Green Acres Kennel Shop

We have a new product from Nylabone which is causing us some concern. It's called the Nylabone Dura Chew and it consists of a shaped piece of nylon (see photos) with little red bumps on the surface (see below). It is labeled for "Powerful Chewers" but we have had clients return them because their dogs were easily able to break this toy apart. Inside are small plastic parts which could be ingested. While the company has not recalled this product we have removed it from our shelves. If you purchased this product from Green Acres we encourage you to bring it back for a full refund.
 If you purchased it eslewhere, we suggest you contact them to determine how they are handling this product.

From Our Friends at the Bangor Humane Society

Helping to Reduce the Number of Unwanted Pets - Low Income Spay / Neuter Program

Monday, February 6, 2012 – An estimated 6-8 million homeless animals enter animal shelters throughout theU.S. every year. The Bangor Humane Society alone takes in over 5,000 animals a year. Two-thirds of those animals are cats. That is why the Bangor Humane Society is thrilled to announce that due to the generosity of the Belvedere Animal Welfare Fund of the Maine Community Foundation, and from other generous local foundations, a Spay/Neuter Voucher Program for low-income cat and dog owners opens on February 6, 2012.

This program is available to anyone who receives or is eligible for Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability (SSD), or Maine Care (Medicaid).  Starting on Monday, February 6^th, they can call 942-8902 to apply and then, if qualified; receive a voucher that they can use at participating veterinary practices.  For an average co-pay of $20 for male cats and $30 for female cats; $25 for male dogs and $40 for female dog (cost does not include additional fees that may be required by participating veterinarians) their pets can be spayed or neutered and receive a rabies shot.  The low-income spay/ neuter grant funds received by BHS will cover the remaining cost.

“The increased availability of spay/neuter will help to reduce the number of unwanted litters surrendered to animal shelters”, said Suzan Bell, Executive Director of the Bangor Humane Society. 

Last year BHS accepted 480 owner-relinquished dogs and 390 stray dogs.  During the same time it accepted 3,032 owner-relinquished cats and 597 stray cats.  Many of the dogs, and most of the cats, would not have arrived at BHS if owners had sterilized their pets.  In fact, many of the cats arrived at BHS pregnant or with a litter of kittens.

The funds available for the BHS program are limited and not expected to last more then a couple of months.  Last year, the BHS spay/neuter funds were able to assist over one hundred applicants, but almost 100 more names were put on a waiting list. 

Here are some of the facts about spaying and neutering:

• One female cat and her offspring can produce over 420,000 cats and kittens in seven years.
• One female dog and her offspring can produce over 67,000 dogs and puppies in six years.
• Neutered male dogs and cats are less likely to spray or mark their territory with urine than their unaltered counterparts.  They are also less likely to run away from home in search of a willing mate.
• A female kitten can get pregnant as early as 4 ½ months of age.
• It often costs less to have a pet spayed or neutered than to raise a litter of puppies or kittens to eight weeks of age.
• The Bangor Humane Society spays & neuters all pets before adoption into a new home. 

In addition to the grant funding, BHS is also implementing some other spay/neuter programs to help reduce the number of unwanted pets, available to assist those individuals in the community that do not qualify for the voucher program. BHS has contracted with local veterinarians to host a monthly feline spay/neuter clinic at the shelter. The clinic can accommodate a minimum of 40 felines per month and charges $25 per male cat and $50 per female cat. The clinic is cash only. For an additional fee, felines can also receive their rabies shot, flea and ear mite treatment, and nail clipping. Interested individuals can contact BHS for more details. Space is extremely limited and we have a waiting list through March.

Lastly, BHS is launching a new initiative called, “Spay Your Mama” available for female canine owners. If an owner’s female dog has recently had a litter of puppies, the Bangor Humane Society will spay the mom for nominal fee, if the owner surrenders the puppies for adoption. The mom dog will be returned to the original owner for a $50 reclaim fee, while the puppies are spayed or neutered and placed for adoption.

