#they want with that animal without getting warning nips and barks or whatever and its like you wouldn't HAVE this issue

[timeisacephalopod]

I've noticed a lot of the reasons people seem to hate small dogs overlap with why they hate cats, which almost always boils down to "this animal doesn't let me do whatever the fuck I want with it and I don't like that!" Very weird to admit you don't like animals that expect you to listen to their boundaries and will bite you otherwise but ok.

Anyway, I am a passionate Chihuahua and cat defender now even if sometimes I gotta go to bat for other little dogs. Listen to their body language and behaviors and you won't find them quarrelsome!

[m00nlitknight]

bonfire pt. 1

fandom: IT (2017) pairing:  patrick hockstetter  /  reader word count:   1.4k+ warnings:  none are very present in this chapter,  but mentions of underage frick fracking  ( nothing explicit and not involving the reader ) and drinking, partying, patrick being patrick. summary:   Henry Bowers and his gang had a tendency to throw legendary bonfires - and like a moth to flame, you went.  extra:  read part two here!

archive of our own link.

Deep within the woods crackled a fire, around it bustled teenage life. A usual gathering, conjured by the whispers of teenage rowdiness under the noses of authority. Brought to life by the hands of personified danger, a group of boys who brought so much terror, even an eyeful was too much for them to bear without having a round in the ring with the poor soul. Sure, they may have power and control written all over them, the town in their palm, but that didn’t mean they were unable to get the word out of a social gathering if they were feeling a bit of social isolation or cabin fever.

The fire cackled with life, a multitude of chairs sitting around it as though it were the main entertainment of the evening. Some were empty, some strewn into different areas all together. Few an individual found themselves sitting alone, lest they had managed to pass out from overdoing it with some substance or pure exhaustion. Even then, most of those who were in that situation were males, faces drawn on with any kind of utensil or material appropriate enough to draw with for inappropriate symbols and phrases.

Many of the boys who managed to stay awake were testing their strength by wrestling, fist fighting, or shotgunning as many beers as their poor, poor stomachs would allow. Others sat in the aforementioned askew chairs, sipping on their respective drink of choice - most likely some cheap beer that’d found itself in abundance for the evening. They watched their friends, cheering them on with borderline feral vigor and glee or rambled about whatever came to mind in a sloppy dance shared between intoxicated friends.

Few a couple had managed to scamper off from the dim light of the fire to the darkness of the surrounding woods. One so innocent could think them to be stargazing, lying upon a blanket and partaking in cinematic tenderness. Though, with ears attuned, one would know that there was a more heinous act taking place.

That left you, quietly staring at the fire. Distanced just far enough to be socially comfortable from the group of girls to your right, you sat with a stick topped with a marshmallow in your hand. You couldn’t remember if the marshmallows were provided, but you managed to scrape together two graham crackers and a reasonable amount of chocolate. It was a bonfire, sure, but that didn’t mean any of the organizers truly knew how to really ... organize appropriately.

To your right, the girls giggled endlessly, whispering in tones hushed enough for you to be unable to hear. From time to time, they would glance at the party you presumed they were talking about, sometimes their curious glances landing on you.

The tender spring breeze nipped at your skin, but the bonfire near you kept it at a nearly comfortable equilibrium. Some, mostly the girls, had managed to think enough ahead to bring blankets. Some had left them draped on random objects or people, prints ranging from dull plaid to bright, animated characters. You had one on the seat, padding it enough to keep you cozy.

A sudden scream from the woods had many a head snap toward the woods, brows drawn high and curiosity higher. Next, a howl of laughter roared through the woods, followed by a stream of fire revealing the couple and their voyeur.

“Don’t get so comfortable you fuck in the woods, kiddies! Watch your backs, always!” Patrick cackled, the pair - some poor Sophomores who appeared less than thrilled to be outed. You recognized them, Nathan something and Brandy Duffy. You couldn’t stifle a momentary laugh through your nose as you watched the pair, likely embarrassed beyond belief, quickly get up and make their way out of sight; much to Patrick’s delight.

“Dude, Patty, c’mon!” A person yells, the voice most likely belonging to Belch, from the sound of it. “You’re ruinin’ everyone’s fun, give people a lil’ privacy, please!”

“Now where’s the fun in that?” The culprit said, now shrouded in darkness, though given away from his booted stomps through the brush back to his friends.

It seemed Belch didn’t have an answer to that, evident by him beginning with a “Well,” then going silent and followed by a chorus of wolfish laughter from his friends.

“You can jus’ say you want a lil’ action yourself, Belch,” another said, likely the voice of Henry.

You looked back to a marshmallow-less stick, opting for an eye roll and throwing the stick into the fire to nimble on the chocolate and graham cracker you’d found. The girls near you giggled, revitalized by the action of Patrick’s antics alone. From a subtle side-glance you sized them up, finding it to be Greta Bowie and her friends. It made sense to you, then, that they’d be giggling at just about anyone and anything - not that it was really any of your business, anyway.

Shifting back to the fire, you leaned back and simply decided to soak in the moment. An early spring night in the woods with a trademark Bowers’ bonfire. You pondered if there would be anyone awake to do the annual jumping of its ashes. Last time, Victor and Patrick managed to collide and fall into the ashes. The former groaned at the thought of sullying his carefully curated outfit and feeling of dying embers on his skin, whereas the latter only cackled with energy so unlike the early-morning it sent a chill down your spine. Good, good teenage times.

The girls near to you shrieked, pulling you from your reverie, the countenance of Patrick’s home-made flamethrower grazing near them enough to shake reality back into you all too quickly. Their shrieks died down into overly-bubbly giggles, showering him in supersaturated, sickly-sweet praise and unbearable, overzealous actions. It was too much to bear, a grimace suddenly setting onto your features as you turned back to the orange flame.

“Oh, does a little moth grow bored of the commonalities of a typical bonfire?” Flamethrower dormant, he found himself meandering to you, granted it only took a few mere steps.

“Commonalities? Isn’t it a bit late for words that big?” You hummed, lazily turning your head to his direction and taking a sip from what was left in your bottle.

“Hm, maybe the princess is a peasant,” the cheek-splitting, blood curdling grin apparent on his features translated into his voice, despite the stoic expression remaining on your - likely exhausted - face.

“And maybe the god is but a worm,” the quip leaves your mouth before you can think and his face goes stony.

“I wonder if peasants are deserving of eyebrows,” his voice grew deathly cold, earning a snort from you for the sheer turnaround in his disposition. His lighter flicked open, and the can of aerosol suddenly spraying into your vicinity. It burst into light, far too close to comfort, yet you didn’t find yourself flinching in the slightest. Instead, you stared back at him through the flame, mirroring his deadpan.

Truth be told, you didn’t find him scary in the slightest. Even throughout elementary, when he’d be smacking the life from flies and showing them to his classmates. Even throughout middle school, when his antics picked up into undoubtedly more sinister things; Derry is a small town, word travels quickly even if you don’t know it. Definitely not throughout high school, after he’d found the Bower’s Gang and likely transformed them into more sadistic kids then they already were. Though, that’s all that stood in front of you and you knew it; a kid. And kids weren’t exactly on the top of things that made you shake in your boots.

“Patrick!!” Overheard from your inner turmoil, and likely from the disappointed vocal chords from Belch, caused a flinch in his stone-like features.

“Please stop torturing the party-goers,” a loud groan was overheard, though this time from a new person, probably Victor. It snapped Patrick from whatever kept him rooted in place and the fire going in your face. He pointed a bony finger in front of your nose.

“This isn’t over,” he snarled, stepping away to likely scuffle with his friends.

“N’aw, it was just gettin’ good!” Barked as he stepped from you, the gravel-like timbre signaling itself as Bowers himself.

Whatever this was, you weren’t particularly enthralled with the continuation. Not that you didn’t have tricks up your own sleeve, you just didn’t want to deal with Patrick fucking Hockstetter anymore then you already had to.

[youcantkillamutant]

The Mystery of the Golden Fang: Part 2, The Enlightenment

Part 1: The Collision

Author: youcantkillamutant

Fandom: Marvel (Black Panther)

Pairing: Erik Stevens/Killmonger x Black!OC

Summary: A girl stumbles into another world. A baby disappears. A private investigator wonders if this will be the case he can’t solve.

Warnings: Mentions of blood, cursing

Words: 9K

A/N: So…here’s another one of those AU’s that absolutely no one asked for! I only own my original characters of course, Marvel don’t sue me I’m broke.

Listening to: Lightyears by Kimbra, Werewolf Heart by Dead Man’s Bones, Bad Ritual by Timber Timbre, and Blood on My Hands by Danielle Parente 

Part 2: The Enlightenment

—l—

When a candle burns, even the wind cannot no undo what has been melted by the fire.

—l—

Earth Stream 947: October 1, 2040

1:02AM

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”

Hazel’s heart had done more than leap out of her chest. For all she knew the organ had departed her body completely, leaving her gasping and holding the hole in her chest. After N’Jadaka had dropped his…fangs, Hazel promptly took three steps back and clutched the baby so tightly she woke up. Now Hazel focused on the baby’s eyes; wide, brown, round, and curious while she tried to breathe through whatever was happening in her body.

