Should Your Dog Chew Pig Ears?

April 7, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Pros and Cons of Pig Ears for Dogs

Dogs love and need to chew. Chewing provides mental stimulation and exercise, keeps teeth clean, is fun and super relaxing. If dogs aren’t given plenty of chewing opportunities, they’ll likely create their own, which is never a good thing. So, should your dog chew pig ears? It depends. Learn the pros and cons of pig ear chews for dogs.

Pros of Pig Ear Dog Treats

The most appealing advantage about pig ear chews is dogs find them simply delicious! In my 20-plus years as a dog trainer, I’ve never witnessed a dog turning his or her nose up at a smoked pig ear dog treat.

Their thick hide and density make pig ears easy to chew for small, delicate chewers and senior dogs. Another huge plus is pig ear chews keep your dog’s teeth clean and gums healthy, which means fresh breath. Pig ear chews are also odorless even while your dog chews them.

Due to their popularity, pig ear dog treats are readily available at pet retailers and online, and are relatively inexpensive compared to other dog chews.

Cons of Pig Ear Dog Treats

Pig ear dog treats are high in fat. When consumed daily, pig ear chews can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Overzealous chewing dogs (power chewers) may choke or swallow large chunks, causing GI obstruction hazards.

Another pro about pig ear chews is power chewers can literally consume a pig ear chew within seconds, which can get very expensive. Most pig ear dog treats are also covered in chemicals, additives and preservatives, so choose chews made in the USA only.

Since pig ear chews for dogs taste so delicious, some dogs may exhibit resource guarding behavior and protect these treats from other dogs, people and children.

Pig Ear Chew Safety

If your dog is prone to obesity, has pancreatitis, is currently eating a bland diet or consumes chews too quickly, then it’s best to provide a different type of dog chew.

Pig ear chews are best for small dogs, delicate chewers and seniors in moderation (one chew per week). For power chewing dogs, bully sticks are a better option. Remember, supervision is vital while dogs chew. It’s the best preventative for choking or digestive obstructions.

Introducing Your New Puppy To Your Older Dog: Date Walks

March 31, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Doggy Date Walks for Your New Puppy and Older Dog

New puppies and older dogs can live together happily and peacefully so long as pet owners introduce them to each other slowly. Many pet owners assume a new puppy will improve their senior dog’s quality of life, but that’s not always the case. When bringing home a new puppy, you may find him bouncing around, biting and harassing your older dog.

Remember, your senior dog didn’t get to choose his new roommate, so it’s best to introduce your new puppy to your older dog slowly—and a great way to do that is with daily doggy date walks.

What’s a Doggy Date Walk?

Taking two dogs on a walk together is considered a “date walk.” Daily date walks provide each dog with an opportunity to get to know one another with minimal tension. Think about it this way: It’s much easier to meet a new person during a leisurely walk around the park than a formal sit-down dinner in your home.

Walking provides your puppy and older dog opportunities to meet without the added pressure of being face-to-face. Plus, doggy date walks provide needed space when meeting someone new. If a dog becomes a bit overwhelmed, he or she can increase the distance between them to feel comfortable. Date walks take the pressure off until both dogs get to know each other.

Going on Doggy Date Walks

Attach a 6-foot leash (no retractable leashes) to each dog. Ask a friend to join you, so she can hold one dog’s leash.

Provide Space

During the walk, you should keep a distance of between 3-6 feet between you and your friend. This allows your puppy and older dog the opportunity to move away, fall back or pull ahead from the other dog. Giving your dogs plenty of space is critical.

On that same note, don’t expect both dogs to walk side-by-side, especially in the early stages. Sometimes, an older dog will hang back a bit and sniff independently, so respect his request. Puppies are usually more eager and pull forward, which makes for a great dog training opportunity to reward polite leash manners.

While both your new puppy and older dog are aware they’re walking together, they also know they have some distance between them, which is a good thing.

Prevent and Redirect

If your new puppy harasses your older dog during date walks, it’s best to redirect the puppy with treats. An older dog will surely growl, snap or bite if a young puppy chases, bites his ears or jumps on him. To prevent fights, intervene quickly and redirect.

When redirecting a puppy, you should call your puppy. When the puppy looks away from the older dog, say “yes” and toss a food reward in the opposite direction of the other dog. Don’t forget to reward the older dog for remaining calm too. If your puppy insists on harassing your older dog, walk over and pick the puppy up immediately and walk ahead to prevent further harassing behavior.

Prevent Resource Guarding

During sniffing opportunities, some eager puppies will run over and investigate something that a senior dog is sniffing. When this happens, you should stop walking forward and call the puppy over for a reward. When two dogs push against each other during sniffing opportunities, this can cause resource guarding. When in doubt, don’t let it happen.

When Date Walks Don’t Work

If, at anytime, one dog tries to attack the other dog during walks, it’s best to stop all doggy date walks immediately. While doggy date walks work, they may not work in this situation. It’s unfair for the attackee to be forced to walk next to the attacker; it’s actually cruel. If this happens, discontinue walks and keep both dogs separated at all times. Contact a positive reinforcement dog trainer and veterinary behaviorist ASAP.

