Category Archives: Woof Talk

Give a Dog a Bone

Woof Talk by Belinda Sinclair

My daugh­ter Nic­hole is the chef in the fam­ily between my three daugh­ters. One of the things that she will whip up in the kitchen is some home­made dog treats for our dogs Bon­nie & Dun­can. Nic­hole is a hero to our dogs when they see these treats. We use them to prac­tice their skills in obe­di­ence and herd­ing. When we just want to have fun show­ing off all of the tricks that the dogs know for friends and neigh­bor these spe­cial treats hit the mark. I would like to say that my dogs try a lit­tle harder when they really like the treat we use as a reward. Any time that I can work on my dogs’ skills and keep it fresh and fun for every­one is always a good thing.

I am shar­ing two of Bon­nie & Duncan’s favorite treat recipes. I hope that your dog likes them as much as they do. Get your kids or grand­kids involved in mak­ing the treats with you. It is a great way to reward your favorite pooch. Bone Appetite!

JUNGLE BITES
1 ½ cups ripe mashed bananas
½ tea­spoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup nuts
¼ cup applesauce

Pre­heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the bananas and apple­sauce together. Stir in the other ingre­di­ents and mix thor­oughly. On an ungreased bak­ing sheet drop spoon­fuls of bat­ter about two inches apart. Press each treat flat with the back of the spoon. Bake for about 15 min­utes. Cool com­pletely before serv­ing. Store in a plas­tic con­tainer in the refrig­er­a­tor. Makes about 24 treats.

CINNAMON STICKS
2 cups whole wheat or white flour
½ cup corn­meal
2/3 cup water
6 table­spoons canola oil
1 egg
1 tea­spoon brown sugar
1 tea­spoon vanilla extract
2 table­spoons cinnamon

Pre­heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingre­di­ents together. Roll mix­ture out to about ¼ inch thick on a floured sur­face. Use your favorite cookie cut­ters to cut out fun shapes. Bake for about 45 min­utes. Cool com­pletely before serv­ing. Store in a plas­tic con­tainer. Makes about 24 treats.

Belinda Sin­clair is the owner and trainer of Woof Woof Dog­gie Day­care & Train­ing Cen­ter based in Wind­ham, NH. Free puppy play group is offered every Sun­day for pup­pies up to 7 months old as a com­mu­nity ser­vice to cre­ate socially well rounded dogs. Have a ques­tion you want answered about dogs? E-mail it to woofwoofpds@comcast.net or call us at 603–890-6239.

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Woof Woof, Can I Please Have Some More?

Woof Talk by Belinda Sinclair

We have all seen them. You know, the dogs that lie under the table wait­ing for any morsel of food to fall, or worse yet to be handed to them. Then there are the dogs that nudge you with their nose repeat­edly as you are sit­ting down in front of the TV to snack. I get the “head press” on my lap by my two pushy bor­der col­lies, Bon­nie and Dun­can, while I am try­ing to eat some­thing if I don’t keep them in check. Beg­ging for food is in a dog’s nature. It is not wrong, it is just rude. Most peo­ple will feed their dog from the table or offer a piece of their snack to their canine “best friend” if the dog wants some, and when has a dog not wanted some­thing you are eating?

My canine table shark started when my daugh­ters Kaytlin and Nic­hole were still tod­dlers. Clean­ing up behind them at meal times took just as long as mak­ing their food. There always seemed to be more food on the floor than in their mouths. My solu­tion to com­bat this three times a day annoy­ing prob­lem was to allow my dog to “clean up” after the girls. I solved one prob­lem and I made another one with fur. At meal time I would put our rough col­lie Sheena in a down-stay about six feet away from the table. You could see the inten­sity in her eyes as she knew she had a job to do and she was com­mit­ted to doing it well. Her job was to wait until I removed the girls from the table and then she could go in for the big clean up. It was help­ful at the time but Sheena didn’t always fol­low the rules. Dogs are oppor­tunists and Sheena was no exception!

Many dog own­ers have indulged in giv­ing their dogs peo­ple food. I have worked with many own­ers who cook entire meals for their dogs. Any­thing from roasted free-range chick­ens with cloves of gar­lic mixed with steamed brown rice, to com­plete pot roast din­ners slow cooked in the crock pot. By the way, none of this food was first eaten by the own­ers and then given to the dog; it was cooked solely for the dog! I am not say­ing that this is bad, but are you will­ing to live with it for the rest of your dog’s life?

If you have cre­ated a dog that could make the art­ful dodger from Oliver Twist seem slow and clumsy, then read on. As own­ers we cre­ated this prob­lem, so now we must take own­er­ship of it and change our habits so that we can change our dog’s behavior.

1. There are two schools of thought about where your dog should be while you are eat­ing. Most peo­ple want their dogs as far away from the din­ner table as pos­si­ble while eat­ing. If your dog is obe­di­ence trained, then put your dog in a down-stay some­where near by. If your dog breaks the com­mand, go and replace your dog back in the down-stay until you can get through an entire meal with­out hav­ing to ask more then once. Be patient with your dog, as this could take weeks to months to per­fect. The other idea is sim­i­lar, except that you have the dog close to the table in the down stay. If you would like to eat at a café with out­door seat­ing and want to bring your dog along, this is train­ing your dog for that kind of Euro­pean lifestyle.
   
