Young Dogs Might Be More Similar to Human Teenagers Than We Think: New Research
By Naomi D. Harvey and Lucy Asher Speak to many dog owners and they will tell you that their once perfectly behaved puppy started to become “difficult” at around six to 12 months of age. There are articles all over the internet that advise owners on how to cope with teenage dogs. But until now there has been no scientifically documented evidence of behaviour changes in dogs during puberty. Our new study, published in Biology Letters, confirms what many dog owners and dog professionals have long suspected: that dogs have… Continued
Preventing Resource Guarding in Dogs
Resource guarding is a dog’s natural tendency to protect valued possessions such as food, toys or resting locations. From a dog’s perspective, the approach of a person or animal is a potential threat to losing the valued possession. The behavior reflects a lack of trust and a fear of loss. Dogs in the wild must guard their food, water and shelter or they cannot survive. Domestic dogs will of course survive if someone takes their chew bone away, but their behavior is influenced by 32,000 years of evolution. If a… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Choices Matter
By Maria Zarate As a veteran shelter professional, I’ve always sought outside the box to find effective and efficient methods to help residents skill build. Here are three “go to” methods we use regularly in the shelter environment and I hope you find them helpful too. Pillow Case Feeds What to do with all those donated pillow cases? Don’t toss them, use them instead to feed the residents who eat quickly or who enjoy a good game of “find it”. Pillow case feedings make meal times fun and help slow… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Traumatized Dog
By Rhonda York Claire, an Aussie/cattle dog mix, came to live with us in May 2016. When I brought her home to foster her, I had no idea how to help her. She was completely unsocialized to humans and utterly terrified of everyone and everything—except for my two Labs, Angel and Buddy. I read many books, but nothing addressed how traumatized she really was. I regularly volunteer at PAWS for Life animal shelter in Pueblo, Colorado and am used to hyper dogs, big dogs, slightly OCD dogs and nervous dogs.… Continued
Getting Exercise Just Right!
By Robyn Lowe of PPG corporate partner Canine Arthritis Management Exercising and the Arthritic Dog I would like everyone to meet Daisy, the apple of my eye. She’s a Chihuahua cross Jack Russell terrier and is extremely active for her size (2kg). Unfortunately Daisy has osteoarthritis (OA) in her hips; exercise has changed a little now. I now know how hard it is to get it right, not over do it so they are sore the next day but not to restrict exercise so much that you ruin their fun!… Continued
Practice Makes Perfect
By Joanna Moritz Nobody likes going to the vet’s office with a sick pet. But here are some simple rules to follow that will make your trip more pleasant for you, your dog and the office staff – and that’s a win-win-win. 1. Practice Makes Perfect The less stressed your dog is for an exam, the better for everyone involved. So: If you have a puppy or a small dog, put him on your washer or dryer occasionally and practice touching him all over – and give him treats while… Continued
Raising a Puppy
By Sally Bradbury If you’ve read the children’s book Jack and Billy: Puppy Tales that I co-wrote with Steven Goodall, you may remember that we related the tale of two littermates who were placed into two very different homes. Explains Norris (2019): “In the case of Jack and Billy, both puppies go to homes that are similar: they both have children, both puppies have access to toys, both puppies are to be crate trained and house trained, and both puppies go out for walks. But there is a big difference… Continued
Celebrating National Dog Day 2020
By Bella / Animal Courses Direct, a PPG corporate partner In honor of our canine companions, Animal Courses Direct are celebrating National Dog Day 2020 with some truly inspirational stories from some of our students. “My Four-Legged Glasses Called Karma” Anne, from London, is completely blind and so depends on her wonderful helper Karma to get around. Karma, the dog, is the perfect supportive companion, helping Anne with day-to-day life. One day, Anne had to go into the city center to deliver some documents to a particular office. Karma did… Continued
How to Be More in Tune with Your Dog
