The Darling Dog Company

Quick & easy way to keep your dog cool

One of the best ways I have found of keeping your dog lovely and cool in this weather if you have to take them out, apart from taking them swimming is to carry one of these with you....

It is a £1 plant sprayer from the supermarket. Every summer I buy a few of them to have them in the car, at home etc. All you do a couple of hours before a walk is fill with water and put it into the freezer. You don't want it to freeze but you want the water to be getting frosty. Then take it with you out on a walk. It means that you can really quickly cool your dog's coat down effectively. I spray it all over the chest near the heart so it soaks to the skin and on the belly and face area.

From a very early age I taught Cookie to drink from it and to accept having the nozzle bit put in her mouth. So now she will happily drink from it when out or allow me to spritz all her face/ears with it. Plus you can use it on yourself!

Taking this out with you does not mean you should think travelling or walking your dog in the heat is safe. Try to keep walks short or do them early in the morning or later on at night as with a fur coat its just too much for them. At the moment all my walks are based around where I can go to take dogs swimming to cool down, exercise and have some fun. The water sprayer is a great addition to that.

 

Bitches & being in Season: Changes in behaviour

A few years ago I was on a course and we were discussing the changes of hormones and when bitches are coming into or are in season. A male trainer piped up that he didn't feel it was relevant to take this into account when dealing with a bitch. The whole room nearly turned on him! As a room full of mostly women, every single female begged to differ. At the moment I have a couple of clients whose bitches have come into the season for the first time and they are asking for advice.

It can be a tricky one as each dog deals with it differently but in my opinion it can change behaviours and it can make your dog react differently. Depending on the dog itself.

I have put some tips below that may help you London dog owners. Its my belief as responsible dog owners living in an busy, crowded urban environment that we should take responsiblity for our own dogs and when they are season that may mean a change in your daily routine. For the protection of your dog and other people's dogs. Some may disagree with me and that's fine if you live in the country with a quiet orchard to walk your dog. In London, we don't!

The reaction you may get when a male sniffs out a female on heat....!

At Home:

You may find that your dog becomes subdued, quiet, barky, reactive, anxious or stays exactly the same. I can't predict but its worth being aware that changes can happen. I can't tell you for sure whether the bitches are in pain but I have witnessed one of my dogs when she was in season, barking at her own bottom whilst sat in bed! The jury is out but its something to bear in mind but not dwell on. Just make sure your dog has a quiet, safe environment like a big bed or crate to retreat to that is out of the way of everyone else. Give them space to do their own thing like sleep if that is all that they want to do.

You may find that your dog has more accidents and seems like they are losing their toilet training. It isn't the case at all but I have had clients whose dogs suffered from diahorrea during their season. If there is ever blood in the stools or it goes on for more than 24hrs then get a vets appointment.

You can also try using things like the DAP plug in diffusers. There doesn't seem to be much evidence either way that they work but if it makes you feel like you are doing something, do it! You may also want to restrict your dog's access in the house to rooms that have floorboards or similar. As when in full swing some bitches can bleed quite a bit, others it is just minimal spotting. So be prepared with the dog friendly floor cleaner and wipes.

If you have other dogs in the home, observe carefully when together. Its crucial to keep entire (uncastrated males) away from your bitch when in season and some other bitches will react badly to a female. Its down to animal instinct I'm afraid so be cautious and careful. Baby gates are a great help if you do have more than one dog in the home.

Out and About:

My personal opinion is that if your dog is up for going out on walks you should still take them but at very quiet times. So ideally very early in the morning and very late at night. They should always be walked on lead and not in busy parks or areas. A dog in season will get male dogs excited and some can smell them far far away! You do not want to be walking your tiny Yorkshire Terrier when a huge Labrador comes hulking over looking for a good time!!

London is a busy place and a bitch in season can be a great drawer for many males. So in my opinion to safeguard your dog and other people's dogs show some consideration and keep outings to a minimum. If you dog is subdued and quiet, you may be better to just entertain her in the garden. Play games and teach her some tricks to pass the time.

