Erin the Dog Walker

01/04/2024

12/18/2023

Giftwrap for Pups, clever pre-use of single use plastic, or sh*tty idea? 😂🐕🎄🎁
Definitely gives a bit of pause for thought when high up in your tree is the safest place for me to put it... -looks festive?? 🫣

12/01/2023

12/01/2023

Ditch the food bowl (Video 2/2)
Here are 2 more easy ideas to make meal time more fun:)

Start easy and obvious for "find it" and keep it in 1 room of the house to begin with. Leash them if needed to help them sit/stay in the other room while you hide the kibble.

For scatter feeding, you could scatter on a towel if desired. When scatter feeding outside, be aware of anything else that might catch their interest (like mushrooms in the summer/fall). Also be wary of lawns using pesticides and herbicides. Winter is a fun time to scatter feed in a crusty snow back yard, you can let them dig as well!

12/01/2023

Ditch the food bowl! (Video 1/2)
Here are 6 easy ideas to make meal time more fun:) (and some stunning cinematography haha ;)

When Nanuk can't get her normal exercise, if she's sick, injured, stressed or if I can't go out and play, OR just for fun! we'll ditch the food bowl in favour of a Canine Enrichment activity at food time.

-Sniffing and licking gives helps calm a stressed or excited dog, engaging their nose is like us taking 3 deep breaths when we're stressed.

-Engaging their brain helps tire them out a bit and gives them a task

-Using these techniques when visitors are arriving or while you're making dinner helps distract an excited pup

-Be sure to supervise your pup and help if they're frustrated or destructive

(Towel roll, snuffle mat, hollow ball, paper towel roll, under a yogurt container, canned or softened kibble in a kong (frozen or fresh))

11/24/2023

Kennel Cough is circulating, watch for symptoms:
-Cough- sounds like they're trying to cough up something caught in their throat or like honking
-Running nose or eyes
-Sniffles or sneezes
-Lethargy
-Loss of appetite

Kennel cough is highly contagious. Its important to isolate while infected. Dogs will often cough only when they strain at the leash or exhert themselves. So before reintroducing them to other dogs, get them to run around to try to provoke a cough. Here is another test you can try to see if you can provoke a cough.

11/27/2022

https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/understanding-dog-appeasement-signals/

These canine gestures are intended to do more than just calm" others." Here's what to know about understanding dog appeasement signals.

11/23/2022

Working on this with Nanuk...

Polite Greeting must be one the most difficult things to do for our canine kids. Here's a video working with Tucker, a young lab pup, and going through the ...

10/06/2022

What should the balance of treats vs. dog food be calorically? "10% of your dog's food"

This tool was designed to aid the veterinary health care team in making nutritional assessments and recommendations to help their patients maintain or achieve their healthy weight. You can share this information with clients with a take-home worksheet. Use the report function to generate a summary o...

05/11/2022

Guilty, 100%

Just thinking about all my dogs nicknames and I can't stop laughing about this.

05/06/2022

Wrong season, but I came across this super useful info regarding booties for pups:

Credentials - i was involved in product design in dog textile gear as well as specially prototyping a few models of dog boots.
One of my dogs had to use them very often due to health related issues - that's how I got into dog boots.

I do believe that some of my insights might be helpful especially as fitting goes:

1. The best way to find a proper size for a dog is to lay his feet on cardboard/paper and rise the opposite foot up aswell as the back foot on the same side IE. To measure the front left you rise the front right and back left feel simultaneously.
This will ensure the weight shift to the foot you are trying to measure (provided the dog doesn't support himself too much on your hands).
Have another person draw an outline of the foot on cardboard.
Cut out the cardboard and insert it into a boot.
Usually a non restricting boot will look kind of too big from the outside (people might not like the look unfortunately).
The huge mistake that people make while fitting is lifting a paw and putting a boot on a lifted paw while all the fingers are pulled together.
Boot fitted this way will not allow for a natural spread of fingers under body weight and that has to have consequences in the gait.

