Dog Walking Manners-that Big Old Bone of Contention

When I talk to people about their dogs one of the biggest issues people talk about is whether their dogs or others should be off-lead or not, in both off-lead and on-lead dog environments. It is no surprise that people with very reactive dogs think that all dogs should be on-lead all the time that local signs tell us to be and of course local by-laws should be respected, they are there for a reason.  No one likes an unpleasant dog greeting, even if it is as simple as getting jumped on by someone else's dog because their handler has no control of the dog. Of course I would not be the first owner to claim that my dog has awesome recall and is safe to be around, but not everyone likes my dog as much as I do. What?!!-crazy I know.  So I have compiled some precautions we can all take so that we all get on a lot better when we are out walking. 

One of the biggest problems people face when they are out walking their dog is dog reactivity. Dogs that bark or lunge at other dogs when they are approached by or approaching other dogs. Many dog owners would see this as aggression and hold their dogs tighter and avoid other dogs permanently in case something bad happens. A responsible reaction to some degree. Mostly though, the reactive dogs actions occur from fear and discomfort at the proximity of other dogs. After all, it is not natural for a strange dog to come rushing toward your dog into its personal space, especially when your dog is on lead and cannot escape. Some dogs have better greeting manners than other dogs- they have been socialized more as pups and learnt the natural boundaries of other dogs, both old and young. It is only natural that a dog being bombarded by a strange dog would respond with a bark to tell that dog to move away just as it is only natural for a human to have a personal space range too. A stranger touching another person without invitation in a social situation would most likely be avoided or even yelled at if the situation required it.

Unfortunately though dogs do not have the choice to move away as they would wish when they are on leash. Which is why many people say their dogs behave better off-lead. Their dog knows it has the opportunity to escape if it needs to when it is off-leash. I will talk more about what to do to improve a dogs reactivity another day. Meantime give your dog space and avoid situations that may be potentially fraught.

So here they are-My Big Tips (Bones of Contention) for keeping the peace on your local walks.

Number one Bone-Take doggy bags. There is nothing worse than knowing that others have left their dogs doo doos in your local park. You may step in it, but even worse if your local off-leash park is shared with a sports oval dog owners may loose their off-lead privileges. Don't ruin it for everyone else.

Number Two Bone-Have your lead handy and make sure you practice recall in a variety of settings and have high value treats handy so you can call your dog away from small children and dog owners that are timid and pulling away from you. It is amazing how frightened families can be of a larger dog, despite the fact it may be calm and under control, so make sure that you respect the personal space of people who are not dog lovers or who have young children.

Number Three Bone-Know your dog. What sets your dog off and makes it unreliable on the recall? Is it cyclists? Is it possums in the park, does your dog love running up to kids and jumping on them? Know this in advance and prepare your approach to other people, dogs and traffic based on an assessment of the risks to your dog and those around you.  It is always a good habit to teach your dog to sit at the curb or to be able to "wait" before you say it is okay to cross. It is also helpful to know what a polite dog greeting looks like, dogs usually approach from each other sides and if they get a welcome response go into the nose to bum sniff position. If they're a little nervous they may sniff the grass and give a little more space to each other before approaching.

Number Four Bone-Observe other dogs and their handlers approaching and calmly plan a reaction-Does the handler have control?  What is their body language telling you? Are they nervous and pulling away from you? Have a conversation with them. Ask before you approach, "Is your dog friendly?" Most dog owners will appreciate you asking and let you know if their dog has issues with other dogs. Put your dog on a short lead if necessary if you know your dog may be likely to jump up and run around getting the lead tangled in peoples legs. On a slight side note if you use a variable length lead you are probably asking for difficulties for two reasons. It is often impossible to get the lead short enough to greet other people safely. Not only that though if you constantly use a recoiling lead your dog will never learn to  walk nicely on a loose lead without pulling you all the way down the street.

Not so happy to see you.....get outta my face

Number Five Bone-Respect other peoples space. If you do get a nervous or stay away reaction from another walker make sure you respect their space and do not rush in for  a greeting with your dog regardless. If another handler does not have their dog under control and their dog is reacting to yours you may need to redirect  your dog if necessary. Make the experience part of the walk, a fun detour, try not to react out of stress as your dog will know it and react accordingly. After all, the dog walk is the best time of the day-so enjoy.

What to do about dogs urine marking in the house.

Why do dogs mark?