How can I bond better with my dog? How do we connect more? I’m not even sure she even likes me! We care about our dogs and, as a consequence, we worry about questions such as these from time to time. Certain situations or scenarios mean they just pop into our head from time to time and, most likely, they’re completely unfounded. Having said that, there’s definitely room to think about how we can be a little more ‘in tune’ with our dogs – if we are, both our lives… Continued
Quick Cat Behavior Tip: Trimming Claws
By the PPG Cat Committee While there are a lot of cats who may not initially be terribly keen on the whole claw trimming process, there are ways to make it enjoyable and fun for both parties. This article will explain the steps cat owners can take to make it a more pleasant, stress-free experience all round. Important Reminders: Trimming a cat’s claws can prevent damage to furniture and other household items, as well as to humans, from inadvertent scratches. Often the biggest challenge isn’t the claw trimming itself but… Continued
Stumbling through Puppy Socialization
In 1983 my wife and I moved into our first home on a ¾ acre lot in a small city and could finally have a puppy. She was a black Labrador Retriever whose AKC registration name was Monona Midnight Melody, but we called her Samantha. We knew nothing about raising a puppy and there were not abundant dog trainers to work with, nor could we have afforded them at the time. I bought the best-selling dog training book available and tried to teach Samantha according to the instructions of the… Continued
Bath Time
By Robyn Lowe of PPG corporate partner Canine Arthritis Management After coming home from our walk the other day, Daisy needed a bath. It got me thinking… Daisy is 2kg (4.4 lbs)… yes 2kg! (that’s not Daisy in the picture, just in case you wondered!) She can be bathed in the bath, shower or even the sink. She’s extremely easy to support and doesn’t slip or jump about when getting baths. I know for a fact this isn’t true of all dogs and especially for larger breeds it’s extremely difficult… Continued
Examining Anxiety Traits and Breed Specifics
By Dr. Sheryl L. Walker A review of a recent paper on the prevalence, comorbidity, and breed differences in canine anxiety in Finnish pet dogs Review Introduction With a background in behavior analysis and animal sheltering, and currently working toward my Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) certification, I personally found the research in Prevalence, comorbidity, and breed differences in canine anxiety in 13,700 Finnish pet dogs by Salonen et al. (2020) intriguing. Right off the bat, the first sentence in the Abstract packs a punch, especially if you have spent any… Continued
Behavior Modification — A Case Study of a “Difficult” Dog
By Maren Jensen Ph.D. and Angelica Steinker M.Ed. CDBC PDBC PCBC-A The Joy and Journey of Rehabilitating a Dog with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Pica, Separation Anxiety, Noise Sensitivity and Aggression Rumble was a normal puppy. He investigated, pounced and loved all. Rum, as he is affectionately known, socialized with confidence and happiness, starting at nine weeks. He learned how to learn playing games. Maren, his owner, is a dog trainer and dog sport coach. Everything seemed on track for Rum to make a spectacular entrance into the dog sport… Continued
Respect, Routines and Redirection
By Andrea Carne Dear Diary, day 10 of quarantine and the human is STILL sitting in my spot … Over the past few months, your social media has no doubt been filled with a host of funny memes depicting the plight of cats reluctantly having to endure the presence of their humans 24/7. While these have provided some much-needed light relief in an incredibly stressful period, I believe there is also some truth behind the comedy. At the time of writing this article, we were in the middle of the… Continued
Understanding Our Dogs: Separation Anxiety in Canines
By Animal Courses Direct How is your dog coping with changes during the pandemic? For many of us, the coronavirus and lockdown have brought a chance to spend more time with our beloved pets and families. Lots of dogs are benefitting from increased walks, interactions and new opportunities for mental stimulation. Some dogs will be loving this extra time with their loved ones and the company day-to-day, however for some dogs this will feel unusual and they may struggle with this change to their normal routine. It’s also likely that… Continued
Empowering Dogs and Humans to Have a Deeper, More Connected Relationship – One Harness at a Time
