The Ring Dog Blog

Please visit the BadRap website to learn about these topics:

• Keep ‘Em Home Info & Resources
• Printable Handouts
• Renting With Your Dog
• Dog/Dog Tolerance
• Dog Parks
• Multi-Dog Homes
• Favorite How to Links
• Socializing Quiz
• Dog Law
• Rehoming a Dog 

Follow our tips to keep cats, dogs and horses safe and comfortable

In many areas, winter is a season of bitter cold and numbing wetness. Make sure your four-footed family members stay safe and warm by following these simple guidelines:

Keep pets indoors
The best prescription for winter’s woes is to keep your dog or cat inside with you and your family. The happiest dogs are taken out frequently for walks and exercise but kept inside the rest of the time.

Don’t leave pets outdoors when the temperature drops. During walks, short-haired dogs may feel more comfortable wearing a sweater. No matter what the temperature is, windchill can threaten a pet’s life. Pets are sensitive to severe cold and are at risk for frostbite and hypothermia during extreme cold snaps. Exposed skin on noses, ears and paw pads can quickly freeze and suffer permanent damage. read more

Community outreach is one way we can all have a healthier more humane community! Our rescue organization, Ring Dog Rescue, works tirelessly to help not just the adoptable dogs in our program, but the dogs in need from our Virginia community. Our outreach programs provide proper dog houses, straw, food, medical care, and spay and neuter services to help promote proper animal husbandry. We are asking for your help! By making a donation through this GoFundMe account, any and all donations will go to helping animals in need, these funds Do Make A Difference; reducing companion animal over-population through spay and neuter, giving animals warmth and shelter through the Dog House Project, getting dogs OFF of Chains by building proper fencing enclosures, and aiding companion animals by assisting those who cannot afford services but truly do care for their companion. Educating the public on proper animal husbandry gets to the root of our over filled shelters and reduces euthanasia in our communities. Please help us help these less fortunate animals. While we would prefer they all live inside in healthy happy homes the reality is many do not, help us help them! read more

What can cause these abnormally rapid heart rates?

Some dogs have abnormally rapid heart rates, which can be caused by an extra connection between the upper chambers (the atria which receive blood from the body) and the pumping chambers (ventricles), by an abnormally firing focus within the upper chambers, by an abnormal electrical circuit within those upper chambers, or by an extra pathway within the normal conduction system. The abnormally rapid heart rate does not allow the pumping chambers to efficiently fill with blood; therefore, less blood is pumped to supply the needs of the tissues. If the abnormal rhythm is sustained, heart failure and secondary heart muscle disease can result. Both of these complications are potentially reversible with adequate rhythm control. Another problem can occur if an extra connection (accessory pathway) is able to conduct in a forward direction. The heart’s normal conduction system imposes a delay in the passage of an impulse from the receiving chambers to the pumping chambers. If the upper chambers develop a rapid rhythm, the normal conduction system will not allow the ventricles to go as rapidly. An accessory pathway typically does not have this built-in mechanism to slow conduction. The pumping chambers could therefore be driven rapidly by an abnormal atrial rhythm. read more

What is Heartworm Disease?

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal condition caused by parasitic worms living in the arteries of the lungs and occasionally in the right side of the heart of dogs, cats and other species of mammals, including wolves, foxes, ferrets, sea lions and (in rare instances) humans. Dogs and cats of any age or breed are susceptible to infection.

Dogs or other animals harboring adult worms are the recognized reservoir of heartworm infection. The disease is spread by mosquitoes that become infected while taking a blood meal from an infected dog. When the mosquito then bites another dog, cat, or susceptible animal, larvae are deposited on the skin and actively migrate into the new host. For about 2 months the larvae migrate through the connective tissue, under the skin, then pass into the animal’s venous blood stream and are quickly transported to the arteries of the lung. It takes a total of approximately six months for the infective larvae to mature into adult worms that begin producing offspring. Adult heartworms can live for five to seven years in the dog. read more