5 Ways To Save Energy For Pet Owners

Tips for leaving your pet at home during the summer months.

If you leave your pet at home during the day, you may leave your air conditioner on to make sure your pet is comfortable. Clear The Air would like to share some great tips for pet owners when it comes to saving energy:

1. No need for ceiling fans. While they keep us more comfortable, cats and dogs do not have sweat glands like us so the fan has no cooling effect on them.
2. Program your thermostat. Set your thermostat to a different temperature when you are out. Depending on your pets’ breed, your pet may not need as much heat or air conditioning on. In most cases, setting your thermostat a little warmer during the summer months while you are at work will still keep your pet comfortable but won’t break the bank.
3. Turn your lights off. Having lights on during the day is not necessary. Dogs and cats can manage in dim or dark conditions just fine. If you want your lights to come on in the evening, put them on a timer to save electricity.
4. Fix a leaky faucet. While your cat may enjoy drinking out of that leaky faucet, you are driving up your water bill. Leave a couple water dishes around the house for your dog and cat to drink out of.
5. Don’t leave the TV on. Instead of providing company with the noise of the TV, try turning on the radio or buying some inexpensive toys that your pet has to work to get a treat out of it. This will help pass time without upping your electric bill.

7 Ways To Keep Your Pet Cool This Summer

The dog days of summer – what you can do to ensure your pet is safe from the heat.

We all love spending the long, sunny days of summer outdoors with our furry companions, but the ASPCA warns being overeager in hot weather can spell danger.

Take these simple precautions, provided by ASPCA experts, to help prevent your pet from overheating. And if you suspect your pet is suffering from heat stroke, get help from your veterinarian immediately.

1. Pets can get dehydrated quickly, so give them plenty of fresh, clean water when it’s hot outdoors. Make sure your pets have a shady place to get out of the sun, be careful to not over-exercise them, and keep them indoors when it’s extremely hot.
2. Symptoms of  overheating in pets include excessive panting or difficulty breathing, increased heart and respiratory rate, drooling, mild weakness, stupor or even collapse. They can also include seizures, bloody diarrhea and vomit along with an elevated body temperature of over 104 degrees. Animals with flat faces, like Pugs and Persian cats, are more susceptible to heat stroke since they cannot pant as effectively. These pets, along with the elderly, the overweight, and those with heart or lung diseases, should be kept cool in air-conditioned rooms as much as possible.
3. Never leave your animals alone in a parked vehicle. “On a hot day, a parked car can become a furnace in no time-even with the windows open-which could lead to fatal heat stroke,” says Dr. Louise Murray, Vice President of ASPCA Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital. Also, leaving pets unattended in cars in extreme weather is illegal in several states.
4. Do not leave pets unsupervised around a pool-not all dogs are good swimmers. Introduce your pets to water gradually and make sure they wear flotation devices when on boats. Rinse your dog off after swimming to remove chlorine or salt from his fur, and try to keep your dog from drinking pool water, which contains chlorine and other chemicals that could cause stomach upset.
5. “During warmer months, the ASPCA sees an increase in injured animals as a result of High-Rise Syndrome, which occurs when pets-mostly cats-fall out of windows or doors and are seriously or fatally injured,” says Dr. Murray. “Pet owners need to know that this is completely preventable if they take simple precautions.” Keep all unscreened windows or doors in your home closed and make sure adjustable screens are tightly secured.
6. Feel free to trim longer hair on your dog, but never shave your dog: The layers of dogs’ coats protect them from overheating and sunburn. Brushing cats more often than usual can prevent problems caused by excessive heat. And be sure that any sunscreen or insect repellent product you use on your pets is labeled specifically for use on animals.
7. When the temperature is very high, don’t let your dog linger on hot asphalt. Being so close the ground, your pooch’s body can heat up quickly, and sensitive paw pads can burn. Keep walks during these times to a minimum.

7 Must Know Tips When Walking Your Dog

Dog walking tips for all dog owners.

Tired of your dog always pulling on his leash? Maybe you just got a puppy and want to teach him how to properly walk on the leash. Check out these helpful tips from the ASPCA.

