Subscribe

The best in health, wellness, and positive training from America’s leading dog experts

Home Blog Page 108

Lessons on Force-Free Dog Training From Gundog Trainers

By
CJ Puotinen
-
0
force free gundog training
Elsa Blomster is the co-author of Retrieving for All Occasions. She and her co-author and training partner, Lena Gunnarsson, teach gundog classes in Sweden (their home) and abroad. She says that when training, clients tell her "Training this way is so positive and so pleasant, not needing to be harsh to my dog" it warms her heart and proves she's on the right track. Photo by Ida Kucera, courtesy of Elsa Blomster.

Ever hear of force-free gundog training? Neither have most of America’s 3 million duck, pheasant, and migrating bird hunters, but what’s new in the world of hunting dogs can improve your training methods, your dog’s behavior, and your relationship with your dog – even if you don’t have a gun or any interest in hunting. 

Positive-reinforcement or force-free training methods were revolutionary 40 years ago, but now they’re familiar in obedience, agility, the show ring, and even the dog park. In contrast, force-free methods are seldom used by hunters in the U.S., where the use of ear pinches, choke chains, prong collars, and electric shock collars are still the norm. 

However, change is in the air. Some trainers specialize in force-free gundog training, and their classes attract family dogs as well as prospective hunters. That’s in part because gundog trainers are attuned to the behaviors of spaniels, pointers, retrievers, setters, and other dogs bred to flush, point at, chase, or retrieve birds or small game. 

Jo Laurens, author of the book Force-Free Gundog Training, notes that most people who live with dogs from hunting breeds don’t work them. “Due to their genetics and pedigrees, these dogs still have the instincts and desire to hunt but, unlike working gundogs, they have no structured outlet for this,” she says. “It’s a mistake for people to assume that if they don’t plan to hunt, they don’t need gundog training. This belief leads to out-of-control dogs and in turn to a restricted and impoverished life for dogs who aren’t allowed off-leash at all.” 

Dogs find their own ways to pursue what they find reinforcing. “This,” she says, “leads to dogs who are more interested in the environment (scent, game, critters) than in their handlers’ reinforcers (praise, food, toys) – which means that many handlers struggle with control issues and with dogs who ignore recalls, chase after animals, or pay no attention when they find something interesting to sniff.”

Laura Hill, author of Advanced Retriever Training, agrees. “I advocate working with the dog’s natural abilities and instincts rather than against them,” she says. “The techniques and exercises I describe in my book will help owners understand the dogs in front of them, their motivations and desires, and it will also guide people to help their dogs manage their own behaviors rather than us imposing our will onto the dogs. Nurturing impulse control and self-control is important so that the dogs learn to manage themselves and make appropriate choices.”

Because dogs are genetically programmed to hunt, the same reward-based training methods are appropriate for all dogs with hunting behaviors, not just the breeds most associated with that activity. 

FORCE-FREE DOG TRAINING

force free gun dog training
Laura Hill, shown sending her dog for a grouse, trains using positive, reward-based methods. Her approach has been successful: She has qualified for the IGL Retriever Championships more than 10 times, with seven different dogs. To date, she has made up seven Field Trial Champions (five of which are homebred). The author of Advanced Retriever Training, Laura and her husband breed working Labradors for the competitive and shooting field at their farm, Stauntonvale, in the U.K.
Photo Courtesy Laura Hill

Force-free or positive-reinforcement trainers focus on well-timed rewards for incremental improvements in exercises designed around the dog’s interests and abilities. They don’t use punishments like scolding, hitting, ear pinching, electric shocks, rattle bottles, lead jerks, dragging, lifting, pushing, pulling, nose tapping, or other “corrections.” 

Still, ear pinches and shock collars are so entrenched that most bird hunters are reluctant to abandon them. In field trial and hunting circles, positive-reinforcement training is perceived as unproven and too permissive to be reliable, resulting in soft or spoiled dogs who don’t perform well. 

 In his book Absolutely Positively Gundog Training, Robert Milner describes how he was asked to help Tennessee Task Force One rebuild its search-dog program after 9/11. Milner’s first training results were disappointing, so he looked for the cause. “The people were motivated and smart,” he explains. “The dogs were motivated and smart. I was an experienced and successful trainer of dogs and people in other areas. The compulsion-training model appeared to be the culprit.”

