Tips to Help You Keep Your Dog Mentally Stimulated | Canada News Media
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Tips to Help You Keep Your Dog Mentally Stimulated

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While many pet parents know the importance of giving their dogs physical stimulation, they don’t realize that dogs, like human beings, need mental stimulation too. Various studies suggest that bored dogs can feel depressed, stressed, and apathetic.

Some milder symptoms of a dog lacking mental stimulation include whining, excessive chewing, barking, digging holes, and destroying furniture. More severe symptoms include obsessive-compulsive habits such as spinning, fly biting, self-biting, and incontinence. While managing a dog with this level of anxiety may seem challenging, there are ways to meaningfully improve their behavior through mental stimulation.

Interactive Playtime

Although dogs love playing with toys like frisbees, chew toys, rope toys, and balls, there are more interactive toys available that are designed for mental exercise. Usually, these toys reward smart behavior by dispensing yummy treats.

You can use toys to play with your dog outdoors or indoors. However, a pet parent’s anxiety can come in the way of a dog’s mental stimulation. If you want to know how to keep a dog entertained at home without the stress of a clean-up, then use lightweight and waterproof bed covers that are machine washable and dryer safe. Products like these protect your bed or furniture while your dog enjoys activities that challenge its mind.

 

Creative Games

If your dog is bored with its interactive toys, you can offer mental stimulation by thinking outside the box. For example, you can let your dog work for its treats. Create an obstacle course in your yard with household objects such as boxes or buy some traffic cones. Leave treats at the end of the obstacle as a prize. Alternatively, play a cup game with your dog by putting a treat under one of three cups and then shifting them around.

Social Interaction

One of the best ways to mentally stimulate a bored dog is to let it play with other dogs, as long as you take some precautions.

  • Check first to make sure that the dogs they will be in contact with are vaccinated and dewormed
  • The dogs should be of similar size and age
  • Let them play in a neutral area to avoid territorial behaviour
  • Understand their body language and don’t force them to interact

 

Variety in Walking Routes

How often you walk your dog depends on its breed, age, physical needs, and your schedule. But, most dogs need between thirty minutes to 2 hours of activity every day. A daily walk is good for both you and your pet’s health. It also strengthens the bond between you and your dog.

However, walking the same route every day can be monotonous for both of you. It’s best to take a different route every day by walking around a different block, neighbourhood, or environment where your pet can be introduced to new sights, smells, and sounds. You can even plan a weekly schedule. One day, you can walk through the park and another you can go near a lake that’s accessible to you. Simply driving to a new location can also be mentally stimulating for your dog.

Taking the time to mentally stimulate your dog can be rewarding for you and your pet. All of these activities can strengthen the bond between the two of you and help improve your dog’s overall behavior.

 

Published By Harry Miller

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.

The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.

Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.

“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”

The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.

A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.

Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.

“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.

Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.

The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.

“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.

Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.

The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.

“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.

Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.

Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.

A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast!

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