Keep Your Pets Safe During The Summer Heat

The dog days of summer – what you can do to ensure your pet is safe from the heat.

We all love spending the long, sunny days of summer outdoors with our furry companions, but the ASPCA warns being overeager in hot weather can spell danger.

Take these simple precautions, provided by ASPCA experts, to help prevent your pet from overheating. And if you suspect your pet is suffering from heat stroke, get help from your veterinarian immediately.

• A visit to the veterinarian for a spring or early summer check-up is a must. Make sure your pets get tested for heartworm if they aren’t on year-round preventive medication. Do parasites bug your animal companions? Ask your doctor to recommend a safe flea and tick control program.

• Pets can get dehydrated quickly, so give them plenty of fresh, clean water when it’s hot outdoors. Make sure your pets have a shady place to get out of the sun, be careful to not over-exercise them, and keep them indoors when it’s extremely hot.

• Symptoms of  overheating in pets include excessive panting or difficulty breathing, increased heart and respiratory rate, drooling, mild weakness, stupor or even collapse. They can also include seizures, bloody diarrhea and vomit along with an elevated body temperature of over 104 degrees. Animals with flat faces, like Pugs and Persian cats, are more susceptible to heat stroke since they cannot pant as effectively. These pets, along with the elderly, the overweight, and those with heart or lung diseases, should be kept cool in air-conditioned rooms as much as possible.

• Never leave your animals alone in a parked vehicle. “On a hot day, a parked car can become a furnace in no time-even with the windows open-which could lead to fatal heat stroke,” says Dr. Louise Murray, Vice President of ASPCA Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital. Also, leaving pets unattended in cars in extreme weather is illegal in several states.

• Do not leave pets unsupervised around a pool-not all dogs are good swimmers. Introduce your pets to water gradually and make sure they wear flotation devices when on boats. Rinse your dog off after swimming to remove chlorine or salt from his fur, and try to keep your dog from drinking pool water, which contains chlorine and other chemicals that could cause stomach upset.

• “During warmer months, the ASPCA sees an increase in injured animals as a result of High-Rise Syndrome, which occurs when pets-mostly cats-fall out of windows or doors and are seriously or fatally injured,” says Dr. Murray. “Pet owners need to know that this is completely preventable if they take simple precautions.” Keep all unscreened windows or doors in your home closed and make sure adjustable screens are tightly secured.

• Feel free to trim longer hair on your dog, but never shave your dog: The layers of dogs’ coats protect them from overheating and sunburn. Brushing cats more often than usual can prevent problems caused by excessive heat. And be sure that any sunscreen or insect repellent product you use on your pets is labeled specifically for use on animals.

• When the temperature is very high, don’t let your dog linger on hot asphalt. Being so close the ground, your pooch’s body can heat up quickly, and sensitive paw pads can burn. Keep walks during these times to a minimum.

• Commonly used flea and tick products, rodenticides (mouse and rat baits), and lawn and garden insecticides can be harmful to cats and dogs if ingested, so keep them out of reach. When walking your dog, steer clear of areas that you suspect have been sprayed with insecticides or other chemicals. Keep citronella candles, oil products and insect coils out of pets’ reach as well.

• Taking Fido to a backyard barbeque or party? Remember that the food and drink offered to guests may be poisonous to pets. Keep alcoholic beverages away from pets, as they can cause intoxication, depression and comas. Similarly, remember that the snacks enjoyed by your human friends should not be a treat for your pet; any change of diet, even for one meal, may give your dog or cat severe digestive ailments. Avoid raisins, grapes, onions, chocolate and products with the sweetener xylitol.

Stop Your Dog From Urinating In The House

No more dog urine in the house.

House training is a challenging part of dog ownership, and some breeds of dogs are more resistant to house training than others. Dogs urinate in the house due to inadequate house training, anxiety and the lingering smell of urine.

Dogs will also urinate inside if they are forced to wait too long to go outside. You can effectively house train your dog using positive, reward-based methods.

Follow these steps to house train your dog effectively:

Put your dog in a crate when you are not supervising it or are not home. Dogs are unlikely to soil the area in which they sleep unless it’s a true emergency, so keeping your dog in a crate deters it from urinating inside. Every time your dog urinates inside this encourages it to continue doing so, so preventing accidents is the first step in proper house training.