N’Jadaka took a few steps back from the human in confusion. Who is this chick? N’Jadaka had never met someone who didn’t know about vamps. And now this girl showed up with a baby and without a clue. He turned to Shuri in question.

“Shu, what the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“Well you have to tell her, especially after that little show of your fangs.”

“Yeah but look at her. She’s having a freaking heart attack. Wait do humans still have those?”

“Yes they do, so just be chill about it. Ease her into it. I’m sure if you present it to her in a rational way she’ll take it well. Probably.”

“Yeah, chill.” N’Jadaka nodded to himself as he mouthed the words again. Chill.

The girl seemed to have calmed down, though she was still taking careful breaths as N’Jadaka approached. He took in her brown skin and broad nose wondering for a moment if she was actually a fairy. He peered around her back for wings, but none appeared, and he resigned himself to having to explain his existence to a human, of all creatures.

“Now, I don’t want you to freak out okay? My cousin and I aren’t going to hurt you.” He approached her short form cautiously.

“Pretty sure those gold fangs beg to differ.” Even terrified and confused, Hazel managed to snark at the stranger. He had just flashed his razor sharp fangs at her.

“That was supposed to be funn––” N’Jadaka threw his arms up in surrender.  “Forget it. My cousin and I are vampires, but we won’t––”

“Vampires?!” Hazel’s shriek was enough to startle the baby, but instead of holding a crying baby, suddenly Hazel was holding a whimpering ball of fur. Yelping Hazel squeezed the leather jacket curled around the fur ball tightly. It barked when it fell from Hazel’s arms, and she stumbled back. On the ground was a small jaguar cub; pied and blinking, Hazel couldn’t take her eyes off of it. Luckily, Shuri swept into the conversation.

“Sounds like she’s taking it well.” N’Jadaka curled his lips at the mirth in her voice.

“The kid turned into a jaguar on me! I can’t really keep things ‘chill’ after that.”

“Whatever you say cousin.”

“Wait, wait. You’re saying that baby, turned into that jaguar?” The cub was now playing with Terra, N’Jadaka’s panther familiar. They were a mass of black and golden fur, racing around in circles and nipping at each other’s tails playfully.

“Yep, your kid’s a shifter! Surprise!” Shuri completed the action with a cheesy grin and outstretched fingers while wandering towards the front doors.

“She’s not mine…” Hazel trailed off. She couldn’t find the words, or any words really to describe the hysteria that was going on in her head. Vampire’s are a myth, were a myth up until a few minutes ago.

She’d never thought much of the alley behind The Golden Fang but now she wished she had been smart enough to avoid it. Wherever she was now is proof that that place is not normal. Hazel was tempted to walk outside and see if she would find the same shops across from the club sign, or even walk back to the care center, but something told her that wouldn’t be the case. Hazel had a sinking feeling in her gut that a step out of that door would lead her into a different world.

“You really aren’t from here are you?”

“Where is here, exactly?” caution colored Hazel’s voice as she watched the baby and panther play. Aside from the whole shapeshifter thing, Hazel had never seen any wild animals this close. It was kind of fascinating.

“Metropolis.”

“Like the cartoon?” N’Jadaka couldn’t control his face when he heard the girl’s confused response. She truly didn’t know anything about his world.

“No, its––Haven’t you heard about President Gorya?” The current president was worse than a joke because he took himself seriously, but the rest of the world didn’t. That’s why T’Challa is running. If anyone could make a change, it would be T’Challa. That vamp is too benevolent for his own good.

“Who?”

“What about the Creatures Rights Act?” It was the biggest push from species rights activists at the time and the only bill to pass unanimously. Still, from the look on Hazel’s face, this didn’t ring a bell. The more questions N’Jadaka asked, the more concerned Hazel got. Either this guy was really convincing, or she really is in a different place entirely.

“The what?”

“Tiller Mayhem?” N’Jadaka mentioned the serial killer that had been running rampant, targeting all kinds of low country creatures up until he was caught last year.

“Nothing.”

“Beyoncé?” Shuri had returned from her wandering, slipping back into the conversation with ease.

“Duh! You guys have Beyoncé?” Hazel nearly shouted her response, happy to hear something that finally made sense.

“Yeah she’s the biggest pop vamp in the world.” N’Jadaka could name her last few singles and even knew a few of her songs, but Shuri was the real fan.

“Wait wait, Beyoncé’s a vampire?”

“And a succubus on her mom’s side. What is she in your world?”

“The biggest pop star. A mom. Amazing.”

“She has kids in your world?”

“Yep! A daughter and twins. Blue, Sir and Rumi.” N’Jadaka had heard enough from the girls, and steered the conversation back to answers.

“Back to the original question. Where the hell did you come from and how did you get here?”

“Um, I’m from Ortega,” The blank stares Hazel received from N’Jadaka and Shuri made her even more self conscious. “which apparently doesn’t exist here. As for how I got here…I was on my way home from work and I heard a baby crying.”

“And you just followed the sound?” Hazel could hear the skepticism in N’Jadaka’s voice. She bristled.

“Yes, I followed the sound. I’m not the kind of person to leave a baby in an alleyway.”

“So you find the baby and what?”

“I don’t know. It got a little windy and the next thing I know, you’re walking out for a smoke.”

“Next thing you know? Seriously short stack? That’s the best you’ve got?”

“That’s the truth.”

“Sounds like a load of––” Shuri stopped N’Jadaka before he could belittle the girl further. She didn’t know the human, but no one deserves to be on the end of N’Jadaka’s righteous inquisition.

“Well I’ve got a theory––” N’Jadaka rolled his eyes at his cousin’s statement. He knew all about Shuri’s theories, and as of late they’d become so ridiculous he was getting concerned about her health. Sure she might be the smartest person in the world, but she’s always been one step away from falling down the rabbit hole and onto the Mad Hatters cap. Shuri’s kimoyo beads rang before he could say anything.

Shuri stepped away to answer the call and N’Jadaka returned his attention to the human. She was small, hence the nickname but something about her was big. Currently she was rolling around with Terra and the baby shifter, giggling as they snuggled with her. N’Jadaka wanted to summon Terra back to him with a kiss of his teeth, but he studied the trio instead. In the ten years Terra had been with N’Jadaka she’d always been a good judge of character. She’d sniffed out plenty of shady club goers and warded him away from even shadier business deals. Now the cat was nipping at this girl from another world and purring louder than he’d ever heard.

“N’Jadaka, that was a call from my brother. Nakia’s back. He wants to––

“Have a family dinner.”

“Well we better get packing. What do we do with the…” He gestured to the human and shifter.

“They’re coming with us. Obviously.”

“So you want me to bring an unregistered human and a random shapeshifting kid to family dinner?” N’Jadaka stroked his chin for a second pondering the consequences.

“You know what, that might actually make things interesting. Let’s do it.” Shuri facepalmed before shoving N’Jadaka.

“You always want to make trouble.”  N’Jadaka shrugged.

—l—

Earth Stream 245: October 4, 2040

4:15PM

The nearly Ivy League college was as crisp as the orange autumn leaves. Crestbay University was one of the top 5 schools in the country and home to the most advanced psychological in the world. Detective Stevens found himself there after two days of gathering information and hitting brick walls.

“Will do Mrs. Okoye.” The bright eyed student bounced on his toes as Okoye raised her brow.

“Professor Okoye.”

“Oh, right. S—sorry Professor.” Light in their eyes sufficiently dimmed by embarrassment, the student practically ran away, and Erik couldn’t resist teasing his old friend.

“Still scaring the freshmen Professor?”

“When it suits me.” The duo shared a laugh, and Okoye jumped right into questioning her old partner.

“What do you need Erik?”

“It’s about a case.”

“Stevens we aren’t partners anymore. You can’t come to me about this stuff, especially since I know hardly any of your work is above the board.”

“I know but, Okoye it’s…I can’t explain this one.”

“The great Erik Stevens can’t explain something? Color me shocked!” Okoye teased, but Erik stood his ground. In all the time they’d known each other, Erik had never met a smarter woman than Okoye. She was observant and a savant in nearly every subject, which made her such an annoyingly amazing partner when they were on the force. Usually he never bothered to enlist any other help for his cases, preferring to handle everything on his own, but this case has stumped him from the beginning.

Hazel Fay had no reason to run away. According to her coworkers and friends, she was happy as a clam. Sure she worked two jobs, but that was more for experience than out of necessity. She didn’t have any outstanding debts, no enemies or secret vices. She was—is a perfectly normal girl who somehow went missing without a trace.

“How much do you know about alternate dimensions?” Okoye fixed Erik with an incredulous look considering the nature of the question and its complete ridiculousness, but when she saw he was serious Okoye sighed and grabbed her bags.

“Lets get a drink.”

“Oakies?” Erik was referring to the southern bar chain known for their hospitality, sleek bartops and haunting musical acts. Okoye scoffed.

“What do we need to go to a bar chain for? I got whisky in my office.”

“Okay Professor.”

Erik ran over the case again in his mind on their scenic walk to her office.

