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When it comes to professional boarding kennels, accommodations come in all forms, from high-volume no-frills facilities with the ability to house upward of 150 dogs, to small businesses that offer luxurious hotel-style rooms for each dog (or several dogs from the same family), complete with human-sized beds, televisions, and private outdoor yards.
Photo Credit: Fotocelia / Dreamstime.com
Once upon a time, all commercial boarding kennels closely resembled old-school animal shelters or puppy mills – you know, a row of narrow chain-link pens on concrete inside a loud building or under a barn roof. Fancy ones might contain a hard cot-style bed and dog doors that led to equally narrow individual outdoor runs. But, nearly always, the dogs had to endure the unspeakably stressful proximity of many other stressed dogs, and generally had to eliminate in their pens, which were hosed out while the dogs dodged for cover. Owners who had no other options (other than not traveling) comforted themselves with the idea that at least their dogs were securely contained and fed.
The good news is that we have many more options today, including boarding “hotels” that may offer our dogs more comfort and enrichment than they enjoy in our own homes. The bad news is that not all of the employees (or even operators) of these businesses may be highly experienced with or knowledgeable about canine behavior and low-stress dog handling. Here’s what to look for when shopping for a dog-boarding facility that will keep your dog secure, comfortable, and unharmed.
RESEARCH AND TOUR YOUR DOG BOARDING FACILITY
It’s important to research and tour prospective boarding facilities well before you need one. Start by checking online reviews – keeping in mind that even the world’s best businesses suffer bad reviews from a few unhinged people with axes to grind. Check with the Better Business Bureau; generally (but not always), complaints lodged with the BBB can be taken more seriously than Yelp-style complaints. Ask dog professionals you respect (vets, trainers, groomers, etc.) if they have information or opinions about the boarding facility.
Next, call the business to schedule a tour. Online photos and videos of the facility may help you select which businesses you want to check out, but nothing is a replacement for seeing (and hearing) the boarded dogs in real time, seeing how the staff members interact with the dogs, and having an opportunity to see how the facility looks and smells in the middle of a business day.
Be forewarned: Many dog daycare and boarding facilities decline to conduct tours, citing the disturbance to their guest dogs and the possibility of a visitor bringing a pathogen into the facility. Understandably, this practice has gotten even more widespread since Covid.
We appreciate the need to protect dogs and staff from infections, and that the appearance of unfamiliar people can cause some excitement among boarded or daycare dogs, but if we can’t see where our dogs are going to be spending their time, or see in action some of the people who will be handling them, we’re not leaving our dogs there. Disposable booties or a disinfectant shoe-bath can be used protect the dogs, and masks and hand-sanitizer can be employed to protect the staff.
You need to see where your dog will be housed and where he will be taken to eliminate and/or recreate. When viewing the accommodations, pay particular attention to:
The infrastructure that secures the facility. How tall are the fences in the outdoor yards and are they in good repair? Could a dog escape the facility if a single door or gate was improperly latched? (There should be at least two gates or doors between every place dogs are kept and an exit from the property.) Could an unauthorized person enter the facility and steal a dog? (There should be locked doors or staff present to ensure that no unauthorized persons can enter.)
The cleanliness of the facility. Pay attention to how the business looks and smells. Does it appear to be clean? Ask how is it sanitized, and how often?
The comfort of the area where your dog will be kept. Does the room seem to have an adequate air supply and climate control? Is the temperature comfortable? What separates the dogs’ individual enclosures; can the dogs see each other? (It’s highly stressful for dogs to both see and be seen by strange dogs while trapped in a small space.) What sort of bedding will your dog have? Is there an ample and spill-proof supply of water in each dog’s enclosure?
If the enclosures have no direct access to an outdoor potty area, ask how frequently dogs are taken outside or if they’re expected to eliminate in the enclosure. If the latter, how often are the enclosures cleaned and where are the dogs during the process?
Check to see what, if any, “comforts” are provided (beds, blankets, toys, and chews). Do the enclosures resemble bare prison cells, or are the dogs given cushy beds?
Discuss the dogs’ exercise options. Many kennels offer the option of recreational play groups. When considering this option, find out how guests are screened to determine their eligibility for play groups. As with daycare and cage-free facilities, play groups must be closely supervised at all times by well-trained staff.
How large are the play groups? How are play pals selected? How much time do dogs spend engaged in off-leash play? What is the procedure for breaking up a dog fight and how are dogs handled immediately following, as well as for the duration of their stay? Are owners notified? If you don’t wish for your dog to participate in a play group, how will your dog be exercised?
Ask about the dogs’ meals. Does the kennel require that all guests eat a facility-provided kibble, or can owners bring their pet’s food from home? Will the kennel accommodate special diets such as home-cooked meals or raw food, and do they charge extra for this?
Ask about the kennel’s policy regarding sick or injured dogs. Every kennel should maintain excellent working relationships with local veterinarians and 24-hour care facilities. Find out how emergencies or potential emergencies are handled. When vet care is needed, are owners contacted ahead of time? For minor issues, how is the need for vet care decided and by whom?
What are the staff hours? Are there times when the dogs are not being monitored by a present and awake staff member? Not all facilities provide overnight monitoring for their canine guests.
Inquire about emergency plans. Fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes – emergencies can strike anywhere and at any time. Make sure the facility has detailed emergency plans in place. Can they safely evacuate guests in the event of a natural disaster? Where are the animals evacuated to? Are client records backed up off-site so that owners can be notified of an evacuation should the facility be compromised?
Last but not least: Ask about the training of the staff. In the kennel industry, a well-trained and competent staff is what ensures the health and safety of your pet. A love of dogs isn’t an adequate job qualification! Kindness, patience, compassion, and an ability to keep one’s own emotions in check are all important traits that must be combined with a solid understanding of dog behavior and a natural ability with dogs. This is critical in facilities that allow dog-to-dog interaction among guests.
Ask about the training that the employees receive and how much (if any) continuing education is required. Are they required to complete any sort of educational modules or classes about dog behavior, Fear Free handling, or pet first aid? Facility staff should be skilled in the nuances of dog body language; how to recognize, prevent, and interrupt bullying; and how to safely break up a dog fight.
Note: Unless you board your dog at your usual, familiar trainer’s facility, we suggest that you not authorize training during boarding, unless you have taken the time to thoroughly screen the trainer and her methods.
Red Flags That Say, 'Find Another Boarding Kennel!'
If, on a tour of the facility that you are considering for boarding your dog, you see any of the following, continue your search for another candidate for your business. There are more boarding options today than ever; even if you have to drive your dog some distance to a high-quality kennel, it’s worth the trouble. Your dog’s life is literally in the hands of these people!
You aren’t allowed to see where your pet will be housed. Some facilities cite insurance reasons for keeping owners out of the kennel area, but at a minimum, you should be allowed to look through a door or window and see the area where your pet will stay.
Dirty facility. Pet messes should be cleaned up promptly and adequate air circulation (necessary for the good health of your pet) should prevent an overall “doggy” smell. In general, the facility should appear neat and clean and should not have an unpleasant odor.
Inattentive staff. Their top priority should be the dogs. It’s a bad sign if the one person watching a play group of dogs is suddenly the same person giving you a tour of the facility!
Excessive barking. It’s reasonable to expect bursts of barking when a human or dog travels through the kennel area. Continued barking likely points toward a bigger problem such as lack of exercise, lack of mental stimulation, inadequate potty opportunities, or an overall high stress/anxiety level.
Inappropriate handling, such as physical or shouted “corrections.” Experienced, well-educated dog handlers don’t need to hit or “alpha-roll” dogs, ever.
YOUR DOG’S INTERVIEW
“Cage-free” boarding sounds great. But asking your dog to endure the constant presence of his peers – for an extended period of time and in a confined space – can be stressful. If considering a cage-free facility, be sure to spend time watching the way dogs interact and are managed. Findout if dogs receive any structured down time and how personality conflicts between dogs are handled. In this facility, some dogs wore muzzles for much of the day and staff members were armed with spray bottles – yikes!
Turnabout is fair play: If you’ve found a boarding business that you’d feel good leaving your dog with, the next step is to make sure the boarding business has an opportunity to meet your dog and learn as much about him as possible before taking responsibility for his well-being.
Many boarding businesses have an evaluation process that must be completed in advance of your dog’s stay, to ensure he’s a good fit for the kind of care they provide – and they may charge a nominal fee for conducting this evaluation. Some require that your dog spend some minimum amount of time with the facility in a daycare arrangement prior to being boarded overnight – again, to make sure that your dog is ready and capable of spending time comfortably in the type of accommodations that the business offers.
