Destructive Chewing? Hyper Dog? Try Some Exercise & Enrichment

Do any of these less than desirable behaviors sound familiar to you?

* Destructive chewing, digging or scratching
* Investigative behaviors, like garbage raiding
* Hyperactivity, excitability and night-time activity
* Unruliness, knocking over furniture and jumping up on people
* Excessive predatory and social play
* Play biting and rough play
* Attention-getting behaviors like barking and whining

If so, then I highly recommend the ASPCA website's free Virtual Pet Behaviorist Tips & Articles. The ASPCA lists all of these behaviors as a result of lack of exercise and play.

The following two articles offer tips on how to set your dog up for success when he's home alone and how to keep him entertained with his own interactive toys (like a Kong stuffed with food, for example) so that he won't resort to chewing on your socks.

They also list a several ways to exercise your dog that don't require a lot of energy on your part. These include food puzzle toys, hunting for dinner, fetch, Hide & Seek and my own dog's new favorite: Find It.

ASPCA's Fun, Easy Ways to Exercise your Dog

ASPCA Tips: Enriching Your Dog's Life

Itchy Skin and Allergies

The following is a link to some information about Itchy Skin and Allergies from Only Natural Pet Store. The article contains a lot of good information, but of course encourages you to buy products available through Only Natural Pet Store. This is not necessarily the worst thing, but I mention it in the interest of full transparency.

I personally find that feeding my pets a fresh, homemade diet of natural, species appropriate foods seems to help. I also give my dog probiotics before her meals and a little bit of fish oil (about 2,000 mg--she's a 70 pound dog) with her food.

If you'd like to learn more about preparing your pets' food, I recommend Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (or any of the other books mentioned in the "Recommended Reading" post).

Five Ways To Stop Your Dog From Jumping Up On People

Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT) Eric Goebelbecker offers Five Ways To Stop Your Dog From Jumping Up On People


I personally am a big fan of #3: Train your dog to sit instead. I also like that he explains why ignoring the behavior does not always seem to work, and he makes a critical point: if the behavior (jumping) is reinforced infrequently, the behavior will probably get worse.

Calling All Pet Owners: Online Survey Looks at Health of Dog Owners

Dog News from DogTipper.com: Online Survey Looks at Health of Dog Owners

So technically this online survey is open to both pet owners and non-pet owners, but I figure those reading this blog are more likely to be pet owners than not.

This George Washington University thesis project seeks to assess the health and physical activity levels of adults in the United States.

For every completed survey, $1 will be donated to animal welfare charities, such as the Humane Society of the U.S. and the Best Friends Animals Society.

Enough blogging for me--I've got a survey to complete!