A calming Christmas
TV vet Pete Wedderburn gives us tips on keeping your dog calm at christmas
With refreshing insight, TV Vet Pete Wedderburn gives us a brand new look into helping your pet to cope – and enjoy – Christmas with you! Pete always shows us a unique viewpoint and some positive things you can do to keep your pet happy and calm this Christmas
“The festive season can be a stressful time for pets. Animals enjoy a regular routine – they like feeding, walking and sleeping to happen at predictable times. Over the Christmas period the routine is dramatically altered, and pets don’t always enjoy the change. Owners should be aware of their pets’ sensitivities, and should do as much as possible to make things easier for them over the two weeks of holiday time. A long walk every morning is a good idea, before the household is distracted with other activities.
If your pet does not have its own bed, you should give it one as a pre-Christmas present. Pets like to have a place of their own, where they know they will not be disturbed. This is especially important when there are lots of visitors and noise. The bed should be kept somewhere ‘out of the way’, such as under a table for a dog, or on top of a dresser for a cat. This provides an important sanctuary for a timid animal.
The pet’s meals should be given at the usual times throughout the holiday period, and there’s no need to give your pet roast turkey, cranberry sauce, Christmas pudding or brandy butter. Feed the same food as usual, with perhaps a few morsels of turkey to keep your conscience happy. A useful rule of thumb is that no more than 10% of any meal should be made up of treats. One of the most common reasons for emergency veterinary call outs over holiday period is digestive upsets caused by overindulgent owners who think that they are being kind to their pets.
Finally, if you want a good Christmas present for your dog, what about a DAP diffuser? Give it a day earlier, plugged in beside your pet’s bed, so that calming pheromones surround your furry friend on that busy Christmas morning”.
If you would like to read more from Pete’s refreshingly new perspective, you could always treat yourself to one of his brand new books
Competition
Yesterday’s winner of the awesome book Reaching The Animal Mind by Karen Pryor picked at random from yesterday’s comments was Julia Livesey, Congratulations!
and today…
What did you do to keep your pet happy last year? What are your plans for this year? For another chance to win one of Pete the vet’s brilliant books, leave a comment – or fan mail for the man himself, of course…!
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