Hazel goes to work all day at the school and then her night job at the care center. According to her coworkers, there is nothing out of the ordinary, no angry parents of crying kids. She leaves the care center at around 9PM, and begins her walk home to her apartment on Lafayette Street. She pauses right in front of the security camera posted outside of the Golden Fang Bar for exactly forty seconds. Her head is tilted, she is listening to something. Finally she moves, but instead of heading home, she ventures further into the alleyway. She crouched down to the ground, grabbed something and holds it to her chest. When she rises from her knees, she disappears.

“She just vanished. One moment she was there in the alley, and then she picks up some black bundle and poof!” Erik relayed all he had gathered about the case to Okoye in the beautiful brownstone home that had been converted into office spaces for the professors and their assistants. He threw his notes on her desk, giving her a chance to peruse them while he sank into the wood and leather chair that sat in front of her desk.

Okoye gestured to the bottle of whisky that sat in the corner of her desk, procuring a pair of glasses while she studied Erik’s notes. Erik poured a finger for each of them and leaned back. Okoye hadn’t changed her office much since he had last been here. The walls were still the same boring white—or eggshell as he was initially informed. A red and gold tapestry hung on one of the walls, glittering in the sunlight that streamed through the open window of the room. Her wide wooden desk was littered with rhino trinkets, pens, and golden bits and bobs.

“That is…strange. This whole case is…odd.”

“That’s an understatement. Look, Okoye I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t run through every logical possibility. No one at the bar even saw the girl. They’ve got nothing.” Okoye nodded gathering her thoughts on the case. It was strange. The girls in Erik’s cases don’t just disappear without a trace like this. Sure they’re hard to find, but there are breadcrumbs to follow. This video leaves nothing.

“I’m a layman’s physicist in comparison to your connections. You should talk to an actual award-winning one.” Erik knew who she was hinting to, but he played dumb.

“You should talk to Nakia about this.” Erik didn’t shake his head at Okoye’s suggestion, but he didn’t nod either. The last person he wanted to think about was Nakia. Super-spy extraordinaire. Award-winning physicist. The first and only woman to break his heart. The reason he works as hard as he does now.

“She doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“Maybe, but she can help with this. She would want to, if it helps you find this girl.” Okoye knew this wasn’t the answer he was hoping to find with her, but she was never in the business of biting her tongue to please others. Erik needed help and she didn’t have nearly enough knowledge on the subject he was looking into to give him a useful answer.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” Erik slammed back the rest of his whisky, gathered his notes and waved Okoye goodbye.

“See you around Professor?” She smiled, all teeth and mirthful eyes.

“If you can find me Stevens.” Erik rolled his eyes at the jab and pulled out his phone, dialing the most recent number he found for Nakia before the whisky wore off.

—l—

Earth Stream 328: October 7, 2040

2:05PM

“It’s been a week and I still haven’t seen my daughter Harley.” A week. A full seven days of sleepless nights and endless searching for Ayana. Harley didn’t know what was real and what was a dream at this point, but she still kept searching. She conferred with every deity she could get in contact with, wrote every witch within a 100 mile radius, hell she even prayed. Still, Ayana never showed.

“You don’t think I’ve been looking?” Killmonger didn’t know what the witch had been doing since she’d thrown his baby into nowhere and he didn’t give one flying fuck. He’d gone too long without his daughter, too long without hearing her laugh or seeing her gummy smile. Hell he’d even take her teething cries over the silence that filled his house now. But the witch had no leads and he couldn’t find her scent. It was like she just, disappeared.

“It doesn’t seem like you’ve been doing much of anything.” Finally Harley snapped. After a week of his snide comments and shitty treatment, Harley whirled on the Tribal Leader with a snarl.

“Fuck you ‘Monger.” Killmonger twitched, arms reaching out to grab Harley’s neck before the door to the Golden Fang swung open.

“Well, well, well. What’s a guy have to do to get a drink in this shitty little town?” The white man wore a bright white cut adorned with fringe that didn’t deserve to see the light of day and obnoxious gold epithets on his shoulders. A patch of blood and bone was stitched in a jagged line on the back of his leather cut along with an embroidered name: The Poachers. The man wore his bloody cut and his deranged smile like an accessory. He didn’t make it to the bar before the Jags stood, blocking his path to the bar.

“Poacher’s ain’t welcome here.”

“Oh come on boys. I just want a little drink.” The man gave a small grin, revealing yellowed teeth and a few silver caps.

“No.”

“What’s up your ass? Your old lady ain’t doing her job?” The man waved to Harley, and she nearly lunged for the idiot. Killmonger is the last man she’d ever––

“Oh I know what it is! You lost your kid right? Left her with some witch? God, I’ve never met a shifter stupid enough to leave their kid with a witch, but there’s a first time for everything, right?” This time Harley did lunge. The Jags weren’t expecting anyone to break through from the back, and she got a solid punch in before W’Kabi, Erik’s right hand man, pulled her back behind the wall of Jags.

“Out.” Harley examined the blood under her nails, barely recalling the scratch she had gotten in before W’Kabi pulled her off of the Poacher. The man continued to speak, but Harley ripped herself from W’Kabi’s arms. Stomping out of the back door, pushing hard enough to hear it slam into the side of the bar as she made her way out to the dry dirt.

The Vibranium Babes had a bar just across the street, and Harley stomped her way to the bar. The bar was more of a club in the sense that it was always a little dark and had way too much chrome for a tiny town in the mountains, but Harley liked it. The music they played was a mix of bass electric and bubblegum pop that made her want to bob her head and grin at the same time. Ayana used to love walking by here on the way back to the Golden Fang. That thought was enough to sober Harley and she pushed her way to to back of the club where Shuri’s office sat.

The door glowed purple from the inside out but Harley couldn’t hear a sound. She knocked just below the sign that read: ‘Boss Babe’ and pressed her hand to the door as she waited. She tried to use the cool metal to calm herself and focus her energy. Right now, her powers were going haywire because every single thing she had built for herself in this town was going haywire. Even before she became Harley, Harley couldn’t remember a time where she felt so hopeless. Killmonger hated her even more, and Ayana wasn’t there to soften the blow. As she recalled his words, each one hurt a little more.

“Harley? Come in.” Shuri got one look at the girl and pulled her into her office. She guided them both to a plush purple couch sitting beside her and tossing Harley a pillow to hug. She latched onto it immediately.

“Shuri, I need to do a spell.”

“Harley spell working is too dangerous—” Harley knew spell working was dangerous. She knew every risk from growing addicted to perils of white magic to growing three extra arms and an antenna. None of that mattered. Or the risk was worth it all. Ayana had become everything to Harley, and the longer she was away, the tighter the noose squeezed around her heart.

“I don’t give a fuck Shuri. I have to do something. I have to find her!” Shuri inhaled and held Harley’s gaze. On a good day, Shuri wouldn’t never even begin to entertain the idea of spell working. Ritual magic and energy flow are the safest options for a witch like Harley, but those take time. Time that Shuri could tell they were running out of. Killmonger would lose what little patience he had, and even Shuri couldn’t guarantee Harley’s safety then. On the exhale, she relented.

“We need to go see Oma.”

—l—

Earth Stream 947: October 8, 2040

5:09AM

“I’m just saying her presence proves my theory that multidimensional travel is possible!”

“Shuri, I love you, I do, but her presence proves nothing. What if she just has amnesia or something?”

“How many humans have you seen walking around unchipped and unregistered? And when’s the last time you ran into a jaguar shifter? You know I’m right N’Jadaka.”

“I know a lot of things, but that ain’t it.”

Hazel Fay was amazed to learn not only that vampires existed in whatever world she stumbled into but that they can walk in the sunlight without problem. Though most of them tended to be nocturnal, apparently they travelled in the daytime. Hazel and the baby, which she had taken to calling ‘Bug’ where ushered into a sleek black car by N’Jadaka and Shuri. Upon entering, the car released a mist of something Hazel couldn’t quite place, and then N’Jadaka and Shuri were back with suitcases packed, Terra climbing into the backseat with Hazel and Bug as they set off to…wherever they were going.

N’Jadaka and Shuri have been bickering ever since from the front seat. In an instant it dawned on Hazel that she should have never gotten into the car. Hell she probably shouldn’t have said anything to these vampires at all. Hazel whipped her phone out of her pocket, frantically pressing the home button, but nothing appeared. Either it was dead, or it didn’t work in whatever world she was in right now. Hazel only had a moment to panic before her mouth whizzed past her brain.

“Where the hell are you taking us?”

“T’Challa’s house.” N’Jadaka sighed in annoyance, though he was happy to get some entertainment from the human. He was beginning to wonder if she had fallen mute.

“Which is where?” Hazel did her best to remain polite, she really did, but vampire or not this guy is an asshole.

“Considering you don’t even know where Metropolis is, I doubt you’re going to know where to find Wakanda.”

“Then show me. I’m sure it’s not that difficult.” Hazel was one snarky word away from flicking the back of N’Jadaka’s ear no matter the consequences.

“She has a point cousin.” In an instant, the entire front seat turned to face Hazel, the baby, and Terra. N’Jadaka looked sufficiently annoyed and Hazel was beginning to wonder if that was just his face. Shuri on the other hand had her left wrist outstretched, a bracelet of thick black beads emitting a soft blue light.

“This is our travel plan.” An image of a map projected from Shuri’s bracelet this time, bright, blue and bold. Hazel could see a continent that looked to be like Africa, but the States, or what was the States in her world, was all messed up. The east coast ended where Virginia might have been, Florida was completely gone, and the midwest had become and island somehow.

