(plus CPR/First Aid Class Offering!)

The holiday season brings a bevvy of joy, fun, and training opportunities with our dogs! It also brings some potential hazards. Prepare now to make the holiday season joyful and merry and keep your dog safe and healthy.

Want to know MORE about keeping your dog safe and healthy? We are hosting an 8-hour training on pet first aid, CPR, and preventative care with Jim Helems on Dec. 3 & 4, 2024 from 10 AM to 2:30 PM in Huntington, MA. Cost is just $135. Earn your pet CPR and first aid certificate. Contact us to register.

Foods – The Good, the Bad, and the Too Much!

Good (Safe) Foods

Holiday leftovers can make great training treats! Just make sure that all the ingredients — and the quantities — are safe for your dog. You also want to make sure the WAY you treat is conducive to good training. Here are some considerations. Use small amounts if these are not foods your dog is used to eating, or if your dog might gain too much weight.

• Plain meats like chicken, turkey, roast beef or pork roast are great for dogs. Feed the muscle (meat) and not the fat. Feeding too much fat in a short period can lead to an acute attack of pancreatitis. If the meat was cooked with a lot of salt (including if it was “broth enhanced” before purchase) or if it was cooked with spices, onions or garlic, use limited amounts and try to take meat from the inner parts that were less likely to be salted or spiced.
• Pumpkin – plain pumpkin, canned pumpkin
• Sweet potatoes – plain sweet potatoes, canned sweet potatoes
• Most cooked vegetables (see exceptions below), including carrots, green beans, broccoli, squash, zucchini, etc., that are plain or cooked with only small amounts of butter, oils, spices, or salt

Hot Tip! Remember that HOW you deliver the food to your dog will affect what they learn (i.e., training).

Set aside tasty tidbits and use for a training session or as a reward for good behavior AFTER the meal. Or, if you have your dog crated, gated away from visitors, or lying on their mat while you eat, you can periodically toss a treat to them or place it in their confinement area as a reward for being calm and quiet.

Guests might like to sneak your dog a treat from their plate. This might be unsafe, or it might promote “naughty” habits like jumping up or begging. Keep your guests and your dog on your “nice” list by having your dog tethered, gated, or crated away from the table with a relaxing chew. Prevention promotes Peace On Earth! (See below for more tips.)

Bad (Unsafe foods)

• Xylitol (an artificial sugar) is deadly poisonous to dogs. Before feeding your dog any packaged/prepared foods, check the ingredients list! It is listed under these names: Birch sugar, wood sugar, sugar alcohol, artificial sweetener, birch bark extract, E967, Meso-Xylitol, Xylit, Xylo-pentane-1,2,3,4,5-pentol, (2R,3R,4S)-Pentane-1,2,3,4,5-pentol.
• To be on the safe side, avoid any foods not intended for dogs that have unknown or unnamed ingredients. The fewer ingredients, the better.
• Yeast-containing raw dough (bread dough, etc.). Raw dough that contains yeast may expand in the dog’s stomach, leading to a very dangerous condition called “bloat” (gastric dilatation and volvulus).
• Fatty foods (chicken skin, oils, nut butters, fatty meat, etc.) — too much at once can cause pancreatitis, an acute attack of vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms that can require a trip to the vet
• Alcohol or marijuana/cannabis (edibles, etc.)
• Avocado
• Citrus (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit)
• Chocolate
• Coconut, coconut oil, and macadamia nuts
• Coffee or other foods containing caffeine
• Foods containing a lot of preservatives, dairy, or salt
• Grapes (including raisins, wine, or wine vinegars)
• Onions, garlic, leeks, and other alliums
• Spicy foods (pepperoni, salami, curry, salsa, etc.) – spicy foods often cause diarrhea

If you think your dog may have eaten something dangerous, contact the closest veterinary emergency hospital or the ASPCA Poison Control Hotline at 888-426-4435.

Too Much!

“Everything in moderation” is a good watchword when it comes to foods that are safe, but may be new for your dog. Make sure your dog tolerates a small amount. If so, after a few hours or the next day, you can feed a little more. The most important foods to use caution with are those that may contain salt, spice, dairy, or excess fat.

It is also important not to overfeed in general! There is a tendency among those of us who use food to train our dogs to overfeed. This is easy to do when training with food, and even more challenging with small dogs or very food-motivated dogs. However, it is very unhealthy for your dog. For details about how to keep your dog healthy while using food for training, please see our recent post, Maintaining Your Service Dog’s Ideal Weight.

Holiday Decor Hazards

Holiday decorations can pose many hazards to dogs. Certain festive plants are poisonous, and trees, garlands, and associated trimmings can cause problems, too. Read on to learn how to keep your dog safe this season.

Holiday Plants Dangerous to Dogs

Holiday plants that are toxic to dogs include holly and mistletoe, amaryllis, poinsettias, lilies, azaleas (often included in bouquets and arrangements). Christmas trees pose several risks, too, which we have outlined below.

