Owning a French Bulldog is a big responsibility and some might even compare that responsibility to that of having a baby. The advantage of having a dog instead of a baby, is that the dog won’t grow older and turn into a stressful teenager.
Most dogs, when given the correct care and TLC can live complete and happy lives with their owners. However, given the level of impact our pets have on our lives, a beloved pet can never live long enough.
I am a breeder of French bulldogs and have grown up with dogs my whole entire life and pretty much associate an old dog with a dying dog and they usually seem to be around 15 years of age.
I am a breeder of French Bulldogs and because I have puppies around so often I am very conscientious of sensitive digestive systems that easily have diarrhea. It is because of the many diarrhea episodes and terrible incidents of gas that I became extremely aware of the ingredients in my dogs food. Dog diet is as important to me as my own. In an ideal world I most definitely would strive to feed my dogs Raw food because I believe everything about what that sort of diet represents. However, having multiple dogs, five, and then always additional puppies, it is not economically feasible. There would be a lot of waste due to spoilage factors and it’s just simply much more expensive. So after much research I’ve chosen to do the next best thing which begins with eliminating grain from the dogs diet by feeding kibble food products that contain no grain and that are also processed in such a way that they advertise being compatible with raw food diets. Probably, like you, I love the idea of mixing something with the kibble which seems just so boring by itself. For starters, I must say that I soak my dogs food always in water for at least an hour before feeding, which I recommend to all pet owners as a tremendous way to be certain of water consumption in your dogs diet as well as being a good preventative medicine against ailments such as bloat that involve overstretching the stomach when a dog eats dry kibble and then gorges on water afterwards. The dry kibble in the belly then explodes to unhealthy proportions in the stomach possibly turning it over and strangulating the dog from the inside out. That being said, after having found several excellent quality kibbles that are made without grain and processed in a very healthy way, I desire to mix the kibble with some sort of a moist other food representing a much better variety of nutrition then a standard canned food. My choice of dog food recipes for this wet nutritional additives is a cooked chicken and bone recipe that I produce in a pressure cooker so that the bones become pulverized and all of the meat and bones can mush together almost like a stew. Be certain to remove the skin and the fatty juices by rinsing it away over the finished cooked food through a strainer. Another good recipe is to scramble ground beef that also is cooked well and all the fat is rinsed away. I put the scrambled beef then through the cuisinart grinder to make it like almost dusted flakes of meat. I mix that in with the wet soaked food and it coats everything. Yum. These will be the two recipes that I add to a no grain kibble to feed my dogs daily and I have to say it produces a good healthy poop, very little gas and dogs that haven’t in many cases been to a vet in years. If any news comes to you from this article lastly I want to emphasize the purchase of a pressure cooker to cook in the whole chicken, bones and all. It is a fantastic device that allows you the opportunity to feed bones in a safe manner, marrow and all, directly to your dog. A pressure cooker is also sometimes called a Canner, but they are the same device and they cook at a high pressurized temperature which literally makes the bones themselves crushable between your fingertips and completely safe for the dog to eat and ultimately extremely healthy. So go out and buy a pressure cooker and see for yourself today how you can enhance your dogs diet with these delightful natural flavors.
Author: Dr. Marika Zoll is a clinical psychologist and breeder of French Bulldogs. Her site is https://frenchbulldogsla.com. She practices alternative medicine healing along with traditional preventive medicine
There was a study done where twins and triplets that have been separated at birth or brought back together for observation and it was fascinating to note that the results of this study indicated that the nature of the person, in other words who you were born as, was much more what you turned out to be then that the environment that you were brought up in had an influence on who you turned out to be. So another words if you were brought up in a poor impoverished part of the world with very little food and parents that were not very educated you might turn out just the same as if you were brought up in Beverly Hills mansion with nannies and everything that you ever wanted was at your dispose. Some of the results of the study showed so many similarities, that it was actually shocking, to the details of preferred names and physical attributes of the wives both been named Linda when neither twin new the other and that they smoked the same brand of cigarettes and wore the same style of clothing and had the same favorite foods and wore the same perfume and styled their hair in a similar way all contrary to examples that we’ve heard of or seen whereby actually twins being brought up together sometimes strive radically to be different.
