Tag: Dog Bowl

Dog Behaviour

Slippery floors and dogs

Joanne Hinds

These days it’s common for many houses to have laminate, wooden or tiled flooring. Often people already have it in the house before they have got their dog or puppy home. 

The trouble is dogs really struggle with slippery floors and have to work very hard to stabilise on them. For them it can be like walking on ice on a daily basis. 

You may notice when asking them to sit their feet splay out or worse knees and hips and many end up lying frequently even when they don’t actually want to. This is a real risk with puppies that are still growing sustaining long term joint issues.

It can make dogs restless as they have to fight to stabilise constantly, making micro adjustments as they regularly walk across the floor, this can cause anxiety in some dogs and can impact other fear related behaviours.

More importantly it often causes nagging injuries, strains, joint problems and more. Now your dog may not be showing any signs of pain physically but remember dogs are stoic they often do not show any lameness or limping until their pain level is about a 6 and often only vocalise pain when it’s at its highest. 

Tips to reduce the risks:

  1. Use anti slip rugs and runners strategically placed, when coming in through door ways at the bottom of the stairs and to break large surfaces up. 
  2. Make sure there beds are anti slip too as getting on them can cause strains if they move, you can get anti slip tape to put on the bottom of them rather than buying new beds.
  3. Ensure bowls, snuffle mats etc are anti slip or on an anti slip surface like a silicone tray.
  4. Use paw wax this can help some dogs gain traction when walking across the surface.
  5. Have paw hair trimmed professionally, paw fur can make it very difficult to get any grip at all whilst walking.
  6. Do not play on slippery surfaces, play only on carpeted areas or in the garden.
  7. Keep the surface dry and thoroughly wipe dogs feet when it’s been wet.
  8. Do not ask them to sit on an unstable surfaces.
  9. You can get pet safe anti slip surface sprays this coats the flooring so there is more grip. 
  10. If you can afford it for the long term replacing flooring with an anti slip surface would be ideal.

Dog Behaviour

What Dogs Like

Joanne Hinds

As some of you may know, I have recently published a children’s book called “What Dogs Like“, a story in rhyme with an important safety message on bite prevention. Nearly 80% of dog bites are from the family or a friends dog. Written as a read-along-rhyme with informative illustrations, “What dogs Like” helps educate young people as well as their parents, on how to behave around their canine friends.

What inspired me to write this particular book was a few things; my little boy, the news with headlines like “family dog attacked out of the blue” and the many uncomfortable pictures/videos shared on social media on a daily basis, with children sometimes laying on, picking up or maybe even hugging their dog, with the dog using as many signals as possible to indicate it is not comfortable.

Firstly it is very rare for dogs to just bite out of the blue, unless there is an underlying medical condition, dogs give many subtle signals way before they growl, bark or bite. It’s a credit to the majority of dogs that most tolerate us as adults let alone younger children who are often unpredictable and are learning and investigating the world themselves, which often includes poking and prodding the family dog. I work with many dogs that have bitten or are close to that stage and their owners are often shocked that it has happened, commenting that they felt like it came out of the blue, but then when we go back through the dogs history, there has been a number of times the dog had been indicating its fearful, frustrated or just uncomfortable. Even if your dog appears to be ok, tolerates the children and hasn’t ever reacted negatively, does not mean they are comfortable.

It’s time for parents to help educate children and themselves and be an expert on what their dog and others are trying to tell us. Recognising the many subtle signals dogs use, way before they have to even growl. Lets all work together at reducing bite statistics to an all time low in children (and adults)!

Signs to look for:

  • Dog avoids children (not always as obvious with your own) often taking its self into another room when others visit
  • Pulling head back, turning away or backing off, ears back
  • Showing the whites of their eyes cautiously glaring, looking unsure
  • Yawning when not tired
  • Constantly panting
  • Tongue flick when no food is present
  • Hard eyes like they are concentrating or just staring
  • Tense Stiff Body and Tail, with mouth often closed

Common times these behaviours are displayed:

  • When being picked up
  • When approached especially when resting, eating or playing with a toy
  • When patted on the head
  • When being cuddled and restrained
  • When being dressed up
  • When being handled
  • When punishing them
  • When being forced to do something they don’t want to do

What to do:

  • If you have real concerns, seek a qualified dog behaviour advisor please see the following link to find yours http://capbt.org/findabehaviourist.php
  • Always ensure your dog has somewhere they can retreat to, where they will not be disturbed.
  • Pair the arrival of children with something that the dog doesn’t normally get, a tasty toy or chew but again ensure they have this where they will not be disturbed.
  • Help your dog out, if they are giving any of the above signals, redirect the child away from the dog, so the dog does not have to resort to growling, barking or biting to make the child go away.
  • Teach children the rules:
  1. When eating, resting and sleeping leave the dog alone.
  2. Dog must stay on the ground (No picking the dog up!).
  3. Adults manage unwanted behaviour in the dog, not children (No telling the dog off).
  4. No touching the dogs collar, no leading them around by it or pushing the dog around.
  5. Stroking must be on the dogs terms; ask the child to call the dog over, if the dog comes it probably is happy to be stroked but if it doesn’t come forward, leave the dog alone.
  6. When stroking the dog pause and see if the dog wants to move away, if they don’t carry on stroking.
  7. Stroking must be from collar to tail on the side or a scratch on the chest.
  8. If the children want to engage with the dog, let them hide a few treats or the dogs toy (if he is comfortable with that), around the house and get the dog to “find it”, always under adult supervision.