To change their approach, he and 15 search-dog handlers attended a three-day Karen Pryor Clicker Training Conference. Clicker training instructors followed up with individual coaching. “The resulting training progressed rapidly,” says Milner. “We reduced the initial projected 18 months for compulsion training to six months for positive training. That was a 300-percent reduction in learning curve for novice trainers. That told me that positive training is three times easier for a novice trainer to master.” 

By 2015, Milner had proofed his positive-training model on over 200 gundogs with good results. He applied the same training methods to disaster search dogs and scent detection/explosive detection dogs with equal success, establishing that with reward-based training, dogs learn quickly, perform well, and retain their skills over time.

Study Confirms What We Already Know

Two years ago, 63 dogs with off-lead behavioral problems were divided into three training groups of 21 dogs, each receiving 2.5 hours of training over five days to improve recall and general obedience. One group was trained by manufacturer-nominated electronic-collar trainers who used electrical stimulation; another by the same expert trainers without the use of electronic collars; and the last group by independent, professional trainers using positive reinforcement. 

The researchers concluded, “Our results demonstrate, through direct evidence from real life situations, that the reward-focused training was, indeed, more efficient than methods which included potentially aversive stimuli such as electric stimuli or excessive lead pressure.”

For details, see “Efficacy of dog training with and without remote electronic collars vs. a focus on positive reinforcement,” by L. China, D. Mills, and J. Cooper, in Frontiers of Veterinary Science, July 22 , 2020. 

FORCE FREE DOG TRAINING FUNDAMENTALS

Introductory gundog training is like basic obedience, though gundog trainers provide different descriptions and explanations. For example, anyone carrying a loaded shotgun will want a hunting dog to remain calm, steady, and in a safe position on the handler’s left. 

While novice handlers are often inconsistent in their voice commands (from the dog’s perspective, “come” is not the same as “here,” “here now,” or the dog’s name, which many owners use interchangeably), gundog trainers emphasize consistent verbal commands, well-timed whistle blasts, and hand signals that improve handler-to-dog communication. Fundamentals include:

  • Sit or Hup. The dog sits and stays beside the handler or partway to the object being retrieved. A prolonged single whistle and raised hand give the same instruction.
  • Come or Here. The dog comes to the handler. Multiple quick whistle “pips” are a recall signal.
  • Heel. The dog walks beside the handler.
  • Place. The dog returns to a board or elevated plank, sits, and waits.
  • Release. The dog’s name, “okay,” “done,” “go,” or another release word lets the dog return to hunting or another activity after completing a task.
  • Fetch. The dog retrieves a ball, bird, or other object and returns it to the handler.
  • Deliver to hand. The dog drops the picked-up item into the handler’s hand.

REWARDS FOR DOG TRAINING

gun dog training
This is Ron, A German Shorthaired Pointer, owned and trained by Jo Laurens, the author of Force-Free Gundog Training. Laurens offered online courses on heeling, retrieving, focus and recalls, as well as all aspects of sundog sports. Photo courtesy of Jo Laurens, Force Free Gundog.

Rewards are essential in force-free training, and the definition of a reward depends on your dog. A reward should be something you provide instantly, not after several minutes, and it should be something that satisfies and motivates your pup. Common rewards in gundog training include food treats, tug toys, retrieves, games, attention, praise, and actual hunting. 

“We’ve met many dogs who aren’t interested in training because it hasn’t been enjoyable,” says Elsa Blomster, co-author of Retrieving for All Occasions. “But when the handler finds the right reward (usually something really yummy such as minced meat, soft cheese, or a soft, fluffy toy), the dog doesn’t want to stop working. 

“One of my online students struggled with the stop whistle because her dog didn’t respond at all, just continued sniffing the ground. We decreased the distance and had her put some kibble on the floor. When the dog finished sniffing, the handler blew the whistle and rewarded the dog for sitting, then she put some new kibble on the floor and let her sniff again. 

“After a few repetitions, she blew the stop whistle just before the dog was finished, and this time the dog lifted her head and sat straight away. For that she received some cheese, which was a higher-level reward. We gradually increased the distance and did the same thing with other distractions, such as with game scent or whatever the dog found distracting.”

