Puppies smarties (pictures)

Why did I decide to open this topic?

Well, we – human — try to fit dogs into our envi­ron­ment – we decide what they sho­uld or sho­uld not like, what they sho­uld or sho­uld not eat. It is we – people who manage the access to various reso­ur­ces. Howe­ver what is our goal? Do we take the natu­ral ani­mal needs into con­si­de­ra­tion or is it our human rules that we look into?
Recen­tly I saw very irri­ta­ted owner whose dog stop­ped for some snif­fing by the tree. Not one time I saw the owner pul­ling his dog who just hap­pe­ned to stop by the nearby bushes. Few days ago on an Ame­ri­can forum I came across fru­stra­ted woman wri­ting “How shall I unte­ach my dog sniffing??!!
Let’s discuss the mat­ter some more – what are the natu­ral needs of the dog?
– Snif­fing
– Che­wing
– Dig­ging
– Social con­tact (with human)
Those needs often and in most cases com­pete with our own – human rules. Not a lot of owners let their dog dig in the gar­den, chew on shoes and sniff when one is alre­ady late for work…
Howe­ver not ful­fil­ling those needs we really ask for tro­uble. The dog will ful­fill those needs either way and it can turn out that we will not like his way too much
It is also cru­cial to ful­fill those natu­ral needs espe­cially with pro­ble­ma­tic dogs as first of all – it makes the dog tired, second of all it builds self-confidence, and finally it redu­ces stress.
We have to remem­ber that if we let our dog sniff – we make his brain work. That in turn redu­ces stress and makes the dog even more tired than run­ning on a field.
I will now show how we enrich envi­ron­ment of the pup­pies as soon as they open their eyes, ears, stand on their own feet and are ready to taste some­thing other than bit­ches milk.
Buil­ding such puppy play field ena­bles pup­pies to ful­fill their natu­ral needs. They sniff, hunt, dig, lick ect. We are using dif­fe­rent tools from dif­fe­rent mate­rials and we hide a lit­tle bit of the doggy food in them, between them ect. Pup­pies sniff and when they find a treat they lick on it, eat it, chew it (depen­den­tly on the con­si­stence). After few minu­tes (for young pup­pies) they are tired and fall asleep.
The same hap­pens with the older pup­pies and the grow­nup dogs, howe­ver the play­gro­und can be moved out­side.
After the bre­eder does this job and han­dles the puppy to you – it beco­mes your job. Of course some will ask – how shall I build it on my own, some do not have the place. Well – it is not about buil­ding com­pli­ca­ted field at all. It is not even about buil­ding at all. Of course it is a lot of fun that you and our dog can have – espe­cially that you can use dif­fe­rent tre­ats and hide them in a very strange pla­ces (as it hap­pe­ned at one of the semi­na­ries that was held by the pupil of Turid Rugaas) as the water bowl. Instead you can take your dog for a walk on the very long leash and you can let him walk and sniff. If you take him to the woods and let sniff the other ani­mal sen­ses it is even better.
So what can we really do as the owners:
1. Walk your dog remem­be­ring about fol­lo­wing rules
– Long, loose leash
– Har­ness
– Do not pull the dog
– Do not talk to the dog
– Do not hurry
– Let the dog sniff
2. Give your dog some­thing to chew on safely (ava­ila­ble in Ger­many – NYLABONE bones that either a puppy or an adult dog can chew on (be care­ful to use the right king so that your dog will not tear it apart)
3. Let the dog dig. I know I know – who would want their gar­den to be full of holes? No one. You can howe­ver desi­gnate one place for dog to do it or take him to the woods. In Fin­land it is very popu­lar to make spe­cial sand­pits for the dogs.
Thro­ugh ages of joint exi­stence dogs have learnt how to fit in our envi­ron­ment, and they do it per­fec­tly howe­ver what is impor­tant for us will not neces­sa­rily be impor­tant for our dogs. I appeal – let the dogs, be the dogs and let them ful­fill their natu­ral needs — it will pay off.

Ple­ase enjoy the photos.

 

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Elzbieta Gajewska
Włochata Pasja

First Professional Australian Labradoodle Kennel in Poland
www.labradoodle.com.pl

Fokker van originele Australian Labradoodles
www.australische-labradoodle.nl

Pierwsza hodowla Australijskich Labradoodle w Polsce
www.wlochata-pasja.com.pl