Pets Smile Plus

?Pets are such agreeable friends, they ask no questions and they pass no criticisms? said George Eliot about pet animals. Pets often reciprocate the love that their masters lavish on them by demonstrating various forms of affection including licking, hickeys, even love-bites.

There?s no other job quite like keeping a pet. Pet care is in fact a permanent job, and includes the very important functions of grooming and striving to maintain good pet health care. General pet supplies could be considered a definition of useful tools for grooming and keeping your pet in good health.

Pet Supplies:

An essential list of pet supplies for purchase could include the following: pet food and food dishes, pet id tags and collars, pet medications, supplements and tonics, etc. Some other items to consider are animal carriers, pet houses and furniture, pet beds, clothes, and pet jewelry.

Online Pet Supplies:

Online pet supplies are supplies that can be purchased from pet stores over the Internet. There are numerous pet grooming product manufacturers and pet-grooming stores selling their products online through their individual official websites.

Pet Grooming Supplies:

Pet grooming supplies include items such as grooming clippers, pet hair care products, soaps, shampoo and perfumes.

Pet Health Care:

Pet health care is a very important responsibility of pet ownership. For puppies and kittens, or any other four-legged pets, important treatments would include giving a hygiene bath, cleaning, combing, brushing, checking ears, paws, teeth and underside of the tongue, nail trimming, removing fleas and insects, and fixing regular meetings with a professional veterinary. A good pet owner should follow a regular schedule of grooming sessions.

Pet care can require a lot of patience. Like children, pets often require special attention. A puppy, kitten or any other pet in its infancy needs to be handled with extreme care. In particular they must be groomed properly, fed carefully, and bedded properly.

Choosing A Pet:

The process of choosing a pet is very important. Choosing a pet depends on one?s preferences, but there are still some important things that should be kept in mind. One should always choose an animal of good breed. Secondly, the pet should be healthy especially if it is still in the initial stage of its life. A healthy young pet shows good fast growth.

Pet Grooming Business:

The pet grooming business is a flourishing business today. There are numerous pet grooming schools offering the equivalent services of a pet grooming professional. People hire the services of these professional experts for the proper grooming of their pets. Professional pet grooming is becoming quite popular in United States, Canada, and European countries.

Paul MacIver writes about pets and Pet Health Care. Visit Online Pet Supplies to read more about Pet Care, Pet Grooming and Pet Supplies. You may freely reprint this article as long as nothing is changed, and bio is included with all links intact.

Did you ever wonder if cats love? Are you ever curious about their origin, about what they dream of, about the way they communicate?

Cat Facts by Marcus Schneck and Jill Caravan is a great book to answer these and more questions about cats, their history, their behavior, their care, and then some. Filled with interesting facts, anecdotes, and information, this is a great reference book for a pet lover’s collection.

This isn’t, by any means, the ultimate guide to caring for your cat. There are much better books on actual pet care on the market, and your vet would be the best person to recommend a good one. This book is meant to be fun and informational, to give you more of an insight into your cat’s breed, behavior, and background.

A fun book to flip through, the pages are filled with photos and color illustrations. Boxes on many pages present assorted cat care and cat watching tips as well as common myths and the truths behind them. What’s nice about this book is that it isn’t a book you need to devote a large chunk of time to in any one sitting. A minute here or there can provide you with entertaining tidbits and digestible chunks of information. There’s also an index in the back for quick reference, something I always find particularly useful in any reference book.

An entire section of the book is dedicated to detailing the individual breeds of cats. Though it doesn’t cover every single exotic breed that’s out there today, I particularly like this section. It’s informative, entertaining, and easy on the eye. For each breed, there are photos and/or illustrations, maps detailing where that particular breed originated, information about the breed’s characteristics and personality traits, special care for the bred, and other assorted information. In a short amount of space, there’s actually a wealth of information and it’s presented in a reader-friendly manner.

Though it’s obvious that this isn’t an expensive coffee-table book — there are obvious flaws in the book’s binding and the pages, though slightly glossy, have an odd feel to them — it’s still a fun piece to keep out for conversation with other pet lovers.

