostering is my choice.

Does anyone foster and have a full time job? How do you make it work? I'd love to continue fostering but won't until I figure things out.

Recently, a dog that had been severely abused by her owner was brought to the ASPCA after being thrown off a NYC building rooftop. She sustained two broken legs and fractured her back. The ASPCA vetted her to health and began temperament testing her. They found her to be too aggressive and unpredictable to place in a home and planned to have her euthanized. Another organization offered to take Oreo but the ASPCA declined and had her put to sleep.

Here are the two sides of the story if you'd like to read more:

ASPCA: http://www.aspca.org/pressroom/press-releases/1113...

Pets Alive: http://www.petsalive.com/oreo.html

So just out of curiosity, do you think the ASPCA did the right thing? Do you think they should have tried to rehab Oreo with the new rescue or found another option other than euthanasia?

I'd like to hear what people think.

Many times when someone asks Y!A about purchasing a puppy, we tell them to either go to a shelter or reputable breeder instead of the local BYB scum.

But how many of those people would actually pass a shelter or breeder's application process? How do you stop the vicious cycle when greedy BYBs/pet stores are supplying the demand of the less qualified pet owners?

I just signed in and my avatar says I earned 7 points. One was for signing in for the first time today, so 6 are unaccounted for :).

It's not for best answer because I know how many I had before this.

Really just curious how the system works.

Thanks for help!