2. Nails can't be too long - this is vital if a dog is going to wear boots. While the bare paw on the ground can dig those nails into ground providing traction, in the boot there is no way to dig into the sole.
Longer nails will put a lot of pressure on the nail, sometimes even lifting the pad up. And that can make the dog want to extend the nails even more just like on slippery floor.
Also this makes the knuckles go up and rub on the top layer of the boot. I've seen even bloody knuckles after a long walk as that can wear off the fur and skin.
This can also be the case if te boot is too small.
I believe that this must significantly influence the muscle use and movement pattern.

It seems to me that for boots with thick sole there should almost be a grove or some soft materiał that would give room for nails to dig in.

Relating to humans the biggest upgrade we had past years in windsurfing neoprene boots was a perpendicular hill on the inside of the sole that lands between your toe and the rest of the foot. It allows for gripping to the sole with your toes and it's a game changer when it comes to neoprene boots. Before that your foot would just slipp all-around on the sole.

3. I think this is common knowledge but worth mentioning that back feet usually require different size than the front feet.

4. Ventilation - people tend to keep the waterproof boots on for too long. As we know dogs sweat through pads. Sealed waterproof boots can build a lot of heat and moisture even in cool weather. I've seen blisters in between the fingers due to that aswell as problems with yeast overgrowth on the feet.

5. Ergonomics of the soles - I've seen numerous boots, often the fancy pretty ones, with literally flat or very fard soles. This doesn't allow for a soft "rolling" step. I've seen especially small dogs having a hard time walking in general due to that. I would avoid selling any of such boots as they are just not built for natural movement.

I'm also very interested in this subject. Right now i believe that the problem with non ergonomic boots is in many ways similar to problems with walking on hard surfaces.

05/05/2022

All the Pandemic era pups are so much more intrigued by airplanes!

04/27/2022

A special Happy 11th Birthday to Miss Daisy today! I remember when you were a rambunctious little pup wrestling with Shepard Husky mix Bella!!

04/13/2022

Blue sky window on first shift of a rainy day!!

12/24/2021

Copied:

2 of 3 emergency vets in Ottawa are closed because of Covid outbreaks. Keep your pets safe.

Fwd:

The Ottawa emergency veterinary hospitals are experiencing Covid outbreaks and have the majority of their staff in isolation. Please be extra vigilant with your pets this holiday season, and please be extra kind to those few who are treating Ottawa’s sick fur family.

With recent outbreaks and the emergency hospitals being short staffed they are coming to capacity very fast so please be aware that you might not be able to get emergency veterinary care in Ottawa.

There are emergency hospitals in Kingston, Montreal, Toronto or online/phone app veterinary services such as SmartVet and Vetster.

Please be safe and vigilant. Keep your dogs carefully leashed, your cats indoors and keep things like underwear, socks, dish rags, chocolate, grapes, raw pizza dough, garlic, onions, plants, Advil/Tylenol, ma*****na, anti-depressants, etc. locked away. Also ensure that your garbage is secure at all times, and ESPECIALLY after your holiday meals.
Please keep cats away from the Christmas trees, strings and tinsel.
Please AVOID giving new treats and table scraps to prevent any chance of gastroenteritis and pancreatitis.

Always call ahead to see who is open instead of arriving unannounced and being disappointed.

This is a scary time for the veterinary world, especially the emergency veterinary world. We want the best for your pets but unfortunately there is just not enough of us. Please be extra careful this holiday season.

12/15/2021

Seasonal dog car essentials (with a lovely festive scent when defrost heat is on;))

12/14/2021

Definitely don't think I'll be buying these..

;)

The "Dog Sack" invention, which first appeared in the June 1935 issue of Popular Mechanics.

10/20/2021

Jess's pack came to play, Teddy showed off how to use the window ledge as an arm rest.

10/20/2021

Back from vacation and up to full speed!

09/21/2021

Excavation crew...

07/28/2021

Good to familiarize yourself with Blue Green Algae - Swimming in it, or drinking it can make your little friend (and you!) very sick or die.
This link has identifying characteristics https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WIDHS/bulletins/2508e86

06/04/2021

On a no puppy day, Louise has to play!

05/16/2021

Heehee