On fire!

Today we had the great pleasure of meeting Nikki Harvey and her fire investigation dogs CC and Rex.  Nikki talked us about her job and what role her dogs have in the investigation of a fire.  We then filmed a training search and got to see the equipment CC and Rex would use while doing their job.

Fantastic videos heading your way, thank you very much to Nikki, CC and Rex, and the Hertfordshire fire department.

May 2013 is Live

May brings you another mixed bag of brand new subjects, advice from top dog experts and more articles on popular topics. One of our new subjects is thanks to Dave Heyhoe who recently retired from the Royal Army Veterinary Corps along with his explosives search dog Treo. In the first of two videos, Dave tells us about the invaluable service teams like Dave and Treo perform to safeguard our troops (Explosives Search Dogs). We also have the first in a new series on the use of Reiki for dogs (Reiki for stress and anxiety).

This month’s expert advice comes from, Grisha Stewart (Correcting wrong behaviours), Richard Allport (Homeopathy for itchy skin) Sally Marchant (Teaching Hide) and Tamsin-Jane Sewell (Socialisation: how, when and why).

Finally, we continue our series on Working as... (Working as a...dog lawyer).

Talking Dogs Rally

Today we returned to Yaxley to film Becky Skelhon and Pam McKinnon, providing a bit more insight into the Talking Dogs Rally® system that they created. Looking forward to bringing you articles on starting out in TD Rally® and a closer look at Call Fronts and Spirals in the coming months.

Thanks again Becky and Pam, great to see you again, and look forward to filming more articles about TD Rally®!

Filming Brenda Aloff

We had the great pleasure of attending the Brenda Aloff seminar this weekend, and what a great seminar it was. Brenda was engaging and very knowledgable, and gave us some great tools for treating aggression in dogs.

Thanks very much to Dog & Bone for another great seminar. Then on Monday we were back to film Brenda demonstrating some of her techniques. So excited to bring you these videos in the coming months.

Thanks again to Brenda and Jez.

Healthy Pet Care Tips

Staying on top of pet care at home can make for a happy pet as well as a happy owner. It can be tough at times, but it is important to care for your pet’s health. Here are several tips to keep not only your animal but your local environment healthy:

Get Pet Exams Regularly 
There are many problems your pet can encounter, as severe as heart problems or arthritis of the joints to even as little as a toothache. Owners can prevent these problems by taking their pet to see a veterinarian every year. Annual vet appointments will pay close attention to how their diet is progressing, nutrition, their weight and if it is appropriate with their age and size. Vet visits also take care of any needed vaccinations, dental exam, and parasite control. Set a date on the calendar each year and make it a priority because it can be vital to your pet’s health.

Spay and Neuter Your Pets 
Many cats and dogs are left unattended to and can’t find a home (we have a video about how to rehome a new dog here). This is often a result of unadvised offspring and this problem can be prevented. The purpose of spaying and neutering your pet is not just to prevent the offspring of your cats or dogs but to also assist in other health areas such as cancers.

Fight against Parasites 
We all are aware that fleas are the common issue when it comes to parasites. Fleas are the common external parasite which can lead to fur loss, injection, and irritated skin with your pets. Prevention is the best way to battle parasites because fleas can introduce other parasites both external and internal. This external problem can lead to a variety of issues including tapeworms and heartworms.

Prevent this from happening at all times, which may require year-round persistence but not a lot of effort from the owner. Talk to your vet about what medications will suit your cat or dog best and keep them safe at all times.

We found a useful article on 10 Steps to Keeping Your Dog Happy

Keep Your Pet Healthy Weight Wise 
Many owners allow their cats or dogs to become overweight, which can lead to many health risks such diabetes and arthritis. Some owners tend to over feed their pets and that becomes the source of the obesity. Pets who don’t maintain a healthy weight will begin to chip away at their life span.

Speak with your vet on what they think is appropriate for your pet’s daily meals. Remember to allow your pet up to an hour of exercise every day if possible. If you have a back yard you can let them run around and play. ‘Dog flaps’ are useful for allowing dogs access in and out, and you can even get them for sliding glass doors here: sliding glass doggy door

"All About Dogs"

Well, after a very successful debut into the world of trade shows with Crufts, we decided to venture outdoors with "All About Dogs". It wasn’t so much a “baptism of fire” as one of snow, rain and wind!

