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In order to be a pet sitter, you really need to have a good understanding of what types of situations you can handle regarding the care of someone else’s pet, and those that you cannot.

There are a variety of ways that pet sitters will care for someone else’s pet. Sometimes they will visit a few times a day, staying about 30 minutes while they care for the pets basic needs. Other pet sitters will stay overnight.

Regardless of how the pets are cared for, it’s important to be aware that pet sitting does not always go as well as planned.

Most people may think it’s easy to be a pet sitter. After all, the only thing you have to do is make sure the dog or cat or other pets have fresh water and receive their daily food allotment and if needed take them outside to relieve themselves a few times during the day.

Yes, it’s true, the life of the pet sitter does seem rather easy. Yet, there are situations that a pet sitter needs to be aware of that could actually become very dangerous.

Sometimes having to care for dogs, especially outside house dogs, can become very dangerous because outside house dogs can be very territorial. Most owners know their dogs well enough to know whether there is any danger for the person who may need to come into their home to take care of their pets when there away.

This is not where the problem is. The real problem comes in when the pet sitter is required to take care of the dogs by entering their yard to provide them with food and water. This is where the pet sitter needs to have extra caution. Before accepting a job where you must deal with outside dogs, you need to make sure they are well behaved and well socialized.

If there is more than one dog, and you enter their yard, the situation could become very dangerous. If you become fearful and the dogs sense that you don’t belong there, they could see you as a threat and even decide to attack.

Trying to cope with a nervous dog, or worse, several nervous dogs can become a pretty scary situation.

Always stress to the owners that it is important for them to be honest with you and tell you how well socialized their dogs are. You may want to ask if any of their dogs have any tendency to be aggressive. Do they jump up on people? Do they get nervous when someone enters the yard? Do they have any problem with strangers coming into their territory?

With some of the larger breeds, you may want to have a test run when the owner is hidden away from the house, yet close enough to help out if needed. You can test to see how the dogs will react when you enter their territory while they think the owner is away.

Before you enter the yard, you need to take note of how the dogs behave. Do they seem nervous or anxious? Or are they thrilled to have a visitor? If your gut tells you it’s not safe, you should not to accept that job.

It’s better to be safe than sorry. Pet sitters really need to understand that it’s not always a good idea to take every job. Before taking on any pet sitting job, make sure you meet with both the pets and the owners. Ask questions about how well the dogs behave, what types of problems the owner may have or have had in the past.

This is not only the time for the pet owners to interview you, it’s your time to interview them as well. Never accept a pet sitting job if you do not feel comfortable with the pets or the owners.

Most times pet sitting is truly a great job to have. Just remember that all jobs are not for all pet sitters. Sometimes it’s best to say no.

 The razor sharp teeth that puppies seem to have can cause you some pain. You need to try to prevent your puppy from forming this habit of biting. In order to stop puppy biting different methods may have to be tried. Any little annoying or bad habits should not receive a reward. If you want your pup to mature into that wonderful family pet, you will need to take responsibility for helping him. Dog behavior is never “good” or “bad” it’s just behavior. It is going to take some time, but stopping a puppies bad habits needs to be done.

The playing behavior for a litter of puppies involves lots of nipping and biting. Nipping and biting their new owners is very common for puppies and will most likely be the first problem they have to overcome. All new puppies take part in this behavior, but as a new member of your family actions will need to be taken to control it.

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When your pup bites you, quickly give him a sharp tap on the nose and say “NO”. If you tap the nose softly the puppy is only going to think that you are playing. A timid correction is a worthless correction. One good tap on the muzzle, that gets the puppies attention could stop puppy biting}. Another way to go is, immediately after he bites, grab his muzzle with one hand, point at him with the other, and firmly say “NO”, this will eventually tell him that biting is the wrong behavior. Your puppy may pick it up rather quickly, or it may take a little time, just remember to show some patience. You will eventually be able to correct your pup verbally once he understands what is going on. This verbal “NO” command is going to prove to be very handy when he starts chewing on your shoes, socks, newspapers or anything else laying around for him to test his teeth on.

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Another way of moving him away from biting you and your personal items is doggy bones and chew toys. When the teething stage hits he is going to need something to chew and bite on so the chew toys get to serve another purpose. Whatever toys you choose need to be appropriate, they will need to be able to stand up to the intense chewing by sharp teeth for an extended period of time. Be careful of toys that are to small or poorly made because they can break off into s tiny pieces and get stuck in their throat.

While playing with your puppy, don’t encourage him to bite and play rough or it may become a bigger challenge to stop puppy biting, it’s best to avoid any bad behavior traits at this stage. It is going to take some time to fix the problem no matter what method you choose to use. All puppies go through certain stages in their life and puppy biting happens to be one of them. Don’t worry though, you will be able to get through the biting stage, just stay firm and patient.

