Lucky Dog Family

19/03/2024

Ecwid by Lightspeed, a 34% increase in annual subscription fee - in one step?! That is not only very unprofessional, that is GREED!
Definitely on the hunt for a new platform now!

13/06/2023

100 km thread in the house! Let's go! 🧵🧵

06/06/2023

All About Dog Food, the largest pet food comparison website in the UK, run a poll each year - who feeds what?

In 2020, they found that just 36% of respondents fed kibble, down from 50% in 2012. Raw feeding increased from 20% to 33% in the same timeframe.

Today, just three years later, 45% of respondents are feeding fresh dog food to the great benefit of their health.

Well done to all of us - you, me, everyone that gently pushed a friend in the right direction. Millions of happier, healthier dogs because of our collective efforts.

This proves that if you just leave us at it - discussing, analysing, debating and sharing the science, facts and figures online, the true nutritional / health / scientific information ALWAYS rises to the top. ALWAYS.

Because we are not stupid. We are highly motivated by the knowledge that NOBODY cares for ours the way we do. We research, we ponder and make up our own minds.

We do not need degrees / doctors / vets / governments telling us what we should think or do regarding a particular matter. We the public figure it out. We always do.

Social media makes this possible. Unrestricted, we quickly find the truth because collective / hive research, debated publicly, is far more powerful than shallow bu****it.

This is why censoring health or product debate is so wrong.

That's why they do it.

This is why we can never let them.

29/05/2023

The idea of dogs as “pack animals” is a long standing myth that is unfortunately still with us now.

Groups of dogs, usually in small numbers or just pairs, form loose associations with one another, there is no “alpha”, and there are not clear dominant-subordinate hierarchies an d structures between them.

This makes sense, since dogs are primarily scavengers and scavenging can be done individually. They rarely hunt for sustenance and it’s even more rare that they do so in groups.

It’s important to understand this because this myth of dogs being pack animals often leads to harmful actions towards dogs, especially if we also assume we as humans are somehow part of our dogs’ “pack” when they know we’re not dogs. These harmful actions include:

- Making dogs go on stressful and unnatural large group “pack walks” where dogs are wearing aversive equipment and have no way of moving away.

- Making dogs “heel” or walk behind us and obey us while not being able to engage in any natural behaviours to put them in a so-called “pack drive” or a “follower state” which just isn’t a thing.

- Thinking we need to exert “dominance” or be the “alpha” by using punishment and aversive corrections.

- Labels like “alpha” and “dominant” leads us to think that certain natural behaviours our dogs do is an act of “defiance” or trying to be the “alpha”, and this results in the use of aversive methods and intimidation to “put them in their place”.

There was never a power struggle between us and dogs when dogs first became dogs and there also isn’t a power struggle between dogs. We don’t have to project the unfortunate hierarchical structures between humans onto dogs.

Instead of holding onto the idea that dogs are “pack animals” and thinking of ourselves as part of their “pack”, we can look at our relationship with dogs as one that is collaborative, built on friendship and care, and with no hierarchy.

Like with any of our close loved ones, we can love our dogs for who they are, learn from each other, help them to be happy and have their needs met, and help them be safe and feel safe! This makes us all free and empowered in this amazing relationship between fellow sentient beings.

Resources:
- Boitani, L., & Ciucci, P. (1995). Comparative social ecology of feral dogs and wolves. Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 7(1), 49–72. doi:10.1080/08927014.1995.9522969
- Marshall-Pescini, S., Cafazzo, S., Virányi, Z., & Range, F. (2017). Integrating social ecology in explanations of wolf–dog behavioral differences. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 16, 80–86. doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.05.002
- Larson, G., & Burger, J. (2013). A population genetics view of animal domestication. Trends in Genetics, 29(4), 197–205. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2013.01.003

ID: The background image shows two dogs, a white dog with pointy ears and a black dog with floppy ears, lying down on the ground next to each other. The text says “Dogs are not pack animals and ‘pack drive’ is not a thing.”

18/05/2023

Work in progress 🥰😅

24/04/2023

3-2-1 GO!

💵💶💷 🤠 Who wants a grand?! 🤠 💵💶💷

Winning this money should be easy. All you have to do is email the vet / breeder / dry dog food company that told you kibble is good / better for something. Anything at all - skin, guts, teeth, weight, performance, behaviour, longevity, anything. With the entire evidenced-based veterinary sector behind such products, there must be a multitude of supporting works out there. Get your hands on just ONE of them and 💥BOOM💥 you're up €1,000. 💶

Looking forward to hearing from you!

