Intact (unspayed) female dogs will typically have their first heat cycle two to three months after they reach their full adult size. For smaller breed dogs, this is typically between 6 and 8 months of age but could be as early as 4 months. For larger breed dogs, this may be as late as 2 years of age. Dogs can be in heat for an average of two to three weeks, going through a two-phase heat cycle.
How often do female dogs go into heat?
If they do not become pregnant as a result of mating during their heat cycle, most female dogs will experience another heat cycle in about six months. However, some dogs may start their next heat cycle as early as four months later and others as much as eight months later. If you have a purebred dog, find out what is typical for your breed. For example, the Basenji breed has only one heat cycle per year.
What to expect when your dog is in heat
Just before entering a heat cycle, dogs may:
not have as much energy as usual
their appetite may decrease
they may become nervous and easily startled.
It is important to note that these signs can also accompany many illnesses that have nothing to do with a heat cycle. Please consult your veterinarian if you have any questions about changes in your dog’s behavior.
How long are dogs in heat and how long do they bleed?
Dogs have two phases to their heat cycle. During the first phase (called proestrus) there will be a bloody discharge from her vulva. Her vulva will become swollen and prominent. Male dogs will begin to show an interest in her. She may become aggressive toward male dogs during the first part of this phase. As this phase progresses, she will stop being aggressive toward male dogs but will sit down when they approach her. Proestrus lasts an average of nine days but can be as short as three days and as long as 17 days.
During the second phase (called estrus), the discharge from her vulva will become straw-colored but may have a hint of brown or red color. When approached by a male dog, she will stand and lift her tail over her back or held off to the side (this is called “flagging”). Her vulva will decrease in size but will still be swollen. When she is ready, she will allow a male dog to mount her for mating. Estrus lasts an average of nine days and can be as short as three days and as long as 18 days.
The total time of both phases of “heat” is about two to three weeks. The female dog will discontinue having discharge from her vulva by the end of the second phase and her vulva will slowly return to its original size.
If she and a male dog mated during estrus and she became pregnant, her pregnancy will last approximately 63 days (about nine weeks).
What is a silent heat in a female dog?
Some dogs may appear to miss one of their heat cycles, without exhibiting any obvious signs of proestrus or estrus, such as vulvar swelling or vaginal discharge, even when they are, in fact, experiencing those stages and can become pregnant. This is called a “silent cycle” or “silent heat.” Owners of intact females should be attentive to this possibility – and how often do dogs go into heat, how long do dogs bleed when they are in heat, what to expect when your dog is in heat – if they do not want the female to become pregnant.
How to prevent your dog from becoming pregnant
There are a number of surgeries that can be performed to prevent your dog from becoming pregnant. The most common “spaying” procedure is called an ovariohysterectomy – a surgical procedure in which her ovaries and uterus are removed. Some owners prefer their veterinarians to perform an alternative surgery called an ovariectomy, in which only the dog’s ovaries are removed. Ovariectomies are quicker to perform and dogs tend to recover more quickly, too.
In recent years, some studies have suggested that intact dogs have fewer health problems than dogs who matured without the influence of normal secondary sexual hormones on their development. However, the studies do not show a clear-cut correlation and there are variations by breed and size of the dog. Also, the increased risk of mammary cancer in intact females and late-spayed females has been very well established.
Owners who wish to prevent pregnancy in their dogs but also wish to preserve the source and influence of the female’s sexual hormones can look for a veterinarian who can perform tubal ligation surgery (where the dog’s fallopian tubes are cut and/or blocked) or a hysterectomy (where the uterus is removed but the ovaries are left in place).
Note that dogs who have retained their ovaries will continue to experience heat cycles and attract the attention of male dogs. They cannot become pregnant but will be receptive to mating when they are in estrus.
If a dog is currently in heat, you will need to wait until three weeks after her heat cycle has finished to have her spayed. This allows the uterus to return to its original size and reduces the risk of surgical complications.
If you assume that your dog is paying extra attention when he tilts his head, you’re right. Veterinary behaviorists theorize that dogs and puppies tilt their heads for a number of reasons:
T hear better by orienting their ears toward whatever is making a sound
To see something clearly, without their noses being in the way
To communicate interest through body language
To receive a reward such as attention, petting, or prolonged contact
Dogs tilt their heads as a sign of intelligence
Now scientists say that head tilting can also be a sign of intelligence, a behavior that occurs when dogs process relevant, meaningful information. In June 2022, the journal Animal Cognition published a Hungarian university study that analyzed head tilting in dogs. The authors explained, “We hypothesized that head tilts may be related to increased attention and could be explained by lateralized mental functions.” The researchers divided 40 dogs into two groups, one having typical or average learning abilities and the other called “gifted word learners,” because the dogs in that group knew the names of toys.
All of the dogs learned the names of two new, novel toys. In experiments conducted after one, two and three months, the new toys were arranged with other toys on the floor of a separate room. Only the gifted dogs recognized and retrieved the new toys at a level above chance, and they were significantly more likely to tilt their heads when their owners said the name of one of the new toys.
Our dogs respond when we speak to them, and if your dog is tilting her head, this may be a perfect moment for training or to teach her a new word. In fact, head tilting may be a sign that your pup understands what you’re saying. Smart dog!
Three years ago I wrote a blog post about “how to know when the time is right for euthanasia.” A the time, I had three friends and family members who were facing this decision. One dog, Beau, was euthanized not long after I wrote the post. Lena lasted another year before her owner decided that the dog was too disabled to go on. Chaco, the third dog is still living, the last I heard (I don’t hear from that friend very often anymore). But as I said in the post. I hoped it would be at least several years before I was mulling this topic again.
Well, here we are, almost exactly three years later. Guys, I’m having to think hard about this right now, with my nearly 15-year-old heart dog, Otto.
He had surgery on his liver about four years ago, and we keep an eye on that organ with annual abdominal ultrasounds, to make sure that the benign growth that was removed hasn’t grown back. He’s had a handful of teeth extracted for various reasons, including one broken and several cracked. And he’s been receiving an increasing amount and variety of medications for arthritis pain for a couple of years now.
