dog nose

Cats and Dogs Living Together: Tips for a Peaceful Home

Introducing a dog and a cat can be a delicate process, but with patience, understanding, and a little bit of strategy, these two can learn to coexist peacefully—or even become best friends. Whether you’re bringing a new dog into a cat’s home or vice versa, the key is to respect their individual personalities and give them the time they need to adjust. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to make the introduction smooth and stress-free for both your dog and cat.

1. Understand Their Personalities

Before you begin the introduction, it’s crucial to understand the personalities of your dog and cat. Some dogs have a strong prey drive, which could make them more likely to chase or be aggressive towards a cat. Similarly, some cats are more territorial or anxious, which might cause them to be defensive around a new dog. On the other hand, a calm dog paired with a confident cat might adjust quickly.

If your dog is excitable or has a high prey drive, it’s essential to work on their impulse control before introducing them to a cat. Cues like “sit,” “stay,” and “leave it” will be helpful during the introduction process. Similarly, if your cat tends to be skittish, provide them with safe spaces where they can observe the dog without feeling threatened.

2. Start with Scent Exchange

Scent is one of the primary ways animals communicate and understand their environment. Before your dog and cat meet face-to-face, start by exchanging their scents. You can do this by swapping their bedding or using a soft cloth to rub on one pet and then leaving it near the other’s resting area. This allows them to get used to each other’s scent in a non-threatening way, helping to reduce anxiety when they finally meet.

3. Create Safe Spaces

Cats often feel more secure when they have a high vantage point from which to observe their surroundings. Before the introduction, make sure your cat has access to high perches, shelves, or even a tall cat tree. This gives them a place to retreat to if they feel overwhelmed during the introduction.

Similarly, ensure that your cat has other safe spaces where the dog cannot access them, such as a separate room or a gated-off area. Baby gates are excellent tools for allowing your pets to see and smell each other without direct contact, giving them time to adjust in a controlled environment.

4. Controlled Introduction with Barriers

When it’s time for a face-to-face introduction, start with a barrier between them, such as a baby gate. This allows them to see and smell each other without the risk of a physical altercation. Keep these initial meetings short and positive, gradually increasing the duration as both pets become more comfortable.

Watch for body language cues during these interactions. A wagging tail or relaxed posture from the dog and a calm, non-hissing response from the cat are good signs. However, if either pet shows signs of stress, such as growling, hissing, or barking, it’s important to end the session and try again later.

5. Use Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool during the introduction process. Reward both your dog and cat with treats, praise, or affection whenever they exhibit calm, friendly behavior toward each other. This helps them associate the presence of the other animal with positive experiences, reinforcing good behavior over time.

6. Supervised Interaction

Once your dog and cat seem comfortable with each other’s presence through the barrier, it’s time to remove the gate and allow them to interact freely. However, these interactions should be closely supervised. Keep the initial sessions short and gradually extend them as both pets become more relaxed around each other.

If your dog becomes too excited or your cat seems stressed, calmly separate them and try again later. Over time, as they become more accustomed to each other, you can allow them more freedom to interact unsupervised, but always ensure your cat has access to a safe space if needed.

7. Choose the Right Dog and Cat

One of the most important steps in ensuring a smooth introduction is to choose a dog or cat that has already been socialised with the other species. If you’re adopting from a breeder, look for those who prioritise socialisation during the critical early weeks of the pet’s life. Puppies and kittens that are exposed to a variety of experiences—including interactions with the other species—during their socialisation period are more likely to adapt to living with a dog or cat later on.

Alternatively, if you’re adopting from a rescue or shelter, ask about the pet’s history with other animals. Dogs or cats that have lived peacefully with the other species before are more likely to adjust quickly in a new home. Rescues can often provide valuable insight into a pet’s temperament and suitability for a multi-pet household, helping you choose the right companion for your current pet.

8. Patience is Key

Every dog and cat is different, and some pairs may take longer to adjust to each other than others. Patience is essential throughout this process. Rushing the introduction can lead to stress, fear, or even aggression, so it’s important to go at your pets’ pace.

In conclusion, introducing a dog and a cat requires careful planning, patience, and understanding of their unique personalities. By starting with a scent exchange, providing safe spaces, and using positive reinforcement, you can help your pets build a positive relationship over time. Remember, the goal is not just peaceful coexistence but to foster a bond where both your dog and cat feel safe and comfortable in their shared home. With the right approach, they can become lifelong friends

How hot is too hot for dogs?

High temperatures kill dogs. Heatstroke causes a dog’s major organs to fail and send the body into shut down and even if we cool the dog off again, it is often too late. It is always better safe than sorry so this blog is about how to keep your dog safe in warmer weather.

How hot is too hot?

12°-15° – It’s all good at this temperature. Enjoy your walk!

16°-19° – Generally, we’re still safe at this level. However, be mindful that older, overweight or brachycephalic (flat-faced) breeds may start to struggle.