Be ready to disclose whether your dog has ever had any incidents of aggression with other people or dogs. Don’t hide or gloss over this information. If your dog has a fight or bite history, his handlers need to know, so he’s not unwittingly set up to fail and put into a situation that’s beyond his ability to handle.
PREPARING YOUR DOG FOR BOARDING
Find out, well in advance of your travel plans, what vaccinations are required by the boarding kennel. Most require that some vaccines be given two or more weeks in advance of the dog’s stay (because it takes about that long for the dog to develop immunity after vaccination). If your dog is a senior or has a chronic health condition, you may want to ask what, if any, vaccination exceptions exist. As thoughts regarding vaccination evolve, many kennels now accept titers or statements of vaccine exclusion from a veterinarian in lieu of following a strict vaccination protocol.
Be prepared to provide emergency contact numbers (including your veterinarian’s contact information) – and make sure the people you list are ready, willing, and able to respond quickly if the facility calls regarding an emergency concerning your dog.
It’s helpful if the boarding facility offers daycare, too, so your dog can spend a day or two at the facility before spending nights there, too. If the business does not offer daycare, book an overnight stay for your dog when you are in town, so you’re available to pick up your dog if it turns out he is overly stressed.
Avoid dietary changes in the days prior to boarding. The initial stress of boarding often leads to digestive upset; don’t do anything that might add to this!
If possible, try to avoid contact with other dogs for seven to 10 days prior to boarding. This helps prevent the possibility of exposure to disease that could then be introduced into the kennel environment.
Most daycare and boarding facilities remove clients’ collar, and leave the dogs either naked or in breakaway collars (to prevent entanglement during group play). For this reason, we recommend that your dog is implanted with a microchip ID (registered with your current phone number), or tattooed with information that can quickly lead a rescuer to you, should any disaster lead to your dog’s escape.
GO WITH YOUR GUT
Once you’ve done your homework and thoroughly checked out your list of potential facilities, often the best way to make a selection is to go with your gut instinct. If deciding between two different facilities that seem equal in terms of experience and standards of care, ask yourself if one just simply feels better? If for any reason you feel uncomfortable with a facility, trust yourself and your ability to know what’s best for your dog.
Something I noticed while on the elliptical machine at the gym (while trying to notice anything but my heart and respiration rate): There are a lot of ads for veterinary drugs on TV!
My husband and I are some of those weirdoes who only stream movies; we don’t watch broadcast TV, so I haven’t noticed this before, but holy smokes! It seems like there are as many ads for dog drugs as there are ads for drugs for humans – but with one important distinction: The ads for the veterinary medications don’t seem to have to include the fast-talking, small-print “side effects” additions about all the potential adverse effects that the drugs might cause. Why is that? I went looking for more information on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) website, and here’s what I found:
It turns out that the drug companies are required to disclose risk information in their promotional materials – at least, the promotional materials that are presented to veterinarians. Advertising materials that are directed to pet owners – known as direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements – are judged by a slightly different standard.
The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) oversees the promotion and advertising of approved prescription drug products under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and related regulations. Animal drug companies must ensure their prescription drug information provided to veterinarians and consumers is truthful, balanced, and not misleading. But marketing materials that are advertised in veterinary trade publications or distributed directly to veterinarians (or their hospitals) must be balanced with both benefit and risk information. And the product inserts must contain warnings, precautions, and contraindications for the product’s use.
In contrast, the main criterion for DTC advertisements for prescription drugs is that the promotional message is truthful and does not mislead consumers into thinking the drug is safer or more effective than has been demonstrated. According to the FDA CVM website: “DTC advertisements are designed to prompt consumers to request more information from their veterinarians about the drug. These advertisements can provide helpful information to consumers, increase awareness of certain conditions or diseases, and may even influence a consumer to seek veterinary help for their animal; however, the content of the advertisement must be truthful, balanced, clearly communicated, and not misleading.”
Interestingly, ads for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are not regulated by the FDA, but by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)! The rules for OTC drugs are far less detailed. Essentially, the only real rules are that claims in advertisements must be truthful, cannot be deceptive or unfair, and must be evidence-based.
Also interesting: I couldn’t find any information about the regulations for advertising topical pesticides for dogs (such as “spot on” flea and tick pesticides). The products themselves are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, but I couldn’t find advertising regulations anywhere. If I had to guess, I would bet that the ads for these products are governed by the FTC, too.
Personally, I’d love to see the ads for all veterinary products, whether prescription or OTC, pesticide or medication, to have to list the potential side effects, just like the human drug ads. I think this would demystify the products, and help make it clear that anything you give to or put on your dog might have a deleterious effect.
Karen Pryor is the author of many science-based behavior and training books.
I read the headline with disbelief – “Karen Pryor turns 90 this week!” How can that be possible? It seems like it was just yesterday when I read Don’t Shoot the Dog and began my journey to the right way to train and live with dogs (and all my other animal companions). It was in fact the early 1990s when I first read it; it was originally published in 1984 and is still required reading for all my academy students. (If you haven’t read it… do!)
In addition to Don’t Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor is the author of many other outstanding books on science-based behavior and training, including Lads Before the Wind, a book about her experiences as a marine mammal trainer. She is also the founder of Clicker Expo, the Karen Pryor Clicker Company, and the Karen Pryor Clicker Academy.
Her most visible legacy is her contribution to the world of dog training. Countless training and behavior professionals, including yours truly, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Karen for awakening us to the science behind the training, and helping us understand that there are far better ways to train than inflicting punishment with choke, prong, and shock collars.
Ironically, Don’t Shoot the Dog was never intended to be a dog-training book; it was written as a self-help book for humans and human behavior. It was a stroke of pure luck that her publishers talked her into bestowing the title that serendipitously caught the attention of the dog-training world. The rest is history.
Educated dog trainers and behavior consultants around the world today truly deserve the title “professional” because Karen introduced our profession to the science of behavior and learning and whetted our appetites to learn more about how our dogs think and learn. And it’s not just dogs. Companion cats, horses, fish, rabbits, mice, birds… all the non-human animals who share our homes and our hearts can thank her for vastly improving the quality of their lives. (To learn more about Karen, read this interview from WDJ 10 years ago.)
An article posted last week on the Karen Pryor Clicker Training website gave an update about Karen, for the occasion of her 90th birthday. I was sad to learn that Karen is dealing with some dementia as she enters her ninth decade on this earth, but comforted to read that she is living in a cottage in a lovely country setting in the Sierra Mountains with one of her sons’ family, enjoying the family dogs, cats, chickens, garden, and the infinite beauty of the natural world around her.
Happy birthday, Karen, and thank you for all you’ve done for all of us. May you enjoy your remaining years on this planet. Rest assured that your legacy will live far beyond your all-too-brief time on this world.
First "Editor's photo" : NK and her Border Collie Rupert shortly after being hired to edit Whole Dog Journal in 1998.
I’m going to expand here on an exchange that was sparked in the comments section of the online version of a WDJ article that was posted recently. The article described each of the most effective pesticides and oral medications for dogs that either repel or kill fleas and ticks. One reader wanted to know whether we receive any compensation from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for consideration of their products.
I replied, a bit defensively (due to the use of the word “kickbacks”), that, no, we don’t receive anything in exchange for editorial consideration. The reader wrote back to clarify that he was just trying to determine whether there was any sort of financial consideration or relationship between our publisher or editorial department and the companies whose products we write about. I appreciated his clarification. My short answer is “No!” – and if you’ll forgive me, here’s a longer answer:
Neither the publisher nor I accept any sort of incentives to write about any company or its products.
Very recently, the folks at our publishing headquarters in Connecticut made the decision to offer affiliate links to products that appear in our “Approved Foods” lists or product reviews, as a way to both make it easier for our readers to find and purchase those products if they wish, and to help defray the cost of building and maintaining our new searchable database of approved foods. “Network ads,” which are generated by something to do with Google, may also appear on this website. I’m not sure there are any publishers still in business who are not taking these tacks today, in order to help offset postal and print-industry cost increases. But as WDJ’s editor, working from my home in California, I have no involvement with any of that. Those efforts are siloed far from me.
WDJ’s publisher was founded more than 40 years ago with first one, than an increasing number, of consumer-supported periodicals that eschewed advertising. Founded on the Consumer Reports model, the idea behind each publication was to give readers independent reviews of products and services and technical information from experts in the field, free of any advertising considerations whatsoever. The publisher felt that readers would find enough value in publications that “tell it like it is” – not hedging or holding back in reviews out of concern of losing a chunk of advertising income – that they would gladly pay subscription fees for those publications on an ongoing basis.