“We started in Metropolis, obviously. And we’re headed to Wakanda the second largest vamp city in the world. It’s in Cafria, just about 5,000 miles east.” Shuri pointed out Metropolis, which looked to be where New York city would have been in Hazel’s world. then she pointed out Africa, or ‘Cafria’ as it was called here, as their destination.

“How long will it take?”

“A couple of days give or take. As long as the weather holds we should be fine.” Shuri waved off the weather like it was nothing and pulled out a piece of small circular technology. She leaned forward towards Hazel and held it up to the window. Hazel’s eyes widened at the invasion of personal space, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking at Shuri’s eyes. they were yellow and orange, like flecks of fire dancing from a flame. Chagrinned, Shuri directed her attention to Hazel.

“Do you mind if I plug this in? I want to charge my kimoyo beads before the flight.” Hazel shrugged and watched the girl place the tech onto the window. It only took a second to pulse blue and then it began to hum. The sound was nearly silent, but Hazel watched in awe as Shuri pulled off her bracelet and held it to the tech. The bracelet latched on like a magnet and Shuri leaned back, pulling down the shade by her face. Self driving cars and solar power. To Hazel this was more futuristic than she expected for another world.

“Solar charger. It’s my newest prototype. Adding the magnet is always tricky with everything else going on in there, but I think it’ll hold.” Shuri explained when she saw the look on Hazel’s face and again wondered where in the universe this girl came from. She very clearly wasn’t a part of their world, despite what N’Jadaka might think. This girl wasn’t meant to be a part of their world and it’s only a matter of time before fate pulls her back to wherever she truly needs to be. Shuri wanted to be the one to see her back to her world and maybe even get a glimpse of it in the process.

Hazel nodded gratefully at the explanation and watched Shuri lean back in her seat again. She watched as the girl closed her eyes, and watched even closer as her breathing evened out. As far as she knew vampires don’t just sleep in the open, so Hazel had to wonder what the hell she was doing.

“You staring at my cousin pretty hard. You into her or something?” Hazel whipped a side-eye at N’Jadaka. Sure the girl was cute and they looked to be around the same age, but as of right now, she was in another world. The last thing she’s focused on are prospective partners.

“No. It’s just…In my world, Vampires only sleep in coffins. Or upside down. And they can’t go out in the sunlight either.”

“The vampires in your world sound like pussies.”

“Yeah well it’s not like they’re real anyways. At least not in my world.”

“You’re serious about that? No vampires in your world?”

“No magical creatures at all. Why?”

“I don’t know, I just can’t imagine a world without us, and creatures like us. I mean sure I could do without the Stokers, but compared to the fae, they aren’t so bad.” Hazel’s brain spun at the mention of fae and a world with magical creatures before her mind caught on a question.

“Stokers?”

“Yeah the European vampire assholes that love to try and gentrify anything they deem ‘in desperate need of repair’. Those are the ones that can barely tolerate the sunlight, though they still bring their undead asses out on occasion.”

“Wait, there are different types of vampires?”

“Not genealogically, for the most part we’re the same, these are just our…cultural differences.” Hazel raised her brows in an effort to get him to elaborate and after a moment of annoyance that he had to explain anything at all, N’Jadaka relented.

“Okay so, you’ve got the Stokers––”

“European assholes.” Hazel covered the baby’s ears as she said the last word, even though Bug was fast asleep. N’Jadaka almost smiled.

“Right. Then the succoyants. They came from the islands and pretty much dominate the south nowadays. And lastly you’ve got The Adize. My people. We came from Wakanda, and all over Cafria.” Hazel heard the pride in N’Jadaka’s voice.

“So what makes you special?”

“Well, in our legends, we turn into fireflies. We dance along the plains, flying free until we need to feed. Then we can fall into whatever form suits us best and…eat.” N’Jadaka leaned closer to Hazel as he told the story, laughing a little when she jumped at his final words. She was easy to scare. He tried to get a whiff of her scent, but remembered the scent blockers they’d doused her and the baby with. She’d have to remain a mystery.

They pulled up to the tarmac smoothly, Shuri jolting out of sleep the second the car stopped. Hazel peered out the window taking in the small, sleek black jet. It was the only plane on the blacktop and for the first time Hazel wondered just who she was traveling with. Peeking down at baby Bug, she was happy to see the kid was still fast asleep. Terra was too, and she didn’t envy N’Jadaka having to wake her up to get her on the plane.

“This is us.”

“Are you guys rich or something?” Shuri laughed and turned to N’Jadaka, gracefully twirling out of the car and towards the jet.

“You want to handle that one cousin?”

“We’re comfortable.” N’Jadaka shrugged under her scrutiny, then shook himself and sat taller. No human is going to make him feel any type of way about his money. Hazel couldn’t stop digging.

“How comfortable?”

“Let’s just say, Wakanda treats us like kings.”

“So you’re what? Vampire royalty?” Hazel watched N’Jadaka shrug his answer with rapt attention. He was being way too casual about this for it to mean nothing.

“Of a sort. My father was a prince. We tend to live in an…elevated economic status than some of the other vamps.” Hazel couldn’t resist rolling her eyes. Not that N’Jadaka noticed, he was busy checking the flight plan on his kimoyo beads.

“Now I know you’re royalty.”

“Why?”

“Because when you talk about certain ‘economic circumstances’ you sound like a media trained asshat.” Hazel’s hands went right over Bug’s ears again.

“Charming.” N’Jadaka stopped Hazel’s questioning with a sneer. He’d be damned, well even more damned than he already is, before they messed up their flight plan. He hefted Terra over his shoulder and nodded to the attendants. They grabbed the luggage and hurried to the plane as Hazel scrambled out of the car, baby in her arms.

“Please tell me you know what a plane is.” Hazel rolled her eyes at N’Jadaka’s condescension.

“Oh fuck off.” Of course, that’s when Bug decided to wake up.

—l—

Earth Stream 245: October 8, 2040

9:22AM

“Kia.”

Erik was surprised that the phone only rang once after he finally mustered up the courage to call. Nakia’s voice hit him like a hurricane, strong and quick and biting. It took him four days to make this call, and he wasn’t proud of it. Erik had never been anything but bitterly independent, but when Okoye couldn’t help him and he spent another few hours beating his head against the wall and watching a tape that made no logical sense, he gave in and called.

“I told you to stop calling me that E.” Her words wore annoyed but Erik could hear the smile creeping through her voice. He grinned into his own response.

“And I told you to stop calling me that.” The line was silent after that, and Erik remembered why they had stopped talking. They had never been a great match, but convenience makes fools of us all. Not to mention their family history.

“Why are you calling me Erik? I thought––” He didn’t have the hear the rest of the sentence to know how it was going to end. I thought I made everything clear the day you lowered my father into the ground. Erik knew he shouldn’t have called. Hell, he hated that he needed her help, but Jules Fay had called everyday since she first came to his office, and Erik was sick of filling her with non-answers and disappointment.

“I need your help. It’s about a girl.”

“Seriously?” Erik cringed at her tone, sharpened to a point he couldn’t stand.

“A missing girl. I think she’s in another dimension.” Nakia didn’t laugh or call him crazy, but he didn’t expect her to. She’s not that kind of person. She’s too smart to pass judgement without analyzing all of the factors.

“Why do you think that?”

“She’s just disappeared without a trace Nakia. She’s not like you, she couldn’t have done this. She’s got no priors, no secret lovers, no enemies. She volunteers on the weekends and works with kids night and day.”

“She sounds like a saint.” Nakia was intrigued. She’d worked plenty of missions that involved finding people that couldn’t be found, but in her research, she’d never come across something like this without a clear explanation. She could understand why Erik was stumped.

“Exactly. There is no reason she would have been targeted. No reason for her to be taken.”

“People are crazy.” Nakia offered this up delicately, knowing the answer wasn’t in her words but giving them anyway to fill the silence.

“There was no one in or around that alley Nakia. She’s just…gone.” Nakia hesitated. Erik sounded weary. Erik Stevens was never anything but resolute and elegant, but now, he was weary.

“Send me the tape.” Erik’s breath crackled over the line.

“Thank you.”

“I’m not promising anything.”

“I know.” Erik went to pull the phone from his face, but Nakia stopped him.

“And Erik? If this is an impossible case, you need to stay open to all possibilities.”

—l—

Earth Stream 947: October 10, 2040

3:27PM

Cafria is hot. Hotter than any place Hazel has ever experienced. It’s a crisp, dry heat that made her want to moisturize every five minutes. Her fingers swelled the second she stepped off of the plane and her phone burned a hole in her pocket. N’Jadaka and Shuri didn’t seem to share her sentiments. They waltzed off of the private jet with grins to rival a crocodile’s and they stretched like cats in the sun. Their eyes looked more gold than brown in this place, and the pair thrummed with a new kind of energy. Something magical, like they could become anything at any second, and no person or thing would be able to stop them.

