I hope you all had fun attending the Trickmas class this past weekend! Whether you are into the holiday side of things or not, please know that all of these tricks are based on Cooperative Care training! These techniques can help you work on your dog’s skills like chin rest, comfort with things like muzzles, elizabethan collars, jackets and so on. If you are into holiday celebrations these tricks can create some fun photos and family entertainment. If you participated last year but not this year we did work on adding some new tricks as well as advancing last years tricks. The recording is up on the recorded zooms link.

Zoom recording playlist

If you attended and work on the tricks and get fun photos please share them with me, either by posting on the FB group or tag me on your social media accounts so I can see! Or share them with us at the Holiday Zoom Party on the 21st! I hope you will join us for the party, I know it’s a busy time so understand if you can’t make it. I’ll share some of my favorite holiday treats, holiday enrichment games, making paw print ornaments and if you have questions about handling the holidays with your pups join in and ask your questions!

I know the holidays can be a very hard time for people. I have experienced holidays after losing loved ones, after traumatic events, with family dysfunctional family episodes. I know we have many different beliefs and religions, celebrate in different ways and I send my love and well wishes to ALL. I am not actually religious, I’m here for the food, trees, decorations, gatherings and traditions with friends but please know this is a safe space no matter what you feel or believe! If you are struggling during the holidays please reach out, my inbox is always open whether it is via email, the FB group or my IG inbox.

Our tree is up, and it’s survived 24hrs with Julia 😂. I will share some of my holiday survival tips for puppies!

Trees:

We always put the tree up in the house for 1-2 days BEFORE we decorate it, this way there are less things drawing the puppy to the tree. She is already pretty much uninterested in it.
She is always supervised with the tree! She’s not been left in a crate for many months, but the crate is back out and if she has to be left home alone (not counting the dogs) she will be in the crate again.
I also have an exercise pen ready incase I need to fence off the tree if she gets too interested and keeps trying to grab things.
When she investigates the tree I say nothing until she makes a choice, if she is just looking or sniffing I let her, as soon as she wants to grab something I say “leave it” and guide her to something else like a toy or chew. I try to bring as little energy and attention to the tree with her, the more we start micromanaging them around the tree, they can learn this thing is a great way to engage you, just grab an ornament and my person will drop everything to chase me around…
This year there won’t be any fragile beloved ornaments on the tree! The bottom third of the tree will be all dog safe ornaments if they do get pulled off the tree they won’t break or if they get chewed on we won’t be heartbroken (this is always the case, mostly because we have cats!).
Use some empty wrapped boxes to work on NOT opening the presents if you want to keep them under the tree! I put them under the tree and again, anytime they try to bother the gift I say “leave it” and redirect them to do something else.

Decorations:

Again like with the tree, she is supervised with the new things, if she is investigating I say nothing, if she starts to want to grab it, I say “leave it” and guide her to do something else.
Be aware of hidden dangers! Like are you aware many snowglobes are filled with antifreze? Which is lethal for dogs and cats! We are always sure to keep ours where they cannot reach them and where if they did fall they wouldn’t easily break.
Mistletoe is also toxic! Be sure wreaths and floral displays do not have mistletoe or keep them well out of reach!!
Tinsel, ribbon, strings can damage their intestines if ingested.
Plant dog friendly things that they can safely interact with, like put some new toys under the tree for them to discover.

Food:

As I talked about in the post prior to Thanksgiving in the US, the holidays are a very busy time for Veterinarians as they help pets who have consumed foods that make the pets sick.
Even if your pup has always been safe around foods, this is often a time for first counter surfing offenses! Keep things out of reach.
Be careful feeding too many new foods.
Know what foods are safe and not.
Let guests know not to feed the pups people food, give them dog safe treats they can feed your pup instead.

What do you see in this exchange? Here’s what I see: The person is staring directly at the dog, kneeling down into the dog’s space and petting it’s head. The dog is NOT looking at the person, it’s head and eyes are turned away from him. The dog’s ears are pulled back. The dog’s face is tight- see how you can see the corners of the dog’s mouth are forming that C shape. While we don’t know the context of this photo, and maybe the dog is worried about something that’s not the person. But if I see my dog looking like this and a visitor doing this I would be interrupting it, this dog is tense and not comfortable.

