Holiday Tips from Joel Silverman

*Before we get to some great holiday tips, I'm happy to announce the winner of last week's photo caption contest. They were all fantastic replies, but the winner is DBR with the caption "Mom, don't you think this holiday collar is just a wee bit too big?" DBR, please email me peggyfrezon [at] gmail [dot] com with your name and mailing address and I'll mail you the pet organizer. And thank you everyone for entering!

I've been fortunate enough to communicate with pet expert Joel Silverman a few times, and trust his advice. So when his publicist sent me his new tips for the holiday season, I was anxious to share them with you!
Holiday Safety Tips to Keep Pets Happy and Healthy
by Joel Silverman

Families are eagerly planning for the holidays and buying gifts for their pets and for the pet lovers in their life. During this exciting time, pets can easily get into trouble or find themselves in unsafe situations with Christmas trees, holiday lights and sugary treats.

Expert dog trainer and author of anticipated bestselling book What Color is Your Dog? Joel Silverman offers a quick list of tips to keep dogs happy and safe this holiday season:

Pets as Gifts
1. The selection of a new pet is an important process, and not a split second "gift" decision
2. The person that needs to be involved is the person that will be owning the pet.
3. Many dogs end up in animal shelters and humane societies because they were given as a gift
and their owners weren’t ready for the commitment.
4. Few people have time to take care of a new pet around the holidays.
5. Instead of giving a pet, give a coupon or gift certificate from your local humane society.

Keeping Your Home Safe
1. Try to keep your dog from exploring around the Christmas tree, be aware of what he is doing
and make sure that he is not eating or chewing on any ornaments, cords, branches or other
holiday décor.
2. Keep the lights off and unplugged when you are away from home. In the event your dog does
chew on a cord, he will not be injured or shocked by the electricity.
3. Be aware of all the items you put out around the house during the holidays, including candy.
Remember, to always keep dogs away from chocolate!

Hosting parties/Keeping your pet on the right diet
1. When you invite guests over, make sure they do not feed your dog people food.
2. Little bites of food coming from dozens of guests can add up to more than your dog can
handle and could make him sick.
3. One suggestion is to keep him calm and your guests happy is to put your best friend in a
separate room during your holiday party.
4. One way to keep your pet safe during the party, but still not completely isolated from the fun
would be to have a few of the guests give your dog some Bil-Jac treats before the night is
through.

Joel Silverman is the author of new book What Color is Your Dog? and host of Animal Planet’s Good Dog U. For over 25 years, Silverman has worked behind the scenes training animals for movies, TV shows and commercials and has appeared on national programs such as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and FOX News. Silverman has offered advice on pet care and training based on his lifetime commitment to the welfare of animals and their special place in our lives. Silverman is currently on a 100 city book tour for What Color is Your Dog? Click for more information about Bil-Jac and tips from Joel Silverman.

Learning about your pet's personality

I came across an interesting post this week by Dr. Narda Robinson, on one of my favorite blogs, Pet Connection. The article describes ways of better understanding and interacting with our pets.

This brought to mind an interview I did recently with Animal Planet's Joel Silverman, about his book What Color is Your Dog? Joel assigns colors to dog personality traits. The Pet Connection article shares a Chinese system of five "phases."

from Pet Connection:
"The five categories of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water represented changes these ancient naturalists witnessed over the day, the year, and the life cycle as well as interrelationships between organs, emotions, people, and climate. The model embraces, expects, and accepts metamorphosis.

Much like the personality profiles of modern psychology, Five Phases analysis groups people and animals into constitutional categories based on psychological and physical manifestations. While not yet a scientifically validated means of determining Chinese medical treatments for humans or animals, identifying a predominant phase out of balance in an individual seems to provide clues about what a patient needs to restore homeostasis.

For example, a task-oriented metal-type dog needs a job to do, while the earth-type cat needs a warm lap."

I recommend this article to learn more about your pet--are they Wood, Earth, Fire, Metal, or Water?

By the way, I believe Kelly is Wood.

The Best Training Tips from Joel Silverman

A few weeks ago I blogged about a cool touring bus decorated with dog pictures, which I spotted in my local mall parking lot. I've since learned that the bus is traveling across the country, not only promoting an awesome new book, What Color Is Your Dog? but also providing dog training tips from celebrity dog trainer Joel Silverman, host of Animal Planet's Good Dog U. Kelly and I could certainly use some tips!

In honor of National Dog Week, Joel Silverman answers the most frequent dog training and nutrition questions:



National Dog Week is September 22-28. Bil-Jac and celebrity dog trainer Joel Silverman have teamed up to help pet owners and pet lovers, looking to adopt, celebrate this special week with their furry friends.

On tour for his new book What Color is Your Dog? Silverman has traveled more than 5,000 miles cross country giving free training seminars at humane societies and animal shelters.
Through his travels, he has been asked almost every question imaginable about man’s best friend and here, he shares some of the most common and important questions to consider when training your best friend, or thinking of adopting a new addition to the family.

Q: What steps should a family take to pick the right pet for their family, and also to prepare for the arrival of the new pup?

A: Realize that with this decision comes a 15-year commitment to love and care for this pet. Really ask yourself if your family is ready. If you have two children in diapers and both parents are working, now may not be the best time for a new addition. Wait a few years.
The chemistry between the family and the pet is very important. Spend some time interacting with the animal and determine if it is a good fit for your family.

