We all want our dog to be safe as we go through the holidays. I have some great holiday safety tips for all dog owners.

As we all know our furry friends want to join in on the fun. All kinds of fun. We have lots of food, wonderful decorations, or as my dogs see them, TOYS -  WONDERFUL NEW TOYS!, and plenty of company that makes great playmates.

Let’s take these three issues apart and address each one.

Food, food, wonderful food! As most of you already know chocolate is a poison to dogs. Some tolerate it in small amounts and some not at all. Never allow your dog to have any of that holiday chocolate. We also put candy canes on Christmas Trees, we set all forms of goodies around the house for our human guests and we have and eat every form of sweet, rich, fatty foods that we can imagine. Well if we want to abuse our bodies like that, we at least had the choice to do that. However, our dogs do not have that choice especially when we are tempted to treat them to something special for the holiday. They do not realize how bad all of that fat and sweet stuff is for them. We, on the other hand, should take our place as good pet parents to resist and give them their normal food. If you want to treat them, purchase some healthy pet treats and make the right choice for your dog.

Here is the next piece of food information that most dog owners do not realize. Grapes can be very toxic and sometimes fatal. As few as three grapes have been known to kill a large dog. I know that these are probably not something that will be around as a large part of your holiday celebration, but you need to know all of the facts that many times food that is good for us may be deadly to our pets. Also keep in mind that raisins are dried grapes. Resist giving them that little treat that may contain any toxic substance to your dog. One last item you may not be aware of is sugar free gum. I know that most of us do not give our dogs gum, we may leave it in our purses or on a counter or table where they can have access to it. Just a piece of certain brands can kill your dog before you can get it to the vet. I will not use brand names because there are so many and if they change their ingredients, my article may be out of date and list a brand that has changed for the better. We should also realize that if sugar free gum can kill almost instantly, so could any other item that uses artificial sweetener. Now here we are, back to only give your dogs good dog treats and healthy dog food. Keep them safe!

Our next issue is the decorations. I know that my dogs love to play with balls. Any balls any size. This can be an issue if we use glass bulbs on our tree. They see any ball as a potential toy. If your dog should ingest any form of glass at any time you must address the issue immediately. Always have cotton balls on hand. Not the balls that look like cotton but are not real cotton. You must have real cotton balls. Place the cotton balls in milk and have your dog eat them. This will help pick up the slivers of glass in the digestive tract and help prevent punctures and cuts to the intestines. As soon as you have fed them the milk soaked cotton balls get your dog to the vet or emergency center immediately. Do not wait! The cotton balls and milk is only a help aid until professional help is available.

Another item that we use that has a potential for great harm and an expensive fix is the tinsel we hang everywhere. It can be on the tree or around the house as a colorful decoration. The tinsel can become tangled in the intestines and they may not be able to eliminate it. This is extremely painful for your dog and very expensive for you. In most cases it would require surgery for removal.

Now last but not least, is all of the company we have. It is fun and exciting to have new people around, however, it can become overwhelming too. Just imagine if all at once you were having lots of new people and old friends and family coming in and out. I know my dogs can become very protective and a little grouchy when they are bombarded with all of the hustle bustle of the holidays. If you are going to have a party, you may want to consider finding a safe room that your furry friend can be made comfortable in and place them in there with some of their favorite dog treats and toys. Check on them every so often so they don’t feel left out and praise them for being such good babies. The other reason for this is so the guests do not give your dogs all of the things you have been keeping away from them. If your guests are not familiar with the things that may harm your dog, they may cause them harm without realizing what they are doing. Let’s keep our dogs in mind this holiday season and keep them safe. I know that all of us want this happy season to remain happy and not end up in the emergency vet clinic.

All of us wish all of you happy and safe holidays.

When it comes to dog training, you never really know what issues may come up.

Let me tell you a very funny and true story about one of my Greyhounds. We have always had well trained dogs and that included no counter surfing. It was Christmas time and we had all kinds of treats out and about the house. Now you must realize that we feed our dogs on a schedule and never human food. This keeps them from helping themselves to our stuff. They really do understand that what is our food is ours and what is their food is theirs.

One afternoon my daughter and I were getting things in order for the big day and every time I walked past the counter that separates the kitchen and dining room, it appeared that the sugar cookies were playing a disappearing act. The plate seemed to be not as full each time. No crumbs or mess, no large gaps in the plate, and nothing on the floor. I questioned my daughter as to what was happening with the cookies. She had no idea and promised that she was not eating any of them. As the day went on the cookies flew away. One at a time and no tell tale evidence anywhere. I decided to hide around the corner and watch. It had become a huge mystery and was really bugging me. As I watched much to my amazement, one of the Greyhounds was walking by and ever so carefully, with her front teeth, was taking a (one) cookie at a time. It was unbelievable! I did not realize that they could be so very sneaky. She was so careful to not push any other cookies off the plate and not to eat the whole plate full at one time. I would have never guessed that one of my dogs could have been taking them. I would have never thought that they would know how to sneak them like that. Well now we know that they will go to many extremes to sneak what they want.

Let’s address the sneaky approach and the out right I am taking what I want whether you like it or not. My first question to you is, are you actually training them to counter surf with out realizing it? Do you feed them people scraps as a nice little treat as you cook or as you are cleaning up? Where do you fix their food? If they see you taking your food from the table or from the counter and feed it to them, this would seem to them that it is OK for them to help themselves. Just try to look at it from their point. They give me a dish of food from the counter exactly like they do for themselves and they give me snacks from the counter just like they do for themselves, how is it wrong for me to get my own snacks? You get your own snacks from the same place you are getting theirs from.

Now think about how they may view it if you always get their treats and food from another area away from where you get yours. Then their treats and snacks come from their own container, maybe they will just think that is their food and not the food on your counter or table.

Once you have the problem it will take a period of time to train them this new concept, however, they will get it. You must be very persistent and firm. Not nasty, just firm. It was, after all, you that trained them that they get food from the counters.

You may also need to get very sneaky yourself. Just as I had to hide to see what was going on, you may need to do the same thing. You may even need to place a mirror in a place where you can spy on them without them knowing you are watching. Always be on top of your game, they will be on top of theirs. Don’t give up. If the habit is already there it will take commitment on your part to be more determined than they are.

When you first start, do not leave any food out on the counters or table. Don’t tempt them. Start right away keeping their food supply away from yours and for health reasons you should not feed them people food anyway. We will discuss that in a later article.

When I am first training a new dog to stop this bad habit, I will watch and listen like a hawk. When I hear them moving into the area that is going to tempt them, I will clap my hands very loud and say no very firmly. I will then tell them to come out of the area they are in and as the start to leave that area I praise, praise, praise. Make them think each time they listen that they just made the best decision that they have ever made. Make them feel proud.

Start their training with you. You must stop some of your habits of giving them things from places they should not get them from. If you just can’t resist giving them a bite of that yummy roast beef, then take it away from the people area and place it in their dish. Keep all of their stuff separate from yours and let them know when they have done it right.

They will more than likely still come in and sniff a little, so do I when something good is cooking. Just remind them that they can’t be in that area and praise them when they leave.

Keep up your good work and efforts and they will learn. I do not have one counter surfer out of my seven dogs. I do have sniffers and they are just reminded that they are in the wrong area and to leave that area. Then they get lots of praise and love. You can overcome this problem, just keep up the good work and all of your dog training efforts will pay off.