The first time your dog receives a correction from the bark control collar he may react in a way that concerns you. He may yelp or yip or jump slightly. Do not be alarmed by these reactions. His first reaction to the correction will always be his most intense.

After the first few corrections his reaction will lessen. He will eventually just stop barking and remain calm. It is advised that you observe your dog’s reactions to the correction.

You should notice an improvement in your dog’s barking within the first week of training. At this point many dog owners feel that the “problem has been solved”. In some cases this may be true, but in most cases the training is still not complete.

Most, if not every dog, will “test” this new learning experience, i.e., they will increase their attempts to get away with barking. This testing period usually occurs during the second week of training. When it does occur you must remain consistent – do not alter your use of the bark control collar.

Once your dog is trained, you must continue to place the dog bark control collar on him in every situation in which he must be quiet. He may see a new dog or a squirrel through a window for the first time and he may bark. If he is not wearing the bark collar he may get away with barking and his training may suffer a setback. If he is wearing the bark collar, he will stop barking immediately and any setback will be prevented.

Moreover, you may have a need to train your dog to do other things. If you decide to use another type of training tool, be selective with the type you use while your dog is wearing the bark control collar. Generally, it is best not to let your dog wear more than one collar at a time.

Never use a metal choker collar while your dog is wearing the anti bark collar as it may trigger false signals and possibly false corrections. If you must have a second collar on your dog consider the use of a nylon choker collar or other nonmetallic collar.

If you use a leash, attach it to a collar other than the one used for the bark control collar. You should never attach a leash to the collar and you should never pull the bark control collar while it is on your dog. Doing so you may cause injury to his throat.

Look out for the following symptoms of dog cystitis with bladder stones (crystals):

1. The dog may go to the toilet a lot more than it does usually.
2. It may struggle to produce any urine
3. There may be a small amount of blood in the urine that is produced.

Small crystals forming on blood cells and bladder lining cells are what cause bladder stones or urolith in your dog’s bladder. Bladder stones can be caused by either a too high acidic level or a very low one and in some cases they even form irrespective of the pH levels in the dog’s urine. There are six different types of bladder stones that can be formed.

A dog’s urine contains several normal chemicals which form these crystals but these crystals will only form at certain pH levels and they will require something to attach to and grow on.

The lining of the dog’s bladder constantly gets rid of old cells and forms new one this gives the crystals something to attach to and grow on. The crystals can attach to one of these dead cells and continue to grow from being microscopic to the size of a golf ball in cases where they are left untreated.

These crystals, when formed, will have sharp edges causing inflammation and burning of the bladder due to these sharp edges constantly scratching and aggravating the bladder lining.

The bladder contracts due to the aggravation and burning and it makes the dog feel like it needs to urinate but the bladder contains little or no urine. Furthermore, there may be a small amount of blood in the urine due to the ruptured blood vessels caused by the inflamed muscles.

If your dog is a male there are chances that the bladder stones can travel from the bladder down into the urethra. The risk of this is that these stones may become wedged into a cylindrical bone that the urethra travels through and cause severe pain to the dog as it obstructs its urine. If this happens the bladder stones will be too be removed urgently before the bladder bursts or the toxins in the urine kills the dog.

The vet will normally ask for a urine sample when the dog is suspected to have this condition. This urine sample will be tested for blood, acidic levels and glucose.

These samples will help the vet in determining whether inflammation is the problem if blood cells are found in the urine or whether the dog is diabetic has a relatively high level of glucose in its urine making it vulnerable to cystitis since glucose helps the bacteria grow and requires a separate type of treatment. The urine sample will also help the vet determine whether the acidity levels in the urine are enough to fight the bacteria.

After the presence of inflammation and cystitis have been confirmed due to the initial testing the dog can be treated by either the appropriate antibiotics or further tests can be conducted to check for bladder stones. These further tests include ultrasound, x-rays and using a small camera which will be passed through the bladder of the dog.

The vet may be able to determine the type of bladder stones present in the dog by the amount of pH levels in its urine. Another method of checking for the type of bladder stones present in the dog is to remove the larger ones and send them for further testing.

If the bladder stones have moved down to the urethra of the male dog the vet may need to push a need through the abdominal wall and into the dog’s bladder to remove some of the urine and ease the dog’s pain and discomfort. After this, the vet will try to slide the bladder stones back into the bladder by using a catheter and flushing the urethra with water and then later operating on the bladder.

If this procedure fails then the vet may have to resort to a more risky surgery on the urethra itself in order to remove the blockage caused by the bladder stones.

After the surgery has been performed and the dog has been given the appropriate medicine the vet will probably put the dog on a special type of food in order to correct the amount of pH levels in its urine. Furthermore, in accordance with previous test results the vet may also prescribe antibiotics.