Happy Pets

The chaser

My heart aches when an owner comes to me with a chasing dog. ‘I daren’t let him off,’ they tell me. ‘He chases bikes, postmen, cars, children, other dogs.’ Again, we have a situation where the poor dog suffers because the owner cannot be bothered to train against these things. I have heard so many remedies for the dog chaser which, in my opinion, would only make him worse. Many of these so-called remedies take the control of the dog out of the owner’s hands and put the onus on the thing that’s being chased. A good example of this is the dog who chases bikes. Two of the most frequently-used remedies are that the rider of the bike carries a jug or cup of water which he throws at the dog on his approach, or the rider of the bike offers the dog a titbit. (more…)

The pulling dog

With an adult dog who pulls, you may need to resort to the use of a check-chain. The problem is that if a dog is left to pull, his neck muscles will become well developed and he’ll become hardened to the collar around his neck and a week or two on a check-chain collar will bring him into line, if used correctly. The only reason check-chain collars are cruel is because of the ignorance of the users. Letting someone use a check-chain collar who is untrained is tantamount to giving a child a catapult. It can be very dangerous. If you stick rigidly to the guidelines below you should not make mistakes. (more…)

I count myself very fortunate to have had a really good relationship with Emma. She was with me twenty-four hours a day and I understood her like I understood part of myself. I had to interpret the movements from the handle when she was working at my side and I had to understand her every little whim when she was off duty at home. A gentle nudge would be, I want to play, and a firmer push with the nose would indicate she wanted to go into the garden. Her little snorts or the way she bounced around me all indicated her needs or thoughts and, in the same way, she was able to interpret my feelings and moods. Although the type of relationship we had only comes once in a lifetime, if you’re very lucky, I feel we should all aim for that perfection with our dogs. (more…)

Do you still have an uncontrollable dog? Then somewhere along the line you’ve gone wrong. I’ll start right from the beginning. Chances are, if you’ve chosen your puppy before reading this book, you are not compatible and, after all, human beings do make mistakes—the divorce rate proves that. So how can we be naive enough to believe that we will match every dog, and that our lives together will automatically be wonderful? You should take as much care choosing your puppy as you would in choosing your husband or wife. But what if everything has gone wrong and you feel you can’t cope? If you love your dog, you will persevere, and I hope you will try to change your character and temperament to suit your dog. (more…)

Don’t fall into the trap of many dog owners of forgetting the fun element in your training. If life with your dog has become a drudgery and the time you take to train him basic commands is full of harassment, fraught with anxiety, stop, you have got it all wrong. Dogs, like children, should be a pleasure to us. I see all types of human beings coming along to my training classes with their dogs and I can instantly tell you which ones will fall into the ‘failed owners‘ category. They’re the ones who won’t listen, who won’t try, who think they will make a fool of themselves talking to their dog and putting enthusiasm into their voices. Many of them refuse point-blank to sit on the ground with their dogs and think it childish and stupid to play with them. In my training classes I try and make most of the exercises a game so that the human beings forget their self-consciousness and before they realise it they are having as much fun as their dogs. It is very rewarding to train along with other people and their dogs, as it gives incentive to the owners to come out best. If you train with other people or go along to a training club perhaps some of these ideas will help you and if you’re the stiff and starchy conservative type maybe it will give you enthusiasm to change your dog’s training and have fun. (more…)

Many people prefer mongrels to pedigrees. I have no preference. The fact that I own Labradors is because of Emma. But I would be just as eager to own crossbreds if we had more room and money. I did own a mongrel for a week and I would have loved to have kept her, but at the time we had Heidi, and Heidi definitely did not like our little mongrel. I came upon Solo purely by chance. My local pet shop does not stock live animals, so I feel quite safe in shopping there. But one day, as luck would have it, I went shopping with a friend who owned a car, so we decided to be a little more adventurous and go further afield. Just like a dog, when it comes to passing pet shops, I can’t do it—I have go to in. (more…)

Cat or kitten?

Acquiring a young kitten will give you the chance to train it in the way you want and to affect its behaviour by the security and confidence you can give it. However, do not necessarily choose a kitten. There are many grown cats in need of a new home because their owners can no longer look after them, or that have been abandoned and taken to animal refuges. It is very rewarding to gain the confidence of a cat that has come to distrust people because of earlier ill treatment. (more…)

Having thought it over seriously and decided that you really want to get a cat, what kind should it be?

All cats may be grey in the dark, but over the past century many different breeds have been developed. They do not display the great physical differences that distinguish the types of dog, most of which have been bred over hundreds, or even thousands, of years to perform particular tasks. Cats have been bred for appearance, not for work. However, the three main groups - Longhairs, Short- hairs and Orientals (or Foreign Short- hairs as they are officially known in Britain) - do have more than just aesthetic differences. (more…)

There are many sources for a cat or kitten — pet stores, breeders, animal welfare organizations, friends and neighbours — or a stray cat may size up the prospects of your home, like the look of them, and make the choice for you. Unless you actually want to give a stray a home, find it another or pass it on to an animal welfare organization as soon as possible or you will land yourself with a new and permanent companion. Similarly, do not be pressured into taking a cat or kitten from a neighbour. However, giving a home to a cat in need will at least save it from joining the thousands that welfare organizations have to put to sleep each year, as will taking one from a cat refuge. (more…)

Wherever you go to find a kitten, you obviously want to choose a healthy one, so look out for any tell-tale signs of illness or infestation — not only in your selected kitten, but in any other cats in the cattery or pet store.

If you are allowed to handle a kitten — and you should be, provided you have not been in contact with other cats from which you might pass on disease — you should not feel any hard or scabby patches of skin under the fur. The fur itself should be free of any powdery deposit, which might suggest a skin condition, and of the black specks that could be the droppings of fleas. The eyes should be bright and follow everything with interest. Neither they nor the nose should have any runny discharge, and the ears should be clean and free from gummy fluid or brown specks that result from ear mites. (more…)