Urine marking really is a natural part of dog behaviour. It goes back to their wolf ancestors who marked the area around their den to let other packs of wolves know where they are and to know the proximity of other wolves when they are out walking. In everyday suburbia this function is a bit less useful as there are many more dogs who do not belong in packs in very close proximity to each other. However dogs can tell a lot from scenting other dogs urine and faeces, such as gender, whether a bitch is on heat and can recognize individual dogs by their scent. It is a vital part of their communication system.

Which dogs mark? 

However, none of us want marking in our houses do we? I notice marking the most with male dogs that visit my home. I  have a strategy for dealing with that which I will elaborate on later. Female dogs can scent mark in houses too, however this is more rare. An entire female will however mark a lot more when she is going into heat, they can even back themselves up a pole on their front legs to do so-a very funny sight. Entire or de-sexed dogs are more likely to mark, however most of us have de-sexed dogs these days unless we are breeders or have a puppy who has not been de-sexed yet. I know some breeders whose dogs that are used to being outside most of the time have a doggy diaper on while they are inside but I do not think this helps to change behaviour but rather make it more bearable. 

So why do dogs mark?  There can be a few reasons. The main one is when other dogs are present in or have marked the area that the dog considers to be his home, this can include the park or usual walking routes near the home. Another  trigger can be any socially exciting situation, for instance the presence of female dogs (in heat or otherwise), even a big group of noisy people or dogs which may be overstimulating to the dog and some male dogs only mark around other male dogs. The presence of urine scent in a house is often enough to stimulate marking of a visiting dog. 

Another cause of marking can be anxiety or separation anxiety. Sometimes dogs can even mark when there is a strange new object or new person in the house, any conflict within the house or separation anxiety. In case of separation anxiety the dog may only wee when you are about to leave, have left or just returned to the home. However, the marking may be more likely to be a vertical wee rather than on an object. A nervous, anxious dog is also more likely to have submissive body language-ears back, flattening itself to the ground or cowering upon greeting people or other dogs. It is so important not to stress the dog anymore by telling it off for marking. Rather the focus should be on creating a more confident dog, trying to alleviate the anxiety and diverting the urination to outside.

In a very few cases a dog may have a medical issue, such as incontinence which can occur in younger as well as geriatric  dogs or a urinary tract infection which can cause regular voiding of the bladder- unlike the full voiding of the bladder in the case of incontinence. If you suspect that a change in your dogs behaviour may not be due to environmental changes  than a visit to the vet is probably a good idea.

Solutions to prevent marking
If only dogs understood signs...

 life would be a lot simpler. 

However since this seems unlikely to happen anytime soon the first thing I do when I am introducing a visitors dog into my home is to let the dog go straight through the house to mark outside in the garden where my dog has been. This seems to set the pattern for marking outside rather than inside. Verbal praise and a treat can reinforce this good behaviour too. If you are bringing a new dog home for the first time try to make sure that all the members of the home are there and can greet the dog with a treat after it has investigated them in its own time. This sets everybody up as a friendly presence for the dog. If there are any urine marks from yours or another dog it is important to get rid of that scent so your dog or a visiting dog does not re-mark there. However, never use an amonia based cleaner as urine contains amonia and this can encourage the marking cycle.

If you have a dog that marks inside you may also want to limit the dog to being inside only when you are so that you can supervise their behaviour. Firstly try to avoid telling the dog off or punishing the dog as your dog will not understand this. However, if the dog seems to be sniffing objects in readiness to mark, like couch corners you may be able to change your dogs behaviour by interrupting the dog before the behaviour begins. Your timing is important, if you interrupt too late the dog may not relate the interruption with the marking behaviour. A loud clap or a plastic bottle filled with noisy coins thrown near the couch may interrupt the habit cycle. Any similar loud noise or movement of an object near them may work like an aversive stimulus. The best kind of interruption occurs when the dog does not know the noise has come from you which means that hopefully the dog will not mark when you are not around as well as when you are. 

If your dogs marking is caused more by anxiousness it may be important to look at how your dog is getting on with other people or dogs and cats in the home. In some cases dogs may need medications from the vet to assist them in improving their ability to cope or a DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheremone) infuser in the home may help to calm them.

I hope this helps you. May your dogs be calm and your couches smell sweet.  

Puppy Toilet Training Troubleshooting

If any of you with older dogs cast your minds back to those heady days of puppy toilet training I am sure you can recall some frustration at the very least if not manage a shudder of revulsion for the cleaning up of numerous accidents. I myself remember being late for work a few times because I was cleaning up puddles in my carpet. The current trend to polished floor boards certainly makes life a lot easier for many families. Of course puppy cuteness makes up for just about everything, even a chewed couch in my case.

