A: I have to disagree with your vet.
 

Dog parks are not bad for dogs. There are more germs and diseases to be caught in the confined enclosed vet clinic than the large outdoor spacious dog parks.

It's like not allowing your children to mix with other children in the school playground because they might be infected by the diseases carried by the other kids.

Isolating your dogs or restricting them from meeting other dogs may not be best for your dogs. Like you, your dogs are social creatures. They need to have friends.

Your dogs do build up antibodies and strengthen their immune systems as they mix with other dogs.

If the dogs in the dog parks are all stray dogs then you will need to be careful. Chances are that all the dogs that visit the dog parks have owners.

To be on the safe side, it is a good and healthy practice to let your vet examine your dogs at least once every six months.

Goodness and I have the best parents. Daddy and Mommy are not just dog owners but real loving and caring parents. They really spoil us. They know that we need lots of sleep and so they allow us to sleep anywhere in the house. We know that some dog owners do not allow their dogs in the house. Some tie or cage their dogs the whole day so much so that the poor animals are more like prisoners than companions.

Daddy and Mommy always welcome us into the house. I like to sleep at the landing on the top of the stairs while Goodness loves the bottom of the stairs. If we block their way, Mommy and Daddy never complain. They just step over our bodies. Daddy says that in the past, people kicked the dogs if they slept in their path.

Most afternoons, Daddy and Mommy allow us to sun bask on the front porch. We get to sleep under the car if Mommy is at home. We also get to sleep in the master bedroom and Daddy's study. The only place that we are not allowed to sleep is on the bed. Well, I should say 'beds'. This means that the bed in the master bedroom and the one in guest room are out of bound. We have very understanding parents who allow us to roam the house freely. At one time, they did not allow us to sleep on the sofa but after some gentle persuasions, we are now allowed to sleep there too.

Another reason why Goodness and I appreciate our parents is because they spend lots of quality time with us. Here are some of the way how Daddy and Mommy spend time with us.

You will be surprise how much Goodness and I understand human language. Daddy is usually the one who communicates verbally with us. Just in case you misunderstood, our Daddy is not senile. Why? Because he is sharp enough to understand our language. He can tell what we mean by the different tones of our bark. 

Anyway, he loves to discuss with us the intricate details of his sermons, articles and even books. We love Daddy because every time, when he talks to us, he will always smile. Maybe the neighbors think that he is weird, talking to us at the front porch but apparently Daddy does not care. 

We love to play with our parents. We are so blessed because Daddy and Mommy always buy good toys for us. At one time, they bought those rubber balls that have light in them. We were so thrilled by the blinking light and so we had many games of play catch. Then after two weeks, we completely demolished the balls and all the blinking mechanism came out. Daddy quickly got rid of the balls and their mechanism because he was afraid that we might accidentally swallow them.

Subsequently, our parents bought us ropes, chewy bones and many types of dog toys. They even made toys with old clothes and handkerchiefs. Another game that we like is chasing Daddy around the parked car. We give him a head start then we quickly catch up with him. The penalty for being caught is having us jumping and kissing him on his nose. 

The game that I love most is getting into Mommy's car when she arrives home. The moment she opens the door, in I jump! Mommy would laugh, pet me on the head, hug me and call for Daddy to join the game. I will climb to the backseats and sniff out all the packages. From time to time, I will get a treat from her.

Answer given by Daddy Albert
 

A: Since you have taken care of all her physical needs, the chances are that your puppy is beginning to experience slight separation anxiety.

Please do not be alarmed because whining puppies are very common. God has provided them with a natural instinct to whine for their mother's attention. However, as the human owner, you have to correct this situation fast before it becomes a habit.

Here are a couple of tips and hints that may help you to get your lovely puppy adjusted:

1. Before you have to leave for a prolonged period, tire her out by playing with her. Get her to do a little more vigorous exercises and that will make her too tire to whine. When you leave her to herself, she will go to sleep.

