Is your pet one in a million?

Our dogs and cats are members of our families, and as such they deserve the same degree of care and attention as our human relatives. Having a good understanding of the visible signs of health and behaviour is key to ensuring we are able to this effectively. So how can we make sure our pets really are in peak condition, energised and looking great?

Log in to our webchat with animal behaviourist DR Peter Neville and animal photographer Nick Ridley for top tips on behaviour, wellbeing and how you can best capture the vitality of your pet on camera. They'll be online to answer all your questions.

Companion Animal Behaviour Therapist, Peter, has been in practice for the referral and treatment of behaviour problems in cats and dogs in the UK for over twenty years and will be able to respond to all your questions related to behaviour and the signs of good health. While renowned animal photographer, Nick, who has an undeniable edge when it comes to photographing cats and dogs, will be offering his expert advice on taking pictures of your pet that are worthy of posterity. There’s also news about the launch of a new nationwide competition for cats and dogs that could result in your very own pet becoming the face of a national advertising campaign for Purina ONE in 2009. Prepared for success? You bet! Log on to the chat to find out more.

For more information visit www.purinaone.co.uk/search

* Image courtesy of Your Dog

H: Lis Speight, host
P: Peter Neville, Animal Behaviourist
N: Nick Ridley, Animal Photographer

H: Hello and welcome to the Petcare Show brought to you today by Purina One, I’m Lis Speight. Now then, if like me you consider your pets to be important members of your family, keep watching, because on today’s show we’re having a pet surgery, and there’s a chance to enter your pet into a competition to win a year’s supply of pet food, as well as the chance to star in the new Purina One advert for 2009. Well I’m delighted to be joined by two guys who know the ins and outs of animal life, animal behaviourist Peter Neville, welcome along Peter,

P: Hello

H: Lovely to see you today,

P: Thank you

H: And also top animal photographer Nick Ridley

N: Hi

H: Welcome along guys, lovely to see you today. Peter humans first domesticated dogs, it says on my card here, over 10,000 years ago

P: Yes

H: And the ancient Egyptians loved keeping cats as pets. Why do we like pets as humans?

P: I think there’s something in those few lines. We didn’t domesticate dogs and cats, they moved in on us

H: Right

P: You know the ancestral wolf and the early African wild cats evolved slightly and were able to move in around the human villages, so

H: Right

P: So you know they’re the only predators to do that, you think of all the other domesticated animals, the farm animals, the herbivorous, but something very special about a very sensitive, highly evolved animal coming to us, and so it’s a real joy to be sharing your home you know with a sensitive predator

H: So they come to us for the food basically?

P: Well no, no because as mammals they also invest a huge amount of time and effort in raising their young, and so they’re very capable of forming really very, very strong social bonds

H: Right

P: As we know, you know –

H: And that fits in with human beings and with families

P: Yes and with families especially yes

H: And pets are very important to families up and down the country aren’t they, and Nick there’s been this new research hasn’t there that shows that people would rather have a photograph of their pet on the mantelpiece than their partner or their parents – that’s astonishing really

N: Yes a third of the British population would rather have a pet – a picture of a pet on the mantelpiece and I take probably in excess of 25,000 pictures of people’s pets each year

H: Wow

N: And that’s a pretty good indication, and long may it last. They’re an integral part of our family and I know for one, quite sadly, I carry pictures of my dogs with me in my wallet – as well as my daughters I have to say, but they are part of our family and they give me a lot of pleasure back, as people’s pets do

H: So it sounds like you’re a dog man rather than a cat man?

N: I am yes but I must say if you can get a good picture of a cat, you get a buzz out of it because you’ve got to work that much harder

H: Yes

N: Dogs tend to respond, I have various techniques, I’ve got squeakers and whistles and various vocal techniques I do to get ears pricked up, and that little cock of the head, and of course cats don’t quite respond in that same way

H: They’re a little bit more snooty cats aren’t they, they do their own thing a little bit more don’t they?

N: You’ve hit the nail right on the head there, if I’m going out to photograph some cats, you’ve got to let them do their own thing and work the animal out. Photographing animals is as much about knowing the animals and understanding their behaviour as it is actually taking the picture

H: It’s like people really I suppose isn’t it?