But until recently, he honestly looked pretty darn good for his age. This last year, though, as the arthritis pain has ramped up, he’s moving less, and has lost a lot of muscle tone, especially in his rear legs. His weight is a few pounds less than his ideal “high school weight” and he’s a little on the ribby side – but I’m trying to keep him on the light side, to reduce the burden on his arthritic joints. His worst arthritis is in his elbows and front paws, and the pain seems to be altering his stance – which is probably causing more pain in his shoulders and back. In the past few weeks, all of a sudden (it seems), he just looks awful when he stands around, swaybacked and panting, and with his ears back and face tense.
We’re having a really hideous heat wave in California right now, so that’s not helping as I try to figure out how much of his panting is due to pain and how much is the heat. He’s always hated being hot. Now it’s even too hot for him to find relief, as he’s always done, by digging a hole in his dampened sandbox, in the shade of an umbrella under an oak tree. For the past few days, it’s been over 100 degrees in the shade! I’ve had to make him come in my office and stay with me and the other dogs where it’s cooler – but he hates this, too. He lays down for a few minutes, then gets up, pacing and panting. He scratches at the door, wanting out. I open the door and he gets only halfway through when the wall of heat makes him stop and remember why he’s not already out there. He turns around, stiffly, and stands for long minutes in the middle of my office, panting and with that awful, painful-looking posture, before laying down again. This just breaks my heart! I don’t want him to be in pain.
Is it the dementia that makes him forget it’s too hot to go outside? Absent-mindedness? Stubbornness? Why can’t he seem to get comfortable in my cool office? There are three beds, of varying heights and softness, and he gets first dibs on any of them. But he just doesn’t want to be in here, he wants the heat to go away and he wants to be in his sandbox. I know the heat is temporary, but his arthritis pain is not.
I don’t want him to suffer.
I use several different assessment tools, developed by various experts on hospice and end-of-life issues for dogs, in an attempt to find some objective data points to help me decide whether “it’s time.”
On one, the result translates to, “Quality of life is a definite concern. Changes will likely become more progressive and more severe in the near future. Veterinary guidance will help you better understand the end stages of your pet’s disease process in order to make a more informed decision of whether to continue hospice care or elect peaceful euthanasia.”
On another, the score indicates, “Everything is okay.”
On a third, the score suggests that Otto has “acceptable life quality to continue with pet hospice.”
I discuss Otto’s condition with close friends who know him. My trainer friend Sarah suggests a consultation with a veterinarian who has a housecall practice and specializes in hospice care for animal companions. Well, why and how the heck did I not think of that on my own? I called and made an appointment for next week. For now, a load has been taken off of my mind. I will trust someone whose practice is mostly animals at the end of their lives to help me with this decision.
And in the meantime, of course, the goal is to give Otto the best possible daily experience I am capable of delivering to him. I’m trying to make up for his unhappiness with the heat and the unaccustomed confinement in my (cool) office by taking him and my other dogs to the lake every evening. There’s a place that has a sandy, gravelly (but not sharp) bottom and with water that gets only very, very gradually deeper. It’s where I like to bring small dogs, novice swimmers, and now, my old guy, too.
As shallow as it is close to shore, the water is refreshing but not cold. We can linger at dusk, when the other lake-visitors are all gone, and not get a chill. Woody asks me to throw his ball, and he bounds through the shallow water, happily fetching. Boone looks for opportunities to steal the ball from Woody and then play “catch me if you can!” Otto wades back and forth, back and forth – not like his nighttime dementia pacing, but like a happy water buffalo. Every so often he wades into the deeper water and swims a bit, and then comes back, tail wagging slowly on the surface of the water, looking extremely content. When he’s like this, the end feels far away from now, and I find a little bit of hope that it truly is.
One of my ex-boyfriends from many, many years ago had a sort of dad-joke he’d tell at least once daily. Any time he saw someone doing something with skill, he’d remark on that skill to any other observer and then, with all seriousness, he’d ask, “Well, you know what it takes to do that?” When the other observer would fall into the trap and ask, “No, what?” he’d answer, “Practice!”
Often, I was the hapless person who fell into his trap. When someone asks the question, “Do you know what it takes to do that?” one naturally expects to hear a trick, a shortcut, or some key detail – not that it takes practice. Duh! Nothing comes without practice!
But though it drove me crazy to hear that it takes practice to do complex math in one’s head, or perform a sleight-of-hand trick for a bartender, or paint a straight and dead-level pin-stripe on one’s car, I found myself picking up the habit of telling my own son, and later, my grandson, the same joke. How did I learn to tie that knot, balance on a slackline, back a trailer with accuracy, or speak Spanish? Practice, every time! Both my son and my grandson are just as aggravated as I used to be when told practice is the key – but I also think they get the point. Great competence or skill at tasks is acquired only through repetition.
Which brings me to training our dogs. I recently taught a few basic dog training classes, filling in at my friend’s training center for another instructor who was ill. The participants in the classes had all paid a pretty penny for their admission to the classes, and were eager to teach basic skills to their dogs. But when I asked the participants how many of them had practiced the exercises they had learned in the previous week’s class over the course of the week, fewer than half of the students held up their hands. Not only had they not practiced their part in working with their dogs, they denied their dogs the opportunity to learn to do behaviors on cue – behaviors that their owners desperately wanted them to do!
Training your dog requires decent observation skills, timing, and some physical coordination (to, at a minimum, provide consistent cues and deliver the dog’s reinforcers – and that’s not counting handling a leash!). If you want snappy sits and downs, reliable recalls, sturdy stays, and coordinated loose-leash work, you have to practice! Try to practice teaching your dog the behaviors you want him to learn in at least once session per day and keep in mind that most dogs will learn faster if you practice in many short sessions per day than in one very long session per day.
Recently, a dog was admitted to a veterinary hospital in northern Michigan with symptoms that looked just like those of canine parvovirus type 2 (also known as CPV, CPV2, or just “parvo”) – vomiting, profuse and bloody diarrhea, and lack of appetite – but the dog tested negative for CPV. Soon, other veterinarians in the area began reporting an uptick in the number of cases of suspected CPV – but some dogs tested positive for parvo and some did not, and most of the young dogs with the parvo-like symptoms died.