2. Never rush to her the moment she whines. This is a form of reward and she will quickly learn that by calling and making noise, she will get you to respond. Instead do the opposite. When she stops whining, go quickly to her.

3. Make sure that her sleeping area or crate is comfortable. It should be dry, soft and warm. Sometimes, the sleeping area may have a little cold draft of air that causes discomfort to your puppy. Try changing a new location and see how she responds.

4. I put my unwanted clothes and those of my wife with our new puppies. If you are doing this, make sure that you have worn the clothes for a short period of time. This will allow your body scent to saturate the clothing. You puppy will mistaken the scent of the clothes to be you.

5. Another way to reduce whining is to invest in some dog toys. If you discover there is a particular toy that she likes, then put that in whenever you have to go away.

6. I learn from other dog owners that they sometimes wrap a clock, that produces ticking sound, with their own clothes and put the package near the whining puppy. Apparently the puppy will mistaken the ticking sounds to be that of heartbeats. I do not know whether this will work because I have never tried it.

7. The final approach is to use a firm voice to command your puppy to stop whining. Every time, she whines, you will use a firm command such as "no", "stop it" or "enough". I use "no" to discipline my puppies quite often for behaviors that I do not approve.

I trust these few techniques should help you get your puppy adjusted. Before I sign off, let me encourage you that it would take a lot of patience on your part to raise a well-mannered pet. So, please be patient.

Q: My Boston Terrier is ten months old and has mild separation anxiety. Whenever she is in her crate she cries and defecates. What should I do to calm her down?

A: Boston Terriers are very intelligent dogs. They love human companions. Most probably, when you first crated your BT, she suffered a phobia. Therefore, whenever you crate her, she expects a nasty experience.

There are a few things that you can do to help your BT.

1. Keep her occupied - give her something she loves to chew - long enough to last the duration that you are away.

2. Record your voice or video yourself talking to her. You can set the video player to replay the same video again and again until your return.

3. Tire her out by exercising her hard before you leave for a prolonged period of time. She will be too tired to whine.

4. Put her at the window so that she can see the world and streets.

5. Crate her and then disappear to another room for five minutes. Come back and do that a few times.

Do this regularly and prolong the time when she cannot see you. This will help her get used to being crated and having you disappeared for a period to time.

If taking your car keys is the signal of a panic attack, then shake your keys in her presence but do not leave.

All the actions and behaviors of leaving the house have to be acted out so as to get her to accept them as normal non-threatening behaviors.

Yes, I have owned over 15 dogs. Most of them came as puppies and they all nipped. The only difference was how regularly and hard different puppies nipped.

Apparently, all puppies nip because they are curious and that is also the way they play. Another reason is that they may be teething.

If they were with their siblings, they would nip each other. With their thick fur, they can take the nips. But what your puppy does not know is that its nips can be very painful to your human skin.

When the puppies are growing up with their mother, they are taught not to nip too hard. The mother disciplines the ones who bite a little too hard. She stands up and walks away whenever that happens. That tells the offending pup that nipping too hard is not welcomed at all. The siblings who have been bitten would also yip to prevent further hard bites.

This means that you have 'teach' your puppy that nipping is not allowed. When it nips at you, you must say a firm 'no' and just stop playing with it. Put it into a playpen by itself. After a period of time, resume playing with it. If it nips again, repeat the process. Soon your puppy will learn to 'mouth' without nipping hard.

Goodness was talking about critters yesterday. Well, we actually had a visiting critter. When Daddy noticed it, this critter was already dead and dry. We told Daddy that we did not kill the frog. It was already dead when we found it. Daddy looked at us with great suspicion written on his face. 

Goodness looked away blankly at the TV. Then I came to her rescue. I nudged Daddy's legs and then rolled over. Ah, that always touched his heart. He sat down on the floor and petted my head. Then in non-verbal language that could only be communicated between a father and his daughter.

