Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that pet journalist and author Maryann Mott is dishing out the tips on The Daily Dog Tip, the Dogster blog that serves up a juicy tidbit of canine information every weekday.

Maryann’s books and articles can be found at Petwriter.com and you can follow her on Twitter here. She will be joining us every now and then as a guest tipster on both Dogster and Catster. Her first tip for this week is live already and can be seen here.

More about Maryann:

For more than 15 years Maryann has written exclusively about pets. Her thorough and accurate reporting has led to assignments with a variety of publications including: The New York Times, Family Circle, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor as well as National Geographic online. Articles written for syndicates has landed her work in the online editions of Newsweek, Yahoo!, MSNBC, USA Today and U.S. News and World Report.

As a contributing editor to Dog Fancy magazine (the oldest and largest pet publication in the country) she pens the popular Newshound and Lifestyle sections each month.

Over the years she’s worked as a staff newspaper reporter as well as veterinary assistant. In 1996 Maryann was editor and publisher of Desert Pet News in Palm Springs, California. The newspaper featured shelter animals for adoption and educated owners on how to properly care for their pets. Later, while living in Lake Arrowhead, she started the Altitude Agility Club and served as president of the Mountain Humane Society.

Maryann now resides in Arizona. In 2005, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (a.k.a the pound) named her Volunteer of the Year. Currently she volunteers delivering meals to senior citizens here in my hometown.

Maryann shares her life with two dogs – K.C., a rescued Chow mix, and Sasha, an energetic 9-year-old Belgian Sheepdog cross.

The best way to get The Daily Dog Tip is via email, and if you sign up now, you won’t miss a single tip from our grrreat pet experts. Or to add the RSS feed to your reader, click here. Want it all? You can also get them via Twitter when you follow @dogster.

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Since we are in the dog days of summer, no pun intended, this is article is both timely and useful.  Kim Grant shows us how to keep our best friends safe with some good advice.

With summer here, dog owners are taking their canine companions everywhere — parks, beaches, flea markets, outdoor restaurants, festivals, vacations, hiking and boating. Though it’s great to be outdoors, remember to protect your pet from the sun and heat.

Although most humans use sunscreen, a lot of us don’t realize how important it is for our pets too.

While bubblegum pink is the trendy color for canine couture this season, a pink nose, ears and belly can be painful. Yes pets can get sunburn just like humans.

For dogs, protect the nose and belly, which tend to turn bright pink from the sun, and other areas where fur is thin. Cats can benefit as well by applying to their nose and tips of ears. Talk with your veterinarian to find out which sunscreen is best for your pet.

Read all her great tips so you and your buddy will have a fun and safe summer.

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As those of us in America celebrate our country’s independence today, we need to be cognizant of the effect  fireworks have on our beloved pets. The newspaper Deseret has a good article on the subject.  Here’s an interesting tidbit on the effect of the loud booms and bangs that I never considered.

In most normal five-day stretches during the summer last year, his shelter would pick up about 66 stray cats and 70 stray dogs. But he said that in the five days surrounding July 4, it picked up 90 cats and 95 dogs – or 36 percent more than normal. “We always see big increases around July Fourth, and the same thing happens again around the 24th,” he said, adding that other cities in the county and state report the same.

It makes sense that dogs and cats would try to get away from all that noise. Fortunately the article also give advice on how to minimize their anxiety.

Doug Poindexter, president of the World Wide Pet Industry Association, said, “There are number of tips we have to try and help minimize stress by pets. First, bring your pets inside. Keep them in a room that is as sound resistant as possible” and then play music or the television there to drown out noise from fireworks.

Read the full article to find out all the tips they give and make this the calmest 4th for your pet ever.

Happy 4th of July!!

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