Most of all, do not be tempted to let your dog off lead. Depending on where she is in her cycle she may be oblivious to male attention or if she is further along, she may try to flaunt her wares to any passing boy!! If you know what I mean. We are over run with dogs and puppies in rescue so please do think twice about breeding your dog and bringing even more dogs into an overcrowded world.

And here is a link to an article that you may also find interesting it details the exact parts of the cycle in all bitches on heat

Don't Chuck away your old Tennis balls

Any owner who has a dog that loves tennis balls and who loves to 'chank' them will understand the need for this post. If like me you despair with the amount of useless balls you have lying around then here is the game for you. I seem to get through a lot of them so I decided there had to be more ways to use them once they have given up the ghost! So here is one of my ideas that your dog might enjoy too.

Take a tired old tennis ball, some treats and a sharp knife

Cut a hole in the ball that the treats will be able to fit out of

Stuff with the treats or food that you want to use. Make sure its quite smelly as rubber tennis balls have a strong scent of their own

Then give it to your dog to roll around, pick up and drop and use their paws to get the treats to drop out. If your dog finds this easy peasy then once you have filled with food, tie an old piece of fabric around the ball and let your dog undo and pull that apart to get to the treat dispensing hole. 

 

Getting Ready for a Baby

Having a child is one of the biggest changes you can ever go through in your life. Or so I'm told as I'm 17 weeks pregnant! One of the things that I am already working on is preparing the dog in my life for the arrival of an interesting little bundle. I am fortunate as my dog Cookie loves children, my niece and nephew have grown up with her in their life and she has adored them. And they her as well as being taught how to respect and behave around her.

My nephew George with my dog Cookie and my cat Eartha. My sister is sat just to the right of the photo. Never leave your dog alone with children, no matter how much you trust them.

However it is still different because Cookie will be living with the baby twenty four hours a day from September onwards. So it may still seem too early to some to be preparing her but I don't agree. Some mothers may notice that as their hormones change so can their dogs behaviour, so far so good in my house. But it is important as an expectant family to be prepared for this with your dogs/s. 

Although I am four months pregnant and we have a long way to go, I have already begun little pieces of work to get Cookie used to some of the things she is going to have to do when the baby is around. One of the things I've been doing a lot of is whenever we are with my family, she is learning to walk alongside the niece/nephews buggy. Don't take for granted that its as easy as it looks. You go from walking your dog just next to you to asking them to walk beautifully next to a large contraption with 4 wheels. It can take time to establish a routine with this and I would suggest starting as early as possible. Go out with your friends and family's pushchairs as soon as you can and start putting some work in to making it an enjoyable experience rather than one that is feared. 

Teaching dogs how to react around equipment and baby is crucial. Dogs are animals and not human, they cannot possibly understand it all unless you teach them.

My dog is deaf, she was tested as totally deaf but sometimes I'm sure she can hear very high pitched noises! If your dog can hear properly you should also think about buying a CD of baby noises - crying, screaming, gurgling and so forth. Its a really great way to get your dog used to the weird and wonderful noises that they are going to be subjected to. If your dog has been living in a nice and peaceful environment with not many disturbances, think how different it will be when a baby comes into the dog's life!

Teach your puppy or dog what toys they can and cannot play with. You cannot afford for possession guarding around a baby!

There are lots of other tasks that you can be doing to prepare your dog, here are just a couple to get you started:

• Don't leave your dogs toys littered around the house, have a set box or drawer where they are kept. To teach your dog that not everything lying on the floor is his. It will also be important to designate an area for toys for the baby, that the dog isn't allowed access to. You could also start with this early on. 
• Bring new items of furniture into the home to get your dog used to them, such as playpens, car seats etc.
• If you don't want your dog on your bed or sofa when the baby arrives then you need to change your routine before the baby arrives. My dog is allowed on the sofa but only on one particular part of it, so she already knows that part of it is out of bounds. Which means that if I want to sit with her and the baby I can but if I want to sit alone but to have her on the sofa, she already has her own area and I can retreat away from her. 
• It can also be worth thinking about introducing a crate as a separate place for your dog to take themselves to. If things get too much, they have their own private place that they can relax and rest in without having to worry about children, noise and being interfered with.