20°-23° – At this temperature, we’re getting dicey. Particularly for the dogs mentioned above as well as large and double-coated breeds and puppies. Avoid rigorous exercise (no ball throwing!), stick to shade and make sure your dog has constant access to fresh water – take a bottle with you if needs be and offer regularly – every 5 minutes.

24°-27° – It’s getting dangerously hot. These temperatures are uncomfortable for all dogs, regardless of age/breed and heat stroke is a very real risk. Avoid walking at all at this time of day and if you must be outside, stick to shaded areas, don’t let your dog’s paws touch the pavement and keep the walk slow paced.

28°-31° – Too hot to take a dog outside, even when sticking to the shade and by water. Temperatures are now life-threatening. Do not walk your dog at all in these temperatures.

32°+ – See above!

Your dog will not die from having a few days without a walk, but dogs do die from having a walk on hot days – and this happens a lot. It’s not worth the risk.

How to exercise your dog when it’s warm

Stay at home! Give your dog enrichment activities, such as:

Scent work – scatter feeds, article searches, hiding a ball
Licking – an entertaining and soothing behaviour for dogs, use kongs and lickmats
Chewing – give them a frozen carrot, rabbit ear, cow hoof, meaty bone etc
Shredding – cardboard boxes, junk mail, lettuces
Play – tug, hide and seek
Training – run through your dog’s known cues or try something new

You can also walk your dog at the cooler times of day – namely before 8am and after 8pm.

Car travel

We all know dogs die in hot cars. Don’t leave them in the car unattended, for even a matter of seconds. It takes less than a minute for a car to begin to heat up like a greenhouse so there’s no time to pop back inside for something you forget or to grab something from the shop.

If you have air conditioning, get this going for a good five minutes before putting your dog in the car.

You can keep your dog cool by dampening their coat with water before getting in the car (evaporation will reduce the heat in your dog’s body). Make sure they have access to fresh water at all times in the car.

If you don’t have aircon and temperatures get hotter than around 20°, then you may need to avoid car travel with your dog at all, if you can’t guarantee you can park in the shade. Even with the windows open, cars get too hot for dogs.

Pavement walks

If it’s hotter than 20°, it’s not safe to have your dog’s paws on asphalt, concrete etc. If you can’t comfortably hold your hand on the floor for 30 seconds, then your dog’s paws are at risk of being burnt and having the top layer of skin ripped away. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

It takes dogs around 6 weeks to get used to a change in temperature. In the UK, we only have a few weeks of hot spells a year (and these are often sporadic) so it’s not long enough for a dog’s body to adjust to safely exist in the heat. This means we need to be taking precautions. Heat related illnesses are almost always entirely preventable.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on if you like warm weather!), we have very few days in a year where hot weather is going to mean we need to adjust our schedules with our dogs. Take precautions, educate those around you and stay safe.

Fuss-Free Grooming? Cooperative care.

Grooming is an essential aspect of dog care, but it can be a stressful experience for both dogs and their owners. Traditional grooming methods often involve restraining dogs, which can lead to anxiety, fear, and even aggression.

However, a growing number of pet owners and groomers are turning to cooperative care techniques, which prioritise the dog’s comfort and well-being.

What is Cooperative Care?

Cooperative care is a training approach that involves teaching dogs to voluntarily participate in their grooming and veterinary care. The goal is to create a stress-free environment where the dog feels safe and in control.

Benefits of Cooperative Care:

Reduces Stress and Anxiety

Cooperative care techniques help reduce the stress and anxiety that many dogs experience during grooming. By allowing dogs to have control over the process and using positive reinforcement, they learn to associate grooming with positive experiences.

Improves Trust and Bonding

When dogs are not forced into grooming procedures, they develop a stronger bond with their owners and groomers. This trust makes future grooming sessions easier and more pleasant for both parties.

Enhances Safety

Cooperative care reduces the risk of injury to both the dog and the groomer. A relaxed dog is less likely to struggle or bite, making the grooming process safer and more efficient.

Promotes Better Grooming Results

A calm and cooperative dog allows groomers to work more effectively, leading to better grooming results. This is especially important for breeds with specific grooming needs, such as poodles and doodles.

How to start?

Handlers can teach their dogs cooperative care behaviours at home and a nice one to start with is a chin rest. This behaviour is useful for vet visits and therapeutic treatments because it helps the dog relax and feel connected to its handler.

Practicing cooperative care exercises, such as the chin rest, multiple times a day in various environments is key. The dog learns to keep its chin in one spot, typically in the handler’s hand or lap, and stay calm for a set time while receiving treatment.

Step 1: Create Value for the Position

Start by putting a pillow on your lap and placing a treat on it. When your dog takes the treat, say “yes” and give them another treat. Immediately after they eat the treat, use a release cue like “Break” and toss a treat to the side so they see it and go after it. While your dog is retrieving the tossed treat, place another treat on the pillow to encourage them to return. Repeat this several times to help your dog associate the pillow with getting treats.

Step 2: Let Them Choose

When your dog has got this first stage, remove the treat lure and let your dog decide to approach the pillow. Look at the pillow and encourage the chin rest. If your dog sees the pillow as valuable, they should place their chin on it. If not, reward smaller steps like looking at the pillow, touching it with their nose, and then their chin. Remember to release them with a cue and a tossed treat.

