Welcome, puppy and dog owners

Welcome to Puppy Scraps, the e-newsletter of PuppyPrimer.com

Depending on where you live, you're either heading into Spring or Autumn at the moment but, wherever you are, I hope the weather is kind enough to let you get out and about with your puppy!

Where I live, in southern Australia, it's rather blowy and cold right now but the wattle trees are blooming and the daffodils are looking to poke their heads through the soil. So despite the chilly wind, it must be Spring!

Contents

Did you know … ?

Feature: Dangerous plants – things your puppy shouldn't chew in the garden

What's new at PuppyPrimer

Pups in the News

Puppies in prison: locked up for the greater good

'It changes your life … I'm used to jail life 'cause I've been in here so long but when you get him, it gives you a softer side, like it shows you something different.'

These are the words of a prison inmate at Junee Correctional Centre, Australia, earlier this month.

He's been part of a Pups in Prison Program run by the facility. The program pairs young puppies with suitable prisoners, who train the puppies with the help of Assistance Dogs Australia. The prisoners get the puppies started on their careers as assistance dogs. Once the puppies have graduated from the prison's care, they move on to advanced training with Assistance Dogs Australia.

The concept of training assistance puppies in prison has been around since the 1990s, when Puppies Behind Bars was started in the United States. Now, there are many similar programs run throughout the world.

It's a win–win situation: the prisoners find they can give and receive love and attention, completely without judgment, and many of them speak of their satisfaction in being able to 'give something' back to the community. There's also the strong sense of personal achievement when a puppy, which had arrived at the prison a ball of untrained fluff, leaves able to open doors, operate pedestrian crossings and take groceries off a bench.

Did you know ... ?

Feature article: Dangerous plants – things your puppy shouldn't chew in the garden

When I began the research for this topic, I thought there might be perhaps half a dozen, maybe even 10, plants that would be toxic to dogs.

Imagine my horror when I found that the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals lists several pages of toxic plants!

So if you're thinking about planting a new garden in Spring or tossing some old plants in a heap at the end of Summer, here's just a few you might need to look out for:

• apricots

• asparagus fern

• autumn crocus

• azalea

• baby's breath

• calla lily

• carnation

• daffodil

• English holly

• eucalyptus (all species)

• geranium

• hellabore

• iris

• morning glory

• Norfolk Island pine

• peace lily

• portulaca

• primrose

• privet

• rhododendron

• rubber plant

• St John's wort

• sweet pea

• weeping fig

• wisteria.

Now, after reading that scary list (and remember, it's been heavily culled from the very long original list), you might think that you shouldn't plant anything in your garden and just go for bare soil and concrete!

But, in the first place, it's not likely your dog is going to go about the yard munching on all these plants just for the fun of it. Most of them won't taste nice or have anything else going for them that would encourage your dog to eat them.

And in the second place, your dog would generally need to eat fairly large quantities to suffer harm. Some of these plants can have severe effects but some will simply cause vomiting or diarrhoea.

But it is a good idea to keep the yard and garden clean and tidy. Rake up fallen leaves and twigs, and especially any fallen fruit since it's often the seeds and stems that cause problems. Don't leave garden detritus lying about and, if you have a compost heap, keep it fenced off from pets. Discourage your dog from simply picking up anything he finds and giving it a chew – this is good practice anyway, since it can protect him from picking up a bait.

So whether it's spring cleaning or autumn tidying, now's the time to get into the garden and make it safe for pets!

What's new at PuppyPrimer?

Did you know that small dogs carry a piece of genetic material that makes them small? And although you might think that small dogs were developed only fairly recently, in fact they've been around for at least 12,000 years.

More on that and other information about small dog breeds on the website.

I'll be adding more information about individual breeds over the coming weeks so do check the website to see if your favourite breed is there.

Or why not drop a note to me via the Contact Us page and ask for your favourite breed to be included?

Toy dog breeds

When I started researching small dog breeds, I realised I couldn't talk about small ones without talking about toy dogs. So there's another page just for the really tiny pooches!

See it now at Toy Dog Breeds

There'll be another issue along in a few weeks.

Bye for now

Jay