How can I be more confident around dogs?
Dogs notice straight away when people are afraid or wary of them. Fear is a state of mind but it can create bad reactions from
dogs as they don't understand why.
If you around one or if a dog runs up to you barking, it is mainly
their way of asking "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Don't panic and certainly don't run as dogs like chasing for fun.
Don't shout as they think they have an audience, just keep quiet and
let them smell you.
The best way to overcome your fear is to get a puppy from a dominant
breed such as a German Shepherd, Doberman, etc...and this will open a
new part of you which you didn't even know of. Our daughter
was terrified of dogs when she was younger. Since we've had
our German Shepherd she is completely the opposite - very confident
around all shapes and sizes.
Who needs a dog walker?
Anyone that can't take their dog for 3 walks a day. Your dog will
definitely appreciate being taken out more often and this helps to
keep him healthy, happy, and sociable. During winter, if your dog is
not walked around lunchtime, he might never go out in day light!
How should I choose a dog walker?
Choosing an established company that has a clientele base is a
good start.
Insured for care and custody, transport, etc.
They can provide a disclosure of their criminal record (with none on there of
course).
They are kind to the dogs but firm enough to reinforce the basic
commands and stop any very bad behaviour: mounting, fighting,
bullying.
What are the advantages of leaving your dogs at home during the day?
Burglars
will almost always choose a house without a dog as they don't like
attracting attention and a noisy pooch is certainly not an option
for them.
Should walks be
on or off lead? Some companies endeavour to start and
finish the walk on the lead. In our case we always start
and finish with dogs on leads and this time accounts for
⅔ of the walk. Why? We put
the pack in a submissive
attitude and reaffirm our leadership. The off lead time then
becomes a reward. Unfortunately, dogs that don't know the
recall will be kept on the lead at all times. Please work on it as
we like to see them playing all together.
Is it a good idea to have your dog walked on his own? Others
use this as a
selling point, that they do individual walks, on the lead all
the time, saying they’ll have more time for him. It’s right they
will have more time, but what is human interaction
compared to a number of other 4-legged friends to play with, sniff, run under the
supervision of an experienced dog walker? As well, walking several
dogs on the lead in a pack is not much more of a problem than walking one, as long as the dog knows his place,
and walks at a good pace. If your dog is nervous of others it is
always better for him to be gradually introduced to some other dogs
with who he will eventually be best friends, than continuing to walk
him on his own and avoiding all other dogs which will just worsen
his fear.
Do you train as well as walk dogs? Some companies tell you that in an
hour’s walk they’ll do some training with your dog. If a company is
well known, the dog walker will walk around 4-5 dogs at a time.
If you have been to training classes, which is a must when you own a
dog, especially for the socialisation, you probably already know how
much is involved in training a dog. I really wonder how they
do it. It’s
hard enough trying to concentrate at the training class, let alone
being with 5 other dogs outside?!
Are you qualified (Kennel Club) trainers ? No we are not. We encourage our
dogs to walk to heel, make sure they get plenty of socialisation, but the
rest we leave it to the accomplished professionals who are either police dog
handlers, champions in sport like obedience and agility. We emphasize that you should take
an active role in training your dog, reading books, going to clubs and
practise what you have learnt.
Where do you walk the dogs? Usually in a park, in woodland,
or near a
river on a hot day. I sometimes walk in town as well which is
really good to build their confidence: being around people, plenty of traffic noise
(police, buses, road works) they are subject to a lot of
stimulation. We often stop so they are stroked by passersby. We
also come across some dogs, usually they are barking or pulling on the
lead, as we believe they want to join us. Soon, you'll be able to
do so knowing you can go in town with your best friend.
When you are out and about, how do you deal with meeting other dogs? Everyone wants their dog to be sociable with
other dogs and tend to encourage them to go and greet others.