N: It’s easier than people I think. And funnily enough despite that, obviously pets have owners, and again it’s as much dealing with the owner. My worst case scenario is to have a dog that I’m photographing and then you have 5 members of the family going sit, stay, come back – and of course the dog’s – what’s going on?

H: So would you rather be left on your own really to get on with it?

N: No I quite prefer to have a handler, but basically what I will do in the end is say look, mum, dad, can you keep control of the dog

H: Yes

N: Everybody else come and stands behind me or just keep quiet

H: And that generally works. But talking about the owners as well as the pets, you must find, Peter that that is quite – the major problem with a lot of animal behaviour is actually the human being rather than the animal

P: Oh gosh yes I’m in a people business

H: Interesting

P: The animal behaviour side of it is usually fairly straightforward, there’s usually some history to the problem which explains the behaviour, or there’s something in the husbandry that’s clearly missing, you know dog not exercised enough or something like that

H: Yes

P: But in the end we don’t take the dogs away, that’s the worst thing to do, to send the dog away

H: Right

P: We work with the family and try to adjust relationships all to husbandry, so it’s very much about communicating with people

H: And what’s the most common behavioural problems you come across?

P: The thing that occupies most behaviourists’ problems is between dogs

H: Right. What two dogs in the same family fighting?

P: No more dogs with other dogs in the park or other dogs outside

H: Oh I see, right

P: And usually that’s because they didn’t go to puppy classes, they didn’t learn doggy social language

H: Right

P: And suddenly they’re, you know, in an environment with lots of dogs and they’re basically afraid of other dogs, they’re afraid of their own kind

H: That’s interesting you should say that actually because we’ve got a really good question in on that, Dorothy King, aged 70 she said, well done Dorothy, has an energetic pointer Springer Spaniel but she can’t take him off the lead. Do you have any tips?

P: That’s another common problem because obviously it makes everything else worse

H: Yes

P: The under-exercised dog, the dog that’s frustrated because he’s on a lead and actually maybe he wants to go and play with other dogs

H: And they are very energetic those Springer Spaniels aren’t they?

P: Absolutely

H: They need a lot of exercising

P: A well sprung Springer is a demand –

H: I mean she might be very sprightly, Dorothy, but nevertheless it’s still – you’ve got to do a lot of walking haven’t you?

P: Yes well you’ve got to work on this recall business, and one of the mistakes that people make is they begin with the dog on the other side of the field and start shouting at it

H: Yes

P: With a dog like a pointer will have its nose on a scent, or pointing at something –

H: Yes, thinking about something else, not coming back

P: And not concentrating

H: Yes

P: So you have to train the dogs’ awareness to be listening out for the signals, and we start that right up as close as this, so if this plant here is a dog

H: Right

P: We have a treat and we say to the dog, come here and all he has to do is lean forward and take the biscuit

H: Yes. It’s basic stuff isn’t it, but it’s just knowing –

P: It’s very basic

H: What to do

P: It’s starting up close and then you, you have the dog on a line or you get some help in when you’re a bit further away, and the – what come here means, it means I’ve got a biscuit, come and get it. So wherever you are you’re kind of listening out and then you come. And you know a little bit of practice, little bit of repetition, beginning in places where there’s no distraction, going on to places where there’s more distraction

H: Right

P: And he’ll be out there doing his pointer thing, but also keeping an ear out

H: Yes

P: And going back to Dorothy will be as valuable as whatever else he’s doing

H: Yes. And then eventually do you just ease out the biscuits or do you have to give a biscuit every single time – just walk around with pockets of biscuits?

P: You can – I usually keep them, you know, for emergencies there’s usually a pocket full of very good Purina biscuit treats in my pocket, but no you can phase it out, as long as you do it say one in ten times, that keeps the learning sharp

H: Yes, yes. Then they know there’s a chance that they might get a biscuit

P: Yes. Or you go onto things like clickers, you know where you’re reinforcing with a signal, but that’s a little bit more complicated, but most of the time you can just make the dog know there’s always food in the pocket

H: Yes but there is a little bit of work to be done, it’s not going to happen overnight is it?

