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Pet behavior and Holiday Guests 🎄🎄🐶🐶🐈🐈

Part two of this week's series about pet ownership during the holidays brings us to the topic about visiting families and guests.

Though the excitement of a party may overwhelm some pets, keep your pets inside during cold weather and provide plenty of toys to keep them busy.

It’s not uncommon for holiday festivities to cause pet anxiety, which can lead to behavioral issues that can be disruptive to your celebrations at best. But you can prepare your pup beforehand by teaching good dog etiquette to help avoid bad dog behavior.

When preparing your family for the festivities this year, use these dog etiquette tips to make holidays with dogs more enjoyable for everyone.

Dog Etiquette Goes Both Ways

If family or friends are coming to visit, communicate any rules ahead of time. It’s important that your guests know you have pets and that they’ll need to be mindful. Inform guests of your pet, so that they’re careful when coming and going.

While we would like to believe these rules go without saying, chocolate is one food that is common during the holidays, and is toxic for dogs. Inform guests not to feed your dog any food or participate in any unruly behavior.

If needed, provide your cat or dog with a quiet room or crate during holiday parties and/or prepare ahead of time to discourage barking.

Stay tuned for our next post about pet travel ✈🚙🚍

Happy holidays Fetch Fans!

This week we will have a series of posts to help with pet ownership during the holidays.

🎄🎄🎄Holiday decorations and pets 🎄🎄🎄

Christmas trees and holiday greens: Make sure your dogs or cats do not chew on limbs or droppings from the tree. Ingested pine needles could get lodged in the intestinal tract, puncturing the lining or bunching together and causing an intestinal obstruction.

Water base: The water base of a Christmas tree may contain dangerous chemicals that could harm your pet.

Christmas lights and tinsel: Position your tree's lights and tinsel away from the bottom of the tree where pets can reach them. Some pets climb up or into trees and can even knock them over.

Candles: Don’t leave candles unattended. Pets may accidentally knock them over and spill wax or start a fire.

Firestarter logs: Dogs that enjoy chewing should steer clear; these logs contain sawdust and paraffin which can cause an irritated stomach or even intestinal blockage when ingested.

Plants: A number of seasonal plants are poisonous to pets if nibbled or eaten, including ivy, holly, mistletoe and poinsettias.

Lastly, in case of emergency, identify your closest 24/7 emergency veterinary clinic before an emergency occurs.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on Pet Behavior and Holiday Guests!