January 23, 2025 • 19 mins
Join us for a special mashup episode of The Pawsome Companion, featuring the best tips and tricks from Season 1. Our experts share valuable advice on various aspects of pet care, including becoming a dog trainer, managing reactive dogs, optimal feeding practices, and fostering dogs in need.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the Pawson Companion, where
pets are part of our family. I'm
your host, Joanna Herrera, the founder of
Cocoa and Bondi. I'm very excited to
interview experts and pet owners to
share their stories and insights so you
can use them to take care of your babies.
I started when I finished
(00:23):
uni. It was about 12 years ago, almost 13
years. And then I got a job
as a puppy education supervisor. So I
So what is your degree?Sorry. My degree
is animal science. So it's a Bachelor of
Science with animal science. Yeah. So
I had a talk at uni about guide dogs and
I just thought it was like the the best
(00:44):
possible job. So I pursued, I actually
volunteered and got my. Labrador, the one
that just recently passed away, I raised
him for. It used to be called the Royal
Society for the Blind. We've rebranded
and we're now called See Differently and
I had him and then a job came up and I
took the opportunity and. Learned about
(01:04):
puppies and breeding and all of the
young dog stuff. And then I was lucky to
train and become a cadet guide dog
instructor. It's about a three-year
training course to do it. So you learn
how to train the dogs, but also how to
train people with vision loss, which is
actually a really complex thing to do
and you've got to learn a lot of around
that. And I've been working as a guide
(01:27):
dog mobility instructor. That's the title
of the job. Which is training the dogs
to guide and then training the actual
handler how to use the guide dog as a
mobility aid. So that's a whole training
course for them as well. And I've been
doing that for the last eight years
and I'm also the lead of the guide dog
(01:47):
department. So I manage a little bit of
the day-to-day how we train dogs and all
that sort of stuff at the moment. So
that's been the last couple of years as
well. That's amazing. Yeah. So what are
sort of the things that you?
And like teach to dogs, yes, for them to
be able to, you know, like be with
someone that is blind or have a like
Yeah, yeah, there is. Yeah. And
(02:08):
disability.
a trainer. Absolutely. Yeah. So what is
the difference?So, you know, a dog
trainer will will teach your dog to sit
and lay down and and come and and do all
those sort of things. But a dog behavior
consultant is the person that you call
when you have problem behaviors with your
dog. OK. So that's two
(02:31):
different aspects. They are. Yeah. Yeah
So in this case, you only offer.
Mostly, yeah. YeahOK. So what are the
things that people look for when
when they call you?Like what are the
problem, the frequent problems that they
they have?Yeah. So most of my work is
(02:51):
with aggressive or reactive dogs.
And then there's managing
trauma, anxiety,
fear. Responses to all the way down
to your your very basic stuff like house
training, jumping up. So really
it's it's the whole myriad, but most of
my work is with those with those reactive
(03:12):
dogs. So it's a little bit of training
around that as well. Yeah, there is,
yeah, there's always, there's training is
always part of the solution, but it's
not, it's not the answer to the problem.
If it was, I'd I'd be out of a job. So
what sort of suggestions you give to
someone who has an aggressive dog?
What?What are the things that come to
(03:33):
them?Obviously you are training them, but
what are the advice that you give to
those people?Aggressive dog or a reactive
dog?Both. Can you explain both?Yeah,
sure. Yeah, because there's a there's a
there's a big difference, right?The
reactive dog responds badly to
stimulus in the environment, but
(03:55):
isn't necessarily aggressive. So doesn't
doesn't necessarily want to go and fight
the other dog. But the aggressive dog is
a dog that given the opportunity it it
will bite a person or or
another dog. That's that's a a
the basic difference in the in
those two definitions. They're they're
(04:16):
very common phrases in the industry but
not not often very well understood. So
what else the sort of suggestions that
you give to the person like?