By Joan Hunter Mayer of PPG corporate partner Transpaw Gear® At TransPaw Gear®, our goal to help move society forward into a mutually respectful space between dogs and humans – thereby creating a pawsitive cultural shift. Walking together is one of the most basic activities dogs and the people who love them do together, so we set out to create pet harnesses that ensure an easy, enjoyable, walking experience. More importantly though, we are on a mission to empower dogs and humans to have a deeper, more connected relationship –… Continued
COVID-19: 3 Tips for Dog Trainers on Adapting to the ‘New Normal’
By Susan Nilson Last month, the Pet Professional Guild (PPG) hosted a webinar with Anna York, BSc (Hon) PhD, Stephanie Perniciaro PhD MPH, Anne Wyllie PhD, Maikel Boot PhD, Chantal Vogels PhD MSc BSc, and Kayoko Shioda DVM MPH of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut and Dr. Hannah Capon of Canine Arthritis Management in the U.K. to examine how, in this time of pandemic, dog trainers, animal behavior consultants and pet care professionals can engage in best practice to keep themselves and their clients safe as… Continued
Living with a Dog Who’s Going Deaf
Buddha, my black Labrador, has always had a sharp sense of hearing. Teaching him to respond to word cues was easy, and I also taught him several hand cues. Doing so probably saved his life on one occasion. About eight years ago a solar panel system was installed on our barn roof. That required a crew of workers to have access in, out and on top of our barn for three days straight. I put our horse and sheep in their paddock and let my three Labradors play in their… Continued
Surviving the Storm
By Gail Radtke Looking back to March-April time, it seems like the entire dog training business as we know it pretty much crashed overnight. As COVID-19 started to take hold, decisions had to be made fast – especially for those of us who run a business at a physical location that is under a lease who realized we were not going to earn any income at that venue for the foreseeable future. Of course, we had all heard about the coronavirus and what was happening overseas but had no idea… Continued
Everything Was Fine Until…
By Suzanne Clothier Does this sound familiar? “Everything was fine until… [fill in months, age, event].” It’s a statement that is common, and sometimes accepted without much thought. For example, a client might tell us that their puppy was a saint until he turned 7 months old. Or that there were no problems until Grandma Tilley came to stay for a week. Perhaps a new neighbor was bitten, or the owner was nearly pulled into the street when the dog spotted a squirrel. Whatever the precipitating event(s) that brought the… Continued
Is My Dog in Pain?
By Robyn Lowe Every single dog is unique and every arthritis story is different. Some dogs are stoic and will hide symptoms and others will show very early on that they are in pain. We know that dogs all experience pain differently, X-rays may look horrendous on one dog but clinically they are still fairly mobile whereas X-rays on another may show very mild changes but the dog clinically is extremely painful! Dogs do tend to tell us about chronic pain in a very different way to acute pain. Acute pain –… Continued
Muzzles Schmuzzles…Not “Just Another Piece of Kit!”
Saying the word “muzzle,” suggesting the use of and/or using one, or seeing a dog wearing one can have negative connotations for some. But why? Perhaps because we have become used to seeing guard dogs or so-called aggressive dogs wearing them. They are used by the military, armed forces and law enforcement. We see them in cartoons and we also see them in regions where Breed Specific Legislation decrees that certain breeds have to wear them (based purely on appearance), and in sports such as greyhound racing. These are just… Continued
Quick Cat Behavior Tip: Petting-Induced Aggression
By the Pet Professional Guild Cat Committee Petting-induced aggression is a commonly reported feline behavior issue whereby adoring owners often find themselves at a loss to understand why their beloved kitty is so accepting of their affection one moment, only to go completely on the offensive the next. Important reminders about the behavior: As both a predator and prey species, cats need to be highly sensitive to their environment to survive, which includes being sensitive to touch. Cats have touch receptors all over their bodies, some of which are continually… Continued
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