These cases were reported to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), which also received reports from animal control agencies in northern Michigan regarding dogs with the same symptoms. Today, MDARD is working in partnership with local animal control agencies, the Michigan Association of Animal Control Officers, local veterinarians, the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (MSU VDL), and U.S. Department of Agriculture to share information about these cases, which have affected dogs who are fully vaccinated against CPV and dogs with incomplete immunization alike.
Officials at one shelter, the Otsego County Animal Shelter, have been quoted as saying they have seen deaths in only those dogs who were not “properly vaccinated.” They have urged all dog owners in the state to contact their veterinarians to make sure their dogs are current on their vaccinations.
As officials learn more, MDARD is encouraging animal shelters, boarding and daycare kennels, and veterinary staff to follow their strictest intake and vaccination protocols when bringing in new dogs/puppies and continue to follow required isolation protocols and recommended cleaning/disinfection procedures for surfaces and equipment.
For dog owners, especially those living in or traveling with pets to Michigan, MDARD strongly recommends keeping up with routine vaccinations by ensuring dogs/puppies are vaccinated against parvovirus, rabies, canine distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza, and leptospirosis. And if dogs or puppies are exhibiting signs of illness, keep them at home and away from other dogs and contact your veterinarian.
Fear of viral mutation
CPV first emerged among dogs in Europe around 1976. By 1978 the virus had spread unchecked, causing a worldwide epidemic of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) and gastroenteritis (inflammation in the intestines).
CPV is closely related to feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), a virus that has been known since the 1920s to infect cats, mink, and other animals. CPV probably arose as the result of two or three genetic mutations in FPV that allowed it to expand its host range to infect dogs. FPV in cats is highly contagious and has a high mortality rate.
The Baker Institute for Animal Health at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine first isolated the virus in 1978, and by 1979 had developed the first vaccine for parvo. By 1981, Baker Institute scientists had created an improved attenuated vaccine for the disease. Today, Dr. Colin Parrish of the Baker Institute continues to study the virus and its evolution in order to determine whether existing vaccines provide adequate protection from modern strains of CPV.
The original CPV2 has disappeared in the dog population and has been replaced by new antigenic variants, designated CPV2a and CPV2b, which became widespread during 1979 to 1980 and 1984, respectively.
Until DNA sequencing can identify the virus that has affected and killed dogs in Michigan, and researchers learn what vaccination protocol can best protect dogs, owners are encouraged to check their dogs’ vaccination status.
Until more is known about this illness, extraordinary caution might include avoiding walking dogs (and especially puppies) in public places in Michigan, and keeping your dogs away from other dogs. Most importantly, if you live in or have traveled through Michigan, or your dog has been exposed to dogs who live in or have been taken through Michigan recently, and your dog or puppy shows any signs of being ill with vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite, or lethargy, contact your veterinarian right away.
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Nobody likes rounding the corner in the house and discovering a pile of poo. While it’s one thing to find the occasional “gift” from a puppy or newly adopted dog, we’re generally less thrilled to discover our adult dog has “left a load” in the living room. So why is your house-trained dog suddenly pooping in the house?
Why Do Adult Dogs Poop in The House?
There are many reasons why an adult, assumingly house-trained, dog might poop indoors:
Illness. Dietary indiscretions or parasites can cause even the best-housetrained dog to have an “accident” in the house. Illness-related fecal accidents often present as loose stool.
Incomplete house-training. Is your dog really house-trained? If dogs are given too much freedom too soon, and frequently have poop accidents in the house, they may not fully understand the expectation that all defecation – not just some defecation – should happen outdoors.
Digestive-schedule issues. Some dogs’ digestive systems process things differently. Some need more time to process between intake and output. Some dogs need more physical activity to get things moving.
Pooping as a stress response. A sudden change in routine, moving, houseguests, visiting animals, noises outside, and even re-arranging the furniture are all things that some dogs might find stressful. Some dogs might respond to this stressful situation by urine marking or pooping in the house. It’s not spite; it’s stress.
What You Can Do to Stop Your Dog From Pooping in the House
The first line of defense is to revisit housetraining basics. No matter the reason why your dog is pooping in the house, it’s important to limit her opportunity so the behavior doesn’t become well rehearsed. Like us, dogs get good at whatever they practice!
Next, increase your management and supervision. Keep your dog in your line of sight when home; attach her leash to your belt, if need be!
If she’s pooping in the same spot, restrict access to that area. When your dog is left home alone indoors, consider using a crate if your dog is crate trained and you’ll only be gone a few hours. You can also limit her access to a small area by using a gate to keep her in a kitchen or laundry room. With either set-up, the idea is that most dogs want to keep their personal space clean and may be less likely to foul the area.
Consider a schedule change. If your dog has breakfast and gets a short walk before you leave for work, but frequently poops in the house, or wakes you in the middle of the night needing to go out to relieve himself, try adjusting his feeding schedule. His system might just need a little longer to digest a meal. Or, if possible, try a longer walk. Another few minutes might be all she needs to help work it out.
If your dog routinely poops in the house following stressful situations, consider consulting a positive-reinforcement trainer who can help you create a plan to manage the situation while you work to help change how your dog feels (“counter-condition”) about the presently stressful situations.
And finally, continue to be diligent in these efforts until you’ve had three months without an accident. Yes, we know that’s a long time, but shorter benchmarks are often just luck.
A single reported case of transmission of monkeypox from a human to a dog has prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to publish guidelines for pet owners to prevent more such cases.
A 4-year-old male Italian Greyhound who sleeps in the same bed as his owners developed the mucocutaneous lesions that are emblematic of the viral infection 12 days after his owners were diagnosed with monkeypox. The transmission was confirmed by comparing monkeypox virus DNA sequences from samples taken from the dog and one of his owners; there was a 100% match between the viral strains, indicating that the dog had indeed contracted the virus from his infected owner.
