Thursday 20 September 2012

Turid Rugaas

Turid is an amazing lady from Norway, who has been right at the forefront of canine behaviour for a number of years.
She has three books out that are compelling reading, not just because what is written in them makes so much sense, but also because they are written in such an empathetic manner. Every dog owner should buy these (they are only small so there is no daunting prospect of ploughing through hundreds of pages of statistical information etc etc!), so - what are you waiting for?

On Talking Terms with Dogs : Calming Signals (i.e. how our dogs communicate with us) - problem is that most of the time WE just don't listen. (Thats OUR opinion, not hers!!!)

Barking : TheSound of a Language (there are lots of reasons why dogs bark, and they use lots of different tones and pitches too). Everyone should be able to interpret their dogs' different barks.

My Dog Pulls : What Do I Do? (as it says on the back of the book - 'at last, a simple way to teach your dog to walk on a leash without pulling your arm off!)

Now - as if that is not enough to be going on with - Turid has a fabulous website with a few articles on it to help us all understand our furry friends. YOU can find it at http://www.canis.no/rugaas/

Last BUT BY NO MEANS LEAST, are you able to get to Edinburgh on the 29th and 30th of September? If so, you can book a place at the Pet Dog Trainers of Europe annual meeting, where there a right good few speakers giving talks on all things canine. From the speaker list and subject matter it would appear that this will be right at the cutting edge of training. And, GUESS WHAT, Turid Rugaas is one of those very speakers. Interested? Well check it out at http://www.pdte2012.co.uk/.

Whey hey - we just can't wait for this....................................

If you have an extra day, then the 1st of October sees Catherine O'Driscoll from Canine Health Concern running a workshop, covering :

In Search of the Truth About Dogs - an award-winning DVD about natural canine healthcare
How canine diet affects physical health and behaviour
Biologically appropriate food … the foundation of health and wellbeing; the functions of nutrients and their therapeutic uses
The vaccine issue: latest science on vaccine frequency
Vaccine-associated disease – the science
The human-animal bond
Human dysfunctionality: stress
How dogs mirror their owners and act-out their owners’ emotions
Emotional Freedom Technique – an introduction

You can book this too at : http://www.pdte2012.co.uk/workshop.php


Friday 7 September 2012

Update on Survey

We are getting a great response to our survey, thanks to Dogs Naturally and Catherine O'Driscoll from Canine Health Concern (and of course, you guys who have actually completed it!!!!).

Keep 'em coming. EVERY SINGLE COMPLETED SURVEY COUNTS.

Once again, the link is :

ABBY UP-DATE 110!

Here we are again.  We’ve come a long way since the days when Abby never fully relaxed, ate everything in sight including her poo, had regular diarrhoea, was sick in the car every journey, toileted in the house and was always bothered with her ears, and was seriously underweight.  A lot of that would have been to do with stress, and stress has an effect on digestive systems.  It seems to be the case that diet has an effect on stress levels as well.  It was also clear that her learning capacity was impaired, and that hasn’t changed much!  Although very motivated by food, there’s little sign of her remembering what she got it for!  It takes some dogs longer than others to settle in a new situation – it can take up to two years according to some experts.  When Abby came to us she had had two major surgical procedures:  one to remove mammary tumours and one to spay her.  She’d also had teeth removed.  Grey about the muzzle, she looked older than her estimated 6 or 7 years.  It was pretty hard going for her, and for us.  Regular clean-ups of runny poo on the kitchen floor, clean-ups of sick, muzzled when she was outside so she couldn’t eat anything, regular visits to the vets for vitamin injections and weigh-ins.    Well, all that’s behind us now.  Even the muzzle has come off on the beach, and the seaweed is safe!  She’s a fine traveller now and she’s clean in the house.  Best of all, she seems happy and reasonably healthy, and now weighs 29 kilos.  A major change in the way we feed her has definitely contributed to her improvement, and it’s apparent in her weight, her eyes (previously cloudy) and her coat which is now free of dandruff.  If you’ve been following this you’ll know that she is now on raw food with cooked vegetables, and completely grain free.  Given the extremely poor circumstances she was presumably living in while on a puppy farm, we think this is as good as it gets.  She even has little plays on the beach with Cairid, and has become very attached to him.