P: Yes and it will be a little bit more difficult with a pointer, say compared with a Labrador

H: Right, yes

P: Because Labradors never stray far from food

H: They’re a bit more podgy often aren’t they? Oh well Dorothy I hope that’s of help, and you know best of luck with that. Moving on to some more of your questions actually, and Deborah Carey’s written in, she says “how do you stop your dog barking at every dog he meets?”

P: Oh that’s a big one because we need to know why he’s barking

H: Right

P: And there’ll be many reasons. He might be protecting, on the other hand he might be afraid of the other dog, and again hasn’t learnt how to socialise with another dog, so you know you tend to think well I’ll just keep introducing him to lots of dogs, but he never actually overcomes the fear that way, so we would set up something called a rehabilitation class for them, where we’ve got lots of dogs, we know exactly how those dogs behave, they’ve got handlers, and we know what we’re going to do with our dog, and basically sometimes we’ll, for ex ample, tie the dog up

H: Right

P: As opposed to having the owner on the end of the lead, because if you’re at the end of the lead, you’re either going to frustrate the dog by trying to pull them away

H: Yes, yes

P: or you’re going to annoy him, you know in the sense that he’s trying to avoid the other dog, you’re frustrating him that way. Or you’re going to be rewarding the behaviour that you don’t want, because you’re connected to him, you’re kind of reinforcing the fact that his behaviour is right if you see what I mean. So we tie him up to something neutral and when he starts barking, the owner walks away

H: Oh right, ok

P: So then the pay-off for barking at the other dog is you lose your reinforcement

H: Yes. And how long does it take to get these lessons into the dogs, I mean they are quite clever, dogs, aren’t they?

P: In that case, if the dog is fearful of other dogs you can turn it round really very, very quickly indeed because the strategy that your dog is using is no longer working, so he’s got to do something else, and what he tends to do initially is avoid the other dog, pretend he’s not there, and then he’ll slowly sort of just take a cautious look, and then the owner comes back, so he’s now being reinforced for a different behaviour and a different emotion

H: Yes so it –

P: And that works very quickly

H: So it can be quite quick?

P: Yes. You just need some help with that one

H: But moving away from behaviour for a minute, we’ve got a few questions in on how to take good photos actually, we’ve had one in from Laura Morris, she says “do you have any tips on how to take perfect photos – purrfect photos – of my cats?”

N: I wish I could

H: You should have some tips I’m sure!

N: I have to say actually the behavioural side is very relevant to photographing them

H: Yes

N: And some of the techniques Peter’s just spoken about with the dogs is quite relevant to what I do. Quite often people will say I can’t let my dog off the lead, or it won’t sit, but I’ll use a dog stake and we’ll just tie the lead to the dog stake, get the owner to come behind me and quite often the dog will come to the extent of the lead and sit down. Quite a natural behaviour, so it is relevant to the two, but taking perfect pictures of cats –

H: Yes cats

N: Cats are a different ball game

H: They’re more tricky

N: They are, they can be quite difficult

H: Yes. Would you use food, I mean how would you do it?

N: My pet hate, is when somebody puts the – exact opposite to Peter, my pet hate is when somebody puts their hand in their pocket and starts giving the animal treats, because what happens is quite often they’ll be stood at the side of the animal, happens with cats as well as dogs, and the animal then is totally focused – I want them to be focused on me

H: So how do you get them to look down your lens?

N: Oh I’ve got various techniques, I’ve got various whistles and squeakers and things like that

H: Yes

N: I’ve got a whole range of vocal, noises that I make ranging from a –

H: You can talk cat then can you?

N: I wish I could. Cats – funnily enough, cats are more – rather than a noise, if you try to use a noise to attract a cat’s attention they’ll quite often turn away or go, what I find with cats, this might sound really strange, but my pet hate thing is to lay down, get to the animal’s eye level, and the eyes are all important, so if you – for example this week I was photographing a litter of 7 kittens

H: Ah

N: And we was in a studio environment which is always going to be more stressful for the animal

H: Yes because they don’t quite know what’s going on do they?