USING PLACE BOARDS

training dog on place board
A spaniel puppy demonstrates an affinity for a Cato Board – a training tool that helps a dog understand where and how to stay in position until released. Photo courtesy of Jordan Horak, Cato Boards

Trainers who use them swear by place boards, which can be anything from a piece of plywood to an elevated deck with a non-skid surface. A place board acts as a safe “home base” that is itself a reward, one that helps the dog develop patience and steadiness while learning voice, whistle, and hand signals. 

When Jordan Horak, designer of the Cato Board, was introduced to place boards nine years ago, he was struck by how quickly his dogs gravitated to the boards. 

“I began adapting the place board training and developed drills that the dogs not only enjoyed but that gave me a rapport and control that I’d never experienced before,” says Horak. 

In 2018, Horak and two of his Cocker Spaniels won American Kennel Club Spaniel Field Trial National titles, for which he credits positive-reinforcement training and board practice. “Although I initially expected Cato Boards to be used primarily by gundog owners, most of our customers use them for family dogs or dogs involved in agility, basic obedience, tricks, police work, or the military,” he says.

ONE STEP AT A TIME WHEN FORCE FREE DOG TRAINING

An essential part of force-free training is breaking tasks into small pieces, presenting those pieces one at a time, moving slowly and staying with each item until the dog understands it, rewarding the dog for each success, and reviewing steps in future sessions. Short rather than lengthy practice sessions, gradual progression from simple toward more challenging behaviors, and patience help as well. 

Is your dog having fun? Are you? If not, reconsider your methods and put fun back into your sessions.

We’ve compiled a long list of instruction books, online resources, and videos that offer step-by-step guidance through every phase of force-free gundog training, from the basics to blind retrieves, directional work, reliable whistle recalls, water retrieves, advanced instructions, field trials, and more.

Absolutely Positively Gundog Training by Robert Milner. Paperback, Create Space, 2015, 148 pages.

Advanced Retriever Training by Laura Hill. Paperback, Crowood Press, 2021, 160 pages.

The Clicked Retriever by Lana R. Mitchell. Paperback, Dogwise Publishing, 2006, 85 pages.

Clicker Gundog by Helen Phillips. Paperback, Sunshine Books, 2006, 168 pages.

Force-Free Gundog Training: The Fundamentals for Success by Jo Laurens. Paperback, Three Corners Publishing, 2019, 436 pages.

Force-Free Gundog Training Workbook by Jo Laurens, Paperback, 2020, 200 pages.

How to Stop Your Dog from Hunting: Training with Positive Reinforcement by Laura Gentile. Pfoetchen Training, Amazon Kindle E-book, 2020, 33 pages. A certified fear-free trainer in Germany, Gentile offers training advice, games, and exercises that honor gundog instincts for handlers who don’t plan to hunt.

Positive Gun Dogs: Clicker Training for Sporting Breeds by Jim Barry and Mary Emmen. Paperback, Sunshine Books, 2007, 118 pages.

Positive Gundog Training, Stage 1: Basic Training E-Book by Pauline Jackson and Caroline Penistone. Amazon Kindle, 2012, 52 pages.

Retrieving for All Occasions: Foundations for Excellence in Gun Dog Training by Elsa Blomster and Lena Gunnarsson. Hardcover, Klickerförlaget Göteborg AB, 2015, 455 pages.

Study Guide by Elsa Blomster and Lena Gunnarsson and Study Guide Part II. Paperback, 2020.

Total Recall: Perfect Response Training for Puppies and Adult Dogs by Pippa Mattinson. Paperback, Quiller Publishing, 2012, 248 pages. Reward-based guide for family dogs by founder of the UK’s Gundog Trust.

Force-Free Gundog Resources

Acer Gundog Training, acerdogs.com. In-person (UK) and online gundog training courses.

Thomas and Linda Aaron, fetchmasters.com. In-person (Colorado) and online coaching, articles, videos, podcasts, positive training methods, and gundog information.

Elsa Blomster and Lena Gunnarsson, retrievingforalloccasions.com. Detailed training information, in-person classes (Sweden), video library, newsletter, and online courses. Retrieving for All Occasions book and study guides.

Cato Boards, catooutdoors.com/pages/place-board-training-videos. Training demonstrations using place boards.

Completely Gundogs, completelygundogs.co.uk. In-person (Wales) and online courses, including gundog first-aid and how emotions affect gundog training.

Jo Laurens, forcefreegundog.com. In-person training (UK), online courses, and podcasts. Force-Free Gundog Training book and workbook.