Daily date walks provide easy exercise, mental stimulation, and bonding time between dogs and pet owners. 🙂

The Key To Introducing A New Puppy To Your Older Dog

March 29, 2017 by Fanna Easter

How to Introduce a New Puppy to Your Older Dog

Introducing a New Puppy to Your Older Dog — Tracy King/Adobe Stock

Bringing home a new puppy with a current older dog at home can be challenging, but it can be done peacefully and positively. As dogs get older, they prefer quiet and comfy spots with minimal distractions. In contrast, puppies are loud, move really fast and can pester older dogs, which can quickly cause conflicts.

If you’re wondering how to introduce a new puppy to an older dog, start by separating them first. Keeping them separated in the beginning is the first step to peaceful co-existence. It’s a tool for teaching boundaries and polite manners while preventing dog anxiety and aggression from developing later on.

Watch Your Older Dog’s Body Language

Some pet owners assume their senior dogs will flourish with a new puppy around, but the opposite actually happens. When you introduce a new puppy to your older dog, you may notice your new puppy harassing him. If this happens, watch your older dog’s body language. If your older dog moves away from or ignores your puppy, support her decision by redirecting the puppy away from her.

Keep squeaky toys and yummy treats close by to give your puppy something else to do instead of chase his older sister. Your older dog will soon warm up to the puppy. It just takes a while to trust a roommate, especially if you didn’t pick your roommate. 🙂

Feed Meals Separately

Keep your new puppy and older dog separated during meals. Puppies should eat in their crates, so they learn good things happen there. If your older dog finishes her food quickly and walks over while your puppy is eating, redirect her with a potty break outdoors. Prevention is key to keeping your older dog from stealing food. Resource guarding behavior can easily rear its ugly head before you know it.

Never Allow Harassment

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Allowing dogs to “work it out” never works. It never ends nicely.[/perfectpullquote]

Puppy zoomies and sharp teeth? Yikes! It’s important to provide your new puppy plenty of playtime, but never allow him to harass your older dog. If your puppy chases, climb ups or harasses your older dog, that’s your call to intervene. Immediate intervention prevents an older dog from growling, snapping or biting your new puppy. Allowing dogs to “work it out” never works. It never ends nicely.

If your new puppy runs over to pester your older dog, call him to you and reward with super yummy treats. If your puppy continues to chase your older dog, quickly walk over and pick your puppy up. Now, walk to the other side of the living room and play with your puppy. Soon, your new puppy will learn that fun happens with you, and it’s rewarding to not pester an older dog.

Keep Them Entertained While You’re Away

Teach your new puppy that crates are fun, and keep your puppy crated whenever you’re not home. By now, your older dog has already earned free access to your home, so continue to allow your older dog to nap on the sofa while you’re away.

Do keep your puppy’s crate away from your senior dog’s favorite napping spots though. Try placing the dog crate in your bedroom or dining room. Turn on soft music and toss everyone a frozen food stuffed toy before leaving.

Having your new puppy and older dog in the same house with relaxing music on and letting them enjoy something yummy together teaches them to associate good things with being together. Soon, your puppy and older dog will enjoy chilling at home while you’re away.

Puppies and older dogs can get along happily, but it takes time.

How To Use Facebook To Help Dogs In Need

March 23, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Help Dogs in Need the Right Way

In a perfect world, social media would be packed with wagging tails, adorable puppy faces and darling dog tricks. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. Eventually, a dog lover will stumble upon a desperate-dog-in-need post, and it will tear at her heartstrings. Before you hide the post or tag your friend in a comment, learn how to use Facebook to help dogs in need.

Verify the Dog’s Status

When desperate pleas pop up on your social media feed, take a few moments and verify the dog is still in need. Verify by clicking on the original picture and scroll through the comments for updates. Once a dog has found a foster home, or has been safely pulled from Animal Control, someone usually updates the entire group. If nothing is noted, this dog is probably still in desperate need.

After checking if a dog still needs help, please share the post publicly with your Facebook or Twitter family. When sharing, take a moment to copy and paste the original message including the dog’s location (city and state), specifics about the dog (breed, age, gender, contact person) and verification that the dog is still in need. If you’re unable to foster or donate to help the poor dog, the very least you can do is share his or her story.

Comment Only If You Can Help

There’s no question that Facebook has certainly benefited dogs in need. Many dogs have been adopted due to lightning fast viral attention. However, there’s a downside too. Many well meaning dog lovers write comments that aren’t helping the dog in need. These excessive comments clog up Facebook posts and worse yet provide a false sense of safety.

We all want to help these dogs, but posting “Someone please help this dog now,” “I wish I could help, but I have 4 dogs already” or “This dog looks just like my dog” or tagging a friend within a comment actually delays help. Instead, comment only if you’re able to offer help.

