Petside.com published an interesting article about dognapping being on the rise in the United States, and the AKC verifies it as well. How horrible! Keep a close eye on your pet when they’re out in your yard, at the dog park, and keep them indoors or secured at night.
I can’t imagine the agony of having one of my pets stolen for who-knows-what! Please, everyone, be careful!
Tags: dog safety & health, Events & News
As we head into the colder months, it gets a little harder to exercise our dogs throughout the north.
Walking is an important conditioning exercise. Sometimes the weather is too hot or too cold to walk outside safely, and some owners have difficulty walking the distances their dogs need to walk. Doggie Treadmills make walking the dog much easier, and safer in inclement weather, and are a boon for apartment dwellers.
Treadmills are easy to train with lots of positive reinforcement, if you go slow and steady. They’re also wonderful for strengthening the hamstring/gluteal section of your dogs body (hind end 
) if you use the incline properly. For an active agility dog, endurance exercises can be a godsend since it builds muscle tone and encourages deep-chested breathing. Make certain to warm-up and cool down your dog properly before and after their treadmill session, and to monitor them carefully.
Treadmills are also very useful in after-injury care, since it controls the dog’s pace and allows them to build up muscle.
Helps the medicine go down! While that may not be true for dogs, it does help to put the pill in something so they’ll gobble it down instead of wrestling with the dog and a pill gun.
Giving pills to my big Newfy mix Nova is actually pretty easy – toss her about five liver snaps and cheese cubes, then the pill in a cheese cube, then quickly another liver snap or three. She’s so eager to catch them all, she doesn’t even notice that there was a pill in that cheese cube!
For dogs who aren’t as catch-happy, a pill in a cheese cube, or peanut butter can work just as well. Once you get past that stage however, medicating dogs can be dicey! Ask your veterinarian if there is any way to get the pill in a treat form – like heartworm medicine, almost! – or if you can open the capsule and mix it into something else. Make sure you ask your vet before opening any capsules. Often medication is on a ‘timed release’, so the capsule is an important part of the process.
What’s your trick for pills?
Tags: dog safety & health
So, you want an agility dog? Don’t we all?
But what should you be looking for in a future agility partner? Drive! Stamina! Great body! Brilliant brains!
You should be looking for a family pet. Look for a dog you can live with! If you buy a dog that has awesome drive and is trainable and fast, but you can’t stand their constant pestering for a ball to be tossed, you’ve cheated yourself and your dog. Look for a breed or type you like, a dog you won’t mind walking every day, playing with all the time, and listening to it bark sometimes. If you like tiny dogs, big dogs, or long dogs, get one! They can do agility if they’re healthy and happy, just like any other dog. You may have to change the way you train, but what’s life without challenges? While you may not have a future world team member, you’ll have YOUR team member… which matters more?
You should be looking for a healthy animal. While some health conditions are fixable (puppy has sneezes, oh noes!) some simply aren’t. Choose a healthy animal, from a reputable breeder or shelter.
Yes, I said shelter. While there are valid arguments about shelter puppies’ uncertain parentage and affinities, see point one. You’re not looking for a champion first and foremost- you’re looking for a friend. If a puppy or young dog is healthy, it can do agility. Some people want purebreds, and that’s okay! But for those of you who have it in your heart to take a mystery mutt… often, you will be repaid in triplicate (to make up for the forms you fill out in triplicate). I know I have been.
A Smart Puppy. There are so many books that have detailed aptitude tests in them that I really feel it superfluous to go over aptitude testing here in this blog, but consider testing your puppies’ intelligence. Definitely test his willingness to interact with you! If the dog is happy to come to you when you happy voice at him, and looks up at you, then the chances of you having a future team-mate squirming in front of you are high!
There is no ‘perfect’ dog. There are many great, wonderful, awesome dogs, but perfection doesn’t exist in this world. Find a great, wonderful, awesome dog, and love them. They already love you!
Drive, stamina, good joints… all of those things are necessary in your dog. You can ‘train’ drive, and you can build stamina, but if your dog simply isn’t physically capable, then you probably can not do agility, at least not competitively. Your vet will help you decide. The good news is, though… if you chose your dog because you liked them, because they were a dog you wanted to work with and be a teammate with… it might not matter so much as you think. You can still enjoy breakfast, long walks, and good talks with them.
How did you meet your agility partner? How’d you know agility was for you?
Tags: dog safety & health
Reactive dogs are defined as a dog who reacts fearfully or aggressively (which is just another fear-response) to certain specific stimuli. Recognize that just because your dog is reactive does not mean they are a ‘bad’ dog. It means they are special needs and probably sensitive. Please by all means talk to your veterinarian to rule out physical or diet related causes of reactivity.
The first action you should take is if you suspect your dog is reactive, find exactly what triggers them. Dogs do give warning signs, and it’s important to tune in to your dog’s signs of stress and reactivity.
Agility is already one of the best things you can do for your reactive dog. Agility builds confidence, and gives the dog a stronger bond to you as a handler, and allows you to learn to read your dog with more accuracy.
Don’t give up! Sometimes it may seem like you’re stuck and your dog isn’t hearing you, but they are. It may take a very long time, but you will see progress.
Keep them controlled. If you know what sets your dog off, keep them away from that stimulus, at least at first. Then, control your dog’s exposure to that stimulus. Also, depending on the reactiveness of your dog, don’t allow them offleash except when they are the only dogs out and the area they are in is enclosed. This can be difficult for agility players, but a vital precaution I believe, as some dogs will flee what is making htem frightened, and others may attack. Either way, you may stand a risk of losing your dog.
Have an end goal in view. Let’s say your dog hates men in hats. What do you want them to do when they see a man in a hat? Don’t train a negative, such as ‘don’t bark at the man! or run away!’, train a positive, such as ‘sit down and look at me when you see a man in a hat and you will have treats!’ or something of that sort. It is much better to train your dog to DO something than to train them NOT to do something.
Some dog’s reactivity is a matter of poor or no socialization. Carefully acclimatizing your dog to social situations can help tremendously in reducing your dog’s unacceptable behavior. Don’t just go to the vet where your dog is unhappy – go to the pet store and get treats from the bins and give them to your dog, or long walks on nature trails, through the city, etc.
Don’t be afraid to protect your dog! When my dog is approached by a child who looks like a head-smacking child, I tell the parent ‘don’t let your child touch my dog please’, and in a few cases, have used my body to keep the child away from my dog. (please note, I am careful not to touch other people’s children, the adults understandably get upset about that.) I also inform other people that my dog is not dog friendly! It’s amazing how many people can suddenly control their ‘just friendly’ dog. (an excellent, AMAZING article on ‘friendly’ dogs has been written by Suzanne Clothier, found here. I could not phrase it any better than she could when she says what seems ‘friendly’ is really just rude.).
This is by no means an end all be all article for reactive dogs – but by experimentation, patience, and attention to your dog, while controlling your dog and their atmosphere, you can at least make a good start towards a less fearful dog.
Tags: dog safety & health
Recent Comments