Dog Calming/Urine smell killing

mellymoo74

Some of you may remember that my OH and dogs were attacked just before Christmas.

I am having trouble getting my dogs back to normal any advice?

Mrs now wants to kill all female dogs (has got so dog reactive its not even slightly funny)
Mr is scent marking in the house, clingy and also dog reactive (as he formally loved all dogs this is not good)

I am working with them part of the problem is OH has not recovered and its transmitting a bit.

So in the meantime whilst I try and get everyone calmed down can anyone suggest a nice calmy tablet or plug in for boy and girl, and something I can use in addition to the biological washing liguid to clean up wee so my house doesnt stink.

Thank you
x

krlyr

There are quite a few calmative products on the market. What works fantastically for one dog can have no effect on others so it's hard to recommend one product in particular. Sometimes you'll even experience a negative affective - the Adaptil spray made my dog more anxious (no effect at all on the other).

Adaptil may be the best suited to your situation, in that you can buy a plug-in version that will treat any dog within the household. They also do the spray (so you can spray the bed, some on their collars, in the car before you leave, etc.) and a collar (so the dog gets the effect of it wherever they are). These are pheromone bassed products, they mimic the calming pheromones a mum emits for her pups.

There are some capsule calmative products (either give to the dog whole, or empty the contents onto food), like Zylkene and Calmex. Zylkene is designed to be built up in the system and used for longer periods, whereas Calmex can be given just a couple of hours prior to being needed so tends to be more short-term (e.g. you know you're going on a car trip and want just a short-term solution for the length of the trip)

There's herbal and homeopathic remedies, e.g. Valerian, Skullcap, Rescue Remedy (don't use the pastilles - they contain sweetener that is toxic to dogs) and so on. There's also an essential oil diffuser product called Pet Remedy - it's a plug-in that burns valerian oil and a couple of others, similarly to the Adaptil diffuser.

Some dietary supplements may help too. Magnesium deficiencies can cause anxiety, and a stressed dog burns more magnesium than usual too. Stressless is the name of a magnesium supplement used for anxiety.

Thundershirts are another product - a snug fitting top/coat for dogs that puts pressure on various points of the body, designed to have a calming effect. A bit like swaddling a baby. A tightly fitting t-shirt can have the same effect.

There's a few others around the market that you should find - liquid supplements like Kalmaid, tablets like Serene-Um and so on . Many of the pet pharmacy websites will categorise their products, so check the behaviour/stress/anxiety type sections.

There's also prescription medications available for extreme cases, but these must be used alongside behavioural modification, so my recommendation would be to consult a behaviourist (use http://www.apbc.org.uk to find a force-free local behaviourist) who can advise on both the behaviour/training side of things, plus products or medications to use.

Emily Larlham, of YouTube Kikopup fame, has both a fantastic selection of free training videos, and a great DVD on reactivity. http://www.youtube.com/kikopup


For the accidents, I used the Simple Solutions product for my indoor rabbits when they had accidents, it's got quite a sweet smell and works quite well. Works great on coffee stains, we discovered! However, do check that the wee hasn't leaked through to underlay, as this may be harder to shift and could explain lingering smells.

teddysmum

I'd recommend Simple solution, having originally bought more expensive products and found them no better. PaH stock it, but a larger bottle is much cheaper from Amazon.


I don't pour it as suggested, but decant into a spray bottle, as that involves less wetting of fabric.

yorkshire_terrier_owner

I use a solution of 10% biological washing powder to 90% water, spray and scrub. then a good spray of surgical spirit. The washing powder solution cleans the area and the surgical spirit (decanted into. Spray bottle) gets rid of the odour. Test on carpets first though. I also find this methods prevents any stains on the carpet.

teddysmum

Until a few days ago, it was very cost effective to buy a 4 litre container of Simple Solution from Amazon. However, the price has gone up somewhat, but Pet Supermarket have 4 litres for £13.99, including P&P. (with an extra 5% off via Topcashback)

mellymoo74

Thanks all got simple solution from amazon 13.99 and pet remedy. My boy ks almost back to normal hes playing with the girl again and coming for cuddles. The main thing is that he is happier in himself I have been worried that I wouldn't be able to get him less worried as my OH is still shook up.
Simple solution has worked where the biological washing powder was failing only had a couple of scent marking attempts since all in all so far so good.

teddysmum

It's also good for household stains. I used it to remove greasy soot marks from a rug.