What do you think about dog parks?

Happy 2013 everyone!! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and got to spend lots of time with your pooches!

Now that I have my own dog, I am no longer 100% sure how I feel about dog parks anymore. I am not going to sit here today and tell you that they are dangerous and you should not take your dogs to them. Rather, I thought I should tell you guys a bit about our experiences of taking Cooper to dog parks and then try to get a response from you guys to see you what you think about them.

Before Cooper came along, my family had a Spoodle, called Ruffi. I loved him to death. Ruffi was not the most social dog so I never got to take him to dog parks. As an absolute dog lover, I always got quite upset about this as I always loved the idea of so many dogs and dog lovers getting together in the one place having so much fun. When I was at university, I had my own little dog walking business. For me this was a great opportunity to start seeing the behaviours of many different breeds of dogs – plus it meant I could start going to dog parks – which I loved!! As they were not my dogs, I was always extra careful and more often then not, kept the dogs on lead during our walks.

When we first took Cooper to the vet – Jase and I had heaps of puppy questions for him. Our vet also has a Golden Retriever so we bonded very quickly. We started chatting about dog parks with the vet. He told us that he never ever takes his dog to dog parks because as a vet, he sees way too many of the negative outcomes. He told us that most of the injured dogs that come in to see him have been injured from a dog fight in a dog park.

Since that conversation, I have been way more cautious and less as excited about dog parks. I love the idea of a dog park for the socialisation and also I think it’s a great way to let your dogs release a lot of their energy. However, not all dogs are as well behaved, trained or friendly as yours. And not all owners care like you do. We learnt this the hard way...

Cooper is only 5 months old now and he has been attacked in a dog park three times (twice by the same dog)!!

When Cooper got attacked the first time, he was very submissive. He didn’t deserve it - he didn't charge at this dog or get over excited like he sometimes does. He actually lay down straight away for the dog to sniff him.  The dogs body got stiff and he very quickly started to maul my puppy!!  The community of people in the park yelled and we got the dog off Cooper before he could get hurt. I took Cooper away from the pack of dogs to get some water and for some time out. I put him on the lead and started to walk out of the park. As I was walking – this dog approached us again and went straight for Cooper. The owner of this dog was deep in conversation with another gentlemen at the other end of the park, not even watching his dog. Why didn’t the owner of this dog put him straight back on the lead after the first attack!? I found out later on that this dog is known in our park as a bit of a bully and has actually done this in the past to other puppies. The thing that angered me the most was that the owner didn’t give a shit. How on earth can you allow a dog off lead in a park if it has attacked a dog in the past?? That is called irresponsible dog ownership if you ask me!! And it ruins the fun for everyone else.

The second dog that attacked Cooper was friendly at first – Coop was actually on the lead with this one too and he went to sniff the dogs bottom and the dog bit him! This time Cooper was actually bleeding. The owners apologised and told us that their dog does not like getting it’s bottom sniffed. It is a dog!!! How can you let a dog off lead that doesn’t like getting it’s back side sniffed?? That’s what dogs do to each other!!

I am now very cautious with Cooper. We go to dog parks far less often than I originally would have liked too. And we never let him off the lead right away. I like to sus out the environment and the dogs and people around. I also have started using the extendable lead in the park as this gives Cooper space to run but still gives us the control over him.

In our few months of owning Cooper, we have come across many passionate and responsible dog owners, however, it is those few irresponsible dog owners that spoil it for the rest of us. I am so passionate about this... All dog owners who let their dogs off lead in dog parks should take responsibility of their dogs so that all of us can actually feel safe taking our dogs off lead.

Do you guys take your dogs to dog parks? 

How do you feel about them?

A great method to stop your dog pulling on the lead...

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What we have chosen to feed our dog and what we have done to ensure our pup doesn’t turn into a fussy eater…

There are so many differing opinions on what you should feed your dog and I am not here to tell you what is right and wrong. I am not a vet and I do not have a huge amount of knowledge on dog nutrition. I just know that we should all make sure we feed our dogs a balanced diet. Too much protein for example can cause aggression in dogs - so a good all round balance is key. So here is our story…

Jase and I made the decision very early on that we wanted our dog to eat dry dog food/kibble. We also decided early on that we wanted to be very strict with this and not feed our dog any human foods because we didn’t want our puppy to turn into a begging dog or a dog that annoys you when you’re eating because it wants your food. So when we brought Cooper home from the breeders we slowly transitioned him from the breeder’s food onto our puppy kibble that we had chosen. If you change your dogs diet too quickly, they will get an upset stomach and get diarrhea – so please make sure to change their diet gradually over about a week. 

At first, things were going well. Cooper was eating, although he was not guzzling his food down like you would expect a Golden to do. So we tried sprinkling some water over the kibble to try and soften it a little bit for him.  That worked at first, but slowly over a few weeks he started to become a bit fussy. We decided to buy some wet food thinking if we put a little on his dry food it would help him eat it. And it did – but only for a few days. And then he started getting picky again – he would only eat it if we put more and more wet food in his bowl. We really wanted to stick to the kibble and not fully change to wet food as the kibble is great for their teeth and overall nutrition. It got to the point where Jase and I were really worried – Goldens are meant to love their food and as a puppy, we just wanted him to eat so he could grow big and strong.

