It’s hard to believe the holiday season is upon us already. We’ve had a fantastic year full of milestones at Dogz at Home Training centre – not to mention the joy of meeting all the amazing people and dogs who attended our classes.
Now it’s time to rest, recharge and celebrate the holidays with friends and family. It’s also a time of year that’s full of excitement and activity for our dogs so without wishing to dampen anyone’s holiday cheer, we have a few tips to make your doggy Xmas problem free.
It’s likely that many strangers will be tromping in and out of your house at this time of year. While it may be exciting for you to catch up with loved ones from afar, many dogs don’t enjoy having strangers about so please consider a few basic measures:
Take control of arrivals and departures to ensure dogs don’t run out into the street. You should also make sure dogs aren’t overwhelmed by mass arrivals and overbearing guests. If any of your guests aren’t dog lovers, you could always serve their xmas dinner to go (your call of course!)
If you know that your dog won’t cope well don’t set them up for failure – create a guest free zone somewhere in the house and set them up with some nice chews, or a stuffed Kong.
If anyone is staying overnight make sure that they have been well introduced to your dog and that they are comfortable with each other – pay particular note if you have a guarding breed, or you may be woken at 2am by Aunt Doris from Durban explaining to your Rottweiler that she was just trying to sneak some leftovers!
Speaking of leftovers, the holiday season is usually punctuated by a series of ridiculously over-catered meals with piles of delicious meat, puddings and cakes. Dogs are opportunistic scavengers (quite similar to my own approach to holiday dining really) so be aware that even the most well-mannered dog might succumb to the urge to do a little counter surfing with so much temptation around.
I’m sure I needn’t remind you that if any food left in dog reach gets snagged the only scolding should be directed at the person who left it there.
My bigger concern when it comes to counter surfing, or sharing of scraps is making sure your dogs don’t get sick so remember these rules:
No cooked bones – ever! Cooking breaks down the fundamental structure of bone and makes it brittle and prone to splintering into sharp pieces. Those splinters are a serious health hazard to your dog and can cause problems ranging from mouth and throat injuries, choking and at the extreme piercing of intestines. Most of the misinformation around why dogs shouldn’t get raw bones actually stems from problems witnessed with cooked bones.
If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding! Unless you’re a dog, then you can’t have any pudding ever. Sugar is bad for dogs in the same way that it is for people, and dogs can actually have a sweet tooth, but just like us they can get addicted to it, get bad teeth, become obese and develop a range of other problems – dogs can even be diabetic.
Don’t flip out if your dog does get hold of some pudding though, depending on the quantity and ingredients involved unless you know that they react badly to sugar the chances are they’ll probably be ok. If you have any doubts give the 24 hour vet a call and they’ll advise you on how to proceed.
Two ingredients you should be worried about are chocolate and xylitol (which is increasingly present in desserts) with so many banters about.
When dogs (and cats) consume xylitol it stimulates high levels of insulin production which will quickly cause a drop in blood sugar (hypoglycemia). This can lead to a toxic reaction in the liver causing liver damage and ultimately liver failure. Banters beware this is probably the most dangerous thing you have in your house where your dog is concerned.
Chocolate contains something called Theobromine which in large quantities can cause a toxic reaction which is potentially fatal. Humans can also experience this reaction, but dogs are far more sensitive to it and process it at a slower rate. Again depending on the size of your dog you probably don’t need to panic if they got hold of a piece of chocolate cake (unless it had xylitol in it), but watch out for any signs of illness or discomfort afterwards.
All that talk about pudding has me wishing it was Xmas already, moving on to another topic but staying with food please remember that your dog’s sense of smell is about 40 times stronger than yours and it’s in 3D. That means she can smell and locate the biltong that your kids wrapped for Grandpa through the packaging and the wrapping paper, from the other side of the house. If you’re a family that starts packing out presents under the tree days in advance and letting the tension and guessing build up, don’t be surprised if a certain pad-footed member of the family starts Xmas early while you’re all asleep, or at the shops.
Last of all, while we are in the vicinity of the Xmas tree:
Remember all of those shiny baubles and dangly tinsel bits might be real triggers for a young puppy to get into (not to mention they’re choking hazards) so don’t leave them unsupervised with access to the tree.
If you have a cat that likes getting into the tree that will be a huge trigger for your pup, or even adult dog and might turn into the most destructive game of tag you’ve ever seen.
In fact, if you have a cat and a puppy, maybe just get a block of wood and draw circles and stars on it with colored pens. The tree can stay in the cupboard this year.
Merry Xmas everyone!