|
All throughout the year, everyone likes to celebrate with fireworks but coming up to New Year's we all know it can't be avoided. Unfortunately for our pets, especially dogs and horses, this can be a terrifying times for them. The best thing for you to do is be aware and prepared. If you know there are going to fireworks, try your best to stay home. Earlier in the day, take your mate for a nice long walk, burn as much energy as you can and feed him a few hours later. A well fed and tired dog is going be a lot more relaxing during the night for you. Once your dog begins to fret, don't sooth or comfort him. Doing this to a scared dog only increases the problem, you are showing them that there is something to be scared of and if they continue to react this way they are going to be rewarded with attention from you. Instead, be in control and up beat. Create a comfortable hiding place and distract your dog with games, food and even putting some music on. Try and encourage calm behaviour with praise and attention. Surround them with their favourite toys in a room inside they are familiar with. Bones and chewable toys are ideal as a distraction and should take up some time while they enjoy. Continue this up beat, positive behaviour from the second they start fretting and for a while after they have settled and the noise has stopped. If your dog settles and the noise stops don't just walk away and ignore your pet. Sometimes bringing your dog inside isn't an option so you should look at possibly a carrier or even in the garage of shed, cover all windows. Dogs try and run and get away when frightened, especially during fireworks as the sounds are coming from all directions, so restraining them with a choker chain or lead should never be done, this can end in a horrible result! Always make sure your dog is identifiable with tags and microchip in case they do happen to get out. It is possible that dogs can be desensitised from being scared of fireworks and loud noises, remembering not all dogs are. Some dogs are at the opposite end of the scale and have a phobia of fireworks. In these cases, some dogs can be so frightened that it seems nothing will calm them down. In these cases, your vet should be consulted.
0 Comments
 On behalf of all the Doggy Doaters at Dogs Country Club and Kennel Resort, Millie, Gemma and Frodo would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year. We are all excited to be spending Christmas with many of your wonderful dogs and seeing everyone in 2014! Christmas time can become stressful around the house for us, so imagine what it must be like for our pet! Things around being moved around the house, bright flashing trees are going up and lots of visitors are coming and going. This can all be very exciting for our dogs can also a little intimidating at the same time. Here's some tips to help keep Fido comfortable and enjoy the festive season.
It's getting to that great time of year again, when we start baking yummy treats for ourselves and friends to share over the festive season, so why not make some doggy friendly treats for our 4 legged friends too?! In the lead up to Christmas we will be sharing some special recipes that are safe for your pooch!
Christmas Carob and Carrot Cake for Dogs You will need
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the dry ingredients. Cream together the butter, oil, eggs and optional vanilla. Stir in the carrots and carobs. Pour batter into a well-greased 8-inch round baking tin and bake for approx 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. ‘Ice’ with peanut butter, or peanut butter mixed with cream cheese or plain yoghurt. Coming home to find your couch cushions in pieces or the bottom of your door a mess is no laughing matter, but do we really understand the true reason why our dogs chew?
As pup, just like a growing child, dogs will chew to relieve the pain of their new teeth coming through. For this reason a variety or chew toys for puppies should be available to your dog through their growing stages. It is important to know the difference between a pup teething and destructive behavior as you don’t want to be correcting your dog for simply doing something that’s natural. Chewing, though, can become a problem as your dog becomes an adult, this stems from the fact that as a pup, they used their mouth to explore the world around them. If this problem is not corrected as soon as it begins it can lead to a wide scale destruction of your house and belongings and ruin the relationship between you and your pooch. If chewing is correctly addressed from a young age this can be avoided. Firstly, you want to rule out that there are no medical issues that are causing your dog to be misconstrued or chew inappropriately. Things such as nutritional deficiency caused by poor diet or parasites in the intestines can be some on these medical issues. A check up with your vet is the easiest way to rule this out. Your next step is to make your house puppy safe! Pups are very inquisitive as they are discovering the world around them, all house hold chemicals and dangerous plants should be kept well out of reach. Common house hold objects such as electrical cords and children’s toys should be kept securely away from your pup’s reach. Its best confine your dog to certain rooms in your house that are ‘puppy safe’, crate training is also an option for when you cannot supervise your dog. Make sure there are plenty of correct chew options available for your pup, teaching your pup that they cannot chew anything at all is not healthy for their development. A wide variety of appropriate chew toys are available at pet shops and pet supplies and with the correct stimulation and training it is very easy to teach your pup the right and wrong items to chew. One of the best ways to avoid your dog chewing the wrong items is to make it clear for them to know right from wrong, giving your dog an old shoe to chew can be confusing, although we know the old from new shoe this isn’t obvious to our pets. Try seeing this situation from your dog’s point of view, if they are given an old shoe to chew and come across and beautiful display of fresh new shoes at the front door, how are they to know they aren’t allowed to chew on those too? Make a clear display to your dog of which toys are theirs to chew and that everything else is out of bounds. The best way to achieve this to praise your dog when they are chewing their own toys, when found chewing your belongings take the objects away immediately and let them know they have done the wrong thing. At no point should you physically discipline your dog! Sometimes it can be difficult to teach your dog the right from wrong things to chew, bitter deterrent sprays are great to thing to spray on the ‘wrong’ chew objects. One of the easiest ways to avoid bored chewing is to entertain your dog to avoid boredom! Engage activity with your dog, keep them mentally and physically stimulated. This will not only help avoid destructive behavior but will help to build a positive and strong bond between you and your pet. Can you believe it's already time to announce our final Dog of the Month for 2013?! It wasn't too hard for the Doggy Doaters to choose who should celebrate the final festive month with us. We just needed a pooch that makes us laugh and spends a lot of time at the Resort... and we couldn't go past our best mate Colin!!! Colin is a very excitable, puppy at heart, German Shepherd who enjoys most of his time at the Resort with his day care visits! Congratulations Colin!  |
ARCHIVES
May 2021
CATEGORIES
All
|
RSS Feed
