7 Tips for Bringing Your Dog to the Beach

July 7, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Beach Tips for Dogs

Bringing Your Dog to the Beach — tpetersson3/Adobe Stock

Summertime means fun in the sun, so why not bring your dog too? Beach vacations provide plenty of opportunities to relax in the sand, splash in the ocean, work on your suntan and spend precious time with your dog. To ensure your beach vacation is enjoyable for both you and your dog, check out these tips for bringing your dog to the beach.

1. Check If Your Dog Likes the Beach

Before planning an amazing beach getaway with your dog, make sure she likes walking in sand and water. While it may seem like all dogs love the beach, some dogs really don’t like sand and water at all.

If you’re not sure, take a half-day trip to a local dog beach or lake, and try it out first. Over the last two decades, only two of my dogs enjoyed swimming while the other six refused to step one foot in the water. If your dog loves to swim and frolic on a sandy beach, then start planning your dog-friendly beach getaway now!

2. Beware of Loose Dogs

Most dog-friendly beaches allow dogs to play off-leash, which can become an issue quickly. Dog park-type beaches are not the safest place for dogs, as many are allowed to bully dogs.

More than 90% of my dog aggressive clients have been bullied at dog parks, and now we need to address the issue. If your dog is not dog-friendly, or you would rather skip a dog beach, then find a secluded dog beach vacation spot where dogs walk on-leash.

3. Use a Long Leash

Speaking of leashes, it’s best to use a long leash (10-foot) and harness to keep your dog safe during beach walks. Your dog can still swim with the safety equipment on, but you’ll be able to pull her back to shore if she swims out too far or waves become rough. While it’s cute to imagine your dog chasing seagulls, many dogs run away and get hurt chasing animals and birds. Leashes are safety lines, so keep your dog safe.

4. Beware of Hot Sand

Hot sand is painful—very painful. If a surface is too hot for you to stand on, then it’s too hot for your dog too. Carry your dog to wet sandy areas to prevent paw burns. Or place rubber bottom booties on large dog paws until you reach your shaded beach lounging spot. Check your dog’s paw pads frequently for burns or irritations from sea creatures or salt water.

5. Provide Shade & Water

It’s hot sitting on a beach, so provide plenty of shade for your dog. Bring a large umbrella, a cooling pad (keep it in an ice-packed cooler), and frozen food stuffed Kongs. Bring a gallon or more of cold water and keep it in your cooler.

Offer your dog cold water often, and keep his water bowl in the shade. Limit your dog’s sun exposure. If your dog starts panting excessively, cool him down with cold water, leave the beach ASAP and find the closest veterinary clinic.

6. Don’t Forget Sunscreen

Short-coated breeds, or freshly shaven dogs, will need sunscreen. Purchase a chemical-free sunscreen with at least 30 SPF and apply often per directions. If your dog swims, choose a waterproof chemical-free sunscreen for maximum protection. Don’t forget to apply sunscreen liberally on your dog’s ear tips, nose and paws!

7. Rinse With Clean Fresh Water

Once back home or in your hotel, wash your dog with a gentle dog shampoo and rinse thoroughly. Sand embedded in hair scratches and irritates skin, which can cause rashes and hot spots. In addition, salt water can damage your dog’s coat. As a best practice, wash and rinse your dog twice, then rinse again.

Enjoy your dog-friendly beach vacay!

7 Tips For Bike Riding With Your Dog

July 5, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Biking With Dogs Safely

As temperatures warm up and daylight lingers just a bit longer, pet owners are taking advantage of the summer months with their dogs. While many pet owners choose to go on a walk, some enjoy biking with their dogs. Before grabbing your dog and bicycle, check out these dog safety tips first.

1. Size of Dog Matters

When humans pedal bikes, they move really fast, so only bike with a dog that can keep up. Think twice before exercising with an energetic Chihuahua, terrier or hyperactive young puppy. Small dogs must run at maximum capacity during a bike ride, and it’s impossible for them to comfortably maintain this speed.

Additionally, biking with a dog under two years old is highly discouraged because adolescent dogs are still growing, and high impact exercise can cause permanent damage. Ideally, it’s best to bike ride with healthy medium or large-sized dogs over two years old.

2. Introduce Dog to Bike First

Bikes are spooky to dogs, especially if dogs haven’t been introduced to one before. Think about it from a dog’s perspective: Bikes are big and move awkwardly plus they can run over dog toes.

To get your dog used to a bike, push your bike alongside slowly during a walk. If your dog still avoids your bike, have a friend push your bike during walks. Once your dog is comfortable with a moving bike right next to him, it’s time to bike slowly.

3. Position is Key

Teach your dog to hang out on the side of your bike. Your dog should not cross over in front while you’re riding. Better yet, use a safety device to hold your dog’s leash in place. This way, you can use both hands to steer your bike.