1. If your dog won’t stop pulling on his leash, try using a head halter. They give the walker more control and dogs are less likely to pull.
2. Using an extendable leash is nice for walks in the park however it isn’t always safe to let your dog explore out of your reach in a high traffic area.
3. If your dog likes to tug or bite on the leash a chain leash might be a good idea. Metal won’t feel as nice between their teeth as a nylon or leather leash would.
4. Make sure your dog stays out of lawns and flower beds where insecticides and other chemicals may have been used. Bulb plants like tulips and daffodils can cause stomach problems for your canine companion. Make sure your dog doesn’t stop to smell or nibble the flowers!
5. If another walker crosses your path, it is polite to teach your dog to have manners and sit while the walker passes by or pets your dog. Teach your dog not to jump on people.
6. If you are taking a long walk make sure to bring water for your dog. Also bring treats for your dog to reward him for good behavior on your walk.
7. Keep your eyes and ears open for dangerous critters such as snakes, bees and coyotes.

Do you have some suggestions for walking with your dog? We’d love to hear them! Please comment on our blog.

Amazing Dog Stories

Dogs who deserved an award!

Clear The Air loves hearing about stories of heroic animals and the risks they’ve taken to save someone.

We found some amazing dog stories from webvet.com we would like to share:

Eve – Many of us enjoy watching those movie scenes that have us sitting on the edge of our seats as someone escapes a burning pit just before it explodes, but in real life these situations are anything but enjoyable. In 1992, Kathi Vaughn, a paralyzed paraplegic, learned first-hand how horrifying this type of setting can be.

Kathi was driving along an interstate when her truck caught on fire. She pushed her rotweiller, Eve, out of the vehicle so she would be safe. However, the dog came back. Pulling her owner by the ankles, Eve managed to get Kathi out of the burning vehicle, dragging her to a nearby ditch just moments before the truck exploded.

Eve received the Stillman Award (for people and animals who risks their lives to save others), presented by the American Humane Association.

Honey – Michael Bosch and his English cocker spaniel, Honey, headed out early one October morning in 2005, with the sunshine beaming down brightly over California. Because of that brightness, Bosch’s sight was limited, causing him to misjudge the road. The SUV rolled 30 feet down a ravine, landing upside down. Bosch was trapped, and his leg was crushed between the steering wheel, roof and dashboard.

Living in a remote area, Bosch knew the chances of anyone having witnessed the accident were slim. He realized that Honey was his only hope. For seven long hours, it was just man and his dog. Finally, he managed to get his 5-month-old pet out of her kennel, which was in the back of the vehicle. Oh, how he hoped she would somehow find help!

Sure enough, Honey returned with a neighbor who lived about a half a mile away. The neighbor confirmed that Honey had directed her to the scene, where she paced back and forth gazing at the wreckage below. Rescuers acknowledged that, indeed, Bosch did owe his life to Honey, the pet he had adopted only two weeks earlier.

This heroic deed earned Honey the National Dog Day Foundation’s 2005 Dog of the Year Award.

Click the link to read more great stories at Webvet.com: http://www.webvet.com/main/2012/04/03/5-amazing-stories-hero-dogs

7 Steps To Your Pets’ Healthy Life

Tips for a healthy dog and cat.

Here at Clear the Air, we love our pets and want to provide them with a long and happy life. We would like to share some tips on keeping your pets’ happy and healthy.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share? Comment on our blog!

1. Regular Vet Visits – Just like a human, your pet can get heart problems or have arthritis. Prevent any issues by taking your pet to the vet to prevent any issues or catch them early.
2. Spay And Neuter – Sadly 8-10 million pets end up in US shelters every year. An easy way to stop that number from growing is to spay and neuter your cats and dogs. Not only does spaying and neutering cut down on the number of unwanted pets, it also can lower the risk of certain cancers and can reduce the risk of a pet getting lost by lowering the tendency to roam.
3. Parasite Prevention – Fleas and ticks are the most common external parasite to plague pets. Fleas can lead to irritate skin, hot spots, infection and hair loss. If your pet swallows a flea, it can end up with tapeworms. Year round prevention of parasites is important to your pets’ health.
4. Weight Control – Just like humans, obesity in pets in dangerous to your health. Do not over feed your pet. They need far fewer calories than most of us think. Ask your vet for feeding instructions.
5. Enriched Environment – Mental simulation for your pet is key to long term health and welfare for your cat and dog. Daily walks for dogs and scratching posts, window perches and toys for your cats are great for your pets.
6. Dental Care – Pets can suffer from gum disease, tooth loss and tooth pain. Make sure to keep up on regular brushing and oral cleanings to make sure your pets’ teeth stay healthy and clean.
7. No People Medication – Medicines for humans can kill your pet. The most common pet poisoning culprits are ibuprofen and naproxen. They can cause kidney damage, seizures and cardiac arrest in a dog or cat.