N: They don’t know what’s going on

H: It’s bright

N: I lay down flat on the floor, but what I do is I lift my legs up above my head and cross my legs

H: Right

N: With a cat, if you just – I found anyway – if you move your foot

H: It gives them something to look at

N: They’re looking at the –

H: That’s a really good tip

N: Because if you use a noise, you tend to scare them off

H: Yes, that’s a really good tip

N: I think the thing with cats is they’re far happier in their home environment

H: Right

N: Or out in the garden. They might have a favourite chair, they might love to sit on the windowsill and look out of the window, so with cats you’re far better off doing it in their home environment than trying to do it in an alien environment to them

H: Yes

N: And their behaviour is totally different

H: Yes. But what about taking pictures inside or outside, because I’m sure your flash might upset some animals?

N: Well I mean, most domestic animals, are used to noises, flashes – I found really that it doesn’t affect them. Personally I would always opt for taking the pictures outside

H: Right, yes

N: We see things when we go out, we’re seeing things in a natural light anyway

H: Yes

N: And when we’re in a studio environment what we’re ultimately trying to reproduce is that –

H: Is that natural light

N: Is that natural light. And my favourite kind of shots are my action pictures where perhaps you’ve got a dog running at full pelt across a field and it’s stretched out, and it’s showing that vitality

H: That’s quite hard to take a picture like that if you’re not a professional though isn’t it?

N: Well it is, fortunately digital cameras, especially now are coming down in the price but the specification of them are getting better. I hate to use this word but I do, it’s practice, and I do, it’s like anything, and I – the only way I can describe it, if I’ve got a dog for example running, I see it in slow motion through the camera

H: Right

N: And that’s I guess like almost a sixth sense

H: Yes

N: But it doesn’t have to be an action picture. I mean if you get that photograph where you can look at that photo and say “that’s just like my dog”

H: Yes that’s it, getting the character is

N: That is – bearing in mind it’s a snapshot of the character

H: Yes

N: It’s not like doing a piece of video, just that one little picture

H: There’s obviously an art to it, but with digital photography you can take as many as you want really can’t you –

N: Absolutely and that’s the good thing about digital photography nowadays. The most important thing is people always say to me, my pet hate is – “that camera takes a good picture”. No it doesn’t, I hopefully take a good picture, the camera’s a tool to do that

H: Yes exactly

N: And the other thing they say is “we can always delete the ones we don’t like”

H: Yes

N: Well actually those ones you don’t like, or have not worked out, can be a really good learning curve for you

H: Yes

N: If you look and say why didn’t I like that, so next time you can try something a bit different

H: So look at the pictures and learn from them – that’s a good tip isn’t it? Move on to some more behaviour questions actually, we’ve had one in from Paul Temple, and he said “my cat used to always sit on my lap while watching TV or sleep in my bed. He’s recently stopped doing this as much. I don’t think this is due to age because she still seems fairly agile. Could there be a reason for this change of behaviour?” I wonder whether he’s got a new girlfriend, do you think – could be?

P: Or changed his sofa. Yes I mean that’s a tough call. I would imagine that something has happened, that the cat no longer feels secure on his lap

H: Right

P: Maybe that, you know life suddenly got busier lately. Maybe the cat was fast asleep and he suddenly stood up to answer the telephone or –

H: Right

P: Now the cat isn’t secure there. So I think the way is to presume it’s something like that unless there’s something obvious gone on. And go back to stage one and sit there, very still. Turn off all the heating – good advice at the moment, save some money, but then you become the warm focus and –

H: Right, that’s a good point

P: And then the cat will come to you for that. You can, you know you can never push cats. You can only make them want to come to you, by making it worthwhile

H: Yes but he’s obviously missing that companionship, it’s a bit of a shame really

P: Absolutely, he’s got a cold lap

H: But err – the cat will sort itself out I guess, you can’t sort it out so much can you?

P: So much of what we do with cat behaviour problems is we alter the environment and we alter the relationship. It’s very difficult, as Nick was saying, to train a cat to do something. It can be done, but the cat’s got to be right in the right mood and he’s got to really want what you’re offering him, and if he doesn’t – come back later, you know it’s –

H: But moving on, talking about taking pictures of cats, there is this fantastic competition isn’t there – tell us about this. Your cat or dog could be a celebrity couldn’t they?

N: Yes we’ve – Purina One have launched a competition this year to find a one in a million dog and a one in a million cat

H: Oh so there’s two opportunities, that’s good

N: Yes dog and cat, first time this year they’ve done the two. There’s a website where the people can upload their pictures to, which is www.purinaone.co.uk/search and Peter and myself will be judging those pictures later on, and obviously what we’re looking for, bearing in mind what we said earlier on, is just a little snapshot of your cats’ character and your dog’s character, we’re looking to be able to look at those pictures and see that, literally that one in a million pet

H: And could it be a mongrel, does it have to be some perfect Burmese cat or something?