Step 3: Name the Behaviour

When your dog is reliably placing their chin on the pillow, add a cue like “Rest” as their chin touches your lap. Reward them after they hold the position for a few seconds.

Step 4: Extend the Duration

Gradually increase how long your dog keeps their chin on the pillow before marking and rewarding the behaviour.

Step 5: Introduce Distractions

When your dog can hold the position for 10-20 seconds, start adding gentle handling. If they stay in position when you pat their back, mark and reward them. If they break the position, stop, and then ask them to do the chin rest again. This teaches them that breaking the position ends the handling.

Always respect your dog’s choice to say “no.” This helps them understand that this is a safe space where their preferences are respected, and it shows them that good things happen when they perform the desired behaviour, but that they can choose to exit at any time.

This enjoyable method of cooperative care training fosters trust and communication. Dogs learn they have the right to choose and communicate their wishes, which reassures them and gives them a sense of control.

Dogs’ basic needs

All dogs have the right to a feeling of safety. This comes in the form of having their basic needs met freely and without restriction – food, water, shelter and health. We want to be showing our dogs that they will have all their needs met continually.

This may seem very basic, but there is a lot of advice out there which disrupts a dog’s ability to maintain this sense of safety (and I use the term ‘advice’ in the loosest possible way) and I wanted to highlight this and why it is problematic.

Water

Water is essential for the survival of all living things. It is the most basic of needs – and it even a fundamental human right, recognised by the United Nations.

So why are we still seeing it recommended to remove a puppy’s water bowl an hour or two before bed, to prevent accidents? If a dog is thirsty, it should not be restricted from drinking because it’s more convenient for us if they’re dehydrated. Puppies are growing so quickly and are so small that dehydration can have serious effects on their little bodies.

When we bring a puppy home, they are going to have accidents. They don’t know the rules and it’s up to us to teach them that going outside is better than going inside, by giving them ample opportunity to go outside and rewarding them heavily for any outdoor business. Their bladders are also just not big enough to go a full night until they’re around 16 weeks, so we should go into puppy adoption being fully prepared for disrupted sleep for at least this time frame.

We shouldn’t be removing water to make it easier for us.

Food

Another example of restricting dogs’ basic survival needs is the idea that dogs should ‘earn’ their food.

Again, food is a basic need. Putting their food in a slow feeder or lick mat to slow them down is one thing (and this can have great benefits for enrichment as well!) but making them perform a ‘command’ in order to get a treat each time, or ‘wait’ until they’ve been told they can have their dinner is just not necessary.

Again, this mentality is very pervasive and, when you think about it, what are we actually gaining from making our dogs wait to eat their meals? I don’t know about you, but this would royally hack me off the shoe was on the other foot.

Similarly, if we only use high value food when we’re trying to get our dogs to perform an action they don’t like (get in the car, bath or put the harness on) the food can become coercive and dogs can become wary of taking food from us.

I don’t generally recommend free feeding (having food down at all times) but regular meals, given without the expectation of anything in return, is really important for well-being.

All of this is not to say that we shouldn’t use food for training, food is a very powerful motivator for many dogs. But the idea that they should work for all their food isn’t helpful.

Safety

It’s also important to show them that you are safe. That they can trust you and that you are never going to do them harm. Your bond is integral to everything that you do with you dog – you want them to think that you are the absolute bees knees and a source of love and good things for them.

This means that we never want to be punishing our dogs or causing them any intentional pain or discomfort when we’re working with them.

Positive reinforcement, using kind and ethical methods, also happen to be the methods that have been backed by science and proven, time and time again, to be equally (if not more) effective than punishment based training (ecollars, prongs, slip leads, water spray, pet corrector, shouting etc). Punishment based training has also been shown, without exception, to have a negative fallout on the dogs’ well-being in studies.

Dogs thrive when they are shown love and compassion and taught new things in a positive way, using play, food or praise as a reward.

Shelter and health

With a few exceptions (such as livestock guardian dogs), the majority of modern breeds have been selectively bred to live alongside humans in their homes. The majority of dogs want to be with their humans as much as they can and so they should be living in our homes, not sleeping outside or tethered to a tree.

With regards to health, we need to make sure that our dogs can have access to the life-saving medical care they need such as vaccinations, flea and worm prevention etc.

This aspect of dog ownership can be contested as it has been argued to be rooted in classism: many people cannot afford insurance or life-saving surgeries. Does this mean they shouldn’t have dogs? Some would say it does, others say it doesn’t.

But if you shouldn’t have a pet because you can’t afford insurance, then where do we draw the line? Should you not have a dog if you can’t afford to feed raw or a high-end kibble? If you can’t afford a house with a big garden? If you can’t afford a car to take them to exciting places? This is a grey and highly nuanced area and certainly not one that I feel qualified to speak on, so I’ll leave you to make your own conclusions here.

