Petiquette Animal Behaviour

03/01/2025

Summer????
Where are you???
After a lovely few days away on the very hot and sunny West Coast, I've come home to freezing rain! I've just lit the fire, and I'm trying to contact the hay contractor that I booked way back before this rain started. 😳😳😳 On the bright side the fire risk has dropped! 🔥 What have you been doing with your dogs over the holiday break?

05/12/2024

PSA - Not surprising as it happens every year. All lowland Canterbury rivers should be avoided now that levels have dropped and water temps are on the rise. Perfect conditions for toxic algae!

Health New Zealand has issued a health warning for the Ashley River at the Gorge Bridge following the discovery of...

02/12/2024

The temperatures on the east coast are set to soar today. Please, please make sure your dogs have plenty of cool water, shade, and space to rest out of the sun. Don't put them in your car, and forget taking them walking today!! Especially those of you who have coated dogs, or brachycephalic breeds (short nosed). They struggle to regulate their body temperatures in the heat, and even a short walk can leave them distressed. Let me know what you are doing to keep your friend comfortable!!

27/11/2024

GIVE THEM TIME

We're heading at lightening speed towards the end of the year. Inevitably this resultS in me having to start to organise Petiquette Puppy School to start back in January after a bit of a break. I've been fielding several enquiries in the last week or so and a standard line that I use is 'I welcome pups between 10 and 20 weeks of age'. This is often met with surprise that I don't welcome them at 8 weeks - but have you ever thought about why that might be?

Think about this from the perspective of your puppy. Here you are happily playing one day and a big person comes and picks you up, and from that moment on you never see your siblings or mother again. All the rules and boundaries you know disappear, and you land in an unfamiliar house, with different noises and people, and sometimes other animals! It's a very overwhelming situation, and many pups take a week or so to come out of their shell on arrival at their new home. This is even more of a case where the pup has been flown to you, or come via a pet bus service. So in those first weeks in your home it's 'get to know each other' time - not time for puppy school, training (other than toilet training), and meeting more people. Give them time to settle in, give them time to get to know their new family, and give yourselves time to get to know your puppy. You have the rest of their lives to enjoy them - so give them time!

04/11/2024

So this isn't going to be a popular post, but as it's something I feel strongly about I'm going to put it out there ...
As school heads towards finishing, and kids are encouraged to find a paying job (especially in the current economic climate) I'm seeing increasing numbers of posts on community pages offering to walk, feed, baby sit, cuddle, supervise or otherwise interact with your pets while you are away/ working/ busy with the holiday period. So I'm talking specifically about dogs here. There has been a huge amount of press coverage in the last few months about 'pack walkers' and the problems with a lack of control and a lack of qualifications and registration, meaning anyone can do this, whether they know what they're doing or not.

Guess what? Same goes with the people you allow into your home to look after your dog(s). I've just seen a post with two young people, maybe around 13/14 years of age, offering to walk dogs. My 30kg Labrador could pull me off my feet if he chose to, so he'd have a field day with one of them. In addition, I doubt very much if they would have the common sense or clear headedness if something were to go wrong while they were out with your dog. What if immediate Veterinary care was required. What if the dog needed carrying somewhere?

If you're a parent of a child with these ideas, while I admire their initiative, I'd quietly stear them in another direction. It can go so terribly wrong very quickly, with the best of intentions, and society will ALWAYS blame the dog. You are your dogs advocate, so please do not put them in this position. (Photo from internet).

01/11/2024

There's nothing like giving back to give you some warm fuzzies and that feel good factor. I had a great morning judging dogs and their little people at Broadfields School yesterday. Thanks for the invitation!

31/10/2024

This gorgeous 60kg boy was the subject of yesterday's consultation. He's been through a lot in the last year, including losing his dog-friend a month ago, culminating in some reported behavior that is a bit antisocial. But I found him to be a gentleman, and he even decided to eat his breakfast this morning for the first time in weeks. Good man Cooper! 😍

29/10/2024

Do your cat and dog get on well? Polly and Missy have been besties almost since they met (like their third day together). This is a typical morning in our house. I love the standoff towards the end.

22/10/2024

Goodness it's been a while since I last posted about puppy school. I'll upload some more photos on another day of the lovely pups and owners that have graduated from my courses this year, but here is the latest cohort who all graduated on Monday. If you are interested in joining a Petiquette Puppy School course please get in touch. The next course starts on Monday 4 November!! Special thanks to Marita Ryan and Ingelheim for additional gifts!

16/10/2024

My little dog Polly is the coolest little dog you could have. She is now 3 and she came into my life at 6 months old and hasn't looked back. She's a bundle of energy who is simply excited to wake up daily. You can brush her all day long only to have her shake and revert her hair style to 'just woken up'. But she HATES her photo being taken so I felt this was worthy of its own post.

08/10/2024

Any guessed where I was working today?

05/10/2024

DON’T FORCE ME TO BE SOCIAL!
It may be really disappointing and frustrating when our dogs are not the social beings we expected them to be.

Many believe dogs should just naturally get along with other dogs, after all they’re the same species.

Some believe the “unsociable” dog has a behaviour problem that needs to be “fixed”.

Early, appropriately timed and correct socialisation is vitally important, but sometimes despite all of this, some dogs are just not that sociable.

Sometimes this can be improved, especially if the cause is from a negative experience, but genetics, breed tendencies, individual personalities, health and age all contribute to tolerance and sociability, which also change throughout life.

If we, as a human species, don’t get along with everyone we meet, how can we expect our dogs to?

Do we label every person that has an argument, doesn’t make friends with everyone they meet, doesn’t like every other person, prefers not to socialise - as having a problem that needs to be fixed?

Why is it so easy to accept that every individual person is different than to accept that every individual dog is different?

When we have done what we can to improve our dogs’ social skills, we need to accept and acknowledge our dogs for the individuals they are, allow and respect their choice of whether to be sociable or not and never force interactions that a dog is not comfortable with.

28/09/2024

Stolen from Chrissy at The Mobile Vet Nurse but I couldn't find anything better!!

26/09/2024

26/09/2024

Stolen from another site but I couldn't resist!!

This might be good for Halloween 😄🐾🐕

23/07/2024

Busy week here ....

Some call her a dog-whisperer, but Susan McCaul simply says that she encourages dogs to be on their best behaviour as often as possible whilst strengthening their relationship with their owners and others around them.

Through her business Petiquette Animal Behaviour she offers the best tips and tricks she's learnt over the years, the toughest challenges and much more.

Listen to the full chat on your favourite streaming platform now or click the link below to read more and listen at rexonline.co.nz.