One thing you can’t control with outdoor shows in the UK is the weather! For the first one, in Ipswich, we had an onsite marquee which, while it provided a shelter, didn’t keep out the cold. It even snowed – brrrrr! The weekend was quite successful, but we felt there was something missing from our stand, so for the second outing, to Newbury, we took along our own gazebo and had a much bigger pitch, giving us the opportunity to set up a ring to offer trick training as a fun element to grab people’s attention.

This wasn’t so successful on the Saturday, as the rain-soaked visitors were not inclined to stand around outside any longer than they had to learning tricks but the Sunday proved more successful. On that day we just had strong winds to contend with! We spent the entire day battling with holding down a gazebo that kept filling up with air and trying to take off like a great balloon. What didn’t help was that the rain-soaked ground made the pegs pull out easily.

We thought we’d escaped unscathed and were just packing up when disaster struck! One of the other gazebos actually did take flight and crash landed into ours, causing irreparable damage. Huge thanks go to the immediate team of local stall-holders who immediately marshalled to come to our aid and to Sarah from BlackDogDNA, the owner of the errant gazebo that had taken flight. Sarah is doing everything she can to help us to sort this out, which is handy as we think her company is a great idea and we plan to do some filming with her. BlackDogDNA uses a simple test to find out which breeds have gone into the mix in non-pedigree dogs. We look forward to finding out the ingredients that make up our “office” dog, Sandy.

On the subject of filming, we also got some great footage of Dock Dogs, where dogs compete in a water-based long jump by launching themselves into a sort of dog swimming pool. The winner at Newbury jumped 18 feet! We look forward to filming an article on Dock Dogs soon too.

April 2013 issue goes live

Any Bill Bailey fans out there? Boy do we have a treat for you! Bill very kindly agreed to speak to us about his Balinese dingos and in particular his about a topic very close to his heart – BARC, the Bali Adoption and Rehabilitation Centre. We are very pleased to bring you this video (Bill Bailey and BARC) in this month's issue, and to support BARC; they are this month's supported charity which of course means £1 from each new subscription this month will be given directly to them to support their fantastic work.

Grisha Stewart was a speaker at this year's WOOF! event, and while she was here she filmed some more topics with us. This month we bring you Grisha teaching the 'watch' cue (Teaching Cues - Watch). Also this month we continue with our feature on Medical Detection Dogs with an article about the training process (Medical Detection: The Training), Chris Mancini shows us how to teach 'Feet on feet' - a very useful trick especially for heelwork to music (Teaching Feet on Feet), and Sally Marchant shows us how to teach the weave poles for agility (Agility: Weaves). Our grooming section gets another article with plucking ears (Ear Plucking), Tamsin-Jane Sewell talks to us about the long-haired Akita (Long Haired Akitas), and Catherine from Albion Meat Products talks to us about being a raw meat supplier (Working As a Raw Meat Supplier).

Phew!

Thanks to all those who visited us at Crufts, it was lovely to meet you.  We had a great time with so much interest in the magazine. We were completely shattered by the end of the four days but are looking forward to other trade stands throughout the year already!

Reiki with Rob

We were welcomed back to Shropshire to film Rob Fellows and his dog Monty today.

We covered topics such as 'Reiki for stress' and also interviewed him about Monty's heart condition and arthritis, which Rob treats with Reiki every day.

We thank Rob for his hospitality, and look forward to filming him again in the future.

The world's bravest dog

Today we were very privileged to meet up with Dave Heyhoe and Treo, his Army explosives and weapons cache search dog.

Dave spoke to us about how he met Treo, the training process, and of course the work he did in support of our troops abroad.

We thank both very much for their time, and look forward to bringing you this video shortly.

Socialisation training

Today we filmed Tamsin Jane in Cambridgeshire with her 6 month old long-haired Akita pup.  Tamsin explained some of the differences between the American and Japanese Akitas, and also talked about the importance of socialisation, particularly with breeds such as the Akita.

We also filmed an interesting video about the Nina Ottosson range of dog training toys, we look forward to bringing you these articles soon.

Getting ready for Crufts

In a few days time we’ll be bringing Naturally Happy Dogs to Crufts Dog Show for the first time and are naturally very excited! Crufts, is, of course the world-famous dog event organised by the Kennel Club. In March’s issue we have a couple of articles about some of the invaluable schemes run by the Kennel Club. One is the Assured Breeders Scheme (Assured Breeders Scheme) which sets standards of good practice for breeders and the other is the Companion Dog Club Scheme (Companion Dog Club) which gives owners of non-pedigree dogs the opportunity to compete in a wide range of competitions.