Take your dog outside at least every two hours when you first begin house training. You should also take your dog out when you get home, before you leave, after eating or drinking, after playtime and when your dog wakes up. When your dog urinates outside, praise him lavishly, click the training clicker and give your dog a treat. This teaches your dog to associate going outside with receiving a reward and will increase the frequency with which the dog goes outside.

Take your dog outside immediately if he has an accident. This helps your dog develop an association between urinating and being outside, and will discourage future accidents.

Remove the scent of urine from any places where your dog has urinated by using Clear the Air Odor Eliminator for Carpet/Furniture. Dogs are driven by scent and are far more likely to urinate in areas that smell like urine.

You can order our products online at www.cleartheair.com.  We currently have a promotion for the month of August: Buy 2 Get 2 Free of our Carpet/Furniture Odor Eliminator.  Simply add 4 canisters to your shopping cart, enter “carpetodor” into the redemption code and the price of two canisters is automatically taken away from your total.

Make Sure Your Home Is Ready To Sell

Clear the Air would like to share some helpful tips to selling your house.  Of course, if you experience any sort of odor in your home, Clear the Air is guaranteed to completely eliminate any and all odors.

1. Clean your house and keep it clean. If you are planning to live in your home while it is on the market, you have GOT to make daily cleaning a part of your selling plan.  It may be a pain to keep things spotless but cleanliness is important! A dirty home will give the potential buyers sense that the home is not well taken care of and can keep them from coming back a second time to look at your home with an offer.
2. Fix the broken stuff.  Shutter hanging off the house?  Piece of trim missing?  Door sticking?  Get it fixed!  If those little things are visible, your potential buyers start wondering what other maintenance issues your home might have and get scared. Make sure there wouldn’t be anything that could (1) keep buyers away and (2) knock dollars off of your asking price.
3. Eliminate odor from your home and make it smell good. Last thing you want is people to walk in your home and say, “It smells like feet in here.”  Guess what?  Each house was the home of boys but not everyone has to smell it!  Smell is very powerful and instantly sets the tone for your potential buyer’s experience in your house.  Avoid anything over-powering (some people are sensitive to strong perfumes) but find a way to make the air clean and homey.
4. De-personalize your home.  Want your  buyers to imagine themselves living in your house?  Then take YOU out of it!  You have got to take down your personal photos, scrapbooks, take down from the mantle the carving of your last name.  Buyers need to see their family living here … not yours.
5. De-clutter your home.  Potential buyers will turn their nose up at homes that had a lot of “stuff.”  Why?  They looked small.  They looked like they were running out of storage room.  They looked messy. The clutter keeps these homes from looking move-in ready. You want to make your home look spacious and ready to accommodate another family’s possessions.  Why would anyone want a house that appears to NOT have room for anything?
   
6. Utilize your garage or rent a storage room to hide bulky furniture. We packed away our piano, several chairs and extra side tables to highlight the space in our home.  You don’t want people bumping into furniture or having to turn sideways to get around. Likewise, take everything off your kitchen counters.
7. Make the exterior of your home look as good as possible.  Landscaping and the exterior of your home are just as important as the inside. Power-wash your house and sidewalk.  You can’t necessarily control the color of your brick but you can clean it, and doing so will take tons of dirt off and make your home instantly all the more inviting.  Freshen up beds with mulch.  Trim bushes and trees — especially those in front of any windows.  Overgrown shrubbery is not attractive and keeps natural light out of your home, making rooms feel dark and small.  Plant new flowers in your beds and/or add a few flower pots to your porch.  Flower brighten up your home and help your home feel welcoming.
8. Figure out your budget for any possible upgrades and cleaning services.  We can’t all afford to completely renovate our homes before putting it on the market but most of us can spend some money upgrading different aspects of our houses. Granite is cheaper than ever and, if you can afford it, a HUGE draw for buyers.  Can’t afford granite?  Well, what about repainting your kitchen or replacing outdated pulls and knobs?  Or spending a few bucks and a few hours to put in new ceramic tile?  If you can do the work yourself, you’ll save a ton of money and realize some updates are very easy (and cheap) to pull off.
9. Likewise, if you take a few minutes to research, you can find reputable carpet cleaners and window washers who will help get your house in ship-shape, making older carpet and windows fresh and sparking.
10. Get out of the house when it is being showed.  If you know a buyer is coming through — LEAVE! Take a walk, go to Target, head to the park but go somewhere so your buyers have the chance to consider your house for their future home.

