Bailey the Teddy sucker!

Bailey arrived on Thursday morning. A big headed good looking golden Retriever and the most laid back dog we've looked after! He doesn't fuss, jump up or run around like an idiot, he looks at you hopefully and if you don't acknowledge him he just lies down and sucks his teddy bear! A little obsessive with the bear in his mouth for an hour before he keels over and goes to sleep; but not the worst obsession I've seen!

Bailey epitomises the Golden retriever as a breed, big, lovable and friendly. I don't think he has an aggressive bone in his body! Anyway, I wanted to just point out what happened last night when Bailey was having a mooch in the garden. He picked up all the wood and sticks he could find and had a picnic in the middle of the Lawn! very nice but after i had gone out my lad found him drooling and then he threw up brown sticky nastiness on the kitchen floor.

No harm done this time, but sticks are a nightmare for dogs and can cause a 101 different injuries and problems and so my advice is Don't be throwing sticks for your dog and clean them up from your garden, or you may have a serious health problem!

If you use a toy for your play whilst on the walk, then you will have a better relationship with your dog and a sure fired way to get him to return to you on command. I looked after a Border Collie called Beau and she had a horrendous stick obsession that meant she couldn't walk 10 feet without grabbing a stick, throwing it at your feet and then shivering with stress waiting for you to throw it. By never throwing a stick again and simply discouraging the ones that were approached and ignoring any that were presented, we swapped the ball for the sticks and made playtime at certain points of the walk to break the constant stick throwing cycle!

The dog recovered quickly and the relationship between handler and dog improved with the more relaxed environment.

I have cleaned the garden of sticks today but after all this I let him out and what did I catch him settling down to nibble on but a stick from god knows where! So moral is, change the toy to a proper one like a ball on a rope and never encourage the stick thing again.