Danger: Garden Plants Toxic To Pets

Planning a garden for the spring? Make sure you stay away from planting these plants if you have pets!

Clear the Air would like to share some toxic plants you should avoid planting in your garden if you have pets. Check them out below:

Flowers

• Lilies: Any member of the lily family, from onions and leeks to Easter lilies are toxic to cats. Dogs may also be victim to this plant family.
• Oleander: This beautiful flowering bush is a danger to pets and to humans. A dog may think it’s great for a quick game of fetch, but that might be the last game the dog will ever play.
• Foxglove: Pharmaceutical companies use this biennial to make drugs for the digoxin family. It acts on the heart and can kill quickly.

Fruits

• Grapes: It doesn’t take many grapes or raisins to kill a dog, and the faster the animal gets to a vet, the greater the chance it won’t die. If your grape vine is like mine, it might be easier to keep the dog away from the vine as they fall off faster than they can be picked.
• Apple Family: Cats probably won’t be bothered by this because they don’t have a desire/need to chew on things. Dogs, on the other hand, are far more likely to have problems. Like oleander, the sticks are toxic. The cyanide content from the inedible parts of this family can kill. This family includes apricots, plums, cherries, apples and peaches.

Herbs

• Comfrey: Eating this plant can cause liver problems, no matter the species. It’s not a common herb garden plant, but it is beautiful, so it could be found in a flower bed.
• Chrysanthemum Family: Like the onion family, there are a lot of plants and they don’t look like they are related. Pyrethrum is used as fly spray on horses, and there are those who feel that it is dangerous. Stronger versions include wormwood, mugwort and southernwood. The latter is very aromatic.

Vegetables

• Tomato Family: Many vegetables in a veggie patch are related to tomatoes. This includes potatoes, eggplant and peppers. They are all members of the nightshade family. The edible parts are just that; edible. However, the rest of the plant, including leaves, is not safe.

When you are planning a garden, it’s a good idea to look up each plant. You can also talk to someone at the local nursery to make sure your pets are kept safe.

Does Your Dog Bed Smell?

How to eliminate doggy bed odors.

A lot of times our dog beds will acquire that good old “doggy smell” and although our dogs may think it smells heavenly, sometimes it’s nice to eliminate the odor so you can’t smell it laying in your bed!

What we recommend is taking apart your dog bed (should you have a cover on it) and throw it in the wash along with any blankets your dog may use in his bed.

After you wash and dry your dog’s bedding, we recommend sprinkling our Clear the Air Furniture Odor Eliminator on the padding before zipping up the cover around the dog’s bedding. Your dog’s bed should smell fresh and with Clear the Air in your dog’s bed, the doggy odor will stay away for longer.

If your dog bed cover can not be unzipped and separated from the padding within the bed, place your dog’s bed outside in a well ventilated area and sprinkle Clear the Air Furniture Odor Eliminator all over the bedding. Leave on the bed for 24 hours and when done, shake out the granules and vacuum any leftover granules.

It is also a good idea to hang our Clear the Air Odor Eliminator Bags above your dog’s bed to absorb any “doggy” odors your dog may leave behind.

Do you have any questions about eliminating odors? Please comment on our blog or contact our customer service agent!

How Safe Is Your Pet From Fleas?

Summer is around the corner and that means flea season.

Clear the Air wants to protect your pets from harmful pests such as fleas.

Is your pet safe from fleas? Follow these helpful steps below to make sure your pets aren’t overtaken by flea infestation this summer:

• Clean your home thoroughly. For any level of flea infestation, you will need to do a thorough house cleaning. Vacuum every corner of your home, wash all your dog’s bedding and toys, and vacuum your car too. Even if you don’t take your dog in the car, fleas can travel on yourself and stay in your car when you leave the home.
• Use a spot on medication such as Advantage or Frontline. Although only applied to one spot on your pet, spot on medicine is extremely effective at covering your pet’s entire body. The medicine is not affected by bathing, swimming or rain and will kill and repel fleas for several weeks before application. Make sure to purchase one that is appropriate for your dog’s age and size.
• If your flea infestation is serious, oral medications when combined with spot on medications will work to disrupt the life cycle of fleas. Try hiding the medicine in your dog’s food or smashing it into a powder and mixing it in your cat’s wet food.
• Bathe your dog with special medicated shampoo that kills fleas on contact. This process usually needs to be repeated every two weeks as the effective ingredients in these shampoos don’t last as long as spot-on or oral medications.
• Keep your yard trimmed back to help reduce the population of fleas. You can try using various yard sprays or granular treatments available at your veterinarian or garden center.