Dogs Can Get Sunburned Too

Did you know your dog is susceptible to getting sunburned?

Just like humans, dogs can get sunburned. This is especially true of light coated short hair dogs and breeds like Shar Peis, white Pit Bulls, and Chinese Crested Hairless dogs.

All dogs, even ones with thick coats, can get sunburn too. The areas to be mindful of are the ears, nose, and around the eyes, where the coat is often thinner. These areas are usually lighter in pigment and are frequently exposed to direct sunlight.

When using sunblock on dogs, it is usually a good idea to use a child’s sunscreen which contains avobenzone, a UVA blocker, and octisalate, a UVB blocker.  It is usually a good idea to avoid using sunscreens containing zinc oxide which can be harmful if ingested.  In addition to using sunblock, you can pick up clothes for dogs with UV protection. Another popular item that protects a dog’s face is a sun visor. Dogs can get sunburned even in the winter if the sun is strong.

Long walks and fun times at the dog park are encouraged, but beware of high temperatures.  In general, once it gets above 85 degrees, dog owners should use caution when exercising their dog outdoors.  For most dogs, moderate activity for 30 minutes is safe. If the temps exceed 95 degrees, it’s probably best for both of you to skip the outdoor workout until it cools down.

During the summer months, try to walk or jog in the early morning or evenings or seek shady trails. If your dog begins to have rapid or labored breathing, begins to resist walking, or acts depressed, your dog may be overheating. In these cases, stop, rest, and rehydrate. This doesn’t mean you should stop exercising just because your dog is panting; you need to closely watch your pet to determine if the panting is excessive or abnormal. If in doubt, take a break and cool down.

Always be sure to take water with you when you exercise with your dog in warm weather. There are many styles of portable dog bowls that are convenient to carry.

In any type of circumstance, use caution when exercising your dog and make sure he/she is in good health.

Bringing A New Cat Home?

Are you thinking of getting a new cat or kitten?

There are important tips to keep in mind when looking into bringing a new cat home whether you already have dogs and/or cats or are new to the pet world.

A new home can be stressful for a cat and in order to ensure you and your new cat are completely happy with each other, follow these helpful tips.

Prepare a room in your house for the new arrival – Your new kitten or cat is going to need some time to adjust to his new environment—the new sights, sounds, and smells; the new ecosystem of germs; and the new people—so set the room up for an extended stay. You’ll need to provide all the basic kitty comforts—water bowl, comfortable bed, and litter box. If you are using a spare bedroom or office for your kitty’s temporary quarters, make sure you “kitty-proof” it. Just like with small children, put away anything valuable or breakable. Get down on the floor and look around from a “cat’s eye view.” Cover any bed, sofa, or upholstered chair with a waterproof pad or sheet. Remember, cats are territorial and may, when feeling insecure, mark their territory with urine or feces. If another animal has been in the room and had a little “accident” that you never even noticed, the new kitten or cat will find it and “refresh” it!

Clean and prepare a pet carrier for transporting your new cat home – Wash a pet carrier with a solution of 1:32 bleach and water solution (1 ounce [30 ml] bleach to 1 gallon [4 l] of warm water) and rinse thoroughly. Outfit it with something you’ve worn, such as a T-shirt, so the new kitty can start getting used to your scent on the way home. Once you get the kitty home, you might want to leave the carrier in the room for him as an extra haven of security.

When driving home, make sure the carrier is secured with a seat belt – Also, driving in a car is usually an intense experience for kittens and cats, so keep the music from your radio or CD player soft and soothing; light classical is a good choice, especially Mozart.

