9 Comments

Emotional support for our furry babies is just as important as having someone to walk them. Great read, Freya 🐾

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Thank you! Absolutely it is, especially those who have behavioural struggles and need to feel safe. Thank you for reading :-)

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We'd always taken our dog to stay with friends or family, but our current dog doesn't get along well with others (people or dogs!). One of the best pieces of advice we got was to find a good dog daycare/kennel. It has been a life saver, and she actually likes going there (they do hikes too). Great article!

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I'm glad you have found a solution for your dog care.

Have you thought about getting help for how they feel about people/dogs? What have you tried, if so?

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Oh, we've tried so much with her. We got her at 1.5 years old in 2019, so initially we worked with the vet and two different dog trainers. She killed one of our chickens and bit two people, so we were really trying to find something that worked (our last dog had been reactive to people, and we figured out a way to work through that). We muzzle-trained her and tried to introduce her to people gradually, and she'd head butt them with the muzzle, stand in front of them and bark in their face. We tried drugs, but they just made her a fat and lazy dog with aggression issues and even increased her anxiety. Then Covid hit, and we couldn't really figure out a way to socialize her.

At this point, she loves her kennel and has a specific crew of dogs with which she gets along on hikes, and the kennel folks know her well. Her main issue with people is at the house. She'll go on a friendly hike with me and a friend, but if my friend comes over for coffee, she'll turn on her as soon as we reach the driveway. So we mitigate by removing her from the house when people come over.

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Thank you, this is so informative! One thing I used to do also was have the potential sitter come meet the dogs at home. This was the chance for the dogs to give their paw of approval when meeting the person. There were a couple who had great credentials and references but the dogs said 'no thanks' so we passed on them. ;-)

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Yes absolutely! Having a dog sitter who is open to getting to know you and your dogs is essential for your peace of mind as well as your dog's comfort. Thank you for reading!

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You're welcome, I'm enjoying reading the substack ;-)

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Thank you so much! I'm enjoying yours too ❤🐾

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