I posted my concerns on a few groups on facebook and had an enormous amount of responses! People are very strong-minded about this topic. Some say you should only feed your dog raw foods – like meat and veggies, some say cooked rice and boiled chicken, some say add grated cheese to the kibble, some say only dog food and some say only dog food is cruel, the list goes on and on.

The best piece of advice I got was from a friend of mine Dr Lisa Chimes – she is a Vet on the TV show Bondi Vet. She told me:

“A Golden Retriever should not be a fussy eater!

My advice – tough love! Don’t give into his fussiness! Try feeding him a different brand of dry food – one that he might find tastier (but don’t forget that dietary changes must be gradual over about a week). Don’t give in by giving him extras – he will have you wrapped around your little finger in no time! Trust me, if he’s really hungry, he’ll eat the dry food! If he doesn’t eat all of it, don’t panic, he will be ok.

Sorry to be tough – but fussy eaters are created by their owners!!”

That very day, Jase and I bought a different brand of kibble for Cooper and we saw a difference instantly.

A few other people suggested something similar on one of the facebook pages – and I also think this is brilliant advice that everyone should do with their dogs.

 

“He’s playing you. Put the food down, give him 10 minutes and then pick it up. Nothing until the next meal. Bet it takes 48 hours for him to get the message”.

This is also a good method because it shows the dog that you are the leader and the food belongs to you. If your dog or puppy is healthy – it will not starve itself. It will get the message pretty quickly.

Jase and I have also started using this method too – we now put his food down for 10 minutes and then take the bowl away. Cooper is eating his food and he is loving it!!!

Thank you everyone for all your great advice.

Training your pup to walk on the lead

Start from day one! A lead and a collar are foreign objects to your pup so they need to get used to wearing them and learn what it means to wear them.

We started out really well with Coop – for about the first week! He took to the collar and lead very quickly and didn’t mind them. In my puppy classes – we saw pups coming in at like 12 weeks old and had never been on a lead and they hated it! So make sure to get them used to it straight away.

 

The biggest thing I have learnt through our experience with Cooper is that you need to remember that your puppy is experiencing everything for the first time and they are SO curious! However, if you want a well-trained dog on the lead, you need to lay down the laws from the very beginning!

Start by putting the lead on in the house when the puppy is calm and you have made him ‘sit’. Open the front door and make him stay until you tell him to come. You should never start the walk with an over excited puppy or dog as it will make your walk impossible. Make sure he is calm and you walk out the door first and then tell him to follow you.

Positive reinforcement, as always, works best for a puppy.  The ideal situation is to have your pup on your left side with a slack lead flush with your left leg – so when this happens, make sure to give lots of praise to your puppy – ‘good puppy’ in a high pitched voice. Traditionally in Australia we like to walk with our dogs on the left so when you pass another dog they don’t come at each other head on – so try sticking to that from the start so you train your dog to always be on the left. If the lead tightens say ‘ah ah’ and stop immediately, acting like a post – don’t move at all and don’t shorten the lead - just wait. When the lead slackens, immediately reward with praise and move forward. Your puppy should be learning that pressure on the collar means ‘stop’ while no pressure on the collar means ‘go’. If your puppy is initially reluctant to walk be careful not to pull or drag the pup or get angry, as it will discourage and worry your puppy, who may already be unsure of the lead.

We had a big issue with Cooper getting tired and plonking on walks – don’t push your pup – if he has had enough, take him home. You need to take care of their growing bodies. However, there were times that Cooper was doing this to be stubborn – for example, when we would try to leave the park. So you do need to be strong with them and let them know who is boss. You also need to be the one who chooses the direction you go on the walk – not the pup. You’re the one who chooses when they can go and sniff the tree or the grass, not them. As soon as we started to show Cooper that he couldn’t boss us around and that we were boss – the improvement has been incredible. We’re also teaching him that we can go on a walk without going to the park and that we can go to the park and walk around without going off the lead. This will (hopefully) teach him to stop pulling as he wont always be let of the lead when we go to the park. It is not up to him – it is up to us! 

Teaching your dog to ‘heal’ – to walk flush by your side, is very important, especially if you want to walk your dog off lead. We did a lot of 'walk to heal' with Cooper from week one of bringing him home. I put him on the lead in a quiet area (your own garden is perfect or out in the street early in the morning when no one is around – the less distractions the better at first) and have a treat in my left hand flush with my left leg – you step off with your left leg first and walk slowly saying ‘heal’ – take a few steps and use the treat to put him in a sit and as his bum hits the ground give him the treat and say – ‘good boy’. And then build on this by taking more steps. And once he has mastered that – start including distractions (other dogs, people, cars, etc). It is important to teach him to be flush with your left leg – and not to walk in front of you as you don’t want to encourage pulling on the lead.

The aim is to learn to walk together not begin a lifelong game of ‘tug–o-war’. Remember, how important the first few months of your pups lives are – they are like a sponge and will learn very quickly from you so please make sure to teach them good habits from the beginning because it is much easier than trying to train bad habits out of them. A cute pulling puppy – is only going to turn into a strong big, monster on the lead.