Give your new kitty an adequate adjustment / quarantine period – Quarantine your new kitten or cat for a minimum of 14 days and preferably 21. It will allow for mental, emotional, and immune system adaptation. It’s important to be in this room frequently to love, feed, and bond with your new kitten or cat. He will become more comfortable and, of extreme importance, get used to his new litter box. You can start to introduce your new kitty slowly to the rest of your home. Expect the introduction period to take weeks, not days. If you get too excited and/or impatient and rush this time, you risk social failure as well as litter box mistakes.

If you have other pets, make sure you give them plenty of affection so they don’t feel neglected, and make the introduction gradually – All the animals that live with you will be aware of each other by smell first. Feed resident cats and the new cat on opposite sides of the (closed) door to the new cat’s room; feed the dog separately due to dogs’ natural guarding behaviors surrounding food. (It is never safe to feed dogs and cats together.) Paws may start to reach under the door. Moderate hissing or growling is normal. Gradually crack the door open so the pets can see each other without being able to fight. Occasionally bring some of your resident pets’ bedding into the new cat’s room, so that the newcomer can become acquainted with the scent. The new cat’s bedding can also be introduced to the current residents. Do occasional “territory swaps” by putting the new cat in another part of the house and the resident cats in the new cat’s room. Sometimes they become fast friends; sometimes they will annoy but tolerate each other; sometimes the sounds of hissing and yowling will make you wonder if bringing home another cat was the right thing—but don’t worry, with cat introductions, some personalities blend and others don’t, but in nearly all cases, they can be taught to tolerate each other.

Note: If you’re introducing a cat to one or more dogs, keep all dogs leashed at all times to allow the new cat to choose how closely to interact. Never leave any dog and cat together unsupervised (no matter how well they know each other) unless the cat has a good escape route.

Limit new ” siblings’ ” time together if it’s not going well initially – They will decide among them who is going to be “top cat!” Helping the cats to socialize through play therapy can also be helpful.

Keep it dark – Let your new cat sleep in a dark room with no light at all. This will help your cat give up any tendency toward nocturnal activities and adjust to your schedule.

Clear the Air Will Help Sell or Rent Your House Faster

Trying to Sell or Rent?

Property management companies and Real Estate Brokers and Agents deal with odor issues on a routine basis. Cigarette, pet, musty/mildew, dead rodent, and cooking odors are most common and make a home harder to sell or rent.

Real Estate is often slow selling/renting or discounted due to odor issues. It has been reported that approximately 5-10% of all listing have odor issues that may impact the sale. Clear The Air Odor Eliminators are an easy, inexpensive way to solve the problem and get your property sold or rented.

Clear The Air Odor Eliminators are an easy, inexpensive way to solve the problem and get your property sold or rented. Clear the Air does not have to come into contact with the odor producer; it will pull the odors from the carpet pad, and sub-floor. Clear The Air draws in odors like a powerful magnet. The odors are adsorbed, and neutralized without any fragrances. Clear The Air does not cover up odors; it literally “clears the air” leaving the air fresh and clean. Clear The Air is made from an all natural mineral, is non toxic and biodegradable and safe for Planet Earth. It is also safe around children and pets even if eaten.

Check out how to eliminate odors in a house:

• Hang 1 or 2 bags in each room that has odor. Some air circulation is best. One bag covers approximately 100 square feet. Bags will last approximately 3 months; we suggest leaving them up until house is sold/rented.
• If you have pet urine odors in the carpet (including cat urine) sprinkle Clear The Air Odor Eliminator for Cat Urine on carpet, tile, concrete, furniture, or any other surface. Leave down overnight; sweep or vacuum up and odor will be completely eliminated. One canister covers approximately 100 square feet.
• If you have odors outside on lawn or shrubs sprinkle Clear The Air Odor Eliminator for Lawns down. Leave down indefinitely, Clear The Air is an excellent nitrogen soil amendment. One canister covers approximately 100 square feet.
• If you have a dead rodent odor please click How to Eliminate Dead Rodent Odors PDF
• Many agents keep a case of bags in their trunk.

Tick Removal For Your Pets

Removing ticks from your pets – what you need to know!

Ewe, it is flea and tick season!  Keep fleas and ticks away with our helpful tips.