When I was hired to edit the inaugural issue of Whole Dog Journal more than 25 years ago, I couldn’t be more excited. I had worked part-time for a predecessor, Whole Horse Journal, which had been purchased by Belvoir from a friend. I was aware of Belvoir’s consumer-oriented approach and was thrilled for an opportunity to shine a light on products and practices that are demonstrably in the best interests of dogs – as opposed to anyone with a dog-related business who will give us advertising money. There can be no more fulfilling job for a journalist than to be allowed to research and write articles without ever having to “pull a punch” out of concern that one of our advertisers might withdraw their support and threaten our ability to continue publication. None of that has changed. I still feel honored to enjoy complete editorial independence from the constraints of influence of advertisers.
Over the years, in order to learn more about the production of dog food, I’ve asked various dog food makers whether I could come see their manufacturing facilities and talk to their formulators. In this way, I’ve been able to tour food production plants operated by WellPet, Hill’s, Diamond, The Honest Kitchen, Champion, Breeder’s Choice, Lotus, and a few more (including some that are no longer in business or that were purchased by other companies, including Iams/Eukanuba and Natura). Some of those companies offered to fly me to their manufacturing cities, pay for my hotel, and more. But Belvoir would never allow such a thing; the most I could (or would) accept on these trips is a meal or two.
Sometimes, pet product manufacturers send products to me, unsolicited and unannounced (ask me sometime about the box of frozen dog food that was sent to me lacking ANY labels that identified it as needing refrigeration or even being food –the one that sat in a pile of other mail and unsolicited stuff for over a month, until I noticed the box was bulging in a way I hadn’t noticed previously! OMG!). If the product is one that I find I really like and think would be a useful product for other dog owners, it might find its way into a review or article at some point. If I find the product to be without value or use, I tend to not respond to the sender. Either way, all products eventually get donated to my local shelter or given to friends or family who might be able to use them.
I’ve never received products from any of the big pharmaceutical companies – and come to think of it, I don’t receive even unsolicited literature from them. I suspect they don’t think they need our support or interest.
Tick-borne diseases are capable of making humans and dogs alike very ill – even killing them.
I’m just back from a week’s vacation, wherein my husband and I picked up his grandson from a suburb of Boston and drove to Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania to indulge in said grandson’s fascination with the Civil War. We took a hike in Connecticut (on the way) and took several hikes all around the battlegrounds of Gettysburg, on wide, gravel trails and small, forested paths alike. One night in our hotel, after walking all over the hills and trails in Gettysburg, I felt something crawly and found a big dog tick walking along my forearm. Ack! I flushed the tick down the toilet and told my husband and grandson to be alert for ticks on themselves, too.
I honestly thought no more about it until this morning, when I read a 2021 article that a Pennsylvania friend had just shared about the detection of a new strain of Rikettsia, a potentially deadly disease affecting both dogs and people. The new strain of this tick-borne disease was first detected in a handful of dogs who either lived in or had recently visited southern states. I was not bitten by the tick, so I know I don’t have to be worried for myself, but any new tick-borne disease is bad news that dog owners in particular should be aware of.
Ticks can carry quite a few pathogens that can cause disease in dogs and humans. Some of these pathogens are viruses, some are bacteria, and some are protozoa (single-celled animals). Rikettsia are very small bacteria species that grow inside the living cells of their hosts. Different strains of Rikettsia are responsible for diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and various strains of typhus.
The new strain of Rikettsia has likely been around for a while, but researchers identified it as a novel species only in 2020, after obtaining laboratory samples from tests conducted on dogs who had been diagnosed in 2018 and 2019 with Rikettsial diseases and certain symptoms (fever and specific hematological abnormalities). Researchers obtained DNA gene sequences from canine blood specimens that were seroreactive for R.Rickettsia and found identically unique genetic markers in samples from three dogs who had been bitten by ticks in three different states (Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma). After extensive analysis, it was determined that these three dogs had been affected by identical and never-before identified strains of Rickettsia. Additionally, the new strain was found to be related to two strains of Rickettsia that affect humans (R. heilongjiangensis and R. massiliae). The researchers concluded that this unique Rickettsia species has clinical significance for dogs and potentially humans. The disease caused by this species, they warn, could be underdiagnosed and geographically widespread.
The good news is that this strain, like other Rikettsia species, can be successfully treated with the antibiotic doxycycline; sometimes, more than one course of treatment is required. However, this presumes prompt detection of the infection (via PCR test for Rikettsia). Sometimes, dog owners need to push for this testing, as TBDs are not always the first thing that comes to mind when vets are faced with the varied array of symptoms and biochemistry abnormalities that TBDs can cause. Sometimes, additional medications ar required to treat side effects. For example, one of the three dogs whose novel infections were first detected (a Boston Terrier who lived in Illinois, but apparently got bitten by an infected tick on a trip to Arkansas) was treated with doxycycline to treat his rickettsiosis, prednisone to treat potential immune-mediated component, omeprazole to prevent gastric ulcers (doxycycline can be notoriously hard on a dog’s digestive tract, causing many dogs to stop eating during treatment), and metronidazole to treat “assumed dysbiosis” (disruption to the microbiota homeostasis caused by an imbalance in the microflora, i.e., super upset gut balance caused by the doxycyline).
Some readers of WDJ have complained that we promote the use of topical pesticides that repel and/or kill ticks (such as this recent one that listed all of the better flea and tick preventatives currently on the market). In truth, we want dog owners to know as much as possible about the tools that are available, so they can choose appropriate tactics for protecting their dogs from fleas and ticks, based on their dogs’ individual health conditions and environment. We do not advocate for pesticide use on all dogs, but we do want owners to be aware of the risks of failing to adequately protect the dogs who are at high risk of parasites and the deadly diseases that they (ticks in particular) carry. Tick-borne diseases are widespread, varied, and, left undiagnosed or inadequately treated, capable of making humans and dogs alike very ill – even killing them. It’s critical to prevent your dog’s exposure to ticks – and to get your dog tested for tick-borne diseases if he develops any symptoms of lethargy, fever, lameness, or lack of appetite after being exposed to ticks.
In the May issue of WDJ, you’ll see an article about prescription dog foods, as well as some tables that list information about all of the prescription dog foods currently on the market. The tables are organized by the company that makes them and sorted by the condition/s they were formulated to treat. The article discusses how these products differ from non-prescription dog foods.
We hadn’t planned on adding prescription dog foods to the WDJ online dog food databases, the way we do when we review dry or canned dog foods, mostly because we don’t approve or disapprove of them; if, in your veterinarian’s opinion, your dog needs a prescription food, who are we to approve or disapprove?
However, in the process of compiling information about the 169 of the prescription dog foods currently on the market, it occurred to us that we could easily put all of them into a searchable database that our readers could access (“easily” in comparison to the annual compilation of the 1,200 or so dry foods currently on our “approved dry dog foods” list and the 600 canned foods currently on our “approved canned foods” list). And not only would this help us examine their ingredients lists – which typically look very different from the lists of ingredients on our “approved foods” – but we realized that it could potentially help owners locate prescription products that met their veterinarians’ criteria as being beneficial for the dogs’ health condition and contain higher-quality ingredients, or a more appropriate amount of protein or fat. Because, usually, veterinarians are familiar with only the products from one or another prescription-diet company, and if you look with horror at the list of ingredients and balk at feeding that product to your dog, your veterinarian may well dismiss you as a client. And who could blame them? Why would they want to work with a client who won’t follow their recommendations?
But if you were able to see that another company had a food that ostensibly is formulated to treat the same condition that your vet’s suggestion is formulated to treat – one that contains ingredients that more closely resemble actual food – perhaps you could then ask your vet if she or he could prescribe that product instead. Who knows? Your veterinarian might learn about and become impressed with a different company’s products, and your dog will likely be happier with a more palatable diet.
So, if you’re a subscriber, and you’ve registered for your free access to our website, you’ll be able to access our new searchable database of prescription dog foods, too! And the cool part is, you can use the “search” tool to look for products that are formulated to address a particular health condition, and within that category, contain (or do not contain) certain ingredients; are grain-free or grain-inclusive; contain a specific amount of protein or fat; are made with meat, meat meal, or both; and so on. You can add as many search parameters as you like!
Now you can search our database for prescription foods by the condition they have been formulated to treat. To find all the products formulated for “liver care” you’d set the filters like this. You could further specify dry, canned, or frozen products, and/or specific levels of fat or protein, and/or products that contain meat, meat meal, or both.
If you do nothing else, just peruse the database and check out the ingredients and the protein and fat levels of the foods for any given condition. We think you’ll be amazed at what passes for “food” in many of the products in this category.
