September 2018

Living in a city condo means taking your dog in the elevator several times a day so it’s an incredibly important skill to master. But, if you live in rural Alberta, you may have never thought about taking your dog in an elevator, however, it is a good exercise to learn for you never know when you may need to take your dog in one. Many hotels welcome dogs and while a taking a few staircases may not do you two any harm, you may get booked in a room on a higher floor (a view is always nice). If you visit the dog friendly Canadian Kennel Club head office in Etobicoke, you will have to take the elevator up to the fourth floor. Even some dog shows require dogs to take elevators as well (like the Piers at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York. The only way to the second floor rings is by elevator).

 

Bite inhibition is a crucial skill that a puppy must develop if he is to live peacefully with his human and dog family. Bite inhibition is the dog’s ability to moderate the force of his bite. While dogs often use their mouths in play, they must learn when they are using too much force. This needs to become a reflex and is best ingrained in puppyhood. 
The dam of the litter aka your puppy’s Mom, along with his littermates are without a doubt the best creatures to begin teaching your puppy how to control his mouth. This is a reason why you shouldn’t take a puppy away from his mother and litter before 8 weeks of age.
During his time with his mom and siblings, when an excited pup bites Mom too hard during a play session, Mom will give a yelp loud enough to startle him. If he bites hard again, Mom might growl and show teeth. She also might bite back. She certainly won’t continue playing with a pup who bites too hard. 

It is often said that the dog’s sense of smell is a thousand times stronger than ours — a dog has more than 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose, while we have only 5 million. So while our nose can detect a scent we might recognize as “pizza,” a dog’s more sensitive nose will be able to distinguish each ingredient on that pizza. It comes as no surprise then that the sport of scent detection, which combines the dog’s ability to detect scents and follow them to the source, is growing by leaps and bounds.