Experts have known that monkeypox can infect mammals (including monkeys, anteaters, hedgehogs, prairie dogs, squirrels, and shrews), but until now, there have been no confirmed cases in dogs. While it’s not yet confirmed whether an infected dog could infect other dogs or humans, there is ample reason to believe than the virus could, in fact, pass to other dogs or humans in close contact with an infected dog. The virus is known to spread through contact with the secretions from skin rashes, scabs, and blisters, as well as respiratory secretions from an infected person.
For these reasons, the CDC has released the following recommendations to pet owners regarding monkeypox:
Infected humans should avoid close contact with other humans and animals. For dogs, this means the infected person should not pet, hold, carry, cuddle, or kiss the dog, or share towels, sleeping areas (including sofas and chairs), food, or food utensils with the dog.
Ideally, if the human with monkeypox did not have close contact with pets after symptom onset, the dog would be sent to be cared for by friends or family members who live in a separate home until the person with monkeypox fully recovers. Then, the home should be disinfected before the dog is brought back (the CDC offers disinfection instructions here).
However, if the person with monkeypox has already had close contact with their dog after the onset of symptoms, the dog should be kept at home and away from other animals and humans for 21 days. It’s best if a non-infected person can care for the dog in the home to prevent inadvertent contact. But if the infected person must care for the dog who has already been exposed, the following steps should be taken in an effort to reduce the chance that the dog becomes infected:
Wash your hands, or use an alcohol-based hand rub, before and after caring for your dog.
Do not wipe or bathe your pet with chemical disinfectants, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or other products such as hand sanitizer, counter-cleaning wipes, or other industrial or surface cleaners.
Cover any skin rash to the best extent possible (by wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants), and wearing gloves and a well-fitting mask or respirator while providing care for your dog.
Avoid close contact with your pet.
Ensure your pet cannot inadvertently come into contact with any contaminated articles in the home such as clothing, sheets, blankets, towels, and furniture used by the person with monkeypox.
Do not let animals come into contact with rashes, bandages, and body fluids.
Ensure food, toys, bedding, or other items that you provide for your animal during its isolation do not come in direct contact with skin or uncovered rash.
Observe your dog carefully for signs of monkeypox infection, including:
Lethargy
Lack of appetite
Coughing
Nasal secretions or crust
Bloating
Fever, and/or
Pimple- or blister-like skin rash (this may initially appear as a simple pimple or single blister before advancing to a rash)
If there is a person with a confirmed or suspected monkeypox infection in your home, and you observe any of the above-listed signs in your dog, contact your veterinarian immediately. If a diagnosis of monkeypox is suspected, your veterinarian should then contact the state public health veterinarian. Also, until and if a monkeypox infection is confirmed in your dog, he should be kept from other animals and his waste should be disposed in a dedicated, fully lined trash can or flushed down a toilet. Feces should not be left or disposed of outdoors, as monkeypox virus infections in wildlife may occur.
Dogs naturally like to jump up. It’s one of the ways they explore the world around them, including the humans they meet.
Unfortunately for our dogs, most people don’t like dogs to jump on them. A rambunctious adolescent Labrador or adult St. Bernard can get in a heap of trouble if they pounce on people, despite their friendly intentions. Even a tiny dog can trip an unstable senior or toddler, or put muddy paw prints on someone’s business suit.
The good news is, we can easily solve this behavioral clash – as long as we first identify the dog’s motivation for jumping up (because the solution will vary depending on the purpose of his paw assault!).
Why Do Dogs Jump?
Greeting and seeking attention from humans are the most common reasons that dogs jump up on us.
Pups learn at an early age that jumping up is the best way to get humans to pay attention to them. After all, they are tiny and way down on the floor, and it’s easy for us to overlook them unless they put their paws on our legs with a “Hi! Hey! I’m down here!” message. Because they’re little and adorable, we bend down and pet them, or at least make eye contact and talk to them. Boom! We just reinforced jumping up.
Because behaviors that are reinforced increase, by the time your jumping pup reaches adolescence, it’s likely that jumping up will have become a well-established behavior.
Dogs also commonly jump up on humans as an information-seeking behavior – frequently in dogs who are not completely comfortable or familiar with humans and who want to find out more about them. “Who are you and what are you going to do to me?”
Often misinterpreted as a warm greeting or attention-seeking, this can get a dog in real trouble when the well-intentioned but misguided human tries to pet the information-seeking dog and elicits a defensive bite instead of happy reciprocal affection.
Finally, a fearful dog may jump on a known and trusted human to seek comfort. In this case, she’s saying, “Help me, I’m scared!” – just as you might seek comfort in the arms of a loved one when you are frightened.
What Not To Do When Your Dog Jumps Up on Someone
It used to be so simple. “Turn your back on the dog and step away” was the standard old-fashioned advice for dealing with a dog who jumps. That’s still a reasonable option for some dogs – with a lot of caveats.
It’s not a good choice for a dog who jumps on you for comfort or information. If a dog jumps up in an effort to gain information about you, you’d be better off standing still; turning away could elicit a bite.
If a dog jumps up in search of comfort, it’s kinder to provide that comfort than to turn away. Meet her needs rather than ignoring her!
If a dog jumps up in an excited, happy greeting or to seek attention, turning your back might work – but she might just keep jumping up on your back, which is still reinforcing because she gets to touch you.
The modern, behavior-science-based approach to jumping up is to figure out how to meet your dog’s needs so she doesn’t have to jump up, and generously reinforce incompatible behaviors as appropriate. Let’s look at how to handle these various jumping up behaviors.
While the following methods work for adult dogs, it’s easier to prevent a behavior from becoming established than it is to modify it after it’s been well-reinforced, so the sooner you start, the better.
What to Do When Your Dog Jumps to Greet
When your new pup comes home, make sure you (and everyone who regularly interacts with her) meet her attention needs so she doesn’t have to jump up to get you to notice her. Pay attention to her by greeting her before she jumps, reinforcing her for four paws on the floor. Teach her that if she sits, people will pay attention to her, and make sure you provide plenty of enrichment opportunities so she isn’t constantly seeking attention for lack of anything better to do.
