Articles

Puppy Parties

If you have done some reasearch into getting a new puppy you may have come across the importance of socialisation. You will also have been advised to protect your puppy from dangerous viruses and so your puppy cannot be taken out and about until 2 weeks after completing the vaccination course. This is where our puppy parties can help you!

We believe that early socialisation is an essentiall aspect of a puppies training to rear a well balanced, well behaved adult dog. It is vital that puppies learn how to interact normally with other dogs, adults, children and any species your puppy will be living with (socialisation) at an early age. Your puppy should also learn to cope with everyday noises, such as household appliances and their new environment (habituation).

It is important that your puppy is exposed to as many of these new 'life experiences' from birth up until 12 -14 weeks of age, as during this time your puppy is learning and laying down its perception of new things, which it will draw upon for the rest of its life. After this age, if your puppy is not very confident in new situations, unfamiliar experiences may cause a fearful response leading to fear aggression.

How your puppy is introduced to socialisation and other dogs is as important as the act of socialising. If handled in the wrong manner without guidance, the puppy can have a very negative experience resulting in more damage than if the puppy had not been socialised at all.

Our parties are held by experienced qualified nurses that are able to give you guidance on basic behaviour and socialisation to help you get it right.

All puppies that have had their initial vaccine with us are invited to attend one of our monthly FREE Puppy Parties to start the socialisation of your puppy in a secure and friendly environment. As well as getting to meet other puppies and their owners, you will have the opportuntity to look beyond the consulting room door on a practice tour or discuss any queries you may have about caring for a puppy with one of our nurses.

For more information and to find out when our next party will be held please contact our reception on 0117 956 9038.

We hope to see you and your new family member at our next puppy party!

With ever increasing coverage by the media on the tragic consequences of dog bites in children, along with my own personal interest in pet behaviour and responsible pet ownership, I would like to give some guidance on how these awful accidents can be minimised or avoided.

We all envisage that our children are safest when in our homes and you may be surprised to learn that statistics show 65% of bites occur at home in children under 5 years of age, with a familiar dog.

The triggers appear to be usually an interaction instigated by the child towards the dog. These triggers seem to occur at home during normal everyday activities, such as playing with or around the dog, especially when eating, startling a sleeping dog, or even just `approaching' the dog.

It is therefore important that we recognised the early warning signs that may be present. All contact children have with dogs, including the family pet should be supervised by the parent. Young children are still learning how to interpret body language and so may not pick up on these early signs. By parents teaching children basic rules to follow when around dogs, these can help to minimise these accidents. Parental supervision at all times is vitally important as if they see these warning signs they can intervene and seek veterinary advice.

Recently, with this research in mind, a team of child psychologists, behavioural veterinary surgeons, ethologists and paediatricians set about producing an interactive CD that can be played at home with parents and their children as young as 3 years old. This is now easily accessible for parents to use to assist them in teaching their children how to interact with dogs.

The Blue Dog is an interactive game which gives the child a choice of different scenarios to go through with either a positive or negative outcome dependant on the interaction they choose with the dog. The graphics were designed by a graduate from the Royal Art Academy and have been carefully created to not look like any living dog (hence it is blue) and have the teeth visible at all times to indicate that the dog, even when friendly, can represent a danger.

Used along with other teaching methods on how to act when around dogs, it can be a very powerful tool in reducing these tragic attacks.

If you are interested in having myself come to your child's school to talk about this topic please contact me at Avenue Veterinary Centre, 0117 956 9038 or for more information on the interactive CD visit the website: www.thebluedog.org

Lydia Hasson VN,
Head Nurse
Avenue Veterinary Centre