Pippa Mattinson, dogsnet.com. Online videos and games for puppies and older dogs teaching core skills and retrieving.

Helen Phillips, clickergundog.co.uk. Newsletter, in-person classes and training camps (UK). Clicker Gundog book.

Paws & Play Gundogs, pawsandplay.online/gundog-training. In-person (UK) and online gundog training for puppies and adult dogs, including fundog tricks.

Positive Gun Dogs of Minnesota, positivegundogsmn.com. In-person (Minnesota) and online seminars, training consultations for gundogs, field dogs, and more. Positive Gun Dogs: Clicker Training for Sporting Breeds book.

Force-Free Gundog Training: Recommended Reading and Resources
Show less

Anxiety Medication for Dogs

By
Dr. Eileen Fatcheric, DVM
-
3
what can I give my dog for anxiety?
Dogs with chronic anxiety are typically tense and hyper vigilant, seemingly never able to relax fully. They may have difficulty in training, as they are too apprehensive to take treats or show interest in any other intended reinforcer. Easing their anxiety with the help of a prescription medication can help them relax enough to accept attention and direction and actually learn and retain what they have learned. Photo Credit: Isselee / Dreamstime.com

Anxiety in dogs has become an increasing concern over the past several years, with more and more dog owners looking to veterinary professionals for help. Why is this? 

There may be a component of the increasingly stressful lives we humans lead during these challenging times, where there is never enough time in the day for all we need to do. This leaves less time for quality dog time, attention, exercise, and training. 

The trend of no-kill shelters, rescue, and adoption of abandoned and homeless dogs likely plays a role as well. Unfortunately, many of these dogs will have missed out on the important golden period for socialization that begins at birth and extends all through puppyhood. Add to that the stress they endure (uncertainty, transport, shelter housing, changing handlers, multiple foster homes, etc.) before finding their forever homes, and it’s no wonder they may be starting on shaky ground.

For whatever reason it is happening, it is happening. And it’s heartbreaking. Anxious dogs are not comfortable. They can’t relax. At times, they are downright panicky. They can be destructive, which puts a strain on your relationships, canine and human. All you want to do, as the person who loves and cares for them, is help them. 

Fortunately, there are many ways to help, including anti-anxiety medications. We will discuss these meds, but it is important to recognize that medication alone will never be the magic bullet, miraculously eliminating your dog’s angst and associated behavior issues. Never. Anti-anxiety meds are meant to be used to enhance the management and treatment of anxiety-associated behavior issues, the mainstay of which is behavioral modification and desensitization to triggers.

FIRST:  THE INITIAL VETERINARY EXAM

The first thing you’re going to do is see your veterinarian for an exam. Some anxious behaviors turn out to be secondary to pain or illness. Correcting these underlying issues may resolve the whole problem of anxiety in your dog. 

Once underlying physical conditions have been ruled out or corrected, your veterinarian will suggest a behavior-modification plan, which may include exercises to do at home, anti-anxiety medications, and/or referral to a veterinary behavior specialist, depending on the complexity of the case.

SHORT- AND LONG-TERM ANXIETY MEDICATIONS FOR DOGS

Anti-anxiety medications used in practice fall into two main groups: fast-acting, short-duration meds for as-needed, situational use; and longer-acting meds for long-term daily use. 

Because the longer-acting meds take several weeks to reach peak effect, they are frequently used in combination with shorter-acting meds for the first four to eight weeks of therapy. 

The shorter-acting drugs are also used intermittently as needed while on maintenance longer-acting meds, for circumstances that occasionally escalate the fear, anxiety, or phobia, i.e., “panic attacks.”

The short-acting anti-anxiety drugs will always work best when given before the fear or anxiety is triggered. If the dog is already ramped up, you’re way less likely to achieve the desired effect. So give the medication an hour or so before the fireworks or thunderstorm, getting in the car, grooming or veterinary visits, etc.

It’s always best to do a trial run with the short-term drugs when the dog is relaxed and not in the presence of the anxiety trigger. This is the best way to assess the efficacy and duration of the prescribed dose for your dog, both of which have high individual variability. This trial also screens for a weird, paradoxical reaction that occasionally occurs called a “reverse response,” where the dog actually displays increased agitation and excitation after administration of an anti-anxiety med.

