Real-world solutions from puppies to seniors
Hair Of The Dog – Double Trouble The national treasure and poet Pam Ayres cited her neighbour once in an interview: “In our house”, said the neighbour, “dog hair is a condiment”. Mine too. It’s also a substitute carpet and doubles as insulation. I had a Siberian Husky, so Travis’ shedding does not phase me. […]
Third Time Lucky – a tail of 3 spaniels. This morning while walking to the park, Travis and I encountered two red cocker spaniels in quick succession. I don’t know, you wait for ages and then two come along together… The first lunged and snapped. Travis looked momentarily non-plussed and then walked on without reacting. […]
Getting A Pasting – More About Teeth Once Travis had his full set of adult teeth, it was time to get him used to having them cleaned. A recent survey by the Co-Operative Insurance company found that 40% of dog and cat owners claimed that dental problems were one of the top reasons for visiting […]
Second (In)Sight – the Second Fear Period – is here and Travis needs help to get through it. 3-4 week old puppies have an extreme startle response as their eyes and ears open and they experience their first sights and sounds. This is known as the First Fear Period. Dogs develop a second insight into […]
King Kong – Safely Occupied I would like to meet Joe Markham and shake him warmly by the hand. “Joe whom?” I hear you ask. Joe Markham was no ordinary Joe. He ran a Volkswagen repair shop in Denver, Colorado. He also had a German Shepherd called Fritz. Fritz had a penchant for chewing dangerous […]
Travis is finally learning the three Rs of recall. Reliable recall is one of the most important things that you can train. Dogs need the freedom to run, play and sniff. Research shows that dogs are more relaxed when their lead is longer, but that being off lead is best of all. That said, there […]
Minor Morris – Secondary Fears Travis is heading towards 7 months old now and so has passed the Jim Mathieson’s statue of William Hogarth countless times. It was only yesterday that he really noticed it – and decided to bark. Now that he has passed the half-year mark, he has entered adolescence and the Second […]
E is for Etiquette – manners maketh the mutt and the human! How do dog owners annoy me (and my clients) – let me count the ways! 1 Unsolicited, unwanted (and incorrect) “advice” – especially from people who know that I’m a behaviourist and trainer and usually in inverse proportion to their actual knowledge 2 […]
Home Alone 2 – Travis Goes Solo. The next stage after accustoming Travis to a crate was to leave him on his own in the house for a short period. It can seem as if you are velcroed to your puppy at first. Dogs are social animals and, in their feral state, would never be […]
A Soggy Day Out – It’s Wimbledon Fortnight Following the heatwave, we now have a traditional Wimbledon Fortnight – it’s tipping down with rain. Equally predictable, the one day that we schedule for a day out to celebrate a friend’s birthday was the first day of (torrential) rain all summer. Undeterred, we boarded the tube […]