To conclude…

What this all boils down to is that we should be considering our dogs’ basic needs and ensuring that we aren’t imposing any restrictions or criteria on them gaining them.

We have come a long way in terms of understanding learning theory and how we should interact with our dogs, but a lot of ‘old school’ mentality surrounding alphas, dominance, pack leaders and respect is still pervasive throughout society and even the most well-meaning person can have been mislead by these ideas.

So the next time you go to give your dog a treat, you can just give it to them ‘for nothing’. They will love you for it.

New puppy or rescue: what to expect

Welcoming home a new puppy or rescue dog can be overwhelming. There are highs and lows as you and your new family member get to know each other and many new owners find the first weeks to be a difficult adjustment. With this in mind, I wanted to lay out what can be expected when we bring a new dog home, both to help people with what to expect but also to normalise how difficult the adjustment often is.

The first few days

Often, we can be lulled into a false sense of security in those first few days. Our dogs are in a state of acute stress: they have left everything they have ever known and come to a new place, with new people and new smells where nothing is familiar.

This results in our dogs holding everything in. They will often be quiet, sleeping a lot and appear to be very ‘calm’. This is very normal but it’s really important to recognise that this behaviour is not going to be forever. Especially with a young puppy or adolescent dog, they are going to have a lot of carnage to cause when they realise they are home and safe!

Owners will often comment on how settled their dog is and how well they are getting on and feel very positive at this stage.

However, is generally after a week or two that new puppy parents and rescue owners will start to feel overwhelmed by their dog’s behaviours. As they start to decompress and feel safe, they will show more of their personality.

As time goes on…

After a week or two, your dog is feeling safe. They are starting to show more of their personality. They may start barking, jumping up, destroying furniture, toileting inside.

Again, this is normal. Your dog is feeling safe and therefore, they are being themselves. A puppy or rescue has not learnt the rules of your home or how we like them to behave, so they are just doing what comes naturally. It’s important to be mindful of the fact that they are not being bad, they are just being a dog.

However, no matter how much you remind yourself of this fact, it doesn’t always make it any easier to deal with the behaviours that are in front of you. It is at this point that owners will often feel like they’ve bitten off more than they can chew and may start to wonder if a getting a dog was the right decision. Often, these feelings of regret come intermixed with intense feelings of guilt, as we feel awful that we are having these thoughts. This is called the ‘puppy blues’ and again, is totally normal. If you want to read more on this phenomenon, I wrote a blog on the puppy blues.

This means that we’ve got a dog who is behaving badly and we’re feeling overwhelmed, sad and guilty to boot. This is a lot for anyone to manage.

So what can we do?

Go back to training basics. We need to build from the bottom up with ours dogs. Don’t expect too much too soon. If you can teach your dog to respond to their name, how to sit and how to ‘wait’ for a treat, then this is a brilliant place to start. This is the fundamentals of recall, basic obedience and impulse control – really important skills and super easy to start off with! Look for easy wins.

Reward everything. Whenever your dog offers you a behaviour you like, reward it. Sat calmly on the floor? Treat. Didn’t bark when someone walked past? Treat. Went to bed without being asked? Treat. Looked at you on a walk? Treat. Everything that your dog does that you like, reinforce it. This is the only way they will learn what we want from them.

Meet your dog’s needs. Make sure your dog is having all their physical and mental needs met. They need to be getting the right amount of exercise: too much and we risk overstimulating and overtiring them. When we come back from a walk, your dog should be calm; if they aren’t, then it was too much. Mental stimulation is also important.

Remain consistent. Make time every day for training. Practise makes permanent so even a five minute training session is better than nothing and will soon add up! You need to be a source of safety for your dog: your bond is everything.

Reach out to a support network. Don’t do it alone. Speak with friends and family, check in with your trainer. There are also lots of wonderful groups on social media where you can reach out to other puppy owners (just be wary of taking any training advice from here, as often this advice is harmful).

Remain positive. By this I mean, stick to positive reinforcement and don’t be tempted to punish your dog. Remember: there is no bad behaviour, it’s just dog behaviour. Dogs don’t do spite or malice, they are not trying to get a rise out of you. Stick to reinforcing what you do like and eventually, these choices will be made more and more reliably.

Take time for yourself. It’s important to have time away from your dog in these first few weeks. Have them go with a walker, spend time with a neighbour, friend or family member so you can do the things that make you happy without your dog. You can’t pour from an empty cup!

Professional advice

Seeking the help of a qualified trainer or behaviourist can also help enormously when you first bring a dog home. Make sure to seek out an R+ (positive reinforcement) trainer, who uses force-free methods. This is the type of training that is backed by science, where dogs learn through praise and encouragement rather than through fear, pain or intimidation.

I work with clients in person across Bournemouth & Poole but also online with clients across the globe. Click here to drop me a message.

Sighthounds

Sighthounds are a group of super speedy dogs that hunt through speed and sight, rather than scent and endurance like most dogs. Whippets, lurchers and greyhounds are all sighthounds but there are dozens of dog breeds that fall into the sighthound category.