Any anti-anxiety medication can result in disinhibition of aggressive behavior, so be aware, and be particularly cautious around aggressive dogs when first trying these medications.

The longer-acting drugs, which are used daily for extended periods, should always be gradually tapered, never abruptly discontinued, to avoid withdrawal symptoms such as agitation, restlessness, and irritability.

INDICATIONS FOR BEHAVIOR-ALTERING MEDICATIONS

The most common behavior issues requiring treatment include:

  • Separation anxiety
  • Noise phobias
  • Fear aggression
  • Compulsive behaviors (e.g., acral lick dermatitis/granuloma, tail-chasing)
  • Fearful events (e.g., veterinary visits, grooming appointments, nail trims)
  • Anxiety when being boarded or during travel.

The tables below describes the most commonly prescribed long-acting medications for anxiety in dogs; and the most commonly prescribed short-acting anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) medications. There are other medications your veterinarian may suggest, depending on your dog’s individual case and response or lack of response to therapy. 

Anti-anxiety medications for dogs can be used in combination, again depending on your dog’s individual needs. 

OTHER OPTIONS FOR DOGS WITH ANXIETY

There are other products available to help reduce anxiety in dogs including Adaptil (DAP, a calming pheromone), Purina Calm (a calming probiotic), Zylkene (a calming milk protein), melatonin (a calming hormone), prescription calming diets (Hill’s, Royal Canin), and herbal remedies. If your dog suffers from anxiety, you are likely eager to try anything and everything that might help. 

Just remember, however, there is no magic bullet (prescription medication or over-the-counter supplement) to miraculously “fix” the problem. Behavior modification and desensitization exercises, with guidance from your veterinarian or a board-certified veterinary behavior specialist, will always be the foundation for successful treatment of anxiety and anxiety-associated behaviors in dogs. 

Long-acting medication for dog anxiety

NAME OF DRUGFLUOXETINE (Prozac by Eli Lilly, Reconcile by Pegasus Laboratories, generics)CLOMIPRAMINE (Clomicalm by Elanco, generics)
DRUG CLASSSelective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)Tricyclic antidepressant (TCA)
EFFECTSAnxiolyticAnxiolytic
USED FORSeparation anxiety (labeled use); aggression, compulsive disorders (off-label uses)Separation anxiety (labeled use); compulsive disorders, noise phobias (off-label uses)
TIME TO FULL EFFECT4 to 8 weeks3 to 6 weeks
ADVERSE EFFECTSGI upset, may lower seizure threshold, increased bleeding riskShort-term sedation, mild gastrointestinal upset, increased or decreased appetite
CONTRAINDICATIONSSeizure disordersThyroid disease/medication, seizure disorders, concurrent monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), prostatic disease, glaucoma
USE WITH CAUTIONBleeding disorders, diabetes, kidney disease, concurrent serotonergic agentsCardiovascular disease, pancreatitis, dry-eye syndrome, concurrent serotonergic agents