The proliferation of foods that are supposedly formulated for the "unique needs" of extremely specific and small categories of dogs has spread to the prescription dog food market. While the number of choices can add to your veterinarian's burden - she's the one who has to choose an appropriately therapeutic diet for your dog - the fact that there are now so many options means that there is, at last, more options available (some of which with more appealing ingredients).
The general concept of veterinary or prescription diets is sound; it’s well-accepted by all nutrition experts that nutrient levels and ingredients can be manipulated in various ways in order to have beneficial effects on animals (including humans) with specific health conditions. We’ve known this ever since the 1930s, when veterinarian Mark Morris innovated the first diet for dogs who were suffering from kidney failure (see “The Morris Family and the Dawn of Veterinary Diets”).
Unfortunately, nearly a century later, the concept is in danger of being a victim of its success. In the past 15 years or so, there has been a tidal wave of prescription foods being brought to market. Pet food makers have been enjoying seemingly endless success by marketing foods to the owners of dogs of ever more specific descriptions – there’s a food being pitched for adult Yorkshire Terriers! there’s one for Pug puppies! – and this trend has spread to the veterinary foods.
There are so many products that even veterinarians are often confused about which food to recommend to their clients.
The development and marketing of these products got so out of hand, that in 2016, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) created a guidance document for its staff, intended to educate them (and, sort of subversively put pet food makers on notice) about the laws that apply to these products.
Prescription Diets for Dogs Defined
There are a few differences between a prescription diet and an over-the-counter food.
Prescription diets are defined as those that are labeled and/or marketed as intended for use to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent diseases and are labeled and/or marketed to provide all or most of the animal’s total daily nutrient requirements by serving as the pet’s sole diet. They are meant to be marketed by and used only under the direction of a licensed veterinarian, who bears the responsibility of ensuring that the pet receiving the diet has been properly diagnosed as suffering from a disease or other health condition for which the food would constitute an appropriate treatment. A veterinarian is also expected to provide periodic assessment of how the animal has reacted to the diet and to discontinue the product when warranted.
Consumers are not supposed to be able to purchase prescription diets without a prescription, due to the potential for misusing the product and/or misunderstanding its role in the treatment of the pet’s condition.
There’s one quirky aspect of the rules regarding the labels of prescription foods: They are not allowed to include any representation that the product contained therein can be used to treat or prevent disease. Discussion of that technical information and the specific factors of the food that are therapeutic or beneficial to pets with the diagnosed condition are supposed to be limited to veterinarians only. That’s why manufacturers of these foods maintain separate websites – one for veterinarians and a separate one for pet owners – that describe their products.
Our Peeves About Prescription Dog Foods
Though we love and believe in the concept of truly therapeutic foods, we have a few peeves with prescription foods, starting with the practice of making the technical information about the products inaccessible to owners. We believe that interested owners can and should be trusted with information about how the prescription diet is supposed to affect their dogs. We also think that giving owners access to this information would also help them discern the differences – if there truly are any – between the prescription foods and non-prescription foods whose labels may also wink and hint at certain nonspecific health benefits. Over-the-counter food labels probably read as more therapeutic than prescription food labels!
Our biggest pet peeve, though, has to do with the ingredients that tend to appear in prescription diets. These foods are full of by-products!
In a way, this is a legacy of the original inventors of prescription diets, the father and son veterinarians who developed all the original diets for Hill’s Pet Nutrition. It’s unclear whether there were any nutritionally adequate dog or cat foods on the market before Dr. Mark Morris, Sr., formulated his first products. Dr. Morris graduated from veterinary school as the Great Depression dawned. There were shortages of food for humans, so you could be certain that what was left over for making into pet food was not the most appealing material. But Dr. Morris had something that few (if any) pet food makers at the time had going for him: a scientific mind, honed at the best veterinary college of its day, and knowledge about the nutritional requirements of animals. He, and his son after him, focused on meeting those requirements – proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals – from whatever foodstuffs were at their disposal, at the right price. Nutrients, not ingredients, became the Science Diet way – and the company’s formulators defend it to this day (though the marketing people have pushed for greater inclusions of ingredients that are more appealing to consumers (“humanization” is the industry parlance).
We don’t think there needs to be a wall between these schools of nutritional philosophy. Of course the nutrients in a food are the most important thing – but why can’t they originate from less-processed ingredients?
We developed WDJ’s dog food selection criteria with the quality of ingredients as the most important factor. In prescription dog food, the factors that are responsible for the therapeutic action of the food are of the utmost importance; we can look the other way when we see powdered cellulose as a fiber source or corn gluten meal as a protein source when we know that there are other functional attributes of those ingredients that have qualified them for inclusion. (Though when lay people can’t access the rationale for the inclusion of those ingredients, it’s frustrating!)
Fortunately, change is coming – and the newly crowded veterinary-diet market affords consumers more options, even for highly specialized products.
The Morris Family and the Dawn of Veterinary Diets
The concept of pet foods formulated to benefit dogs with specific health problems was innovated by Mark L. Morris, Sr., a veterinarian who started his first practice in 1928 in Edison, New Jersey, after graduating from Cornell University. At a time when most veterinarians treated mainly livestock and working farm animals, Dr. Morris focused his veterinary practice, the Raritan Hospital for Animals, on the care of companion animals.
At that time, the nascent pet food industry produced two types of foods for dogs: baked biscuits and canned foods that consisted almost exclusively of horsemeat. Most people fed table scraps to their pet dogs; only more affluent, urban or suburban owners augmented their dogs’ diet of leftovers with a commercial dog food.
These products were anything but “complete and balanced” – living conditions caused by the Great Depression meant that only the least-nutritive foodstuffs were going into pet food. Dr. Morris noticed that his veterinary practice saw an unusually high number of dogs with kidney disease, and he speculated that this had something to do with their diets, comprised mostly of poor-quality protein. He started conducting research on pet nutrition; he believed that he could better treat his patients by using proper nutrition from a balanced diet.
Dr. Morris worked with Dr. Jim Allison at Rutgers University’s biochemistry department to develop techniques for diagnosing diseases in small animals and to develop and test recipes for better dog and cat diets; he started selling his first pet food formulas in 1939.
That was the same year that he met Morris Frank, a young man who had lost an eye in an accident as a young child and lost vision in the other in a boxing match as a teenager. Frank traveled to Europe in 1928 to acquire his German Shepherd guide dog, Buddy; shortly after he brought Buddy back to the U.S., Frank started America’s first guide dog school in New Jersey. In 1939, he and Buddy were “The Seeing Eye” guide dog school’s national ambassadors – though Buddy was by then an old dog suffering from kidney disease. Frank sought out Dr. Morris, desperate for anything that might help Buddy.
Dr. Morris formulated a special diet for Buddy, canning it in glass jars in his kitchen with the help of his wife, Louise. Legend has it that the dog’s health improved and soon, this formula – dubbed Raritan Ration B – was in great demand. Frank sent Dr. Morris a canning machine and a commission for thousands of orders. By 1948, with the popularity of the food growing – and no doubt, wearying of operating the canning machine – Dr. Morris took his formula to a Topeka, Kansas, canning company, the Hill Packing Company (named after its founder, Burton Hill), which had been canning dog food (as well as horse meat for human consumption!) since 1930.
The business relationship thrived and by 1948 became a partnership, Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Raritan Ration B was given a new name, “Canine k/d” (for “kidney diet”). Dr. Morris continued to create new formulas for diets that addressed pet health problems and Hill’s produced, packaged, and marketed them. In 1951, Dr. Morris moved his laboratory to Topeka, where new products are developed and tested at the Hill’s Global Pet Nutrition Center to this day.
Mark Morris, Sr., was instrumental in the founding of the American Animal Hospital Association. He also established the Morris Animal Foundation and served as president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Mark and Louise Morris had two children, Mark Jr. and Ruth. Mark Jr. earned a doctorate’s degree in veterinary medicine in 1958. After serving in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps, he completed a Ph.D. in veterinary pathology and biochemistry. Later, he joined Hill’s Pet Nutrition, where he expanded the company’s offerings. In 1968, he oversaw the development of a new line of dog and cat foods called Science Diet, formulated with preventative health in mind. Mark Jr. was a founding member of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition and co-authored Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, the definitive textbook for companion-animal nutrition.
Hill’s Pet Nutrition has been purchased by large corporations twice: Riviana Foods bought the company in 1968, and in turn was purchased by Colgate-Palmolive in 1976. Hill’s is currently ranked fourth on the list of the largest pet food companies in the world, with $2.5 billion worth of sales annually.
