I think most dog owners were already pretty certain of this and it looks like it’s been proven now. Dogs are the United States’ most popular pet! According to this Top Ten Pets infographic I found on Visual.ly, the NY Times did the research and found that dogs take the top spot with 37% of households owning dogs.

There’s also a few other interesting points:

• In raw numbers, cats take the top spot (boo! hiss! meow!).
• Fish take the top spot in largest number per household (9!).
• Horses take fifth spot as the biggest animal in this list.

If you’ve been to this blog before, then you know that we at KennelCoach love all infographics. This morning, I came across another one, courtesy of Pet365 – a UK supplier of pet accessories.

Click below to see the full size version.

The give a playful look into dog’s anatomy by comparing it with ours. My biggest surprise? That a dog has so much more bones (320) compared to a human (206)!

Well worth a quick look.

Why vaccinate your dog?

It is important to arrange dog vaccinations at the right time to minimize the risk of your lovable pet suffering from a range of different diseases. As with all mammals, there are a number of infectious diseases that can develop in canines, the right vaccination schedule would help ensure that your furry friend remains healthy and strong until their old age.

Understanding exactly when your pet should have their shots can sometimes be confusing. Keeping track of their vaccination schedule using software would help to ensure that they do not miss an important injection (just like how tracking heat cycles helps you avoid “Do’h!” situations). The information below highlights what the main threats are, and exactly when the vaccinations should be given.

The main culprits

Distemper is an illness which attacks the respiratory system. It is believed to be caused by a virus, if not treated, it can result in severe damage, and potentially death. The vaccination is unlikely to provide protection for a dog’s entire life, the first shot should be given at around six to eight weeks after birth, and then a booster would be required after approximately seven years. Though typically, it is gives as part of a yearly vaccination booster together with several other vaccines. Typical symptoms of distemper include a high fever and a discharge from the eyes and nose.

Leptospirosis is a disease that is common amongst large breeds. It usually affects the kidneys and livers of dogs, and can cause immense pain and suffering. The first injection should be given at around ten to twelve weeks, and then followed up on a yearly basis.

All dog owners understand the seriousness of rabies. Though the occurrence of this deadly condition is not great, it is a disease which can be passed on to humans with heartbreaking consequences. Most vets suggest that puppies should be injected with the vaccine when they are around nine weeks old, and a follow up booster given in stages should be administered after a year. There are laws in place in some states which dictate that dogs need to be vaccinated every three years against rabies.

Another important vaccination that should be given to all dogs is bordetella, more commonly know as kennel cough. Bordetella is an infectious condition which affects the trachea and bronchi, it is commonly diagnosed by a dry cough. Dogs that are kept together in kennels can quickly pass on the disease to each other. It is vital that you get your dog vaccinated against bordetella before they start to mix with other animals, be aware that the vaccine starts to lose its efficiency after around nine months.

Lyme disease is another common condition that affects dogs. It is thought to be transmitted by ticks, which are prevalent in humid, forested environments. The first vaccine needs to be given to dogs when they are between ten and twelve weeks, then a booster should be administered annually. If you plan on taking your dog into any wilderness areas, this vaccine is essential.

Better safe than sorry

The frequency and timing of your pets vaccinations can vary, there are blood tests that vets can carry out to check immunity levels. In any case, vaccinating your dog is one of the easiest ways to protect it from a number of harmful consequences, making it a no-brainer to take care of.

What is an estrus cycle anyway?

Understanding how dog heat cycles occur in your pet is very important in canine population control. This information is essential especially if you are breeding a particular breed of canines. It is also important if you do not want your dog to have puppies. Regardless of your reason for seeing the understanding of canine heat cycles, read on to know more on how to track heat cycles.

The heat cycle, also known as estrus cycle, normally occurs twice a year. However, some female dogs are known to have four estrus cycles per year while others experience it only once every twelve months. The cycle varies from canine to canine depending on size and most importantly, breeds. The cycle usually lasts for three weeks but this varies from breed to breed.

The different heat cycle stages explained

There are four main stages of a heat cycle. The cycles gradually change as the female dog ages. The stages are very similar to that of women. You can keep track of every cycle by adding six months to the first heat cycle your female dog experienced. This will help you avoid surprises.