So how does this relate to animals? Well it seems that animals have an awful lot in common with humans and that’s why most studies for medicines and all kinds of things actually are tested on animals first and then transfer to humans. It works the other way around though too. Sometimes things are tested on humans first and those medications are given to animals on good faith that if it works for people it will work for my dog or any dog and I speak from experience because I have a dog with a congenital heart disease that’s being treated with human heart medication. This medication has never actually been tested on animals but merely by just a collection of facts passed between veterinarians the word got around that it seems to be working and so therefore it’s used on animals. Point being once again that animals and humans do have many similarities. So this is the inspiration for my discussion here which is that specific breeds of dogs, purebred dogs, one can say for certain that certain things are to be true for their nature. In a bad way this is being applied to pit bulls that are supposedly known for fighting. Although I’m not a pit bull owner I would beg to challenge this statement with one that says that pit bulls may be more inclined to bite and hold down there strong jaw’s but whether or not their nature is to be an aggressive dog breed, that’s something else to be said. This opinion is based on my experience with anger in humans which it has long since been proven is not inherited. In other words if you are Italian this will not mean that you have a temper. What it means is that someone in your family may have a temper and throughout generations an example has been set by observation that when something bothers you, you scream and yell and hit and so therefore people learn these behaviors. Likewise dogs can also learn behaviors such as to be aggressive with a certain command. Dog behaviour problems are learned and can be unlearned. All these things being said the point here is to simply point out that if the kind of dog that you want is one that loves to go swimming in the pool with you then a Labrador or golden retriever should be your choice. However if you like a dog that is extremely social with everybody and who will make you laugh because it contorts its body in funny ways or who snores like a human then a French bulldog would fit the bill. I can safely say that most French Bulldogs make snoring kinds of sounds to varying degrees and most French Bulldogs make me laugh at certain times of the day. But I can also say that most friends bulldogs are lazy and like to lay around a bit more than I used to know a dog would. Most certainly, for physical reasons being that their bones are very heavy compared to their size, a bet for a French bulldog to be a great swimmer is going to be a very rare occurrence.
So when choosing a dog for yourself don’t just react to the way it looks. Pay close attention to its nature and know that the way that the dog behaves much of those tendencies are inherited and anything that seems bad about the dog can probably be taught to be otherwise using positive reinforcement training techniques.
Author: Dr. Marika Zoll is a clinical psychologist and breeder of French Bulldogs. Her site is https://frenchbulldogsla.com. She practices alternative medicine healing along with traditional preventive medicine
One of the most important things you can understand in the training of your dog is the concept of positive reinforcement. My name is Dr. Marika Zoll and I am by education a clinical psychologist. I am also a breeder of French Bulldogs and an animal trainer. There are many facets of training children or people in general that are very similar to the way that animals are trained. We call it behavioral psychology. It is about how our behaviors are connected to what our brains are taught.
Let’s go back to basics for a moment because I’m sure that somewhere in your early education you learned about the premise of putting your finger in the flame and how once you’ve done that and hurt yourself you will pretty much never do it intentionally again and often times even getting near the flame will stimulate a reflex whereby someone pulls their hand away so quickly that there is no chance of injury. Take a moment to remember anything that is for you either pleasant or unpleasant. If it made you feel good you usually want to do it again and if it left you feeling fear or any sort of negative feelings you pretty much want to stay away from it. Correct?
