Caissie Canine Instruction: Thanksgiving K9 Safety Tips

We begin this week with some fun, family K9 trivia:

1.    What is the term for a group of dogs?

2.    What breed was famous for rescuing people in the Swiss Alps?

3.    What breed was famously associated with firefighters?

4.    What breed was Toto, the dog accompanying Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.”

5.    What is the tallest dog breed?

ANSWERS 1. Pack, 2. St. Bernard, 3. Dalmatian, 4. Cairn Terrier, 5. Great Dane

Welcome to Doggie Dialogue

With Thanksgiving just round the corner, it is important to keep all pets safe. We recommend finding a safe, quiet place for your K9 or cat to be able to rest and relax, during this busy time. Some K9’s may feel overwhelmed by guests coming to visit. Some K9’s may get excited, and may jump up, other K9’s may get agitated.

A great way to help your K9 stay calm while guests are arriving is to plan. Consider keeping your K9’s routine the same that day and you may want to extend the walk or playtime, to drain any excessive energy, before guests arrive.

As visitors come in and out of the front door, it is important to supervise entrances, to prevent them from making a “break for it”.

A main concern at this time of year, is the toxic foods that maybe in the kitchen, while preparing food or the dining room, as K9’s will be looking for scrapes. Human foods like chocolate, grapes, raisins, and onions are all toxic to K9s.

Turkey bones are dangerous for K9’s as the bones can splinter and cause choking or digestive tract blockages.

We recommend securing the trash, as K9’s love scavenging in the garbage can, looking for leftover scraps.

Also, we recommend reminding your guests, and the children, not to feed your K9 table scraps during this family time. Many Thanksgiving foods are fatty foods, such as turkey skin, gravies, and desserts.

Here are some good foods that you can treat your K9 to, therefore they can have their own Thanksgiving meal. Foods that your K9 can eat are steamed sweet potato, steamed carrots, or raw carrots, and pure canned pumpkin, NOT pumpkin pie filling, just to mention a few.

Happy soon-to-be Thanksgiving to all our wonderful clients and their beautiful K9’s.