After boarding yet another private plane to Wakanda, the quintet landed quickly and made their way into a private limo. Or what Hazel assumed was a limo in this place. It was just as sleek and black as anything in Metropolis, and Hazel pressed her nose against the window to watch the world fly by. Luxurious lakes reflected the pristine blue sky, and that soon gave way to rolling verdant hills with elegant horses galloping through them. By the time they reached the gate, Hazel had to sit back in her seat. Dazed and glutted by the beauty of this place called Wakanda.

At the gate, Shuri mumbled a few words in a language Hazel couldn’t understand and the wrought vibranium gates slid open. N’Jadaka studied this human take in the opulence of the estate. The car glided to a stop and the group made their way out of the car quickly. Hazel, clutched Bug in one arm and the other was free to feel the Wakandan air. Palm fronds of every shape and size enveloped the entryway and N’Jadaka watched as the girl reach out and touch them. She rubbed them between her fingers like she’d never seen a tree before, and once again he had to wonder just where she came from.

T’Challa and Nakia, the Scientist and the Spy stood together, looking just as picturesque as their palatial home. Smiles were plastered on their beautiful black faces, and they almost looked normal, human. All it took was another glance for Hazel to reconsider that thought. Golden eyes glittered like jewels in flawless faces and Hazel slowed her approach, falling behind N’Jadaka and Shuri.

“Sister,” The tall man pulled Shuri into a hug while the woman watched on. Then he turned his attention onto N’Jadaka. “Cousin.”

“Wassup?” N’Jadaka nodded and went for a handshake, finally revealing Hazel, who stood with Bug in her arms while Terra purred at her feet, tail flickering around her ankles. The lean man pulled his face into a judgmental visage of furrowed brows and downturned lips. Hazel didn’t bother waving, instead taking in the grandiose foyer. Dark wood melted into gleaming tile and mirrors reflected the setting sun through the tall french windows.

“This is not a BYOH cousin. We have plenty of blood for––” Shuri shoved T’Challa on the shoulder and though his face conveyed brotherly annoyance, he stood rooted to the spot.

“She is not a blood bag brother. She is proof!”

“Proof?” Hazel never thought someone could raise their eyebrow wearily, but here she was, seeing it happen. Maybe it’s a vampire thing.

“Yes, they are proof that multidimensional travel is possible.” N’Jadaka face palmed while T’Challa sighed. He should have known by now to remain unsurprised by Shuri’s…hypotheses, but he still hasn’t mastered complete control of his reactions. Still, this is better than when Shuri designed that––T’Challa stopped himself before he walked too far down memory lane.

“Why don’t you all come inside and we can talk over breakfast?” Nakia finally spoke, voice even and only slightly commanding. As though her word was law, T’Challa nodded and followed her into the house. The trio followed suit, Hazel gripping Bug a touch tighter than necessary.

The hallways were painted blue laced in gold trimmings and peppered with greenery. Hazel couldn’t imagine living in a place this pristine. Paintings hung from the walls and silvery glimmering busts stood in the corners. It was like walking through a museum. After what felt like a mile long walk to Hazel, the group made it to the dining room. Terra darted to a silvery bowl filled to the bring with wet food and the rest of them took their seats.

Hazel sat Bug up in her lap, waving away the highchair Nakia offered. She felt safer with the baby in her arms. Even if said baby could turn into a jaguar. The table was laden with all manner of breakfast foods. Sausage and bacon and eggs and pancakes steamed from their places on the table, but Hazel caught sight of something else. Pastries were piled high on three trays to the right of her. Perfectly laminated croissants, fluffy muffins, and glossy danishes filled to the brim with bright fruits beckoned her to take a bite, but N’Jadaka stopped her before she could reach for one.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” N’Jadaka had been watching the girl through all of this, and he had to admit he was impressed. Most humans would have run away screaming if the T’Challa Udaku had referred to them as a blood bag, but this girl…Hazel, didn’t seem to know what the hell we were talking about at all. It wasn’t necessarily refreshing, but it was interesting.

“Why not? I’m starving” Hazel nearly bit N’Jadaka’s hand off of her shoulder. She hadn’t eaten since…There had been snacks on the plane, but she’s hadn’t had a real meal since she was back home. Before she came to this world, she had plans to make soups all weekend and freeze them for the months to come. Now Hazel wondered if she’s ever get home again.

“Some of the ingredients might not sit well with you.” N’Jadaka had seen human get sick from eating their food, and he didn’t need to see it again.

“Which ingredients?”

“The blood mostly.” Hazel balked and N’Jadaka barked out a laugh. Now that he mentioned it, Hazel could see the pastries had a slightly pink tinge to them. She pulled her hands back into her lap and let Bug play with them for a bit while she tried to reason with her grumbling stomach.

As if she could read her mind, or hear her stomach, Nakia placed a plate in from of Hazel. It was piled high with fruits and bagels without a bloody tint to them. Hazel gazed up to find herself captured by golden irises as she thanked the woman. Nakia nodded with a small smile, happy that N’Jadaka brought a human with manners this time.

“So, who exactly are you?” Nakia said this after she was seated next to T’Challa. Her tone was kind but her brow was raised high enough to make Hazel want to curl in on herself.

“My name is Hazel Fay. I’m from a town named Ortega, which apparently doesn’t exist here.” Of all the things Hazel couldn’t wrap her head around in the this place, the fact that she was no longer home was the hardest. In fact, home doesn’t exist, or never did exist in this place. According to Shuri and N’Jadaka.

“N’Jadaka found her in the alley of the Golden Fang. With a baby shifter. On a full moon.” Shuri’s emphasis on her last few words made Hazel wonder just how much she was missing, but everyone else at the table looked just was clueless as she felt. Bug wiggled in her arms, reaching for the plate in front of her. Hazel pulled the muffin into bits and handed them to Bug, happy to see the baby eating without problem. The last thing Hazel wants to worry about was a baby who wouldn’t eat.

“And you just appeared here?”

“Yes Nakia! Her presence here is a matter of the divine. Bast herself brought her to us, for some…reason.” Shuri said all this with excitement, but N’Jadaka couldn’t resist a snort. He loved his cousin, but sometimes she let her scientific ideals blind her to reality. This human still hasn’t proven much of anything yet.

“We still don’t have proof that she isn’t from our…world.”

“And that’s where you come in, Brother.” SHuri turned to T’Challa with a grin.

“What is the perfect candidate going to do to prove your theory Shuri?” N’Jadaka’s voice was teasing and Shuri rolled her eyes. T’Challa and Nakia watched on in silence, apparently used to this kind of thing.

“Aside from being the perfect presidential candidate, my brother is a scientist too.” After relaying this information to Hazel, Shuri turned to N’Jadaka with a childish sneer.

“T’Challa is going to scan her and ensure she isn’t in the system. She won’t be, but until N’Jadaka gets his head out of his A-S-S and learns to trust me, we’ll have to waste time.” The man in question rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Hazel was grateful that Shuri spelled out the curse word and couldn’t help but giggle a bit at their interaction. T’Challa on the other hand took charge. He turned Hazel to face him and raised his arm.

“I suppose a retina scan cannot hurt.” T’Challa pressed a finger to his kimoyo beads and a thin blue bar moved over Hazel’s eyes before she could blink.

“Brother just scanned your eyes and is running them through the system. Every creature in or world is registered from the moment of their creation, though only certain beings have access to certain databanks. As a high ranking vampire official, T’Challa has access to everything.” Shuri finished her spiel with a prideful wave, but Hazel could only nod slowly. Just as she thought she was getting the hang of this world, something new popped up. There was a quiet rumbling sound, like the bead was calculating before it released a long beep.

“No Record…”

“Ha! No record, which means she is not from our world because every human in our world is registered. It is impossible not to be.” N’Jadaka huffed when Shuri turned to him with her hands on her hip and a smirk to rival his own.

“Fine Shuri, you were right.”

“If she isn’t from this world, how did she get here in the first place?” Nakia asked this quietly leaning back in her chair as she observed the scene. T’Challa and Nakia had always encouraged Shuri’s natural curiosity, but she couldn’t help but wonder if this was the hypothesis that would get her in trouble that they couldn’t get her out of. She prayed to Bast that that day would never come, but looking at this unregistered human had her heightened senses on alert.

“And how do I get back?”

—l—

Earth Stream 328: October 11, 2040

5:12PM

Four days. Harley has been hiking for four days. Four days in the Calawuga heat, marching on the hardened soil in barely broken in boots. All to see the mystical Oma. Whoever the fuck that is. To be fair, Harley had a vague inclination of who Oma is; a mountain witch with ties to the Great Gorilla tribe. That’s as much as she knew off hand, and after four days of hiking with Shuri, her curiosity won out over her pride.

“So, why exactly are we going to see Oma?”

“She’s the Queen of the Great Gorilla Tribe.” Shuri said this like it was common knowledge, which in part is was. The Great Gorilla’s kept to themselves for the most part, but the town knew their hierarchy. M’Baku was king and his Queen, Oma was the most powerful witch in the town. The only reason Harley hadn’t gone to Oma in the first place is because of the falling out Killmonger had with M’Baku when he decided to marry Oma. The man hates witches so much, he let it ruin his best friendship.

“And?”

“Seriously? You don’t know?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking.” Harley’s annoyance seeped into every word but Shuri shook her head.