So let’s use a human child first for our example. You have a baby that is crying in its crib and the mother or the father go into the room and comfort the child by picking it up, taking him in their arms and eventually rocking it to sleep. The next night comes and the child’s put to bed and the baby cries again and again the parents actually remember how when they picked up the baby that they rocked to sleep the night before and the child went to sleep and then they had relief of the crying child. However the child has just learned for the second time that when it cries it will be picked up. This is a simple example of what we call positive reinforcement which means that something is gained by the behavior. The child cries and then it learns that it will be picked up. This positive reinforcement of the behavior teaches the child very quickly that if he cries he gets the results he wants. Funny enough the parents are also being reinforced because they are learning that when they pick up the child it stops crying.
This can become a vicious cycle because even though most parents probably deep down do understand that they really want their kid to go to sleep without the necessity for crying and cradling and rocking it to sleep, in the immediacy of the situation, relief is wanted and the parents continue to pick up the crying child night after night, week after week, month after month, and sometimes for years.
These parents eventually come seeking help from somebody like me asking what they can do, not realizing that they have themselves encouraged the entire problem. So the remedy is to un-teach this expected result from the bad behavior by NOT picking the child up. Initially for most parents this will be the four most difficult days of their lives with their new baby because they believe in their hearts that they are hurting the child somehow when it screams bloody murder. Seriously though, it takes on average four days or often less to simply re-teach the child that it can, in fact, on its own, stop crying, lay down and get comfortable and fall asleep. In fact once it has this example the child, for the first time, realizes its own abilities to take care of itself. This is the beginning of a very positive life lesson.
So how does this relate to your dog? Are you familiar with the scenario where the dogs are barking and then somebody yells at the dogs to be quiet or even walks into the room and scolds the animals to shut them up? The dog stops for a few moments, looks at you, and as soon as you leave the room the dog starts barking again. Well guess what? You just taught the dog when he barks you will come to the room and give him attention much like the parents going to the baby crying in the crib. Ultimately a stern voice in the distance but not showing your face to the dog is a better solution.
Have you ever seen the bad behavior of a small dog that is being carried around by its owner? The dog growls and snarls at people who come close to pet it in the owners arms. Or a dog snarls when someone tries to come up on the couch where it’s owner is sitting. The solution is to remove the dog from the owner rather than what most often times happens is the owner picks up the dog, scolds it while holding it but then continues to hold the dog and keep it nearby. The fault of the dog’s bad behavior is not really the dog, it’s the owner who has taught the dog that when he behaves badly he gets attention for it.
All of these examples are positive reinforcement. The animal is getting something good for his bad behavior.
So from now on when you notice the bad behavior in your dog or puppy be mindful of the fact that the very thing that you’re doing could be perceived as positive reinforcement for the bad behavior. Instead consider ignoring the animal, turning your back and walking away. Overtime the animal will learn that it gets nothing from you by behaving in that way or in fact loses the privilege of being near you, probably the most devastating thing for a dog in love with its owner.
Author: Dr. Marika Zoll is a clinical psychologist and breeder of French Bulldogs. Her site is https://frenchbulldogsla.com. She practices alternative medicine healing along with traditional preventive medicine
So let’s talk about dog training tips that attribute to walking your dog and how to make it easy and pleasant for both of you. This means for you primarily that your dog is not pulling you down the street. And this means for the dog somewhat the same, that he’s not pulling you down the street which must be choking at his neck and make things less comfortable for him. My advice to you is if you’ve got a new puppy begin by walking your puppy, preferably, without even a leash. Young puppies have an instinct to follow your ankles and if they associate your ankles with the walk this makes things much easier as the dog develops his own thought patterns later on and wants to walk someplace where you are not aware you might be slow to come too. So that’s just a pointer for little tiny puppies. Though let’s presume that your puppy is older and maybe your dog is even grown and you’re having this ridiculous issue of the dog taking you for a walk for some time now. Well, this can so easily be turned around. Are you ready for a simple answer?