So what can we do to get the best out of puppies toileting behaviour? One of the first things to do is to put in perspective just what we expect of puppies compared to what we expect of our children. Our children can take a couple of years to successfully toilet train (imagine the mess if we did not have nappies, eeek, it's not worth thinking about is it?). It takes toddlers quite a while to learn to control their bladders and to know how soon to go to the toilet before they need to go. Ask any parent how many accidents their toddlers have some days. Puppies are no different they take about 6 months to get full bladder control, despite the fact we expect them to become continent in a few short days or weeks. So patience is one of the most important things you can arm yourself with when walking through the mine filed (like that imagery?) of puppy toilet training.

So what can we do? Naturally dogs have a dislike of urinating or defecating near their beds, so they will naturally try to move away from their beds to go to the toilet.The trick is trying to anticipate their need to "wee" and "poo". You can do this as soon as you bring the puppy home, introduce the puppy to the spot outside where you want the puppy to go and wait there until it goes. Give it a food reward and introduce a toileting word like "wee wees" or "bananas" if you prefer a more neutral word so that it learns what you expect from it when you take it outside. If the puppy does not go, take it indoors and try again in 10-15 minutes.

Sniffing or circling behaviours are common indicators of the puppy tying to find a place to toilet. Other times to take the puppy outside are first thing when it wakes up, after or even during play time, after eating or drinking, being in the car and of course just before bed time. There will be accidents but with positive reinforcement ( treats and kind words of praise) when your puppy toilets outside and an avoidance of angry reactions (which only confuses the dog and gives it a complex about toileting in front of you) your puppy will eventually get the hang of going in the right spot-outside. Some people leave newspapers down in one spot, say the laundry, so the puppy can go there, but essentially you want the dog to learn to go outside, so that technique is really only a transitional training stage which some people may prefer to avoid.

If your puppy has most of its accidents overnight you may need to get up every 4-5 hours to take him or her outside to give the puppy the opportunity to do the right thing. You may need to set an alarm, especially if the dog is not sleeping in your room. Don't forget the puppy is used to being with its litter-mates, so it is likely to be lonely and have anxiety sleeping by itself. If you do have the puppy in a bed or crate in your room you can put a little cat bell on its collar overnight so that when it starts to move around to get up to toilet you can take it outside.

With a bit of consistency and positive encouragement your puppy will hopefully not give you too many interrupted nights. If your puppy does not seem to be doing so well with toileting as all the other puppies in puppy school do not worry, some puppies just take longer to learn and get bladder control than others. If you are really worried ask the vet for a check up to see if there is any source of infection that may be preventing better toileting. In most cases all that is needed is a big dose of patience, a deep breath and a few puppy cuddles to get things into perspective.

Enjoy your new puppy!

Georgeous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel learning how to use a Spinning Treat Toy

Jess learning how to use this new enrichment toy. It gets harder when you put the lock pegs in.....

Have a great weekend in this sunny Melbourne weather!

All my best,
Michelle

How to keep your pets happy when you are at work

So how do you keep your pets from chewing up the garden or destroying the furniture out of boredom while you are away? Okay so it is mainly dogs that do the most damage in the home and garden, there is nothing worse than coming home to 100 little bits of polystyrene in the backyard from a box that the dog found in the house and dragged out to destroy in the yard. Hmmn, sound familiar. Well I suppose that is why dog walkers like me stay in business.

If only they could amuse themselves playing pool all day or better still, cleaning the house. Well the first thing to do is give your dog a breed suitable walk a day. So a Kelpie or working dog is obviously going to need a lot more mental stimulation and exersize than a more sedentary breed. Want to get fit yourself, give them two walks. I always think of their walks as their time though, I never hurry a dog from sniffing or marking as I figure this is the dog expressing their natural behaviour. After all they spend so much time alone when all they want is to be near us. A safe off-lead park is perfect for them to investigate their surroundings and get all their scenting satisfaction, after all their sense of smell is much much much more highly attuned and important to them than it is to us. The other thing dogs enjoy is training with us or learning something new like flyball. If you have the time on the weekend something like this can be social for you as well as rewarding for your dog. Check out this flyball blog, it has a link to the Australian flyball Association: http://www.flyballblog.com/flyball-training-manual/

The key to keeping your dog or cat happy is letting them enjoy their natural behaviours, so for a dog who in the wild would spend up to 80% of their time foraging and hunting for food this can mean that food puzzles are perfect for keeping them entertained. 

