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Pet Health Library

Dogs + Preventive Care & Wellness

  • Many dogs will react to the sight or sound of passers by but for some owners this behaviour can get out of hand and it can be very embarrassing to have a dog that goes wild whenever someone comes to the door or even walks past the house.

  • For any social group to function properly, rules and boundaries need to be established and maintained. This does not involve the use of force but rather the consistent application of boundaries which leads to the formation of realistic expectations.

  • Many excitable and boisterous behaviours are normal for puppies and will diminish with time and with appropriate early training. However, if the behaviour persists, is difficult for you to manage, does not respond well to basic training it is possible that it is driven by an emotional disturbance, rather than bad manners.

  • Play with owners and with other dogs, not only provides the dog with some of its exercise requirements but also helps to meet its social needs.

  • Separation anxiety is a term used to describe a condition which afflicts dogs that are overly attached to or dependent on family members. They become extremely anxious and show distress behaviours like vocalisation, destruction, house-soiling or inactivity when separated from their owners.

  • For dogs to remain behaviourally healthy it is important that we meet their needs for physical exercise and mental stimulation.

  • The best approach to this problem is to change the dog's perception of the noises using the behavioural modification techniques of desensitisation and counter-conditioning.

  • Sometimes it is necessary to use a special type of collar to prevent your pet from attacking a particular area, such as a wound or bandage dressing. They take two forms: Elizabethan collars and tubular collars.

  • Systematic desensitisation is a behavioural modification method used to reduce an animal's emotional response to a given object or situation.

  • Lack of early exposure to the sights, sounds or perhaps smells of a particular location, or one or more traumatic experiences associated with that location can lead to the development of avoidance behaviours.