We continue with our series of articles on the work of Medical Detection Dogs (Medical Detection: The Benefits) and take another look at the benefits of changing your dog to a raw food diet (Changing to a Raw Diet). We also offer general dog training tips (Gundogs - Retrieve Problems) (Teaching the "Name Game") and further suggestions for anyone wanting to try out trick training ideas (Teaching Cross Paws).

In addition, we investigate a new development in the realm of dog safety. The Animalarm (Animalarm) is a device that gives warning when the temperature surrounding your dog is too hot or cold - invaluable if you have to leave your dog for brief periods of time. If you don’t already have one of these devices, come and visit us in Hall 5, Stand 104A for a chance to win one.

Filming Grisha

Today we travelled to Milton Keynes to meet up with Grisha Stewart for some more filming.

Grisha was over for the WOOF! conference along with a star-studded line-up, and she kindly took some time out to film a number of topics for us. One of these was an explanation of the difference between her BAT technique and Classical Conditioning, which we'll be bringing you very soon, watch this space!

Thanks again to Grisha for taking some time out for us, we look forward to seeing her again in the future.

February 2013 is live

We’re looking forward to letting you know, starting in this month’s issue, about some exciting new developments in the field of medicine. One topic is how dogs can be used to help with detecting human health problems (Medical Detection Dogs). To continue with looking at medical issues, we take a further look at the work on Bionic Vet Noel Fitzpatrick, this time looking at the spine (Spinal disc problems).

We get some inside information from staff at Woodgreen: The Animal Charity on how they manage rehoming dogs (Rehoming your dog) and from one of the volunteers with the Pets As Therapy charity on what happens during a typical visit (P.A.T. dogs in action).

There is practical helpful information on how to dry your dog safely after a bath (Drying dogs) and how to teach your dog to drop on command (Gundog training: Drop) - an excellent immediate solution to dangerous situations.

We also have another video from Alex Wilson from Xtradog about choosing the most suitable kind of harness for your dog (Choosing the right harness).

Finally, if you fancy training your dog to do something a little more unusual, Chris Mancini shows you how to train handstands (Teaching tricks: Handstand).  The mind boggles!

Book review - 'The truth about wolves and dogs' by Toni Shelbourne

Here at Happy Dogs we have been asked by Hubble & Hattie to review a new book, one about dog training, and have decided to accept the challenge. The book for review is called 'The truth about wolves and dogs' by Toni Shelbourne. The subtext reads 'dispelling the myths of dog training', and this piqued my interest. Knowing the range of dog training theories there are out there, and knowing the very best there is already out there, I thought it would be interesting to see where on the scale this book placed itself, and if it could bring anything new to the world of dog training books.

According to the cover-wrap blurb, Toni has "worked professionally with dogs since 1989" and "...worked with [a pack of wolves at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust] for ten years as Senior Wolf Handler and Education Officer". She is also a "...successful Tellington TTouch Companion Animal Practitioner". An excellent start then, someone with a potentially deep understanding of wolf behaviour, and also someone with a leaning towards the compassionate side of dog training.

The book starts well; it lays out its aim clearly and succinctly, to challenge the outdated and incorrect assumptions about dog and wolf behaviour of yesteryear. It moves on to explain the differences between the wolf and modern companion dog, again being short and to the point, using references to important pioneers in their field such as Belyaev, Pavlov and Rugaas, and making good use of quality photographs to illustrate the point. It strikes a nice balance between delving too deep into the technical aspects it describes, and dumbing down too much, covering much ground in a short space whilst pointing towards sources of research should the reader want to find out more.

There is a large section on the signals displayed by wolves and dogs, and this is again illustrated with many pictures. The information is informative and helpful, again not getting too technical but giving a good overview of calming signals and other behaviours that you might see in your average dog.

The book finishes with advice to potential owners on choosing the right breed of dog for their lifestyle, and explaining how to see the world from the dog's point of view. Whilst this is undoubtedly good advice, it seems strange to have this at the back of a book which appears to be aimed more at the budding dog trainer or dog enthusiast.

Nevertheless, this is a somewhat brief but accurate and helpful overview of dog behaviour, how they communicate with us and each other, and the key differences between dogs and wolves. It is not too heavy and the photos used are high quality and informative. It doesn't offer any new revelations about our canine friends, all this information is available from a variety of other sources, but it does package it up in an enjoyable and easy to read bundle.

