DIY Network

Dr. Karen's Tips Information on muzzling, spaying and neutering your dog From "Barkitecture" episode DBAR-104

As Tyson heads home, Dr. Karen has some advice to offer the England family.

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The basket muzzle allows the dog to drink and pant.

Muzzle

Tyson needs to have a muzzle for times when he may get dominant around other dogs or people. Dr. Karen suggests a basket muzzle which fits snuggly over the face of the dog yet still allows him to drink and pant. Dr. Karen recommends that this muzzle be kept handy when Tyson goes to the park or is out in public.

Spaying and Neutering

When a pet is adopted from an animal shelter, it's going to be spayed or neutered before you bring it home. The reason for that is a lot of unwanted puppies and kittens are produced from animals that are not neutered. Spaying and neutering is not hard on your animals and is a relatively straight forward procedure.

There are a lot of other reasons to spay and neuter your pets besides reducing unwanted pregnancies. For female dogs, spaying before their second heat is going to reduce the risk of mammary cancer. It is also going to decrease the chance that they can develop a uterine infection. For male dogs, neutering is going to decrease the risk of prostate infections and also decrease the cancer rates. For both males and females, by reducing the amounts of hormones in the dogs, this will decrease some of that unwanted behavior like roaming or aggression. Once in a while, owners ask if they should let their dog have puppies just so she has that experience. Dr. Karen says if you spay her, she is not going to miss the experience at all.

RESOURCES :

Young-Williams Animal Center
Website: www.knoxpets.org

The American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
Website: www.aspca.org

Petfinder.com
Website: www.petfinder.com