“Find It” and “Search” are good incompatible behaviors that are easy to teach and simple to use. She can’t do them and jump up at the same time. “Find It” means you’ve dropped treats at your feet. Instead of jumping on you, your dog directs her energy toward the ground, sniffing for treats. For “Search,” toss treats six to eight feet away, again giving your dog something fun to do that’s incompatible with jumping up. You can instruct visitors to do these behaviors as well.
Convince your dog that sitting is a better way to get your attention by providing lots of reinforcement when she sits. You can use a tether to practice; tether her to something solid (such as a sofa leg or piano leg) and approach. If she stays sitting, approach, click and treat (or pet her, or do other reinforcing interactions). If she jumps, step back and wait for her to sit. Then approach.
When you are out and about, restrain her with your leash if someone wants to approach and pet her. Tell them they can pet her if she sits (assuming she enjoys being petted by strangers) and if she jumps up they need to back up. Hold the leash securely so she can’t pull forward and jump on them.
For a fun interactive incompatible behavior, teach your dog that if she sits when visitors come to the door they will throw a toy for her. Then have a basket of toys sitting outside the door with instructions to your visitors to pick up several of them and toss one when your dog sits to greet them. When she comes back and sits, toss the next toy and then the next. You can give your guest a handful of treats while your dog is chasing the toy, and when the toys are all tossed, they can play Find It.
What to Do When Your Dog Jumps for Information
This one’s simpler. If you know your dog is cautious with new people, simply don’t let her approach them (or them approach her), even when they say, “It’s okay, dogs love me!” It’s not okay for your dog, and you must protect her from risky interactions.
A truly dog-knowledgeable person will ignore her if she’s information-seeking and refrain from interacting with her, even if she jumps, until affiliative body language (soft body, soft eyes) conveys that she is relaxed and comfortable with that person. Still, you’re better off preventing interaction in the first place.
What to Do When Your Dog Jumps for Comfort
It’s absolutely fine to comfort your dog when she’s frightened. Don’t worry about “reinforcing” her fear – you cannot reinforce emotion. You can, however, help her survive her fear experience by assuring her that you’ll protect her.
When your dog behaves as if something is scaring her, before she jumps up to seek comfort, do whatever works to comfort her: get down to her level and calmly hold her, reassure her, pet her, move her away from the scary thing, play with her, feed treats, ask for her favorite behaviors, or sit and let her climb in your lap. Depending on how scared she is, she may not be able to take treats, play, or perform behaviors. In that case just hold and comfort her. Be sure you stay calm! Acting worried may stress her more.
Individualize Your Response When Your Dog Jumps
Dog behavior is far more complex than once thought, and modern trainers realize there’s no one-size-fits-all “turn your back” answer for jumping up. It’s more helpful to consider all the parameters – the dog’s motivation for the behavior, what is or is not reinforcing for the individual dog, and how to reinforce incompatible behaviors – and determine how best to work with your own canine companion to teach her how to interact politely with humans.
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Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common phenomenon in dogs. In the case of UTIs, “infection” means that bacteria have gained access to the urinary tract, are multiplying in there, and causing painful symptoms for the dog.
The dog’s urinary tract starts with the kidneys, where urine is produced. The urine then travels down tubes (ureters) into the bladder and exits the body through the urethra.
When someone uses the phrase “UTI,” they could mean infection in any one of these parts of the urinary tract. Usually, “UTI” is meant to indicate a bladder infection (bacterial cystitis, also called a called a “lower UTI”), as this is the most common place for infection to occur.
When the kidneys get infected (“upper UTI”) the dog is typically much sicker and has totally different symptoms. Our focus here is specifically on lower UTIs or bacterial cystitis.
UTIs are fairly common, especially in female dogs, who suffer far more than male dogs due to simple anatomy: The opening for urine to exit the body is a lot larger in females than males, which means it’s a lot easier for bacteria to gain entrance to the urinary tract.
This anatomical difference may seem like a curse for the girls, but it’s also a blessing, as it’s extremely rare for female dogs to suffer life-threatening urinary blockages due to the wider opening. Urinary blockage caused by bladder stones is far more common in male dogs. So, we take the good with the bad for our girls.
How to Tell If Your Dog Has a UTI
Dog UTI symptoms are similar in female and male dogs. UTI symptoms include:
Frequent need to urinate (pollakiuria)
Urinating only small amounts at a time
Discomfort while urinating (dysuria)
Straining to urinate (stranguria)
Bloody urine (hematuria)
Excessive water consumption (polydipsia)
Inappropriate urination (i.e., urinating in the house, lapse in house training)
Leaking urine (urinary incontinence)
Excessive or compulsive licking of the external genital area.
If the infection stays localized to the bladder and is appropriately treated in a timely fashion, dogs with bladder infections typically don’t get sick with advanced symptoms like loss of appetite, lethargy, or vomiting. They are usually just uncomfortable with any or all of the above dog UTI symptoms.
How is a UTI Diagnosed in Dogs?
A urinalysis is essential for diagnosing a UTI. Bring a fresh urine specimen with you to your veterinary appointment. Be sure whatever container you use is clean and dry. The fresher the sample, the better the information for your veterinarian. Catching one right outside the hospital before you go in would be best. If you catch one at home before your appointment, be sure to refrigerate it.
If your dog has been diagnosed with a UTI previously and you suspect another, your veterinarian may want to retrieve a sterile sample directly from your dog’s bladder. Be sure to ask if you should bring a urine specimen, or just bring your dog with a full bladder.
A thorough physical exam is important for any dog presenting with signs of a UTI. Your veterinarian will carefully examine your dog, checking for any evidence of underlying issues and concurrent disease. If the physical exam is good and the urinalysis shows evidence of infection, most veterinarians are comfortable treating for a UTI based on these findings alone.
It’s important to understand that the urinalysis and physical exam allow your veterinarian to make a presumptive diagnosis only. The only way to definitely diagnose a bacterial infection of the urinary tract is with a urine culture. When urine is cultured in a laboratory, culture medium is used to grow any bacteria present in the sample. The organism can then be identified and tested in order to discover which antibiotic will be most effective for treating it.