“Aside form being a crazy powerful witch, she’s one of the only witches who’s messed with spell work and white magic. Well, one of the only ones who’s lived to tell the tale.” Harley was impressed to say the least. She’d never even bothered with withe magic, the idea of it was more than enough to put her off. White magic or spirit magic in some circles, is more than dangerous. It’s a brush with death. Speaking to the dead is almost always more trouble than it’s worth and Harley never needed the power that came with that kind of magic. That is, until now.

“I can’t believe Monger didn’t tell you.”

“It’s not like he’s my biggest fan Shuri.” Shuri snorted, but in a way that challenged Harley’s statement.

“Shuri, the man hates me.”

“He really doesn’t. He’s just––” They heard the vocalizations before Shuri could get another word out. In a minute, they were surrounded.

Queen Oma of the Great Gorilla Tribe lives deep in the Calawat mountain range. A four day hike will get you to the boarders of her land, but it will take another six hours by foot. Maybe seven if you’re surrounded by an elite force of Calawugan warriors. When the pair were initially surrounded, Harley began sizing up her opponents. They were big, and fierce, but Harley thought with the right amount focus, she could take them. Shuri stopped her before it could come to that, speaking to the warriors in their native tongue, promising them that the duo meant no harm and only requested an audience with the Queen.

They were brought to the palace, a wooden masterpiece that sat on the second highest peak in the mountain. The highest peak was reserved for Hanuman of course, their Gorilla headed god. The halls of the palace were light and open, far from the fortresses of the tribal bars back in town, and Harley marveled at how deeply she could breath the mountain air. It had been a while since she had taken a breath not filled with the scent of smoke and booze.

Their audience with the queen was granted after a moment of waiting and they followed their craven of warriors into an octagonal room. In each wall rested a window and above, the ceiling fell away to nothing in the middle. It was reminiscent of a roman atrium pillars, wooden instead of stone, and the ground paved smooth.  

“Queen Oma, we thank you for meeting with us.” The King was nowhere to be found but taking in the woman Shuri called queen, she didn’t find that strange at all.

Queen Oma stood tall on a rug woven with fresh palm leaves and a crown resting on her head. Small skulls the size of Harley’s palm dangled from the regent’s ears and she granted Shuri a closed lipped smile.

“Shuri, I trust this is important. It is nearing the end of hunting season you know.”

“It is Queen Oma.” Harley was surprised to hear that Shuri never dropped the title of Queen with Oma. Shuri would grant anyone else a ridiculous nickname, but with the Queen, it was only respect.

“My friend and I,” Shuri waved to Harley, and Harley curtsied for lack of better ideas on how best to show respect. “we need your advice spell working.” In an instant, Queen Oma turned her gaze to Harley.

“You want to do spell work? Why?” Bright brown eyes captivated Harley, causing her to scramble for words while Shuri nudged her arm.

“My…” Harley reached for the words to best describe what Ayana was to her, and then decided to avoid that rabbit hole completely.

“I need to find someone. She’s disappeared.”

“And you think spell working will help you? Why?”

“I––I don’t know what else to try.”

“Scrying.” Harley knew what scrying was, a certain type of meditation witches could use to see the future. Harley also knew that she couldn’t do it.

“My energy isn’t particularly inclined towards premonition.”

“It’s a good thing that scrying isn’t solely for premonition then isn’t it?” With a nod, Oma had the room cleared. Only Shuri, Harley and Oma stood in that large rotunda.

The night sky loomed overhead, stars winking into existence here and there. Scraping sounded from the right and before Harley could fall into a defensive position at the sudden sound, Oma stopped her with a hand. Oma strolled to the side of the room, scooping up a large bowl that had been slid into the room from outside and brought it to the center of the room. She placed it on the dais that sat there under the dark sky and gestured for me to look into it.

“I really don’t know how to do this.”

“I will guide you. Now look.”

With a deep breath, Harley turned her gaze downwards, into the bowl. There was a dark liquid in the bowl, still settling from movement. It was so dark Harley could see the whites of her eyes reflected in it, her brown skin finding highlights in the shimmering fluid.

“Concentrate on who you want to see. Not how she was or how she might be, but how she is, in this very moment.”

Harley concentrated. She bit her lip and squinted her eyes. She held her breath and scratched her neck. All of this, and she saw nothing.

“It’s not working.”

“That is because you do not believe it will work. You do not believe your energy will let you see anything outside of your realm of knowledge. You must expand your mind, your energy. Use everything you have to reach out, to see her, to find her.”

Harley forced herself to take Oma’s words seriously. Sure she’s never done this before, but until now, no witch had ever told Harley that she didn’t have the power to do something magical. That she didn’t believe in her energy. Harley knew how powerful she was. Powerful enough to frighten all of her neighbors and classmates with a single glance. Powerful enough to bring down the electricity for her entire city, and bring it back up again. Harley knew power, knew energy, she just wasn’t sure how to wield it.

So she buckled down. She closed her eyes for a breath, and on the exhale opened them slowly. As she raise her eyelids, she could see flecks of energy that flickered around the room. Aura’s could be tricky to see, but on nights like these, dark and clear, she couldn’t help but see them. Shuri’s blazed bright purple, and Oma’s was and emerald green, but Harley was searching for her own. Blue like the inner flame of a fire. She caught a glimpse of it, sitting right beside the bowl. Concentrate on expanding your energy.

For a moment, Harley wasn’t quite sure what to do. She’d found her energy, but controlling it was another thing entirely. Before she could spiral into any sort of despair, she asked her energy to move. To stretch and seek out Ayana, to find her fuschia energy wherever it might be. Harley watched as her energy pulsed brightly, then began to move, flitting around like a firefly. Then, just as she thought she might be going crazy, an image flickered in the bowl.

It was a girl. A girl who looked like Harley before she shaved the sides of her head and got more piercings than she could count. They had the same hickory skin, the same brown eyes, and the same wide nose. For a moment Harley thought the girl was her, that she had messed up and summoned an image of the past, but then she saw Ayana. The baby girl, her baby girl was cuddled up in her Golden Jag cut, snuffling into the neck of the girl who looked so much like Harley. Then another woman, draped in black walked into the frame of the bowl. Her eyes echoed Harley’s own, and Harley couldn’t keep herself from jumping in surprise.

Her movement was enough to shake the bowl and knock her out of focus, but when she looked up, Harley relief curved her lips into a smile.

“She’s alive.”

A/N: Soooooooo we’re getting a little more information here, but nothing definitive. Yet.

So apparently Okoye is a surname? Am I the only who didn’t know that? I tried to find a “first name/christian name” for Okoye on the Wiki and in the comics, but there was nothing… So, Professor Okoye it is!

N’Jadaka is a bougie vampire lol. I would expect nothing less tho tbh. Also vampire subcultures! That was fun to write! Adize actually means “magic” in the Ghanian language of ewe :)

Hazel still doesn’t really know where the hell she is, and Harley has finally seen Ayana! Now she just has to tell ‘Monger and get that baby back in the right dimension. Should be easy enough, right?

Fun Fact: You can actually bake with blood. In some recipes it takes the place of egg whites/leavening agents, though it takes like three times as long to whip up in comparison to egg whites. Learned about that in this podcast! (Do not listen to this if you are squeamish!!!!!)

As always let me know what y’all think!

The Mystery of the Golden Fang Mood Board

A Map Made in Heaven

Masterlist

Taglist: @princessstevens @muse-of-mbaku @k-michaelis @queenamaniii @thatrandomfangirl98@dreadedphilosphy @killmongurl @thelovelyliterary @elaindeereads @thedom223@bidibidibombaclaat@thatrandomfangirl98 @panthergoddessbast @nemesispawn@writingmarvellousimagines @someareblindtoitsbeauty @jozigrrl @iamrheaspeaks @purple-apricots @thadelightfulone @janelledarling

[what-even-is-thiss]

The Four Seasons, The Beginning.

Hey. What’s up? How’s your day? My day is fine, I guess. I wrote a story I thought I did terribly with and it got over 100 notes in less than 12 hours. So, since everybody seemed to like that first one, which you should probably read before reading this one, so here it is, I decided to write an origins story. Now, keep in mind that Norse mythology is full of weird and questionable birth and creation stories, so if this seems weird know that it was on purpose. Also, a little bit of education about the Norse creation myth in here. I love teaching people about myths oooooh. *repressed giggle of delight*

Anyways, I hope its just the right amount of weird.

Tip Jar

Warnings: This is supposed to be a Norse mythology birth/creation story, so there’s death, blood, wolves, some gross things, and some moments that just make you go, “Huh?” 2,391 words

Abstract: How the four seasons came to be. A continuation of the Sanders Sides Norse mythology/seasons au, and part of the actual Norse creation myth as told by me, but the story is bent a bit.

“You can read the little book if you promise not to tell any of the gods. We’ve managed to keep this from them for thousands of years and it is still hilarious. They have no idea who we are,”

“I still say we have no reason to...”

“Shut up Winter. Nobody asked you,”

“Also, it’s super embarrassing. We can’t tell them,”

“And the way we were born is more embarrassing than being licked into existence by a cow? Seriously Autumn, I still don’t understand you,”

“Whatever, Summer. When Spring gets back for the night I’m totally setting him on you, and go ahead and read it, human. I didn’t go through all the trouble to track down a mortal competent enough to write it for nothing,”

“They have a name, Autumn!”