Recommendations for Prescription Dog Food Use
We can’t (won’t) tell you which company’s prescription diets to choose for your dog; only a veterinarian can do that! But we encourage you to dig in for (and prepare to pay for) an extended conversation with your veterinarian about any prescription diets she may recommend for your dog. We’d suggest the following discussion points if your veterinarian recommends a prescription diet for your dog:
The first thing to ascertain is whether your vet can describe what, specifically, the product offers to your dog. What are the specific attributes that are therapeutic for your dog’s condition? It’s not enough to just point owners toward a “kidney diet” any time there is a dog of any age with almost any sort of abnormal urine test result.
Ask follow-up questions. If, in the example above, your vet suggests that her recommended “kidney diet” has lower-protein, and that your dog should be on a lower-protein food, ask her what amount of protein she thinks is suitable for your dog. Many kidney diets have protein levels that are very low, far too low for a young or middle-aged dog in the early stages of kidney disease – so low, in fact, that dogs who are fed these diets for a long time start losing muscle mass as their bodies attempt to function without enough dietary protein. It’s easy to find foods at any level of protein she thinks is appropriate, with higher-quality sources of protein than are typically used in prescription diets.
Buy a small amount of the food for the first time. Many prescription diets are not very palatable.
If your dog won’t eat it, don’t fall for the “He’ll eat it if he gets hungry enough” speech. If your dog is not well, going hungry will not improve matters. As soon as possible, ask your vet for a more palatable alternative.
Alternative Dog Food
Starting below, we’ve listed all the prescription dog foods currently on the market in a searchable database. We’ve included the complete ingredients list, as well as the protein and fat content, of each of the foods on this list. We strongly suggest that you compare the ingredients of all the products that are formulated for whatever condition your dog is being treated for. Then ask your veterinarian if she could investigate the technical information for your preferred product and perhaps prescribe it for your dog, too.
When our dog growls at someone, most of us feel tremendous social pressure to admonish our dog. While punishment may stop the behavior in the moment, these aversive methods are very likely to increase your dog's stress, defensiveness, and aggression in the future when people approach, now she has to worry about what you're going to do as well as what the stranger may do.
Although your dog seems to be fine with visitors to your home, you’ve noticed that she’s become increasingly aggressive toward people who approach the two of you when she’s on her leash. For example, the other day it was a nice sunny morning, you were walking your dog through your neighborhood when a new neighbor, out for her morning stroll, approached you.
“What a cute dog!” she exclaimed. Before you could stop her, she bent over and reached for your dog, only to have your beloved canine pal growl and lunge at or – shudder – perhaps even bite her human admirer. What just happened there? Was your dog protecting you?
It’s possible, but it’s far more likely that your dog was manifesting defensive fear-related aggression.
Is My Dog Protecting or Defending Me?
I see an average of a dozen clients a month who come to me because of concerns about their dogs’ aggressive behaviors. At some point during our consultation at least half of them suggest that their dog is trying to protect them. I suspect it might secretly make them feel better to think their dog is looking out for their best interests, even if it manifests as an undesirable behavior that risks the well-being of the dog as well as the person on the receiving end of the aggression. Sadly, dogs who bite people tend to lose their homes, if not their very lives.
I tell my clients that a far more likely explanation is that their dog is being defensively aggressive. She is probably a little cautious around (or even overtly fearful of) strangers.
Escape is usually the first behavior choice for a fearful dog, but if she’s on a leash and can’t retreat, she communicates in the only way she knows to tell the scary person to stay away. Growl. Lunge. Snap. Bite.
We often see this behavior emerge in dogs during adolescence, as they approach maturity. Most of my clients with these concerns have dogs who are from eight to 18 months of age. These are usually the dogs who were somewhat shy as a pup. Shy pups tend to shut down and suffer the attentions of the people who want to greet or comfort them. As they get a little older, they may respond with a growl instead of just shutting down.
Wise people back off when a dog growls. “Hey!” the dog learns. “That worked; I’m going to try that again!” The growling behavior is reinforced by success; the dog realizes that she can get people to leave her alone by growling at them, so she growls more when people approach. At some point when an approaching stranger doesn’t react quickly enough to growling, she escalates to a lunge. That works, too. Lunge, snap, and perhaps even bite are added to the behavioral repertoire.
Are Dogs Truly Protective?
Do dogs without training ever truly protect their humans? It does happen, but it’s rare. In many years of working with dogs, I’ve heard about this happening only once.
Years ago, one of my friends/co-workers at the Marin Humane Society adopted an outgoing, people-loving, medium-sized mixed-breed dog from our shelter, Sparky, who had never dreamed of biting a human in his life. One evening as my friend was walking with Sparky, they were confronted by a mugger with a gun, who demanded my friend’s fanny pack, which contained her wallet. Sparky launched himself at the mugger and was shot as a result, but the mugger took off leaving my friend unharmed and in possession of her fanny pack and all her valuables therein. And Sparky recovered from his injuries and continued to be a friend to every other human he met for the rest of his life.
So, it can happen – but it’s unlikely that’s what your dog is doing.
Protection Dog Training
Dogs who are anxious about strangers should not be considered for protection-dog training, as their judgment about potential threats is generally poor. Photo Credits: Jaromir Chalabala / Dreamstime.com
Perhaps you want your dog to be protective. Some people hope that their canine family member will serve as some degree of protection, and sometimes, randomly adopted dogs often do. Many humans with ill intentions will steer clear of any person with a dog, not wanting to risk a possible encounter with an unfriendly canine. Homes where dogs live (especially vocal dogs) are less likely to be burgled for the same reason. That’s different, however, from the dog who is purposely trained or encouraged to be aggressive toward threatening people.
Protection training is a very precise and careful process, starting with a dog who is exceptionally well-adjusted and well-socialized. You don’t want a dog who is driven by fear or suspicion making poor decisions about who to attack!
At the simplest level of protection training, dogs are simply taught to bark on cue. You can do this yourself. It doesn’t even have to be an aggressive bark – someone approaching you with evil intentions will be put off by a dog barking – they’re not likely to stop and try to analyze canine body language to determine if your dog really might bite them.
Your cue should be a word or phrase that doesn’t tip off the person but might be natural in the situation. It could be “What do you want?!” in a slightly alarmed tone of voice – something you might say to a suspicious person approaching you. Alternatively or additionally the cue to bark could be an even more subtle signal that your dog would notice but the other person probably would not, such as a fake sneeze, an upward tug on the leash (assuming you don’t normally tug up on your dog’s leash), or whatever makes sense to you. Once you’ve taught your dog to bark on cue, simply cue her to bark if someone is approaching who makes you uncomfortable.
I would suggest you stop there. The mainstream dog-loving population doesn’t really need a dog to be a fang-flashing deadly weapon, and the responsibility and liability of caring for a protection-trained dog is huge. If you do have a legitimate need for a trained protection dog, be sure to seek out the services of a reputable protection-dog trainer. We recommend force-free training, but if a trainer is not force-free, at a minimum, we’d hope the candidate trainer honestly and assiduously follows the least invasive, minimally aversive (“LIMA”) principles espoused by professional organizations such as the Association for Professional Dog Trainers and the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.
DEFENSIVE AGGRESSION
Assuming your dog is being defensively aggressive, not really protecting you, what can you do about it?
You can manage her behavior, of course, by keeping her safe at home where she’s not going to be approached by someone who makes her uncomfortable. However, a lot of people adopt dogs because they enjoy taking them for walks. If this is true for you, you can manage by stopping anyone from approaching and trying to pet her, especially when you are walking her on leash.
You need to be brusque and assertive for this to work. By the time you politely say, “Please don’t approach my dog, she’s really not comfortable with strangers,” she could have already bitten the rapidly advancing dog-lover. Instead, hold your hand up, chest high and palm forward in the universal “stop” signal, and say “Stop!” in a loud, assertive tone. Now you have time to explain why you don’t want them to pet your dog. Stick to your guns, even if you get the standard “But dogs love me!” assurance.
Of course, it’s even better if you can convince your dog she doesn’t have to be fearful of people she doesn’t know. Classical counter-conditioning and desensitization is very useful here: Consistently pair the presence of strangers with very high-value treats (we use chicken – baked, boiled, or the unseasoned frozen chicken strips you can find in your grocer’s freezer) while keeping your dog far enough away that she’s aware of their presence but not overly concerned. Strangers make treats happen!
If she won’t take the treats, or if she’s growling, barking, or lunging, you are too close! Let her look, then feed her a treat. Look, treat. Look, treat. When she no longer seems concerned about the person, move slightly closer and repeat the procedure. Take your time. If you think you’re going too slow, slow down.
It can also be useful to use a facsimile of trainer Suzanne Clothier’s “Treat/Retreat” protocol.* This one is nice because you can employ the assistance of the dog-loving stranger and fulfill her desire to interact with your dog in a safe way way while you are also helping your dog become more comfortable with strangers.