The community need for sustainable spay/neuter programs is vast and ongoing.  “The need is great (and increasing) in our region for low income spay / neuter programs, but the resources available through BHS, the State of Maine Animal Welfare program and other agencies are limited,” says Bell.

Each year the BHS cares for and works to find forever homes for more than 5000 homeless pets.  The Bangor Humane Society is an independent, non-profit organization, funded by local contributions and donations.  Finding safe homes for animals is not just our mission here at the Bangor Humane Society, it’s our tradition, and we thank the community for helping us accomplish this goal each day.

The objective of BITE INHIBITION is to teach your dog to have a gentle bite that does not hurt, if he ever makes mouth contact with you or any other person.

Punishing the dog for biting and teaching “No Bite” just suppresses behavior, while teaching bite inhibition teaches what we want. Suppressed behaviors often return in a violent manner.

No matter how much training you do and how gentle your dog is, under certain circumstances any dog can be provoked to bite. Biting is an act of defense for a dog; it is a very instinctual response. There are a variety of reasons that a dog may bite and contrary to popular belief, few bites are committed by “aggressive” dogs. Humans have really done a great disservice to dogs by expecting them to like absolutely everyone and every other dog they encounter in their lifetime. We also require that our dogs be the embodiment of peace and never get angry, afraid or aggress for either reason. How many of us can truly say that we have never disliked someone or responded to a situation with anger or fear?

All dogs have what is referred to as a bite threshold. A bite threshold can be either low, high or anywhere in between and is individual for every dog. The best way to think of this threshold is to equate it to the “snapping point” in people. Some individuals are more tense and quicker to react in a situation than others. Virtually everything going on in the world around them will contribute to where a dog is at that given moment in time in relation to their bite threshold.

Hypothetically, a dog with a very high threshold (less reactive) who is well socialized, well fed, well rested and just kicking back around the house playing a bit and being petted will typically be unlikely to bite the mailman, unless the simple presence of the mailman puts this dog over threshold. The same dog, that is hungry, tired from all of the company that has been visiting, whose routine has been completely thrown out of whack and who has a headache, would be more likely to bite that same mailman. All of these factors play into where the individual dog is at on the continuum. As humans, this should be pretty easy to understand; if we have had a bad day and have a headache, we tend to be grumpier than usual. With this in mind, we believe that it is important to first help a dog learn to inhibit their bites before we work on teaching them to not bite at all. The ultimate goal is that if your dog is ever put in a situation where he/she feels a need to defend itself, it will inflict only a minimal amount of damage.

Bite Inhibition

Many of the old-fashioned traditional methods used to teach puppies not to bite, ones that we discourage you from using, include scruff shakes, cuffing the puppy under the chin, pinching their lips against their teeth and even the infamous “alpha wolf rollover.” Often people find that when using these methods the puppy either bites harder or becomes fearful of handling and hands around its face and mouth. Either way, aggression on our part results in more aggression from the puppy. The method described below works very differently. With this method you can minimize biting and any damage if your dog should ever be placed in a situation where it feels it has no choice but to bite.

Your puppy, even at its young age, has strong jaws and sharp teeth. As your puppy matures, its jaws will only become more powerful. An adult dog has jaws and teeth that are fully capable of ripping apart a carcass and cracking bones. Dogs developed such well-built apparatus because they needed them to survive in the wild.

Dogs are very social animals and because their jaws are such an incredible and potentially dangerous weapon, they have created a ritualized form of aggression to prevent serious injury to one another during altercations. Every puppy is born knowing how to bite; yet they do not automatically know how to bite softly. They can however learn to bite softly through their interactions with other puppies, dogs and us.

When we see a litter of puppies playing, we see them exploring one another with their paws and their mouths. This play is fun for the puppies, but it is also an important part of learning. Much of their play looks as though they are fighting and biting at one another. This play is part of how they acquire the skills necessary for ritualized aggression.

