Danny is our first rescue dog. Three years ago, he joined our family after we lost Chloe, our Labrador. Shortly after, our oldest dog was diagnosed with cancer. When we said ‘yes please’ to Danny joining our family, we also said ‘yes please’ to a puppy, Christopher. So it’s fair to say that it was an unusually stressful time, but a noisy house was what our older dog needed. As well as being unwell, she was lonely.
Danny had been abandoned and he was rescued from a council pound kennels with 24 hours left on the clock, meaning if he hadn’t been claimed by his then owners or didn’t find a rescue space, he wouldn’t be here today.
Danny spent time in rescue kennels, recovering from his ordeal, gaining weight and health before he could travel to our home.
A few short weeks later, he arrived and it soon became apparent that this beautiful, kind dog, who was the size of a miniature horse, had experienced a pretty stressful life and this had left him with anxiety issues.
Danny now
Our other dogs helped him, but his stressed attitude meant that we couldn’t leave our three dogs together whenever we weren’t at home.
It wouldn’t be fair for his running back and forth constantly to keep the others on red alert for two reasons. One as a puppy, Christopher was impressionable and he could have developed anxiety himself and two, Mia needed to rest after two operations in short succession.
So, we got a dog treat cam. We chose the Furbo dog camera for two main reasons.
It looked stylish and had a two way mic.
This meant that if we were away from home, whichever of our phones had the Furbo app installed would receive an alert to say ‘Your dog is barking’ and we could ‘call in’. Danny could hear our voices, we could dispense treats and it would ease his concerns.
It would also teach him that being left alone wasn’t a bad thing, good things (treats) could happen.
And it works. We usually get a notification that he’s barking once, about 10-15 minutes after we’ve left home, and after calling in, having a chat and dispensing treats, he settles down and we get no further notifications that he’s stressed and barking.
Anyone who has had a dog with anxiety issues knows that it’s an ongoing training situation. But this special little treat tossing camera has made a massive impact.
We feel more comfortable knowing that if he’s upset and barking, which he doesn’t do while we’re home, we can call in and resolve the issue (for our neighbours I imagine this is also appreciated), and we calm him down so he feels more relaxed and happy.
After his start in life, that’s all we want. To make him happy and give him the best life possible, with each day full of fun and good memories.
The article is sponsored by Furbo Dog Camera.
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