Author: Jennifer

“Thanks to you, we have adopted a wonderful Shepherd from the Lancaster County SPCA. We are so grateful to Adopt-a-Pet.com for guiding us to the perfect dog! Cody rescued us the very day he appeared in our email. We hurried to Lancaster aspca and got him the same day. We wanted a dog that needed us as much as we needed him, and he is the perfect fit. Thank you, thank you, Adopt-a-Pet.com, for all your great work.”

Thanks Gram C. for sending us your Happy Beginnings adoption story and photos!

We’d love to hear your Happy Beginnings story too! Send your pet adoption story to info@cms.adoptapet.com with a photo or two, and tell us how Adopt-a-Pet.com helped you with your adoption. Thank you for adopting a pet and saving a life!

Teaching your dog to “leave it” is training your dog to stop doing something. A solid “leave it” skill can be important and even save your dog’s life! Dogs are fast and get into things they shouldn’t very quickly – as illustrated by my foster puppy in the photo above! You can often head off potentially dangerous situations with a good “leave it” in advance.You can start with training a very simple “leave it” command, and have that command then expand to cover other situations where you want your dog to stop doing something and focus on you. Here’s how…

Examples

Leave it: Do not eat that trash on the ground

Leave it: Do not go near that scared child

Leave it: Do not pick up that ball so I can throw it for you

Leave it: Stop staring at that cat/squirrel/____.

You’ll notice in the last example, the behavior is staring, not lunging and barking. I prefer to use “leave it” to stop a behavior before it happens. After a behavior happens, I prefer to use different commands. Like if they’ve already picked up trash or the ball in their mouth, I teach and use a “drop” command. If they are already too happy meeting a new person, I’d probably have them “come” to me and then “sit.”

….

HOW TO TEACH “LEAVE IT”

There are several ways you can teach a “Leave It” command. This is just one way I’ve found that is easy for new adopters to use, for a dog that is food motivated (wants to eat food or treats). If your dog hasn’t learned “sit” and “stay” commands yet, you should teach those first.

I like doing this in the kitchen, as it’s where I or an adopter might likely use this command, to stop a dog from eating dropped food.

1. Get a handful of low value treats, like kibble or bits of carrot.

2. Attach a leash to your dog’s collar or harness.

3. Step on the leash to hold him in place, without you being pulled around. (Helps to wear shoes like sneakers with a grippy sole to hold the leash in place.)

Tip: Stepping on the leash works for dogs up to a certain size. If you have a bigger or stronger dog, you can hold the leash just try to lock your hand at your hip and not move. The reason I like stepping on the leash is there is no give which makes the dog think his actions are going to get himto the treat. 

Don’t make him sit or give him any other command — it isn’t likely your dog will be already obeying a sit command when you drop something he shouldn’t eat in a real life setting.

4. Drop one low-value treat a few feet away, out of reach of your dog. Immediately after you drop it, say “Leave It” and wait.

Normally, your dog will try to go after the treat. You just stand there calmly while the dog tries and tries. Eventually, they will look away from the treat or pause or turn to you, trying to figure out how to get off the leash or to ask for help in getting the treat.

The moment they stop focusing on trying to go after the treat, even if it’s just a pause for a nanosecond, say, “Good dog!” Often they will then look at you if they are not already. If they look at you, repeat “Good dog!” again, and give them a treat out of your hand.

So you are rewarding him not focusing on the treat.

Repeat #4 four times. That’s it for the first session! You can do two or  three sessions spread out during the day.You don’t want to over do it. (Pick up the four treats you dropped but don’t give those treats to him.)

Your dog will learn that if you drop a treat on the floor, what they do to get a treat is look at you. Some dogs pick this up almost immediately, others it can take a few days or even longer. Once your dog looks at you when you drop the treat and say leave it…

5. Advance to your dog on a looser leash, repeating the dropping and leave it command. Take as many days as you need to work up to the dog not on leash at all, leaving the dropped treat and getting one from your hand instead.

Now you can up the value of the dropped treats to something yummier! Just make sure you have the same or even more yummy treats in your hand.

Now you can start practicing this out on your leashed walks, using items other than food, like toys and other things that your dog wants to go up to outside, You are using “leave it” to mean “leave it alone — pay attention to me and you get a treat.”

Now you’ve taught your dog the super-helpful “Leave It” command!