P: No it could be anything, oh no no we’re not looking for blue blood here, we’re – no, I think what we’re looking for here is the essence of something that an animal that’s very healthy, that’s vital, preferably doing something, it might be sleeping

H: Yes yes

P: But doing something

H: Yes that sums up what you think your cat or dog is

P: Yes but getting the essence, the spirit of the individual through and you know you get that picture right. I mean it’s one in a million, it might take you a million shots to get it, but that one in a million shot is that one in a million animal whose zest comes from the picture

H: And do you think that you can make that in a photo or is it just the animal’s got that – I mean some people are photogenic, some people aren’t they?

N: I mean you can do, I literally photograph all types of dogs and cats, from – dare I say it – the not so good looking up to the really good looking

H: The mangy ones

N: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the main thing actually is probably not the beauty of the animal, it’s the character of the animal

H: Yes

N: And to me, to photograph that scruffy mongrel with that little cock on the head and the cheeky little glint in its eye, that’s wonderful. Cats as well, as Peter said, sometimes when cats are just dozing and they’ve almost got that drifting off look in their eyes, I mean that’s a very intimate, close picture. But you do need patience and it’s practice and as Peter said again, you may need to take that million picture, but you will get it

H: And if you are chosen, if your cat or your dog is chosen, what do they win?

P: Oh well first thing is you become the face of Purina One, so it won’t be just your cats’ picture on your mantelpiece, or your dog, it will be everywhere, magazines, you know – I don’t know billboards as well maybe, I’m not sure, but you’re going to be the face of a very big brand. It’s quite a big story for your animal

H: And all the dog or cat food you can eat for a year, that’s not bad is it?

P: Yes, yes you’ll get the – the pet gets something out of it too, gets a year’s supply of Purina One and then there’s a spa break for the owners

H: ooh, well that’s nice isn’t it?

P: For all that hard work, taking the pictures. Yes you get

H: Oh lovely

P: Three days pampered and a personal trainer and so on, so yes

H: That’s lovely isn’t it? Well before we go, we’re almost out of time actually, but I’d just like to talk to you a little bit about pet health, because when you’re a person, you’ve got a headache, you’ve got something wrong with you, you can do something about it. How do you know if your pet’s healthy or not?

P: I think this is where the British shine actually in our recent survey has shown that pet owners are very, very good at assessing their cat’s health, you know when it’s feeling good and feeling great, they know, and equally when it’s feeling slightly under the weather, and in fact we’re often better at seeing that in our dogs and our cats than we are in our kids

H: Oh right

P: We always think our kids are skiving, you know

H: That’s true actually, your dog can’t make it up,

P: Yes what you see is what you get. And we are more willing to get them off to the vet than we are the kids to the doctor

H: Oh that’s really interesting isn’t it?

P: So we’re very, very good at it, as a nation

H: Yes, and if you know your animals you do know when they’re ill don’t you?

P: Absolutely

H: Because you can tell when they’re off colour can’t you?

P: Yes and they’re not, you know so keen to get out of bed, and they don’t really want to play and they don’t really want to go out

H: And eating I suppose as well is quite a good –

P: They can go off their food. Of course if you’re seriously worried or if there’s a major change, then it’s straight to the vet because that’s what vets do

H: Right

N: That classic thing of shiny eyes and wet noses – that’s a good indication

H: Yes

N: And throw in a shiny coat and you know you’ve got a healthy pet there

H: And bright eyes and an interest in life

P: An interest in life exactly

H: There we go. Good tips for all of us I think. Well thanks very much for coming in to talk to us Peter and Nick

P: Thank you

H: It’s been really interesting, and if you think you have a handsome hound or some fabulous looking feline, then you can get your pictures in, and all you have to do for your chance to enter your pet into Purina’s One in a Million competition is go to the website, which is www.purinaone.co.uk/search. I’ll get there in a minute! Thanks very much for watching the Petcare Show, and good luck. We’ll see you next time, bye bye.