Using Muzzles in the UK & Dangerous Dogs

Firstly not all dogs attack because they are aggressive, every household is a different scenario. A dog may attack because they are anxious, under threat, misunderstood etc. regardless we need to do what we can to keep everyone safe 

Every dog owner should understand their responsibility and be aware of keeping your for legged friend, other pets and humans safe.  You should provide proper training, control, and equipment for your dog (ideally from a young age). With this intention a well fitting dog muzzle, a comfortable and safe dog harness, and a leash will be good supplies in dog walking and training and everyday different situations in the life of your dog. It does not mean that your dog should be always muzzled, as well as many muzzles do not allow your dog to drink and eat. But it is indispensable many situations, as off leash training, vet visiting (for a dog not to injure itself or a vet), dog grooming, dog walking in public places, transporting in public conveyances etc. The majority of transporting companies require a dog to be muzzled when transported.

Hunting Dogs / Hounds

You should remember that even a well trained dog is an animal with instincts. Especially some large breeds like Greyhound and Lurcher are bred to chase small animals. To secure surroundings and yourself from troubles you should care of a good fit and comfortable dog muzzle for these dogs to wear in public places and being out. FAQ: Are Bull Mastiffs supposed to be muzzled? Do Rottweiler dogs need a muzzle? Do Staffordshire Terriers have to wear a muzzle? Does a British Bulldog have to wear a muzzle in the UK? Read the answers below and get to know the list of dogs that must be muzzled UK.

Dogs - Muzzle Law UK

There are no laws in Great Britain that demand a dog to be muzzled in some specified cases, but you should remember that you will take the responsibility if something happens for the fault of your dog. A dog owner should save himself and people around from troubles and injures being in public places, especially if there are children, in public conveyances and while off leash training.

The Dangerous dogs Act of 1991 specified a few breeds to be a danger to the public.

List of dogs that must be muzzled UK

The following dog types have to wear a muzzle and kept on a lead in public, also they are required to be registered and insured, neutered, tattooed and receive microchip implants.

• Pit Bull Terrier
• Dogo Argentino
• Japanese Tosa
• Fila Brasileiro

"Persons from having in their possession or custody dogs belonging to types bred for fighting; to impose restrictions in respect of such dogs pending the coming into force of the prohibition; to enable restrictions to be imposed in relation to other types of dog which present a serious danger to the public; to make further provision for securing that dogs are kept under proper control; and for connected purposes." (DDA 1991)

The Act is applied also for cross-breeds of these four types of dogs. Dangerous dogs are classified by "type", not by breed label. And whether a dog matches the description of a prohibited "type" is assessed by a court based on its physical characteristics. The Act applies in England, Wales and Scotland, with The Dangerous Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 having a similar effect in Northern Ireland.

List of dogs that must be muzzled in Ireland

There are restricted dog breeds in Ireland, that have to wear muzzles and be on a strong lead in public places. These are:

• American Pit Bull Terrier
• Bull Mastiff
• Doberman Pinscher
• English Bull Terrier
• German Shepherd (Alsatian)
• Japanese Akita
• Japanese Tosa
• Rhodesian Ridgeback
• Rottweiler
• Staffordshire Bull Terrier
• and every dog of the type commonly known as a Ban Dog (or Bandog)
• and every other strain or cross of every breed or type of dog listed above.

Responsibility of a dog owner

A dog should be trained from the very young age to become a well-bred member of the society and make your life spare from troubles and the surroundings from danger. It is up to you to train an obedient dog. If your dog barks or it is too aggressive, a dog muzzle will not resolve the problem. Consult a veterinarian and find a good dog trainer to manage the problem from the very beginning until it becomes a constant dog habit that is difficult to manage. There are no bad dogs, there is not enough of quality dog training. Be responsible and care of your four legged friends and we will provide you will all the needed supplies for comfort and security of your dog.

Check out our range of Muzzles and other methods of training e.g. calming remedies, pet correctors to stop them being anxious, barking. 

We advise that you take every opportunity to get your dog use to wearing a muzzle even if its wearing it for 5-10 minutes around the house daily and reward with a treat afterwards.

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CELEBRATING 47 YEARS OF KONG

1978 The KONG Classic begins. Fritz, the German Shepherd who is responsible for the discovery of the power of the VW part that would eventually become the blueprint for the KONG, is shown holding his favorite toy.