One of my foster dogs, Iggy, came to me as a super shy young dog. At the shelter, he cowered in the back of the kennel. He was scared of the water hoses used to clean the kennels, running water, people in uniform (like the kennel staff who sprayed the kennels down to clean them), loud noises, and a lot of other things — so essentially, my ideal project dog to foster! I love fostering shy dogs and helping them blossom into happy adoptable dogs. Each shy foster dog is like a puzzle that takes time, patience, training, and of course love. I’m always learning something new from my foster dogs, like when Iggy suddenly became terrified of something unexpected…

…getting his walking harness put on! I’d been fostering him for a few weeks and his confidence was growing every day. Then one day, something happened. I wasn’t even aware of it until I went to put his harness on him for a walk — his activity in the world aside from squirrel chasing — and he cowered in fear and submissive urinated all over both of us! We both seemed pretty surprised! I cleaned us both up and then went carefully again to put the harness over his head (no problem) but when I went to buckle it around his chest, he trembled and peed again, poor little guy. The next day, the same thing. So instead I slipped a martingale collar on him and clipped a leash to that and we went for our walk, no problem. But the harness had become SCARY! I must have accidentally snagged some of his fur when I buckled it without realizing. Since he can pull super hard when he sees a squirrel, a harness is a safer choice for him.

I needed to re-condition him to not think the harness clipping on was scary.

(Disclaimer: I am not a neuroscientist, so this is my layperson’s understanding of the learning and memory process!) Dogs and other mammals encode experiences as memories in their brains. A memorable event, like pain, causes neurons to fire more frequently. They make a “path” that will be followed again in the future. So in Iggy’s harness fear case, the harness being attached made a path of “That hurt that’s scary!” So the next time that event started to happen, his brain said, “this is going to hurt!” an he urinated in fear.

What I needed to do is make a new path. One way to do that with a food-motivated dog is overwrite the fear response with an equally or more memorable thing and action — like awesome treats for a different action!

For Iggy, since he was super good at the sit command, I tried that first. I put the harness over his head, and instead of reaching to snap it, before he had a chance to pee, I quickly stood up and gave him my hand & verbal signals for “sit.” He looked a little confused but he sat – and then I gave him a huge handful of awesome treats! He was like, “WHOA! What just happened?!?!? That was awesome!!” I then slid the harness off and did it one more time, then again slid it off and put the collar on instead and we went for our walk.

I don’t really know how many times it would take Iggy to “re-write” the bad memory, so I gave it eight times: just before our two walks a day with two oh-my-dog-tons-of-treats rewards each time. On day three I then started just pulling the buckle around his belly, not fastening it, and then doing the sit-treat. The first time I did that he moved and the one side of the buckle hit the other side of the buckle and he tail tucked (a precurser to scared peeing) but quickly recovered when I stood up. Did that for more two days and then tried to oh-so-casually clasp the buckle. He actually sat in anticipation of the sit/treats which made it easier and as soon as the buckle clicked, he got a HUGE handful of treats and off we went on our walk!

So now Iggy sees the harness and he sits! I reward him sometimes (slot-machine style) and he’s happily replaced SCARY with SIT for his harness behavior.

 

The Fourth can be a full-on, full-day party. For pets? It’s a different story. Did you know that more pets are lost on the 4th of July than any other day of the year?Between booming fireworks, busy BBQs, and a severe lack of hotdog sharing—pets can get pretty anxious. Next thing you know a great escape has happened. That’s why pet safety is so important on the 4th. So, we partnered with Nationwide to help you make the celebrations more pet-friendly.

Here are our tips:

1. Update your pet’s ID tag and microchip info

2. Share rules with guests (e.g. no burger bites)

3. Store human foods out of sight and reach 

4. Keep your pet cool and hydrated all day

5. Skip the sparklers—they can be highly toxic

6. Be aware of other toxins (e.g. SPF or lighter fluid)

7. Bring a “calming kit” with toys, treats, and tools

8. Find them a quiet retreat from the craziness 

9. Play music or turn on the TV to mask outside noise.

10. Don’t set off your own fireworks around pets

11. Stay with anxious pets during fireworks shows

Protect your pet all year long. With Nationwide, you can get a pet insurance plan to protect your pet every day.

We have even more tips to help your pets happily enjoy the independence day holiday! Check out our help articles from year’s past:

Fourth of July – keep your pets safe!

Fourth of July Fireworks Pet Safety

Fireworks are not Fido’s or Fluffy’s friend

Fireworks & July 4th Pet Safety Tips

4th of July Fireworks Pet Safety

Have a Happy Pet-Safe 4th of July

Tips For Your Dog during 4th of July Fireworks

Puppy pee pads or puppy training pads can be a huge help when you have a puppy or dog you’re trying to housebreak. Pre-puppy-pee-pads we’d use newspaper, but in the post-puppy-pee-pad era cleanup is so much easier! Puppy pads come in a variety of sizes, but most are layers of absorbent material lined with a thin plastic layer on the back, to try to stop pee from reaching the floor. (Puppy pads are also great for lining cat or dog travel carriers in case a pet gets car sick or has an accident.) You might be thinking, how hard can it be, I put the pad down on the floor, what more do I need to know? Well, read on…

• Puppies like to chew! Puppy pads can be unsafe if chewed and swallowed. Using the biggest size pads available and weighing down the edges with puppy-safe heavy objects (like bricks) or using a commercially made puppy pad holder that locks the pad into a hard plastic frame can reduce this risk.
• Puppies don’t have good aim. If you have a brand new puppy (or dog) who you’re keeping confined say to the kitchen, if you just put down one pad, chances are good your puppy will miss. (It is totally normal to have lots of misses in the beginning. Puppies are babies and need time to learn.) You can help a puppy improve his or her aim by starting out with many pads covering half of their confined area, then gradually make the puppy pad area smaller removing one pad every few days.
• Pads outside. You can take a used puppy pad outside if you’ll be training the puppy to go to the bathroom outside, and put the puppy on it outside to encourage the going to the bathroom outside behavior.