Ultimately, that would be good, but when someone has a dog on the lead
it is preferable not to as you don’t know why he is on the lead
(operation, bad tempered, doesn’t know the recall). So as a
principle it is advisable not to let them do this and only meet with
dog's on the lead or when you know from the other owner that it is
OK to do so.
Do you take dogs that are not castrated? The answer
is no for several good reasons:
We want to avoid any problems with dominance and mounting other dogs
which could cause a fight.
If your dog is off the lead, he could escape to follow a bitch in
season and not come back or worse get run over.
Uncastrated dogs have a higher risk of cancer.
Do you throw wooden sticks?
Never!
On top of the obvious accidents which can happen anytime,
the constant use of wooden sticks can have a irreversible effect on the dog's teeth. We
recommend using Dentastix everyday.
Do you only walk smaller/easy to handle breeds? We tend to walk all sizes together. We haven’t noticed
any problems with that. Every dog is a dog, they all have the same
origin and I can assure you that the little Maltese (Charlie) I walk can get
respect from all of the other dogs (all larger than him). When you
see the pictures or films on our Facebook page, you may feel a
little apprehensive if you have a small dog. In two years we haven’t had any
injuries due to a fight - Charlie is the living proof!
Do you ever come across dog fights? Unfortunately yes, like in the human world, this can
happen, but often people get very protective of their dog which
might make things worse, too much emotion. The media and the
Dangerous Dog Act are not helping on a subject which is quite
minimal. Honestly, there wouldn't be any dogs around if they were
not pack animals.
In our case, we have to intervene, sometimes at the speed of light,
to stop them or take appropriate measures to avoid them (muzzle, keeping on
lead...). Do you physically correct bad behaviour? We are more orientated
to positive rewarding
because when we let the dogs off the leads, we want them to come back.
If you hit a dog this will not encourage them to respond to you. However, when a
fight happens, there is no time for positive rewards as one dog could be
injured in a matter of seconds. At this stage, we tend to separate
them and tell off the nasty one, and use a method (eg.
Dog Stop
Alarm/water spray) to make the
experience unpleasant without hurting them.
Do you use a Halti? We are not really in favour of the Halti, we rather the dog to be trained to walk just a bit behind or
in a line. Some of you might have seen me walking my pack in town –
you’ll know what I am talking about. We use our own leads and collars
which have our ID tags.
Do you walk any dogs with fleas? No. As a rule we like to
make sure with all owners that their dogs are regularly treated.
It is very important for us that your dog doesn’t have
any to avoid infesting any of our other dogs. We recommend
Frontline. We sell tablets to give internal deflux so fleas
are not interested by your pooch.
Fleas: if your dog has some, there must be more in his bed,
in the car, in the house... We'll recommend
Wipe Out which is pesticide free, safe for humans and pets and
odourless.
What should I feed my dog? Our preference is for dry food - Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved. We don’t give human food,
even though some recognise the benefits and maybe to avoid food
wastage, because when you walk your dog off the lead he has the taste
for this. He may then bother people having their
picnic. Embarrassing! Also,
dogs are scavengers, unlike cats, they eat anything they find and
could get poisoned. They eat first and think after. It’s
better they don’t get a taste for it to start off with.
Unfortunately, there will always be chicken bones thrown by people
who eat their takeaway while walking, and that is a real danger. If
someone would like to help us set up an online petition we would be
very happy.
What are Meat Derivatives? Found in many well known brands, it
is a generic term for animal proteins - It can sourced from any
animal. i.e. Chicken? Horse? Rabbit? Emu? Rat? Giraffe? It can also
be from any part of the animal, generally they are derived from the
undesirable parts such as the heads, feet and guts. Because meat and
animal by products are some of the cheapest protein sources and
manufacturers can choose different sources depending on the cheapest
available at the time of manufacture. Because they aren't chosen for
their quality. Pets that are intolerant to certain proteins may be
fine with one batch but have problems with the next as it's
impossible to know which is in each bag
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