For a cat owner, or anyone interested in learning more about the world of cats, this book is a worthwhile purchase. Fun and filled with interesting bits of common and not-so-common knowledge about cats, it’s a great addition to any cat lover’s book collection.

This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.PetLovers.Com/ which is a site for Pet Forums.

Hamster breeding can sometimes be confusing for a hamster owner. Fortunately, there are only a few basic things you need to know before you start hamster breeding. It is best to breed female hamsters that are older than 4 months of age. Otherwise, the hamster may destroy its own litter.

Also, do not touch the hamster babies. Otherwise your sent may get on them, and the mother hamster may not recognize it as her own baby. It is usually a good idea to only breed hamsters of the same breed, unless you are breeding your hamsters for pets or for food. When you are breeding your hamsters, make sure that you don?t breed brother and sister hamsters. The other combinations, such as father-daughter, mother-son, are usually fine. Before hamsters breeding, make sure that your hamsters are healthy. If they are not, a disease could spread to from one hamster to another, and any offspring they have.

Hamster Breeding for pet shows.

Hamster breeding for pet shows is the most common reason people breed their hamsters. To produce the best hamster for a pet show, breed hamsters that are pedigreed. Be aware that a hamster is not considered pedigreed if it has mixed blood in its background within the last four generations.

Also, do not breed a hamster that has any type of defect at all, even if it is a minor one. If you breed two hamsters of a different color, be aware that it might produce hamsters that have a color not recognized by the judges of the pet show. If you breed your hamsters in the correct way, you will have hamsters that are healthy, beautiful, and may just win first prize at the pet shows.

About The Author

Mike Yeager, Publisher - http://www.a1-pets-4u.com/productpage/hamsters.html

mjy610@hotmail.com

Everyday someone asks me, ?How do you start a pet-sitting business?? I try to answer their question succinctly. But the truth is, starting a pet-sitting business, or any business is not always a succinct process. Following are 21 tips that I know can lead to pet-care business success in any economy.

1.Accept what you don?t know. Not everyone who starts a pet-care business is an expert on every type of household pet. Be honest with clients who call requesting care for a pet you?ve never cared for. Your honesty and commitment to learning from them will go a long way in building long-term trust in you and your company.

2.Commit to learning about business. Unless you?ve run a series of successful small businesses before, you must create a self-education plan for yourself. No matter how much you love animals (and they love you) your business will flounder without attention to the mundane details of accounting, sales, marketing and filing.

3.Have a realistic budget. Set up a realistic budget for running your business. Be honest about how much money you need in order to pay your bills and invest in your business. Many pet-sitting businesses close because the owner did not evaluate how many visits they would need to perform in order to meet their basic financial needs.

4.Evaluate the competition. Make sure you understand what the other pet-sitters in your area are already doing, and what you can do better or more efficiently. If there are no other pet sitting companies in your area, find out what your potential customers currently do to care for their pets when they can?t be there.

5.Set realistic rates. Yes, you love pets and you can?t believe that you can get paid to have fun ? that?s what a great many star athletes say too, yet they manage to make millions of dollars each year. You won?t likely be able to draw clients in by charging thousands of dollars for your services, but you won?t be able to serve pets well if you quit in 6 months because you need more money to survive.

6.Listen to pet-lovers. Ask pet owner?s what is most important about their pet?s care. Never imagine that you know everything ? a pet owner always knows their pet best. Listen and you will learn how to serve them better.

7.Enjoy the people. I often joke that ?Until that puppy can write a check, I work for his Mom!? And it?s true. The people who love their pets are your customers ? even if you don?t see them. Check in with them and find out how they feel about your service. Make sure they understand that you are happy to work with them and you appreciate being part of their care giving ?family.?

8.Make business decisions. You are in business, so treat yourself like a business owner. If you intend to work as a sole proprietor, make a decision to work only with the clients that contribute the most to your bottom-line.

