How Wiltshire dog owners can manage their pets during Christmas
Dogs Trust Salisbury have been giving us some helpful advice
With so much happening around Christmas, how do we ensure our dogs are kept happy and included in the celebrations?
Dogs Trust Salisbury have been giving us some advise on how best to plan ahead for our dogs during the festive period.
Canine Behaviour Officer at the Newton Tony centre, Una Race, says owners should stick to routine as much as possible.
"There might be lots of things that maybe our dogs haven't encountered before and lots of high energy situations that are really exciting," she said, adding that owners can keep routine by "making sure they're fed at the same times, making sure they're exercised at the same times."
But it's also important to allow our four-legged friends a space for them to relax and be alone, especially if there are a lot of visitors to our homes, by creating a 'doggy den' area.
Avoid 'toxic' foods
Christmas time also brings lots of festive food, particularly some items that we don't see all year round. And a lot of these can be dangerous to dogs.
"Things like mince pies, Christmas cakes, Christmas puddings, chocolate, any foods that we maybe have garlic, leeks, onions, chives, all of these can be really, really harmful for a dog," said Una.
She advised us to call our vet immediately if we think our dog has eaten anything unusual.
We can help limit the risk by keeping potentially dangerous foods out our dogs reach.
Managing Christmas Day excitement
Come Christmas Day, there's going to be a lot of excitement and different shapes and smells to peak our pooches interests and they may want to 'help' open some presents.
Owners can tackle this by giving dogs their own 'presents' to open.
This could be an actual present for our pets, but it could be a 'boredom box' to engage them too.
"These would be cardboard boxes with lots of little dog-safe items.
"We could have some of their toys in there, some of their treats, maybe paper packaging, if that's safe for your dog, and we can set up these little boxes for our dogs to safely explore and interact with themselves."
Further advice can be found on the Dogs Trust website.