There are many many more things that you can be doing, too many to go through in a blog post. If you would like help with getting ready for the birth of your baby or settling a new baby into the household, do get in touch. 

Results of the Hackney Dog Control Consultation

So the results are in from Hackney Council...they have decided to introduce three new dog control orders:

1. Dogs Exclusion order

2. Dogs on Lead order

2. Dogs on Lead - when requested order

You can read the full page here on Hackney Council website.

My concern is that for the orders no 2 and 3, I wonder how they will actually police this. Seeing as when I was invited to give my opinion as a professional working in the borough with dogs, they advised me that there would be no more officers/staff/rangers to enforce the orders available.

When I mentioned that many of these orders would be broken in the evening and early mornings, I was advised that staff may not be available at those time to police the orders. So my concern is this - will the orders actually change anything. Is it just a quick fix to try to quieten down the responsible owners who complain or have been attacked or threatened? Only time will tell.

And as for the fouling issue, only feet on the ground following owners will help eliminate the culprits. I also suggested provision of poo bags in all Hackney parks, that isn't mentioned though.

Lets hope that these new measures provide create more responsible owners, with dogs under control and less piles of poo littering the streets and grass verges...afterall we are ALL ambassadors for the dogs in this world.

 

The Most Amazing Welcome Home Ever?

If you are a dog owner or dog lover you have to check this video out. It makes you smile from ear to ear with happiness because there is just no denying how happy this dog is.

His owner is a US soldier and has just returned after 8 months away..........

  

A Little Something for All you Terrier Lovers

There has been a huge surge in ownership of Border Terriers, Jack Russells, Fox Terriers, Welsh Terriers and Boston Terriers in London so I thought this post would be for you all..

Check out Forever Foxed a great little Etsy shop selling lovely, stylish and doggy cards, magnets and other bits and bobs. Take a peek.

Heres an example of one of their cards

And some Border Terrier magnets

See, aren't they beautiful. No ugly imagery in site, just stylish products that you can appreciate.

 

The Importance of Play for Dogs

Many years ago I used to work as a senior children's researcher, looking at how children's lives have changed, how they interact and one of the topics to investigate was the importance of play. Yesterday I was talking to someone on the phone about their dog and they said it wouldn't play with them, it was a rescue dog. The new owner had only tried the ball and then given up when the dog wasn't interested.

Having the conversation got me thinking back to the days when I worked on this topic with kids, although a different species in my eyes the importance and relevance is exactly the same. Children and dogs use play to learn about the world, to understand the rules and boundaries. If you look at many of the tasks children and dogs do in the early stages its all about improving cognitive behaviour and co-ordination such as grip, hand/paw and eye co-ordination. Then as time progresses its role reversal, testing the boundaries and then there is a lot of running in there, as their curosity and interest in the world means that everything must be done at a really fast pace! Are you seeing the similarities now?

In my eyes, with the work that I do, play has a huge role, in fact I try to make most of my training about play and games. As usually it keeps the dogs interested and motivated. On top of that play is good for us adults, playing with our dogs calms us down, soothes us and makes us happy plus the benefits for your dog. Some dogs have been deprived so do not know how to play or some may have been controlled so tightly that they dare not play. This can be changed but it takes time and patience.

Below I've put a list why in my eyes play is so very crucial for our dogs and I'm not referring to dog on dog play I'm talking about the games and fun they have with us because in my opinion, if a puppy is from a decent breeder with a good mother, much of their dog on dog socialisation will be learnt by the time they arrive with  you at 7/8 weeks. The mother will have taught them when enough is enough, how hard to bite, when to stop and litter mates should have played a role in creating boundaries, role reversal and so forth. So your job as an owner is to continue this play and teach them the ways of the world that they are now going to live in as a dog in a human world.