“Oh, go to Hel and ask the dead if I give a damn. Even they know that I don’t,”

In the beginning, there was Muspelheim, the primordial fire, and Niflheim, the first ice. Between them was Ginnungagap, the absolute nothingness.

Over countless years, the ice and fire came to meet in the nothingness and there came into existence a giant named Ymir.

Odin, Vili, and Ve were sons of one of the first gods, who was descended from the first god, and the first god was licked out of the ice of Niflheim by a primordial cow, and was called Buri.

Buri’s grandsons Odin, Vili, and Ve, killed the giant Ymir in a battle that lasted for days. Once he was dead, they set to work making a world from his remains.

The giant’s body became the Earth, and his blood poured out and became the oceans, lakes, and rivers. The gods formed mountains from his bones, and rocks and pebbles from his teeth. His skull was lifted above the earth and became the sky.

During this time, the world tree Yggdrasil continued to grow to connect all things. It placed one of it’s roots in the newly formed Earth that the gods were creating. The tree knew all things, and it knows that where there is a beginning there is an end, and where there is an end there is a beginning, and so it dropped a piece of itself into the newly formed world.

The cutting of the tree fell down, down a mountain and was taken away by a torrent of blood as the newly dead giant was still settling, and his blood was still flowing out in torrents.

The cutting took hold of the barren ground and took root in defiance against the river. It soaked in the water at a frightening speed and grew so quickly that it made cracking noises as it grew.

It grew into a hundred foot tall ash tree with four parts to it. One quarter of the top was barren without leaves, another was covered in baby leaves, green and small. Another part of the tree was covered in full, dark green leaves, and the one next to it was yellow and brown.

Soon, the moon Mani was chased into the sky by the wolf Hati and fled for his life across the night sky. As soon as he went over the horizon, his sister Sol, the sun, was chased into the sky by the wolf Skoll.

As soon as her light fell upon the barren landscape, the tree lit up, mimicking her light. A pair of hands punched through the bark of the tree and clawed and pulled and pounded with such urgency and force that within a minute of appearing, a man fell out of the tree, fully formed.

As he gasped and breathed in his first air and wiped the sap from his eyes, the hole closed behind him. He looked down to see that he was clothed, and was confused by this. The newly born god then looked to the sky, which still dripping slowly with blood, and the sun lighting it up, and he knew what he was.

He picked himself up and took a few shaky steps, and then he walked and then ran, and in his wake sprung up fully formed bushes, flowers, and grass. He ran across the land and touched the dead trees formed from the giant Ymir’s hair, and they immediately sprung into full green leaves.

The young god took hold of the wind like it was the string of a kite and followed it across the land. He fell and tumbled and ran, and his hearty deep laugh echoed across the land, heating the air and bringing warm rain.

When Odin and his kinsmen returned to check on the world they had created, they were astonished. They had expected it to take centuries for life to begin, but there were live trees, and crops, and plants and animals of every type covering the landscape, and it stayed like this for several years.

Every night, Summer returned to the ash tree. He grew tired and lonely, but saw the gods as beneath him. They only ever thought of themselves. He forgot in his years of waiting why he had gone to the ash tree in the first place.

One day as he returned, the moon was straight overhead when he heard a crack. Summer jumped and looked back at the tree he spent every night sleeping against. There was a crack appearing below the yellow section of the tree.

Two hands wedged their way through the crack from the inside and pulled. With a mighty jerk the tree was torn open, and out fell an exhausted man dressed in brown and black.

Summer ran to him and lifted the stranger’s head as the hole in the tree closed behind him.

“Why do you look like me? Who are you?” he demanded.

“I was just born and already you are interrogating me,” the new god said, already tired. “You know who I am. The tree told you so,”

Summer remembered and groaned. “No. I do not want to stop this! You will have to catch me!”

Summer ran off into the night, and despite how new and confused he was, Fall knew his purpose and chased his brother off into the darkness.

Just as the dawn began to break, Autumn caught up with summer and tackled him. He got the sticky tree sap stuck all over the other god as they wrestled on the ground. Despite how angry Summer was, he couldn’t help laughing. Fighting with him was fun, and they were now covered in grass and dirt, but neither of them particularly cared.

Then suddenly Autumn pulled his older brother behind a bush and said to be quiet. Summer peeked through the bush and saw several Aesir gods, Odin among them, gathered around a tree.

“What are those?” Fall asked, nervous. “You are more than a day old. What are they?”

“They are the Aesir gods of Asgard,” Summer whispered. “They don’t have to see us unless we want them to, do not worry. But what are they doing?”

The gods were carving at two old tree logs that had washed up on the ocean shore. They were becoming more and more person shaped.

“They’re making people out of trees,” Autumn noted.

“We came out of a tree,” Summer said.

“Yes, I know that. You are really obvious. Are we sure I am the one that was born last night?”

Summer rolled his eyes. “Oh, stop your talking and just go do your job. You caught me fair and square,”

Autumn didn’t have to be told twice. He took a slow careful walk along the earth, slowly starting the trees on their way to resting. With his touch, grass began dying. Animals began scurrying to store food for a later day.

Summer ran the winds like a current, letting himself be swept along with them like a moving tide. Autumn walked in the wind, taking it slowly and painting cold into it like an artist with a brush.

In time, the world was covered in red and yellow and brown. There was a cold nip in the air, and it stayed like that. For years, the world felt like it was on the edge of something. Something that wouldn’t come.

Summer soon realized he couldn’t stand the cold. He began building a long hall, and during the nights when he slept, his brother continued to work on the house. The younger one seemed to never sleep, or if he did it was short and fitful, like his dreams were laced with nightmares. So, he worked.

One night they were sitting by the tree. Fall was cleaning a skin and his brother was sharpening a knife.

“When do you suppose the others will come through?” Summer asked.

Just them, they heard a crinkling. Then a pop. Then a flick, and Autumn got hit in the face with a piece of tree bark. When they both looked over, they noticed that for a while someone had been systematically picking off small bits of bark and throwing them away. They stared dumbstruck for a minute until the hole was big enough for the person inside to neatly step through.

The new season straightened out his sap covered clothes and took in a deep breath. “Oh, that is better. It was difficult to breathe in there. So this is the world. Fascinating,”

“I can’t stand you already,” Fall said.

“I realize I just came out, but I do believe from what I know that your statement could be considered rude,”

“Just do your job. I don’t care,” Autumn said in a huff.

“Very well. Will you help me?”

Fall stood up and started walking away. Winter followed him, asking about how he was supposed to clean all of the sap of of himself. Summer sighed and continued sharpening his knife. He was going to get so bored over the next few months. He found himself vaguely wondering what was going to happen to the humans.

The humans were just fine, it turned out. As Autumn caused all of the leaves to finish falling and went home, and Winter tried his hand at making snowflakes, they adapted and learned to stay warm.

Winter grew fond of the humans as he went through the world, sometimes quickly and sometimes slow. He threw his creations to the winds and watched them swirl and cover the ground with white. The humans seemed so smart, and they appreciated the beauty of the snow while also hating it. It was a beautiful paradox and he loved it.

Every night Winter came back to their home and gave his apologies to his brothers, because he didn’t have the power to stop this. None of them were ever alone for too long anymore, but they had no way to make the world ready for Summer.

Summer had originally thought that he could just make the world warm again, but that didn’t happen. The first time he had come out of the tree he had simply willed the warmth and life to come, but now that didn’t work. He had been without the warmth of the sun for so long. Fall went outside sometimes and enjoyed the cold and admired Winter’s handiwork (though he’d never admit he liked it) but Summer just couldn’t. He fell into a deep sadness that was difficult to hide from the others.

After a couple years of this, Winter was preparing to leave at dawn and Fall was seeing him off. Summer came out to watch the sun rise in a dim hope it would be warm. Then, they heard a crack.

They all looked at their tree. Their huge ash tree that they had all come out of. It was cracking. There was light coming out of the cracks.

In a burst of light, the tree fell apart. Splinters, branches, and bits of bark flew everywhere. They all covered their heads as everything fell around them in a shower of ash tree.

When they looked up, there was a face nearly identical to their own, smiling with the sweet dawn bursting up behind him.

He was tired and new and confused, and he stumbled forward into Winter’s arms and leaned there, getting sap all over his older brother.

“Hi,” he mumbled through his tiredness, “sorry I’m late,”

Summer laughed for the first time since he had run from Fall almost nine years before and pulled the new season into his arms with a dramatic and crushing hug.

Winter smiled despite himself as he wiped the tree sap off of his neck and even the edge of Autumn’s mouth twitched upward a little. Spring was here. They were all here. They were all home.

Once Spring had woken up and washed off, he got to work right away. He ran through the world like an excited child, making flowers pop out of the snow and calling all of the animals to wake up.

He loved the humans and thought they were adorable. He often invisibly watched their children playing and laughed right along with him.

He warmed the breeze and brought rain and flowers wherever he stepped. The grass came back to life in a lively way, and the trees grew flowers and tiny green buds that quickly grew into leaves.

And one morning, to his delight, Summer was woken up by the youngest of them who eagerly pulled him outside. Soon the summer sun beat down on the earth and warm breezes cut through the nights.

