Care

Recently, WDJ received a letter from Christine Zink, DVM, PhD, DACVP, DACVSMR, who was concerned about the photo in WDJ (on the cover, no less!) of a jogger whose dog, running alongside, was wearing a front-clip-type harness. A sports medicine guru and canine athlete enthusiast, Dr. Zink (and others) posit that no-pull harnesses are detrimental to a dog's structure and gait – and are especially inappropriate for canine athletes.

One of my worst dog-owner nightmares recently came true. Or I should say, almost came true. A raccoon attacked my dog, injuring her, but I was able to save her life by fighting off the raccoon myself! As bad as that experience was, I never imagined the problems I would have to deal with that have emerged since our initial suburban wildlife encounter.

No good deed goes unpunished. That’s what Pam Rowley of Upper Brookville, New York, discovered last November, when the hospital administrator who always greeted her and 8-year-old Vizsla Gunner at the start of their monthly therapy-dog visits quietly took her aside to deliver some bad news.

I am writing to express my concern at seeing the photograph on the cover of the April 2013 Whole Dog Journal that depicts a man running with a dog who is wearing a restrictive harness. As a specialist in canine sports medicine, I have significant concerns about the use of harnesses that wrap around the front of dog’s forelegs, particularly in circumstances like this, where a dog is exercising using a gait that requires forelimb…

I was pretty traumatized recently by a phenomenon I had heard about many times but had never before seen: the intense, chaotic, life-or-death struggle that ensues when one dog gets his jaw stuck in another dog's collar. These dogs survived the experience. But since I've been telling my friends about my experience (with all the fervor of the recently converted), I've heard about a number of dogs whose jaws were broken in similar situations

Researchers at Texas Tech University found that many popular bumpers" (items used for training retrievers) and other plastic toys exude BPA and phthalates when subjected to conditions that simulate chewing by a dog."

An after-dinner family ritual, when I was a kid, was for each person seated at the table to share what they were most grateful for since last Thanksgiving. Those dinners don’t happen any more, but each year I ask myself that old question. Sometimes the answer is cause for mental debate, but this year, there was no doubt at all. One thing leaps instantly to mind: the fact that my dogs are both safe, that neither was injured when a speeding bicyclist T-boned my new Subaru in September.

Canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), also called cognitive dysfunction syndrome, is comparable to Alzheimer’s disease in humans. Dogs with CCD may show signs such as confusion, disorientation, anxiety, irritability, apathy, reduced interaction, house soiling, forgetfulness, and aimless wandering or pacing, especially at night. CCD can rob a dog of quality of life, and make living with an old dog difficult.

There are many different types of plant oils that people use to supplement their dogs’ diets, including oils from flaxseed, olives, coconut, vegetables, hempseed, and more. Some of these oils can provide benefits, but others are not helpful and may even contribute to inflammation.

Just read your “Canned Food Review” (WDJ October 2012) with interest and definitely learned some stuff. I’d like to get on your radar for next time a fairly-new-to-the-market canned food that was recommended to us by our locally owned pet food store, where the owners do a lot of research on pet foods. You won’t find Pedigree or Science Diet there.

Here are some trade secrets to getting your control harness to work better for you and your dog. With several of the simpler styles (SENSE-ation, SENSE-ible, Easy Walk) if you can’t get the harness to fit quite right, try putting it on upside down. (Doesn’t work with any of the “two-points-of-contact” harnesses.) If the front strap still slips down, clip your leash to the front-clip ring and the collar ring. This may diminish the effectiveness of the harness a little, but it will keep the front strap up and in place.

Some trainers scoff at the use of tools such as control harnesses, claiming that you are simply managing" a problem behavior rather than training the dog. A well-designed control harness