The first phase of the cycle is known as proestrus. This usually lasts for not more than 10 days. The female dog will show little or no interest to males. In fact, the female might even attack male dogs that come close to it. The level of oestrogen hormone in the bloodstream of female dogs will also be very high during this phase. The vulva of the dog will become red and swollen. There will also be a slight discharge from the vulva which may contain blood. This is usually a normal occurrence. Other signs include licking her back end, frequent urination and restlessness.

The second phase is known as estrus and lasts five to nine days. Ovulation takes place during this phase. The female dog will also accept males for mating. The female dog will swag her tail from side to side, crouch and raise her hindquarters towards the male dog. The discharge from the vulva will change its color from bloody red to straw colored mucus. During this phase, the dog might start wandering around looking for a mate, so you may want to consider locking her up.

Diestrus is the next phase of the cycle. Normally lasts for up to nine weeks. During this phase, the female dog, i. E., bitch, becomes unattractive to male dogs. Female dogs in diestrus will often show signs of pseudo pregnancy. Other dogs might develop pyometra or womb infection. If the conception mating and conception does not occur, the levels of progesterone in the bloodstream of the dog will be very high for two to three months.

The last phase is known as anestrus. It usually lasts for a longer period than other phases, usually 3-4 months. The levels of reproductive hormones in the bloodstream of the female dog will be lowest. The dog is usually inactive sexually until the next cycle begins after a few months.

Tracking heat cycles

Knowing how to track dog heat cycles is very important and may save you a lot of money because taking care of puppies can be very expensive. If you are keeping your dog for breeding purposes, the understanding of dog reproductive cycles can help you plan when to search for stud dogs and what times are best for mating sessions.

Right on the heels of the previous infographic on the air travel costs of dogs a new one appears. Again, flight search site Hipmunk outdid themselves by crunching through the numbers of pet safety in air travel and producing yet another excellent infographic clarifying just how dangerous it is to take the skies with your furry friend(s).

On the left, you can see a small part of the new one (click the image for the full version). It contains several new statistics that took me a bit by surprise. For one, it shows how safe pet travel by air actually is. Less than 0.01% of incidents is really pretty low and half those could have already been prevented by less careless and more informed users.

From the distribution graph, it shows most issues occurring during the summer months. I would think that more people flying to a vacation destination and higher temperatures have something to do with this.

The ‘unknown’ reasons for some losses and injuries are a bit weird, but sometimes you just don’t know, I guess. Though I wouldn’t want be someone this happens to…

Be sure to check out the complete pet safety infographic on the Hipmunk blog which also contains a complete distribution of the data by kind of pet, season and year.

Have you ever flown with a pet and encountered any issues?

You might have considered travelling with your dog on plane before. Maybe a prospective buyer inquired already about flying with a puppy? All the rules, regulations and costs involved look daunting and without doubt put off more than one person of taking a pet on vacation or a move across the country.

Enter agony-free flight search site, Hipmunk!

These guys are true flight experts and they created a website that displays flight search results using a novel visualization that makes it dead easy to find the flights that best fit your needs.

Every now and then they direct their attention to a specific aspect of flying and come up with a very clear and useful illustration of the subject. Just last week, they did this for pet travel with an awesome infographic (click the image for the full version).

The image clearly shows what kinds of pets are flown around, what the ideal airline kennel size is and what the average round trip cost is. On top of this they outline several safety precautions and what to do before and after the flight.

Overal, it’s a great starting point for everyone considering taking to skies together with their pet.

Have you ever travelled with a pet? Or wanted to, but decided otherwise? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

If you like animal infographics, then check out the cat vs dog one too.

A few weeks ago I showed a video of a dog’s friendship with another dog. Dogs can be at their most amazing when the show behavior we think is usually reserved for humans. Sometimes it can be moving (like in the previous movie), other times it can be just plain out funny as in the following vid of a dog that did something naughty… …and is well aware of it!

I have been pretty silent on the blogging front all in preparation of today’s event:

The official launch of KennelCoach!

This means that starting today, the web application is available to anyone.

Wow! I have been wanting to say that for a while now. For several months I have been nurturing the seeds for a new breed of dog breeding software.  Today is the day that I carve out a little piece of the Internet and show you the seedlings.

