Holiday Safety Tips

The holiday season is a time to spend with family and friends. That often includes the four-legged ones. Unfortunately there are many harmful things associated with the holidays as well. The tips we are listing are for all dogs and puppies, not just service dogs or puppies in training.

Decorations

Lots of people like to decorate for the holidays but here are a few things to keep in mind if you are a pet owner. Before setting up a Christmas tree, think about where in your house to put it where you can both enjoy it and keep your dog/puppy safe. Ornaments can be very attractive to puppies or dogs, and not just cloth ones. Cloth and plastic ornaments can cause intestinal obstructions if ingested. Glass ornaments can cause lacerations in the GI tract if pieces are ingested, and yes dogs are crazy enough to chew glass ornaments. Tinsel can also be very attractive and is dangerous if ingested. Christmas light cords can also cause life threatening injuries if chewed. Dogs also like to drink out of the tree stand, so be very careful about putting additives to your tree's water, as some can be toxic to dogs. If you have a young puppy or even an older dog that likes to grab things other than their toys, consider putting your tree in a room you can prevent your dog from entering. You can also set up a pen around the tree. Also as beautiful as Poinsettia plants are, they are also toxic if ingested. Keep them out of reach or consider fake ones.

Holiday food and treats

Many people love to bake yummy treats for the holidays, and they smell great to dogs as well as people. Make sure to keep your goodies out of reach of your puppy or dog, and remember, some things can be very hard to resist even to dogs who normally don't take things from the counter. Baking items that are toxic to dogs are chocolate (the higher percent of cocoa the more dangerous it is, with baker's chocolate being the most dangerous), raisins, and macadamia nuts. If you plan on gifting baked goods or boxed chocolate to friends and family as a wrapped gift, it would be a good idea to let them know not to place it under their tree and keep out of reach of their dogs if they have them.

Guests

Now, house guests may not seem like a possible safety hazard, but they can be. If you are having a party, or guests staying with you, they may not check with you first before giving your pet a treat. If your dog has a sensitive stomach or isn’t used to certain foods, this can be an issue. Guests coming and going can also lead to pets slipping out an open door or gate without being noticed right away. Make sure your guests know to be careful about not letting your dog out the door. If you are having a party and want to allow your guests to share treats with your dog, have a clearly labeled dog treat dish out with treats you know your dog’s stomach can handle and limit the amount your guests can feed so your dog doesn’t get too many. Eating too much food in a short period of time can cause a very uncomfortable tummy. Remember that having guests can also be very stressful for your puppy or dog, if they are not used to having visitors or large groups at their home. Have a quiet area where you dog can feel safe away from the group.

Travel

Travel can be very stressful for your pet whether they go with your or stay behind. If your puppy or dog is traveling with you make sure you bring along some comforts of home and their own food. A different food along with stress can lead to GI upset. Make sure you have current ID tags on your pet, and if your pet is microchipped, make sure it has been registered and the information is current. Most importantly, if your dog isn’t an accustomed traveler to remember they may behave differently in a place they are not familiar with so use good judgment about what activities you do with your dog. If you are leaving your dog behind, again make sure tags and microchip information is current and your pet sitter has a way to get in touch with you in case of an emergency.

Other helpful tips

Home or away, know where your closest emergency veterinary clinic is located and have the number handy. Most veterinary practices are closed on major holidays. If you think you pet has ingested something toxic the best thing to do is call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control center at 1-888-426-4435. They are open 24 hours a day and can answer the questions of if something is toxic or not and what treatment is required. It does cost $65, but very much worth it. You will be able to talk directly to a veterinarian and they have a database with almost every product at their fingertips.

Have a very happy and safe Holiday Season!

Amie

Travel with a service dog

The last time I wrote, I talked about flying with a service dog. Now it's time to talk about the actual trip!

A few weeks ago, my service dog Kaline and I headed to Michigan with my mom (retired girl Juno went for a "spa week" of frolicking on beaches with her Auntie Sonja). It's a tradition for us to go to Ann Arbor every fall, where we visit the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village to celebrate Hallowe'en, and attend the University of Michigan's fall musical.

When we landed in Michigan that Tuesday, our first objective was the terminal's service dog relief area. Kaline loves to do momentum pull, which involves some elements of guiding when there are crowds. The Detroit airport is one of his favorite venues. It's always a straight shot from our gate to the relief area, but with many delightful challenges in our way. It's always great fun to see him assess crowd shapes, the placement of clusters of people, and decide which path offers the least resistance to us. According to my mom, the people in our wake were pretty impressed.