Sighthound ownership

Sighthounds are awesome dogs and make for the best companions. They were bred to catch the quickest and most nimble of prey, such as deer and hares. These dogs are characterised by a flexible spine, long legs to and a deep chest. Sighthounds, and in particular, whippets, are a dog breed that I wholeheartedly recommend for first time owners.

Whilst they are the world’s fastest dog breeds, they do not need a huge amount of exercise. They are like F1 cars: fantastic performance, but not built for long drives! They are the world’s fastest couch potatoes and love nothing more than snuggling up with their humans.

Since they are so lean, sighthounds do feel the cold and this means that they do benefit from wrapping up warm in colder weather, so investing in a dog-jumper is a must for the UK winters.

Since sighthounds are so sight-motivated, they can need more work to proof their recall in the face of prey (squirrels, cats, rabbits) and so benefit from recall work from the very beginning. Many sighthound owners choose to walk their hounds on a longline indefinitely, for peace of mind, but with enough time and consistency, it is possible to teach your sighthound a solid recall.

Anatomy

Their legs are long to give them a long stride, allowing them to move faster, and their chests are deep in order to support their unusually large hearts and very efficient lungs. Sighthound hearts are larger compared to other dogs of similar weights, which equips them for maximum efficiency when it comes to both anaerobic and aerobic sprints. Their lean bodies keep their weight to a minimum, which further increases their speediness.

All of this results in a dog who is very uniquely shaped, when compared to other canines. As such, it can be a struggle to find harnesses that fit comfortably and are escape proof, as catering for their small heads, long legs and barrel-like chests is not what most harnesses have been designed for.

I always recommend owners use a harness over a collar, especially for puppies or rescues, as they distribute the pressure evenly and we aren’t applying any pressure on the delicate area around the neck. As such, this presented a bit of a problem…

Enter: Snootiful Hound.

Snootiful Hound

Snootiful Hound is a small business set up with sighthounds in mind; their main product is a harness designed just for sighthound breeds, catering specifically to their unique body shape to create a harness that is escape-proof, comfortable and stylish. The owner, Maleki, was inspired by his own sighthound, Blondie, a rescue Saluki-mix.

He quickly found out that Blondie had a knack for escaping traditional dog harnesses, and with a bit more research, he found out that it’s actually quite common with sighthound breeds. Their body shape makes it quite easy for them to ‘back out’ of many harnesses and once they’re loose, their speed can make it very difficult to get them safe again.

To address this problem, Maleki set out to design an escape proof harness designed just for sighthound breeds.

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The harness

Firstly, the harness had to be escape proof. Although a sighthound’s unique body shape is what makes them susceptible to slipping out of traditional harnesses, it also helped to come up with an escape proof design.

See, behind the big barrel-y chest, is a very slim waist. By adding a third strap to the harness which tucks behind the chest, it would make it impossible for the harness to slip forward.

But why stop there? Sighthounds have other unique needs too, so it also has extra padding, 5 points of adjustment to get a perfect fit, 2 handles for extra control and more unique features!

Maleki is passionate about sighthounds and does a lot of charity work for local sighthound charities. Due to their use in racing, many greyhounds are discarded when they can no longer race and end up looking for rescue homes, or they risk being put to sleep. 10% of all profits are donated to sighthound charities, so by supporting this small business, you are also supporting the wellbeing of these amazing dogs.

If you have a sighthound, I can wholeheartedly recommend Snootiful Hound’s fantastic range of products. Maleki and I have even been speaking about how to adapt the products with puppies in mind, to make lead walking training comfortable and easy.

You can check out his website here and use code JESSDOGTRAINING10 for 10% off all products.

Dog bites – what you need to know

Did you know there are different levels of dog bite and that a dog doesn’t have to make contact in order to be considered ‘dangerous’ in the eyes of the law? If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be alone.

Dangerous Dogs Act

In May 2014, changes to the Dangerous Dogs Act came into effect. The law now states that that all dog owners are be responsible for their dog’s behaviour – both at home and in public places. Whether you own a large or tiny breed, a friendly or nervous dog, this law applies to all dogs in the UK.

It’s against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control anywhere, for example:
• In a public place.
• In a private place, such as a neighbour’s house or garden.
• In the owner’s home.

Out of Control Dogs

Generally, if a dog bites a person it will be presumed to have been ‘dangerously out of control’. However, even if the dog does not bite, but gives the person grounds to feel that the dog may injure them, the law still applies. This can include dogs who jump up, bark at people/animals or who ignore their recall.

Bite Levels

Level 1

Dog growls, bares teeth, barks, stares – but no contact is made

Level 2

A single bite but no puncture wound

Level 3

Bite to human – a single bite, with 1-4 punctures, where the bite has the depth of <half a canine or less. Bite to dog – a single bite to the head or back of neck, with 1-4 punctures, where the bite has the depth of <half a canine or less

Level 4

Bite to human – a single bite, with 1-4 punctures, with a depth of > than half a canine, where bruising is evident within 2 days . Bite to dog – a single bite, with 1-4 punctures, with a depth of > than half a canine

Level 5

Multiple bites in one attack, with a depth of > half a canine

Level 6

Fatality

What does this mean?