What you don’t want to do is have the scary stranger feed your dogs treats from their hand. While this seems like a feasible version of counter-conditioning (strangers make treats happen), it often draws the dog too close to the person (because she really wants the treat) and then when the treat is gone, she looks up to see the scary stranger right in her face, and wham! The bite happens.
Another thing you don’t ever want to do is punish your dog for her defensive behavior: no verbal or physical corrections, no squirt bottles, no yanking on the leash, no bean bags. While punishment may stop the behavior in the moment, these aversive methods are very likely to increase your dog’s stress, defensiveness, and aggression in the future when people approach; now she has to worry about what you’re going to do as well as what the stranger may do. Our goal is to have her associate good stuff with strangers, not bad stuff. We want her to feel better about people approaching, not worse!
How to Play a Treat and Retreat Game
Start by having your volunteer toss high-value treats behind your dog, so she has to move away from the volunteer to reach the treats (in this case, the photographer is the person tossing the treats!). Step with your dog if you need to so that the leash stays slack as she moves to reach the treats. Tip: It helps to use chicken or another moist meat that doesn’t roll when tossed.
In order to play a Treat and Retreat game, you must have some tasty high-value treats, a dog leash (for safety, if you don’t trust your dog around people) volunteers, and a basic knowledge of canine signs of stress. If you want to play it safe, you can enlist the aid of a force-free dog behavior professional to show you how to do the initial work. Here’s how to carry out this behavior-altering game:
1. Arm your volunteers with a supply of kibble and a second bag of tasty, high-value, bite-sized treats.
2. Tell your volunteers to avoid making direct eye contact with your dog when they meet her, as many dogs find this threatening.
3. Upon meeting your dog, in your home or elsewhere, have your volunteer toss a high-value treat past the dog. This way your dog gets to retreat to get the treat.
4. Repeat many times with different people and at different times of the day, in different locations.
5. Once your dog is enjoying the procedure, it’s time to raise criteria. Have a volunteer toss the higher-value treat between herself and your dog (but very close to the dog) so the dog must move closer to the person. Then right afterward toss a lower-value treat (the kibble) past the dog.
6. Repeat with different people at different times of the day in different locations.
Step 7: After many repetitions, have the volunteer toss high-value treats in front of the dog (closer to the dog than to the volunteer). so that your dog moves toward (but not too close) to the volunteer to reach the food. As soon as the dog takes the high-value treat, have the helper toss a lower-value kibble behind the dog. This helps teach your dog that she doesn’t have to freeze or feel trapped in the presence of new people, but can move toward and away as she feels the need.
7. When your dog is clearly enjoying this game, you can further raise criteria. Have a volunteer gradually toss treats closer to herself so the dog comes closer (then toss one far away so the dog can retreat).
8. Repeat with different volunteers, different times of the day, in different locations until the dog is consistently more relaxed and starts taking more initiative in happily greeting people. As long as your dog is now happily approaching the volunteer with relaxed body language, soft eyes, and wagging tail, you can move to the next step.If not, go back to Step 6.
9. Eventually – and only as long as your dog is relaxed and comfortable with your volunteer –allow the person to hand-feed the higher-value treat to your dog, and right afterward, toss a lower-value treat (the kibble) past the dog.
It’s worth taking the time and making the effort to help your defensive dog become more comfortable with approaching strangers. The less stress in her life (and yours), the better the quality of life for both of you. The less stressed she is about encounters with strangers, the less likely an unfortunate incident will occur at some point in her future, and the more likely the two of you will be able to enjoy a long and happy life together.
In a previous version of this article, trainer Suzanne Clothier’s Treat/Retreat protocol was mentioned without attribution to her. We regret the omission.
Many dogs enjoy milk and milk products as part of their diets and don't have any trouble digesting them. Yogurt and kefir, in particular, can be highly beneficial additions to a dog's diet.
Photo Credit: Vitalii Shcherbyna / Dreamstime.com
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Any food fed to dogs will provoke an argument, but dairy products provoke more than most.
Milk and dairy products are highly regarded because of their protein, calcium, potassium, vitamin D, B vitamins, zinc, and other nutrients. That, and the fact that most dogs love dairy products, means that milk and other milk-based products remain popular additions to canine diets.
Is Milk Bad For Dogs?
Healthy infant puppies have no trouble digesting their mother’s milk, but adult dogs are often unable to digest lactose, milk’s naturally occurring sugar. The lactose in cow’s milk is blamed for diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, bloating, flatulence, and other symptoms associated with lactose intolerance.
Until recently, the dairy-for-dogs debate focused on how milk is produced and processed. Today’s dairy cattle are often raised in crowded conditions, fed inappropriate feed, and treated with hormones and antibiotics that leave residues and affect the quality of milk. People who consider milk a perfect food for puppies and adult dogs advocate a return to humane, organic, small-scale, grass-fed dairy farming
Pasteurization is also blamed for reducing the nutritive qualities of milk. Milk is pasteurized to kill harmful bacteria, yeast, and molds; ultra-pasteurization (treatment with higher temperatures) further extends shelf life.
Critics of these procedures claim that pasteurization alters milk’s proteins and destroys its beneficial enzymes. Raw milk is touted by these folks as the solution. The Campaign for Real Milk (realmilk.org) provides updates, resources, and safety information about raw milk. Regulations vary by state, but in several states pet supply stores sell raw milk products for dogs.
Homogenizing has its critics, too. Fresh whole milk separates, with cream rising to the top. Some dairies sell whole milk that has a layer of cream on top but most sell homogenized milk, which has been treated under high pressure to break the cream into small particles, resulting in a uniform mixture. Because the fat molecules in goat’s milk and sheep’s milk are already small enough to create a uniform texture, they are not usually homogenized.
New Theory About Lactose-Intolerance in Dogs
It’s gotten popular for drive-through coffee chains to offer a free “puppuchino” for any dogs in your car. Typically, this is a paper cup filled with whipped cream, sometimes topped with a dog biscuit. Dogs love this treat, but whipped cream contains a lot of fat and sugar, and the serving size may be inappropriately large!
While milk production and processing methods remain key topics, the science of genetics has changed the dairy-for-dogs debate. About half of America’s dairy cows have a mutation that creates a milk protein called A1 beta-casein. Recent research has shown that A1 milk, which is produced by Holstein cattle, America’s most productive dairy cows, may be linked to human health problems such as allergies, indigestion, and even autoimmune disorders.
In contrast, cows such as Guernsey, Jersey, Charolai, Limousin, Norwegian Reds, and Brown Swiss cows have a higher percentage of the older, original A2 gene. More than 200 reports in the medical literature compare the effects of A1 and A2 milk, including “A Systematic Review of the Gastrointestinal Effects of A1 Compared with A2 Beta-Casein” in the September 2017 journal Advanced Nutrition. That study reports that A1 milk consumption is associated with digestive discomfort and inflammatory response markers in rodents and humans.
While no conclusive studies have compared the effects of A1 and A2 milk on dogs, anecdotal reports from veterinarians, breeders, and owners describe dogs with dairy-related indigestion improving on A2 milk.
Milk that is labeled as A2 or A2A2 (which indicates that both parents of the cows that produced the milk had the A2-milk producing genes) is now easy to find in American supermarkets as well as natural food stores.
Other animals that produce A2 milk include sheep, goats, bison, camels, donkeys, and yaks. Any of these milks can be added to food to help ill or aging dogs recover or used as a supplemental food for young puppies.
Can Dogs Eat Cheese?
Dairy products made from milk, especially cow’s milk, can produce no problems at all or acute digestive upsets in dogs. Upsets are usually blamed on lactose intolerance.
Cottage, Swiss, and cheddar cheese contain far less lactose per ounce than whole milk. String cheese or young (rather than aged) cheddar training treats are easier for most dogs to tolerate than aged hard cheeses. Ripened cheeses contain mycotoxins that can be toxic to dogs, such as those found in Roquefort, blue cheeses, and Stilton. The fungi used to make these veined, fragrant cheeses produce roquefortine C, which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and even seizures in dogs.
Aged, hard cheeses have a high sodium content and so do feta and some other types. Too much salt can harm dogs with heart disease, Addison’s disease, advanced kidney disease, and other conditions that warrant a low-salt diet. Cottage, ricotta, mozzarella, Swiss, and goat cheese are usually low in sodium.
Another concern is the fat content of cheese, which can lead to weight gain and in some cases pancreatitis, a serious illness in dogs. Cheeses that are lower in fat include mozzarella, cottage cheese, and cheeses labeled “low fat” or “reduced fat.” Large quantities of any cheese can create problems, so moderation is your best cheese-feeding guideline.
