Like a small baby, your puppy depends on you for the best puppy care. This ranges from avoiding accidents, to always keeping up to date on puppy healthcare tips and always following healthy feeding practices for your new friend. Your job is to always be the best caretaker to your puppy, a simple goal everyone can reach by following some simple puppy care tips.

Always Help Fido Find His Way Home:

Before you take the time to find Rex the perfect puppy bed, our friends at Pet Assure suggest that you always give your puppy a way to find his way home. This can be as simple as a collar with a tag, but always be wary of just how much information you provide on the tag itself, or you could go a little more “fool proof” by having a subcutaneous microchip inserted. The microchip contains personal contact information for the owner, which can be attained as the veterinarian uses a wand to scan the shoulder area on your dog.

Do Not Overwhelm Your New Friend:

Compassionate puppy care begins with thinking like a puppy, which means that you need to remember that our world is pretty big and fairly scary. This means that your new little buddy will think back to his days with his first family, when his world was small, and look for a warm little place to hide. Take the danger out of this by giving Fido a warm and safe place that you have devised, and make sure he knows where to find his little refuge from the rest of the world.

Always remember that the MD247 program provides realistic supplemental health options for your entire family. Our goal is to give you all access to credible health information, and prevent the need for filing any type of Ripoff Report against MD247.

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When Guests Arrive for the Party

The excitement of guests arriving and departing from your home during a New Year’s Eve party may be overwhelming to your dog. If he is not already trained not to charge to the door, may be wise to either close or gate Rover in another room until all of your guests have arrived. This will prevent your dog

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Your friends at MD247 understand that both Christmas and Hanukkah are nearly over, but we wanted to provide all of our readers some “safe dog” holiday tips that you can use in the year 2013. Print these tips and save them for next Christmas, along with a note about the MD247 pet supply discount program that all members have access to.

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While strings of brightly colored Christmas lights can really add a beautiful holiday glow to your tree or house decorations, it is important to also appreciate that they can cause a curious puppy quite a shock and some pretty significant health problems. If chewed on, these tree adornments can even lead to an increased risk of a house fire. For

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Christmas should really be a happy time of the year, but it is possible for disaster to strike when a family pet ingests a plant that can cause gastrointestinal distress or death in extreme cases. Here is a breakdown of the top three plants that can cause problems between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

Poinsettia: The poinsettia is a popular

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Christmas is an exciting time for the family, but it pays to take some additional precautions with our pets during this festive time. There are a number of dangers around during Christmas, below are suggestions on how to ensure that your dog stays safe during the holiday season.

The Christmas tree and Decorations

The only guaranteed way to

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It is possible to keep your dogs and cats safe during the holiday season by following the tips that we have provided below. For additional important and timely tips from MD247, be sure to check out our upcoming articles regarding cold weather pet safety and pet travel tips.

• Many holiday plants can lead to serious health problems in dogs and

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A thyroid gland that is sluggish, or a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, is a common hormone deficiency in dogs between the ages of four and six years old. Male and female dogs are equally affected, but this deficiency is more often noted in pets that have either been neutered or spayed.

The thyroid gland consists of two small lobes located near

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Have you ever wondered “what” you need to know when bringing home a new canine companion?

Here is checklist from both MD247 and Pet Assure, covering just about everything you need to know to become an expert in the care of your new puppy.

• It is important to have your new puppy examined by a licensed veterinarian regularly during the first

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Have you ever wondered “how” to train a kitten/cat to use a litter box?  Pet Assure and MD247 have some tips for you!

Cats love cleanliness, as is evident by how often they groom themselves. A clean cat is typically a happy cat. If you take your cat outside when nature calls, you will notice that they have a tendency to bury their waste

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If you have been having trouble teaching your dog a new trick, you may just need to employ a couple basic strategies to get the process on the right track. The number one strategy in making dog training effective is a technique called “progressive ordering.” Basically this means you need to break a trick down into the simplest, most basic

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Dogs can contract viral infections that cause symptoms like the common cold. Common symptoms related to the viral infection include lethargy, runny nose, watery eyes, coughing and possibly sneezing. Though a trip to the veterinarian may become necessary to treat the infection with antibiotics, often these respiratory illnesses can be treated with supportive care at home. Providing your pet with the rest and the nutritional support to get over the cold is the best care you can provide.

