Our Canine Behaviour website

[tbourner]

OK so this is a new thing for us, dog behaviourism for one thing but also creating websites:

 

Dog behaviour.

 

It's been up and running for about a week, needs a lot of refining and also lots more pages written up. I was going to wait until it was finished but I thought I'd share it with you lot now anyway. Eventually I'll pay for the site so we can get rid of some of the adverts and make it a bit more usable.

 

Have a look and see what you think. The basic idea is for people who want general information on their dogs can go and read up and hopefully learn a bit, might solve some problems. And when Zoe is trained up properly as a behaviourist we can pass the tougher cases onto her (will reword some of the site at that point!!), she's doing some work on problem dogs at the moment, but it's just advice she's giving out with a clear disclaimer that she's not trained, not taking money and just giving her advice! Acorns.

 

 

I might have to pick brains soon on SEO as well, trouble is I need to do it without spending any money!!! Is that possible other than just posting on forums and Facebook and asking everyone to cross post? Obviously it helps if the info is actually useful so people pass it on to their friends!

[DamanC]

You have PM

[tbourner]

Thanks dude, will look into that. I'm told I'm webmaster for Huskies in Need as well as being treasurer!! Gonna get busy I think.

[probrox]

Any idea how to stop a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy chewing everything in site while i'm out of the house? I'll check the website tonight when I get home from work and look for some pointers.

 

Also, off topic, but I might be looking for a rescue dog to keep him company in the next month or so. Can you reccomend anywhere in Suffolk/Essex to look? Oh, and any breed ideas as well, need a smallish dog to keep the missus quiet (the Bernese was my choice) that is good with other dogs and small children.

[Thorin]

Any idea how to stop a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy chewing everything in site while i'm out of the house?

 

Shut them in somewhere they can do least damage and give plenty of dog toys to chew stuffed with food? Being a puppy it should grow out of it!

[tbourner]

Basically as above! How old is he? We buy wooden dumbells for ours to chew as pups, and give them a kong stuffed with treats and paste and frozen overnight when we go out.

 

A crate is a good idea as well, you NEED to read up on how to crate train though as otherwise you can end up with the dog hating the crate.

 

How do you leave? Is it separation anxiety? Do you ignore him when you leave and when you come back?

[probrox]

Basically as above! How old is he? We buy wooden dumbells for ours to chew as pups, and give them a kong stuffed with treats and paste and frozen overnight when we go out.

 

A crate is a good idea as well, you NEED to read up on how to crate train though as otherwise you can end up with the dog hating the crate.

 

How do you leave? Is it separation anxiety? Do you ignore him when you leave and when you come back?

 

He's 9 months now and 45kg. I'm not sure i've got room anywhere for a crate big enough to hold him now. The wooden dumbells sound like a good idea, he seems to like chewing wood as I found out with the stair nosings and the bannister spindles.

 

He has got a kong but he hasn't shown much interest with the biscuits inside and he finishes the paste in minutes. I'll try freezing it and see if that helps.

 

When we leave him I normally stroke him before I go and he gets lots of fuss when we get back, Is this the wrong thing to do?

 

Thanks for the advice, i'll let you know how it goes

[tbourner]

Separation anxiety is a big problem because we treat dogs like people and try to comfort them when they're uncomfortable (with fear of fireworks, ignore the dog to fix the problem). When you leave they don't understand why and get nervous/anxious, and that's when they chew. I don't normally compare to wolves as it's not the same but in the case of sep-anx wolves are a good case - wolves simply leave to hunt, when they come back the alpha ignores the other wolves, goes to eat what he wants then abandons the food for the others - they don't greet each other or say goodbye in any way. the other wolves know there's nothing to worry about as the alpha isn't concerned. Rewind to you and the dog, canines don't comfort each other and they don't show empathy like we do, so you saying goodbye and stroking them is to them you being nervous about leaving, like something is to be scared of - maybe you're not coming back. When you do come back the same thing happens, you say hello and to the dog you're so scared about the horrors you faced outside the door you're asking them to protect you - what do you think they feel next time you go to leave and do the same thing!!

 

So, ignore them when you're going out, some people say 5 mins before but TBH we just grab the kong out the freezer, and a dentastick usually, drop them on the floor, close the gate (baby gates enclose ours under the stairs, rather than a crate) and leave, we say 'see ya' every time we walk out the door, but in a monotone voice. Then when we come back we don't say anything, no eye contact, take coat off, open gate and walk straight through as if they're not there, open back door or whatever, put shopping down, go into lounge and sit down then say hello to dogs calmly with no excitement.

 

Ours aren't perfect, they still howl when they hear the car, but we're hapy with where we are so we're not working on it any more. We could ignore them completely until they go and sit down rather than pestering us and sniffing our shopping etc. Anyhoo I hope that gives you an idea, let me know how it goes - you should see a change after 2 or 3 trips out. Important things are eye contact and touch. Have a read of the General Info page I've written for starters, we've still to write the specific problems pages!