The truth about wolves and dogs by Toni Shelbourne
Paperback with flaps
112 pages, 126 pictures
ISBN: 978-1-845844-27-1

Reviewed by Kevin Marchant, Naturally Happy Dogs

January 2013 Videos

Happy New Year! We hope you had an enjoyable Christmas.

We're excited to be sharing information on new techniques in the field of veterinary surgery with the “Bionic Vet” Noel Fitzpatrick, starting with a look at Cruciate ligament problems and a new video in our Free Videos section - elbow disease.

We continue our series on the work of the Pets As Therapy charity (Volunteering) and begin a new series “Working As...” where, month by month, we talk to people whose career involves dogs in some way about what their job entails. This month will be “Working as a Dog Walker”. There are more training tips from Adem Fehmi (Gundogs: Teaching Directions) and helpful advice from Woodgreen: The Animal Charity on rehoming a new dog. Finally we tackle the thorny subject of dangerous dog laws with Wheldon Law – experts in this area.

We also find out some top tips for bathing dogs and also what basic health signs to look out for in our dogs to make sure they are healthy as well as happy. 

We’re off to a cracking start!

Handstands!

Today we filmed Chris Mancini at the Puppypals training school. Chris kindly agreed to film three articles with us on the subject of trick training, including cross paws, 'foot on foot' and even how to teach your dog to do handstands!

We thank Chris and her colleagues for their time, and look forward to bringing you these articles early next year.

Medical Detection Dogs

Today we filmed the amazing work of the Medical Detection Dogs. A fairly new charity, they are training dogs for a variety of roles, using their keen sense of smell to detect particles in urine samples and indicating when they find the particular scents that they are trained to detect.

 It is said that some dogs can detect cancer cells in two parts per trillion. They are also more accurate during the earlier stages of cancer, as there are less other complications at this point, and thereby easier to distinguish.

We also filmed 10-year-old Stephen who has type-1 diabetes, his dog is trained to detect the scent of low or high sugar levels, and indicates by fetching his tester equipment, and alerting his mum in the second instance. A wonderful story, we look forward to bringing these articles to you in the new year.

Baileys, no ice

Today we had the good fortune to film the great Bill Bailey! Bill and his wife Kris kindly allowed us into their home to capture Bill in his native environment, with his three Bali Dingos, and a whole menagerie of other animals too.

Bill shot a video with us, all about his work with the Bali Adoption and Rehabilitation Centre (BARC) and how he came to rehome three Bali Dingos himself.

We thank Bill and his family for their time today, and look forward to bringing you this video soon!

New December 2012 videos

Our December issue is now live. In this we take a deeper look into some of the topics that have proved popular in recent months. We look further at the Pets As Therapy dogs scheme (Registering a Pets As Therapy dog), dog first aid (Poisoning), agility training (tunnels), Tellington TTouch (earwork) and pet insurance (different types).

We also take a look at a couple of innovative new schemes. A fairly recent idea and one that builds on the Pets As Therapy notion is that of “reading to dogs”. This is not as crazy as it might initially sound. Studies have shown that when a child reads to a dog, it is not only fun for them but helps by providing a non-judgemental audience. It really seems to build a child’s confidence and there are a number of these schemes now supported by the Kennel Club. We hear from the Kennel Club about their participation and from 'Danny' from one of the schemes.

Another new and exciting approach has been taken by Wood Green – The Animal Charity with their “Paw to Door” scheme. This is a way to re-home dogs without the need for lengthy stays in kennels. We discover how this works in practise.

Finally, should you want to make the most of your canine’s good looks in time for Christmas, we get some helpful hints on finding a good groomer.

Surgery with Noel

Up bright and early today to visit Noel Fitzpatrick at Fitzpatrick referrals near Guildford in Surrey. Fitzpatrick Referrals are committed to providing the best compassionate care, surgical excellence and rehabilitation – the gold standard of care.  They offer all the options available in neuro-orthopaedic surgery today.  Achieving the best possible quality of life for pets, Fitzpatrick Referrals strives to make the impossible possible.

Noel explained in detail elbow problems, hip dysplasia, a spinal problem and cruciate ligament problems. He even let us video a couple of operations - one took just over half an hour and the other lasted just 4 minutes!

We hope to bring you these fascinating videos very soon.