How do they should behave or what are the
things that they should do to handle
those situations with those animals?So
we we go through a very long process of
(04:37):
finding out what what is what's been
happening for the dog and for the owner.
And we we work out the
the ABCS of the behaviour, which is the
antecedent, which is what happens
immediately before the behaviour, the
behaviour itself, which is aggression or
or reactivity. And then the consequences
(04:59):
which is what what's happening
immediately after that and in most cases
it's it's something in that in that
consequence that is that's reinforcing
the behaviour. So we we try to
try to work all of of that out and get to
an underlying cause which in most
cases is fear or
(05:19):
anxiety and then we we get to
work on you know on working out.
Those problems. So you have those
like solutions that you offer, but you
also work with the owner, the pet
owner to obviously give the pet owner
some task to do, right?Oh, it's very
(05:40):
much, yeah, it most of the work is done
by the owner. It has to be like that
because it's one of the reasons that
board and train we we send your dog off
to be trained doesn't. Normally work for
that type of behavior because when they
come back into the environment of your
home, they very quickly go back to the
behavior the way it was.
(06:02):
So I I've been watching like programs
about this type of dogs that are
reacting when they are walking with the
pet, with their owners and they.
Yeah, OK. And in regards to the
adoption side, So
what are the the things that you do in
terms of adopting like people just go and
and so I hear that sometimes people go
(06:23):
and drop their animals when they don't
want them anymore. That that is a case
that sometimes will happen. So that's
when people will surrender an animal
because they can't care for it any
longer. And there might be a lot of
0reasons for that. They might. Have gone 158 00:06:38,1000 --> 00:06:41,1000 into residential care, for example, or
they might be moving Interstate and
(06:44):
unable to take their animal with them. A
lot of times people have struggled to get
rental accommodation that allows pets, 163 00:06:51,1000 --> 00:06:53,640 and so we're very glad that the
Residential Tenancies Act has been
amended to try to make it easier for
people with pets to get accommodation
because they were being discriminated
against by some landlords. We hope that
(07:05):
that's going to change that situation.
You know, they might also just be
struggling to afford to to care for the
animal or they might be physically unwell
and not able to care for it. So all sorts
of reasons is there's never
any stigma attached for us for people
surrendering an animal because they're
trying to do the right thing by that
animal. But we are in a we are
(07:25):
limited with the number of animals that
we can take in that are surrendered
because with the inspectorate and the
rescue team, they're bringing in a lot of
animals. And we have to prioritise the
care of those animals. So we're
0not always, we don't always have the 186 00:07:42,1000 --> 00:07:45,560 capacity to accept a surrendered animal.
It's not always easy for us to. And we
(07:47):
also have contracts with some
councils where we provide
the rehoming care and rehoming
service for the stray dogs and cats in
their areas. So we have to
prioritise our resources.
In terms of both the accommodation
space and the personnel to provide
(08:09):
the care for those animals and then if
we can, we'll take in surrendered
animals. But I would add though, if it's
an emergency situation, yeah, of course,
we will do our utmost to try to take that
0animal in or find an alternate rescue 202 00:08:24,1000 --> 00:08:27,800 organisation that can help us. Do you
have a number of animals that you bring a
(08:30):
month, for example, from those?
Situations. Yeah. At any one
time. Well, at the at the
moment at our animal care centre, we've
got about 240 animals, but in
care in total across the state, we've
got about 580. So
(08:50):
we're fluctuating between about 580 to
650 animals at the moment in care
across the entire state. So some of them
might be in our animal care centre at
O'Halloran Hill. A few of them might be
in our regional center at Whyalla,
only just a handful. It's not a very big
place, but a lot of them, about half of
(09:11):
our animals are in foster care. So
that's where these are people who have
volunteered to care for an animal and we
provide all the
we cover all the costs. So we cover all
the costs of all the food, all the
veterinary care. Provide all the
advice and we just with these people,
(09:31):
they're providing a loving home, which is
absolutely fantastic because it's much
better for an animal to be in a really
good foster home, even if it's only a
temporary home, than it is for them to be
in a shelter environment. So what are
the requirements that you ask
to someone who wants to foster a dog or a
cat?Is there any particular things that
(09:53):
you are looking for from a person or a
house?Yeah, yeahSo it really does
depend on what they're look looking to
foster, what kind of animal. So if it's a
dog, then they would need to have a well
fenced yard. OK, um, if, uh,
it's a big dog who's known to be a bit of
a jumper, a bit of a a an escape artist,
then those fences might need to be quite
(10:14):
high. They need to.
