Ask the trainer: dogs and daylight savings

The clocks have been put forward an hour, the days are warming and the kids are on holiday. What does this mean for dog owners? Basically people coming out of "hibernation'' means more people enjoying the same areas where we exercise our dogs and flows of visitor traffic in our homes increasing.

These are reasons to stop and think about the management of our dogs at this time of year. Now is the time to think about your dog's ability to cope with children running and playing at our lakes as well as their general demeanour with strangers.

Work on ensuring you meet the needs of your dog and the public by knowing exactly what your dog can and cannot cope with and work to keep situations which cause stress for your dogs to a minimum. You may want to consider walking your dog at a time less likely to have other people out and about or remove your dog to a secure area when you are entertaining.

It is also the time to make the most of the opportunity to work on social skills if needed by allowing your dogs to meet other people and dogs in a positive manner.

As more people come in and out of our homes the risk of accidental incorrect gate and door closure is likely to happen which can create the opportunity for your dog to slip away unnoticed while you are entertaining.

To save many hours of panic and frantic looking for your dog teach your dog what "go home'' means. How many of us have seen a dog wandering in our streets and told it to "go home''?

The question to ask ourselves is if a good citizen saw our dog wandering and told it to go home would it know what this means?

To teach your dog what this means and where exactly home is when you are walking around the block and head back into your street tell your dog to "go home'' and let it move in front of you effectively leading the way to your front door. It is important to remember that your dog has not experienced any of the anxiety or stress you have felt during its time away from home, your dog is purely an opportunist who has enjoyed a spell of exploration and freedom.

If your emotions get the better of you and you scold rather than reward your dog when it returns of its own accord you will create a scenario of your dog being less likely to return quickly.

Paw point of the week

Dog attacks on children statistically occur more often in summer, why? This is because the likeliness of sharing space is greater with more daylight hours having children out playing later in the day. Ensure your dog is child friendly.

Contact me for the chance to have your question selected for publication at nadines@dogguru.co.nz for more information on Dog Guru visit www.dogguru.co.nz