While puppies are playing with one another, they are also learning bite inhibition - how to control the strength of their bite. When two puppies are wrestling and one bites the other too hard, the puppy that has been bitten will yelp and move away from the biting puppy, stopping play. The puppy that did the biting has just learned that if he bites too hard, his littermate stops playing with him. Eventually the one that was bitten too hard will return to play and the biting puppy will have learned to have a softer mouth. When we take a puppy away from its litter, we also are removing it from a school where it learns much about bite inhibition. If taken into a home without other dogs, and if its new people do not allow play biting, the puppy will no longer have opportunities to learn how to inhibit its bite. This is a huge issue for puppies that are taken from mom and the litter prior to reaching eight weeks of age.

Unfortunately, many dog-training books actively discourage play biting. They infer that if the dog is allowed to play bite it will think of you as a littermate and will try to dominate you. This is nonsense. Play biting is an important part of your puppy’s development and something that should be allowed and encouraged if you want your puppy to develop a soft mouth. Our goal is to teach the puppy to inhibit this natural canine behavior before they are adults and can cause serious injury.

Teaching Bite Inhibition

When teaching bite inhibition, you want to initially target the hard bites. Setup a play area for yourself and the puppy. Make sure that there is absolutely nothing in this area that the puppy can play with other than you. No other people, dogs, toys or anything they can mouth. Play with your puppy allowing him to mouth your hands while monitoring the pressure of his bites.

1. When the puppy bites too hard, say “yipe” or “ouch” as if he really hurt you. This word will become the conditioned stimulus which the puppy learns to mean “playtime ends.” Note: you want to use the same word every time, as does everyone else in the family. Some puppies may be overly stimulated by a "yelp" so you may need to tone down the volume or the frequency.
2. Immediately stop play and get up and leave the room for 1 minute. You must completely ignore the puppy. Do NOT look at, touch or speak to the puppy, just walk away. Make sure the puppy has no toys or other people they can interact with. We are teaching the puppy that when they bite too hard their friends leave and ALL of the fun in the universe comes to a screeching halt.
3. After 1 minute return and resume play. If the puppy eventually bites too hard again (and he most likely will), repeat steps 2 and 3.

The above cycle will need to be repeated several times for the puppy to learn. Every day or so you will reduce the amount of pressure you tolerate so that in time your puppy learns that you have very soft skin and he can only mouth you very gently. Think of this like the 1 to 10 pain scale used by doctors. On day one you yelp at 10, day two at 9, and so on. Be careful of moving to a soft pressure too quickly. If your criteria are too high, you are setting your puppy up to fail.

Some puppies will follow you and nip at your heels and clothes when you stop play. If this is the case, the bite inhibition exercises should be done with the puppy on a leash. The other end of the leash is secured around something so the puppy cannot follow you.

The amount of time it takes your dog to learn how much pressure is okay will vary from dog to dog. The retrieving breeds generally pick this up quite quickly as they have been bred to have very soft mouths. Who wants to have their duck brought back all full of holes. On the flip side, it may take a bit more time to help your terrier become soft-mouthed.

Children should not participate in the bite inhibition training. While children and dogs often become the best of friends, young children frequently send dogs all the wrong signals. They scream, flail their limbs, run and fall down. All of these behaviors trigger your dogs hard-wired prey drive as they are essentially the same thing wounded prey would do. If the puppy gets too revved up, a timeout is necessary for both the puppy and the kids.

NOTE: If bite inhibition training was not started when your dog was a puppy, it may not work as well as you would like. If this is the case, please talk with one of the instructors for other ideas on handling biting issues.

OBJECTIVE: To learn how to manage your dogs chewing behavior.

While a puppy may chew more during the teething stage, chewing is a very normal behavior for dogs of all ages. They do it out of pleasure; they do it to pass the time; they do it to relieve stress and they do it to exercise their jaws and teeth. We need to allow our puppies and dogs to have an outlet for natural behaviors such as chewing. It is our responsibility to provide them with things that they can chew on and to help them learn that they are only to chew on their specified chew toys.

Dogs have no way knowing the difference between a chew toy and a cell phone or favorite stuffed animal.  While we can easily discriminate between chew toys and things not to be chewed, our dogs cannot. Dogs do not understand that a pair of shoes represents a $150 chew toy; they just know the shoes are available and are a pretty good chew. Consider all the items in your home that your dog is NOT allowed to chew in contrast to the number of things he is allowed to chew. Is it any wonder our dogs guess wrong some of the time?