How to Handle Recurrent UTIs in Dogs
The natural anatomy of female dogs makes them more prone to UTIs. Dogs who respond well to treatment for their first UTI usually don’t need any further exploration. But if any dog, male or female, develops a second, third, or more UTIs, it’s time to start looking for underlying causes.
It’s equally important to differentiate whether repeat sufferers are having relapses from a persistent, unresolved infection or true reinfection. Reculturing urine at the end of antibiotic treatment is the only way to definitively ascertain that a UTI has fully resolved.
In female dogs, one of the biggest causes of recurrent UTI involves the condition of her external genitalia or vulva. A normal healthy vulva is V-shaped, with edges that are fairly flush with the surrounding skin.
Many female dogs have recessed vulvas, sometimes called juvenile vulva, where the vulva is tucked in behind folds of surrounding skin. This anatomy provides a perfect environment for bacteria to go wild, right near the opening to the urinary tract.
Some females have a hooded vulva – a big skin fold forming a roof over the vulva – with the same result. Obese females are prone to developing deep skin folds and recesses around the vulva, even if they started life with normal vulvar anatomy. The treatment for aberrant vulvar conformation resulting in recurrent UTIs is a surgical correction called a vulvoplasty.
Other causes of recurrent UTIs in dogs include:
Bladder stones
Bladder polyps or tumors
Urinary crystals
Antibiotic resistant infection
Stopping antibiotic treatment too soon
Unresolved, persistent, original infection
Immune-compromised patient
Concurrent metabolic disease predisposing to UTI (e.g., diabetes, Cushing’s Syndrome)
If your dog suffers from recurrent UTIs, further testing will likely be recommended including but not limited to:
Full bloodwork
Repeat urine cultures
Abdominal x-ray
Abdominal ultrasound
Cystoscopy (endoscopic visualization of the bladder)
Bladder biopsy
If an underlying cause is diagnosed and corrected, your dog should stop developing recurrent UTIs.
The Only Dog UTI Treatment
This is pretty simple: UTIs require treatment with antibiotics. Choosing the best antibiotic and treating the infection long enough are critical to successfully returning the dog to an infection-free state.
“How long” is “long enough” is for your veterinarian to decide. There is ongoing research to see exactly how many days of antibiotic treatment is really necessary. Most veterinary practitioners recommend 14 days of antibiotic therapy, with a follow-up urinalysis and/or culture at the end.
At Home Treatment for UTIs in Dogs
Because it’s a bacterial infection requiring treatment with antibiotics, you may not be successful clearing an active infection on your own. There are, however, supportive things you can do at home to help your infected dog, and plenty of preventive measures you can take to avoid or lessen the potential for a UTI in your dog. Here are my suggestions:
Make sure fresh water is always available. If you feed dry kibble, consider adding water and/or some canned food to your dog’s diet. Fluid ingestion helps keep things moving through the urinary tract, flushing out any bacteria that’s trying to get a foothold and helping maintain a healthy environment in the bladder.
Afford your dog the opportunity to empty his or her bladder as frequently as possible. When urine sits in the bladder for extended periods of time (“urine stasis”), it gives bacteria more opportunity to take hold. An extra potty break at midday would help!
If your female dog is overweight,get the weight off! This will help prevent a recessed vulva from serving up bacteria to the urinary tract.
Perform daily hygienic cleansing of your female dog’s perivulvar area. Wet baby wipes work well. Be sure to get into any deep folds or crevices surrounding the vulva.
If your older, unneutered male dog has had a UTI, get him neutered! This will help with prostatic disease, which is likely the underlying cause.
If your female dog suffers from spay incontinence, seek treatment for this. Incontinent dogs have weak sphincters, which opens the door wider for bacterial invasion.
If your dog has been identified as one who forms urinary crystals, follow your veterinarian’s advice regarding the best preventative diet.
Consider putting your dog on a probiotic. Probiotics strengthen the dog’s immune system, which helps fight off UTIs and may even make the vaginal and preputial bacterial population healthier.
Cranberry extract may help prevent some UTIs. It works not by acidifying the urine as most people think, but by inhibiting certain bacteria’s ability to stick to the bladder wall. Crananidin (made by Nutramax) is a popular veterinary product for this purpose.
Last month, I mentioned that I recently helped an 84-year-old friend with the 10-month-old Border Collie whom she had recently adopted from our local shelter. I wanted to take the opportunity to say a couple of things about this.
First: I wish more people would take their time when they are looking for a dog or puppy to choose. Far too many people adopt the wrong dog when they are in a hurry to adopt. And often, as with my friend, their hearts are in the right place! They adopt from a shelter because they want to save a life and they know the shelter is full; they feel pressured to not leave without a dog. But as I try to convince my dog-seeking friends, this decision is going to affect the next 10 to 15 or more years of your life! Take your time and get a dog who checks all your boxes, who is the right age and size, and who has the right coat and temperament for your home and family. Don’t rush! There are more than enough dogs to go around, and you’ll enjoy one who fits into your home easily more than one who is a struggle to manage.
But here’s the second thing I want to say: When people do adopt the “wrong” dog, boy, do I love it when they dig in and say, “Maybe we made a bad decision, but we’re going to make it work.” My 84-year-old friend and her husband have a mandarin orange farm, and they were hoping their new dog could run loose with the husband as he works on the farm during the day. When Grace proved to be a poor candidate for this – she wanted to chase every rabbit that set foot in the orchards and every car that drove down the country road – the couple thought nothing of building a large fenced run to contain Grace for a few hours during the day. The rest of the time, Grace is either on a leash or she stays in the house.
Better yet, after we worked with Grace together one time my friend took off the choke chain another trainer had recommended, and bought a harness, a waist-belt treat pouch, and a variety of treats. Thus equipped, and after just two private lessons, she now walks Grace several times a day in her rural neighborhood and reports that they are now tightly bonded; Grace listens to her and she no longer feels at risk of being pulled off her feet by the exuberant young dog.
I can’t say I was confident the adoption would work out. But after hearing that my friend had arranged for her daughter to take Grace – along with a trust fund to support the dog – should my friend pass away before Grace does, my heart swelled. It’s just so lovely (and unexpected) when the “wrong” dog falls into the right hands.