It makes them work for their food and gives them a mental challenge while they are doing it. Treats frozen in cubes can be fantastic in summer as well as Kongs ( I am not advocating any particular brand it is just that most people know what a Kong is) stuffed with food instead of freely given in a bowl (food an be frozen in a Kong too to increase the difficulty) can help bust the boredom. I would never leave food out for a dog during the day unless it was a very tiny amount and the dog only grazes a little at a time. Some dogs really do have self control. I know...its rare but true. I recently bought my dog some spinny food toys at the Dog Lovers Show in Melbourne. It was not just fun for her it was great fun for me to watch her figure it out. I often do a mini treat scatter at clients backyards before I leave so the dogs can forage for the treats. It keeps them amused for a little while and is great for separation anxiety. If a dog knows it is getting something good when you leave you leaving is not so bad that you leave after all.

Cats need enrichment toys too, especially if they are exclusively indoor cats. Not the least of these is a really good scratchy pole, equiped with a few levels, a tunnel and a top perch to watch the world on. Put the pole by a window and they can watch the birds without the birds needing to be at risk. Chasing, hunting toys are great for cats as they cater to their natural instincts, so mini mice or feathery objects are great for throwing and chasing in the house. A great thing for either cats and dogs is a table tennis ball, they can swat them around and they bounce of walls and objects so they can chase them again. Awesome fun and it only costs the price of a table tennis ball. Cats also have ball spinny toys too, I have seen a popular one where  they can spin a little ball around in a circle on a plastic mount until it whirs around like a dervish. A little imagination and you can make your own toys for dogs or cats. Do you have a great idea for one you would like to share?

How to choose your family dog.

Choosing a dog can be fraught with many more complications than choosing the family cat, bird or guinea pig, for a few reasons. Firstly dog breeds vary so much in their size, needs and temperament and health issues. Secondly we also expect them to be out in society in a way that our other pets are not, we expect them to go to the park where there are kids playing, to the cafe and sit patiently while we lunch and perhaps wait outside the local shop while we get our paper without making trouble with other dogs that pass by.
                                            

The Golden Retriever pup above is one of the most popular medium-large breeds for families as they are eager to please and easy to train, they are gentle with children, friendly to other dogs, people and very loving and loyal. They do however, need a fair bit of excersize and have some genetic health issues, such as hip displasia and skin issues to name a few. They are a largish breed which has to be considered when getting an older or injured dog in a car. In my experience as a walker and pet minder many families get a dog that is largish and unfortunately the couple separate or a partner dies leaving the remaining partner, generally the woman, to look after a large dog that perhaps they would not have chosen on their own. It is definitely worth thinking about contingency plans before you pick up that bundle of fluff. Are you going to get an apartment in a year or move to the country? How will that affect your decision to get a certain breed.

My own dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who I got after seeing how gentle Cavvies are with children, that they do not wreck gardens (an important criterion for me), they are friendly to all and need moderate exersize. Gorgeous of course too, but that should never be the main criterion. Out of curiosity what breed to you have or recommend?

There are many online quizzes to see which breeds might suit your lifesyle. There are other good resources too, books, vets, your friends dogs are a perfect study, as are the dogs you see in the park. Chat to their owners, I promise you they will be flattered you asked them questions.

Of course mixed breeds can be fabulous too and it can be a great idea to get a dog  from a shelter as long as you are as careful with the decision as you would be if you were buying a puppy from a reputable breeder. Of course if you do decide you are going to get a puppy (so much fun but so much time commitment too) make sure you visit and talk to the breeder about any congenital health issues while you are making sure that the puppy and the breeding operation is the right fit for you. The RSPCA has a great little buyers guide for getting dogs from breeders: http://www.rspca.org.au/sites/default/files/website/Adopt-a-pet/Smart_Puppy_Buyers_Guide_Oct2012_Web.pdf

Lastly enjoy welcoming that fabulous furry addition to your household. They add so much to our life and then a little bit more.

Michelle

Welcome to the Bark Around The Block Blog

Hello and welcome to the inaugural launch of the Bark Around The Block Blog. My name is Michelle Elliott and I am the founder and Director of Bark Around The Block.

If you are like me and you are a passionate pet owner then you have certainly found the right place. Each week I will be updating the blog with new and interesting information on all things dogs, cats and pets in general.

 It has been a life long passion for me to care for animals and I know that in time we will form a strong community with a common purpose, to share our knowledge and appreciation for our animal friends. Until next time may your pets be well,
Cheers,
Michelle.