Stranger Danger:

As discussed in the Thanksgiving post, the holidays are often a time that sensitive dogs end up having experiences that light off their stranger danger fears.
Be sure you understand what stress signals look like (whale eyes, head turns, lip licking, yawning, body tension, tail and ear indicators). So you can intervene quickly if you see a situation is stressful for a dog.
Advocate for your dog! Even if they want to gsalight you and make you feel weird for being so protective, I promise you this is much easier stress to handle than the many many years of stress it will bring into your life if they traumatize your dog. You are the one seeking professional help raising your dog, they are not educated in canine behavior and many family dynamics make it hard to feel listened to. Advocate even if that means removing your dog from the situation.
You don’t have to include your dogs in everything! (we left Julia home with Leo this year during our Christmas tree hunt since we were going with friends who have two kids and two dogs that have very loud overwhelming greetings with other dogs, so rather than subject her to that, she stayed home so we could enjoy our time with friends without being stressed about her).
You get to have your own rules, make sure you let your guests know them. For example if you come to my house I am going to tell you: “The dogs are allowed on the furniture, if you don’t want them on your lap say off in a normal voice and they will get down. No need to scold them, they are normally welcome in our laps.” And I will also say “Julia can be shy, so please just wait until she comes to you, don’t try and coax her, that will make her suspicious. And if she jumps on you, do not scold her, I will come get her if you tell me you don’t want her on you. She is allowed to jump up on people who want to meet her, if you don’t want her to jump up, then just ignore her.” This one always blows people’s minds “I don’t care if they jump up, if you do let me know and I’ll keep them away from you. Waiting until you sit down to greet them will decrease jumping.” That’s right, I don’t care if my dogs jump on visitors, because 99.9% of the people who visit don’t care, if they do I can easily manage that by telling the dogs to stay on their beds, etc when someone is bothered by happy dogs. And honestly the dogs have learned to wait until people sit down to mob them with love because I’ve never made it a big deal, for the most part they wiggle around people and sniff as I say hi to the people (I focus on my guests, not my dogs). But I don’t make my dogs adapt their life around that .01% of people that might someday enter the house 😂. I do NOT want people entering my house trying to enforce rules or tell my sensitive dog what to do, So I am sure to make sure they understand that. I will 100% of the time interrupt anything I see a person doing that might worry my puppy. Sensitive dogs should not be treated like enthusiastic over the top greeters!!!. They need to be allowed to make their own choices safely and freely. We need to protect them from well meaning people who don’t understand our dog’s sensitivity.
Pressure, what does this mean? People staring at dogs, leaning over them, coaxing, moving towards… sensitive dogs are usually very sensitive to pressure. Don’t let people pursue engagement with your sensitive dog if the dog is clearly trying to avoid it!
Use baby gates, other rooms, leashes, etc to help protect your dogs boundaries from other people when your pup is overwhelmed.
See the reactive dog course for the “triangle fetch and training games” for helping your dog get more comfortable with visitors if you have guests that want to help. There are also handouts and suggestions for guests when trying to get to know your shy pup.

Other dogs, kids, etc:

Just assume any NEW situation your pup might need your help.
When introducing your dog to new dogs/kids if you have adult dogs taking a paralell walk together outside or meeting for a hike and then all entering the house together afterward can make many dogs way more comfortable.
If you have a puppy know they can be super overwhelmed meeting new dogs/kids so be SURE this dog has experience meeting puppies and is good with puppies!! If they don’t know how their dog will do, use baby gates and exercise pens to let them get used to each other with some space.
Pick up toys and chews or anything the dogs might argue over.
Be aware of resource guarding signals when food or toys are present, or when a dog is resting or getting affection from someone.
Advise guests it’s best not to feed or play with one dog without visually checking in with what the other dogs are doing. Two dogs going for the same toy, or one dog eating and the other dog approaching is often a trigger point. That’s not to say it is always a no go, but you need to be aware of what the dogs are both doing and how they are feeling about it. I tell my guests who bring dogs “no feeding or playing with toys, let me know when you want to do that and I’ll put my dog in the other room” because I just don’t want to even risk arguments.
Dogs that do not live with kids need 100% supervision with kids, like right there in the middle of it with them supervision. Dogs that do not live with kids do not always know what to do with their sudden movements or excitement. If I have kids over I am right there between the kids and dogs offering supervision and shaping the interaction. If I cannot give them that 100% focus the dogs are on the otherside of a baby gate.
Be aware of left open doors and/or gates, of food plates left on low tables.
Help sleeping dogs wake up and move when people are about to move so they don’t get stepped on or worried.

The first experiences in life shape a dog’s feelings around events like this. By taking the time to think about how to help these experiences to be low stress and positive for a puppy, new dog, young dog can set up all your future holiday gatherings.

Holiday Time