Top Three Death-Causing Toxic Chemicals That Can Be Found In Commercial Dog Foods

As a dog owner, you should be always looking for healthier dog food with higher quality.

The problem is that most of the dog owners like you are taught to believe that commercial dog foods are healthier choices for your dogs. The truth is most of them are NOT. Read on to find out why.

Here are the top three death-causing toxic chemicals that can be found in most commercial dog foods:

1. Sodium pentobarbital
2. BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene), Ethoxyquin and Propylene glycol
3. Lead

Their devastating effects have led them to be banned from human consumption. Read on to find out.

Sodium pentobarbital is the chemical that veterinarians use to put dogs and cats to sleep. This toxic chemical cannot be removed completely during food processing. So when your dog eats those commercial dog foods, it is possible for this death-causing toxic to accumulate inside their body system permanently. When it reaches a toxic level, it will kill, if not, cause irreversible damages to your dogs body system eventually causing it to fall ill easily or result in organ failure.

BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene), ethoxyquin and propylene glycol are commonly used as fat stabilizers in dog foods as preservatives. BHA and BHT cause liver and kidney dysfunction while ethoxyquin is a potential cancer-causing agent. Hence, many companies have claimed that they moved away from using ethoxyquin. Another toxic chemical, propylene glycol, is found in many semi-moist dog foods and causes red blood cells destruction.

Lead, an extremely toxic heavy metal is also commonly found in pet foods. A research conducted in Massachusetts Institute of Technology published as "Lead in Animal Foods," presented one shocking discovery A typical 9-pound cat was found to be ingesting, through commercial pet food, far more lead daily than the toxic level for children in their lifetime. Imagine that on your dog. And here is the worst part heavy metals reside in body systems permanently. Heavy metals have known to cause nervous damage to animals when accumulated in their body systems.

This is a very real fact of commercial dog foods though not all commercial dog companies pumps all these materials into their dog food products.

So if you truly want the best for your dog, the best way out is to personally prepare food meals for it. At least you know you wont be pumping the food up with any unnecessary deadly preservatives.

© Dominic Tay, DogFoodSecretsExposed.com

© Dominic Tay, DogFoodSecretsExposed.com

Everything You Need to Know About Fencing

Is there such a thing as fail-safe fencing and gates? Maybe someday! In the meantime, there are certain steps you should take to make sure your horse not only remains in his enclosure, but remains there safely.

First of all, consider visibility. Your horse must be able to see his fencing, otherwise injuries are imminent. While your horse shouldn't have any trouble seeing a wood or PVC fence, wire fences pose more of a problem. Colorful tape or ribbon tied to the fence every foot or so makes the horse aware of the fence.

Next, consider the height of the fence. Fencing must be high enough to deter the horse from going over, and low enough to deter him from going under. How high is high enough? About nose high (the horse's nose, that is!) should do it. If you have more than one horse in the enclosure, put it at the height of the tallest horse's nose.

There are many different types of fencing to choose from, but electric, wood, and PVC are the most popular.

Electric fence is the most economical for horsemen on a budget. The most popular forms of electric fence for horses are galvanized wire, plastic-coated wire, 1/2-inch electric polytape, or 1 1/2-inch electric polytape. A good way to make wire fence visible to your horse is to tie brightly colored cloth on every strand every three feet or so. In addition to the wire you'll need insulators, posts, hardware, and a charger. For about $200, you can buy everything you need to build a small electric fence corral.

If your budget is larger you might want to investigate woodeither board, slipboard, or rustic rail. While lumber prices will vary from area to area and do fluctuate, wood is always more expensive than wire. Wood fencing is more aesthetically pleasing than wire and will add value to your farm, but it will also cost you time and money in upkeep. Fences made out of non-pressure treated wood must be painted or stained on a regular basis, and broken or dangerous boards must be replaced as noticed. When installing board fencing, make sure you nail the boards to the inside of the posts, and not the outside, to prevent them from popping off when a horse leans against them. Nail heads should be flush, and the fence posts should be stable. If you are in a situation where it is imperative that your horses don't get outyour pasture borders a busy road, you want to separate stallions from mares, etc.you might want to consider running a strand of electric wire along the top rail of the fence.