Need help on removing those pesky ticks your dog and cat pick up from outside?  Check out ASPCA’s article:

So, you’ve found a tick on your pet—how do you deal with it? While it’s important to get these little suckers off quickly, ASPCA veterinarians advise that you stay calm and don’t rush it. Moving too fast when removing a tick could potentially create more problems, both for your pet and for you.

While the following instructions employ tweezers, be aware that there are some very good products on the market designed specifically for safe tick removal. If you live in a tick-heavy area or are taking your pets to a place where they are likely to get ticks, it’s a good idea to buy one of these tools and have it on hand. They generally work better than tweezers at getting out the whole tick, and are relatively inexpensive.

Step-by-Step Tick Removal Instructions

Step 1—Prepare its Final Resting Place – Throwing a tick in the trash or flushing it down the toilet will not kill it, and it’s actually best to hold on to it for awhile for veterinary testing in case your pet falls ill from the bite. Be ready with somewhere to put the tick after you’ve removed it—the best option is a screw-top jar containing some rubbing alcohol.

Step 2—Don’t Bare-Hand It – Put on latex or rubber gloves so you’ll never have direct contact with the tick or your pet’s bite area. Ticks can carry infective agents that may enter your bloodstream through breaks in your skin or through mucous membranes (if you touch your eyes, nostrils or mouth).

Step 3—Grab a Partner – You don’t want your pet squirming away before you’re finished, so if possible, have a helper on hand to distract, soothe or hold her still.

Step 4—The Removal – Treat the bite area with rubbing alcohol and, using a pair of tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the animal’s skin as possible. Pull straight upwards with steady, even pressure. Place the tick in your jar.

• Do not twist or jerk the tick! This may leave the mouth-parts embedded in your pet, or cause the tick to regurgitate infective fluids.
• Do not squeeze or crush the body of the tick, because its fluids (saliva and gut contents) may contain infective organisms.

Step 5—All that Remains – Sometimes, in spite of doing everything right, a tick’s mouth-parts will get left behind in your pet’s skin. If the area doesn’t appear red or inflamed, the best thing to do is to disinfect it and not to try to take the mouth-parts out. A warm compress to the area might help the body expel them, but do not go at it with tweezers.

Step 6—Clean Up – Thoroughly disinfect the bite site and wash your hands with soap and water (even though you were wearing gloves). Sterilize your tweezers with alcohol or by carefully running them over a flame.

Step 7—Keep Watch – Over the next few weeks, closely monitor the bite area for any signs of localized infection. If the area is already red and inflamed, or becomes so later, please bring your pet—and your jarred tick—to your veterinarian for evaluation.

From: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-care-tips/how-to-remove-a-tick-from-your-pet.aspx

Dog Care Tips

If you are new to dog ownership or have had dogs all your life, there are some crucial tips which every dog owner needs to be aware of and sometimes reminded of.

While dogs are fun and loyal creatures, they can also be complex. It takes a fair amount of understanding to care for dogs—one that requires a lot more effort than just feeding them every day.  Check out our helpful dog care tips:

• Stay away from unhealthy additives: During your search, you’ll find lots of pet products that have been manufactured out of low quality ingredients and enhanced with artificial sweeteners. Avoid such option. Before you buy a product, go through the nutritional label to find out exactly what it contains.  Search for foods that are manufactured from healthy protein sources such as chicken or beef. Avoid foods that contain high percentages of bone meal.

• Don’t ignore fleas or ticks: Combined, fleas and ticks form a larger percentage of most canine health problems. Dogs that play outdoors are highly susceptible to these. Pay attention to your dog. If left untreated, ticks can go on to cause severe conditions such as anemia. Your dog may also spread the fleas and ticks to other members of the home.

• Give your dog somewhere cool to relax: Don’t just assign any resting place for your dog. Pick a spot in your home where your dog will get enough protection from the heat. Dogs are more prone to heat strokes than humans. Ensure that your dog gets enough water during the day, especially during the warmer months. Design a regular feeding schedule. This will help when the dog is being housebroken.

• Stock up on pet supplies and equipment: For the best living experience, take the time to get everything that you might need. For instance, it’s always advisable that you get your dog a collar. It doesn’t have to be very stylish but it should at least be comfortable. You can also get feeding bowls and pet wash supplies to make grooming easier.