Have time, really. I suppose this is
where people need to sort of think of
their own lifestyles and think, well, do
I have the time to invest in this dog?
Because there's no point if they're going
to take a dog that is needing a
bit of one-on-one attention. Maybe the
dog is recovering from surgery, or maybe
(10:34):
the dog is recovering from a situation of
neglect and it's needing that kind of
investment of time to recover trust.
So you need to be able to. Have that
time to spend with the dog, invest
in maybe some force free training,
which is the kind of training that we we
recommend where you reward the good
(10:56):
behaviour and you ignore the bad
behaviour. That's putting it very simply.
That's the kind of training that we we
support. If it's a cat,
an ability to contain the cat so that
it doesn't go wandering around the
neighbourhood and this. Can be a bit
tricky for people, but a lot of people
have come up with really terrific ideas
where they've got a a cat door and it
(11:18):
leads to an enclosed outdoor space. So
the cat's getting outdoors a bit. Or
maybe you've got a nice sunroom as long
as the cat's able to get enough
0space to play and to get a bit of
sun. And we we do support
trying to contain your cat to your
property, particularly at night, because
that's when they're most at risk if
(11:39):
they're wandering around at night.
OK, so another question that we've got
is that how we stop our
animals to vomit inside the cars when you
are on the road or in the street?Yeah,
yeah, it depends a
little bit on the dog and and sort of
what exposure they've had. The other
thing to remember is you want to try and
(11:59):
get them used to the car when they're
young, when they're the puppies or even
cats. You can do it with cats. I once had
a cat that he loved travelling in the car
and he he would come. And stay in the
car. Yeah, and stay in the car. He just
didn't care. Him and the dog would curl
up together in the in the back seat of
the car and they were happy as Larry and
didn't didn't mind. But yeah, he was used
to it. And that's the thing. It's first
(12:20):
of all it's getting them used to it. So
as puppies, getting them used to
travelling in the car. But you got to do
it slowly as well. So short little
distances, you know, don't go for a 8
hour drive. You know, straight away.
So it's short little distances and then
once they're able to go out for walks,
the car can become a nice thing because
then they're always, they know they're
going somewhere nice, they're going to
the beach, they're going to the park. So
(12:41):
again, they associate it with something
nice. So most puppies
will be a little bit travel sick because
same as kids, it's a little bit
different. So you get them used to it
slowly, get the car in a nice place and
do it. We do have, there are still some
dogs that suffer from true travel
sickness and. Is
there any
(13:02):
pill there?Yeah. So there are medications
we can use now which can help settle
that down. And a lot of them we've
what I've found when I've used it in the
past is some dogs will you only need to
use it 2-3, four times or a few times and
that seems to break that cycle and the
and the dog is able to sort of cope a
little bit more. Some dogs just never get
(13:23):
over it. Yeah, the tablets help, but
yeah, they have to use it every time.
Yeah, but at least there are things that
we can use. But most, most, the majority,
it's it's just getting them used to it,
getting them used to that motion and
getting them slowly, small little
journeys and building up the tolerance to
it. Yeah, absolutely. Because
for example, my dog used to be like
(13:45):
very scared of being in the car and
We do sell some dry food for for cats,
now he loves it. That's it.
