Most people have some sort of anxiety when dealing with anything that isn’t familiar. The same is true for dogs. Fireworks is one of those things that happens for the most part once a year. The 4th of July holiday means friends gathering, outdoor summer activity with a finale of fireworks to the day.
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Giving your dog a name has some sort of meaning usually tied to your interests or personality. Often times the first name given to a dog doesn’t stick after the traits of both the owner and the dog begin to develop and a new name just sort of develops.
Shelter dogs come with a name that could have been given by the original owner or by the shelter staff. Sometimes it fits the dog, sometimes it’s way off. There is absolutely nothing wrong with renaming a dog. Dogs live absolutely in the moment and aren’t going to dwell on what their name used to be. Quite frankly I think people should adopt this behavior more often as well!
Discovering the right name for your dog sometimes comes easily and creatively and sometimes takes some pondering. If you aren’t in the creative mood a list of dog names can spur you on to the coolest name for your new dog. My dogs even have nicknames and as it goes like find like, many of my friends dogs have nicknames.
Here is a small list of unusual dog names that may spark a creative dog name, or add a nickname for the dog already with a name but full of personality. It comes from the VIP (Vet Pet Insurance) list of wackiest names submitted by their very own patients.
I Am Sparticus Lunchbox Sargent Sausage Blue Man Chew Bam Bam Noodle Butt Fluffernutter Dishwasher Yardsale Inspector Foo Foo Fuzzbucket Motley Screensaver Butkiss Hoover Foxy Divaliscious Beefsock Einstein Snickerdoodle Measles Lady Obama Catfish Bob Buckwheat Yoda Bunny Duty Detective Frank Alabama Whirly Dr. Love Tinkle Bell Special Ed Ms Noxema Jackson Princess Babe Shack Mr. Muscles Low Jack Buddha Pest Spatula Hair Putter Major Deposit Dipstick Poptart Drama Momma Cowboy Von Dawg Hosehead Milkshake
This summer we have come to Taos, NM for our get away and for some training, both for ourselves and for our dogs. I guess it sort of goes without saying, active people have active dogs. As with many people these days, we’ve decided to hang out and do activities that are close to our home for entertainment and doing so we’ve found some of the coolest trails to hike, mountain bike trails to take dogs on with us and creeks the dogs can jump in to cool themselves down.
Taos is at elevation, high elevation. Our other home is in San Diego at sea level. For ourselves and our dogs the contrast is absolutely wonderful, but we have found its best to keep some simple training guidelines in place for ourselves and our dogs.
One of the most important is hydration. Elevation requires more water in order to stay properly hydrated. Dehydration is the cause of more bad health situations than one really realizes. One of the first rules to keep in mind when it comes to staying hydrated is to drink BEFORE you feel thirsty.
If you are feel thirsty you are already dehydrated. For the dog, if you are thirsty, your dog is thirstier! Read this article Hydration and Dogs: 7 Ways To Your Dog Drinking Enough Water to find why your dogs hydration level needs even more attention than yours does when doing any kind training activity, be it hiking, biking, running, or fetch the ball.
When you are at elevation with your dog make sure to bring water on outings for you and your dog. Drink often. Drink before, during and after your activities.
Now go out and have some fun. Elevation training rocks as long as you do a little planning you and your dog can end up in the shape of your lives.
As a professional dog trainer I get common questions about how to get dogs to do certain things. One of the biggies is getting a dog to walk on a leash without pulling. Even more challenging, yet more common is “How do I get 2 dogs to walk on a leash together without pulling?”
It is challenging, but my tip for this dog training problem is first chunk it down, and by that I mean, start with one dog at a time. If your dogs cannot walk separately without leash pulling, the hope that they can walk together without pulling is going to equate to exactly none!
One of the biggest mistakes I see when trying to leash walk a dogs is simply too much leash. It’s sort of like the old cliche if you given an inch, they’ll take a mile. As the leash goes, if you let your dog have all of a 6 foot leash, guess what? Yep, your dog or dogs will be out at the end of it, trying to get just a little more.
Give your dogs enough leash to walk comfortably by your side without tripping you up, and teach them that this is the picture you want them to have. You’ll stop them from getting so distracted with all the smells they can reach 6 feet away and start getting them to pay attention to the job at hand, walking by your side without pulling.
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Many dog owners spend a lot of time researching what kind of diet to feed the dog, how much to feed, and even what nutrients in dog food are actually the best. Yet of all the nutrients in your dog’s diet, water is the most important and tends to be not even on the radar of the owners attention.
