Having Dog-Friendly Holidays.

Another holiday season is upon us, which means days full of decorating, shopping, visiting loved ones and a whole lotta eating. (It does for me, anyway.) While we here at Zen Dog Training hope you're able to enjoy these last few days of 2010, we ask you to keep your dogs in mind as you prepare to ring in the new year.

Decorating and Spreading Holiday Cheer

• If you're anything like my family, you've got lights strung up around your home and favorite ornaments hanging from your tree. Take an extra minute or two to tape down the extra light cords; by doing this, you're also taking away what may look to your dog to be a tempting — and dangerous — chew toy. After all, no one wants to spend a wintry evening in the emergency vet's waiting room while a furry companion is treated for burns or electric shock.
• Similarly, make sure to move low-hanging ornaments from the bottom of your tree to a safe out-of-reach place. While you're at it, move those few strands of tinsel too — they're a choking hazard!
• Believe it or not, some of the festive seasonal plants we bring into our homes in December could also bring trouble if you're not careful. Poinsettias, mistletoe, holly, ivy, amaryllis, many types of lilies and several variety of bulb plants are poisonous to our pets, or can cause digestive issues. Oh, and don't forget that Christmas tree — those needles are hard enough to clean up after the tree's dried out, so imagine what they'd be like to clean up after going through your pet's system.

Carolers, Guests and Santa's Visiting Elves

• Dogs are creatures of habit, so they love to have structure in their lives. Well, we know that routine is going to pretty much fly out the window for the next few weeks. While it may take a bit more planning to do so, try to stick to the schedule you've established for your dog as much as possible.
  
• All those people traipsing in and out with warm season's greetings may be cheery for you, but your pet may think otherwise. Try to prevent increased stress caused by increased traffic flow by finding a quiet, calming place where your dog can relax while you revel. This may be a closed-off bedroom, an out-of-the-way study, anywhere your dog can chill out.
• Speaking of chill, keeping the front door shut doesn't just jack up your heating bill — it also jacks up the chances of your dog slipping out into the cold. This might be a good time of year to make sure your pet's tags are up-to-date with all of his current information.

Eating and Feasting

• My dad is known for spoiling the family dog silly, especially when it comes to feeding Winston food from the table. This bad habit gets even worse around the end of the year, when we're likely to have not only more food out to gorge ourselves on, but also fattier options. Anything unhealthy for you is almost always guaranteed to be even worse for the Winstons of the world, so it's smart to start practicing moderation even before you make your new year's resolutions.

Happy holidays!

* Photo taken from Lucky Dog Animal Rescue

Woody the Daschund.

Meet Woody!

….But be calm and unthreatening when you do.

Woody’s family got him at eight-months-old from a breeder who assured them that their puppy was friendly and socialized. They were told that Woody was going to be a great pet since he was already past the most difficult of the puppy months. Unfortunately that wasn't exactly the case.

It was a huge shock for Woody, to be taken from his brothers, sisters and quiet backyard and brought to a new home. There were so many new sights, sounds, and smells that confused and frightened him.

Even though our dogs are domesticated, their primary instinct is still survival. When presented with a new frightening situation, that instinct kicks in and completely takes over — dogs go into fight or flight mode. The only thing dogs in these circumstances are concerned with is either getting the heck away or making whatever frightens them go away... which usually means barking, snapping and being as frightening as possible themselves.

In Woody’s world, two men like me and Gordon coming into his home was very scary. As we stood in the entry, we felt legitimately nervous. Since Woody was beyond the point of reason, we wanted to make ourselves as unthreatening as possible so we sat down; sitting made us smaller, and by being smaller, we were a lot less scary.

At that point, we began to earn Woody's trust quickly and easily: we had a Treat Party! By giving Woody Treats for No Reason, we stopped being a threat and became a source of food. Suddenly we weren’t so scary anymore! Ten or fifteen minutes after we sat down, Woody began to sniff around our chairs and even sniffed us, looking for more food. It was a major step, but it was only the first of many Woody needs to take in order to be comfortable with his world.

By giving a dog food when he is scared, we help him associate good things with what was once a life-threatening experience. Though it may seem otherwise, doing this doesn't reward our dogs for being scared — at that point, dogs are too scared to do any training exercises. Many terrified dogs won’t even take treats once they're scared and panicked. We want to teach our dogs to connect something they're frightened by (men, loud trucks, rolling chairs, etc.) with their favorite treats. If you train slowly while your dog isn’t too freaked out, you can work to change his feelings and associations enough so, while he might still be nervous, your dog can handle things he doesn't like.

For more information on Treats for No Reason and Treat Parties, check out Zen Dog Training Online.

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