Better Ways of Helping Dogs in Need

Foster, transport, donate or offer your skills. Most rescue shelters accept donations through PayPal or post an Amazon wish list on their websites. If nothing is posted, message the shelter and ask how to send donations. Then, share this link to friends and family on Facebook.

You can also start a fundraiser or make cute hats for shelter dogs. Many years ago, a Pit Bull rescue created beautiful flower hats to showcase available dogs up for adoption. If you’re crafty, offer to create beautiful adornment pieces, such as sequin ties for male dogs or hats. Be strategic with your social sharing, and offer help.

Don’t Scroll Past It

Simply put, seeing sad dogs hurts. Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a sharp decline in social media shares for posts about dogs in need. I’ll use my social media friends and followers as an example.

I have more than 500 dog-obsessed friends and followers, but maybe only one of my friends will repost a plea for a dog in need. About 3 to 4 years ago, at least 40 people would’ve shared the post. Why such a huge gap now?

From my perspective, it’s gut-wrenching and exhausting to see animals in desperate need every day. Some days, between 5 to 10 pitiful furry faces pleading for help pop up on my newsfeed. Some posts rip my heart into pieces due to unimaginable animal cruelty. I scroll past quickly, telling myself that not seeing it makes it not happen. But then I remind myself that these poor dogs have no voice and that I do.

Social media is powerful, but dog lovers must be strategic to help dogs find their forever home.

Psychic Readings For Dogs: I Want To Believe

March 20, 2017 by Fanna Easter

My Experience With Pet Psychic Readings

Animal Communication — Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

Whether or not you believe in the supernatural, pet psychic readings are certainly an interesting topic. After polling pet owners on their supernatural beliefs, I found results were split right down the middle. I’m from south Louisiana and our culture strongly believes in supernatural powers and psychic abilities. While I mostly believe in science-based principles, sometimes I encounter tiny gray areas that allow supernatural power to seep in. Here’s my experience with psychic readings for my dogs. (It just might leave you scratching your head!)

Why I Turned to a Pet Psychic

Many years ago, I shared my home with an extremely aggressive dog. Since he was a young puppy, he was troubled, but had made tremendous strides during his adolescent years. Just when we had reached our dog training goals, he regressed.

After exhausting several veterinary behaviorists and fellow dog trainers for advice, a very good friend of mine recommended a pet physic reading. Honestly, if this recommendation had been from someone else, I would’ve scoffed at the idea. However, this person is world-renowned in animal behavior, is extremely accomplished in the pet industry and had great results from a recent psychic reading for her dog. Hum, could this work?

During the Psychic Reading

After waiting three weeks for an opening, I finally got on the phone with my friend’s highly recommended pet psychic. She was extremely pleasant, but kept small talk to a minimum and asked very few questions. Within 30 seconds of our call, she asked if I was calling about a big fluffy dog to which I answered yes. She said he’s a smart boy, but he suffered from really bad headaches. It’s important to note, I never reveled my dog’s gender during our call. I felt goosebumps run down my spine.

The psychic told me my dog’s exact age, gender and described him completely. She also mentioned specifics about his personality that no one knew except for me and my husband. She said my dog had an issue with his neck, and that was causing his headaches. We were advised to find a good chiropractic veterinarian and have his neck adjusted in a specific spot. After writing down the exact adjustment location, she said, “Hang on a minute, your little dog is so sad.” How did she know I had another dog?

Apparently Stella, my Miniature Bull Terrier, was sad about our recent move. We had moved into our new home about six weeks ago. To help Stella through this adjustment period, the psychic said she would talk to Stella and explain our move was for the best. As I waited on the phone for a few minutes, I could hear Stella’s tail wagging underneath my desk. After a few closing pleasantries, we ended our call.

After Our Psychic Call

During our entire conversation, I took notes. After hanging up, I sat and cried. Honestly, I was shocked how accurate the animal communicator was about my dogs’ conditions. Stella was a different dog after my conversation with the pet psychic; she was back to her old self and played for hours. I found an amazing veterinary chiropractor and scheduled an adjustment for Santiago, my large Bouvier. As you guessed it, his painful area was exactly where the psychic recommended. While Santiago’s aggression never really went away, regular chiropractic adjustments sure helped.

Before pointing to social media or the Internet as hints during our psychic reading, I wasn’t on social media at the time. I had used rescue dogs as demo dogs in articles and videos back then, so it was impossible for the pet communicator to know specifics about my dogs. Trust me, I didn’t say much during our conversation, as I was too busy taking notes.

Other Dog Experts’ Encounters

Over the years, several dog behavior experts confided in me about their personal experiences with pet psychics and animal communicators. Some called because their dogs acted oddly during conformation shows, refused to jump or climb over certain agility equipment, had mysterious illnesses, or had recurring pains that vets were unable to detect. Regardless of the reason, most dog behavior experts were very satisfied with their pet psychic reading results. While this is an unconventional subject, it’s certainly interesting and food for thought if you really want to know what your dog is thinking.

Have you consulted a pet psychic? If so, what was the outcome?