OK. And in terms of that, So what are the
things that you recommend for sizes or
breeds or do you have any any
suggestions in your store?The
recommended amount is between 2:00 to 3%
of your dog's body weight in food
(14:07):
per day and and that can vary depending
on your dog's age and the dog's activity
level. So Audrey,
she's 50. 50 kilos
and yeah, she gets a kilo a day. So
500 grams in the morning and 500 grams at
night. Puppies are definitely three feeds
a day until they're until they're one
(14:28):
because they're babies. So what is the
the most favourite sort of food that
people buy?Do you have anything that is
like super popular?Ready to eat meals
are very popular. They make up close to
40% of our sales and we do a variety
of. Chicken and vegetable meals or beef
and vegetable or or kangaroo and
(14:49):
vegetable in one of the questions that we
ask some of our
followers is they ask
in regards of what sort of food they can
prepare in their house that is not food
from supermarkets. Is any sort of food
that you can recommend that they can buy
in your shop and also. Make at
(15:10):
home as well or or mix with that food or
we sell a range of proteins. We have
chicken, kangaroo, beef,
venison, lamb, mince, beef
chunks. We have a whole range of fresh
proteins that we bag and and and and
and process daily and send out to our
shops that are gets delivered to our
shops four days a week. And we also sell
(15:32):
fresh vegetables that they can take home
and cook up and they can just fry it off
in the in the sauce when we have. We have
one lady that that buys, you know, quite
a few kilos of beef chunks off of
us each time and and we cut
them to a specific size for her and
because she likes to barbecue them for
her two dogs every night. So yeah we do a
(15:54):
range of custom meals. We have a lot of
people that want different amounts of
offal or certain veggies or
or a mixture of 60/40 of this and we we
do, we'd have50 or 60
customers that we do that for and
standing orders every Friday for four or
five kilos of roast beef and and smoked
lamb hearts and I know
(16:16):
it's funny. I got my partner. We
like sometimes we grill meat for lunch or
anything like that. When I see him like
cooking little pieces, like grilling
little pieces, I'm like, what is that for?
Like, you know, like he's like, oh, it's
for my little baby. I love him. I'm like,
OK. Like we are giving extra
lot to our dog now. That's why he's not
(16:36):
eating other things, right?But yeah,
I started when I finished
we should, we should give them.
uni. It was about 12 years ago, almost 13
years. And then I got a job
as a puppy education supervisor. So I
So what is your degree?Sorry. My degree
is animal science. So it's a Bachelor of
Science with animal science. Yeah. So
(16:58):
I had a talk at uni about guide dogs and
I just thought it was like the the best
possible job. So I pursued, I actually
volunteered and got my. Labrador, the one
that just recently passed away, I raised
him for. It used to be called the Royal
Society for the Blind. We've rebranded
and we're now called See Differently and
I had him and then a job came up and I
(17:20):
took the opportunity and. Learned about
puppies and breeding and all of the
young dog stuff. And then I was lucky to
train and become a cadet guide dog
instructor. It's about a three-year
training course to do it. So you learn
how to train the dogs, but also how to
train people with vision loss, which is
actually a really complex thing to do
(17:41):
and you've got to learn a lot of around
that. And I've been working as a guide
dog mobility instructor. That's the title
of the job. Which is training the dogs
to guide and then training the actual
handler how to use the guide dog as a
mobility aid. So that's a whole training
course for them as well. And I've been
doing that for the last eight years
(18:04):
and I'm also the lead of the guide dog
department. So I manage a little bit of
the day-to-day how we train dogs and all
that sort of stuff at the moment. So
that's been the last couple of years as
well. That's amazing. Yeah. So what are
sort of the things that you?
And like teach to dogs, yes, for them to
be able to, you know, like be with
(18:24):
someone that is blind or have a like
Thank you so much for coming into this
disability.
episode of The Possum's Companion. If you
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And if you are a pet expert who would
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forget to follow us and if you enjoyed
(18:47):
today's episode, we will really
appreciate A5 star review. Thanks again
and we will see you at the next episode.
