Paws Mindfully

19/11/2024

Our Senior dog blog has been officially published on the The Pet Professional Guild Website.

You can check it out here ❤️

✨NEW POST! ✨
Five Tips for Being the Best Guardian for Your Senior Dog
"Watching our beloved family member go from a bouncy happy dog to one who is slowing down is hard. But there are things you can do that will help you and your dog." - Emma Hamilton, co-founder of Paws Mindfully
Read the post here: https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/pet-owners/pets-and-their-people/pets-and-their-people-blog/five-tips-for-being-the-best-guardian-for-your-senior-dog/

16/11/2024

Saturday Share and one that is definitely worthy sharing!

As many of you know we are massive advocates of adopt don’t shop but acknowledge that there are people who want to get a puppy from a breeder.
Whilst there are some ethical breeders around there are far too many so called ‘breeders’ making money off over breeding dogs and in shameful conditions.

Massive shout out to Emma Hurst and the Animal Justice Party NSW and Oscar's Law for getting this much needed bill through 👏👏👏

Puppy farming is now officially illegal in NSW! 🎉

Thank you to our incredible MP, Emma Hurst and to every one of the nearly 50,000 people who signed the petition and made their voices heard for dogs!

🌟 Emma shares this message with all of you:
"You did it! Puppy farming is illegal!!! Thank YOU to everyone who played a part in this HUGE win. Our petition had nearly 50,000 signatures—each one of you is responsible for protecting dogs from this cruelty. I'll have more to say on this all soon, but right now we are exhausted after this 6-year battle in Parliament. A big thank you to Oscar's Law, who have been fighting for this change for decades. It has been such an honor to work alongside you. It is a good day for dogs!"

13/11/2024

This month is Adopt a Senior Pet Month so lets bring awareness to how amazing senior animals are.

Whilst we adopted Sunny and Grommie when they were young, it wasn’t until they became senior that we truly appreciated the commitment that it takes to live with a senior animal.

But with that commitment comes a deep sense of pure love.

Senior animals are wonderful and the unconditional love they give you back is infinite.

So, if you are considering adopting please don’t overlook those seniors out there - they will pay you back tenfold in love and devotion. ❤

12/11/2024

Today we celebrate World Pet Enrichment Day!

World Animal Enrichment Day is a reminder of our responsibility to improve the health and happiness of our pets by enriching their lives.

When most people think of enrichment for their pets they immediately think of food related things like KONGS, Licki mats, puzzle feeders etc and of course these are totally enriching to our pets but it way goes beyond that.

Check out this great blog by Shay Kelly on canine enrichment.
https://shaykelly.com/2022/07/18/enrichment-its-not-all-about-food/

One thing you can do is observe your dog to see what they find enriching and give them plenty of opportunities to do that. If they don’t enjoy something, it’s not enriching to them.

Your dog might not find a food puzzle enriching but loves to play with a tug toy. Think about the breed of your dog too – some breeds love to chase whilst others would be happy to sniff and forage.

For Grommie she loves to forage for her food and we love coming up with different ways to do this for her. She also loves her walks too so we give her plenty of opportunity to do this in an enviroment where she can sniff and enjoy the serenity.

What does your dog find enriching? Post below in the comments.

10/11/2024

🌟We have an exciting offer we want to announce🌟

If you book in our Advanced Package you will receive an enrichment gift pack valued up to $50.

Or

If you you book in our Basic Package you will receive an enrichment gift pack valued up to $30.

This offer ends 31st December 2024!!!

So book in your free 15 minute Bark-n-Chat so we can have a chat about your dog and how to get started with overcoming behavioural struggles 🐾

Book below or check out our link in bio

https://calendly.com/pawsmindfully/bark-n-chat

08/11/2024

We absolutely love the Calm Dog Games Enrichment Deck and love being able to stock it for our customers here in Australia and also in New Zealand.

Here is what one of our happy customers shared with us after receiving her deck:

"Got my card deck today and absolutely love it!

I have a very boisterous and active rescue lab x golden retriever who is a very good boy and very hard to wear out.

Trying to scour google after a long day at work to find new ways to wear him out has become a chore. There are so many options. I love how simple and easy this deck is. I can see these cards being an absolute game changer!

Tonight I have a very chilled out boy!"

He certainly is! We love this photo and feedback. Thanks for sharing it!

Just click on the link below and get a deck today. Your dog will thank you for it ❤

https://www.pawsmindfully.com.au/shop/p/enrichment-card-deck

06/11/2024

💤Wellness Wednesday💤

The importance of sleep...