9.Build Alliances. Work with the other pet-sitters in your area. If you need a back-up or you are booked, you need to know the other quality caregivers who service your area. You can ruin your great reputation simply by recommending someone who doesn?t live up to your standards.

10.Build alliances with other small business owners in your area. Who better understands the ?downside? of pet ownership than the dry cleaner or housekeeping service in your neighborhood? Their businesses are based partially on the pet-owning clients in your area. Ask to place your cards in their shops, or if you can run put a flyer in their monthly bills sent to their clients.

11.Serve the client, not your ego. It?s a heady experience to feel the power of running a business and sometimes you will think you know what?s best when caring for someone else?s pets. Realize that you need to ride the fine line between educating customers and talking down to them.

12.Be genuine. Everyone wants to work with someone ?real.? When people are making decisions about letting a stranger into their home to care for their most precious possession, they want to feel that you are a real human being with an understanding and appreciation of their relationship with their pet. You need to be a business person with a heart ? have all your forms and policies in place, but let your personality shine through.

13.Believe in yourself. This is the most important success factor I have found. Define your success by your rules and wake up every day with the knowledge that you can and will succeed.

14.Ignore the naysayers. Plenty of people are going to doubt you when you tell them this is your goal. Don?t listen. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and never stop moving forward.

15.Create systems to work smarter. Everything can be systemized to help you get everything done. Make a list of all your ?must dos?, ?should dos? and ?want-to-dos? and determine how often they happen (annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily). Sit down with a calendar and plug in the activities that will accomplish your lists.

16.Network. Just like building alliances, you need to step up your ?face-time? in your community. Investigate several networking opportunities in groups that are industry specific (like pet-rescue organizations, pet-sitter networks) and business or community specific (like the Chamber of Commerce, or NAWBO). After visiting several, select the ones that are most effective for your business ? both in terms of referrals for new business and for educational purposes.

17.Evaluate. If something is working (or not) for you ? find out why. Ask questions of everyone ? your happy (and unhappy) clients. Find out what keeps happy customers coming back. If someone decides not to hire you for their pet?s care, ask them what influenced their decision. If their decision was based on an area where you can?t compromise - you won?t provide every other day service for cats ? move on. If it?s something you can improve upon - they thought you were too abrupt on the phone ? fix it! Get to the heart of what drives your business and take time each day to improve.

18.Set goals and action plans. You must know what your objectives are for you and your business. When you envision your life in a year, three years and ten years, what will you be doing? How will your business be running? Whether you intend to serve ten clients for life, or you want to establish the top pet-sitting franchise in North America and Europe ? you need to have a goal and a plan.

19.Find your niche and stick to it. When I started peggiespets.com, I was intimidated by narrowing to a niche. By defining your niche and marketing to them, you are not turning away other business (our niche is big dogs and puppy potty training) you can continue to accept all the business you want that is outside of your niche (ask all the terriers, birds and rabbits we care for!).

20.Strive for success everyday. Never compromise your ideals to meet someone else?s expectations. The reason you started your own business is because of your passion, so always stand by your convictions and work hard to exceed your expectations each day.

NOTE: You?ll encounter people who don?t do business the way you do, and you?ll find clients that don?t live up to your expectations?don?t lecture, don?t get on your soapbox, just politely point them in a different direction.

21.Help someone else succeed. The more you give away, the more you will receive. Whether you are helping another pet-care business get started (with more than 65 million dogs and 77 million cats in American households according to APPMA? there?s room for more pet-care providers!) or you?re helping another person achieve their dream, you will be more successful because you participated!

Follow these tips to achieve your own brand of pet-care business success!

About The Author

Peggie Arvidson-Dailey is the founder of Pet Care Business University and the Pet-Care Business Success System?. She is the author of several articles on small business success and has been radio guest on ?This Week in Small Business? on the topic of Customer Satisfaction. As a trainer and coach she has helped people across the country create and build the pet-care business of their dreams. Visit http://www.peggiespets.com for more information.

peggie@peggiespets.com

Ferrets come in several colors and the albino ferret is favored by many. This ferret is lacking in all color and has a pure white coat, red eyes and a pink nose. A true albino will have no other colors and if you want to show your ferret, make sure there is no staining or discoloration whatsoever on his coat. Other variations on the Albino include ferrets that have white coats and black eyes and ferrets with cream colored to pale yellow coats and red eyes.