Welcome to the Pawson Companion, where
pets are part of our family. I'm
your host, Joanna Herrera, the founder of
Cocoa and Bondi. I'm very excited to
interview experts and pet owners to
share their stories and insights so you
can use them to take care of your babies.
I started when I finished
(00:23):
uni. It was about 12 years ago, almost 13
years. And then I got a job
as a puppy education supervisor. So I
So what is your degree?Sorry. My degree
is animal science. So it's a Bachelor of
Science with animal science. Yeah. So
I had a talk at uni about guide dogs and
I just thought it was like the the best
(00:44):
possible job. So I pursued, I actually
volunteered and got my. Labrador, the one
that just recently passed away, I raised
him for. It used to be called the Royal
Society for the Blind. We've rebranded
and we're now called See Differently and
I had him and then a job came up and I
took the opportunity and. Learned about
(01:04):
puppies and breeding and all of the
young dog stuff. And then I was lucky to
train and become a cadet guide dog
instructor. It's about a three-year
training course to do it. So you learn
how to train the dogs, but also how to
train people with vision loss, which is
actually a really complex thing to do
and you've got to learn a lot of around
that. And I've been working as a guide
(01:27):
dog mobility instructor. That's the title
of the job. Which is training the dogs
to guide and then training the actual
handler how to use the guide dog as a
mobility aid. So that's a whole training
course for them as well. And I've been
doing that for the last eight years
and I'm also the lead of the guide dog
(01:47):
department. So I manage a little bit of
the day-to-day how we train dogs and all
that sort of stuff at the moment. So
that's been the last couple of years as
well. That's amazing. Yeah. So what are
sort of the things that you?
And like teach to dogs, yes, for them to
be able to, you know, like be with
someone that is blind or have a like
Yeah, yeah, there is. Yeah. And
(02:08):
disability.
a trainer. Absolutely. Yeah. So what is
the difference?So, you know, a dog
trainer will will teach your dog to sit
and lay down and and come and and do all
those sort of things. But a dog behavior
consultant is the person that you call
when you have problem behaviors with your
dog. OK. So that's two
(02:31):
different aspects. They are. Yeah. Yeah
So in this case, you only offer.
Mostly, yeah. YeahOK. So what are the
things that people look for when
when they call you?Like what are the
problem, the frequent problems that they
they have?Yeah. So most of my work is
(02:51):
with aggressive or reactive dogs.
And then there's managing
trauma, anxiety,
fear. Responses to all the way down
to your your very basic stuff like house
training, jumping up. So really
it's it's the whole myriad, but most of
my work is with those with those reactive
(03:12):
dogs. So it's a little bit of training
around that as well. Yeah, there is,
yeah, there's always, there's training is
always part of the solution, but it's
not, it's not the answer to the problem.
If it was, I'd I'd be out of a job. So
what sort of suggestions you give to
someone who has an aggressive dog?
What?What are the things that come to
(03:33):
them?Obviously you are training them, but
what are the advice that you give to
those people?Aggressive dog or a reactive
dog?Both. Can you explain both?Yeah,
sure. Yeah, because there's a there's a
there's a big difference, right?The
reactive dog responds badly to
stimulus in the environment, but
(03:55):
isn't necessarily aggressive. So doesn't
doesn't necessarily want to go and fight
the other dog. But the aggressive dog is
a dog that given the opportunity it it
will bite a person or or
another dog. That's that's a a
the basic difference in the in
those two definitions. They're they're
(04:16):
very common phrases in the industry but
not not often very well understood. So
what else the sort of suggestions that
you give to the person like?
How do they should behave or what are the
things that they should do to handle
those situations with those animals?So
we we go through a very long process of
(04:37):
finding out what what is what's been
happening for the dog and for the owner.