1979 1987 1990

2003 2007 2010

Enrichment in the animal kingdom goes beyond dogs and cats. KONG works with several non-profit organizations which rescue and rehabilitate a wide variety of species. One of those being  chimpanzees.   Chimp Haven is a sanctuary in Louisiana dedicated to the long-term care of chimpanzees. Their specialized Behavior Team provides a tailored enrichment program for each chimp. Part of their daily enrichment program includes KONG-time, to provoke the same natural behaviors these chimps would perform in the wild. KONGs fall into food and environmental enrichment activities to help work on their foraging skills.

We have been honored to provide KONG donations each year to help enrich the lives of these chimps, as well as other animals in the world of rescue and rehabilitation.

Click Here for the full range of KONG toys

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RAW - Rabbit Awareness Week (Day 1) - The Importance of neutering rabbits

Both male and female rabbits will reach sexual maturity (be able to breed) at slightly different times. This is dependent on nutrition, age, body weight and breed of rabbit. Small rabbit breeds attain puberty between 4 – 5 months of age; giant breeds between 6 – 9 months.  

Once they reach puberty, hormone increases will cause the onset of adult behaviours such as territoriality.  At this time rabbits will begin to mark territory, which they do with both urine and faeces – so previously litter-trained rabbits will begin to deposit both urine and faeces around the environment.

Defensive or territorial behaviour can also be directed at companions as well as owners with aggression and fighting occurring at this age in some rabbits.  Fighting amongst male rabbits can be particularly bad, as biting and scratching can be directed at the testicles leading to severe injury.

Female rabbits, if left unspayed, are also particularly prone to the development of cancers of the uterus.  These are extremely common and capable of spreading (metastasizing) to many different areas of the body.   If the rabbit is spayed before the tumour has spread, the surgery is curative but once the tumour has spread elsewhere, cure is not possible.  Testicular torsions and tumours are uncommon in rabbits and can be avoided with castration.

Neutering (spaying in females and castrating in males) if undertaken between 4 – 6 months prevents or reduces unwanted aggression and improves litter training.  It prevents the development of uterine tumours in females and can be curative in the early stages if the tumour has not spread.  It also prevents false pregnancies and other problems such as infections of the uterus that can develop.  

 

Veterinary Case study – the importance of neutering rabbits to avoid serious health problems

A 6 year 10 month old female entire rabbit was presented for left hindlimb lameness of several weeks’ duration.  There was no known trauma and the patient continued to eat normally but with reduced faecal output.  On physical examination, the rabbit showed an increased respiratory rate (220 breaths per minute) with slightly increased effort.  Her heart rate was normal 240 beats per minute.  She was slightly lean body condition 2 / 5 and ten-tenths lame on her left hind limb.  There was mild muscle atrophy of the muscles of the left pelvic limb and a palpable soft tissue swelling of the ilio – sacral area.  There was a small abdominal mass palpable in the caudal abdomen and her mammary glands were prominent.

She was given meloxicam 0.6mg/kg orally, ranitidine 5mg/kg orally and booked for imaging.

For sedation, we gave methadone 0.7mg/kg and midazolam 0.7mg/kg and medetomidine 0.01mg/kg intramuscularly. 

Radiographs (Figures 1 and 2) showed a calcified soft tissue mass in the caudal abdomen confirmed on ultrasound to be the uterus.  The left side of the pelvis exhibited severe lysis of the bone of the ilium extending to the level of the acetabulum.  Thoracic radiographs reveal the likely metastatic spread of uterine adenocarcinoma. 

This case demonstrates the importance of neutering rabbits to avoid serious health problems such as uterine tumours and also facilitate better training and behaviour in rabbits. 

 

By Dr Nadene Stapleton, Royal Veterinary College, Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital, London, and winner of the ‘Rabbit Vet of the Year’ category in the Burgess Excel Vet Awards 2021

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Aquatics - Day To Day Care

Day to day care of your aquarium

1. Get the right Equipment

You’ll need a bucket, net, magnetic glass cleaner, gravel cleaner, fish food, tap water conditioner, aquarium test kit and replacement filter service packs.

2. Take A Look

As part of your daily routine observe your fish. Watching your fish will help you understand what ‘normal’ activity looks like in your aquarium.

More importantly, you’ll easily notice unusual activity that could indicate ill health or conflict between fish.

