First, I want to say I love getting WDJ every month and the information has been very timely for me. But as much as I like Pat Miller’s advice and philosophy for dog training and I refer to her always, I need to respond to the article about teaching dogs to walk nicely on a leash. I am a Tellington TTouch Practitioner and dog trainer (for 30 years) and the TTouch method of teaching dogs to walk in balance is another very positive and gentle way of working with them. Please check it out with a TTouch practitioner near you!
Melissa Hardy
via e-mail
I loved your Editor’s Note (Spending Time Together) in the June issue; it was as if I wrote it. I grew up on a farm in South Texas but everything else was ditto to your article.
One of my greatest stories was of our Border Collie, Boots, who got hit by a car on the farm’s dirt road. Boots was unable to stand and just drug himself around with his front two legs for weeks. It was unheard-of to take a farm dog to the vet. Boots was such a love. My brother and I would put him in our little red wagon and take him everywhere on the farm with Boots in tow. One day I decided to lock my hands under his belly and he would walk with his front legs. After weeks of this, Boots could finally stand on one back leg. Eventually he was able to even run in the fields on the one rear leg, and the other useless leg just swung along for the ride.
And as to your childhood pictures almost every one of mine has a dog or puppy in it.
I enjoy WDJ very much, and put each of my finished issues into the waiting room of the vet clinic where I have worked for 20 years.
Charlotte Blackmon
Proud Mom of Whippet kids
Ivy, Jagger, and Riggs
GREEN TRIPE
I enjoy reading WDJ and usually read it from cover to cover when it comes. I noticed a mistake in “How Green Is Your Tripe?” (July 2008). Having just studied bovine anatomy in a veterinary technology program, I’d like to point out that the order of the four stomachs of the cow (from esophagus to small intestine) are: 1: Reticulum (the honeycombed texture); 2: Rumen (actually has a texture similar to short pile chenile and is called papillae); 3: Omasum (the folds); and 4: Abomasum (mucous-lined and most similar to what a human stomach would look like).
Diane M. Whipple
Dexter, MN
Thanks for educating us as to the proper anatomical order! Our description was more ordered on the usefulness to a dog’s diet. Good luck in your studies!
I enjoyed your recent article on green tripe! Just wanted to mention that Dr. Harvey’s Power Patties are a great green tripe treat. My dogs love them.
Leslie Hayes
Via e-mail
Great tip, thanks!
I began reading the July issue today, and feel compelled to write concerning what I see as a disheartening trend in WDJ. I was thoroughly dismayed by the article
“How Green is Your Tripe?” I have found myself equally dismayed by other articles in the publication concerning diets for our dogs, and have finally reached the point where I must express myself.
No doubt readers of WDJ love their dogs; I love mine. But just because we have and love dogs does not make their lives more important than the lives of other creatures. In your article about tripe, and in previous articles about raw foods, other animals are treated as if they were merely commodities to be fed to our dogs: cows, lambs, rabbits, chickens. And including a photo of a smiling woman holding a cow stomach come on!
Our dogs are carnivores and require meat to eat. But I feel we must be reverent and realize that the lives of other animals are being sacrificed for those of our dogs. We need to be concerned with the conditions under which these animals are raised and slaughtered. Do some reading about factory farming and you will discover the inhumane living conditions of countless cows, chickens, lambs, etc., who are raised for food. You’ll find aversive methods used that would make wearing a prong collar look like a vacation in Hawaii.
It is challenging and more expensive, but there are ways to find meat and dog food products for our dogs that use animals who were humanely raised and fed organic diets. I do the best I can to ensure that those creatures led a natural, pain-free life and that they are killed in a humane fashion. I do not treat the lives of cows, pigs, chickens, lambs, etc., as of less value than my dogs, and I find it abhorrent that you would include a photo of a smiling woman holding a cow’s stomach as if it were a dog toy.
Patricia Coale
Norfolk, Virginia
Thanks for your comments, and we’re sorry if we seemed insensitive. We appreciated the photo as it showed the huge size of the tripe organs; the person in the photo provided the scale.
As to humanely raised and -slaughtered sources of proteins in dog food: We’ve been wrestling with a way to include this criterion in our dog food selections. Look for more about this in future issues.
