Back to the Basics! Q&A about choosing your sitter!

First off, we would like to express a big sincere "Thank You" to all of our loyal clients that have helped make North County Pet Pawsitive Watch so successful over the last few months! We thrive on the unconditional love your pets have shown us, and we'll continue to grow with your families, as well as our community for many years to come! We are honored you have chosen us to be your professional pet care provider!

As a new client in search of a pet sitter, you can expect overwhelming responses, and a lot to consider before choosing whom might be best for your needs! Generally speaking, you must consider your precious pet's best interest. Ask yourself questions about his/her behavior, reactions to strangers coming in or around the house, and how long he/she can be left alone. Stress levels are very important to think about, and ultimatley can lead to depression, bad behavior, poor habits, and eating disorders in a short period of time.

At NCP, we understand the changes in diet and behavior, and that is why we specialize at in-home care for your pets! Not having to hassle with crates and car drives, or boarding facilities that keep them in kennels or small rooms without the freedom they deserve. Not to mention, your companion may come home with an unforseen illness due to a high stress environment. We do our best in keeping them comfortable and happy at home! However, before choosing just any pet sitter, there are necessary steps, and things to consider:
  -  Most places need to set up a meeting to meet before hand. It's importnat that your pet gets the opportunity to check us out too! As much as we all claim to love animals, some pets may not love us back! For this reason, you may end up having to interview a few people before making the correct decision. This is also the time for you to ask questions, show us around, and let us help you in any way we can.
  -  Also, schedules are apart of our daily life, so make sure your pet sitters are available at the times you request! If your pet is on a schedule for feeding and potty breaks, the sitter needs to be flexible and able to complete the job without conflict. NCP treats your pet as if they are one of our own, and we never cheat our clients the time they deserve! In fact, more often than not, we extend our stays at no extra charge! We love our job!
  -  Planned trips and advanced notice is always ideal, but only in a perfect world! If you have an emergency, or last minute request, the Pawsitive Watch Team is always on-call and available! Life happens, and so we understand the last minute stress this may cause, and so we are as flexible as you can get! Others may require a minimum of 24-hour notice, and that can be an inconvenience. Make sure your sitters are readily available and reliable!
  -  Lastly, before making the important decision of who gets to hang out in your house, and play with your pets, is trust! Look for testimonials, recommendations, and references on websites, and/or ask for verifications through email or at the initial meet and greet. You have to have a good sense of intuition to know whom you can trust before handing over the keys to your home. We are confident at NCP that you will find us to have the highest standards in trust and integrity. And we also boast animal information that will put us above and beyond what you are looking for! Having the knowledge of animal behavior, reading signs of illness/injury, and offering our advice in basic obedience and other training, gives us recognition over others!

Our services are designed with you and your pet in mind! We are open to comments and suggestions, and value the input of our clients to help serve you, and our community better!
From the staff, and pooches here at North County Pet, we say thanks for stopping by and visiting, and we look forward to hearing from you and your pet soon!

Pawsitive Watch Team
(760) 533-6944www.northcountypet.com

Fun Fact: Insight to a Dog's Motion

Cleverly, we found an interesting article on a dog's mobility. Fun to read about the study, and ponder the movement between a Great Dane and a Chihuahua...they are one in the same! Please enjoy this find, and share with the rest of the dog world out there!

 

How does a dog run? Until now even experts found it nearly impossible to answer this simple sounding question. "We simply didn't know," says Professor Dr. Martin S. Fischer from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany). A dog moves on four legs, in pacing, trotting or galloping. But so far, scientists could only guess at the exact motion sequence within the locomotor system. The reason being: "So far scientific studies were limited mostly to the movement of sick animals or to single aspects of locomotion," says Fischer, Professor of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology. To change this, Fischer and his team started a comprehensive study about the locomotion of healthy dogs in 2006 and have now presented the results.

With enormous technical effort the scientists measured, documented and compared the motion sequences of 327 dogs from 32 different breeds. The dogs were filmed by two high speed cameras in different gaits from the front and from the side. "In addition we analysed the movements three-dimensionally," Dr. Karin Lilje explains. For this, the zoologist glued reflecting markers on the skin of the animals and filmed their movements with infrared cameras. These sent out short flashes and registered their reflections. Up to 1.000 images per second went into these analyses. "As the reflections were being recorded from several cameras we could assess the position of the markers in the room from the data," Dr. Lilje continues. Additionally, the movements of the dogs were recorded with a high speed X-ray video system. The University Institute for Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, which the Phyletisches Museum is also part of, owns one of the most modern and efficient systems of this type. "By combining these three methods data about the movement of dogs are available now in a precision so far unknown," says Fischer.
Numerous displays and preparations of skeletons in today's schoolbooks and museums show how patchy and in some aspects fundamentally incorrect the knowledge about the locomotor system was until now: The displays position the hip and shoulder joint of the animals on the same level. "However this implies that these two joints correlate with each other and that they are the centre of rotation in the movement -- which is wrong as we could now prove with the help of our analyses," Professor Fischer points out. According to this in the course of the evolution limbs with three -- formerly two -- segments each developed from the legs. "And so the shoulder blade is added to the forelegs as a segment close to the body while the middle foot of the hind leg is being rebuilt," explains evolutionary biologist Fischer. Therefore it is not thigh and upper arm and lower leg and forearm that are correlated but the shoulder blade and the thigh, the upper arm and lower leg and forearm and middle foot. The centre of rotation of the front legs is the shoulder blade which is only connected to the skeleton through the musculature. The actual shoulder joint stays nearly immobile in the dogs' process of movement.
"These findings will alter the academic teaching," Professor Fischer is convinced. For this zoologists present comprehensive material with their scientific results: With the help of high definition X-ray and position data the scientists animated the course of motion into video sequences. Thus not only the dogs' skeletons can be viewed from all sides, the corresponding patterns of musculature and activity can also be studied in detail according to the gait and the phase of the movement. "In contrast to previous animations our video sequences are based on exact measurements. With this we are setting new standards," Fischer believes.
The Jena study provides another astonishing insight into the locomotion of dogs regarding the proportions of the front legs of the dog breeds examined. These were nearly identical in all dog breeds -- although, according to Fischer "it is clear that the upper arm of a Schnauzer is shorter than that of a Great Dane." Regarding the total length of a foreleg its length is always exactly 27 percent. Whereas the relative length of the shoulder blade varies between 24 and 34 percent. "The shoulder blade of short legged dogs is relatively long and that of greyhounds is relatively short. But the length of the upper arm always stays the same."
Moreover the zoologists owe the discovery that the shoulder blade and forearm and the thigh and the middle foot are moving in matched motion -- as if linked -- to the X-ray view. "If the forearm is in a vertical position, then the shoulder blade will be in the same position," the Jena scientist explains. In its motion sequence this principle of a 'pantograph leg' is highly dependent on the length of the segment in between. "And that is the upper arm that is exactly the same length in every dog." From this can be concluded that all dogs run very similarly, no matter if they weigh two or eighty kilograms.