Currently, KennelCoach gives you dog and contact management, health tracking (especially breed-specific dog weight graphs), automated backups of the data you enter, a tool that is accessible from any browser, … And this is just the beginning. Over the coming weeks and months, several more additions will be released.

To get starting you can visit the plans & pricing page, choose a subscription plan that fits your needs and sign up. Right now, a credit card is required on signup. However, all plans come with a 14-day free trial so you can cancel at any time during those first two weeks and you won’t be charged at all.

The earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan left many victims among them not just humans but also dogs. The video below shows a dog valiantly standing besides its injured friend in the aftermath of the disaster. Luckily, the injured dog could be rescued and receive medical treatment.

A new approach!

Ever bought a piece of software that, after you booted it up, had so many options and features that you didn’t know where to start? Rows of buttons, complex dialog windows, unintelligible error messages? A product that made you wonder if the people who created it were even in touch with reality? In the past, and even now, this is unfortunately more often the case than not.

Luckily, in recent years, a new wave of companies started cropping up that decided to take another approach. An approach where the goal is to create an application that fills an actual need, that is started from assumptions but validated through use by actual customers sooner rather than later, where the outcome is a lean product and not a bloated mess.

Or to give a more graphically interesting comparison:

Lean

Bloated

Which one would you choose?

What about KennelCoach?

This approach has been named the “Lean Startup” movement and KennelCoach embraces it fully. KennelCoach wants to become synonymous with dog breeding software and the Lean Startup approach is the best way to get there. KennelCoach believes that reaching out to dog breeders early will ensure that you get a streamlined web app with functionality you’ll actually use. All fat trimmed off, all waste eliminated.

How lean are you?

The proof is in pudding as they say. Let’s look back a bit a the (albeit short) history of KennelCoach and how it used Lean Startup principles so far.

One of the main tenets of Lean Startups as employed by KennelCoach is to “do the least amount of work that provides the maximum amount of learning”. When the idea of a web-based dog breeding application popped up in my head, I did not start creating this application right away. I did create a small website explaining the idea and put up a request to subscribe to a mailing list. I figured, if enough people sign up, this means there is an interest. A small amount of work (set up the website) for a large amount of learning (start building the application or not). What did I learn? That waiting till people came to my website would take too long. So I looked up kennels online and sent them an email, (kindly) asking what they thought of the idea. The responses I got together with the mailing lists sign ups were enough to tell me to continue.

For the next step, I figured the least amount of work would be to build a small prototype to put online and find out what people thought of it. And so I did. At this moment, KennelCoach is in a private beta test phase accessible to mailing list subscribers (subscribe to be a part of the next batch of invites that go out, dog breeders only please ). Even though I have a ton of ideas to put in the web app, I only implemented a little bit. Enough to get feedback, see that I’m on the right track and show users that they can give feedback and are listened to.

Finally, as a Lean Startup, KennelCoach uses a bunch of other tools to get new ideas to customers quicker and to improve communications. To give just a few examples of what KennelCoach uses:

• Heroku: This is where the KennelCoach web application is hosted. Heroku makes sure that new versions of KennelCoach are easy to deploy and that the app keeps on running so that I can focus on building out new functionality and not waste time on setting up the whole infrastructure.
• UserVoice: KennelCoach uses UserVoice to capture user feedback from inside the web app. Users make suggestions, can see suggestions of others and vote them up. Meanwhile I can ask for clarifications and show the progress on ideas that were submitted.
• MailChimp: MailChimp is state-of-the-art mailing list software. When I need to reach out to my list of interested users, they make sure my mail arrives.
• SnapEngage: I just got this through an amazing deal on AppSumo. They let me embed a small chat window right into the site so that anyone visiting the site can contact me with questions right then and there. It’s not integrated just yet, but watch out for it soon!
• and there are a bunch more…

But why?

I love dogs.

It’s that simple.

My parents always had dogs. They bred them as well. And when my wife and me moved from an appartement to a house, it gave me the opportunity to get a dog as well. KennelCoach is my way of wanting to give back to dog breeders. The goal of KennelCoach is twofold: to allow dog breeders to spend more time with their dogs and less with administrative jumble, and to let them be more informed about the status of their kennels.

I’m confident being a Lean Startup will help us get there.