You need to understand thoroughly the premise of positive reinforcement behavioral training. Positive reinforcement basically is that when you do something you get a result or reaction for the action. So in other words, if your dog is pulling you down the street and he keeps getting to move forward, he is being reinforced for pulling you. He’s getting to move forward on his walk. Albeit uncomfortable, he’s getting some kind of reinforcement for his behavior. He likes moving forward from point A to point B getting to where the smells are coming from, so you are, in essence, reinforcing his pulling behavior by allowing it to happen. Almost all things training related in dogs or any other kind of animal for that matter, works on the premise of positive reinforcement. It goes back to this notion that if the animal gets something good for his behavior he will keep doing it. I’m sure you can relate to the idea of rewarding the dog with a treat. Well it’s the same notion with that concept. He does something and he gets a treat! The treat can be likened to getting to move forward on the walk.
So the trick is to not reinforce the bad behavior. What you need to do is not allow him to pull you forward; rather you need to pull him backwards and entirely in the opposite direction. I promise, you do this for three days, whenever he’s pulling forward on the leash, you immediately turn yourself around and start pulling hard and fast in the other direction. Do this at the same time with a verbal command of “no pulling” or and “stop pulling”. Then, as soon as the dog recovers and is now basically running behind you because you want to move that quick, you then stop and give the dog positive reinforcement for his good behavior. This is given in the form of pats and cuddles and words like “good dog”, delivered in a soft and pleasant tone. You will quickly see the results of not letting the dog control the walk, but rather you control the walk by pulling against what he wants to do and very soon your dog will respond to commands of “no pulling” or “stop pulling”. There after, when you say “good dog” he will associate those words with walking close to you and at your side or behind you. Give it a try! You will be amazed, I’m sure.
Author: Dr. Marika Zoll is a clinical psychologist and breeder of French Bulldogs. Her site is https://frenchbulldogsla.com. She practices alternative medicine healing along with traditional preventive medicine
I am a breeder of French Bulldogs. I bring my dogs up out in the country amongst hot summers and cool winters and I must say with confidence that we have fleas and ticks outside in the yard. So most of you probably presume that with that statement would join the remedy of on-the-spot flea treatments, to keep my home flea free. However, this is not the case! I do not use on-the-spot flea treatments after learning how incredibly toxic they are. Natural Flea Control is entirely possible. Contrary to what you would think, it’s not the thing that kills fleas that is so toxic, rather it’s what the medicine is mixed with, the inert ingredients, that are combined with the flea killer. Nowadays I can say go and Google it! Type into your search bar the phrase “What is toxic about on the spot flea medications”. You’ll have your answer there pretty quickly. In the interest of keeping this article brief just take my word for it they are and the good news is that you don’t have to use them because, despite where I live and the conditions outside and my dogs that actually wonder in and out of the house, I absolutely have no problem with fleas. My purpose here is to tell you how I do that and for you to realize that it is actually extremely simple. My magic potion is vinegar! Vinegar is actually a magic potion for more things than killing fleas but in this instance it is the answer to your question. I make a 50-50 solution of vinegar and water, and always after bathing my dogs, roughly once a month, I douse them in this solution and let them drip dry. Following that I maintain their now alkaline skin environment with regular squirts from a bottle that includes the same contents of 50-50 vinegar and water solution that I sprayed onto their crotch and their armpits nightly while hanging out in the living room. That’s it! That’s all I do! I squirt vinegar and water solution daily onto their crotch and armpits and douse them once a month with a solution following a bath and we never have a problem in our household, never ever. The only other part of my recipe that I forgot to mention is using a shampoo to bathe dog in that includes NEEM OIL and there are several on the market but my favorite is TropiClean Neem Flea and Tick Dog Shampoo available everywhere on line even at Amazon. Buy the concentrate 5:1 for your best value. It smells great and it works great in combination with the vinegar and water. So go give it a try and finally be fully flea free in your household without adding any sort of toxic ingredient to your dogs system. Natural flea control is absolutely real. Start today.
Author: Dr. Marika Zoll is a clinical psychologist and breeder of French Bulldogs. Her site is https://frenchbulldogsla.com. She practices alternative medicine healing along with traditional preventive medicine