Given the way a puppy works, we need to start training him early on as to what items he can chew. We need to get him addicted to his chew toys! The first step is to restrict your puppy’s access to anything but his chew toys, unless he is actively supervised. This keeps your belongings and your puppy safe. Sometimes dogs chew things that result in serious injury or illness. This means you need to keep your puppy in his crate or a puppy-proof room when he cannot be supervised. Adequate supervision means a responsible adult is devoting ALL of their attention to supervising the puppy.

The 3 key steps to chew training are:

1. Get your dog some suitable chew toys and get him to like them. There are four broad types of chew toys; natural chews like rawhide and bully sticks, man-made hard chews made to simulate a bone, man-made soft chews like rope toys and toys made of softer rubbers and plastics, and toys that dispense treats and in doing so provide your dog with some mental stimulation.

Natural Chews

Our favorite in this category is the Bully Stick. It is an all natural chewing alternative made from a tendon from a steer. Unlike rawhide, your dog is unlikely to swallow too large a piece of the Bully Stick, and with most dogs they last a substantial amount of time. We occasionally use rawhide but are always very particular about the rawhide we choose. Rawhide is not naturally white/beige. It is normally brown and only becomes lighter colored after a great deal of chemical processing. For this reason we prefer to only use rawhide that is manufactured in the USA. We always supervise the dogs when they are given bully sticks or rawhide to make sure that they do not try to swallow more than they should. These types of chews are edible, but intake should be limited.

Man-made hard chews

These are probably the most common chew toys for dogs and often the most durable. Our favorite in this category are the Nylabone^Ò products. They come in various sizes, flavors and degrees of hardness for the puppy and adult dog that is a voracious chewer. Many Nylabone^Ò products also help keep your dog’s teeth and gums clean and healthy. If your dog lacks enthusiasm toward his Nylabone^Ò, try sanding the surface gently with some fine sandpaper. This will help release the flavor. Another alternative is to drill some holes in the bone that you fill with peanut butter.

Man-made soft chews

The Nylabone^Ò Flexichew falls in this category as does the Booda Bone, many of the orbee-tuff products. Basically these are any soft toys the dog can chew with supervision. Remember, because they are soft you dog will be able to destroy them with less effort. They may not be appropriate for voracious chewers, even when supervised.

Treat dispensing chew toys

The toys in this category not only give your dog something to chew, they can keep him very busy. The granddad in this category is The Kong^Ò. Made of a hard, natural rubber and available in different sizes, their unique shape makes them bounce in an unpredictable manner, and their hollow center allows them to be stuffed with goodies. A Kong^Ò stuffed with various size pieces of dog biscuit, kibble, or carrot can keep your dog busy and out of trouble. Other toys in this category include the Premier twist ‘n treat™ and Busy Buddy® and the Planet Dog Orbee-Tuff^Ò line. The Planet Dog products are guaranteed for life.

No matter what toy or toys you choose, show your dog you are interested in them. Play with them and he too will start to show an interest.

2. Prevent your dog from learning it is acceptable to chew things other than his toys

• Make sure your dog is confined in his crate or in a puppy-proof room unless you can keep him under 100% supervision.
• When he starts to chew something he is not supposed to, redirect him to one of his chew toys. Praise him when he chews his toy. Do not bring more attention to the dog by scolding him for chewing an inappropriate item.
• If your puppy chews things such as cords, try spraying them with a product such as BitterÒ Apple or Bitter YUCK!™. These products have a very bitter taste which 99% of dogs find objectionable. Once the dog chews on a treated item, it will stop chewing because it tastes so bad. We do sell two brands because some dogs amazingly like the taste of this stuff.

 3. Once your dog is doing well, start to give him more access to your home while continuing to keep him under close supervision. If he starts chewing something he is not supposed to chew, trade him for a chew toy. Now that he has been trained to know what he can chew it will be easier to redirect his attention.