Prepare Your Dog for a New Baby

Tips to get your dog ready for a new baby.

Bringing home a new baby can be stressful on your pets, especially if you have always treated them like your “babies”! Check out Adopt A Pet’s helpful tips on bringing home a new baby and how to prepare your dog for the new family addition.

What does your dog expect when you’re expecting? We’ve heard stories of dogs curling around pregnant bellies, stealing baby toys, and many other silly and wonderful stories from our pregnant friends and family about their dogs behavior when a human baby is on the way!  Our friends over at Bark Busters —the world’s largest dog training company—offers tips to help families ensure a smooth transition for their dog when bringing home a new baby.

If you are expecting a baby and you have a dog, take time now to prepare your dog for the day you bring home your new child. “Dogs can feel rejected and become confused or stressed when parents suddenly shift their attention from dog to baby,” said Liam Crowe, CEO and master dog behavioral therapist of Bark Busters USA. “A dog doesn’t understand why a baby is being elevated above the dog in the pack. In trying to regain his pack position, the dog may seek attention through behaviors such as barking at the baby’s cries, jumping up, or chewing on baby’s things.”

Head on over to the BarkBuster’s Tips to Help Prepare Your Dog for the Arrival of a New Baby for help reducing bad behavior, easing everyone’s stress, and help to keep baby safe.

http://blog.adoptapet.com/prepare-your-dog-for-a-new-baby/

Can A Dog Tell When You’re Sad?

Dogs are much more perceptive than we think.  You may not be able to talk with him about your bad day at work but when he lies next to you with his nose on your lap, you can tell he just gets it.

Did you know a dog’s mind is roughly equivalent to that of a human two-year old’s and they have the social consciousness of a teenager? The following are emotions dogs can sense you are feeling:

Sadness: When you are down in the dumps, your dog will probably act extra-tame. Why do you think they use dogs for therapy for sick and elderly people? Scientists are still a few steps away from saying dogs have true empathy for humans but they are optimistic. In a study published in the journal Animal Cognition dogs would lick all around sad people’s hands or faces and some sweetly brought over toys.

Unfairness – Your dog may notice if you play favorites with other pets. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that when dogs saw other dogs getting treats for a trick they’d been performing unrewarded, the uncompensated dogs became visible distressed. In the study, as long as both dogs received a treat, one with a piece of sausage, the other with a piece of bread, both dogs were happy.

Priorities – When a baby comes home from the hospital and your pet is not longer the focus of your attention, he’ll pick that up pretty quickly. In some cases it can even lead to depression. Make sure you show love to your dog as well as your baby. A good suggestion is to bring an extra swaddling blanket to the hospital, wrap the baby in it, then bring it home and put it where your dog sleeps. This way your dog gets used to the scent from the very beginning and associates it with something he likes.

Annoyed or mad – If you’re angry with your dog, he’ll act submissive. That’s where the puppy dog look comes in. Interestingly enough, dog owners who scolded their pets whether or not they acted up, found the guilty look didn’t necessarily correspond to the dogs that actually had been naughty.

Fear – If something is menacing in your home, say a rat or intruder, as soon as you give off scared vibes, your dog will pick up on them. Unless you have a breed of dog that acts more as a guardian, your dog will most likely be just as scared as you are in that frightening situation. Your dog will usually mimic your emotion you put out. For example if you act cautiously and shy away, your dog probably will too.

Generosity – Did you know dogs watch and listen to your social interactions with other humans? In a study done out of the University of Milan, researchers had dogs observe two actors: one who kindly shared his cereal and sausage bits with a beggar, and another who shooed off the beggar harshly. Scientists found that, more often than not, dogs approached the more generous person when prompted—and it seems that a friendlier tone of voice made a difference. So beware: Your dog may judge your personality while you yell at your husband or kids.

Sickness – Believe it or not, it is not an urban legend that dogs can sniff out sickness. A fascinating research shows that many diseases, like lung cancer and prostate cancer, cause the body to give off odors that dogs are able to detect. In certain situations, a dog’s nose is between 1,000 and 10,000 times better than a human being’s. Dogs may not necessarily know if something is wrong, but they can tell something is definitely different.

Attention – Your pet is most likely sneakier than you think. In a study, researchers put treats on the floor in front several dogs, forbidding them to eat the food. The dogs behaved as long as the person watching them stayed in the room. When the person left, the dogs ate the treats within 5 seconds.