It’s a “ruff” life…Part 2 of Why your dog barks

Wonder why your dog barks for certain reasons?

Clear the Air would like to share some helpful tips on learning about the behavior of your dog and why he barks.  Enjoy part 2 of our blog – taken from The San Diego Humane Society.

Request Barking

When they want something, dogs will experiment with various behaviors to see if any of them work. They quickly figure out that barking works with their owners. If you don’t like barking, stop rewarding it with attention, door-opening services, releasing from crates etc. Period. No buts.

Rather than the dog telling you when to take him out, take him out at regular intervals, making sure none of them are preceded by barking. Don’t let a barking dog out of a crate until he’s quiet. Ignore dogs who bark at you. Keep in mind that if you have been rewarding it for a while, the barking will get worse before it goes into extinction. You’re changing the rules and the dog will be frustrated at first. Whatever you do, don’t crack and reward the WORSE version of the barking!

Above all, start noticing the dog when he’s quiet. Teach him that there are payoffs for lying quietly, chewing on a chew-toy and refraining from barking.

Barking When Alone

This is a common form of request barking: the dog is requesting that you come back. There is also often some anxiety involved. When you get a new dog or puppy, set a good precedent right away. Don’t smother him with your constant presence and attention. Come and go a lot and never go to him when he’s vocalizing. Wait until he’s quiet for at least 30 seconds so you don’t risk rewarding the noise making. If your dog already has a habit, you must start a multi-pronged assault:

1) When you’re at home, don’t let him shadow you around: lock him in various rooms away from you to practice “semi-absences.” Reprimand or ignore any barking (ignoring is actually a more powerful tool). If you choose to reprimand it, burst through the door, scold the dog and then immediately disappear again, closing the door behind you. Remember that he’s barking to get you back: with some dogs, a reprimand is better than nothing so you may be rewarding him…

2) Practice loads of brief absences every day. Go out and come back in after 2 or 3 seconds over and over to get the dog desensitized to your departures. Do it in a matter of fact way, more or less ignoring the dog whatever he does. Then do outings of 10 seconds, 30, a minute, 10 minutes etc. Mix it up. Dogs who are anxious need to learn that your departure doesn’t usually mean a traumatically long period of isolation. Keep all your departures and arrival greetings low key. Never enter when the dog is barking. Wait for a lull of at least 30 seconds.

3) Dogs are a highly social species. They don’t cope well with prolonged isolation. Consider a second dog, daycare or dog-walker at lunchtime if you work all day.

4) Increase physical and mental stimulation. In a natural environment, a lot of your dog’s energy would be spent acquiring his food. He would have to find prey, run it down, hang onto and kill it and then rip it apart to eat it. He’d have to attempt several finds and run-downs before he successfully made a kill. That’s work! Tire him out more before long absences. Walks don’t cut it as exercise for dogs. Most dogs like getting out and checking out the environment but it’s not exercise. Exercise means exertion. Start working your dog out with high-intensity games like ball-fetch, Frisbee, tug-of-war, hide & seek, free-play with other dogs etc.

Make him work to acquire his food. Hide it around the house, scatter it in the grass in the backyard, make him extract it from the hollow inside of a bone or Kong toy (which you also hide), make him earn it piece by piece for obedience exercises or tricks, make him solve problems. Your imagination is the limit. Make your absences predict that his meal is hidden around the house so that he has to get busy when you leave if he wants to eat. Dogs are programmed to work for their food. It’s no wonder there are so many problems related to under stimulation.

5) Get him more focused on toys. When you play with him, incorporate toys. Hold chewies for him. Teach him to find a toy that you’ve hidden in the room and then celebrate his find with tug of war or fetch. Teach him his toys by name. Ask him to bring you one when you come home. Don’t greet him until he’s brought it.

Then have a vigorous game of fetch. Leave him stuffed chew toys during absences: fill hollow bones or Kongs with cheese, peanut butter, cookies or combos.

If your dog is anxious to the point of panic attacks, he has separation anxiety and need formal desensitization and/or medication. Contact a competent trainer.

Spooky Barking

In this case, it is important to get at the underlying under socialization. Socialize puppies extensively to as wide a variety of people and dogs as possible. You cannot overdo it. Expose them to plenty of places, experiences, sights & sounds and make it all fun with praise, games & treats. Find and attend a good puppy class.