If you start to notice problems, Take pictures of your fish, setup and ideally bring us a sample of your water to help find out what is wrong and, more importantly, how to fix the problem. 

3. Feed Your Fish

Fish usually need to eat 2-3 times a day. Feed a little at a time, as much as the fish will eat in a few minutes, and remove any leftovers with a net.

Did you know that more fish die of overfeeding than underfeeding?

This is because over feeding means there is more food waste that can be left to rot and pollute the water which in turn can harm or even kill your fish.

So it’s a good idea to make sure only one person in the house is feeding the fish and removing any left overs.
 
If your aquarium is very newly set-up, keep feeding to just once a day (Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle for more advice on new aquariums). 

4.Clean The Glass

Just like the windows on your house, aquarium glass can get dirty very easily, with algae being the most common cause of dirt on the inside of the glass.

Give the glass inside your aquarium a clean with a simple-to-use magnetic glass cleaner. Be careful to not get gravel stuck under the cleaner as this will scratch the glass. Polymer wool is also handy to use to wipe the corners of the tank which a magnet cleaner finds hard to reach.

The outside glass of the aquarium can be wiped with a damp cloth and dried with a dry cloth or towel. Never use glass cleaning products as the spray can easily get into the aquarium and poison your fish.

5.Remove Dead Plants & Fish

Rapid removal of dead plants, leaves and fish will prevent decay from polluting the water.
 
Doing this regularly along side removing any left over fish food before it has the chance to rot, will help keep your tank in tip top condition for your fish to thrive in.

6. Check your Filter

Rapid removal of dead plants, leaves and fish will prevent decay from polluting the water.
 
Doing this regularly along side removing any left over fish food before it has the chance to rot, will help keep your tank in tip top condition for your fish to thrive in.

7. Check the temperature

Keep an eye on your aquarium’s temperature using your aquarium thermometer, especially in warm weather.
 
Depending on the type of heater you have, the water can rise above the correct level if the room temperature is warmer than normal.
 
A small change shouldn’t cause a problem for most tropical fish species, but a large rise in temperature will. If this happens then it’s important to gently reduce the temperature without affecting the health of your aquarium. 

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2023 Awards

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Support Ukrainian Pets -- PUPDATE --

Unfortunately, today (25/3/22) We will not be able to continue collecting for 'Support Ukrainian Pets' we have had a good response from our customers, the community and online.

Thank you to everyone who has donated at our stores and purchased Mystery Boxes online. All together the estimated value of the Pet food, Treats, Accessories & Bedding came to over £3300

Thank you and congratulations to Danielle, Pete and the Wyesham Christian fellowship for the hard work they have done making it possible

It is possible we will be collecting more going forward when we have a premises available for storage and sorting. We will post here and on Facebook if it will continue.

Thank you everyone

--- PUPDATE ---

Through our first wave we had an overwhelming response and support from our local customers, businesses and our online heros. see below some of the pictures of behind the scenes of the hard work the volunteers have done over the last week (well done to everyone involved)

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2021 / 2022 Awards

Pet Shop of the Year 2021

...

We are pleased and overwhelmed to announce we have been awarded 'Pet Shop of the Year 2021/2022' from the Corporate LiveWire Global Awards. 

The Corporate LiveWire Global Awards recognises excellence from all sectors and offers the opportunity for leading professionals and companies who have stood out for being results driven, innovative, and service focused to showcase their expertise, and highlight developments in their industry.

The Corporate LiveWire Awards represent the pinnacle of business achievement, championing the best in their respective fields. The culmination of the awards is the Global Award, covering businesses of every type that have proven their excellence throughout the year and years past. After much in-depth analysis an elite group have been chosen to be honoured and acknowledged for their impressive performance over the past 12 months.
 
In recent years much of the challenges facing market leaders across a wide range of industries have revolved around attempts to emerge from the global recession and pandemic but over the last year a series of new obstacles have posed fresh challenges to multinational organisations and their corporate lawyers all around the world.  The Global Awards 2022 champions those who are leading from the front. With more categories and an even greater international spectrum, these awards honour those who standout as consistently showing best practice in every aspect of their work.

The judges have been asked to focus strongly on the complexity and strategic significance of work conducted.

The above criteria under-lines the importance of the recognition each award-winning firm is receiving based on being recognised as an M&A Today Award winner.

In summary, in the current incredibly challenging times, the M&A Today Annual Awards programs provide a benchmark of the very best of the best industry leaders, exemplary teams and distinguished organisations, based on the simple principles of veracity, accuracy and insight. 