My favorite is the Springer Dog Exerciser. This device attaches to your bike and keeps your dog safely away from moving bike wheels. Before riding off into the sunset, attach your dog to this safety device and push your bike around for a few days.

4. Start Slow

Once you’ve installed a bike safety leash attachment and your dog is comfortable walking next to a moving bike, it’s time for a slow and short bike ride. Start by pedaling slowly up and down your driveway, which includes turns to the left and right. Reward your dog with tiny bits of yummy treats for moving with the bike.

After a few practice sessions on your driveway, try biking with your dog about a block away from your home. Continue to move slowly, so your dog learns to enjoy jogging alongside your bike.

Increasing distance and duration will slowly build your dog’s endurance. Each week, add 2-3 minutes to your bike ride. Don’t expect your dog to run at maximum speed for longer than a few minutes, so slow down and provide multiple breaks for your dog. Offer your dog plenty of water and potty breaks during exercise sessions. Take it slow.

5. Skip Warm & Hot Days

When it’s above 80 degrees, it’s probably a bit too warm for long bike rides with dogs. Your dog is covered with a fur coat that traps heat and causes him to warm up quickly. During hot summer days, bike ride with your dog early in the morning. If you’re biking with your dog at night or during dark early mornings, ensure your bike and your dog’s collar contain reflective strips. Better yet, skip hot and humid days.

6. Check Paw Pads Frequently

Your dog’s paw pads will take a beating during bike rides, especially on concrete and asphalt roads. Starting slowly provides time for a dog’s paw pad to adjust to rough surfaces, but sometimes it’s too much.

Before a bike ride, stand on a sidewalk or road with bare feet. If you’re unable to stand on it yourself, then your dog should not run or walk on it. Hot pavement will burn pads, but excessive running on hard surfaces can burn pads too. Check your dog’s paw pads often during bike rides. Choose sidewalks that have grassy areas. These will be much easier on your dog’s paw pads.

7. Allow Your Dog to Set the Pace

When walking, jogging or biking with a dog, it’s important to allow your dog to set the pace. Dogs feel most comfortable trotting when they’re able to cover ground effortlessly. Running at maximum speed is too much for a dog, so watch your dog’s gait as you vary speeds on your bike. Slow down and watch your dog’s movement for an easy trot, then adjust your pedaling speed to maintain that trot.

Post pictures of your dog biking with you below. We want to see!

Teething Relief For Puppies

July 3, 2017 by Fanna Easter

3 Puppy Teething Toys to Reduce Pain

All puppies lose their puppy teeth. The puppy teething process starts around 4 months old and ends around 6 months old. Losing teeth is painful, but new teeth erupting through sensitive gums is even more painful.

If your puppy is currently going through the teething process, provide her cold, soft puppy teething toys to reduce inflammation and pain. This list of teething relief toys will help soothe your puppy’s gums. (There’s even a homemade dog toy too.) Offer a cold toy several times a day while your puppy is teething. Once a toy starts to thaw, remove it and refreeze.

1. Chilly Bone

Multipet Chilly Bone dog chew is an easy way to calm inflamed puppy gums. Toss this puppy teething toy inside the freezer for a couple of hours, and give to your puppy during supervised playtime.

It’s soft enough to lightly chew for sensitive gums and cold enough to reduce pain and inflammation. This toy will thaw as your puppy chews, so never give this item to your dog unsupervised. Once your puppy has thawed out the toy, just toss it right back into the freezer. When choosing a size, always choose a size larger than you think. This toy has beveled sides, so all puppies can gnaw portions of it even if it’s too big.

2. Frozen Kongs

Choose a soft, rubber Kong toy that is made especially for puppy teething and stuff it with cold yogurt, cream cheese or chilled canned food. Inserting cool foods into a Kong will reduce gum pain and inflammation while providing a tasty treat.

To make the treat last longer, stuff the Kong with watermelon chunks, banana cubes, and either peanut butter or applesauce. Freeze overnight and provide it to your teething puppy the following day.

3. DIY Towel Knots

Using a large kitchen towel, tie large knots in the middle and on both ends of the towel. Submerge into water for 5 minutes, wring out excess water and freeze for several hours. On a waterproof surface, and under supervision, give this DIY frozen teething towel for your puppy to chew on. While it’s tempting to soak an item in chicken broth and freeze, this usually results in dogs chewing and ingesting it, which is never a good idea.

Provide plenty of flexible and cold chews during the teething process, and remember puppy teething does not last forever!

How To Teach Dogs To Trim Their Own Back Nails

June 30, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Trimming a Dog’s Back Nails

Dog Nail Trimming Tips — Mikkel Bigandt/Adobe Stock

Trimming a dog’s nails can be difficult, especially if your dog hates nail trims. Holding your dog down to trim his nails only makes him hate dog nail trimming even more, and eventually he’ll learn to bite. There’s an easier way to keep your dog’s nails trimmed, and you don’t even have to touch your dog’s nails!

