Terri Ramsey Beavers We all know that having a dog is something that takes a lot of time, energy and patience – as well as a lot of love and care. But there are many aspects to having a dog which can take some getting used to, and it’s incredibly useful to have a strong sense of the kind of signs that you should be looking out for. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the most common warning signs that dog owners need to be aware of. As long as you know these, you will be able to take much better care of your dogs.
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Change In Eating Habits
Eating habits are one of the clearest signs as to whether your dog is happy and healthy, or not. Ideally, your pooch should have regular eating habits, and when these change it can be a sign that there is something going wrong. It could be a range of issues, so it will take further investigation. But for now, just try to pay attention to when your dog’s eating habits change, and see if you can work out what it might mean. If you are unsure, it is probably some kind of illness, so you should take your dog to the vet to find out for certain. Of course, it might just be that the food you are giving them is not great, in which case consider switching to a natural pet supply and see if that makes a difference.
Poor Sleeping – Or Too Much
As with eating habits, any change in sleeping schedule in your dog should not be ignored. The truth is that sleeping patterns have as much meaning for your dog as they do for human beings. When you oversleep, you are probably depressed or failing to feel motivated with life. When you undersleep, it’s probably anxiety or a lack of exercise that’s the culprit. It’s pretty much the same for dogs, so when your dog’s sleeping changes dramatically you should make sure to consider whether there are any obvious causes – and then work to fix those things.
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Heavy Breathing
Some dog breeds do breath heavily naturally, and therefore that wouldn’t be something to worry about. However, if your dog does not breathe heavily as a rule, but then starts to, you will want to look into whether there is anything wrong. One of the most common causes of heavy breathing in dogs is that there is some bodily pain somewhere, and that is obviously something you will want to fix as soon as possible to ensure you are properly caring for your dog. In any case, heavy breathing is not something that you should ignore, especially if it has appeared suddenly out of nowhere or it is persistent and failing to disappear.
As long as you pay attention to these warning signs in particular, you should find that you are going to be looking after your dog much more successfully. There are others too that you should keep an eye out for, but these are the most important.