DOG DAY AFTERNOON

5 Quick tips on Dog Training. Teaching a recall. Don’t wait till your off lead walk is over before calling him back to you. Periodically call your dog back during the off-lead walk and put him back on the lead again for a few steps then let him off to run free. that way he won’t learn that when you call him the walk is over and its time to go home. If using treats to reward your dog, remember to use a higher value treat than the one you give him on a day to day basis just for being a good companion. If your dog values the treat you give him when you reward him for doing something difficult the chances are he will repeat that behaviour to see if he gets the same high value treat again. If your dog reacts to the brush when grooming, hold a carrot or raw hide chew in one hand and let him chew on it whilst you run the brush over him with your other hand. That way you distract him from the brush and give him a pleasant association every time you brush him. Use dinner time t...

Ben my Black Labrador Have you just got a new Puppy? Have you brought it into a home that already has an older dog? Is it annoying the older dog? There are many reasons why a puppy will annoy an older dog. Most of the time its innocent enough. Boredom and bonding mostly. However your older dog can still get stressed out by the unwanted attention. Some times this can lead to less than ideal times in the home. But we can help to correct this behaviour or even avoid it. We can teach our puppies how to interact with the older dog in the home. Puppies get bored and if you leave them alone inside the house all day with nothing to do they can become Tasmanian devils of energy, tearing up the place. Lack of exercise is one of the main problems. By ensuring our puppies are regularly and well exercised we tire them out and therefore less likely to use up his energy annoying the other dog in the house. A couple of long walks a day or several hours out in the garden should tire your pu...

Not my usual blog entry however I though it worth mentioning on here also. We will be enrolling for new Puppy Foundation and Bronze level courses in July after we come back from a much needed two week vacation. We will be back refreshed and raring to go. Its been a busy old year. We successfully transferred our academy from the Torrance Community Centre to the Caldwell Halls, still in Torrance. The Caldwell Halls is a much more suitable venue for our training and we are pleased to be there. The upper hall is going through some refurbishment at the moment and when its finished later this week it will look great. Cant wait to get back in there on a Monday night. We introduced a class on a Friday afternoon this year and it is going well. It started off as a Puppy Foundation class but they have all graduated and it is a Bronze class now. Its going well but we want to add another Puppy Foundation class to the Friday afternoon at a different time though. As usual its slow to take off but we...

I read an article in Junes issue of Psychology Today about a new treatment being offered at Promises Treatment Centres. There are a number of these centres in the US. They specialise in treating a wide variety of addictions, such as alcoholism, cocaine addiction, prescription drug abuse and marijuana abuse. they also offer a wide variety of treatment options. their newest treatment option is called Wolf Therapy. From the article in Psychology Today “Wolf therapy is a hands on, highly impactful blend of experiential therapy and animal assisted therapy. Young adults at Promises have a unique opportunity to work and hike side by side with a wolf-dog - wolves that have been bred with various dog breeds as pets - to process the issues”. The article goes onto explain how we as humans have a primal connection to the wolf “drawn together as allies”. Wolf therapy eases depression, anxiety and stress. All issues that are common in young adults in rehab and blinds their motivation to complete th...

On neutering, you will be hard pressed to find a vet today that would recommend anything but neutering your pet early in their life, normally around six months. The reasons given are always the same, prevent unwanted babies and long term health benefits including a reduction in cancer.  But unlike your appendix for example where it's absence is not noticed in your daily routine, your reproductive (or sex) organs play a whole host of hormonal roles that stretch far beyond the manufacturing of babies. Like dry food, parasite control, annual boosting and casual steroid shots, these things are not without consequence for the patient and too rarely are these consequences ever discussed with the owner. It is not enough that we are told things are perfectly harmless. We must go into the decision with eyes wide open.  So here's what we know of neutering dogs early in their life. The implications for your pet and society as a whole are then discussed below. It's a whopper of ...

I read this post by Victoria Stilwell and thought that it was very interesting. Please let me know what you think. CAN YOU REALLY TRUST YOUR DOG TRAINER? By: Victoria Stilwell Hiring a dog trainer can be one of the best decisions you ever make on behalf of your dog, or it can just as easily take a turn for the worst. Because dog training is an unregulated field, any average joe can call himself a "dog trainer," and fool unsuspecting pet parents into using outdated or dangerous training methods. Many pet parents have fallen victim to so-called "trainers" that ultimately cause physical or emotional damage to their dog. And a common theme I've heard from these pet parents is that they all had a feeling that something wasn't right. But they trusted their trainer (they were a professional after all, right?), and assumed that their dog trainer knew what they were doing. I've heard stories of people whose otherwise friendly and happy dogs would...

GOD said "I need somebody strong enough to pull sleds and find bombs yet gentle enough to love babies and lead the blind. Somebody who will spend all day on a resting couch and supportive eyes to lift the spirits of a broken heart....................So GOD made a DOG..