Page 7 - Dog News, Events & Dog Care Advice

Playing tug of war with your dog has many benefits including helping you bond with your pet, hone their natural instincts, works as great training tool, and is an excellent source of exercise.

When used properly, tug toys are perfectly safe for puppies and dogs of any age. However, like any physical activity done with your dog, you should understand basic dos and don’ts to ensure you and your pet’s safety.

We have several safety tips below, but the most important one to remember is that you should always let your dog guide games of tug of war – never exert more pulling force than your dog gives!

Tug games and aggression

There has been some misinformation that games like tug of war promote bad behaviour and aggression in dogs, but this is not true. In fact these types of games can be a great training tool.

However, any type of physical game can cause already poorly behaved dogs to act out even further. Therefore it’s not recommended that you play tug games with dogs where obedience and

There are around 2,500 police service dogs operating within police forces across the UK, half of which are in the General Purpose Dog Unit.

General Purpose Police Dogs are multi-disciplined canines who are trained to undertake a wide range of skills, including:

• Tracking suspects
• Missing person searches
• Finding and recovering evidence
• Public order and patrols
• Aid in controlling dangerous dogs
• Protect the handler in dangerous situations and discourage threatening behaviour

Having these dogs trained in such a board manner makes them a highly valuable addition to territorial police forces across the UK.

While English Cocker Spaniels, Springer Spaniel and Labradors are used for more specialist roles like bomb and firearm detection, German Shepherd Dogs or Belgian Malinois are the two common breeds used in the general purpose unit.

Early training

Dogs who work with the police dog unit are sometimes donated and some police forces have their own dog breeding units.

From seven weeks old, police

Teaching your puppy to walk on a lead is an important behavioural lesson and the sooner they are comfortable on a leash then the easier all training aspects become. Having puppies controlled on lead can be very useful for housebreaking and other training aspects, not just outdoor walks.

You can start to leash train your puppy from ten weeks old.  

Why leash training is important for puppies

The sooner your dog learns good behaviours the better. Leash training your puppy will massively reduce the chances of them pulling when they are older and can be more challenging to control.

Puppies are very excitable and the more control you have of them, both in public and in your garden, means you ensure their safety. While they are leash controlled you can easily stop them drinking or eating anything undesirable, helping to prevent illness and injury. You also help keep wildlife safe from your puppy’s (sometimes destructive) curiosity.  

It’s is also of course the responsible dog owner thing

Our small universal side bags for the official IDC® Powerharness range are light and easy to fit, allowing for compact storage for travel or long walks. They also double up as bum bag which you can attach your belt loops.

The Color & Gray Dog Seat Belt Adaptor keeps your dog away from the driver by securing into the seat belt clips on the back seat while also keeping your dog safe and secure.

How to use the seat belt adapter

The adapter was designed for use with IDC® Powerharness with Side Rings. It is recommended two seat belt adapters should be connected, one to each side ring of the Side Ring harness and clipped into the seat belts either side.

It can be attached in two easy steps:

• Attach the clip on the Color & Gray Dog Seat Belt Adaptor to the side ring on your IDC® Powerharnesses with Side Rings.
• Clip the universal buckle adaptor into your car’s seat belt.

WARNING: Do not attach the Seat Belt Adapter only to the Central Ring located at the top of IDC® Powerharnesses. This will not offer suitable security when coming to a fast stop. Side rings on the IDC® Powerharnesses with Side Rings should always be used

Our large saddle bags for the official IDC® Powerharness range are both lightweight and simple to fit, allowing for easy storage for travel or long walks. This step-by-step guide outlines how to attach the Large Saddle Bags for IDC® Powerharness for harnesses sized between Size 0 and 4 (M – 3XL).

The Julius K9 IDC® Front Control Y Belt is an attachable chest pad for the IDC® Powerharness. It easily fits to the front of the harness for extra comfort and safety, and also has a D-Ring which allows front leash attachment.

The IDC® Powerharness is the newer, upgraded, version of our original K9-Powerharness®. Through research and development, the IDC^® Powerharness has been designed to be more comfortable, offer improved security and safety, and allow more attachments like safety lights and saddle bags.

Make even greater savings on our new low cost IDC® Comfort Harness with this limited time sale!

The IDC® Comfort Harness is the latest dog harness in our IDC® collection. It’s a simplified version of our popular IDC® Powerharness that’s been designed to be worn for short walks while offering great value and comfort for your dog.

Harness Features:

• Comfortable and lightweight
• Suitable for shorter walks
• No comprise on safety
• Comes with dog badge 'stay safe walk safe'. Custom dog labels and pre-printed patches available

Choosing a harness that has the best lead attachment for your dog depends on your walking needs and how well trained your dog is on leash.

Dog harnesses come in three types of lead attachment:

1. Front leash attachment
2. Back leash attachment
3. Duel-clip front and back attachment

Here at Julius K9 all of our leads have back leash attachment, but with our IDC® Control Y Belt With Front D-Ring attachment you can turn any of our IDC® Powerharness products into a Front leash or Duel-clip harness.

Below we breakdown the benefits and potential draw backs of each leash attachment type.

Back Lead Harnesses

Back leash harnesses have the D-ring for leash attachment located at the top of the harness, so leash control is focused on the dog’s back.

This is the most common type of leash attachment as the harness is simple to put on and dogs tend to adapt to this type of leash control quicker.

Pros:

• Harnesses are easier to put on and remove compared to front lead designs.
• Dogs tend to learn leash walking quicker