And every year it has followed this way, with the seasons switching off the same way they always did.

“Hello! I’m back! Oh, is there a mortal here? How exciting!”

“Oh, he’s baaack. Hey Spring! Summer wants to ask you about your flowers!”

“Autumn , no. I didn’t think you’d actually...”

“Oh, he does? Come on!”

“I’m gonna go watch this. It should be fun,”

“So, Winter? You all came out of a tree?”

“Yes we did. But then again, so did humans,”

“And you don’t tell the gods any of this because watching them frustrated is fun for you?”

“Well, that is the reason the others give. Fall claims he is embarrassed, but I don’t believe that is the real reason,”

“Then what’s the real reason?”

“Nobody knows. He never tells us anything. It’s quite annoying,”

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.

[rangersdoguk-blog]

Understanding and dealing with common dog behaviours

All dogs exhibit general canine behaviours patterns. Some dogs exhibit breed-specific behaviours such as extraordinary tracking ability, a heightened sense of territorial, a desire to run or uncanny ability to round of livestock so you find dogs are designed to hunt, chase, kill and eat. Dogs will be dogs and as much as the jobs done by dogs have largely disappeared.  Have been replaced by careers as pets or participants in a variety of sport or service jobs but canine predatory instincts are alive and well. If you are looking for help treating your dog’s behaviour issue or just curious about why your dog does what he does. Read our article as it is explained well below. Development of behaviour varies in individual dogs as well as between breeds. Dogs with a high degree of predatory behaviour are a challenge to train, especially if the family includes small children or other pets. Find more in the article about common dog behaviour issues to help you and your pup address some of our canine friends’ behaviour and habits.

Aggression

To say that a dog is aggressive it encompasses a range of behaviours that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack. Aggression is the most common and most serious behaviour problem in dogs. If your dog is aggressive it can get to a point where you seek professional help from behaviourists, trainers and veterinarians. Some of the intense behaviour that aggressive dogs exhibits are a growl, lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact, quick nip that leaves no mark, quick bite that tears the skin, bite and shake. They are so many but most dogs often do several of the behaviours outlined. Most pet owners will discover the aggression behaviour before it goes out of hand and also dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning. When trying to get answers on why your dog is aggressive find out what is triggering the reaction to give an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Depending on the type of aggression your dog can be cured or managed to a certain percentage. We have several aggression types:

Territorial aggression-some dogs will attack and bite an intruder whether is a friend or foe.

Protective aggression-dogs may show aggressive behaviour when they think that one of their family members or friend is in trouble.

Possessive aggression-many dogs show the tendency to guard their possessions from others.

Fear aggression-dogs do not like fear because a fearful dog may become aggressive if cornered or trapped.

Defensive aggression-closely related to fear aggression but defensive aggression difference is the strategy adopted by the dog. Defensively aggressive dog instead of retreating when fearful they react by attacking.

Predatory aggression-some dogs show canine predatory behaviours like chasing, hunting, grabbing on things or small animals and birds.

  Food guarding

Guarding possession is very normal even with dogs, from toys to territorial space to food. These dogs can survive in the wild as they know to protect their own. Some dogs can guard by chasing a person away, or biting you or running away with the item they are protecting to hide. This is considered dangerous especially with children around.  The dog might guard food on the table, dishwasher or leftovers and children do not know the warning signs of the dogs. It is advisable for pet owners to feed their dogs in a different room away from kids or outside in their crates. To avoid any harm to your children keep the feeding place outside as it is impossible to prevent the guarding behaviour. With some dogs, treatment for food guarding is tricky. If you try and your dog appears stressed and refuses to eat but guards his bowl discontinue the exercise immediately and seek help from a behaviourist or qualified trainer. Do not punish or intimidate your dog when he guards food.

Barking

Barking is a form of communication from your dog. It can alert you when someone is approaching your house, or your dog needs something. Barking can be a problem if it is excessive. Identify the cause before treating it. Continuous barking form your dog can be a way of getting your attention when he wants food, to play, or want to go for a walk. You can train it to sit instead of barking when he wants something. Some dogs like barking, so your goal should be to decrease barking instead of eliminating it. Dogs have unique barks for different needs like wanting to eat, coming into the yard or wanting to go for a walk. Ensure you understand the bark first to meet your dog’s needs.

Territorial barking- dogs can bark excessively when strangers and animals approach their territory.

Alarm barking- these dogs are more for security watch. They are still and launch forward with each bark. They bark at any and every sound to alert you.

Frustration induced barking-some dogs bark excessively when restricted or confined in a space and cannot move freely.

Injury barking-dogs sometimes bark in response to pain or injury. If this occurs let your dog be examined by a veterinarian in case of any medical needs.

For barking treatment determine the catalysts or causes of the barking to know how to best treat the type of bark. Do not tie your dog’s muzzle closed with rope, cord, rubber band or anything to stop barking as this could be dangerous.

Separation anxiety

Some dogs can show distress by urinating, barking, howling, chewing or trying to escape when left alone. All these show the dogs need to be trained house manners. Your dog might have separation anxiety if when you want to leave it has distress behaviour like drooling, it is chewing on toys and tearing everything. Separation anxiety is triggered when dogs become upset because of separation from their guardians, the people who care and show them love. Escape attempt can be hurtful to your dog especially the exit points. When treating a dog with separation anxiety, the goal is to resolve the dog's underlying anxiety by teaching him to enjoy or at least tolerate being left alone. It is believed that loss of an important person or group of people in a dog’s life can lead to separation anxiety. These mostly is observed in adopted dogs from a shelter because of change of family, schedule, residence or passing of a household member the dog was used to. Counterconditioning might reduce or solve the problem where the fearful, aggressive reaction of the dog is changed to a pleasant, relaxed one by putting the dog with the person it fears in a place it loves or with an object that the dog loves. Over time the dog learns that whatever he fears actually predicts good things for him.

Whining

Dogs mostly when they are seeking attention or want desired objects from their owners. Dogs can whine during greetings, it is brought about by excitement and may be directed at dogs or people. Some dogs are submissive and when adopting a submissive posture, for example, head down, tail tucked will whine a lot when interacting with people and other dogs. Separation anxiety can contribute to whining. If your dog does not want to be left alone it will whine. Injury can cause whining and if you notice this in your dog take her to the vet to rule out medical causes. Whining can be reduced by building your dog confidence. Try taking her to an obedience class that use reward-based training techniques. In dog training UK in just three weeks you will be able to see 98% success rate with your dog obedience level. The consistency behaviour and training will give you good rewards. They have a team of lady trainers who can care for your dog or puppy regardless of whether it is small or large, timid or bold. They are just a phone call away. Check their website for more details. http://www.dogtraininguk.com/  

Howling

Howling is one of the many forms of vocal communication used by dogs. Dogs how to attract attention, to announce their presence and make contact with others. A dog can howl due to separation anxiety if left alone by its owner for a long time and can be distressed. The dog can howl if hurt or sick. If the howling is more than usual visit your veterinarian to rule out illness or injury before any treatment. If the dog howls because of a trigger, remove the trigger and the howling will stop unless the trigger is frequent. You can also use desensitization and counterconditioning to help your dog learn to be quiet. Some dogs howl because they are lonely, especially if left alone for long or are kept outside. Dogs are social animals like human and need love and attention and if your dog howls try to spend more quality time together to stop this behaviour, bring him indoors often and play with him to reduce the attention seeking tendencies. Take him to a fun training class that focusses on rewarding good behaviour. Several organisations do this: Kindly check the websites for more detail. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers was founded in 1995 by John Fisher to offer pet dog owners a guarantee of quality when looking for a puppy and dog training class in their area. The APDT UK are proud of the fact that they assess all members according to a strict criterion which ensures they have appropriate skills to teach dog training. They are required to keep their education up to date and adhere to a Code of Practice. Training dogs has changed a great deal in the last few years. It is no longer necessary, or acceptable, to use harsh methods in training, and the use of gentle, motivational methods are as successful as they are enjoyable to use. Dog owners looking for local trainers can check their local area listing on this website. For more information check http://www.apdt.co.uk/ In fun dog training-Dogs need to know when they are doing the right thing and fun dog training ensures this is done by their numerous dog activities, and one on one training. Training is done through playing and made fun for your dog. For more details check http://fundogtraining.co.uk/ When you must leave your dog home alone, be sure to leave him plenty of attractive toys to chew and play and he will enjoy. Check out our dog toys selection.

Biting and nipping

Puppies like playing a lot and chewing on things. They want to discover more in their lives and use their mouth and teeth to this benefit when investigating. As puppies slowly develop into bigger breeds they begin chewing, biting on your hand, limbs and clothing start becoming dangerous instead of pleasant. Train your puppy to have good mouth behaviour and bite gently when playing with it. Encourage more non-contact form of playing such as fetch and tug of war instead of hand biting or wrestling. This will encourage him to look for toys when he feels like mouthing. Keep plenty of attractive toys for this at home.   The canine behaviours are many our article has just highlighted a few. If you have questions you can contact us for more details and directions for more information pieces you might want to read about. Some treatments of dog behaviour might require the help of a professional certified professional dog trainer (CPDTS) and the websites in the article have more information on the help they offer, just have a visit at the pages and get assisted.