The Family Dog does some great videos to help children on appropriate behaviour around dogs see stopthe77.com

“What Dogs Like” is available in both paperback and digital in many online book stores follow the link to order yours now http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-001099911/What-Dogs-Like.aspx

Dog Behaviour, Dog Training, Puppy

Banish the Food Bowl

Joanne Hinds

There are many behaviour problems that can be resolved in our dogs by just providing them with mental and environmental stimulation. One way of doing this is by Interactive feeding. For many years we have fed our dogs out of food bowls, as this is the way we eat ourselves off a nice clean plate. Many dogs don’t enjoy eating this way, some may take the food from the bowl and then eat it off the floor, others may regularly go off there food, especially the ones that have one large meal once a day (not good for many reasons) or ones that have their food left down all day, imagine me leaving your roast dinner on a plate all day and expect you to eat it, you might pick at it because you are hungry, but would you really enjoy it! Now if you look back in history at how dogs evolved, you will find that they are natural foragers, eating small quantities up to 12 times a day or more and of course hunting is a strong instinct that we have bred into them too although most dogs no longer consume prey. Although a large number of dogs are now bred to be family pets, they still have these instincts hard wired into them. You see this when they raid the bin, when they watch the floor like a hawk when you are preparing food, just incase you drop a bit, when they pick up everything that looks like food on their walks. Dogs have natural instincts and needs to but we are so busy making them conform to our lifestyle dictating how, when and where they do things, they can often get frustrated as they have no job to do. When dogs are lacking mental stimulation they often go what we like to term as “Self Employed”. Your dog may hunt socks, the remote control, chase shadows or reflections, pace the house looking for something to do, chew, start barking at things and more. Now I don’t recommend exactly encouraging them to use the hunting skills they were bred for i.e. hunting birds, local vermin or the neighbours cat but we can provide them an equivalent.

It’s time to change the way we feed our dogs!

At the very minimum dogs should be fed their daily recommended allowance twice a day, this helps sustain their energy levels, but splitting it down to 3, 4 or more meals is even better. After all how often do we eat if we include snacks.

Use every meal time, everyday for the rest of there lives, as an opportunity to mentally stimulate your dog, there are many ideas out there nowadays  and the good thing about this type of stimulation, is you can do it no matter how old your dog is. Here are a few suggestions:

Please note: It’s important that your dog enjoys it, feed differently at different meal times to keep it interesting and make sure it is not so hard that it’s almost impossible to get the food out

  • The simplest way to start off with (if your dog is on a dry complete food, wet food could get messy!) is by scatter feeding, which literally means throwing the food all over the kitchen floor, out in the garden or even on your walk, just make sure other dogs are not around, alternatively use a snuffle mat you can make your own too see here.
  • Hide some portions of the meal around the house or in the garden in small piles, at first let your dog see where you put it and say “find it” once your dog understands what you are doing make the game more challenging by hiding it whilst they are out of sight.
  • There are obviously the classics like the Kong or the cheaper version Busy Buddy Squirrel Dude, which are so versatile you can put the dry food loose in them to start off with making it easy, then if you have multiple ones you can then hide them in different places around the house. You can soak their dry food, stuff them with it and then freeze them, making a popcicle for hot days or just use feed wet complete food stuffed in it. These are good for when visitors arrive too.
  • There are plenty of other Interactive feeding toys on the market now, like the Kong Wobbler or the Buster Activity Mat, just ensure they are not too over exciting or frustrating. see the following link for many more ideas www.johinds.com/dogentertainment

Of course the cheaper alternative is to make your own. If your dog likes to chew and consume then some of these ideas are not for them, always supervise your dog and remove the item when empty, and completely if you have any concerns of them choking on or swallowing bits. Again there are some innovative homemade ideas out there:

  • Snuffle mat
  • Refill old marrow bones
  • Fill up Plastic bottles (with lid and ring round neck removed) with there dry food
  • Old slightly split tennis balls can be filled and dotted round the house or garden to hunt and find
  • For your diggers out there; take 1 cardboard box and hide the meal between layers of fleece, towels, plastic milk cartons, toys etc
  • Wrap the food in an old blanket or towel
  • Take one juice carton, remove any plastic, rinse, dry and fill
  • Buy a cheap kids ball pit, scatter the food in with the balls

With some of the interactive toys you might need to help them to start off with, showing them how it comes out. You must then leave them to try and work it out themselves, this is how it becomes stimulating for them. Always make sure the toys are not left down after they have finished with them, to keep them novel and interested the next time. Ensure your dog has opportunities to rest, there should be a balance between mental stimulation which includes sniffy walks as well as ample opportunities to rest and sleep.

Be inventive and share your ideas in the comments below.

Lets make our dogs lives even more interesting.

Thats me for now, will blog again real soon…