Like any other ferret, albinos make great pets will provide you with entertainment and love. Many ferret owners do prefer that their ferret be white, but this is purely for aesthetic purposes and has nothing to do with the temperament or intelligence of the animal.

In some cases, albino ferrets have been more commonly shown to have more problems with sight as well as hearing but this is minimal and shouldn?t deter you if you really want an albino. In any event, ferrets can adapt quite well to these problems - my ferret was quite blind in her older years and would still run around the house at full speed! Often she would run right into a door or wall but would simply turn a bit and correct herself.

Other colors that one might consider when thinking about purchasing a ferret include the black ferret which is all black with a white undercoat, black eyes and black nose. The black sable which is a dark blackish brown color with a white undercoat, brown or black eyes and blackish brown or speckled nose. The chocolate ferret is a warm chocolate color with white undercoat, brown eyes and pink nose. A lighter version of the chocolate ferret is the champagne who has a light brown coat, burgundy colored eyes and a tan or pink nose. A cinnamon colored ferret is a reddish brown with burgundy eyes and a dark pink nose. The sable ferret is a sable brown with brown or black eyes and a light brown nose. Any one of these types can have different marking such as the mask on the face that is so closely associated with the domesticated ferret.

If you would like to own an albino, you can buy them through many breeders as well as find them in ferret shelters. In the true albinos, you will find that their coats are pale in color and even pure white and they will always have red eyes. The red eyes can be a bit detracting and many people seek out the rarer white ferrets that have dark eyes that are either black or dark blue. Choosing the right ferret for you is a personal one and no matter what color you pick, you?ll have a loving and entertaining companion.

Lee Dobbins writes for Ferrets at pet-breeds.com where you can find out more about the albino ferret as well as general ferret care and supplies.

Holistic Vs Traditional Vet Care

We have to understand that our bodies have more control over it’s own health than our medications in certain situations. By understanding the basic health mechanisms of our bodies, we can significantly improve our responses to illnesses and adverse factors. The same is true for our pets, and a holistic approach torwards their health might be the right choice. Holistic pet care is based on understanding the pet?s needs and problems as a whole. Holistic veterinarians will approach a pet illness from a multi faceted point of view, not just treating a single health problem in comparison to traditional pet health care systems which aim straight at one problem, almost ignoring other related factors.

Differences between a holistic veterinarian and a traditional vet

In traditional pet medicine, if your dog or cat has a sore paw, the vet will look mostly at the leg. It makes sense, you will say. It does, but this also limits the doctor?s chances of finding correlated problems that might have lead to the sore paw. A holistic pet care approach will have a look at the ?whole? rather than the ?individual?. This means that the holistic vet will look for other potential, inner and outside factors that might contribute negatively to the problem.

Holistic pet care ? a different approach

Holistic pet care aims to bring a multitude of healing elements for a multitude of potential problems, while classical vets target a specific element, using a one on one approach. This is not to say that traditional veterinary practices are obsolete ? they do work well in most cases. However, the issue here is: can they be improved? Holistic vet care tries to find hidden factors for the problem, so that it will not become a reoccurring issue looking at the whole process, from past, to present and future. While traditional medicine focuses mainly on the consequences of an illness.

Work methods of the holistic veterinarian

A holistic veterinarian will show a more open-minded approach to an affliction. He or she will try to face the problem from a multitude of different angles, not just a one on one approach. Of course, the holistic veterinarian knows, as well as the pet owner does, that the treatments will not get a 100% response from the pet. However, since the problem is faced from different perspectives, chances that treatment will be successful are a lot higher. While traditional medicine should not be disregarded, every pet owner should consider a holistic approach to pet problems in order to ensure the highest chances of success and to improve the overall life quality of their animal companions.