Referring to the CSI shows that Daddy used to watch on TV, I asked him to look at forensic evidence. The frog was already dry when we found it. If we were to kill it then it would still be fresh. Can we kill a dry dead frog that may have died a few days ago. 

Whew, that was a close one. Daddy quickly disposed of the dried carcass while we calmed ourselves down. We then picked our little corners in the house to catch a quick nap.

Hello, this is Goodness, the prettier sister of fat Mercy.

Do you see the photo? There I am - the beauty lying nearer to the flowing stream created by the water sprayed by Daddy while cleaning the other side of the porch. I love lying on the front porch and soaking in the sun. Mercy spends lesser time doing that. I am the champion in sun bathing. If your dog has never try it, you must let him do so.

Sun is good for many reasons. Mommy, who is the world's famous nutritionist, says that sun gives us vitamin D. Mercy and I have been discussing about this vitamin D stuff, for the life of us, we have never seen vitamin D coming from the sky. Nothing drops unto the front porch or even our neglected backyard. Nothing! Our parents say strange things all the time.

Daddy says that the sun helps us get rid of the critters on our fur. We have not seen any critters ever since Mommy put that smelly lotion on our fur. She says that all the ticks or whatever critters would hate to visit us. That is quite puzzling to us too. We get our shower once every two days and so how can any critters even stay on our fur?

Talking about critters - well, my plump sister and I don't mind the black furry critter that drops in the other night. Our neighbor, Mrs. Wong chases a black critter out of her porch and it jumps right into ours. Daddy and Mommy are about to enter the car parked at the entrance, when they see the incident. We see the critter and quickly surround it. That black creature curls up and snarls. It is the ugliest sight that we have ever seen. 

Daddy shouted, "Cat!"

He runs towards us but the cat takes the moment of distraction to leap over the fence and disappears. Well, that is our little adventure with a furry critter known as 'Cat'. After we have gotten over our initial shock, we think that maybe Cat would make a good friend. You know that Mercy and I are very friendly dogs but Daddy and Mommy are not so sure about that.

Back to the sun - in Malaysia, we do enjoy the four seasons - they are hot and hotter, wet and wetter. The weather is either hot or wet. Life is not boring because of these four wonderful seasons that we enjoy over this part of the world.

Sun is good for me because its warm rays relax my muscles. I really like my body to be heated up. Don't worry, I won't cook myself up. When it gets too hot, I will howl for Daddy or Mommy to open the door so that I can cool myself in the house. Daddy's study is the best place to cool down because it is air conditioned.

Mercy would already be inside the study. She loves being near our parents. Mercy is the tactile type. She loves to be stroked, petted and cuddled. Don't get me wrong - I love all these cuddling and petting but not as much as Mercy. I prefer chasing stray insects, lying in the sun and chewing on my bone. Enough of typing, I am going to lie in the sun again. Woof woof!

You see the trick is to wait not only for the smell but for the sound. The garbage monster makes lots of rumbling noise. It sounds like small bursts of thunder. When I hear it, that's when I get up and stretch my legs. Then in the darkness of early dawn, our eyes stare keenly at dark figures run along the monster. Our friends up the street are filling the quiet dawn with incredible racket. The "woofs" and "yaps" echoes nearer... just like the stadium waves that we see on TV. Then it's our turn. 

As the dark figures run near to our gate, they open the garbage door. Then they drag out the big black garbage bin and dump its content into the back of the monster. Goodness is usually the one who charges first. Being the elder of the two, I hold my fierce posture, clear my throat for a strong growl, before charging. We throw our bodies at the iron gate for the sound effect. That usually give the newer garbage collectors a shock. Bow wow wow.

"Good doggies! Good doggies!"

The garbage monster with its immense stench passes by, turns and enters another street. Our friends on the other street are always faithful to do their job in frightening the dark figures. The wave has gone down the other street.