This is the kind of play that can transform in an instant from fun to funeral. If one dog grabs the other’s collar and then playfully rolls over on the ground, the collar can twist in his mouth, tightening and trapping his jaw. This starts choking the other dog. Both dogs will start to panic and struggle. Unless someone can cut the collar off quickly, one or both dogs can end up badly injured or even dead. This is why I don’t let dogs play with collars or harnesses on.
There is a trend on TikTok right now where various experts are sharing “things they would never do” after some years of experience in a certain field. The “things” are all activities that would expose a person to needless risks. I’m a dog writer, not a TikTok creator, but here’s my contribution to the genre! Based on my personal experience (and access to the experience of our many contributors and readers, shared with me over the past 25 years of editing WDJ), here are the top five things I would never do with my dogs to compromise their safety and wellbeing – from choices in dog chews to behavior training classes.
Leave my dogs home alone when there is a potentially disastrous condition nearby.
It took only one conversation with an owner whose dogs were home alone and killed in a fire to teach me this important lesson; the pain in her eyes haunts me to this day.
When wildfires erupt, authorities are quick to call for mandatory evacuations and they close roads to keep people from going home to rescue their livestock or pets. While this seems barbaric to the owner frantic to get home to save their pets, the public safety officers’ mandate is to save human lives above all else. They will allow registered animal emergency evacuation teams into closed areas if they deem the situation safe enough, but this is rarely the case in the first day of any kind of disaster.
Obviously, if you’re already at work when a fire breaks out in your area – or a levee breaks and floodwaters are engulfing your neighborhood – there is not much you can do. Find out who you can contact to report the need for your animals to be rescued; there is almost always an agency that is assigned to this important task.
But if there is a fire burning within 30 miles of your home, a tornado warning in your area, or it’s hurricane season and your local river is rising, take your pets with you if you leave the house. I’ve taken my dogs to a friend’s house when I had to go to the store with a fire burning 10 miles away. Leaving them home is not a chance I will take.
Sign up for a dog training class without researching the dog trainer and observing classes first.
Monitoring training-advice Facebook groups, I’ve read many posts from people who have paid for a six-week class, only to wonder if they should quit after the first session because the instructor insists that all the participants use choke chains and/or use leash yanks. Every time I hear this, I want to ask, “How was this a surprise? Why did you not observe a class first?”
Don’t leave your dogs (or other pets) home if there is an emergency evacuation, even if the situation seems well in hand and packing up all your pets is a huge hassle. Consider it a safety drill! Conditions can change rapidly and public safety officers might not allow you to return if the situation goes south.
I read dog trainers’ websites carefully, looking for evidence of a positive-training education and credentials. If their website gives little detail beyond years of experience and some catch-phrases (including “positive dog training”), I send an email and ask what programs they have graduated from and which training conferences or seminars they most recently attended. I want to see passion for and commitment to continuing education, because modern training is advancing every year.
I recommend observing any dog trainer you’re considering taking a class with. I’d watch the instructor teach several classes of beginning-level students, because watching an advanced class march around flawlessly will not tell you whether force and fear were used to get the dogs to that level. I’d be looking for smiles on the faces of the dog handlers and loose, relaxed body language from the dogs and puppies. If the humans look grim and the dogs look shut down, I wouldn’t sign up for even a single session, much less a six-week class. And if the dogs show up in class wearing choke chains, pinch collars, or shock collars, I know it’s not the style of training I want to pursue with my dog.
Let dogs play with other dogs while wearing collars or harnesses.
I had read warnings from people who claimed that it was unsafe to allow dogs to wear collars while playing, but until I saw for myself what could happen, I thought the warnings were overblown and unnecessarily dramatic.
I was wrong.
When wrestling or playing “bitey face” games, it’s very easy for a dog to get his or her jaw stuck in the gear worn by their playmate. Don’t think because you haven’t seen it, it won’t happen to your dog; all it takes is a single playmate who likes to grab other dogs by the collar. And when this happens, both dogs panic and freak out. It’s incredibly difficult in the resulting melee to figure out how to free both dogs, especially as they spin, roll, and scream in pain and panic.
Since we first ran an article about this potential hazard (“Don’t Wait: Prevent Collar Accidents,” December 2020), dozens of readers have shared stories about dogs who have been maimed, traumatized, and even killed by their own collars. I guarantee you that my warning is not overblown. Become familiar with dog collar safety and let your dogs “play naked.”
Give my dogs *most* rawhide chews.
I would not give my dogs any of the following dog chews: dried pigs ears, dried bones (the kind sold in pet supply stores), or most rawhide or so-called “collagen” products (same thing) sold in pet supply stores.
I am very selective when it comes to dog chew items. Dead animal parts of unknown age and unknown country-of-origin, processed with dog-knows-what chemicals? No thank you.
There are two issues here: the potential for the items to be contaminated, with either Salmonella and other food-borne pathogens or potentially toxic chemicals used in the item’s processing; and the physical danger to dogs from lacerations to the throat or intestines or impactions in the dog’s stomach or intestines.
Nothing that holds up to assertive chewing for long should be consumed in quantity. And if it doesn’t hold up to assertive chewing, it will be consumed in quantity!
I do supply my foster puppies and adolescent dogs with certain chew items (more about that in a second) for limited periods of time when I want them to entertain themselves quietly for a bit. I also will give my adult dogs a certain chew item once in a while as a treat. But daily chewing is just not necessary – and it’s a risk! Yes, it’s an enjoyable natural behavior for dogs – and the activity is fraught with dangers. There isn’t anything under the sun that dogs chew on that’s safe for all dogs; veterinarians have surgically removed hunks of anything you can name from the perforated or impacted bowels of countless dogs.
What chew items do I feel good about, under strict supervision and for limited periods of time? Absolutely nothing that dogs can consume completely or to a swallowable size in under an hour.
I will procure fresh, gigantic, raw, meaty bones for my dogs once in a while – and I take them away the moment they are small enough for my dogs to get between their molars.