Holistic pet care ? is vaccination necessary?

Yearly vaccinations for our pet have become a usual thing, especially since traditional veterinarians tell us that this is the best action against all sorts of pet diseases. Many holistic pet care specialists have studied the effect of vaccinations on different sorts of pets and they found out that there might be more harm involved in regular vaccination than we would think. Most vaccinations occur in the multi dose pattern ? which means that our pet?s immune system receives a large dosage of the vaccine. Repeating this process year after year may increase the side effects of the vaccine on your pet?s immune system. While holistic pet care is not against vaccination, many holistic veterinarians suggest more caution when vaccinating your pet.

Vaccination of young animals

In their early life stages, pets are supposed to get increased doses of vaccine, so as to develop a stronger immune system. Holistic pet care systems know that the baby animal gets the highest part of their immune system from their mother. This also means that a natural diet will help build a proper immune system, as the mother?s milk will have all the necessary nutrients. Holistic pet care focuses on natural nutrition as a way of eliminating many of the problems that plague our pets. Chemical and unnatural food, mostly used by pet owners today, diminishes the potency of the immune system, both in baby animals and in adults. Combined with pesticide prevention drugs, vaccines will only add to the dosage of unnatural elements in your pet?s life, thus actually reducing the strength of the immune system, instead of making it stronger.

Holistic pet care ? why are vaccines potentially dangerous

Although our pets? bodies do sometimes need outside factors to help their healing, in most cases, given the proper conditions, our pets are able to self heal. Vaccination brings a series of foreign elements in the pet?s bloodstream ? and, as you know, vaccines actually contain a part of the disease they are supposed to prevent. The natural process would be for the pet to come in contact with the disease, get passed it and develop it?s own immune system then. Yearly introduction of the controlled disease found in vaccinations may have a series of adverse factors.

The pet owner?s choice

By constantly receiving small doses of the ?disease?, through vaccination, your pet?s immune system is under constant pressure. Although this helps it get stronger for the actual encounter with the disease, it also wears out the immune system in time. Holistic pet care also notices several forms of negative responses to the forced immunization procedures. Allergies and skin irritations are sometimes found with pets whose immune system is unbalanced by the vaccination. Although the holistic pet care approach does not encourage vaccination, you, as a pet owner, should decide which option is best for your favorite cat or dog.

Copyright 2005 Pets-Holistic-Med.com

Author: Robert Eaton

Mayra Alfonso, M.D. has released an entensive eBook on Pet Holistic Health Care. Check it out: http://www.pets-holistic-med.com

I don’t recommend tying a dog up, but I do recommend keeping a dog on your property. As the owner of a dog it is your responsibility to keep your dog safe I don’t think any responsible parent would let their 3 year old child leave their property with out supervision, yet each day millions of dog owners allow their pets to leave their property with no supervision.

A dog can be trained and many people may think their dog is as smart as some adults. but the truth is dogs don’t understand any more than a 3 or 4 year old child. Remember the advertisement that use to be on television, it was something like this, It’s 11 P.M. Do You Know Where Your Kids Are? I think you should be asking the same question about your dog, not only at 11 P.M., but anytime he is out of your site.

You may think your dog being off your property won’t bother other people. You may be right about some people, but there will always be other people that could be having problems with your dog.The following are just a few of the things some people could have a problem with. Your dog using their yard to go to the bathroom, messing up their flower bed, chasing their cats, eating the food they put out for their pets, knocking over something on their porch and breaking it, jumping on their car trying to get their cat and scraching the paint, loud barking while they are trying to sleep, even if your dog is not violent if your neighbor has their small children in their yard they would be concerned a large dog could knock them down and harm them, your neighbor could have company drive up and be afraid to get out of their car, because they are not sure if your dog is dangerous.