All of this means that we need to be aware of the law so that we can advocate for our dogs.

Management

This can look like long lines and muzzles. If your dog has poor recall, keep them on lead. If your dog has a bite history and can be unpredictable, muzzle train them and wear one just in case. If your dog is nervous around unknown people and dogs, don’t walk in highly populated areas with them

Training

Recall is an essential skill if you are planning on having your dog off lead – and this means your dog can come back around distractions, be it another dog, a child with a ball or a family with a picnic. Impulse control training is also important so your dog can manage big feelings without needing to react (this helps with jumping up, barking etc). If your dog is reactive, then behavioural training and reconditioning to help them manage their feelings can be essential for their wellbeing and safety.

Socialisation

We’re talking about puppies here. Make sure to give your pup as many positive/neutral experiences around all different types of dogs and people, sights, sounds and smells. This will result in a confident dog who is less likely to respond fearfully to new situations. Click here to read more about socialisation in puppies.

As always, I am here to help. If you have any questions about dog bites, if your dog has bitten or been bitten, or you want to help your dog with recall or reactivity, drop me a message.

Breeders: Red & Green Flags

As a puppy specialist, I am lucky enough to work with lots of puppies (in the last year, I have worked with over 100 puppies and their owners!). This means I see, on an almost daily basis, the impact that a good or a bad breeder can have on a puppy (and ultimately, the whole life of a dog).

Many people think that as long as they see the mother with the pup or if the breeder is ‘licensed’, that this is doing due-diligence and sadly, this is not enough. In fact, in most parts of the country, you only need a licence at all if you are planning on having 3 or more litters a year, which can be a red flag in itself. In Dorset, however, you also need a licence if you are going to make more than £1000 per litter (and with prices how they are currently, this is very little!).

With this in mind, I wanted to write a list of breeder ‘red-flags’ and ‘green-flags’ so that prospective puppy parents know what to look out for but also so that current puppy parents who are struggling can understand where their young dog’s issues may have stemmed from.

Green flags

A good breeder should be full of questions. They should be genuinely concerned about where their puppies end up and want only the best homes for them. They should ask about your current home situation: kids, current pets, working hours, access to outside etc.
First refusal. In the event that you need to rehome your puppy, a good breeder will have a stipulation upon adoption that the puppy is returned to them. Ethical breeders care about all of their dogs and will take back a puppy so that they can find a good home for them, if it happens that their first owner can no longer keep them.
Mum will be happy to see you. Responsible breeders will only breed from dogs who have a good temperament, who are not reactive or aggressive and who enjoy the company of humans. The temperament of both parents will be considered before a mating to make sure the future puppies are as well-rounded as they can be. The mother should not show any signs of worry about you being near her puppies or in her home.
Health tests. Pedigree dogs are prone to certain breed-specific health conditions. For example, golden retrievers are prone to hip/elbow dysplasia so should have their hips and elbows tested. The Kennel Club has extensive information on what tests each breed should be screened for. These tests are expensive, often needing specialist practices and there is no guarantee that a dog or bitch will pass the tests. If they fail a test, they should not be bred from as this runs the risk of passing conditions onto pups. Only ethical breeders who want to produce healthy puppies will go to this effort and expense.
Early socialisation and exposure. The best breeders will start exposing the puppies to ENS (early neurological stimulation) and ESI (early scent introduction). This involves beginning to condition the puppies to lots of new experiences, building their resilience and adaptability. This decreases the chances of fear and reactivity forming immeasurably. The will also begin the process of toilet training the puppies and introducing separations. They may also begin crate training the pups.