Did you know that senior dogs need over 18 hours of sleep a day - puppies need even more at 20hrs! On average an adult dog needs at least 14-18hrs a day.

Sleep is vital for dogs (and humans too) to help recharge their physical and emotional batteries. A well-rested dog is also far less likely to show challenging behaviours and be more receptive to learning. And yes! Even our seniors are still receptive to learning – you can teach an old dog new tricks and sleep is certainly going to help that.

One tip you can do to promote healthy sleep for our dogs is to make sure they have an area that is quiet and away from the hussle and bussle so they get quailty deep sleep. So choose an area away that is comfy and safe from the doors and windows where they might be tempted to watch the world go by instead of sleeping.

Sleep is just one of the issues we address in our training packages - if you want to know more book in a free 15minute BarknChat in the link below.
https://calendly.com/pawsmindfully/bark-n-chat

31/10/2024

Consent for our animals is so powerful - especially for things like vet visits, grooming and nail trimming.

Check out the blog shared by Pet Professional Guild Australia on consent

THEORY THURSDAY
Why consent matters in the animal world too! Marc Bokoff Ph.D and Mary Angilly share some great information in their blog post on consent training.

“The lack of choice and control can be traumatic and emotionally damaging, particularly when it comes to bodily autonomy, something with which numerous humans are all too familiar. It’s essential to provide dogs with the opportunity to make choices and be asked for their consent when and where it’s safe to do so, and their veterinary care and grooming should not be exceptions.”

You can find the blog here https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/animal-emotions/202405/consent-training-shows-dogs-we-respect-their-points-of-view

26/10/2024

Sunday Shenanigans 🥇🐾🏆

We anonymously voted and agreed her prettiness just exceeded this month and she deserved the Employee of the Month award.

Well deserved and congratulations Grommie!!!

25/10/2024

We are all human and understand getting frustrated at our dogs’ behaviour. However, it does come a point where asking for help is needed not just for you but also for your dog.

That’s why we offer a free 15 minute discovery call, Bark-n-Chat so we can have a quick chat to get a better understanding of your situation with your dog.

This also allows us to see the best way moving forward on how we can support your dog with their behaviour if you choose to.

It’s super easy, so book in today:
https://calendly.com/pawsmindfully/bark-n-chat

23/10/2024

The results have come in for the Celebrating Life Together competition!

Even though we didn’t win it was great to get an honourable mention 😊

It was awesome to be part of this and share a subject that is very close to our hearts, senior dogs.

We would like the to congratulate all the winners and runner ups 😃

So proud to be part of ethical organisations, The Pet Professional Guild and Pet Professional Guild Australia that puts animals welfare first 💕

The Pet Professional Guild has announced the results of the public voting portion of the Community Outreach Competition!

22/10/2024

A repost from a while back but this is probably one of my fav videos of Sunny playing hide and seek! So joyful ❤️

Today would have been Sunny’s 16th birthday and wanted to share this little cute video of her. Whilst we miss her everyday we can now look at this and smile at how much joy she brought to our family 🐾❤️

Sunny loved her walks with her sister and we loved playing fun little games like this with them. We like to call it training without training.

Learning skills like recall can and should be fun ❤️ It’s the best way to learn!

Happy heavenly birthday little one
❤️🐾

🎵Makana - Arakawa’s of Waipahu

17/10/2024

As the warmer weather is upon us it’s time to think about safety measures around snakes and our dogs.

It’s definitely something we have encountered on our walks with our pups and being aware of them and keeping our dogs (and the snakes) safe from each other is key.

Check out this great advice shared from Pet Professional Guild Australia regarding tips for snake avoidance.
Shout out to Pet Perspective for the great infographic and post.

Snake avoidance for our dogs can be trained using force free methods too so if you want to find out more check out the UnChase snake avoidance course 🐍

TRAINING TUESDAY – SNAKE AVOIDANCE

It’s that time of year!

Whether you call them nope ropes, danger noodles or sneks 🐍, snake avoidance CAN be trained using positive reinforcement methods.

This fantastic graphic from Pet Perspective offers some great advice on minimising snake hiding places and looking out for symptoms of snake envenomation. Check out the full post and graphic here https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ZZRdPVEru9z4gRwN/

Also a shout out to UnChase who offer awesome training online and in person for snake avoidance training.

15/10/2024

Top Tip Tuesday

Do you have a dog that goes crazy when visitors come to the home?

