National Pet Week Wraps Up

by Carrie Boyko, CEB

© Carrie Boyko
Is This a Black Tie Event?

National Pet Week ended its annual awareness week, sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Saturday may have been its official end, but their website will continue to offer an abundance of information for pet owners that visit. For instance:

• Fast facts about America's pets 
• 5 Ways to "Vet" Your Veterinarian, as well as other resources, like Find a Vet
• The Hero Dog Awards
• Information on Veterinary Careers
• Teacher resource material
• Pet Owner Resources of all sorts from the American Veterinary Medical Association
• Tips for pet practitioners on celebrating National Pet Week

In honor of the festivities we announced a special  grab bag giveaway just for our Facebook visitors. Did you miss it? If you don't want to miss the next surprise event, you may want to go hit that "Like" button on our page as soon as you're done reading this.

It's time now to announce the winners of the two grab bags. Tanner and Oliver certainly were interested in watching me select. I could almost hear them saying, "Wait, not that one!" Each grab bag includes a bag of treats and an assortment of other goodies for dogs and dog owners. We'll call this a special thank you for watching the Facebook page. Shall we try it on Twitter next?  Leave me a comment if you're active on Twitter. I'd like to know. You can find us there at http://Twitter.com/AllThingsDog.

Thanks to everyone who participated. I'll be doing it again, so keep up the good work. Today's winners are Nikki Smithinsky and Vicky Thrasher. If you ladies will send your addresses here shortly, we'll get your surprise packages out on Friday. Happy tails!

Drop Off Vet Visits: Handle with Care!

(c) by Carrie Boyko

How does your dog manage visits to the vet? Is he nervous and fearful, or calm and friendly? Often your dog's acceptance of a veterinarian is related to your own body language and communication style with the staff and vet. Your dog is always watching you for cues that a new environment is safe and 'friendly'. If your demeanor says 'I'm comfortable and confident here', then your dog is likely to follow suit, especially if you employ this method from day one.

Here's one other strategy you might employ to assure you dog's vet visits are as smooth as possible. Many vets offer early drop off and late pickup for dogs of owners who work all day. This is, indeed, a convenient service for the owner, but sometimes we forget the dog's part in this equation.

A pup that is confined to a crate in the back of a vet's office for an entire day may become  nervous, stressed or even fearful. Of course, this is likely not the veterinarian's fault; let's be clear on that. The problem generally stems from the unfamiliar environment, the dog's inability to explore and become comfortable with it, and the noise factor.

We've all heard the barking dogs in the crates of a vet's office. Hearing a bunch of nervous cats and dogs barking and meowing all day could certainly rev up your dogs nerves. I'd bark too if I knew there were busy people all around whom I hoped would stop and give me some attention. It's just not an ideal situation for the dogs, even though it works great for us and the vets.

If getting your dog to the vet is urgent, and cannot wait until their Saturday hours, then by all means, drop him off for his needed care. If he comes home with an uneasy attitude and takes a while to pull himself together, you'll know why. Whenever possible, consider scheduling non-emergency check ups and tests on a day off from work. Your pup will feel more confident in your presence, and you'll have a happier companion at home.

Related Reading:

Preparing your Puppy for a Lifetime of Happy Vet Visits

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Preparing Your Puppy for a Life of Happy Vet Visits

by Carrie Boyko

While at the vet with my pack recently, one of the pet nurses commented on how amiable all three of my dogs are when they come in for their regular exams and vaccinations. She went on to explain that many of the dogs who visit them are fearful, aggressive or anxious during their visits, which seems to result in a higher-maintenance visit for the vet and nurses.

Thinking back on my puppy raising days, I remembered that these problems are the reason for many of the daily handling activities that owners are encouraged to do with their pups. 

Below are a few of the tips that will help you prepare your pup for a less-anxious, more enjoyable experience at the veterinarian. The logic behind most of these tasks is to acclimate your puppy to the types of handling and activities that will occur at the vet. If your puppy is used to being handled in the same ways that the nurses and doctors do, they will be much less likely to be frightened. Daily practice, starting today, will help your furry friend be a much happier patient, and that is good for both of you.