Red flags

You don’t meet the mother. This is the big one! If you aren’t meeting mum, there is a reason for that. Is she fearful? Aggressive? In bad condition?
Tail docking/ear clipping. This is illegal under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. I still have puppies turn up to class with docked ears and tails, the owners having been told that it is ‘fine for working dogs’. There are exemptions to this rule but there are extensive limitations. Working dogs can have their tails docked but extensive evidence has to be provided that the dog will be a working dog (just being a Jack Russel or a cocker is not enough). Here is a full breakdown of the law and exemptions.
Letting puppies go at less than 8 weeks of age. Again, this is written into law under The Animal Welfare Act, 2018. Eight weeks is the legal minimum age at which a puppy can leave its mother.
Letting you take the puppy on your first visit. A good breeder will want to get to know you and make sure you are ready for a puppy and can provide a good home. They should invite you to meet your puppy at least once before taking them home.
Puppies don’t live in the home. If the puppies live outside, then they are not getting used to all the sights, sounds and smells of living alongside us. It is crucial that they are in the home during their socialisation period.
Dirty puppies. The puppies should not have fleas, ticks or worms. They should not be covered in excrement – this is a sign that their mother is unable to care for them properly or being kept from them or that the breeder is not keeping the area well looked after.
Fearful mother. Puppies learn everything from their mother and inherit her character through their genes. If the mother is aggressive, anxious or fearful of you, then this is how your puppies have been learning to react to unknown people.
Lack of paper work. You should see health certificates for mum (and ideally, dad too). As well as this, if your dog is ‘pedigree’, you should be given (or at least shown!) a family tree.
Evasive about questions. A good breeder will jump at the opportunity to talk about their dogs and their puppies and should be able to freely answer any and every question that you have.
Asking for more money when you arrive. I’m including this one because I have had clients who this has happened to. If this isn’t a red flag, I don’t know what is! Ethical breeders do it for the love of the dogs, not money.
Puppies advertised on social media/gumtree etc. You may find good breeders this way, but you’re also guaranteed to find a lot of bad ones. Champdogs and the Kennel Club will only post litters from breeders who are meeting the health testing standards of the breed so these are your best port of call when looking for an ethical breeder. The best breeders have long waiting lists for puppies.
Large deposits. A deposit of more than 20% of the price of the puppy is something to be wary of. Deposits are often charged to cover the cost of the stud dog, as this fee is due as soon as the pups are born. Some breeders do not take a deposit at all, as they want owners to be able to change their mind if they aren’t 100% sure about a puppy. A good breeder will have a long waiting list and will not struggle to find homes for their pups.

I also hear from a lot of owners that they took the puppy, even though they knew things weren’t right with the breeder, because they didn’t want to leave the puppy there and felt they were rescuing it. Please don’t do this. All this does is create a market for the breeder. If they can sell all the puppies, even whilst giving terrible care, then they are going to breed more. Bad breeding is driven by the market and it is up to us, as consumers, to stop the demand for back yard breeding.

If you wanted to check out a shining example of the ‘gold standard’ when it comes to breeding, then Snowyoak Golden Retrievers are brilliant. You can check them out on their instagram here. When we bring home a second dog, it will be one of Agnes’ pups.

As always, I am here to help. I offer puppy consultations, both at home and online, where I can help you to identify a good breeder and assist in the process of choosing the right puppy for your home. Click here to find out more.

The Ball

Is your dog ball-obsessed? Many dogs are, but worryingly, many owners don’t know about the risks repetitive ball throwing causes – both to their dog’s body and to their behaviour. This blog aims to explain these dangers as well as to provide alternative games you and your ball-obsessed pooch can play together, that don’t pose these risks.

The dangers

We’ve all heard the old adage of ‘a tired dog is a good dog’ but a ball chasing session is going to do quite the opposite. Tracking, chasing and catching a ball is very exciting for our dogs and causes their arousal levels to shoot up. If we spend our whole walks letting them practise this behaviour, they wind themselves up further and further. This means that when you return home, far from being tired, your dog is now in a state of over-stimulation, unable to switch off and relax. The adrenaline in your dog’s body can take up to two hours to fully drain after a ball-throwing session.

Dogs also get a massive hit of adrenaline and feel good hormones when they’re surging after that ball. This feeling is very addictive and dogs can become obsessive about the ball – to their detriment. They literally become like a drug addict waiting for their next hit. And, as with all addictions, they will demand more and more of it as time goes by. This is at the expense of all the other natural behaviours that it’s important for our dogs to exhibit on walks – namely, exploring the world with their noses.

Repetitive, long-distance ball throwing also puts unnecessary strain on their joints, muscles and cartilage. This can result in long-term health problems like arthritis. However, it can be difficult to spot the early warning signs of problems developing, because the dog is so excited that they will carry on through the pain.

Alternatives

So if we shouldn’t be throwing the ball for our dogs, what can we do to play with our ball-obsessed canines? Here are some of my favourite games to play with both my own and my clients’ dogs:

Hide and seek

A fun and easy game you can play on walks or at home & in the garden. This game is brilliant because scent work is calming (and tiring!) for dogs.

Start by asking your dog to sit and wait as you place the ball on the floor.
Tell them to ‘get it’ and make a fuss when they do so.
From here, start to move the ball out of their line of sight, so they have to start using their nose to track it down. Long grass, bushes etc are great for hiding the ball.

Boop the ball

Start by holding the ball in front of your dog. When they boop it with their snoot, mark and reward with a treat. If they bop it with a paw, just ignore that and wait for a nose boop. You’ll need to spend some time building this up, then add a cue word like ‘touch’ or ‘roll’ just before they do it.
Instead of holding the ball while they boop it, progress to putting the ball on the ground and using your cue word. Hopefully, they will start to get the idea that they touch the ball, but don’t grab it or pick it up.
Keep working on building up their ball rolling using your cue word. Try to progress from little nudges to repeat pushes using their nose.

Herd the ball

Great for herding breeds (like collies) but all dogs can enjoy this game! This is great for teaching impulse control but places a lot more focus on you as part of the game than fetch does.

Dribble the ball in between your feet so your dog tracks its movements.
Kick the ball out for them to intercept once they’ve tracked it for a while.
Build up how long they have to track it before releasing.

