The Hidden Killer in Your House

September 29th, 2010 by Minette Something as simple as gum could potentially kill your dog!

Not everything natural is safe for our furry companions.  Sometimes we don’t even realize the dangers we bring home and leave on the counter or in our cars or purses.  How many women, right now,  have a stick or two of sugar free gum in their purses.  That simple little piece of gum or two could be lethal to your dog.

Xylitol is a sweetener used in sugar-free items like gum, cookies, muffins, candies and even toothpaste.   Xylitol is a natural sweetener that is easily absorbed by the human body, but triggers a significant insulin release in dogs which rapidly drops their blood sugar and can permanently damage the liver.

Recent studies have linked the problems associated with Xylitol to acute liver failure and even death.  Low blood sugar can be treated by your veterinarian, but liver damage, even with aggressive treatment, can make it difficult to save the dog’s life.

What Can You Do?

Knowledge is the first step to combat this problem! Keep your dog from getting sick

Tell everyone in your family especially children, who often share and bring gum home from school.Tell  your friends, your dog groomer and pet sitter.Dog proof your house by putting up any artificial sweeteners and gum.Look through the ingredients of the sugar-free items that you might already have at home and your toothpaste.Diligently research the things that you buy.We have a Gum Rule at my house.  Any and all gum whether it be sugar-free or not gets locked down!Keep an eye on your furry friend, if any items are missing or if your dog is a thief crate training may prove to be safest.

This is a serious problem and a relatively new find to the veterinary world.  Come up with a plan as a family, discuss the dangers of Xylitol and keep your veterinarian’s number handy in case of any emergencies.  The best advice I can give is that human food in general is not safe for your dog, keep human food out of reach and use only dog food/treats and food your veterinarian recommends.  If you are conscientious about the problem and the dangers you can help ensure a long, safe and healthy life for your canine, but sometimes it is difficult to know all the substances that can negatively affect your dog.

For more information or in case of an emergency contact the experts at the Animal Poison Control Center (888) 426-4435 a $65 consultation fee may be charged to you, but saving your pets life will be well worth it!  You can also find more information about them and toxins on their website just click on the picture above.

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Why Socialising your dog is important

Socialising your dog from an early age is particularly important.

Preferably from when you get your dog as a puppy, start them young and get them to puppy school. This allows them to run around and learn various behaviors that are key to them communicating well with other dogs. The puppy school instructor will make sure that everything is positive and your puppy is not in any harms way.

Once they become juveniles, from about 5 months of age or so, you need to continue to socialise your dog up until about 18 months of age. It is key that your dog gets out and about and learns how to behave correctly with other dogs, under your direction of course.

Dog off leash parks can be great for this, but please make sure that you are in control of your dog and step in if there are any issues occurring with your dog and other breeds running around.

You want your dog to be well balanced and get on with other dogs, the more you socialise your dog, the more likely this will occur and you and your dog will be happier.

Praise your dog when he/she is socialising nicely with other dogs. The more praise you give your dog when they are showing desirable behaviours the more they will want to repeat them!

As your dog grows into an adult dog at around 2 years of age or so, get your dog out as much as possible and again socialise, socialise, socialise! Your dog will love you for it.

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New Handlers and Rusty ready to stop the Cane Toad.

We had a fantastic week on Groote Eylandt training our two Cane toad detection dogs Rusty and Ozzie to help keep Cane Toads of the island. The maintenance training on the dogs and the handler training  ensured all are ready and operational on the docks and airport.

We even managed to do some filming for an up and coming show for an English production house featuring Ozzie to be broadcasted next year in the UK then the rest of the world.

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Puppy proofing your home

How to puppy proof your home.

If you follow these basics you will get ahead in being able to puppy proof your home and feel at ease that your puppy will be safe.

Put away any object that your puppy could get into and potentially swallow.

Have your puppies' toilet spots setup and kept consistent and easy for your pup to use.

Keep any electrical cabling hidden as pups love chewing on these objects.

Don't leave your pup to wander throughout your home as they will get into something!

Keep the toilet lid closed so that your pup can't climb up to drink out of it and instead fall in!

Puppy proofing your home is something you must do to ensure your dogs safety.

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Technology and your pet

There are actually quite a few tech gadgets out there for you and your pet. This list below details some of them available:

1. The Toshiba Petbook - this has a bone tracker and is slobber proof!
2. Bark to text software - allows full translation of ruff language!
3. Pet doorbell wireless chime mat - allows your dog to tell you when it wants to come inside or go outside!
4. And lastly the best one of course by far is our own "Smart Dog Training" iPhone app, which also runs on iPad, iTouch and various operating systems for the apple devices. 12 lessons to train your dog on a budget, fully interactive.

Have a look around and see what you can find thats fun and interesting but make sure the tech gadgets don't hurt your dog.

Woof! Pepper and Lochie.

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