*T&C's
🤠 1. The reward is to the first person that presents us a valid, peer-reviewed, published study showing an improvement in any health condition whatsoever. Any country. Any journal.
🤠 2. The study must be a group of dogs fed an AAFCO complete kibble where they were shown to out-compete / out-perform a group of dogs fed an AAFCO complete raw from a pet food factory (the reason we stipulate a factory is because kibble comes from a pet food factory, meaning it was made to a certain standard. All we ask is that the comparative diet is too. This eliminates any debate regarding poor formulation by study organisers).
🤠 3. Expires 1st June 2023
🤠 4. There is obviously no rewards for raw feeders presenting any one of the growing number of studies showing dogs fed well-made raw out compete those fed complete dry on any number of issues ranging from inflammatory status to skin and digestive health. That would be silly of us.

Good luck!

16/04/2023

Reminder to ALWAYS walk your dogs on leash!!

09/04/2023

Great trip to Bali, finding future fabric suppliers and custom fabric printing facilities! The LUCKY DOG dog collar and leashes collection is moving closer and closer! 🤩🐶❤️

07/04/2023

07/04/2023

Important read...

Yesterday I saw a video from a well-known trainer on social media that discussed how there is no such thing as “too much exercise” for dogs. This discussion was accompanied by b roll of dogs fetching balls in a variety of places.
I don’t usually get involved in trainer arguments but I need to say something about this.
There ABSOLUTELY is such a thing as too much high-arousal exercise. And you probably don’t want to find out for yourself what happens next.
Activities that tend to *physically* wear dogs out the fastest are also the ones that create the highest excitement levels. Fetching balls. Playing frisbee. Racing around at the dog park. Chasing water from the garden hose. Running next to a bike.
All of these are physical exercise, but they also create intense arousal states. And if you put your dog into high-arousal states repeatedly you better know how to train around this, too.
I have a lot of students who fell into this trap. They got a high-energy dog (a GSD, a herding breed mix of some sort, a retriever etc.).
They figured out that the fastest way to make the dog physically really tired (the tongue-hanging-to-the-floor-kind-of-tired) was by playing chuck-it for half an hour. Or by taking the dog to the dog park every day for a wild romp.
The dog started to crave these arousal states (as programmed in their DNA).
But at the same time, no impulse control training happened. So now we have a dog who knows the fun of adrenaline and who seeks it, without having been taught to listen and regulate when in a state of high excitement.
This dog will start to show other problems. They might get frustrated to the point of redirecting when they cannot access fun immediately. They might be vocalizing or unable to settle and then I get messages that say “My dog just cannot be normal in public”.
If your dog gets to enjoy a high-arousal activity every time they leave the house, they will start to expect (and eventually demand) a high-arousal activity every time.
And this is not fun.
Your dog needs a balance of high-arousal and low-arousal activities. Furthermore, the more high-arousal activities your dog has, the more you have to balance these with impulse control training. It’s not fair to make our dogs crazy without teaching them the skills to un-crazy ;)
“Exercise” can have four quadrants:
- Low-arousal, not physically demanding (sniff walks)
- Low-arousal, physically demanding (hiking)
- High-arousal, not physically demanding (excited waiting while another dog works)
- High-arousal, physically demanding (fetching)

Make sure you are aware which type of exercise you are providing for your dog, and try to reach a balance that works for your dog.
If you are unhappy with your dog’s arousal level or impulse control in daily life, look at whether this is amplified by the type of exercise you are providing.

25/02/2023

The sky is the limit!
Happy to announce that LUCKY DOG Pte Ltd is moving to new HQ, bigger design studio and production facilities next week!
We will soon be able to design and produce all our premium quality doggie products in-house 🐶❤️
Stay tuned!

07/02/2023

Fresh from the press❤️🐶

13/01/2023

😂😂

02/12/2022

Nap-time II 🥱 🐶❤️

02/12/2022

Nap-time! 🥱 🐶❤️

05/11/2022

A sad day for feeders of Orijen and Arcana dog food 😢
Candy company Mars Inc acquires Champion Pet Foods, producer of Orijen and Arcana. The recipe of Orijen has already changed, synthetics and additives have be introduced in the formula...expect things to get even worse.
NOW is the perfect time to start feeding raw!

Must be a very confusing time for vets.

