Interface of dog shelters

These are screenshots of websites of Friendicoes and People for Animals. Studying the look and feel they use.

Interview of a dog owner

6. Aseem Rishi
Why did you adopt a dog? My aunt is special thus she never got married. She has a very major cat phobia so to keep cats away we got a dog. And there was good security for the house as well.

From where did you adopt a dog? Through family in pet shop business
Which breed of dog do you have? Cocker spaniel
What are the challenges in acquiring dogs? None faced
Did you take a certificate while getting it? No
What are the costs in buying a dog? 12,000
What are the costs in maintaining a dog? Not much, mainly food (pedigree), mix of cooked food and pedigree, toys, hair cut, shampoo (get it done professionally once a month.)
What are different essential activities you need to do to take care of a dog?
Have you ever had any diseases or medical problems from your dog? From my first dog- French poodle
Please give details. Got ticks from him.
Do you know of any one whose health has suffered because of a dog? No
How do you take care of your dog? What are the regular activities? Take him for walks twice a day, never got bored since he was entertaining and is a very close friend, run around with him, paint his face, scare my cousin as he was scared of dogs, give regular food.
What is the most difficult thing to make your dog do? Give him a bath.
How did train your dog? Any tips? Never got professional training, mostly has outside dogs in the lawns. So toilet training was not a problem. If they mess up you talk to them like you would scold a child. If too rebellious, hit slightly, not hard though.
Earlier dog was too aggressive and fought with humans and other dogs. Thus, it lead to his death since he fought with other dogs in the territory and got very injured and died in a few days.
I didn’t treat him well thus it lead to problems.

Learnings from another book

Dogs: 300 questions answered by Caroline Davis

Important equipment that people need while they are getting a dog:
1. Collar and Leash
2. Food and water bowls which have to be separate for dogs. They don’t enjoy sharing!
3. Bed: To save money it is advisable to buy a big one to accommodate your dog fully grown.
4. Bedding, Blankets: When dogs are just puppies they need this more like a child would.
5. Grooming tools: Brush, comb, shampoo
6. Toys that he can pounce, stalk, grab, shake, bite and kill
7. Food: Packaged or home made.
Feeding puppies:
Age Number of Meals
Weaning to 20 weeks 3 meals a day/milk at night
20 to 30 weeks 3 meals daily
30 weeks to 9 months 2 meals daily (if a very big dog then more)
Over 9 months 1 to 2 meals daily depending on the size of the dog.

Chewing bones is good to make the teeth and gum stronger. Although, it might be advisable to not give cooked bones to dogs as they are weak and might break and cause harm to your dogs.
Water: 1 to 2 litres of water needs to given to dogs on a daily basis. Tap water is fine, bottled water is not required.
Young pups require as much care and supervision as young children. Thus, if you don’t want your dog to turn aggressive then the initial groundwork is important.
1. The first is to give care and companionship to your dog. They must feel cared for else they won’t be people friendly and turn aggressive.
2. Make sure to toilet train them as children. This is to ensure that they happy potty manners.
3. Take them for walks and let them socialize with other dogs so that they don’t get aggressive.
4. Allot some specific space for them to rest/sleep. Everyone needs their personal space.
5. Bathe them and an early age itself so that they don’t run away from it as they grow older. For a pup a bath in 2-3 months is enough. The temperature has to be lukewarm.
From acquiring to arrival
Puppies should ideally stay with their mothers till 8 weeks else they are weak.
On arrival, the owner should take their puppy into the garden or an open space and let them relieve him. It is best to leave the dog alone that time. Praise him and pamper him when he does so.
Then allow him into the new house for leisure, it makes the puppy more receptive.
Pups like human babies sleep a lot; let them do so and constantly remind him of his space, bed, food and water bowls. This brings manners and he won’t try to eat off your plates.
At the time of teething pull away inappropriate items he is chewing. Get chew toys so that they don’t chew on objects he shouldn’t or destroy yours. You can add a bitter anti-bite liquid since it helps to cure the habit.

Why should people adopt dogs more than sending them to shelters

An article that I found which tells answers why people should adopt dogs. It is true that there are shelters and they help out dogs as much as possible but everyone can contribute by adopting at least one dog.

Link and aricle are below

http://www.clickindia.com/detail.php?id=7175686

Most of us assume that Shelters are the best alternatives when we find an abandoned or injured dog or even a motherless puppy. This is not true, especially in India, where in most shelters the dogs are crammed into small cages and made to live like that for the remainder of its life ,if it hasn't contracted a disease like distemper,rabies etc first.

For puppies it's even worse as their immunity is very low and they are prone to easily picking up infection or due to environmental factors like excessive heat, humidity etc they are unable to last more than a few days in a shelter.

Your best bet when rescuing a dog is to be prepared to either keep it yourself, have a friend adopt it or even send it to a farm house as compared to a shelter.

Alternatively, you can also send details of the dog to me via email with photographs and we can try and find it a good home.

This book will change your dogs life

I looked at this book to study look and feel. It is quite interesting and different from what the dog portals look like.

The colours used are very loud, fresh and vibrant. The illustrations used are youthful and modern. There is a lot of use of different colours.The grid is mostly one column with two sections. Thus, this book seems to be targeting to existing dog owners to make their dog keeping fun. It also seems to be more youth oriented with the content and look and feel.

The content of the book is more to do with the fun and activities related to dogs and not the serious information. It is divided with activities to be done on a daily basis over a year thus there are 365 sections. It starts with chinese zodiac and the appropriate dog as per your luck to the 7 birthdays of your dog in a year with activities to be done everyday.

It is not a very good book for information but a well designed book

Question answered:
Look and feel and dog related portals, books, websites.

Other websites

WSD is a shelter in Mumbai so they have a website for their own activites, adoption etc.

India Kennel is a website about a personal named Rajesh who is very passionate about breeds and has put up dogs for sale and information and care of various breeds.The navigation is simple; one column grid with buttons on the left side with soft colors and pictures of puppies with humans. It is more of relationship of breeds with their master.

Dog Spot is a website where people can make their own accounts and put up dogs for adoption and share news, blogs etc. There are some tips on puppy care and training but it is too much information places in a confusing way thus the navigation is confusing. There are photographs used and a simple blue header with a two column grid.

Questions answered?
What is the look and feel of existing dog adoption and care websites
Where to adopt dogs from? (online portals)
Why should people adopt dogs
What is the message and media (web being one)

dogadoption.in

This is a website based in India which is a portal for stray dogs only. They have not mentioned any city they particularly function from but they have a section specially for Mumbai


Look and Feel: The look and feel is simple, looks like a blog layout with one header picture of puppies and a green background which gives a soft and tender feel. The navigation is simple and clear placed below the header picture and the other are placed vertically on the side of the information. It is a very action oriented info-website.

Content: The website only covers adoption of Indian stray dogs and their care. The person who started this website called Malleka is an animal lover and got attached to stray dogs when she adopted one who was left behind as all his siblings drowned in the accident. She felt it made her more human to have a friend like that thus wanted to help other pups too. She has information on adoption, after adoption care and some knowledge about training. There are a few dogs available for adoption and news that is updated every few days. She has answers to basic training and vaccination questions in a more personal manner.

Some things missing are how people can give her information about dogs for adoption in various areas. It seems it is more personal and she only helps dogs that she personally finds which is a gap in this webiste

Questions answered?
What is the look and feel of existing dog adoption and care websites
Where to adopt dogs from? (online portals)
Why should people adopt dogs
What is the message and media (web being one)