Don’t forget the other super important P word with puppies: Praise! Praise your puppy any time you see her going pee or poop on her pad. (Say that 10 times fast!) Praise will help speed along the process of training your puppy to go on pads.

Kittens love forts! They also love new things, so DYI kitten forts that you can reconfigure easily and for free are not only tons of fun for kittens, they’re fun for you and your family too! This is going to be one of the easiest DIY projects you’ve ever done, or a great one to take on as your first Do It Yourself project. All you need are a few simple items that you may have in your home already, and some creativity.

Basic Kitten Fort Supply list:

1. Cardboard boxes. Avoid boxes that held anything that might be toxic to kittens. Sizes that work best are small to medium, think of cat carrier sizes. Big enough to hide inside, not too big that they can jump up or down safely.

2. Towel.

3. Optional: Strong scissors or a utility knife.

4. Essential: Creativity.

That’s all you need! I personally like using three different size boxes.

To construct the fort, arrange boxes next to each other. I put my three boxes, turned on their sides, with the openings turned towards each other, like tents around a campfire. Then I drape a towel over the top of the boxes, to make a roof over the open space between them. If I’m feeling crafty, up on a table out of kitten reach I’ll cut some kitten doors and “mouse” holes into the cardboard so the kittens can stick their paw through. Make them big enough so they wont get stuck, but not so big they’ll try to put their head through the paw openings.

Last step: release the kittehs! But really, they’ve been helping you all along, right?

PS. photos are my foster kittens! You can offer to be a volunteer foster home at http://www.adoptapet.com/volunteer/signup

The mission (and passion) of Adopt-a-Pet.com is to help get homeless pets out of the shelters and into loving homes. One way we do that is by helping Adopt-a-Pet.com approved shelters & rescues through grant programs. In 2015, the Adopt-a-Pet.com Veterinary Care Fund will be giving away grants to shelters and rescues of up to $2,000 each! Grants are to help pets in shelters and rescues get the veterinary care they need to go from homeless to adopted.

If you are a representative of a shelter or rescue organization and do not yet have an approved Adopt-a-Pet.com account, you can apply for an account here. Once approved, your organization will be eligible to apply for any of our open grant opportunities.

The 2015 Adopt-a-Pet.com Veterinary Care Fund is now OPEN for new applications – click here to apply. Thank you for to all the shelters and rescues for their wonderful applications and all they do helping homeless pets!

You may have heard that kittens get a “kitten pass” when introduced to other cats. Is that true? Yes and no – it depends on their personalities and experiences. It’s true that some adult cats who do not get along with other adult cats will be less upset when they first meet a kitten. Here are some reasons why:

• Size. Kittens or cats that are smaller than the resident adult cat are perceived as less of a threat, even when they hiss or growl.
• Height. Adult cats can jump up on top of a table or chair and easily be higher than a kitten. That vertical hierarchy reassures the adult cat.
• Play. Kittens like other animal babies have a strong instinct to play. This means they will often make friendly playful overtures to an adult cat, once they’ve settled in to a new space.
• Short attention spans. Kittens can be hissing and poofing up at the adult cat (who’s sitting on a chair looking down his nose at them) but then… ohhh a feather toy! Must pounce! Happy distractions like games and food are great tools to make positive associations about each other.

That said, usually a kitten is NOT the kindest choice for a sedate adult or senior cat. Kittens are full of energy and still learning how hard to bite, scratch, and pounce on feline friends. If you have a sedate adult or senior cat, a kitten can be years of torture. Great-grandpa might struggle as a full-time playmate for a baby then teenager kitten. If you have a choice, consider the unhappiness of an older cat who just wants to nap most of the time, and the frustration and boredom for the youngster, before you bring a new kitten home.

While a new kitten may not get a kitten pass, taking the time to pick a good potential match and doing a slow cat to cat introduction is well-worth the resulting harmony.

Here is the scoop: Dog-capturer extraordinaire Eldad from HopeForPaws.org received an urgent call from the City of Los Angeles Waste Management that a Pit Bull was living in a dangerous pile of trash at their Los Angeles Facility. This rescue ended up being one of the trickiest Eldad has ever had to perform!

Watch the amazing rescue video:

Photos published with permission. Photo credit: Diana Lundin www.dianalundin.com