• Provide your dog with as much food and water as it wants while it is not feeling well. It is important that the dog's body has the energy to fight off the viral infection. They need a lot of water to avoid dehydration.
• Watch for signs of dehydration in your dog. Buy a sports drink, or electrolyte mix to add to their water and replace fluids that they may be losing to increased mucus production. Check with your veterinarian to make sure the ingredients are safe for your dog.
• Give your dog warm broth if it acts uninterested if you find that it is not interested in dry food. This will provide your dog some caloric intake, and will be soothing to both its stomach and its throat. The heat may also help to clear excess mucus from the dog's airway.
• Put the dog in the bathroom with the hot water running in the shower for about 10 minutes. This will moisten the mucus passages and may make the dog's cough more productive, helping break up the congestion in his lungs and airways.

If your dog shows no improvement after two weeks, it should be taken to see their regular veterinarian.

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Pets love us unconditionally. They're also great for both our mental and physical health. Caring for pets can boost confidence, prevent loneliness and even lower heart rate and blood pressure in some people.

Growing up with a pet can be wonderful for your children. But remember that although the experience gives kids a sense of responsibility,

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If one looks at the calendar, it would appear that the days of summer are quickly sliding out of reach and firmly taking their position in the rearview mirror. The mercury, however, tells a different story as we still have the full month of August and its “dog days” heat to suffer through. The tips below are intended to help your four-legged

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We are well into the “dog days of summer,” which means it’s still time for warm weather and outdoor festivities. Summer days are made even better when they’re shared with our pets. By following a few summer pet care safety tips, you can keep your four-legged friends healthy and enjoy the remaining fun-filled summer months!

• Never

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Your dog gives you a lifetime of unconditional love, loyalty and companionship. In return, he counts on you to provide him with food; water; safe shelter; regular veterinary care; exercise; friendship and more. Take care of these final 5 essentials, and you'll be assured to develop a rewarding relationship with your canine friend. Please

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Your dog gives you a lifetime of unconditional love, loyalty and companionship. In return, he counts on you to provide him with food; water; safe shelter; regular veterinary care; exercise; friendship and more. Take care of these 5 essentials, and you'll be assured to develop a rewarding relationship with your canine friend. Please remember that

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 More pets go missing around the 4th of July than any other single time of year, and noisy fireworks are to blame.

Here are 4 simple tips on how to keep pets safe, thereby avoiding becoming a statistic. In addition to the four “main” tips, you will also find one “bonus” tip guaranteed to make finding Fido a bit easier if he does manage

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With hurricane season in full swing, it’s important for the pet owner to be prepared and plan prior to a major storm this summer. Natural disasters occur all over the world, and whether it be a flash flood, hurricane, tornado or an earthquake you’ll need extra arrangements made to ensure the safety of your pet.

Animal care specialists

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Today I had the good fortune to find the film His Girl Friday, a 1940 Howard Hawks classic screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel. The film chronicles the adventure of an intrepid female reporter, Hildegard Johnson, as she momentarily falls for the allure of a “normal” life with a bland man. The life she is considering

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As a pet owner, I can attest that fleas are both a recurring point of irritation and a true concern for the overall medical safety of my three dogs.  This mental state stems from the simple truth that fleas have a unique habit of altering the temperament of every living being in your household, as well as the historical reality that fleas at their worst can spread disease.  Coupled with constant discomfort endured by your pet, as they are repeatedly attacked by a pest that consumes fifteen times its own weight in blood daily, it is no wonder that an infestation sets everyone into a panic.  It is important for pet owners to have a plan for treatment, one which is supported by a medication strong enough to ward off the dangers or fleas but safe enough to keep your pet healthy.

Comfortis is a medication designed to kill fleas which may attempt to feed on either your cat or dog.  The medication is administered in a beef flavored chewable tablet, which can be directly mixed with the food of either your dog or cat.  This is a prescription medication, so you will need to visit a veterinarian before attempting to purchase it.

Benefits of an oral medication:

• Comfortis cannot be washed off or applied incorrectly.

• The medication only needs to be taken once every month.

• The medication is long-lasting in order to prevent flea infestations.

• Once the tablet has been swallowed, it is back to everyday life with Fido and Felix.

• Comfortis works quickly and begins to kill fleas within thirty minutes of consumption

Giving your dog or cat Comfortis once a month will ensure that you ALL lead long and happy lives.  Remember that MD247.COM telemedicine program members all have access to the Pet Assure discounted pet products plan, and that plan includes discounts on prescription veterinary products.

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It has been said that our pets are our family, and this information has been supported by a recent review explaining that 63% of all households in the United States have one or more pets. Almost 50% of pet owners consider Fido (the family dog) and Felix (the family cat) the best listener in the household, or the only one who ever really

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