If money is no object you can get attractive fencing with little or no upkeep. PVC fencing is aesthetically pleasing as it looks like wood from afar, but it never needs painting and won't rot, rust, splinter, or break. Some manufacturers claim it is stronger than wood.

Regardless of what kind of fence you choose, once you have it up it is important to walk it frequently for safety reasons. Make sure there are no downed wires or boards that horses could get caught in or escape through. All fencing must be free of any protruding wires, nails, or pieces of splintered wood that a horse could injure himself on. As you walk your fence, replace any broken, sagging, or splintering boards and downed wires as you notice them. Always check your posts for sturdiness by grabbing them and giving them a good tug; if you live in an area where the ground temperature changes frequently you'll need to do this more often.

Remember, function is important when it comes to fencing, but so is safety!

Ron Petracek is the founder of Equine Internets vast 15 site classified and social network. You can view its amazing size here Http://www.equineinternet.com/network.php or to further your equine habit please visit our forum by clicking here http://www.horsechitchat.com/equineforums and start posting Need to sell a horse or tack? place a free ad here http://www.click4equine.com and always the barn door in left open on purpose.

Two Ways to Nip Dog Biting in the Bud

When raising a puppy, there is a fine line between a dog bite and puppy love. Adult dogs will bite for a numbers of reasons, including fear, defensiveness, and aggression. But puppies have yet to develop many of the behaviors (such as possessiveness, territoriality, or simply aggression in general) that can contribute to biting tendencies.

So while puppies dont really bite, they nip. They nip as a form of play, but also as manifestation of their prey instincts in development. Either way, those little teeth sure can hurt, and can puncture just as easily as an accidental staple in your finger (not that I would know of course).

Puppies need to chew even more when they are teething - there are even special chew toys that can be dampened and frozen to provide relief for painful gums during this process. Broadly speaking, they are using their mouths to express themselves, to explore and engage with all of the things that surround them. Of course, that includes you, the owner.

Nipping behavior CAN be present in adult dogs. For example, some dogs tend to nip at the hands and feet of people whenever they move quickly. Unfortunately, this is commonly a sign of earlier abuse at the hand (and indeed foot) of a nasty owner. The adult dog comes to mistrust these appendages, and for good reason. Such a dog can require a good dose of re-training, precaution, and patience.

But for puppy owners, there are super simple but super important steps you can take to deal with nipping pups:

* Use an OUCH command.

Whenever your puppy gets you too hard and inflicts any amount of pain, whether you are playing or not, cry out sharply with Ouch or something similar. The important thing is NOT to say No or anything that makes the puppy think it has done something wrong. They havent. They simply need to figure out some boundaries. An Ouch command lets them know where to draw the line while not punishing them for bad behavior. After all, you are your puppys favorite thing in the world. The last thing they want to do is poke multiple holes in your hand.

* Use physical correction.

Another sure-fire technique to interrupt a nipping and biting puppy is to physically wrap your thumb and forefinger around its lower jaw, further back the better but not down its throat. Its a bit slimy, but I assure you, your dog doesnt like it either, as it renders them unable to close their jaw. They may try to squirm away. If they do, you can either let them go, but if they go right back to chomping on you, you should hold firm (dont squeeze), and perhaps give a No biting command gently as you do.

In both cases, you can follow the correction by placing one of the dogs toys in its mouth to redirect the behavior. Also, be sure to give praise - but best to do it verbally, as it's best not to put your hand back in front of its face. This will help them get the point of why your hand was removed as target for its teeth.

These easy steps will prevent the habit of dog biting when playing, and may go some way in discouraging genuine biting tendencies as the dog matures.

Martin Olliver is a proud member of the Kingdom of Pets team (http://www.kingdomofpets.com). For more great articles on nipping and biting dogs, visit: http://kingdomofpets.com/dogobediencetraining/articles/biting_dog.php