Christmas Tree Cautions

• Tree water – Many dogs are attracted to the water at the base of a natural tree. Drinking this water can be highly dangerous, due to pesticides, mold, and bacteria that can easily accrue. If you have a natural tree, make sure that your dog cannot get to the tree water.
• Tinsel – Tinsel easily falls off the tree and gets everywhere. A curious dog may lick it up, where it can get wrapped around your dog’s tongue or get stuck in the stomach, leading to a blockage and emergency surgery. Forego use of tinsel or put it high on the tree and make sure to sweep up any spilled tinsel.
• Fragile or glass ornaments – Ornaments can look like balls or toys to dogs. Broken glass or plastic shards are a hazard to paws, mouths, and internal organs if swallowed. Keep fragile ornaments up high, and prevent access to the tree when you can’t supervise closely.
• Pine needles – If swallowed can cause irritation to the digestive tract. The pine oils in the needles can lead to vomiting and drooling. If your dog has a curious mouth, consider a fake tree or block your dog’s access to the tree when you’re unable to supervise closely.
• Food ornaments – It should probably go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: It’s a bad idea to use food decorations on your tree if you have a dog, especially a highly food-motivated dog. Popcorn or cranberry garlands, chocolate, or salt-dough (paste/play-dough) ornaments can tempt your dog, leading to destruction of the tree and a possible ER trip for your dog.

Because Christmas trees pose a number of dangers to our canine family members, preventing your dog from free access to the tree is very important. There are a number of ways to do this. Which option you choose will depend on your unique situation.

Management Tips

• Gate or pen your tree. If you want to give your dog free-range, you can put your tree behind an x-pen or gate off the tree room from the rest of the house.
• Crate, pen, or tether your dog. Keep your dog confined when in the same room as the tree, or confine your dog to other areas of the house.
• If you are in the room with your dog and able to supervise closely, you can remove the barriers to enjoy a less-cluttered look, and put them back up when you can’t supervise. If you think your attention may wander, attach your pup’s leash to your belt so she doesn’t sneak over to the tree when you’re not looking.
• If you have kids or will have children visiting, two layers of management is the best bet. For example, put a pen around the tree and also have the door shut to the tree room. Kids aren’t always able to follow rules about shutting the door every time, and dogs ramp up the energy level and require more attention.

Which management approach makes the most sense for your household? Some of the variables include…

Age of your dog: Puppies, adolescents, and young adult dogs are more likely to want to investigate, chew, play with, and bite everything they find.

How many dogs you have: It’s much easier to use a crate or pen to manage one dog than several. If you have a multi-dog household, it’s probably makes more sense to manage the environment instead by blocking the tree itself with a pen and/or keeping the doors to the tree-room shut when you can’t supervise.

How playful, energetic, or curious your dog is. A sedate, inhibited dog with little interest in play or chewing will be easier to manage.

How food- and water-motivated your dog is. A dog who thinks all food items should be swallowed, or that even non-food items MIGHT be ingestible is much more of a danger to itself than a dog who doesn’t care to eat much that is not clearly a dog biscuit.

Training Tip! Train your dog to “chill” around the holiday tree!

Has your service-dog-in-training been learning to “go settle” on a mat or “leave it” with distractions? The Christmas tree is a training opportunity.

Most of the time, use management (see tips above) to keep your dog safely away from the tree. However, when you want to enjoy both dog and tree unfettered, together, put your dog’s mat at your feet. Train your dog to settle on the mat while you periodically drop treats (and praise) onto the mat. When you leave the room, pick up the mat and bring your dog with you. If your dog is not yet reliable with duration in a down-stay or “go settle,” tether your dog to the sofa leg for extra management. (Video on how to get started training Go Settle with your SDiT puppy.)

If your dog is doing well with “leave it” in other contexts, transfer the concept to the tree by stretching the “zen field” from the treat to the tree. (Here is a video of that process I posted on Facebook a few years ago. For more understanding of the concepts, read the discussion in the comments of the Facebook post.) First, use a treat as the “leave it” item away from the tree. Mark and reward for staying away from the treat on the floor. Then move the treat closer to the tree, teaching your dog to move away from the treat when you say “leave it.” Finally, put the treat right next to the tree, rewarding your dog for moving away from the treat/tree when you say “leave it.” Lastly, get rid of the treat and just say “leave it” when your dog looks at or moves to the tree.

Combine both skills. When your dog moves toward the tree, say leave it, then point to the mat and tell your dog to go settle. Reward heavily! Good dog! (But don’t rely on this training in the early stages, especially when you’re not present!)

Kids and Visitors

How do you feel about holiday visitors? Fun? Exciting? Stressful? Anxiety-provoking? Dogs often feel similarly! Visitors are different from the norm, meaning some dogs will find them fun and exciting, others will find them stressful, and most dogs will find it both, depending on the moment.