And we we work out the
the ABCS of the behaviour, which is the
antecedent, which is what happens
immediately before the behaviour, the
behaviour itself, which is aggression or
or reactivity. And then the consequences
(04:59):
which is what what's happening
immediately after that and in most cases
it's it's something in that in that
consequence that is that's reinforcing
the behaviour. So we we try to
try to work all of of that out and get to
an underlying cause which in most
cases is fear or
(05:19):
anxiety and then we we get to
work on you know on working out.
Those problems. So you have those
like solutions that you offer, but you
also work with the owner, the pet
owner to obviously give the pet owner
some task to do, right?Oh, it's very
(05:40):
much, yeah, it most of the work is done
by the owner. It has to be like that
because it's one of the reasons that
board and train we we send your dog off
to be trained doesn't. Normally work for
that type of behavior because when they
come back into the environment of your
home, they very quickly go back to the
behavior the way it was.
(06:02):
So I I've been watching like programs
about this type of dogs that are
reacting when they are walking with the
pet, with their owners and they.
Yeah, OK. And in regards to the
adoption side, So
what are the the things that you do in
terms of adopting like people just go and
and so I hear that sometimes people go
(06:23):
and drop their animals when they don't
want them anymore. That that is a case
that sometimes will happen. So that's
when people will surrender an animal
because they can't care for it any
longer. And there might be a lot of
0reasons for that. They might. Have gone 158 00:06:38,1000 --> 00:06:41,1000 into residential care, for example, or
they might be moving Interstate and
(06:44):
unable to take their animal with them. A
lot of times people have struggled to get
rental accommodation that allows pets, 163 00:06:51,1000 --> 00:06:53,640 and so we're very glad that the
Residential Tenancies Act has been
amended to try to make it easier for
people with pets to get accommodation
because they were being discriminated
against by some landlords. We hope that
(07:05):
that's going to change that situation.
You know, they might also just be
struggling to afford to to care for the
animal or they might be physically unwell
and not able to care for it. So all sorts
of reasons is there's never
any stigma attached for us for people
surrendering an animal because they're
trying to do the right thing by that
animal. But we are in a we are
(07:25):
limited with the number of animals that
we can take in that are surrendered
because with the inspectorate and the
rescue team, they're bringing in a lot of
animals. And we have to prioritise the
care of those animals. So we're
0not always, we don't always have the 186 00:07:42,1000 --> 00:07:45,560 capacity to accept a surrendered animal.
It's not always easy for us to. And we
(07:47):
also have contracts with some
councils where we provide
the rehoming care and rehoming
service for the stray dogs and cats in
their areas. So we have to
prioritise our resources.
In terms of both the accommodation
space and the personnel to provide
(08:09):
the care for those animals and then if
we can, we'll take in surrendered
animals. But I would add though, if it's
an emergency situation, yeah, of course,
we will do our utmost to try to take that
0animal in or find an alternate rescue 202 00:08:24,1000 --> 00:08:27,800 organisation that can help us. Do you
have a number of animals that you bring a
(08:30):
month, for example, from those?
Situations. Yeah. At any one
time. Well, at the at the
moment at our animal care centre, we've
got about 240 animals, but in
care in total across the state, we've
got about 580. So
(08:50):
we're fluctuating between about 580 to
650 animals at the moment in care
across the entire state. So some of them
might be in our animal care centre at
O'Halloran Hill. A few of them might be
in our regional center at Whyalla,
only just a handful. It's not a very big
place, but a lot of them, about half of
(09:11):
our animals are in foster care. So
that's where these are people who have
volunteered to care for an animal and we
provide all the
we cover all the costs. So we cover all
the costs of all the food, all the
veterinary care. Provide all the
advice and we just with these people,
(09:31):
they're providing a loving home, which is
absolutely fantastic because it's much
better for an animal to be in a really
good foster home, even if it's only a
temporary home, than it is for them to be
in a shelter environment. So what are
the requirements that you ask
to someone who wants to foster a dog or a
cat?Is there any particular things that
(09:53):
you are looking for from a person or a
house?Yeah, yeahSo it really does
depend on what they're look looking to
foster, what kind of animal. So if it's a
dog, then they would need to have a well
fenced yard. OK, um, if, uh,
it's a big dog who's known to be a bit of
a jumper, a bit of a a an escape artist,
then those fences might need to be quite
(10:14):
high. They need to.
