Canadian Doodle Puppies

09/15/2025

09/15/2025

Darach's and Hadfield's boys at 3 weeks. Duckie is Darach's favourite toy and holds a special place in the puppy raising efforts, sharing a bed with the pups.

09/11/2025

09/01/2025

Barkley, Cedar, Willow, and Duckie. (One of these things is not like the others….)

08/28/2025

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250602-how-your-pets-alter-your-immune-system

Living with animals is thought to have profound effects on our immunity – potentially reducing the risk of allergies, eczema and even autoimmune conditions.

08/27/2025

Darach and Hadfield’s three boys. We’ve named them Cedar, Willow, and Barkley.

08/25/2025

Darach and Hadfield welcomed 3 sweet little boys on Saturday, August 22. Mom and pups are doing well!

08/24/2025

Puppy proofing your home is an ongoing task. Puppies focuses change over time, and keeping up is like trying to hit a moving target.

08/24/2025

Argh 😠 My dog is always barking/chewing/digging in the house!!

Lots of owners complain about dogs doing certain behaviours at home like barking, digging or chewing (and others). But these are all perfectly normal doggy behaviours.

These behaviours are not done out of being deliberately naughty, but are actually due to the dog being bored at home and not having their innate needs met. So many dogs are expected to deal with being home all day without any form of entertainment apart from a single walk, when we, in contrast, can barely go a minute without entertaining ourselves on our phones.

This resorts in what I call going 'self employed’. Because the dog doesn’t have a job or hobby given to them, they find one that is a normal behaviour for dogs, but their human doesn’t like. And, some of these behaviours may be more common in certain breeds, like a terrier digging.

So what can we do about it? 🤔

We can start with having empathy with for dogs. We can switch on the TV, go out, go on our phone, read a book etc. when we are bored, but our dogs rely on us for all forms of entertainment. So, understand they aren’t being naughty and they simply need us to offer them more appropriate stimulation.

What this more appropriate stimulation is will depend on your situation and your dog. For instance, if they are chewing, finding safe appropriate chews for them to have instead. If your dog is bred to do something specific, find an appropriate outlet for that behaviour you can get on board with, like a digging pit for your terrier so they don’t tear up the whole garden. You can also look at other activities you can do together outside the home such as agility, scentwork or trick training.

There may still sometimes be more to your dog’s behaviour, so it is always worth getting a qualified trainer in to ensure we aren’t missing anything more severe. However, there is never any harm in adding more interest and appropriate outlets into your dogs day as a starting point! And you never know, it may solve the issue entirely! 🤩

08/17/2025

I must be fully transparent and admit I didn’t make any attempt to validate the accuracy of this. However, I like to believe it is true and since there is no substantial harm in me doing so, I’m sharing…….