Help Your Dog Behave and Relax around Visitors

Give your dog optimal exercise and wind-down time BEFORE visitors arrive. The optimal amount of exercise leaves your dog nicely tired and relaxed. Too little means your dog is still rarin’ to go. Too much leaves your dog adrenalized and hyped up. Most dogs need about half an hour to wind down after exercise, but for very vigorous or exciting exercise, your dog may need more wind-down time.

Prepare engaging enrichment before visitors arrive. Frozen Kongs or Toppls filled with your dog’s daily food portion, along with some delicious extras can keep them quiet and stationary and away from visitors for periods of time. Make sure your dog already knows how to work a frozen toy before you provide it. A Lickimat can also be filled and frozen ahead. If your dog takes a while to finish a bully stick or raw meaty bone, these may also work. NOTE: If your dog has any tendency to guard objects or chews, make sure they are behind two layers of management, such as in a crate inside a room with a closed door, when visitors are present. It is too easy for a visitor to wander too close or open a closed door looking for the bathroom or coat room. This goes double for visiting children!

Set up your dog AWAY from the door when visitors arrive. The ideal is often a distant bedroom with a chew, a white noise machine, and possibly inside a crate or pen, depending on the dog.

If you want your dog to meet guests, wait until all guests have arrived and sat down. When people first arrive is the most exciting time. Once the hubbub has died down and everyone is settled on the couch or at the table, bring your dog in on-leash to say hello. If your dog really loves to greet people, let your dog say hi to people one at a time. Have treats ready to drop on the floor during greeting to help your dog keep its paws on the floor (when his nose is down, he’s less likely to jump up). Ask your guests to pet with one hand only and to keep their greetings low-key so as not to overstimulate your dog. Once the greetings are over, guide your dog to their crate, a settle mat, or keep them tethered to you until they have really settled. Use treats to help them focus. Even the most social dog can feel overwhelmed by too many long greetings. Give your dog time to assimilate the experience.

If your dog is friendly but does not LOVE to meet people, do not allow your guests to approach. Instead, allow her to decide whom she wants to meet, keep the greeting very short, use treats to keep it positive, and then help your dog settle a distance away.

Children & Dogs at the Holidays

If your household includes kids or you will have children visiting, these steps will help make the holiday safe, fun, and peaceful. All of the management tips above should be used for kids and dogs, but some additional steps will provide an easier holiday experience for all.

Have one (or more) responsible adult assigned to watch children. Have another responsible adult assigned to the dog(s). Dog-and-kid interactions should be closely monitored at the best of times. When visiting kids or dogs join the scene, the chance for chaos or unsafe behavior increases. It’s an unfortunate reality that 77 percent of dog bites occur with a family or friend’s dog. Children are the most likely people to be bitten, with boys aged five to nine at the highest risk.

Keep dogs and kids separate and constructively engaged away from each other (except for carefully monitored and orchestrated one-at-a-time interactions). Use of “stations” for both dogs and kids can help, i.e., the “kid room” (no dogs allowed) where kids are doing arts and crafts or watching a video, and “the dog crate room” (no kids allowed) where dogs are crated and enjoying a bone.

Watch for signs of stress in dogs — and even better, help kids to be “doggy detectives” by teaching them to read dog body language before the holidays! Dogs communicate with us all the time, but since we don’t know how to “speak dog” we have to be able to hear their whispers of distress before they become shouts (growls, snaps, and bites). For example, dogs show great stress by doing several of these behaviors in a row: licking lips, showing the whites of their eyes, yawning, freezing, moving away, looking away, suddenly scratching or licking themselves, pinning back ears or tucking in tail. Kids can learn dog body language through a variety of sources, including the beautifully illustrated Doggie Language by Lili Chin (it makes a great gift!) or videos like this.

Beware of “trigger stacking.” Dogs who normally are relaxed and comfortable may become stressed by too many exciting or stressful things happening over the course of hours or even days. Dogs may actually get crankier with guests a few days into a visit because they have “had enough.” This is an important reason to keep things slow, controlled, and use more separation than you may think you need.

Prepare for Fireworks Season (New Year’s Eve)

While we tend to think of July 4 as fireworks season, many people also set off fireworks around Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Keep your dog indoors — or use a well-fitted harness and leash for potty breaks. Even calm, confident dogs may panic and bolt at an unexpected firework explosion nearby. If your dog takes medication for anxiety or noise sensitivity, make sure you have some on-hand, and use it ahead of time if you know there will be fireworks. Sometimes, a pressure wrap (such as a ThunderCoat) can also help. An interior room, without windows, and white noise, can also help dogs feel more comfortable. Close the curtains, snuggle up on the couch with dog treats for your pup (and popcorn for you?) and watch a loud (but happy, not violent) movie with your dog to help drown out the outdoor booms and pops.

We hope you and your dog have a fun, joyful, and beautiful holiday season. If you’re training your own service dog and would like kind, helpful, knowledgeable support in your service-dog-training journey, please check out our classes, watch our video on how to get started with owner-training a service dog, or get in touch. We’re happy to help!

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