Thoughts and tales inspired by life with dogs, particularly those complex reactive dogs needing extra understanding
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This page holds links to favourite products we use with our dogs, or for educational purposes. Links may be Amazon Affiliate links, on which I may earn a small commission on purchases via those links.
We love these harnesses so much. With front and rear attachments to take a double ended lead, and the way mud brushes off so easily once it's dried, there is nothing I dislike about the Front Range. There are lots of colours available, they all look really smart and (most importantly) Finn finds them incredibly comfortable to wear.
The yellow 'Nervous' lead in the photo above is by Dexil and is great for letting people see from a little further away that he is a nervous dog, although it's no substitute for keeping an eye on people as often they won't notice!
With his harness we will often use a long line, just for safety so we can gather him in quickly if needed. While it's possible to use lunge lines made for horses they can get wet and heavy. Biothane lines are brilliant as after a wet muddy walk, a wipe with a cloth and they can go away ready for next time. We have this bright yellow 10 metre line as it's easy to see and gives the dog plenty of room to explore, as you can see in the video below.
These are currently one of our high value treats of choice, either turkey or salmon flavours being Finn's pick. I like to carry a range of different treats when we go out and having packs of pre-prepared treats that I can just grab and go makes life a lot easier. These treats also break up into smaller parts really easily (each treat is split into 2 halves down the middle, and they also break down again easily) meaning I can keep an eye on his calorie intake while still having treats to hand that he considers really high value. We will use these for counter conditioning to create pleasant associations with things he has found scary or for training cues in new and high distraction environments to keep his attention on the job in hand.
These are one of our 'standard' training treats, towards the higher end of value as far as Finn is concerned, so good for introducing new cues for the first time. It is possible to cut these treats into smaller pieces to keep the calorie count down during training.
Food enrichment is an easy way to add interest to our dogs' lives, and these puzzle games from Nina Ottosson are amazing. There are different levels of difficulty so we can start with something simple for the dog new to food enrichment puzzles and build up the difficulty slowly to avoid frustration.
This is a higher level toy, also from Nina Ottosson, which is great for my Border Collie - although we had to introduce him to it in stages, adding in each task separately to avoid his attempts at picking the whole thing up and shaking it to get the food out!
Finn has a tendency to bolt his food so, if we're not using an enrichment activity for his meal time, we use a slow feeder bowl to steady him a little, making the meal last a little longer and hopefully reducing the chances of him eating too fast and making himself sick.
Finn adores these beef jerky strips. With just one single ingredient, no additives or preservatives, I'm really happy knowing exactly what my dogs are eating.
These chicken, beef, and green tea chews are another popular choice in our house, and always get Finn's tail wagging when he sees me pick up the box. They also sell a range of treats and dog food in their Amazon store which is well worth checking out.
KONG food toys are amazing and something I recommend to anyone with a dog. Robust rubber with a hollow centre to stuff with food - and freeze to provide a cooking treat in the summer - they make easy enrichment options that can provide loads of entertainment for our dogs. The amount of available variety is only limited by our imagination with dog safe foods! They come in a range of options to suit individual dogs - check to make sure you are buying the right size of your selected type for the size of your dog:
They also have a great range of toys, several of which are on Finn's favourite list. He loves the Stretchezz, long toys with multiple squeakers which are fantastic for throwing around and furious shaking. We have both the Snow Leopard and the Tiger and he adores them both. One of his absolute favourites since puppyhood (we have had several as he went through a stage of destroying them) is his Cuteseas Octopus which is often his first pick for a game, closely followed by the Floppy Knots Hippo.
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