Muttessori, LLC

Perfect Pearl went for a walk as a honorary representative for the Cheyenne Animal Shelter for their hike at Curt Gowdy State Park with F. E. Warren Air Force Base. She got to work on her walking skills, manners when meeting people and relaxing around dogs. Thank you for a wonderful morning and letting us join the Shelter dogs.

Good girl Pearl back at it again! She is 10-months old, full of s***k and loves to retrieve. Thanks for coming to learn and play Pearl!

Christmas Puppy in August!?!

Thank you to all of our lovely clients-we are fully booked for the 2024 Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We pride ourselves in keeping a low-stress boarding option. Thus we only take 2-3 groups of boarding clients at any given time, to ensure lots of time playing, training and not having to deal with the typical noisy kennels.

If you have travel plans, please reach out as early as you can to ensure your reservation.

We are still booking boarding/boarding and train outside of the howlidays.

Bow wow, meow and thanks Cheyenne!

Happy National Dog Day!!!

Post your dogs pictures below!!
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PPG for the win!

The Use of Shock - Position Statement - Pet Professional Guild Click on the pop-out icon ( ) in the top-right corner of the resource to open it in Google Drive. Click the download icon ( ) in the upper right-hand corner of the Google Drive page to save the resource to your computer.

Back to School!

School is quickly approaching again, can you believe it?!? As you and your children pack in as many end-of-summer activities as possible, your pet may also be enjoying their vacations with you, having fun with friends in boarding and lapping up the extra time they get with some of their favorite people. Summertime is a great opportunity to have your children take responsibility for some of those pet care chores such as scooping boxes or the yard, playtime and exercise. However, when they return to school and schedules change, pets may begin to experience the “Back-to-School Blues”. Instead of sleeping in, having some of those needs cared for by the children or extra cuddles, some of their favorite people might not have much time to focus on them as they rush out to the school bus. Change in routine can be difficult for a variety of pets, regardless of species or age.

We can prepare for this change in a variety of ways to avoid anxiety, reduce new unwanted habits arising and continue to keep a strong relationship between our children and pets!

Setting a New Routine, Transitionary: It can be hard if one day everything suddenly changes. We can start to prepare for our new routine by beginning a week or two before school starts! Setting bedtimes to the school year schedule, adapting our play, walk or exercise for morning and evening rather than mid-day and keeping consistency. If feeding needs to be adapted for the school year, now is the time to slowly shift mealtime.

Positive Association to Novel Items: If an animal has never experienced something, it can be a source of curiosity or of fear. If your child has a new backpack, is starting to play a new instrument, has taken up a new sport or has a new uniform, we can start to make positive associations with those now. Set out the new item, give praise, treats or other rewards and begin slow exposure. If the new Tuba means treats are coming, it won’t be as scary when the children are tooting away. Start with exposure paired with positive reinforcement in small doses and work your way up. You can always contact us if you would like guidance or resources for counterconditioning and desensitization.

Enrich their Lives!: More than 75% of the world's dogs are “free-roaming” (World Health Organization, 2022) whether they are owned or not. Most of the worlds’ cats are also free roaming. In the United States, the reality is that most of our pets are living in hyper-confinement compared to their free-roaming cousins. Many unwanted behaviors are perfectly natural for dogs or cats but may be troublesome for us such as digging, chewing, scratching, barking, pesky bathroom habits, wanting to hop the fence and go for a neighborhood stroll, etc. Providing healthy outlets for these behaviors helps to fill that natural need, while keeping our houses and neighborhoods safe. Provide your pet copious and various toys, provide opportunities for species or breed specific play, get them comfy furniture and give them brief training sessions to keep up on those great skills they learned playing with their kid’s that summer. Cats can also learn a ton of tricks with positive reinforcement!

Keep the Toxic Items out of Mouth’s Reach: Many of our favorite lunchbox snacks or school supplies can be toxic to our pets and most aren’t good for overall health. Keep lunch boxes, after school snacks and homework out of reach. 59% of US-owned dogs and 61% of US-owned cats are overweight or obese (Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, 2022) so we don’t want to accidentally contribute to weight gain by letting them into our children's snacks. With art supplies, the Art and Creative Materials Institute (AMCI) labels products AP-Approved Product or CL-Cautionary Label. Getting familiar with your supplies can help manage them around pets and kids to avoid accidental ingestion. A list of common pet toxic plant, food or other products can be found here: https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poisons/

We hope that your pets and children enjoy the 24/25 school year. If you are in need of assistance with your pets’ behavior, whether school-year related or not, please contact Muttessori, LLC.

Keep your pets up to date on their vaccines 💗

Did you know the Cheyenne region had an outbreak of Leptospirosis last summer? If your dog frequently interacts with livestock and wildlife, enjoys trips to dog parks, or stays at boarding facilities where standing water is common, they could be at a higher risk of contracting this bacterial disease. Leptospirosis is often spread through the urine of infected animals, but the good news is that it can be easily prevented with a simple vaccination!

To protect your favorite canine companion -and yourself- from Leptospirosis, be sure to consult your veterinarian for vaccine recommendations and check out the link in the comments below. Remember, keeping your pup healthy not only safeguards them but also contributes to a healthier community!

🛇 Use your Manners! 🛇
The Sniff test - Stop doing that!
The sniff test - a badly engrained habit that society has been taught, without a clear understanding of what they're actually doing.

🚩When you reach out towards a dog, you are using body pressure AT them, giving them no time to assess whether you are safe & whether they require further investigation to pick up your information. You are forcing an interaction of a relationship that hasn't had time to develop. To some dogs, this is quite rude & the reason a lot of dogs snap at or bite people. This can cause alot of behavioral issues because of layered stress due to forced interactions.

🚩If they are on lead, they have no where to go if they are sensitive to spacial pressure, so can end up shutting down, shying away or snapping at your hand so you back off. This is an example of how a dog is now using pressure to turn off pressure & make you back off so they aren't so stressed.

🚩People think by offering your hand it can give the dog time to sniff to know you're friendly... they can sniff without being forced to sniff your hand.Their noses are far more superior than ours & they don't need close contact forced upon them to smell you.

🚩Some dogs might not want to know you. You have no relationship with them and that's perfectly fine. They aren't your dog so you don't need to touch them or steal pats for your own satisfaction.

🤔 If you are meeting a dog, what should you do?
⚠Ask the owner if you can interact with their dog. Not all people want strangers touching their dogs. Especially strangers who you are unlikely to see again.
⚠Stand up straight & relaxed, with your hands at your side.
⚠Ignore the dog & talk to the owner.
⚠Don't stare at the dog & don't try to force an interaction by going in for a pat. If the dog wants to know you, it will come up to you & sniff around. Usually they will move away & then come back for a second sniffathon. Some dogs will bunt your hands & wag their tails, which are good signs that you're likely an accepted new friend. Give them a few slow pats down their back (NOT THEIR HEAD) & then stop. Is the dog happy? Has it accepted your interaction? This will determine whether you can give it more pats.

🐶This is a more stress free option for dogs & a reason why in consultations we can develop a good level of trust, especially with fearful dogs & aggressive dogs, without a bunch of negative side effects from forced interactions.

Microchips save lives 💗

Missing dog found 2,000 miles from home RIVERTON — Dogs are humankind’s best friends, our first and oldest companions and teammates. When a dog goes missing, communities often pull together to try to find them — but

Food for thought

Board and Train Enzo came to us from Colorado. Welcome to Wyoming Enzo!