2. Get the whole fam­ily to com­mit to not feed­ing your dog peo­ple food. If some­one is hold­ing out and still feed­ing the dog peo­ple food, you have a long road ahead of you. This also includes left­overs from your plate scraped into the dog’s bowl. It doesn’t take long for the dog to fol­low it back to where it came from and start beg­ging for it before it gets to his bowl. After all, in your dog’s mind it is his any­way. Trans­fer­ring to his bowl doesn’t make it any less of a problem.
   
3. Keep your dog on a reg­u­lar feed­ing sched­ule and make sure that you are feed­ing your dog an ade­quate diet. Not all dog foods are cre­ated equal. Dog foods vary widely on what is in them. I pre­fer to feed my dogs a “corn, wheat and soy free diet” and now you can find many dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies out there pro­duc­ing these top qual­ity dog foods. It may cost a lit­tle more but dogs on a pre­mium dog food will have fewer vet vis­its from things like yeast infec­tions to a wide host of skin conditions.
   
4. Change where you feed your dog. If you eat in the kitchen, then move your dog’s food to a dif­fer­ent room. If you eat in the din­ing room then make that room off lim­its to your dog 100% of the time.

If all else fails, remem­ber that you cre­ated this lit­tle beg­ging mon­ster, so you have to live with it. Sheena is no longer with us, but she was a great dog who helped me raise my chil­dren. Bon­nie and Dun­can are pleas­ant dogs when we are eat­ing meals. We eat din­ner together every night as a fam­ily and it wouldn’t be a fam­ily din­ner with­out the entire fam­ily present and that includes out four legged fam­ily members!

Belinda Sin­clair is the owner and trainer of Woof Woof Dog­gie Day­care & Train­ing Cen­ter based in Wind­ham, NH. Belinda and her two Bor­der Col­lies, Bon­nie and Dun­can, have taken their sheep herd­ing skills and used them to remove unwanted geese from local prop­er­ties. Their pack goes by the name of Woof Woof Geese Chasers. Have a ques­tion you want answered about dogs? E-mail us or call at 603–890-6239.

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Dog Days of Summer

Woof Woof Talk by Belinda Sinclair

I know that many of you enjoy tak­ing your dog for a ride in the car. Most dogs love to go for a ride and why not. A stop at the bank equals a free dog bone. A stop at Dunkin Donuts adds up to a free munchkin or two. A stop at your dog’s favorite pet store to retrieve some treats and a toy. Talk about pos­i­tive rein­force­ment, why wouldn’t your dog love rid­ing in the car with you? Only now with the warmer weather your dog is at risk for heatstroke.

The lead­ing cause of heat­stroke in dogs is being left in a parked car. Even on rel­a­tively mild days, heat­stroke can strike a dog in just min­utes. When the tem­per­a­ture is between 75 to 80 degrees out­side, most of us would think that it is a nice day and that there would be no dan­ger of our dog get­ting sick from heat­stroke. Only the tem­per­a­ture inside a parked car, even with a cou­ple of win­dows cracked, can reach over 100 degrees within a few minutes.

If your dog is dou­ble coated like a Ger­man Shep­herd, Husky or Golden Retriever, your dog is more likely to suf­fer from heat­stroke. Your dog’s only way of cool­ing him­self off is by pant­ing. This is not very effi­cient, but it is all they have.

The first signs that your dog is suf­fer­ing from heat­stroke are rapid, heavy pant­ing, often with exces­sive sali­va­tion. It doesn’t take long for your dog to accel­er­ate into gasp­ing for air. His eyes will become glassy and he’ll become weak and unable to stand. Your dog may also have bloody diar­rhea, vom­it­ing or seizures if you don’t get your dog’s body tem­per­a­ture down quickly. If left untreated your dog will die.

If you do sus­pect that your dog is suf­fer­ing from heat­stroke take imme­di­ate action to cool off your dog. Place your dog in the bath­tub with cool water, or use the gar­den hose to start soak­ing down your dog. Avoid icy water as low­er­ing your dog’s body tem­per­a­ture can also be dan­ger­ous. If you can more your dog in front of an air con­di­tioner or in front of a fan, that would also be help­ful. Give your dog cold water to drink. After cool­ing down your dog, take your dog to the vet. Your dog may have dam­aged vital organs that only your vet can detect.

How to Pre­vent Heatstroke

1. Leave your dog at home if you are run­ning errands and you plan on leav­ing him/her in the car for even 3 minutes.
2. Make sure that your dog has unlim­ited access to fresh water.
3. When it is hot and humid skip long walks. Opt for play­ing with the gar­den hose; don’t for­get the cam­era because this usu­ally leads to some very silly moments for most water lov­ing dogs.
4. Your dog isn’t a fan of water? Try brush­ing or pet­ting your dog in front of a fan.
5. Keep older dogs and dogs with health prob­lems in on hot days, prefer­ably in an air con­di­tioned room or one with a fan.
6. Pro­vide shade that will last all day for you dog if he is going to be outside.

Belinda Sin­clair is the owner and trainer of Woof Woof Dog­gie Day­care & Train­ing Cen­ter based in Wind­ham, NH. Belinda and her two Bor­der Col­lies, Bon­nie and Dun­can, have taken their sheep herd­ing skills and use them to remove unwanted geese from local prop­er­ties and go by the name of Woof Woof Geese Chasers. Have a ques­tion you want answered about dogs? Con­tact us by email or call us at 603–890-6239.

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