Have time, really. I suppose this is
where people need to sort of think of
their own lifestyles and think, well, do
I have the time to invest in this dog?
Because there's no point if they're going
to take a dog that is needing a
bit of one-on-one attention. Maybe the
dog is recovering from surgery, or maybe
(10:34):
the dog is recovering from a situation of
neglect and it's needing that kind of
investment of time to recover trust.
So you need to be able to. Have that
time to spend with the dog, invest
in maybe some force free training,
which is the kind of training that we we
recommend where you reward the good
(10:56):
behaviour and you ignore the bad
behaviour. That's putting it very simply.
That's the kind of training that we we
support. If it's a cat,
an ability to contain the cat so that
it doesn't go wandering around the
neighbourhood and this. Can be a bit
tricky for people, but a lot of people
have come up with really terrific ideas
where they've got a a cat door and it
(11:18):
leads to an enclosed outdoor space. So
the cat's getting outdoors a bit. Or
maybe you've got a nice sunroom as long
as the cat's able to get enough
0space to play and to get a bit of
sun. And we we do support
trying to contain your cat to your
property, particularly at night, because
that's when they're most at risk if
(11:39):
they're wandering around at night.
OK, so another question that we've got
is that how we stop our
animals to vomit inside the cars when you
are on the road or in the street?Yeah,
yeah, it depends a
little bit on the dog and and sort of
what exposure they've had. The other
thing to remember is you want to try and
(11:59):
get them used to the car when they're
young, when they're the puppies or even
cats. You can do it with cats. I once had
a cat that he loved travelling in the car
and he he would come. And stay in the
car. Yeah, and stay in the car. He just
didn't care. Him and the dog would curl
up together in the in the back seat of
the car and they were happy as Larry and
didn't didn't mind. But yeah, he was used
to it. And that's the thing. It's first
(12:20):
of all it's getting them used to it. So
as puppies, getting them used to
travelling in the car. But you got to do
it slowly as well. So short little
distances, you know, don't go for a 8
hour drive. You know, straight away.
So it's short little distances and then
once they're able to go out for walks,
the car can become a nice thing because
then they're always, they know they're
going somewhere nice, they're going to
the beach, they're going to the park. So
(12:41):
again, they associate it with something
nice. So most puppies
will be a little bit travel sick because
same as kids, it's a little bit
different. So you get them used to it
slowly, get the car in a nice place and
do it. We do have, there are still some
dogs that suffer from true travel
sickness and. Is
there any
(13:02):
pill there?Yeah. So there are medications
we can use now which can help settle
that down. And a lot of them we've
what I've found when I've used it in the
past is some dogs will you only need to
use it 2-3, four times or a few times and
that seems to break that cycle and the
and the dog is able to sort of cope a
little bit more. Some dogs just never get
(13:23):
over it. Yeah, the tablets help, but
yeah, they have to use it every time.
Yeah, but at least there are things that
we can use. But most, most, the majority,
it's it's just getting them used to it,
getting them used to that motion and
getting them slowly, small little
journeys and building up the tolerance to
it. Yeah, absolutely. Because
for example, my dog used to be like
(13:45):
very scared of being in the car and
We do sell some dry food for for cats,
now he loves it. That's it.
