All posts filed under: Pets

August Magazines Out Now!

Published by Angela Burgess

Our August magazines are being distributed today.  Each magazine (SE21, SE22 & SE23) is available to read as a flipzine on the right of this page.  Please do free free to share them with your friends and family. We know more and more businesses have now either opened or given the go-ahead to open, which is great news for the area.  The #eatouttohelpout scheme goes live on Monday 3 August and we have details of who is taking part in the area.  Click here. All our regular columnist have contributed to our August issues including Suzanne James working wonders with peaches.  Garden Talk with Janine Winlaw talks about plants adapted to climate change.  Leanne Spencer talks about exercise snacking.  Becca Teers has written a very interesting article on the cure for procrastination!  Pets Corner with Leonie St Clair highlights the lockdown and separation issues for pets and their owners. This is just a selection of what is in store for you in our community magazines.  Please do take time to look at our advertisers.  They …

Pets Corner: Biting puppies

Published by Leonie St Clair

In the course of lockdown there has been an enormous increase in puppy ownership. Every other call I have had has been from a new owner who is worried and confused by puppy biting.  They ask, is this normal? Surely it should not be this bad? Will I cope? I want to reassure as many new owners as possible that, yes, biting is normal, and, yes, it hurts. The solution involves a consistent and systematic approach by everyone interacting with your puppy. There can be no half measures if you want to nip puppy biting in the bud. Most pups will have had plenty of practice terrorising and roughing up litter mates. It is surprising how intense puppy play can be.  Using needle sharp teeth, pups explore the limits of play and inadvertently hurt each other. Once a pup is hurt, he may snarl and retaliate but often as not he will simply remove himself for a while and the ‘biter’ loses his playmate. Each pup learns very quickly if I want to play with …

Pets Corner: can a dog be too ‘friendly’?

Published by Leonie St Clair

The problem with over- friendly dogs and puppies is something I have written about before, however, with so many of you getting new pups, now feels a good time for a refresh. How can a dog ever be too friendly you ask? To be clear a friendly, relaxed outlook is great, we do not want nervous, uptight dogs and puppies. However, there is friendly and then there is rude, boorish, overbearing behaviour that is erroneously labelled as friendly. Dogs are intelligent enough but they are not capable of self-analysis or reflective thought. A dog is incapable of reasoning that their own behaviour might have caused another dog or person to respond to them in an aggressive manner. There lies the rub. Allow your dog or your puppy to impose itself uninvited onto other dogs and you run the risk of an unfriendly response which in turn may lead your dog to learn other dogs are unreliable, resulting in anxiety and possibly aggression down the line. Of course, some dogs may welcome interactions with most dogs …

Pets Corner: life in lockdown

Published by Leonie St Clair

Leonie St Clair writes Pets Corner for SE Magazines.  Read her latest article here: As I write this it is difficult to know for how much longer lockdown is to continue. A phased return to the workplace in June could still leave significant numbers facing isolation, although it is hoped that by high summer there may be some respite, if only until the autumn. In terms of the impact of the pandemic on pet owners, there has been plenty of online information.  From the government and other reputable sources about managing pets as well as the important fact that pets can carry the virus on their fur and paws, making regular hand washing after contact with your pet a must. Fortunately, dog walking has been viewed as essential exercise and many will have benefitted from this, not least the dogs. However, peering into the future, two possible consequences of lockdown are of particular concern for behaviourists. The first is in igniting or augmenting separation issues in dogs, the second is the impact on socialisation of …