If you missed the boat socializing your puppy, you’ll have to do remedial work with your adolescent or adult.

Whatever it is that your dog is spooky about must now become associated with lunch. This is how under socialized dogs work for their food. If he doesn’t like strangers, meals need to fed bit by bit around strangers until he improves. It takes a while to re-socialize adults so stick with it.

Boredom Barking

If you don’t have time for a dog, don’t get a dog. Dogs are not space-intensive, they are time-intensive. If you have an outside dog, train him to be an inside dog. There is no quick fix here: you must meet your dog’s basic needs for stimulation, exercise and companionship.

Why Your Dog Barks – Part 1

If you have a dog, most likely there have been times he or she barks excessively for a reason you are not sure of.

Clear the Air would like to share some helpful tips on learning about the behavior of your dog and why he barks.  This will be a two part blog touching on various reasons your dog barks.

This article was taken from the San Diego Humane Society.

Dogs bark for a variety of reasons:

1) Watchdog Barking serves the dual purpose of alerting pack members that there is an intruder and warning the intruder that they have been noticed.

2) Request Barking is the dog’s way of communicating to the owner that he would like something NOW.

Typical requests are “open the door NOW,” “pay attention to me NOW,” “let me out of here NOW,” “I wanna see that dog NOW” etc.

3) Spooky Barking occurs when the dog is uncomfortable about something in the environment and barks to say “I’m dangerous! Don’t come any closer!”

4) Boredom Barking can result when the dog’s daily needs for exercise and social stimulation are not met. The dog has gone essentially mad from boredom.

Controlling Excessive Barking:

Watchdog Barking

The standby technique is to teach the dog a competing response – such as fetching a certain toy or doing a down-stay on a mat (which cuts barking in many dogs) for tasty food rewards. Practice out of doorbell or “intruder” contexts first and then incorporate the game or command into real-life situations. The dog will need some coaching and prompting the first few times in the real-life situation so prepare to budget some time for that. Even better, set it up with a cohort to play “visitor,” so you can focus on the dog rather than being forced to attend to the person at the door. When the dog is more advanced, you can also incorporate penalties. If he gets it right, he is rewarded as usual. If he barks, he goes into the penalty box – a back room or crate that is far from the action.

Another technique – high effort but great result – is to teach the dog the meaning of the words “bark” and “quiet” (or any word you want to use as an “off” switch). First, you have to teach the dog to bark and quiet on command as a trick. To elicit the barking so that you can practice, you must use something you know makes the dog bark, like the doorbell or a weird noise outside (you may need a helper). Arrange the following sequence:

1) your command “bark!”

2) the doorbell or other prom

3) barking from the dog

4) praise from you: “good bark!”

5) your command “quiet”

6) showing him the treat

7) his (eventual) distraction from barking by the treat

8) 3-5 seconds of quiet during which you praise “gooo-oood quiet”

9) giving him the treat after 3-5 seconds of perfect quiet

10) repeat, gradually lengthening the duration of the “quiet” up to a minute

Do it over and over until the dog knows the game. He knows the game when he barks on the command and doesn’t need the doorbell anymore, and he quiets on the first quiet command without having to be shown the treat (you still give him one from your pocket, you just don’t show it anymore). If ever he interrupts a quiet with even one bark, say “oh! too bad” and start counting the quiet time from the beginning again. Barking during the quiet time will cost him his treat.

You must be able to yo-yo the dog back and forth reliably between bark and quiet before you try out your “quiet” command in real situations. The most common mistake is trying to use the quiet command before it’s well-enough conditioned in training sessions. Think of quiet on command as a muscle you’re making stronger.

When you can turn barking on and off anytime, anyplace as a trick, you may now start commanding quiet after a few barks when your dog barks on his own in real-life situations. The first few times the dog will respond poorly to the command. Don’t give up. Have really good treats handy. Go back to showing him the treat up front the first few times. Practice makes perfect.

If your dog “goes off” for the smallest sounds and changes in the environment, it would help the cause to get him better habituated. Take him out more, invite people and dogs over to socialize, expose him to a wider range of sights and sounds.