• Begin human socialization immediately upon taking your puppy home; take him out to meet others and encourage everyone who visits to play with and handle him.
• Emphasize a variety of different looking people in your socialization exercises: wheelchairs, canes, blacks, whites, beards, curly hair, you get the picture. Your pup needs to see it all during these formative first few months. Be sure to include folks in various types of uniforms as well. Fearful dogs have often been known to target uniformed people like mail carriers, police and even veterinarians.
• Demonstrate leadership when socializing your pup by always showing your complete and total confidence in the presence of different looking people and places. You will be setting the example for your pup's lack of nervous energy at the vet, if you greet the vet warmly and show Rover how enjoyable it is to be there.
• Expose your puppy to noises of all kinds as well--printers, phones, meowing cats, barking dogs, and yes, even bigger groups of them, when she is ready.
• Handle your puppy daily in many of the ways your vet will do this, checking ears, eyes, teeth, abdomen, tail, backside and pads of the feet.
• For many pups the toes may be a sensitive area. If so, choose a soothing foot-pad massage instead, gradually getting deeper between the toes as your puppy begins to grow larger and accept this manipulation.
• Praise the puppy lavishly each time she allows you to examine an area that you need to get good visibility in. Trust me, one day when you need to pull a tick from between her toes, you'll need her to cooperate. Now is the time to prepare her for this eventuality.
• You can even mimic an eye check. First allow your pup to sniff and examine the flashlight. Then use it to dart the light quickly past her eyes, praising her when she handles this with moderate ease.
•  Include gentle snout massages in your routine to prepare the puppy for a nose exam. Treat her when she willingly allows you to massage or stroke her snout, as this is another extremely sensitive area on most dogs.

If you get your puppy used to being held, handled, checked and socialized with people, she will show you quite quickly that she can be a terrific patient. It just takes some diligence to practice these moves daily.

One final tip…most vets use a large scale to weigh your pup on. You can use a dark floor mat or other low, stable item to practice weighing. Teaching your puppy to sit on the scale will assist with getting an accurate weight. Most puppies can learn the sit command within a couple of days of starting to practice. Check back for my post of teaching sit, coming soon here at All Things Dog Blog.

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The Adoption Option: Help from Adopt-a-Pet

Find me on Facebook   Follow me on Twitter    Write to Dr. Jacki, ASK THE VET

ASK THE TRAINER at All Things Dog Blog

Pet
adoption and

rescue powered by

If you missed my first post about Adopt a Pet, you can still find it here at Join Me for a Tour of Adopt-a-Pet. Sometimes you find a site that can't be reviewed in one short post. This one falls into that category.

My favorite feature of their pet-finding search boxes is the Search Saver. The Search Saver will actually keep looking for your requested pet, and notify you by email when it becomes available in your area. No more daily or weekly trolling through pages of pets, looking for just the right Rover.Their software will do it for you!


Adopt-a-Pet is also working to make it easier for you to share pet possibilities with others. They call this Social Petworking, and it works through Facebook, Twitter and other social applications. You can use their Social Petworking feature with a quick sign up at this link: Adopt-a-Pet Social Petworking. I checked this out and found that they have had 115,000+ pets shared through this application already. That's simply awesome.


If you are totally over the moon about adoptions and rescues, Adopt-a-Pet has some fabulous code you can post on your website to promote pet adoption. They partnered with artist Shepard Fairey to create the artwork, and also sell products with this cool design at Mutts Like Me. You'll notice a sample of this at the top of this post, and one in my sidebar. I love the image!


If you love it too, you can even download computer wallpaper or cell phone backgrounds (Blackberries, IPhones, Razors and regular cell phones) with this art at the Mutts Like Me site. It's free; they just want to get the word out about adoption.


Time to wrap this up. One last topic and I'm outa here. Adopt a Pet has also provided a nice resource about veterinary care on their website. For folks who are not up to speed on what they might need for their new housemate, this is really helpful. Be sure to check out What to Ask Your Veterinarian.


I certainly hope all this wonderful information about adoption has gotten you to thinking about sharing your home with a less fortunate furry friend. I've provided a lot of resource materials here, and encourage you to use the search function at the top of the page to find anything you're interested in learning about sharing your home with a dog. Here's wishing you an awesome adoption.

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Be sure to visit Adopt a Dog Park to learn what you can do to help protect our precious dog parks.