Exercise, Climate Temperature, or Anxiety Are Cause for More Water
A dog can lose 6% of body weight before the idea even occurs to them to drink. Like humans who exercise drinking water before exercise, during exercise, and after exercise is necessary to keep proper hydration. Unlike a human, dogs don’t appear to be losing hydration because they do not sweat like we do. They do not have sweat glands in their skin, instead they lose water through their nose, tongue, and paws.
Keeping this in mind, it makes sense that a dog who is exercising, or has high anxiety loses hydration since panting is sweating in dog form. You’ll also notice that a dog who is stressed or is showing signs of anxiety will leave a dog paw print on the floor. That’s another form of sweat leaving your dog’s body. How Much Water Does You Dog Need?
The amount of water your dog needs daily depends on the size of your dog, the amount of exercise, the climate your dog spends time in, and what kind of dog food you are feeding. Considering these variables the amount can change from day to day.
Don’t consider these cold hard numbers but as general guidelines the amount of water your dog should get on a daily basis might something like this:
A 7 lb adult Maltese with activities consisting of one 20 minute slow walk and some light indoor activities, would need approximately 1½ cup of water throughout the day to maintain a proper level of body fluids.
A dog weighing 65 lbs would require approximately 7 cups of water depending on exercise, anxiety, and diet. How Should I Keep My Dog Hydrated?
The challenge in keeping your dog hydrated is that they don’t know when to drink, and most of the time in more strenuous activity or exercise, won’t think to go drink on their own. Here are some things you can do to encourage your dog to drink water, stay hydrated and get out and have some fun.
•Make Sure Your Dog Drinks Before a “Workout” •Take Water & a Frisbee (to use as a water bowl) On Outings •Give Ice Cubes as Treats •Put Ice Cubes in the Water Bowl •If You Are Thirsty During Activity; So Is Your Dog •If You are Hot; Your Dog is Hotter •Put More Than One Bowl of Water Out in Another Location •Put a Treat in the Bottom of the Water Bowl •Play Water Games While Teaching To Drink from the Hose
Summer time is here. The time of year many families like to take a vacation... with kids out of school, tv finales over, & the nice weather its sort of a tradition like apple pie and baseball. With the recent economic times though, summer vacations may look a little different this year.
I don’t necessarily think its a bad thing in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, financial crisis is something I wish upon no one. But when I look at the things that are happening to people and what is important... like really important... its becoming much more real these days.
I find that people are spending more time around home, with family and friends, and that also includes The Dog. Its kind of interesting that many Americans have been going with lack of sleep and spending most of their time working so they can do things away from the home that was the focal point of “having it all”. It’s all starting to come around and spending time around home is bringing more joy to people and their dogs.
The idea of vacation is also taking a new perspective. People are tending to get a little more creative about it and finding that there are so many places they haven’t been right around home to enjoy. Places where you can go with family and friends, including the dog, that are fun and even free!
Trail hikes are an awesome thing to do and the benefits are many. Not only do you spend time with one another, spend time talking that you normally wouldn’t, but you are getting fresh air, exercise and by taking the dog everyone is learning to hang out together and in the end have a lot of fun... for the attractive price of free!
The more time you spend with your dog, the easier the training aspect becomes. The more exercise you get with your dog, the easier it is to have an incredibly well behaved dog.
So plan a vacation around home... check out some way cool hikes you can take, then start doing a daily walk from your house for the “training runs”. I plan to post more articles on the practice training you can do to make planning some longer hikes and outdoor adventures more fun for your and your dog.
If you are in the San Diego area and are looking for some way cool places to go with your dog check out our book “Leave Only Paw Prints” for maps and details. Make it easy... get outside with your dog and have some fun!
For more tips and training tricks, cool dog photos, and dog news follow us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com and K9 Coach on Facebook. And of course feel free to contact us at K9 Coach for any of your dog training questions, private lessons, and dog training camps.
K9 Coach is a privately owned professional dog training business owned and operated by Jt Clough. Jt has an uncanny ability with K9s that started on a working ranch in her formative years . Jt has developed thorough in-depth studies of canine behavior and the corresponding human reaction.
Understanding the environmental situations that cause owners to misread their dogs and take the wrong cues from them enables Jt to teach successful canine communications skills for people and their dogs. She regularly attends K9 training courses and is active in a variety of dog training organizations. A San Diego resident with her 2 dogs, dog training to fine-tune dogs into well behaved urban companions is her specialty.
