www.naturallyhappydogs.com - The online dog video magazine

Tuesday 30 April 2013

Talking Dogs Rally

Today we returned to Yaxley to film Becky Skelhon and Pam McKinnon, providing a bit more insight into the Talking Dogs Rally® system that they created. Looking forward to bringing you articles on starting out in TD Rally® and a closer look at Call Fronts and Spirals in the coming months.

Thanks again Becky and Pam, great to see you again, and look forward to filming more articles about TD Rally®!

Monday 29 April 2013

Filming Brenda Aloff

We had the great pleasure of attending the Brenda Aloff seminar this weekend, and what a great seminar it was. Brenda was engaging and very knowledgable, and gave us some great tools for treating aggression in dogs.

Thanks very much to Dog & Bone for another great seminar. Then on Monday we were back to film Brenda demonstrating some of her techniques. So excited to bring you these videos in the coming months.

Thanks again to Brenda and Jez.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Healthy Pet Care Tips

Staying on top of pet care at home can make for a happy pet as well as a happy owner. It can be tough at times, but it is important to care for your pet’s health. Here are several tips to keep not only your animal but your local environment healthy:

Get Pet Exams Regularly 
There are many problems your pet can encounter, as severe as heart problems or arthritis of the joints to even as little as a toothache. Owners can prevent these problems by taking their pet to see a veterinarian every year. Annual vet appointments will pay close attention to how their diet is progressing, nutrition, their weight and if it is appropriate with their age and size. Vet visits also take care of any needed vaccinations, dental exam, and parasite control. Set a date on the calendar each year and make it a priority because it can be vital to your pet’s health.

Spay and Neuter Your Pets 
Many cats and dogs are left unattended to and can’t find a home (we have a video about how to rehome a new dog here). This is often a result of unadvised offspring and this problem can be prevented. The purpose of spaying and neutering your pet is not just to prevent the offspring of your cats or dogs but to also assist in other health areas such as cancers.

Fight against Parasites 
We all are aware that fleas are the common issue when it comes to parasites. Fleas are the common external parasite which can lead to fur loss, injection, and irritated skin with your pets. Prevention is the best way to battle parasites because fleas can introduce other parasites both external and internal. This external problem can lead to a variety of issues including tapeworms and heartworms.

Prevent this from happening at all times, which may require year-round persistence but not a lot of effort from the owner. Talk to your vet about what medications will suit your cat or dog best and keep them safe at all times.

We found a useful article on 10 Steps to Keeping Your Dog Happy

Keep Your Pet Healthy Weight Wise 
Many owners allow their cats or dogs to become overweight, which can lead to many health risks such diabetes and arthritis. Some owners tend to over feed their pets and that becomes the source of the obesity. Pets who don’t maintain a healthy weight will begin to chip away at their life span.

Speak with your vet on what they think is appropriate for your pet’s daily meals. Remember to allow your pet up to an hour of exercise every day if possible. If you have a back yard you can let them run around and play. ‘Dog flaps’ are useful for allowing dogs access in and out, and you can even get them for sliding glass doors here: sliding glass doggy door

Monday 15 April 2013

"All About Dogs"

Well, after a very successful debut into the world of trade shows with Crufts, we decided to venture outdoors with "All About Dogs". It wasn’t so much a “baptism of fire” as one of snow, rain and wind!

One thing you can’t control with outdoor shows in the UK is the weather! For the first one, in Ipswich, we had an onsite marquee which, while it provided a shelter, didn’t keep out the cold. It even snowed – brrrrr! The weekend was quite successful, but we felt there was something missing from our stand, so for the second outing, to Newbury, we took along our own gazebo and had a much bigger pitch, giving us the opportunity to set up a ring to offer trick training as a fun element to grab people’s attention.

This wasn’t so successful on the Saturday, as the rain-soaked visitors were not inclined to stand around outside any longer than they had to learning tricks but the Sunday proved more successful. On that day we just had strong winds to contend with! We spent the entire day battling with holding down a gazebo that kept filling up with air and trying to take off like a great balloon. What didn’t help was that the rain-soaked ground made the pegs pull out easily.

We thought we’d escaped unscathed and were just packing up when disaster struck! One of the other gazebos actually did take flight and crash landed into ours, causing irreparable damage. Huge thanks go to the immediate team of local stall-holders who immediately marshalled to come to our aid and to Sarah from BlackDogDNA, the owner of the errant gazebo that had taken flight. Sarah is doing everything she can to help us to sort this out, which is handy as we think her company is a great idea and we plan to do some filming with her. BlackDogDNA uses a simple test to find out which breeds have gone into the mix in non-pedigree dogs. We look forward to finding out the ingredients that make up our “office” dog, Sandy.

On the subject of filming, we also got some great footage of Dock Dogs, where dogs compete in a water-based long jump by launching themselves into a sort of dog swimming pool. The winner at Newbury jumped 18 feet! We look forward to filming an article on Dock Dogs soon too.

Monday 1 April 2013

April 2013 issue goes live

Any Bill Bailey fans out there? Boy do we have a treat for you! Bill very kindly agreed to speak to us about his Balinese dingos and in particular his about a topic very close to his heart – BARC, the Bali Adoption and Rehabilitation Centre. We are very pleased to bring you this video (Bill Bailey and BARC) in this month's issue, and to support BARC; they are this month's supported charity which of course means £1 from each new subscription this month will be given directly to them to support their fantastic work.

Grisha Stewart was a speaker at this year's WOOF! event, and while she was here she filmed some more topics with us. This month we bring you Grisha teaching the 'watch' cue (Teaching Cues - Watch). Also this month we continue with our feature on Medical Detection Dogs with an article about the training process (Medical Detection: The Training), Chris Mancini shows us how to teach 'Feet on feet' - a very useful trick especially for heelwork to music (Teaching Feet on Feet), and Sally Marchant shows us how to teach the weave poles for agility (Agility: Weaves). Our grooming section gets another article with plucking ears (Ear Plucking), Tamsin-Jane Sewell talks to us about the long-haired Akita (Long Haired Akitas), and Catherine from Albion Meat Products talks to us about being a raw meat supplier (Working As a Raw Meat Supplier).

Phew!

Thanks to all those who visited us at Crufts, it was lovely to meet you.  We had a great time with so much interest in the magazine. We were completely shattered by the end of the four days but are looking forward to other trade stands throughout the year already!