The benefits of play to your dog:

• It will make your dog happy
• It will build confidence in a nervous dog and maintain confidence in a balanced dog
• As an energy outlet, play is a wonderful way to mentally & physically stimulate your dog
• To learn the rules - i.e. dogs teeth & human skin don't make contact, not to jump up
• As a recall reward
• To make your dog want to be with you and hang out with you, if you are dull and dogs are more fun why would they hang around with you?! Harsh but true I'm afraid.
• As a way to train an exercise or task
• It can be a great motivator. If you do this you get to play this game
• To release stress and anxiety in a dog
• To keep the brain active which is especially important in older dogs
• Balance, co-ordination and life skills such as hunting, fighting etc.
• Because its fun, for everyone involved

The other thing to remember is, don't get caught up on what you 'think' your dog should play with. If you are obsessed with your dog retrieving a ball and it doesn't seem interested, don't worry about it. Move on and find something that they do love playing with. Find out what motivates your dog as every dog is not the same even if they are from the same breed group, there will be similarities but also differences.

Our Emotions have an Impact on our Dogs

There are trainers and behaviourists and scientists out there who will disagree with what I am about to say. I believe that when you are close to your dog and you have a strong relationship and bond, your own emotions can effect your dog. I am quite sure much of it is due to sense of smell and changes in adrenaline and so forth, as for dogs they can smell and react to all of that. Hence why we have dogs who can be medical alert assistants, they have been trained to use their sense of smell very accurately.

Last night I went to see a lovely Spaniel client of mine who is 1.5yrs old and has been a joy. Then in the last couple of months has started weeing and pooing at night. Meal times have been changed, walks have been adjusted and many other things that would usually have an impact on this kind of behaviour.

We then started going off course and having a chat about our lives, what we had been up to and the owners work and personal life and so forth. It turns out that she was in the early stages of preganancy, had been admitted to hospital with a problem, had come out and been quite ill, her partner had gone away for work and she wasn't working because she had been so ill and needed to rest up!! But at the beginning she hadn't thought this was relevant or part of the problem.

Her dog is extremely close to her and her boyfriend, they are a great little family unit and just the pregnancy hormone changes alone can be sensed by the dog. Then you add everything else into the mix and we have the recipe for a rather confused and anxious dog.

So with a few changes, some adaptions to bedtime location and a new routine we have created a hopefully clean bedtime for dog and owners! It just goes to highlight though, that our dogs are animals, they are creatures with a sense of emotion, I'm by no means saying like our state of emotions but I do believe they can respond to our emotions and upheaval, tribulations, joy and distress. So bear it in mind, if your dog starts doing something out of the blue. Sit down, get a cup of tea and a bit of cake and have a think about it all...

Mini Dog Classes for Excitable, Nervous & Aggressive Dogs

Recently I've been trying to come up with ways to help clients who need continual assistance with their dogs but that isn't going to cost the earth, as we are in a recession.  Owners may come to me because their dogs are nervous around other dogs or they are uber excited and want to pounce on each dog they see. Or it could be because they are showing aggression when faced with other dogs.

Below you can see the 3 dogs involved in an over excitable mini class. These 3 dogs find it hard to contain their excitement when they are around other dogs! Here we have them doing some control exercises and learning to focus. Well done Sparkie, Harvey and Pluto.

So I came up with the idea and created 'mini classes' where a maximum of 3 dogs and their owners meet me in the parks for us to work together.

We then use the basis of behavioural adjustment therapy to help the dogs. And depending on the reason why they are there will depend on the format the hour class takes. I've found them to be a really helpful way to build owners confidence slowly and for dogs to learn to trust their owners too.

And here is Kirsten playing with Rocket in the park and we are teaching him to be calm and confident when other dogs are around as he can be nervous aggressive towards them. What you can't see is that just out of shot is Ripley the Afghan standing and watching.

The great thing about the mini classes is that I can tailor them around the dogs whose owners contact me. If you have a dog that you think might benefit then do contact me to discuss the details. 

 

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