Whey, a byproduct of cheese-making, has traditionally been fed to farm animals, including dogs. Powdered whey protein is sold as a performance-enhancing sports supplement for canine athletes and for dogs recovering from illness or injury. If your dog might benefit from a whey supplement, consult your veterinarian and adjust the dog’s diet as needed. Liquid raw-milk whey is sold at some stores and farms; see getrawmilk.com.
Dairy and Microbiome
As described in “A Better Biome: Fecal Transplants for Dogs,” WDJ February 2018, microbiome is an umbrella term that describes communities of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes in the body, especially within the digestive tract.
“Friendly” or beneficial bacteria secrete chemicals that destroy harmful bacteria. If they are present in sufficient numbers, colonies of beneficial bacteria starve harmful microbes by depriving them of nutrients and space. A healthy microbiome is the immune system’s first line of defense.
Lactofermented dairy products are probiotics that support the microbiome and are often recommended for dogs with yeast infections, inflammation, skin issues, allergies, and digestive disorders.
The most famous fermented dairy products are yogurt and kefir, and in recent years both have become popular foods for dogs. They help strengthen the immune system, aid digestion, and restore the body’s beneficial bacteria, especially after treatment with antibiotics.
According to “Modulation of the intestinal microbiota of dogs by kefir as a functional dairy product,” a study published in the May 2019 Journal of Dairy Science, healthy adult dogs had improved gut bacteria after daily feedings of kefir for just two weeks. “Kefir could be further developed as a novel probiotic food supplement for dogs to improve the quality of life of dogs,” the study concluded.
Several types of yogurt and kefir are available in natural food markets and pet supply stores, including fresh or frozen cow’s milk and goat’s milk products, some with added ingredients (check labels). The most affordable way to feed plain, unflavored, sugar-free yogurt or kefir is to make your own, and the process is simple.
Dehydrated live milk kefir starter grains and yogurt starters are readily available (see Amazon.com or CulturesforHealth.com). The fermentation process helps reduce lactose in milk, and so do active cultures, which continue to break down lactose during the cultured milk’s refrigeration.
Making yogurt requires a warm, steady temperature such as in an electric yogurt maker, while kefir ferments at room temperature. If available, try using organic, pasture-raised A2A2 milk or goat’s milk. Store yogurt and kefir in the refrigerator or freeze it for long-term storage. How-to videos at YouTube.com and other sites demonstrate the steps; search online for “make your own yogurt or kefir.”
Begin feeding these foods in small amounts, such as 1 teaspoon per 20 pounds of body weight added to your dog’s dinner. Wait 24 hours and watch for digestive problems such as diarrhea. If your dog enjoys the taste and feels well, add more the next day. Several experts say to feed up to 2 tablespoons of yogurt or kefir per 20 pounds of body weight per day, but many dogs in excellent health eat significantly more. Monitor your dog’s response and check with your veterinarian for the best results.
Can Dogs Eat Ice Cream?
Dogs, like their humans, love frozen dairy treats – but frozen dairy treats may not love them back. Ice cream made with cow’s milk is likely to be high in lactose (and probably A1 milk proteins), sweetened with sugar, high in fat, and artificially flavored. Always check the ingredients; some ice cream contains xylitol, which is seriously toxic to dogs.
Ice cream products that are specially made for dogs are usually lactose- and xylitol-free but may contain sweeteners like maltodextrin, polydextrose, sorbitol, and other questionable ingredients.
Making a healthier alternative can be as easy as freezing plain kefir or yogurt in ice cube trays, popsicle trays, or freezer pop molds. Fresh fruit, peanut butter, or other sugar-free flavorings can be added before freezing along with wooden sticks for holding the treats for your dog.
Let Your Dog Enjoy Dairy!
It’s well known that dogs love dairy! With carefully chosen ingredients, your pups can fall in love with milk-based products that love them back.
This dog has become blind from mature cataracts. Surgery to remove the cataracts may restore his vision if he doesn't suffer any complications. It will, at least, arrest the painful inflammatory changes in the eye that accompany cataract formation.
Photo Credit: Phillip Kinsey / Dreamstime.com
As your dog ages, you may notice a bluish haze developing deep in his eyes, in the lenses, behind the pupils. You may start to wonder – does my dog have cataracts?
More than likely, if your dog is still able to see, this bluish haze is not a cataract, but a common, normal, aging change called lenticular sclerosis or nuclear sclerosis.
Healthy lenses are completely transparent, meaning perfectly clear, and all light that hits them passes easily through to the retina.With lenticular sclerosis, the lens fibers become compressed and somewhat degenerative over time, resulting in translucency. Translucent lenses are hazy or cloudy, allowing only partial passage of light. Lenticular sclerosis will not make dogs blind. They may not see fine details, but they will always see well enough to navigate without difficulty.
In contrast, cataracts are completely opaque.This means no light can pass through to the retina, resulting in blindness.
Cataracts can develop in young and old dogs alike. Causes include inheritance (dogs with cataracts should not be used for breeding), metabolic disturbances (such as diabetes), trauma, nutritional (orphan pups on milk replacer), and chronic uveitis (an inflammatory disease of vascular tissue deep in the eye).
In addition to vision loss, chronic cataracts can cause excruciatingly painful, unmanageable secondary issues within the eye, for which our only recourse is enucleation – surgical removal of the eye. This happens because the lens continuously degenerates over time, sparking chronic inflammatory changes around it. These secondary issues include lens-induced uveitis, glaucoma (increased intraocular pressures), and lens luxation (dislocation of the lens within the eye). Chronic cataracts can also cause retinal detachment, which frequently results in permanent blindness.
Is Cataract Surgery For Dogs Worth It?
Restoring eyesight and avoiding the above-mentioned problems secondary to chronic cataracts are the two main reasons to consider cataract surgery for your dog.
Are there reasons to not pursue cataract surgery? There sure are:
General health of the dog. Is he a good candidate for general anesthesia? Not always. The risk of the procedure sometimes outweighs the benefit, especially in older dogs with heart or kidney issues. Does he have reasonable life expectancy after surgery? Depends on his age, and other things such as his cancer status.
Condition of the eyes. Are the corneas healthy? This is important for a good surgical outcome and for vision. Are the retinas healthy? If they are not, the dog will still be blind, or will become blind, despite surgery.
Ability of the dog owner to commit to post-surgical care. Post-operative care after cataract surgery is pretty intense, with multiple medications and topical preparations needing to be administered frequently around the clock. Sometimes lifestyles and/or work schedules can get in the way of this.
Temperament of the dog. Let’s face it: Some dogs are difficult or even impossible to medicate/manage with such an intense post-operative protocol, both while in the hospital and at home afterward. This is unfortunately something that needs to be seriously considered.
What to Expect After Dog Cataract Surgery
Prior to surgery, your dog will have an electroretinogram (ERG) done to make sure that the retinas are healthy. It would be devastating to have a cataract removed to restore vision, only to find out your dog is permanently blind from retinal disease.
The surgery is called phacoemulsification. Small incisions are made in the cornea and the lens capsule.High frequency vibration is used to essentially pulverize the lens, which is then removed by vacuum. An artificial lens is inserted and the cornea is sutured closed.
After surgery, your dog will stay at the hospital for close post-operative monitoring for several days – longer if complications arise. The most common post-operative complications are protracted intraocular inflammation and glaucoma. Other complications include corneal ulcers, infection, and retinal detachment.
Once your dog is home, expect to be treating him with several eye drops four to six times daily and several oral medications. An Elizabethan collar so your dog can’t rub or scratch at his eyes and activity restriction are important aspects of the post-op plan. Follow-up examinations are performed frequently in the early post-operative period, and patients generally require at least one topical medication and routine examinations for the rest of their lives.
To avoid complications and ensure a good outcome, don’t wait once your dog has been diagnosed with cataracts. Cataracts mature with the passage of time. Post-operative complications are more likely from surgery on mature cataracts. Mature cataracts are also more likely to cause lens-induced intraocular inflammation, lens instability, and loss of lens capsule integrity, which are all things that may make your dog a poor candidate for cataract surgery. If surgery is performed, these complications may lead to a poorer prognosis for vision and comfort following surgery and may interfere with the successful placement of an artificial lens.
One Eye or Two?
If both eyes are affected with cataracts, whether to operate one or both depends on the stage of the cataracts and the overall health of the eyes. Because cataract surgery in dogs requires general anesthesia, if both eyes have cataracts and are candidates for surgery, both eyes are usually operated as one procedure. Some dogs may only have one eye that is a candidate for surgery despite bilateral cataracts.