It’s also important to note that we shouldn’t be using tennis balls to play with our dog. The surface of a tennis ball is abrasive. Having a dog’s teeth scuffed by a tennis ball entering their mouth (or worse, having them chew on it) acts like sandpaper, wearing down their teeth over time.

Even the ‘dog safe’ tennis balls on the market aren’t safe; anything with a fuzzy surface causes the wearing away of their teeth. Rubber balls are a safer option but it’s important to make sure that your dog can’t fit the entire ball in their mouth, else this poses a choking/swallowing hazard.

It is also important to note that while there is a vast amount of anecdotal evidence around ball throwing, there have yet to be any studies conducted into the behavioural/physical impacts of playing fetch. However, there have been many studies conducted showing that over-excitement can very easily tip into over-arousal and an anxious state.

Attention seeking

Barking, whining, jumping up, squeaking, bringing you toys, staring at you with a wagging tail – I think we all recognise the signs of a dog who is after our attention! As much as they would like us to, it is not possible to give your dog attention all of the time – and it wouldn’t be in their best interests anyway.

So how do we manage attention seeking behaviour? Let’s take a look.

What is your dog communicating

We are often told to ignore attention-seeking behaviour but this seems wild to me. We wouldn’t ignore a friend if they asked for our attention by texting to say hello, we wouldn’t ignore a child communicating their need for physical touch – so why is the first port of call to ignore our dogs’ cries for attention?

Yes, we often want to ignore unwanted behaviours so we don’t inadvertently reinforce them (e.g. jumping up) but if your dog is asking for attention, there may be an unmet need there. Pay attention to the time of day that your dog is bothering you – is it always around the same time? Always before or after the same event?

They may be bored, hungry, needing the toilet or – as is often the case – overstimulated and unable to settle.

I try to spend the mornings catching up on paperwork and admin tasks and this is the time that Kenny is most likely to ask for attention. He will entertain himself for a while – chasing his ball around, looking out the window at people on the school run – but by around 9:30/10:00, he’s at his limit and will start looking at me and squeaking. He’s bored and starting to get frustrated. This is my cue to start getting ready to talk him for his walk. Yes, it can be a bit annoying to have to cut my work short but I got a high-energy, working breed for a reason and it wouldn’t be fair of me to be irritated by him being true to his nature.

I am lucky to be self-employed and able to plan my day around my dog’s walk but if this weren’t the case, I could give him a piece of enrichment to tide him over or get a dog walker in to take him for a morning walk. Ignoring him certainly wouldn’t help – he’d only find ways of entertaining himself (that would probably involve pestering the cats or eating my shoes).

How do we meet this need

If your dog is bothering you and they haven’t been outside to potty for a while, haven’t had a meal or their walk, then the answer is clear. If you meet this need, they’ll stop bothering you.

The difficulty comes when, on the face of it, all of your dog’s needs have been met and yet they are still whining at you – wanting to play, have pets and generally be the centre of your attention. They’ve had their walk, you’ve tried lick mats, chews, snuffle mats, tug of war and yet they’re still on your case for more. This is common in puppies/young dogs and working breeds.

This is when we need to consider if we are doing too much for our dogs. A bored dog looks very similar to a dog who is over-stimulated. If we are constantly throwing activities at our dogs, particularly if we are giving them multiple walks a day, then we are constantly stacking them and never giving them a chance to properly unwind. This can tip them into a state of constant over-arousal, where they don’t know how to switch off because they’ve become addicted to this busy state.

If this is the case, it’s also very likely that your dog is not getting enough quality rest. An adult dog should be getting around 14 hours of sleep a day, but often, they will need even more than this. If your dog is constantly ‘on the go’ then they can’t be getting this vital rest.

Imagine what would happen if a toddler was sleep deprived on a long term basis – their behaviour would become very difficult to manage very quickly.

You may need to allow your dog to switch off by doing less and teaching them to settle.

Teaching a self-settle

Once you’ve established whether all your dog’s needs are being appropriately met, you may need to focus on teaching your dog to be calm.

For the average working dog, 1-2 hours walking a day with another hour of play/enrichment should be more than enough to keep them calm, happy and fulfilled. They should also have days off from walking every now and then, to give them a chance to recharge properly.

This means, your dog is going to have time at home where they aren’t asleep or engaging with you where they need to either: a) entertain themselves or b) be comfortable doing nothing.

Like anything, these are skills that we can teach. We want to be promoting independence in our dogs by letting them make choices.

The ‘place’ command can also be a useful way of teaching calmness for your dog. This command is great because it’s teaching them that if they go on their bed and hang out, then good things will happen.

And that’s it! This is how we can help our dogs (and ourselves!) with attention-seeking behaviours.

If you find that your dog is needier with one member of the family, this is quite common. They will generally seek attention more from their primary care giver. They are also very good at working out who is the most likely to give in to their attempts. My dog doesn’t squeak at my partner for walks, because it’s always me who takes him!

As always, if you need any help identifying your dog’s needs or teaching them independence or a self-settle then I am here to help, either in person or online. Click here to drop me a message.