Parents Get Involved! Educate Yourselves and Your Kids Train Your Dogs Keep Everyone Safe

Parents, you have taught your kids about common hazards and how to reduce risks from such things as sharp objects, traffic, the stove, electrical outlets, fire, deep water and strangers. Be sure to add dogs to the list so that kids are not learning by trial and error. If you have a dog in the family, it is important to train the dog to accept and enjoy the attentions of children and to teach the kids how to read dog body language and respect the dog. All dog owners should be teaching their dogs to be accepting of everything that life dishes out, but parents cannot count on this, any more than you can count on all drivers to act safely around kids, or all other parents to be as safely...

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Why Does Doggone Safe Teach that Panting Dogs are Safe

Here is one of the most frequently asked questions about the content of the Be a Tree program:Panting can be a sign of stress in a dog - why do you tell children that panting dogs are happy?A panting dog is dealing with the stress by panting. A stressed dog that is not panting is much more dangerous because it has no mechanism to relieve the stress and is therefore more likely to react. Not all stress is bad stress. The dog might be waiting for a child to come and say hello. The waiting and wondering causes mild stress and the dog starts to pant. "Are we going for a walk?", "Are you going to throw that ball?", "Am I getting the cookie?" These are all circumstances that will cause panting due...

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Dog People And You Thought High School Was Bad

Hey, everyone!For those of you that are heavily involved in the dog world (and since youre either blogging  and/or reading a dog blog, I assume thats all of you), have you ever noticed the parallel between dog people and your stereotypical high school cliques?No? Well, darlings, let me enlighten you. Below you will find a convenient guide to identifying these people, including what activities they tend to participate in, and the breeds they usually own. This is by no means a full list, but it does hit on all the major points.(Note: this is, for the most part, entirely tongue-in-cheek. If marginally snarky humor and honest truths offend you, I suggest skipping this post, or at least not...

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Back to School Sale Doggone Crazy! Board Game 20 Off

The Doggone Crazy! board game was created as a fun way to teach kids and parents how to read dog body language and act safely around dogs. Statistics show that most dog bites are by the family dog. In most cases the family is stunned and did not see it coming. The dog has always been good with the kids, he loves kids, he bit out of the blue with no warning. These beliefs are generally fasle and stem from unrealistic expectations about the dog. No-one has ever watched the dog closely to see whether he really does enjoy the attention he gets from the children, or whether there are signs that sometimes he does not want to be bothered....

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Cat and Dogs seeking solutions with sniffing canines and science

Hi Mia and Julie,  First of all, I LOVE your blog! After meeting at SPARCS this past summer (summer for us in North America.. I take it summer is just beginning in Australia!), I’ve followed it closely.  You do amazing things for the promotion of  canine science. Serious love. A bit of background for the readers: I’m currently doing my PhD at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Simon Gadbois. Dr. Gadbois has an amazing amount of knowledge and experience in the science of sniffing (just check out Gadbois & Reeve, 2014 link below!).  He’s trained sniffer dogs for the conservation of ribbon snakes...

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Keeping Your Dog Safe on Evening or Early Morning Walks

By Suzanne AlicieWe love hearing from our readers. Mary M. recently gave us a great topic to address to help you keep your dog safe when walking in low-light situations, such as evenings and early mornings. As you know by reading some of our other Responsible Pet Ownership posts, we’re all about finding ways to help you keep your pets safe, healthy and happy.Do you walk your dog early in the morning as the sun is coming up or late in the evening when dusk makes dangerous shadows? Believe it or not, wearing reflective clothing yourself is not enough to protect your dog. Driving at this time of morning or evening is dangerous, and no matter how careful a driver may be there is always a chance...

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Doggone Safe Coordinator Tonji Stewart Wins Video Contest

We are thrilled to announce that Doggone Safe Eastern Canada Coordinator Tonji Stewart was the co-grand prize winner of the Canis Film Festival. The award was presented at Clicker Expo in Chicago on the weekend. This is an international video contest for clicker trainers and the videos must demonstrate how to teach something using clicker training. The videos are judged on entertainment and teaching value and the winners must demonstrate excellence in the application of clicker training principles in training.We are very proud of Tonjis accomplishment and her efforts to promote force free training methods that are safe for kids and dogs.Click here to listen to an interview with Tonji on CBC...

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Dogs in the Classroom for Bite Prevention Doggone Safe Says No!

When Teresa and I first started doing dog bite prevention presentations in classrooms more than 10 years ago we took our wonderful dogs Clipper and Blitz. Many of you may recognize them from the many photos of them that we use in our materials. These were both exceptionally stable and friendly dogs who loved kids. They enjoyed coming to the sessions, we enjoyed having them there and the kids loved to see them. So why did we stop taking them you might ask? There are various reasons, the most important being that we were focusing more and more on body language and less and less on "dont do this and dont do that around dogs". We found that even these exceptionally...

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Less Talk More Touch Whats Your Dog Saying to You

Guest post by: Erica Feuerbacher, PhD, of Carroll College Anthrozoology Program (Facebook)via Flickr creative commonsHi Mia and Julie, Like you and your readers, much of my energy is devoted to my dogs’ happiness. I can identify a plethora of things they do that make me happy and I want to know what makes them happy; I explore this in my research. What types of human interactions do dogs prefer and under what circumstances? Knowing this might help us understand how to produce and maintain better bonds with our dogs.  Two common ways of interacting with our dogs are petting or verbally praising them. My collaborator, Clive Wynne (@caninecognition), and I decided to ask dogs which of...

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