Most people will put up with your dog on their property, some will just run the dog off, but there are others that will harm your dog. A big danger your dog faces once he leaves your property is he may be ran over by a car. Some of the biggest dangers come from other property owners. Some of these dangers could include poisoning, getting shot with a pelet gun and maybe losing an eye, shot with a rifle, kicked or beaten, attacked by another dog, taken and dropped off in another location, and some dogs have even been electrocuted. I don’t know what the laws are in your state, but in my state an owner is responsible for damage done by their pets. It could save you money and also save your dogs life by being a responsible pet owner.

Maybe you can train your dog to stay on your property or maybe you have a fence to keep your dog in. I don’t like to see a dog tied up this can be very dangerous, but you will need to find some way to keep your dog on your property or your are not being the responsible pet owner you should be.

The Author Clint Pollard is the webmaster of German Shepherd Dog http://ncave.com/sites/germanshepherd.html

Can I have a puppy? Please, oh please, I’ll take care of it and look after it and everything

Just what do you say to your kids when they ask for a pet? It is perfectly true that growing up with a family pet can teach children responsibility and to develop their social skills. Also cultivating good feelings towards pet animals helps kids to develop a sense of self esteem and help them to establish trusting relationships with other human beings. But before you give in to your kid’s demands for a pony, rabbit, salamander, kitten, boxer, python, or macaw, there is plenty for you to consider.

The first thing to keep in mind is that no matter how much your kid promises that she or he will be the one to take care of the pet, some if not all of that responsibility will fall upon you. That is an inevitable, inescapable fact. No matter how good the child’s intention is, there will be some, and perhaps many, occasions when other things take priority in their minds and the pet is unintentionally neglected. That is, the pet would be neglected if you were not there to step in, because somebody has to.

Secondly a child may sincerely believe that the thing that they most want in the world is a cute little black and white kitten, just like their best friend of the moment has. The child has really convinced themselves that they want a kitten, and a kitten will hold their interest for ever and ever. And so it would, until their new best friend of next week gets a pet lizard which is just sooo cool. So you will want to make absolutely sure that the pet that your child is demanding will be a long term passion, and not just a fleeting interest.

It will be a good idea to discuss the idea with the whole family. How do they feel about yapping dogs, hair shedding Persian cats, squawking parrots? If one of your children is allowed their very own pet hamster, will all of the child’s siblings demand a pet of their own too? Does anybody in the family suffer with an allergy that would make sharing their home with a certain animal intolerable?

Is the type of animal your child is asking for suitable for your family, and your family’s life style? A dog that needs two trips to the park every single day may not be suitable for a family who is away from the house all day. And no matter how much the child promises that they will walk the dog, there will be times that they will fail to do so, (and times that you may not want them to, after dark for example). Choosing pets for kids is not easy, often the type of pet that they plead for would not be the best match for their age and experience with animals.

You should also consider cost. Not only the cost of acquiring a pet, but more importantly the cost of taking care of it. All animals involve a financial commitment, food, vet bills, pet care products etc. You don’t want to acquire a pet for your kid only to find that you don’t have the financial means to keep it. Small pets for kids often have less costs involved in looking after them than larger pets do.

There are many other things to consider when choosing pets for kids, but hopefully this short article will have prompted you to think about the fact that buying an animal for a child, is not the same thing as buying a kid a cell phone or a bicycle. Pets are living breathing creatures, they need care, they need commitment, they need love.

About The Author
Larry Chamberlain If you have a pet related web site and you wish to reproduce the above article you are welcome to do so, provided the article is reproduced in its entirety, including this resource box and live link to http://www.best-cat-art.com. Cat art posters, art prints, cat calendars and cat collectibles. Great cat gifts for yourself or your cat loving friends.

Keep your cat healthy and maximize bonding.

Playing with cats is not only fun, but it provides valuable exercise for cats of all ages and just as important, it strengthens the bond with your feline friend, which benefits you both. Kittens will play with anything. Just keep dangerous items like string, plastic bags, small indigestibles, and just about everything else away from the insatiable kitten if you’re not supervising him. You’ll enjoy playing with him with his toys, but be aware that he should learn early on that your hands are not toys. If you ignore this advice, you may learn to regret it when he grows up and develops full sized teeth and claws. Older cats might not be so fast and active but they still appreciate and benefit from the play.