Trimming Back Nails

Instead of trimming a dog’s nails, teach him to grind back his own nails. You’ll need pea-sized treats, a concrete surface and your dog. Sit outside, preferably on the ground, and toss treats along your driveway.

Now, there’s an art to tossing treats for maximum back nail grinding. Instead of throwing treats up high, toss them along the concrete surface—almost like skipping a rock across a lake. Listen carefully as your dog scampers across the rough surface; you should hear his nails scraping along the concrete. If not, grab really good treats (e.g. cheese chunks) and toss about 3-4 feet away from you. Once your dog learns to run after a treat, slowly increase the distance.

Keep sessions short, about 3-4 minutes, but practice every other day to shorten nails quicker. Running and chasing treats for a long distance can cause paw damage because your dog is using his paw pads to stop himself, so keep the total distance traveled under 6 feet.

Watch your dog’s paw pads during this process to ensure he’s not rubbing his paw pads raw, and only play this game on cool concrete.

WATCH: How to Teach a Dog To Trim His Own Back Toenails

Trimming Front Nails

For front nails, teach your dog to scratch his nails against a sandpaper-covered board. Dogs get really good at this behavior so much so they can scratch their nails bloody. For details and a video demonstrating this behavior, check out this article on DIY dog nails.

Keep dog training sessions short, about 2-3 minutes per day, and practice every other day. Once your dog’s front nails are shorter, it will take a day for the quick to recede back a bit, so your dog won’t bleed.

WATCH: Trimming Dog Nails With a Scratchboard

https://youtu.be/XXx8HTT2has

Put down those nail trimmers, and teach your dog to trim his own nails instead!

Helping Dogs That Become Stressed When Guests Visit

June 26, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Greetings for Stressed Dogs

Dog Afraid of Guests — nukul2533/Adobe Stock

It’s uncomfortable and awkward meeting new people. Both parties are unsure how to greet the other person respectively. One person may try shaking a hand while another opens his arms for a hug. This awkward greeting results in everyone standing stiffly and trying to think of common topics to ensure no one feels awkward. If a person is easily stressed, then meeting new people can be downright frightening.

Well, this applies to dogs too! Some dogs are afraid of guests and will start barking or become aggressive. Instead of asking guests to pet your dog, try this dog-friendly greeting instead.

Treat & Retreat

When guests enter your home, it’s best if they completely ignore your dog. Ignoring means no making eye contact with, walking toward, touching or petting your dog. Dogs should be allowed to approach a person in their own time if they even decide to approach. Allow a dog to make her own choices.

If your dog gets stressed when guests come over, and the ignoring tactic is causing a barking frenzy, try playing “treat and retreat.” Ask a guest to stand still; I find asking him to stand against a kitchen island works best because it prevents him from wandering around.

With your guest standing sideways toward your dog, ask him to toss treats behind your dog. It doesn’t matter where the treats land as long as your dog is able to turn away from the guest and eat the treat. Then, your dog can decide whether or not she’ll get closer to or look at your guest for more treats.

Rules of the Game

Now, there are strict rules for this dog game. This game is all about choices, and it’s your dog’s choice to walk closer to or look at the person. A guest should not advance toward the dog—ever. Guests can reward your dog for taking steps closer to him, but continue having them toss treats behind your dog.

Never drop treats close to a person and expect your dog to creep up for treats. This never works. If a guest has a difficult time following these guidelines, even with your helpful reminders, then it’s best to choose another guest to play this game.

Start playing this game in a controlled environment with one person for a few minutes, then put your dog in a safe room with a food stuffed Kong. This is hard work for your dog, so she must have breaks. Once your dog is safely relaxing in another room with soft music playing, you can sit back, relax and enjoy your guest’s company.

Add another person only when your dog is comfortable approaching a new single person. Start slow with one person sitting down while the other person tosses treats. Then, they can switch. After a few minutes, put your dog in her safe room with a food stuffed toy.

What Your Dog is Learning

Pairing good things with something works. The perfect example of this is our patience in long lines for a Starbucks drink. 🙂 This game teaches dogs that good things happen around people and provides them choices.

Choices are powerful and are just as rewarding as food treats for dogs. Dogs learn how to greet people politely without charging toward and barking at them. Plus, they learn to disengage and turn around during stressful situations instead of lunging and biting. When a dog chooses to disengage, reward her profusely!

Getting Help

Sometimes dogs need help, so please contact a positive reinforcement dog trainer who is experienced with fearful and anxious dogs. If needed, contact a veterinary behaviorist too, as he will have a wealth of information.

WATCH: Greetings for Stressed Dogs

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