If both your dog’s eyes are candidates for surgery, you may feel like well, maybe I’ll just have one done, since that would essentially restore vision, and obviously cost less than doing both. You can talk to your veterinary surgeon about this, but remember, untreated cataracts have the potential to cause worsening, painful damage inside the eye, which could end in enucleation. So there are more reasons to remove the cataract than just restoring vision.
Whenever possible, the best advice is to pursue surgical correction of cataracts, sooner than later. But if you or your dog are not good candidates for this, for the reasons described above, don’t lose hope. Talk to your veterinarian about instituting topical therapy with anti-inflammatory drops, to try to prevent cataract-associated ocular disease, and have your dog’s ocular pressures checked for glaucoma every four to six months.
Diabetic cataracts in dogs are caused by high blood sugar. Excess sugar (glucose) in the lens is converted to sorbitol, which draws water into the lens. This causes the lens to swell, resulting in disruption of lens fibers and oxidative stress, which ultimately results in cataract formation.
About 75–80% of diabetic dogs will develop cataracts within a year of their diagnosis, regardless of how well their diabetes is controlled. Diabetic cataracts tend to form quickly and frequently cause severe lens-induced uveitis, which in turn can result in glaucoma. Glaucoma is notoriously difficult to manage in these patients and many cases end in enucleation. The best bet for a diabetic dog with cataracts is prompt surgical correction.
There is not yet a way to prevent cataracts from forming in the eyes of diabetic dogs. But Kinostat, by Therapeutic Vision, Inc., is a promising new topical ophthalmic solution on the horizon, with provisional approval to go to market in the near future.
The conversion of glucose to sorbitol in the lens is mediated by an enzyme called aldose reductase. Kinostat uses an aldose reductase inhibitor to block the conversion of glucose to sorbitol in the lens, thereby preventing the damaging influx of water into the lens.
In a clinical trial, diabetic dogs treated with Kinostat were 85% less likely to form cataracts than diabetic dogs treated with placebo.
This dog's sneeze is cute but sneezing and a runny nose are a human's response to seasonal allergies. In contrast, dogs respond to allergens with extreme all-over itching.
Photo Credits: Olgagorovenko / Dreamstime.com
Dogs are most commonly allergic to flea bites, and they can be allergic to certain foods, but environmental allergies often present the biggest challenge to caring owners who want to help their dogs.
Preventing exposure to allergens is the simplest solution to a hypersensitive overreaction to a substance. But exposure to fleas can be controlled with flea-preventative medicines or pesticides, and exposure to allergy-causing foods can be curtailed as soon as an observant owner can identify which foods trigger the dog’s hypersensitive response. It’s much more difficult to prevent your dog’s exposure to pollen, fungal spores, and/or dust mites – invisible stuff in the air.
Extreme itching is the classic sign of an allergic reaction in dogs, known more technically as a hypersensitive immune reaction. In a true allergic response, the dog’s immune system detects an ordinarily benign substance and treats it as a pathogenic invader. In the simplest terms, the allergic dog’s body produces chemical defenses to the erroneously identified “invaders,” prompting an acute inflammatory response. This, in turn, causes the dog to itch all over.
Flea-bite hypersensitivity can generally be ruled out if you’ve never seen a flea on your dog or your other pets and you practice good flea prevention. Food allergies affect dogs year-round, so if your dog doesn’t have fleas, and his allergy symptoms wax and wane with the seasons, they are probably environmental.
Understanding Environmental and Seasonal Allergies in Dogs
Canine Atopic Disease (CAD), the veterinary term for environmental allergies, affects an estimated 15 percent of all dogs. Dogs with CAD itch and scratch. Any dog can have an occasional itch, but dogs with CAD will stop in the middle of eating or playing in order to scratch or chew their feet, rub their faces against carpets or furniture, lick their stomachs and groin areas, or scratch their “armpits.” The trigger may be pollen, mold spores, dust mite droppings, or other environmental antigens.
Constant licking can create new problems by damaging the skin and producing lick granulomas – thick, hairless red patches that may be accompanied by infection. Violent head shaking (a reaction to an itching sensation in the ear) can result in an aural hematoma, in which a blood vessel in the ear pinna (the ear “flap”) bursts, causing painful and disfiguring swelling.
Another allergy-related symptom is the hot spot, an outbreak of pyotraumatic dermatitis, wet eczema, or a Staphylococcus intermedius infection. Painful, swollen, and warm to the touch, hot spots can emit pus and smell awful. In many dogs, hot spots mark the return of seasonal allergies.
Environmental allergies have many possible causes and triggers, so veterinarians spend time looking for and ruling out potential causes. You can help by being observant and keeping track of your dog’s medical history. Even a simple note on a calendar (“March 12: Leroy licking his feet”) can help lead to a diagnosis. Note any changes in your dog’s health, habits, or attitude, and keep your notes from year to year.
“You can find almost everything you need to know by taking a good history,” says Donna Spector, DVM, DACVIM, an internal medicine specialist who has practiced at leading institutions including the Animal Medical Center in New York. “There are good clues to be found in such facts as the environment the dog lives in, when the allergies started, the location on the body that is most affected, whether there is a seasonal component, the dog’s breed, and any medications he’s been given and what sort of response he had to those.”
Intradermal allergy testing, which is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of atopic dermatitis, involves injecting small quantities of 40 to 60 different allergens into the dog’s skin, typically under general anesthesia. A visible swelling will occur at the injection site if a dog has a reaction to the allergen.
Another testing method involves checking a blood sample for antibodies to allergens that are known to contribute to atopic dermatitis. The results of these tests can be used to formulate an allergen-specific immunotherapy based on the offending allergens. Note that blood tests for canine atopic disease are not reliable for diagnosing food allergies, although they are sometimes used for that purpose.
Preventing or Minimizing Exposure of Allergens
Your veterinarian will be an invaluable ally in helping you identify the cause of your dog’s allergy symptoms and recommend medications for relieving those symptoms (and treating any secondary infections caused by excessive licking or scratching). Also, she may recommend allergen immunotherapy, also known as desensitization. This involves gradually increasing exposure to relevant allergens through subcutaneous injections or drops given under the tongue, in order to help build tolerance to allergens. Immunotherapy may take up to a year to become effective but, when successful, its results are long-lasting.
Veterinary care aside, there are a number of things that you can do to significantly reduce your dog’s exposure to the environmental allergens that wreak havoc on her body.
Prevention is crucial in dealing with environmental allergies, so consider when, where, and how your dog might be exposed to substances that trigger reactions.
Indoors, forced-air heating and air conditioning can spread allergens such as dust (and dust mites) and pollen, so install filters that reduce their migration. Whenever possible (such as when vacuuming, or in your heating system) choose HEPA (high efficiency particulate-absorbing) filters to avoid reintroducing allergens back into the pet’s environment.
Reduce indoor exposure to dust and dust mites with frequent vacuuming (with your dog in a separate room) and dust frequently. Consider removing dust reservoirs such as house plants, rugs, carpets, fuzzy throws, fuzzy toys, and pet beds. When it isn’t possible to remove or replace these items, do what you can to keep them allergen-free, by washing them frequently (and drying in the dryer, not on a line outdoors).
Mold spores are another common allergen for hypersensitive dogs. Mold is often overlooked as an environmental allergen,but its multicellular fungi are present almost everywhere. Favored mold surfaces include wood, leaves and plants, air ducts, soil, and basements.
Mold thrives in damp, humid environments, multiplying through microscopic spores that disseminate through the air. Dehumidifiers and improved air flow through your house can help discourage mold growth. Whenever possible, keep your dog and his bed out of damp basements or garages. Professional mold remediation may improve your dog’s health, and yours, too!
Spring and Summer Are Most Challenging for Seasonal Allergies in Dogs
These seasons are when pollen-related allergies spike. It only makes sense to limit your dog’s outdoor time during peak allergy seasons – don’t let your dog put her head out the car window while traveling, and don’t let her nap on a pollen-covered deck or porch. If you want to give her an opportunity to soak up some sunshine, spray the deck off first or put down a clean blanket for her to lie on.
Keep lawn grass cut short to reduce seed and pollen production, and keep your dog off the lawn for one to two hours after mowing or when the lawn is wet.
You’ll probably be able to develop a sense for which type of pollen most aggravates your dog’s allergies. Is it the early-blossoming trees and plants? Grasses? During times of peak pollen levels of the offending plants, bathe your dog frequently using hypoallergenic shampoos, leave-in conditioners, cool water rinses, and soothing coat sprays. Rinse your dog’s paws when coming in from outdoors, and wipe her coat several times daily with a damp microfiber cloth to help remove pollen. And prevent her from licking her paws or coat (thus ingesting pollen) as much as possible.
I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping. When I introduced her to a friend, my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing
