One Dog Per Family?

Sky News: One Family, One Dog Policy For Shanghai

This may seem extreme but, to play Devil's Advocate for a moment, in the long run is this a bad thing? I know rescues may now be inundated with dogs no longer legal to keep, but aren't they inundated now anyway?

Can you envisage the problems this might solve in years to come?  Or is it simply unthinkable to be forced to only have one dog in the family?

Food for thought and perhaps discussion?

The Dog that Bites...

I wanted to write something to contribute to the US Dog Bite Prevention Week but wanted to represent The Dog somehow without making it sound like a Disney script.

I've spent my life around dogs, learning about them, learning from them, with them; for them.  I've felt an empathy and affinity for dogs for as long as I can remember and in the short periods of my life that I have lived without them I have felt incomplete.

So when I know a dog is about to bite, I don't just see the behaviour, I feel the emotion vicariously.  I feel the conflict, the fear, the intent, the desire to repel whatever stimulus is causing the dog's distress, because it IS distress, most definitely, in the pet dog that feels the need to bite. 

I spend much of my time educating owners in how to read their dogs better. To develop more empathy for them by seeing the world through their eyes and feeling it with emotions equally as powerful as our own.

When I see a dog growling and / or freezing in front of someone I ask myself what is that person doing to put the dog in this emotional state?  I ask myself just what is the dog's expected outcome here? Why does he have an expected outcome?  What has happened in this dog's history that is making him feel so concerned about the presence of a human that illicits such a hugely emotional response?

I'm sure there are many others who feel this, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the owners of dogs.  How do we change that?

Don't Switch Off!

During our Walk Club we find lots of places to stop under a shady tree and chill out.

Scampi, Sticky and Ralph are demonstrating how easy it is to slip some training into a nice walk in the park.

If you can do exercises like a Down-Stay in an environment like the park with lots of distractions, you can do them anywhere.

So often I see people and their dogs taking two completely different walks; the owner on the phone or deep in thought, and their dog trotting around them but so far away doing their own thing, each switched-off from each other.

Don't switch off from your dog when you're out on a walk. Learn to enjoy their company like you would an old friend you haven't seen in ages. Look at the world through their eyes and share the sheer joy they feel at just being out in the fresh air. Get excited to find a discarded tennis ball or a cricket chirruping in the long grass and call your dog over to show them what you've found!  Chill out under a shady tree together and practice your Down-Stay together.

You never know, you might just enjoy 'being a Dog' with your dog for a while!