Finding the right puppy

Puppy care and training

Barking problems

Dental care

Weight management

Spay operation

Neutering (castration)

Heartworms

Fleas

Tick Control

Tick Removal

Arthritis

Omega 3 fatty acids

Poisons, toxins, rattlesnakes

Vomiting and diarrhea

The happy puppy guide to good health

The Happy Puppy is about things dog owners need to know, and packed full of answers to the questions I'm asked every day.  How can I get my dog to stop barking?  What should I do about fleas?  How do you pull a tick?  What are heartworms, anyway?  Do I really need to do all that stuff ?  (Surprisingly perhaps, the answer is not always "yes".)

Most of our Happy Puppy information applies equally to any dog anywhere.  Some of it, like the foxtail section, is mostly for California.  Other parts apply more specifically non-urban areas.  You wouldn't, for instance, worry much about rattlesnakes if you lived in Chicago.

Our spaying and neutering sections describe the way we deal with post surgical pain and address concerns about anesthetic safety during these important operations.  They provide useful information for anyone whose dog is about to have surgery.

Placerville and the Sierra foothills have a lot more heartworms than most other parts of the West.  You will find detailed information here about heartworm prevention,  heartworm disease, and and heartworm treatment.

New information on fleas, ticks and arthritis becomes old information as quickly as it's published.  Is the low level of omega 3 fatty acids found in commercial dog food account for some of the allergy and autoimmune problems that have become so commonplace?  We deal these problems every day and the biggest advantage of a web page is that it's easy to keep current. 

There is a lot in here about puppies.  If you are giving some thought to puppy selection before getting a puppy, congratulations.  Go look in the picking a puppy department.  If you are more spontaneous and picked up a puppy sort of by accident, that's fine too. Go straight to puppy care and training.  Lots of useful information in the fewest possible words.  

Best wishes,
Jon Vilhauer, dvm