DearDog

Dogs learn about things from their surroundings, they can pretty easily cope with things and stimulants that they are exposed to on a day to day basis.

The types of loud sounds that a dog is exposed to on a daily basis from the younger years do not induce fear reaction in the dog, no matter how loud or severe the sound is. But as dogs do not get exposed to loud sounds like cracker-sound, sound of lightning or such on a daily basis these sounds trigger fear reaction in them which may range from hiding to a corner of the house to continuous shivering.

Getting rid of this problem requires desensitization of the dog to the sounds she is afraid of. This involves exposing the dog to the sounds that she is not comfortable with. And doing this gradually from low intensity level to more and more powerful level will produce desired result.

Use a sound-system to reproduce the sounds that the dog is afraid of. Start with moderately low volume. Initially the dog will react with panic but with passing days, if you’re regular enough the dog will learn to remain composed with low level of sound. When this happens praise the dog, and treat with her favorite tidbit.

With passing time gradually raise the volume level and keep repeating the same routine. In course of time the dog will get sufficiently exposed to her fear triggering sounds and will be desensitized to similar sounds.

In some dogs there is strong tendency to chase running cars. Experts in dog psychology believe that this is an effort on the part of the dog to attract attention.

What ever it is, no doubt it is a very dangerous habit for the dog’s well being: –as the instances of dog being run over in a busy street while chasing car are not uncommon.

First and foremost thing a dog owner can do is keeping the dog leashed and within control whenever they venture out in a busy road. But breaking the dangerous habit with the help of proper training is a better and long-term solution.

Success of the training for breaking car chasing habit will depend on the patience of the trainer, because this training will be based on pleasure and no-pleasure method and dog will take some time to associate pleasure with the desired behavior.

To start with let one of your friend or family member drive a car along a not-so-busy road: –when the dog starts chasing say ‘NO’ firmly. Chance is very high the dog will not be able to control its habit the first time. But after some time when it will obey your command and won’t chase give some treat with its favorite tidbit.

With repetition of this practice sooner or later the dog will associate pleasure with being quiet and will not pose problem for the owner by chasing cars.

One word of caution though: always treat this training as an extra layer of protection, i.e. never take your dog to heavy traffic area without leash.

Car motion sickness is quite common among dogs. This is basically a sense of uneasiness that the dog feels when a car (or any other vehicle like bus etc.) carrying the dog sets into motion. Effect of it can be as mild as slight uneasiness or as extreme as nausea and vomiting

If your dog suffers from this trouble there are certain simple precautionary steps you can take to alleviate this problem.

1. Do not give your dog heavy meal just before travel.

2. Keep patting your dog while you are inside the moving vehicle, this keeps the level of dog’s nervous tension low.

3. If the above steps fail to work against your dog’s car sickness. consult your vet –there are certain drugs (mostly mild tranquilizers) which can help in this type of situations.

Coprophagia is the technical term of the poop eating habit of dog. Dogs not only eat their own feces they also eat other animal’s feces. Fortunately not all dogs indulge in this activity.

Why dogs indulge in this is still unknown. Whatever be the reason the habit of eating feces can expose the dog to the danger of bacterial or parasite infection.

Dog owners can take following steps to stop this poop eating habit.

Dogs eat the feces because they find is tasty. Giving the dog certain things like garlic pumpkin with dog’s food makes the feces less appealing and stop the habit in course of time.

Keeping the toilet area clean and disposing the feces promptly does not give the dog chance to engage in the nauseating (to men) activity.