Summer show tips

A few little things you can do for your dog to keep them healthy and hopefully in the winners circle this summer.

Have you ever gone to a dog show and while your at the show you meet some new folks and your dog ends up playing with one of their dogs. Your talking to the owner, while the dogs wrestle, when the other guys dog suddenly stops and does that intense scratch that usually means fleas!

“Does your dog have fleas?” You ask your new acquaintance.

“Well, Shore?” he grins back at you.

You do a mental count down of when you last put the Frontline on your dog as you drag him back to his crate. You've done all you can to keep your dog parasite free and healthy but you cant keep all the other dogs you come into contact with clean, so what can you do?

First of all most of the monthly flea and tick applications work very well but if you live in hot humid areas fleas can overwhelm even the best monthly applications for a day or two. And all it takes is the right flea to get in one bite and you could have a Tapeworm! Not good for your food bill or your dogs health.

So how do you stop even one flea from getting through, Capstar! This is a great little pill that is inexpensive and deadly to fleas. It only lasts about eighteen hours but the instant it is swallowed by a dog you will see fleas falling off dead. I use it as I get to a show ground or field. Just as I let my dogs out of the car. Cost is between. $3 and $6 per pill but that is a lot less than tapeworm treatment.

Next nuisance for everyone is Mosquitoes. I'm sure you all have your dogs on heartworm preventative, but you still have West Nile Virus and a dozen other things mosquitoes can infect your dog with.
Besides how much do you enjoy a mosquito bites. So a little bug repellent for dogs? Adams Flea & Tick spray will also act as a Repellent the first hour or so after it is applied. This means Mosquitoes, Fleas or Ticks and why worry about Erlichia, and the other Tick diseases when you can repel both with one easy spritz. Also if you are entered in conformation you can spritz your dog a few minutes before going into the ring and get a nice sheen to the coat as well.

So now your dog is safe and healthy once you get to the trial, but what if you have a young dog and they still have some carsickness issues? Nothing sucks like telling the ring steward you will be a little late going into the ring because your dog has been riding in a puke filled crate and needs a little washing.

For carsickness try a Benadryl before you start the trip. Over the counter, inexpensive, and it works really good on most dogs for up to three hours. Some may get a little groggy from it, so test your dog before you got to the show, so you don't end up with a sleep walker when you get in the ring. Standard pill is 125 Mg which should work on any dog up to 100lb. Half that size give half the pill.

Hope you all have a healthy, comfortable & successful summer dog show season.