OK. And in terms of that, So what are the
things that you recommend for sizes or
breeds or do you have any any
suggestions in your store?The
recommended amount is between 2:00 to 3%
of your dog's body weight in food
(14:07):
per day and and that can vary depending
on your dog's age and the dog's activity
level. So Audrey,
she's 50. 50 kilos
and yeah, she gets a kilo a day. So
500 grams in the morning and 500 grams at
night. Puppies are definitely three feeds
a day until they're until they're one
(14:28):
because they're babies. So what is the
the most favourite sort of food that
people buy?Do you have anything that is
like super popular?Ready to eat meals
are very popular. They make up close to
40% of our sales and we do a variety
of. Chicken and vegetable meals or beef
and vegetable or or kangaroo and
(14:49):
vegetable in one of the questions that we
ask some of our
followers is they ask
in regards of what sort of food they can
prepare in their house that is not food
from supermarkets. Is any sort of food
that you can recommend that they can buy
in your shop and also. Make at
(15:10):
home as well or or mix with that food or
we sell a range of proteins. We have
chicken, kangaroo, beef,
venison, lamb, mince, beef
chunks. We have a whole range of fresh
proteins that we bag and and and and
and process daily and send out to our
shops that are gets delivered to our
shops four days a week. And we also sell
(15:32):
fresh vegetables that they can take home
and cook up and they can just fry it off
in the in the sauce when we have. We have
one lady that that buys, you know, quite
a few kilos of beef chunks off of
us each time and and we cut
them to a specific size for her and
because she likes to barbecue them for
her two dogs every night. So yeah we do a
(15:54):
range of custom meals. We have a lot of
people that want different amounts of
offal or certain veggies or
or a mixture of 60/40 of this and we we
do, we'd have50 or 60
customers that we do that for and
standing orders every Friday for four or
five kilos of roast beef and and smoked
lamb hearts and I know
(16:16):
it's funny. I got my partner. We
like sometimes we grill meat for lunch or
anything like that. When I see him like
cooking little pieces, like grilling
little pieces, I'm like, what is that for?
Like, you know, like he's like, oh, it's
for my little baby. I love him. I'm like,
OK. Like we are giving extra
lot to our dog now. That's why he's not
(16:36):
eating other things, right?But yeah,
I started when I finished
we should, we should give them.
uni. It was about 12 years ago, almost 13
years. And then I got a job
as a puppy education supervisor. So I
So what is your degree?Sorry. My degree
is animal science. So it's a Bachelor of
Science with animal science. Yeah. So
(16:58):
I had a talk at uni about guide dogs and
I just thought it was like the the best
possible job. So I pursued, I actually
volunteered and got my. Labrador, the one
that just recently passed away, I raised
him for. It used to be called the Royal
Society for the Blind. We've rebranded
and we're now called See Differently and
I had him and then a job came up and I
(17:20):
took the opportunity and. Learned about
puppies and breeding and all of the
young dog stuff. And then I was lucky to
train and become a cadet guide dog
instructor. It's about a three-year
training course to do it. So you learn
how to train the dogs, but also how to
train people with vision loss, which is
actually a really complex thing to do
(17:41):
and you've got to learn a lot of around
that. And I've been working as a guide
dog mobility instructor. That's the title
of the job. Which is training the dogs
to guide and then training the actual
handler how to use the guide dog as a
mobility aid. So that's a whole training
course for them as well. And I've been
doing that for the last eight years
(18:04):
and I'm also the lead of the guide dog
department. So I manage a little bit of
the day-to-day how we train dogs and all
that sort of stuff at the moment. So
that's been the last couple of years as
well. That's amazing. Yeah. So what are
sort of the things that you?
And like teach to dogs, yes, for them to
be able to, you know, like be with
(18:24):
someone that is blind or have a like
Thank you so much for coming into this
disability.
episode of The Possum's Companion. If you
have any further questions for our
experts, feel free to leave them in the
show notes or reach out to me directly.
And if you are a pet expert who would
love to continue to this podcast, we will
be thrilled to hear from you. Don't
forget to follow us and if you enjoyed
(18:47):
today's episode, we will really
appreciate A5 star review. Thanks again
and we will see you at the next episode.
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