On one hand, we have the world's biggest candy company swearing that their cereal-based pet food is THE VERY BEST thing you can feed your meatophilic pet (they have to swear as they don't have a single study to show you), investing millions and millions into the notion that all other foods are simply terrible - grain free?! DCM!!! Fresh, biologically appropriate food?! A dangerous fad!!! - and now the same company buys out the biggest grain-free, largely meat-based, most biologically appropriate kibble on the market!

It's almost like this multi-billion behemoth will say and do anything as long as it makes money!

The Mars statement explains that Champion make "“biologically appropriate pet foods [that] nourish dogs and cats the way nature intended them to eat naturally in the wild”.

Biologically appropriate?
Nourish them the way nature intended?!
The wild?!! What is this "wild" you speak of?!!!!!!!!

So which is it - meat eaters such as dogs and cats should be fed a largely vegetarian diet of 50-60% cheap wheat & corn, some indigestible plant proteins and a token sprinkle of bone meal or largely meat?! They seem like two very, very, very different approaches.

I'm certainly confused.

Maybe the dog and cat have somehow managed to evolve beyond the basic laws of biology and physiology and are now able to exist on any old s**t they put in there. Lucky for Orijen feeders that.

15/10/2022

Soon... 🐶❤️

13/09/2022

Couldn't agree more!!🐶❤️

In the last few years, I’ve watched “dog culture” explode into a phenomenon I’d never seen as an early dog trainer. When I first started training dogs, people didn’t come to me with requests for their dogs to be able to handle things and expectations we put on them so heavily today. Nowadays, it’s amazing what we ask of our dogs because of this culture that emerged. And then we wonder why dogs are going downhill behaviorally so quickly.

1. Dog “groups” where people get together with dogs on leash and do activities and social events. Including birthday parties, Halloween parties, etc etc

2. Dog daycares where dogs are kept in large groups to play

3. Dog parks where humans AND dogs interact in groups

4. Behaviors like perfect heel on leash, sit stays on beds, ignoring environmental enticement in the name of “training”

Then there’s dog sports, dog classes, therapy dog work, service dog work, dog shows, trail walks, public outings, restaurants, breweries, and farmers markets and parades and town days and family over (with their dog) for every holiday and apartment complexes and car rides and pet stores and all these places we’ve been made to believe dogs SHOULD go and should WANT to go to and if they don’t then you need to do more and more work with them and help them like it and if you don’t then you aren’t fulfilling them or meeting their needs and your dog isn’t happy and you are failing or they just haven’t been raised right.

Please. Take a breath.

For 20,000 years dogs existed beside us doing none of that. For 9,000 years they were created for purpose and work, not for pets (with the exception of a few toy breeds) We didn’t expect ANY OF THIS during that time unless they were designed and created for it: now it’s what we want all the time. From all dogs. That’s not fair.

Our culture has changed SO much and dogs haven’t had a chance to catch up. We want all this new stuff because it’s part of OUR new culture, but we need to pause and realize it’s not a part of most of theirs. People coming over? Not really what most dogs were created to enjoy. Going new places all the time? Not what most dogs were created to handle. Hanging out in groups and put in costumes and having their pictures taken? Not normal to a dog. Riding calmly in a glass box going past all these distractions at 35mph? Not part of their DNA either.

We would NEVER expect this of any of our other animals either. Why are dogs taking the brunt of this. Because dogs are extremely adaptable and truthfully, they love us so much they will try so so hard to make us happy and do what we ask of them. But, can we for a second stop and think that maybe it’s too much sometimes? Can we please take some accountability for their stress and mental health as part of OUR unrealistic expectations that we’ve been led to believe make for a good dog vs a bad dog? I’m not talking about not working with them and helping them learn to live in todays world. That’s important. I’m talking about taking a step back and having respect for who they are and why they originally ended up with us. I do this all the time before I put any of my dogs in a situation, and that means sometimes I don’t bring them.

If the culture is changing; let’s add human education and understanding of basic canine ethology, body language and respect into it too. It’s only fair to honor the animals who have stood beside us for so so long.

Helen St. Pierre

26/08/2022

Happy International Dog Day! 🐶❤️🐶

22/05/2022

The importance of being a responsible dog owner.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdvbYECjJQp/?igshid=ZjhmMmE0MjU=

Labrinth • Mount Everest

16/04/2022

Marley 🐶❤️

13/04/2022

Small toys, great fun! 😆

08/04/2022

Gooood girl!! 👍🐶

21/03/2022

☠️