Playing with your cat lets your cat hone his hunting skills, seeking the prey, making the stealthy approach, pouncing with conviction and enjoying the kill. It also maintains his health and weight, releases aggression, helps to gain confidence, strengthens the bond, is good cat care and is great fun.

Some good cat toys you can buy, balls with bells in them, catnip mice, and wand toys. Some other great toys you already have at home, wads of paper shaped into balls, ping pong balls, marbles, string with something tempting on the end and plastic tops from bottles. The old favorite, the cardboard box, is a great source of fun, especially when you are teasing the cat by tapping your finger on the other side or waggling your finger through the hand hold hole. Put the toys away after playtime. If a toy is always out, it can become boring, just like a dead mouse. Use your imagination and don’t make it easy for the cat. Make him stretch to reach into a box to reach the toy. Let him win. Don’t make it too easy, let your cat enjoy the pursuit. But when he comes in for the ‘kill’, let him score a direct hit and savor the thrill of victory. Afterwards praise and fuss your kitten and give him a nice big cuddle.

A fifteen minute session once a day and a second one if possible should be your aim. Of course we are all busy but it should be easy to find this time somewhere, what can be better than unwinding after a day’s work by playing with your cat. Cat care and its knock on effects are important for you cat and for you the owner as well. So find that time and improve your bonding by playing with your feline friend.

I hope this article has given you some ideas on the benefits of good cat care and plying with you cat or kitten. Make a start today and see the benefits.

Bruce Walls is an author and webmaster at http://www.catcarefacts.com

Losing your dog could be a very sad experience. Dogs are more than just pets; they are also our guardians and our companions. It is said that dogs are more loyal than other animals and are in fact, even more loyal than most of us; hence, a dog is considered as man?s best friend.

No matter how we try to keep our dogs always within sight, however, they sometimes go astray. Chances are, without any form of identification, they may not be returned by those who find them and they might be gone for good. This is where the importance of a dog identification tag comes in. Since your dog cannot speak for himself, its dog identification tag shall tell the finder where to return your lost dog.

A typical dog identification tag is a flat metal tag attached to the collar, chain, rope or harness worn by the dog around its neck. It usually displays the name of the owner, his contact number or his address. It?s used to easily and quickly notify the owner when the dog is found.

In UK, affixing a dog identification tag on the dog?s collar is a legal duty. A Control of Dog Order was issued in 1992 which required all dog owners to fix on their dog a collar with a dog identification tag on it whenever it is in public places such as a public road or a public resort. The dog identification tag must have pertinent information such as the name of the dog, and the name and address of the owner so the dog can be easily and quickly returned to the owner when lost. These pieces of information may also be engraved on the collar itself or on a plate attached to the collar. A violation of such law would cost you ?2,000.

There are also exemptions to the Control of Dog Order of 1992. Not covered by the legislation are the following:

a.dogs that are officially used on by armed forces, HM Customs & Excise or the police
b.dogs that are used in sport events
c.dogs that are used in capturing and destroying vermin
d.dogs that are used to drive or tend sheep
e.dogs that are used by blind people to guide them
f.dogs that are used in rescuing in the event of emergencies

In the US, using dog identification tags is not obligatory; however, many dog-friendly organizations recommend the use of such tag. Moreover, most Americans, dog lovers as they are (American Veterinary Medical Association 54% of all households in the US have at least one pet dog; 47% of them consider their pets as members of the family), feel and understand the need of using dog identification tags.

As an alternative to dog identification tags, some dog owners prefer to have their dogs tattooed as collars and dog id tags may also be lost. Today, with the emergence and advancement of RFID technology, it?s already possible to implant microchip with control numbers under the dog?s skin. This makes tracking for a lost dog easier and faster.

Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in pets and pet safety. For more information regarding Dog Identification Tag, please drop by at http://pets.answerwisely.com