It is a requirement for all M&A Today Awards programs to receive no less than 23% in votes from the global readership, currently in excess of 371,000. This policy is applied to further endorse the worthiness of the awards presented and any marketing carried out as a result of the awards process.

Your recognition and award, is as follows: Best Independent Pet Shop - UK

The above criteria underline’s the importance of the recognition each firm is receiving based on being recognised as a Global 100 winning firm.

In summary, the Global 100 program provides a benchmark of the very best of the best industry leaders, exemplary team’s and distinguished organisations.

It is a requirement for all our programs of recognition to receive no less than 21% in votes from the global readership, currently in excess of 293,000. This policy is applied to further endorse the worthiness of the awards presented and any marketing carried out as a result of the process.

Your recognition is as follows: Best Independent Pet Shop - UK

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The Big Garden Bird Watch 2022 - WATCH LIVE!

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Creature Comforts - SmallBiz100

5^th October 2021: Creature Comforts – pet supplies store based in Ross on Wye has been chosen as one of 100 impressive small businesses from across the UK to mark the official count down to this year’s Small Business Saturday UK.

Creature Comforts which provides the community of Ross on Wye with a range of products which your pets love from Raw, natural to pet/environmentally friendly products for domestic and wild animals. Founded by Chris Bainwell in 1993 and passed the torch onto Nina Gray in 2020, owner of Multi award winning Chepstow pet supplies (trading from 2012) & Paws Pets supplies & Grooming Salon (trading from 2014), during covid-19. Creature Comforts has been selected to be part of the campaign’s prestigious Small Biz 100 line-up, which showcases inspiring, independent businesses from across the country.

Now in its ninth year in the UK, Small Business Saturday celebrates small business success and encourages consumers to 'shop local' and support businesses in their communities. This year it is calling on the nation to share a ‘big thank you’ with small firms to recognise their vital role throughout the pandemic.

 Creature Comforts will be highlighted on social media on 5^th October 2021 as part of the 100-day countdown to Small Business Saturday UK.

Small Business Saturday UK will return on 4 December 2021, following record-breaking success last year, which saw an estimated £1.1 billion spent with small businesses on the day itself.

This year, ahead of the UN Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow, the SmallBiz100 features small firms with a passion for sustainability, to demonstrate the important part small businesses play in tackling climate change and helping the UK to achieve net zero.  Creature Comforts works with a local cardboard recycling program to reduce the amount of cardboard going to landfill. Any plastic and metal is also separated and recycled locally for recycling. The use of paper has been reduced as much as possible and the paper which is used is recycled locally. The business has looked into environmentally friendly products e.g. poop bags, toys and accessories which both customers and pets love which help the planet.

Michelle Ovens CBE, Director of Small Business Saturday UK, said:
“Throughout the crisis we have been reminded of the special role that small firms play in local areas, looking after their customers, communities and the planet. We are excited to be kicking off this year’s campaign to show our thanks to amazing small businesses like Creature Comforts. As firms recover from the challenges of the pandemic we are calling upon everyone to get behind the campaign to make it our most impactful Small Business Saturday yet.”

A grassroots, not-for-profit campaign Small Business Saturday was originally founded by American Express in the U.S. in 2010. It remains the principal supporter of the campaign in the UK, as part of its ongoing championing the UK high street and commitment to encourage consumers to shop small.

On Small Business Saturday, customers across the UK go out and support all types of small businesses, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Many small businesses take an active role in promoting the day by hosting events and offering promotions.

Small Business Saturday attracts huge attention on the day itself, with an impact that last all year. Last year the campaign trended at number one in the UK on Twitter, with the Prime Minister, leader of the opposition and the Mayor of London among those publicly supporting the campaign. Over 90% of local councils also supported the campaign.

About Small Business Saturday UK 

Small Business Saturday UK is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which celebrates small business success and encourages consumers to 'shop local' and to support businesses in their communities.

In its ninth year Small Business Saturday is the UK's most successful small business campaign, which last year saw a record-breaking £1.1 billion spent with small businesses across the UK on the day, according to estimates.

The day itself takes place on the first Saturday in December each year, but with an impact that lasts all year round.

This year Small Business Saturday takes place on 4 December 2021.

To get involved in Small Business Saturday 2021 visit -  https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com

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