For the teething puppy or adolescent who needs to learn to be content in short-term confinement, I’ll buy dried “bully sticks” (a.k.a. “pizzles” or dried cattle penises) – but only the ones that are about three feet long, and I throw them away when they get to about six or seven inches (swallowable size).
For a number of years there was a single company that manufactured rawhide chew products that I felt were safe: sourced fresh from a slaughter plant in the United States (rather than a tannery in a country that lacks standards or inspections that would protect dogs) and made into giant rolls of extraordinary thickness. The rolls were so thick that it took even my very aggressive chewer an hour to chew an inch or so of these rolls (and then I’d take it away, to save for another day). That company fell victim to COVID-era shutdowns, alas. My search goes on for a company that makes a similar dog chew, but I haven’t found it yet.
Agree to having my dog vaccinated for anything that I haven’t researched and planned for in advance.
You can’t properly research whether your dog needs a particular vaccination while at the veterinarian’s office. And while it would be lovely to be able to trust any veterinarian’s opinion that your dog would benefit from whatever vaccination they feel is missing from your dog’s chart, the fact is, sometimes veterinary professionals are just checking the boxes, especially at well-pet visits.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m a strong proponent of making certain my dogs have the vaccines that will protect them from hazards they are likely to encounter. But neither do I want to overvaccinate. Nor do I want to vaccinate my extremely senior dog for anything; I don’t believe in messing with dogs’ immune systems late in life!
Periodically, I pay for vaccine titer tests to determine whether my dogs possess levels of antibodies for distemper and parvovirus that will provide protection against those diseases. I won’t permit them to be vaccinated for those diseases again until they are needed.
Also, I pay attention to what they might be considered “due” for! I just don’t want to be blind-sided or strong-armed over something with potentially long-term consequences for my dog’s health.
If a vet has information about something new or terrific that may benefit my dog, I say, “Great! Let me read up on that. If it seems like the safety profile is good and it’s likely to offer protection from something my dog is likely to encounter, I’ll make another appointment to come back and get that.” And I will!
We asked a number of WDJ contributors what they would NEVER do with their dogs:
I would never deliberately scare my dog by disguising or altering my appearance. My dog Clara was a feral puppy, and I was the only person in the world she trusted for a very long time. Once, I unthinkingly wore something that was unusual enough that she didn’t recognize me – and she was petrified. I was her anchor in the human world, and I was gone, with a stranger in my place. But I wouldn’t do it to a gregarious dog either. We can’t know ahead of time how much a switch like that might scare any individual dog, and fear isn’t funny. – Eileen Anderson
Eileen blogs at eileenanddogs.com and is the author of Remember Me? Loving and Caring for a Dog with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction and co-author of Puppy Socialization: What It Is and How to Do It.
I would never attach my dog to a retractable leash. That was true for Samantha and Chloe, my calm Labradors of yesteryear, and it’s especially true about my current Lab Blue Sapphire, who is twice as athletic and loves to chase anything that moves. I might as well have a raccoon or maybe a coyote on the leash! – CJ Puotinen
CJ is a long-time WDJ contributor and author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care and many other books.
I would never turn my dog loose in a dog park without first observing the behavior, actions, and interactions of the dogs and the humans inside the park. Obviously, dogs who don’t play well with others should not be taken to dog parks. The problem is, sometimes these dogs belong to humans who don’t understand this or just don’t care. Resource-guarding can turn ugly in a hurry if another dog doesn’t understand or respect it. Dogs with over-the-top prey drive are not fun for other dogs. And some dogs are just plain too rough. I saw a beautiful young Lab whose hind leg had been grabbed by another dog chasing him. The result? A severed Achilles’ tendon.
Observe the humans, too. People do dumb things! I saw a human thoughtlessly throw a ball such that two competing dogs went for it from opposite directions and collided face first. The result was broken teeth, lots of blood, and expensive veterinary bills. I saw a human throwing a flying disc for their own dog dangerously close to large rocks. Someone else’s dog went for the disc and crashed into a giant rock. That dog left the park on three legs.
If you see anything that looks remotely dangerous, don’t go in. And be alert if a new dog and human enter the park. Any newcomer can change the dynamic of the pack. Collect your dog and observe the new dynamic before deciding whether to stay. – Eileen Fatcheric, DVM
Dr. Fatcheric writes articles about veterinary medicine for WDJ and is a passionate and successful competitor with her dogs in agility.
I’d never make my dog uncomfortable for a laugh. This isn’t a new impulse for humans – I remember watching college guys give beer to their dog and laugh at the stumbling result – but social media has put this impulse on steroids. I cringe whenever I see a dog-themed TikTok start to trend, because all sorts of folks will jump onto the bandwagon, like “Scare your dog to see what they do.”
It only takes a quick scroll for anybody with any knowledge of dog body language to feel devastated by these “funny” videos. The dogs are totally freaked out. The human world they’ve landed in is confusing enough for dogs. It’s heartbreaking to watch the person the dog trusts most deliberately set them up to feel an intense, uncomfortable emotion like fear. – Kathy Callahan
Kathy is a dog trainer and author of 101 Rescue Puppies: One Family’s Story of Fostering Dogs, Love, and Trust.
Most of the things I would never do with my dog involve the use of force, pain, or fear. For example, I would never use a shock collar. There is no reason to shock your dog – not even the euphemistic low-level “stim” that shock-collar trainers try to convince you is not aversive. Studies confirm the position that force-free trainers have long held: Coercive methods are likely to lead to significant behavioral issues, especially aggression.
Also, I would never try to grab something from my dog’s mouth. As I tell my clients all the time – even if it’s rat poison, or your grandmother’s diamond bracelet – you’re likely to get the “something” back faster and with much less harm if you calmly ask the dog to trade rather than trying to grab the item. Offer a high-value treat in exchange! This is especially true if you have taught your dog to trade on cue in advance. – Pat Miller
Pat is a trainer, WDJ’s Training Editor, and author of many books about force-free dog training. Information about her training center and academy can be viewed at PeaceablePaws.com.
Years ago, I had high hopes for participating in dock diving sport with my now-9-year-old dog, Woody. But it turned out that my high-jumping, strong-swimming dog absolutely hates getting water in his ears!