They might bark or jump up or do a multitude of embarrassing behaviours.

Well truth is its not your dogs fault. They just havent been shown what to do instead.

Check out our 7 top tips to see how you help your dog be calm around visitors.

https://www.pawsmindfully.com.au/blogs/7-tips-for-a-calm-dog-with-visitors

13/10/2024

We have started to work with this 10 week old gorgeous boy.

One of the things we are teaching him is how to do a calm settle but did you know that the toys they play can have two different effects.

They can either cause a puppy to get excited and aroused or they can create a calming effect.

Toys can play such an important role in enriching our dog’s lives but when we want our dogs to settle high energy toys is not going to ensure a calm pup.

A good tip is to observe how your puppy or dog plays with their toys and start separating them in to two boxes.
Are they throwing it around or getting excited or are they just holding it calmly in their mouth, licking or chewing it?

Once you have worked it out separate them into calm toys and exciting toys.

Bring out the exciting toys when they are wanting to have a play or have a training session. When you want to work on calming settling behaviour you offer the calm toy. This will help your pup with self soothing and in turn build independence and a more relaxed settled pup 🐶

11/10/2024

Furday Friday and wanted to bring awareness to the dangers of food wrappers.

Not just for wildlife but for our own animals in our care too.

In this instance we came across a poor fox with their head stuck tight in a crisp/chip packet.

Luckily we were able to free them to live another day. It was a special moment as they looked back a number of times as if to say thank you but also made us very pi**ed off that this beautiful creature was in this position in the first place. It shouldn’t happen.

It doesn’t take long for an animal (or child for that matter) to get into this situation and the consequences can be devastating. So always make sure you dispose of your rubbish properly and ensure it is safe in the bin out of harms way.

Also being aware of access to bins too and if possible keeping them in areas that are away from animals.

We know better so let’s do better for all animals 🐶🦊🐨🐱🐰

07/10/2024

For those with puppies or who are comtemplating getting a puppy this information is invaluable.

Puppy biting is so common not to mention painful at times with their little sharky teeth! - check out some tips from Pet Professional Guild Australia to manage your bitey pup 🐶🐾🦈

TRAINING TUESDAY
Have you fallen victim to an attack of the furry land shark?

Puppy biting is a normal behaviour. So why do they do it and what can we do?

🐶Biting is a normal part of playing with their siblings and to them a lot of fun. When we play with our puppy, they will grab at us to get us to play. Teach them how to play with us appropriately by redirecting to a toy like a soft tug toy.

🐶Puppies learn about their environment by putting everything in their mouth
Provide management such as pens/barriers to prevent access to unsuitable things like your shoes, the power cords, your un**es...... Also give them suitable options to chew and play with (think toilet rolls with dried treats to rip up, chews, frozen treats and treat dispensers)

🐶Make sure they get enough sleep. Often tired puppies tend to bite and mouth more than puppies who get enough down time. Set up a designate area for your puppy where they can rest and play. Puppy pens are great for this.

🐶Avoid Rough housing (grabbing, holding their mouth or playing with our hands) is not the best way to interact with our puppies. This just encourages biting and mouthing. We can play tug with a squeaky toy or a tug toy but this should not be our main game. Teaching tricks, such as shake or roll over, basic obedience, playing hide and seek or bring a toy back might be more appropriate.

🐶Should your puppy bite you – by definition any teeth on skin – stop the interaction, ask for a calm behaviour and redirect to something they are allowed to chew.
With patience and persistence, your puppy will understand that mouthing or biting will stop the game but keeping their teeth to themselves will get them the playtime they enjoy.

02/10/2024

Did you know? Just like us, the food your dog eats can impact their health, behaviour, and wellbeing.

This definately has been the case for our two over the years. Diet has played a huge role in managing their health and seeing what a difference it can make for their skin, coats and general wellbeing and behaviour.

So we are big advocates of feeding a healthy balanced diet to our pups. One that invloves a balanced diet rich in high-quality protein, nutritionally-dense fresh vegetables and superfoods. And thats why we love Lyka Pet Food as this is one pup food that ticks all the boxes when it comes to healthy dog food.

Sunny loved her Lyka and always excited for meal times! It was a no brainer for convenience and promoting a healthier and happier lifestyle.
Plus she loved it! Win Win!

That’s why we are partnered with Lyka and excited to give you an
exclusive discount for new customers: Click on the link to get 50% off your first box.
https://lyka.com.au/join/PAWSMINDFULLY20

Or message us for more info. (Only available for new customers)