Our hotel in the fall is actually pet friendly, and has a long strip of lawn behind it for running a dog or playing fetch (plus unlimited free poop bags!). After unpacking, the first thing I did was have a game of Chuckit with Kaline out back. Trips are tiring for both of us—at home, he never spends as much time officially on duty as he does when we're traveling. The best way to keep him spunky and fresh, oddly, is by having at least one vigorous game of Chuckit every day. Service dogs really need their time to be ordinary, rambunctious, ridiculous dogs. Kaline runs like a maniac for his Chuckit balls!

One of the best but most challenging parts of our fall trip is the time spent at Greenfield Village in Dearborn. The village is one of the foremost history attractions in the U.S., containing numerous historical buildings as well as replicas that Henry Ford collected from all over the country.

In the village are multiple horse-drawn omnibuses, Model T Fords, antique Ford buses, and steam locomotives. The locomotives are extremely loud, as they have to obey the state laws governing trains, even though they just go in a small loop. Therefore, their whistles have to be audible three miles away. Kaline has had to get acclimated to all of them, and since we are only there twice a year, it usually takes him a little while at the beginning to relax fully in the presence of all these things.

Showing our Hallowe'en spirit! Well, Kaline, anyway.

This was the first time he had no acclimation period! He's been going to the village since he was 16 months old, so maybe it's become old hat to him. It's lovely when we see some of the village presenters who remember him from his first trip—they can see how far he's come since then! Half the Model T drivers know him now; when we wait in line to ride them, the driver we're paired with inevitably lets out a joyful cry of "Kaline!" as we're about to get in.

Kaline on the Model T.

When we were the only ones on a particular horse-drawn omnibus, the driver let Kaline rest his chin on the window between the carriage and her driver's seat as she told us about her team, Wilbur and Orville. On the locomotive, he just objected to holding a down on the icy cold metal floor (can't really blame him). Kaline also enjoys riding the carousel.

Kaline on the horse-drawn omnibus.

Another challenge of the village in the fall is our favorite special event, Hallowe'en Nights. We go to dinner in the packed Eagle Tavern with about 150 other guests—this year two of our tablemates were dressed as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett! It's dark, warm, and noisy—no electric lights—and a fiddler goes from table to table taking requests. Kaline was practically invisible, sleeping under the table until it was time to go out into the village.

After dinner, we followed a jack-o-lantern-lit path all through the village. There are performances of Hallowe'en stories and songs. Most of the visitors come in costume, and at various points on the path, village presenters greet everyone dressed in elaborate vintage costumes.

It's a lot of moving through crowds in the dark—at one point we walked over a fog-filled, laser-lit covered bridge. There are buildings lit up to look like someone is raising a Frankenstein monster inside; the carousel runs backward to creepy music; and a pair of horses run up and down in a field to reenact the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It's a lot to ask of a dog, asking them to focus with all that going on. Kaline just did his first one last year.

Kaline with some of the hundreds of hand-carved pumpkins.

This year, he was totally unfazed by anything, except for one part in the excellent new Top Hat Sideshow where a performer was cracking a flaming whip. Suitable application of treats fixed that promptly. Kaline is quite willing to tolerate bizarre sights and strange loud noises if they mean he's going to get food. And while he doesn't need treats to perform his duties in normal locations, for events like Hallowe'en Nights I always make sure to take some high-value morsels with me. I like to think of it as hazard pay!

Kaline ably led me through all the crowds, ignoring all the costumed distractions. He was fantastic. We ended at the big restaurant, with Kaline passing out under a table while Mom and I shared some delicious mini-donuts and hot chocolate.

The next night was the fall musical, American Idiot, presented by the University of Michigan's amazing musical theatre department. If you've never seen it, it features songs from Green Day's album of the same name, at rock-concert volume. Earplugs for the human theatregoers were handed out at the door; for Kaline, I had purchased Mutt Muffs.

The ear protection for him was a rousing success—while the musical was blaring, I could feel Kaline twitching against my feet, so deeply asleep that he was having a fantastic dream.

It may be called a vacation, but it can actually be more exhausting than regular life, both for me and for Kaline. We are both under more stress than normal, and he is on duty far more than usual. He can go for twenty miles of pack walks and still want to do zoomies when he gets home. But after a full day of work—not just helping me, but maintaining his professionalism at all times—Kaline completely crashes.

Staying super focused in public is one of the hardest parts of being a service dog, sometimes even harder than learning the actual tasks. A good night of sleep restores him, though; it took me about a week after we got home to recover from our awesome and fun-filled vacation! Still, I can't wait to do it again.


Colt