Q: After adopting a new pup, when should the owner begin training him?

A: Build a positive relationship with your dog prior to training. The mistake people make is that they try to build this relationship as they’re training their dog. That’s one thing that I really disagree with. I think it’s important to build a relationship prior, and become the animal’s friend.
You should take 4-7 days just to get to know the dog.

Q: How should dog lovers utilize treats and other rewards in their training process?

A: Treats are a great way to train good behavior in your pet. I would train a puppy using both treats and praise, but slowly decrease the treats and add more praise. This way you are going from 75 percent treats and 25 percent praise to eventually 90 percent praise and 10 percent treats. Treats are the greatest tool to use. I use Bil-Jac treats as they offer a variety of sizes and flavors perfect for training purposes. I have used Bil-Jac treats for 20 years and they fully support my mission to decrease the number of animals in animal shelters through adoption.

Q: How long does it take for a dog to develop a level of trust and understanding with their owners?

A: It just takes time. Some dogs may take 2-4 weeks to have a noticeable change. The first step in training any animal is to establish a friendship with them. Find out what they like and don’t like. Then, spend the next few weeks really developing a relationship with him and making sure that he understands you are there to help and nurture him. Through this step you will establish trust with the dog. This trust lets him know that you are there to protect and guide him.You do not want to establish a dominate leader role right from the start as this could set you up to fail with any dog. If you have a truly aggressive dog that will bite, then I recommend getting a professional to help you train him.

Q: Can you really teach an old dog new tricks?

A: Of course you can! All dogs have the ability and desire to learn, whether they are a pure bred dog or a mutt.

Q: Dogs have a tendency to beg for people food. How can pet lovers keep their dogs begging at bay?

A: You should never reward your dog for begging. Feeding your dog scraps from the table is rewarding the begging behavior and your dog is more inclined to do it in the future, because he thinks it's alright to beg. As an added precaution, both chocolate and onions are toxic and you should avoid giving your dog anything with one of these two ingredients in it.

Q: What are some of the benefits of kids having pets?

A: It is absolutely essential for a child to grow up with a pet. It gives children the opportunity to care for something. All the responsibility of feeding, walking and loving a pet translates into children being caring with other children. It also teaches them to treat the animal how they want to be treated. Ask your kids to put themselves in the place of their pet. Ask them how they feel when they are loved; how they feel when they are disrespected. Your dog feels all these things
too. This becomes a very real way of teaching children the golden rule.

Q: What is your favorite breed?

A: I think a good family pet is a mutt, I really do. There are lots of wonderful pure bred options as well. There are so many puppies and adult pets looking for a home. I think every person looking to adopt should visit a shelter first.

Joel Silverman is the author of predicted best-seller What Color is Your Dog? and host of Animal Planet’s Good Dog U. For over 25 years, Silverman has worked behind the scenes training animals for movies, TV shows and commercials. He has appeared on national programs such as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News, along with hundreds of local morning news programs. Silverman has offered advice on pet care and training based on his lifetime commitment to the welfare of animals and their special place in our lives. Silverman is currently on a 100 city book tour for What Color is Your Dog? For more information about Bil-Jac and tips from Joel Silverman, visit www.bil-jac.com or http://www.companionsforlife.net/. Share stories and pics of you and your best friend at Facebook.com/BilJacDogFood.

What color is your dog?

Yesterday I was pulling into the mall parking lot, and I saw a huge trailer parked there, with pictures of dogs on the sides.

Naturally that caught my attention. Then I realized that the trailer was advertising a new book, What Color is Your Dog. (Kennel Club Books, (c) 2009)

My first question was: what is going on in that trailer? And then--being a writer--I wondered what was so amazing about this book that warranted an entire vehicle traveling (assumedly) across country promoting the book? It must be really good for the publishers to go to such expense, right?

Since the van was situated way in the back of the parking lot, I figured nothing was happening there. Whatever promotion must be set up in the bookstore. So I wandered into Borders to see if there was a presentation. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything, not even a sign. I couldn't even find an obvious display of the book. So, I had to conduct my own research.

What Color is Your Dog: Train your Dog Based on his Personality "color."

The book is a helpful guide to training your dog. The first step is to find your dog's "color."

Red is "off the wall"
Orange is "high strung"
Yellow is "mellow yellow"
Green is "apprehensive"
Blue is "skittish and very afraid"

You can find your dog's color here.

I discovered that Kelly is Green. Actually, I think she's more of a greenish-yellow. But okay, we probably already know this basic personality about our dogs. How will this color thing help us?

According to the website, by identifying your dog's color, you can then read the appropriate section of the book to learn the appropriate training techniques for that "color" dog.

(The color technique to explain an idea is not a new concept. Some other examples of books that have used it successfully are What Color is Your Personality and The 8 Colors of Fitness. )

By way of explanation, the website states: "You would never train a Blue dog like a Red dog." Makes sense to me.

The book is filled with sound, practical and easy to follow training advice. It's applicable to every owner and dog who want to learn better behavior and work better together. It looks like a winner.

I also found out why the book warrants such a large promotional vehicle. The author, Joel Silverman, is a professional animal trainer for televisions and movies. He was host of Good Dog U on Animal Planet. He's also trained whales at Sea World, dolphins at Knotts Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, and birds, dogs and cats at Universal Studios. Some resume!

I don't yet own my own copy of What Color Is Your Dog, but I'm planning to get one. Kelly and I could use a few pointers.