Modern Mutts

Who else has loved playing in this snow? ❄️Murphy loves it so much that she’s like a puppy again - which I absolutely love to see! 🐕

If you have a puppy and are counting the days until they ‘grow up’, I encourage you to appreciate the funny moments and zest for life your pup has right now. One day you’ll miss it and wish you could go back ❤️

Do you know what signs to watch out for? 🐕

It is dog bite prevention week this week.

I get a lot of people tell me that the bite came from nowhere but generally the dog has been struggling for a while and their more subtle signs have been ignored or punished so they escalate their behaviour.

So why do dogs bite people?

✅ Fear
✅ Frustration
✅ Anxiety
✅ Pain (up to 84% of a behaviourist's case load has a medical component!)
✅ Redirection when they have been reacting at another trigger and the person gets in the way
✅ Over excitement (this is usually mouthing and not what professionals would class as an 'aggressive' bite)

Other reasons that you might hear but are wrong are:
❌Stubborness
❌Dominance (not a thing but that deserves an entire post to itself)

The sad reality is that children are most at risk of being bitten and it is usually the family dog or a dog they know. Unfortunately, this does not surprise me in the slightest.

The most important thing to prevent dog bites is to learn about dog body language. Look at the picture that I found online (just a side note that I do not recommend choke chains due to how they work and also the risk of damaging your dog's neck). The dog is looking away, ears are back, you can see the white of his eye. This is a dog that is not happy in this interaction.

This is a great video by Dog Sense Training and Behaviour.
https://youtu.be/UnCWKL64AaY

How many signs of stress would you have recognised without them being pointed out?