Elated Canine

We are so lucky to have the best clients around! Check out these kind words...

We often hear clients say, "But I just wanted to snuggle him at night. It's just easier for us to have them in our bed." While this is great for your comfort and ease, this can be part of the root cause of a host of issues. Helping your dog sleep on their own helps with learning independence and helping to thwart separation anxiety issues (this alone cannot fix the separation issue but it can certainly help). Has your dog ever growled when you moved them at night? Or refused to get off the bed when you told them to? That's an issue you likely won't need to address if your dog learned that their bed was the crate.

Having your dog sleep in a crate can also teach your dog they have a safe space and help crate training go smoothly from the start. What happens when your dog needs an overnight stay at the vet or boarding facility? If your dog has never been crated at night, they will cry, bark and potentially try to break out of the crate and have a very difficult time relaxing which can lead to needing to be medicated unnecessarily or getting kicked out of boarding facilities and I've seen it ruin family's vacations.

In general, crate training can help your dog be calmer, more independent and have a great spot for them to go when you need them out from under foot. It's never too late to start crate training your dog. Even older dogs and anxious dogs can benefit from crate training. Dogs with anxiety can usually be crate trained, but it can take a long time to make them comfortable and you might have to try a few different crate/kennel type options.

Reach out if you need help getting your dog crate trained, we would be happy to help guide you!

*Fun Fact*
It is a common myth that dogs can only see in black and white. They only have two cones in their eyes to detect colors, whereas humans have three. That means dogs see colors on a blue and yellow scale but cannot distinguish between red and green. On the other hand, they have better night vision than humans. Their eyes also take in information 25% faster than us, making them specially talented at catching a ball or frisbee.

Ever wonder why your orange chuckit ball gets lost in the grass and your dog simply cannot find it until they smell it? Now you know they cannot distinguish between red (orange) and green hues.

*Fun Fact*
A dog’s sense of smell is so sensitive that when he smells another dog, he can determine that dog’s gender, health, disposition, where the dog has been and what he has eaten.
A dog can sniff a tree and know what other animals are in the neighborhood. Smelling a human’s pant leg can tell him where that person lives and if he has dogs.
That keen canine nose enables a pup to locate his mother and her milk and distinguish her from other nursing mother dogs.
Read more here... https://rb.gy/oet5tr

What age is best to crate train your dog? ANY age but it's always easiest when you start from day 1. Dogs learn faster when the rules are set and upheld from day 1.

Almost all dogs when they first get adopted or purchased from a breeder will be sad when they are in the crate for bed on the first night home. Most people give in and bring the dog to their bed because they don't want to lose sleep. By doing this, you are setting the tone for your dog to cry to get let out of their crate. Only, the second night they are home you will get louder, longer cries because the crying they did the first night isn't working so they have to get louder and longer. It's called an extinction burst. They will lose it louder and longer each night until they realize that you aren't giving in, but sadly most people give in because they feel bad for their new addition.

Be consistent with the rules in the house from day one and you will set them up for success! Reach out if you need help with helping your dog with crate training, potty training or behavior. Don't wait until their behavior is so bad that you want to send them away. We are here to help!

We are so lucky to have the best clients around! Check out these kind words...

Researchers found those puppy dog eyes are not a sign of guilt but fear. In fact it is just the way we interpret a dog’s reaction to being scolded. If they eat every cookie in the house, they may look ashamed but don’t expect them to feel guilty as they don’t experience these emotions. Watch this video... https://youtu.be/B8ISzf2pryI

We have had an amazing first month in our new space! We are so proud of our big expansion that we are opening up more new classes and more spots in our day camp. We will be offering new exciting things that no one else offers very soon! Stay tuned for more details!

Please be patient while we get the space ready to roll, but in the meantime let’s get your dogs set up for the next round of classes or day camp! We are so very excited about this and can’t wait to see all the dogs that we get to meet and help transform into the best versions of themselves! Reach out with any questions. www.ElatedCanine.com

Elated Canine Elated Canine, LLC

Warning: small rant in defense of small birds that need big help from humans 💚🫵🏼
Most of you know me as a wellness veterinarian 👩‍⚕️, but I am also a wildlife biologist 👩🏻‍🌾 and licensed wildlife rehabilitator 🦅. This is one of my patients, who is sick because humans fed him cloudy, polluted nectar teeming with bacteria that eventually killed him 🧫😰.

I feel the same way about wildlife as I do domestic pets: it’s our responsibility to know enough to do no harm. When it comes to feeding wildlife, either do it right, or don’t do it at all. If you decide to feed hummingbirds, please do it correctly and responsibly, or you will kill them (and life is hard enough for our wild friends).

1. Do NOT use artificially colored store- bought hummingbird food 🛑❌. Commercial nectars have way too many preservatives, additives, chemical stabilizers and Red Dye #5 that’s harmful to their bodies 👎🏼.

Make your own nectar instead:

1 cup plain sugar + 4 cups boiling water (filter out the impurities)

(1:4 ratio means you can make smaller batches, like 1/4 cup sugar + 1 cup boiling water, if desired). Stir until sugar dissolves and let cool. Store in refrigerator and use up within a week.

❌ I love raw honey, but DON’T USE HONEY with hummingbirds 🍯👎🏼 (sugar is 50% fructose/50% glucose, honey is 40% fructose/30% glucose + other constituents, so it’s the wrong food matrix for them)

❌ I eat organic cane sugar, but DON’T USE ORGANIC SUGAR with hummingbirds👎🏼, it contains more minerals (like iron) that can bioaccumulate over time

2. Warm sugar water can quickly incubate incredible levels of pathogenic bacteria 🦠 and fungi that can infect and kill birds quickly 📈⚰️.The warmer the weather, the faster pathogenic microbes accumulate in nectar ☠️

Thoroughly disinfect and refill your hummingbird feeder twice a week in the spring. Above 85 degrees, clean and refill daily. (Yes, I said daily 😅) 🫗🧴🚰🧽🪣

Is this a complete pain? Yes. It’s also lifesaving and crucial, if you choose to feed hummingbirds. I spend 15 minutes a day taking care of my hummingbird feeders because I want the birds in my yard to not leave diseased and ill 🕊️.

I want to be a responsible steward of the wildlife in my yard. Please do the same, or simply enjoy them without feeding them. Plant hummingbird-friendly flowers 🌸. Better to keep them safe than inadvertently give them fatal food poisoning 💔.

*Fun Fact*
How far a dog smells depends on conditions such as wind and type of scent, but they have been reported to smell objects and people over 12 miles away. Dogs' olfactory systems work so well that they can be trained to pick up odors as little as a pictogram which is a trillionth of a gram. This ability to smell such tiny traces of a particular scent has allowed them to locate items buried as far as 40 feet underground and people who drowned in over 80 feet of water as well as follow a trail over a week old.

Read more here... https://rb.gy/oet5tr