Expert Tips To Prepare Your Dog For Christmas Festivities

It's the festive season and if you have plans to reunite with family and friends, it's important we factor in our pets and their wellbeing too!

Pet Behaviourist, media personality and author of World of Dogs and Eat, Play, Love (Your Dog), Lara Shannon, has shared her top tips to keep both pets & people safe during the Christmas period.

If you have visitors coming to your home, Shannon says: 

• Slowly introduce new people into your home, using treats and positive reinforcement training to create a calm, positive experience as someone arrives. 
• If your dog tends to react to the door bell, suggest people text you upon their arrival so you can go to the door to let them in before sounding the bell.
• Put your dog on a lead and ask people to take off hats, hoodies and sunglasses, move slowly, avoid staring at the dog or interacting with them if the dog is barking, jumping or acting inappropriately.  
• If your dog is food motivated, have the other person slowly come into the house or room with a treat easily visible. If they are toy or ball motivated, you can use those too. If your dog moves towards them to investigate, they should offer your dog the treat and speak in a low, calm and encouraging voice to help create the positive association we are after.
• People should NEVER put their hand out when meeting a dog. This is a sure way to get bitten, despite what you have been led to believe. Visitors should invite the dog to them with a pat to the leg and if the dog doesn’t respond or moves away, leave them alone! Never force interactions.
• If ignored, dogs will often get curious and slowly make their way over to investigate. So, people should talk quietly, no sudden movements, encouraging and praising good behaviour and let the dog take the lead.

Lara Shannon shares her tips! Image: Lara Shannon

Other festive season tips to keep pets safe:

Keep them away from toxic food and beverages

With Christmas meals generally including ham, pork or turkey – all with fatty skin and often high in salt, pudding with brandy sauce and fruit mince pies, it is a time to be vigilant about keeping pets away from toxic or harmful food and alcoholic drinks.  

All of those foods mentioned above are no good for dogs, with fruit, macadamia nuts, grapes, raisins and alcohol all being extremely toxic.

Keep them cool in the heat

Always walk dogs early in the morning and in the evenings on a hot day. A good way to check if the ground is comfortable for your dog is to see if you can comfortably leave your hands on the road or footpath for 5 seconds without it feeling hot.

• Put sunscreen on the sensitive or exposed areas such as nose, ears or bellies, especially where skin is exposed.
• Ensure pets have plenty of shade (at all times of day) and cool, fresh water.
• NEVER leave your dog in the car, even with the windows down and in the shade, on a day over 20 degrees.
• If your dog is looking uncomfortably hot, cool them down with tap water (not iced), but you can give them ice blocks to lick or in their water bowl.

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