Weekly podcast: dogs scooting along ground, plus dealing with fireworks phobias

In this week’s podcast, courtesy of East Coast FM, we discuss two significant topics that will interest many dog owners.

Dogs scooting or sledging

Many people presume that if their dog drags their rear end along the ground, the cause is worms. In fact, worms are a rare cause, and there are several other causes that are more likely, including:

• Anal sac impaction
• Anal sac abscesses
• Food allergy
• General skin allergies

There’s no easy answer to sorting this out: it’s a case of visiting your vet for a consultation, discussion and examination. Often the vet may be able to solve the problem on the spot (e.g. impacted anal sacs).

The podcast goes into this in more detail: you can listen by pressing the play button at the foot of this post.

Fireworks sound phobia

Every year, some dogs get hysterically upset because of the sound of fireworks. For the second half of this week’s podcast, we discuss this in more detail. In particular, it’s useful to learn how to prevent this problem in the first place. By the way, don’t forget to keep all pets indoors over Halloween: it’s common for animals to run away in terror if they hear fireworks, and there are many lost pets the following day.