Short-acting medication for dog anxiety

NAME OF DRUGALPRAZOLAM (Xanax by Pfizer, generics)TRAZODONE (generics)GABAPENTIN (generics)DEXMEDITOMIDINE OROMUCOSAL GEL (Sileo by Zoetis)
DRUG CLASSBenzodiazepineSerotonin modulator (antagonizes and inhibits reuptake)Anticonvulsant, analgesicAlpha-2 adrenergic agonist
EFFECTSAnxiolytic, sedativeAnxiolytic, sedative, antihistamineSedation, pain reliefSedation
USED FORNo labeled use in dogs. Off-label uses: Fearful events, noise phobias, adjunct as needed with SSRI or TCA for separation anxiety (e.g., departures) and/or general anxiety (e.g., situational triggers)No labeled use in dogs. Off-label uses: Fearful events, noise phobia, travel or boarding anxiety, pre-operative sedation, post-operative confinement. Adjunct as needed with SSRI, TCA, or benzodiazepine for anxietyNo labeled use in dogs. Off-label uses: Adjunct as needed with SSRI/TCA/trazodone for anxiety and fearful events; sedation; anticonvulsant; analgesicNoise phobia (labeled use). Off-label uses: Travel anxiety, fearful events
TIME TO FULL EFFECT20-40 minutes1-2 hours1-2 hours for single dose; 1-2 days to reach steady state when used chronically30-60 minutes
DURATION2-12 hours (generally 2-4 hours)2-12 hours (generally 4-8 hours)Generally 4-6 hours for single dose2-3 hours
ADMINISTRATION FREQUENCYEvery 6-12 hours as neededEvery 8 hours as neededEvery 8-12 hoursEvery 2 hours as needed for up to 5 treatments per event
ADVERSE EFFECTSSedation, incoordinationSedation, mild GI upset, increased bleeding risk, increased appetiteSedation, hind-limb weaknessLethargy, prolonged sedation, GI upset, incoordination, paradoxical excitation, shallow breathing, low heart rate, arrhythmias, low blood pressure, pale gums
CONTRAINDICATIONS Liver disease, glaucoma, concurrent CYP3A inhibitors (e.g., ketoconazole)Concurrent monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)NoneCardiac/respiratory/kidney/liver disorders, severe debilitation, geriatric frailty
USE WITH CAUTION WITH DOGS WHO HAVE Kidney diseaseCardiac, liver, and/or kidney disease; anticonvulsants, concurrent serotonergic agentsKidney and liver diseaseIdeally only used in robust, clinically healthy individuals
ADDITIONAL NOTESFederally controlled substance. May cause physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms with chronic use.Not a federally controlled substance. One reported case of hepatotoxicity with long-term use, which resolved after drug withdrawal. Can be used twice daily longer-term. Withdraw gradually to avoid withdrawal effects including increased anxiety, agitation, and sleeplessness.Not a federally controlled substance. Taper off after chronic use to avoid adverse effects of abrupt discontinuation including rebound pain and seizures. DO NOT use human liquid preparations for dogs! These contain xylitol which is TOXIC to dogs.Not a federally controlled substance. Wear gloves when handling. Pregnant women should not handle. Read labeling carefully to avoid accidental overdose.

Family Sabotage: Is Someone Undermining Your Dog’s Training?

By
Kathy Callahan, CPDT-KA, FDM
-
0
training dog to not jump
If there's disagreement about a behavior, compromise can help. The jump greeting is a common area of family sabotage, unacceptable to some and welcomed by others. The authors family has taught 90-lb George to jump only on cue. He'll hear "big hug!" when that jump is welcome.

When I get an email asking for help with a 6-month-old puppy who’s still not house-trained, I’ll bet you this: That puppy’s owner doesn’t live alone. There’s probably a spouse, or maybe some teenagers in the household.

How do I know? Because, in a single-person scenario, the one person who wanted the dog in the first place is setting and following the rules. With messaging that is 100% consistent, puppies learn quickly. 

In contrast, as wonderful as a “village” of loved ones can be for a dog, it often comes with a negative impact on training. This may sound counter-intuitive (shouldn’t more helping hands make things easier?), but the more humans in the household, the more likely it is that there is a saboteur in their midst!

Here are some classic situations where saboteurs confuse the family dog and delay his understanding of a trained behavior:

  • POTTY-TRAINING. Because of the relentless nature of early potty-training, that’s where sabotage first shows up. Sure, maybe there are a few days where everyone’s on board. But inevitably, the teenager is in the middle of a potentially high-scoring game, or the hubby’s on a Zoom, and there it is, the killer thought: “Oh, whatever. Who in the world could keep up this outside-every-30-minutes thing? I’ll just clean it up later and nobody will know.”

Ack! The bright line has been crossed; at least one member of the household has given up on getting the pup out in time. Puppy now learns that relieving herself inside offers an immediate reward – “Ahhh! That feels better!” That’s the definition of how to strengthen a behavior! Days, weeks, and even months later, the committed member of the household is mystified that potty-training is taking so long. 

Household frustration starts to build. Ideally, it is not directed at the dog, who is simply learning what she’s taught. 

  • JUMPING UP. Similarly, teaching a dog not to jump up takes tremendous consistency. The humans must anticipate and prevent the moment of the jump (which prevents the paws-on reinforcement that feels so good to the dog) and consistently reward a different behavior, such as sitting to greet. It’s a ton of work, over and over again all day. 

That’s why it is infuriating when the household saboteur comes home after a long day away and reverses all of that learning. The door’s flung open and a glorious full-body, paws-on greeting ensues. The dog is thrilled to learn that jumping is just like the lottery – you have to play to win! 

Household frustration starts to build. Ideally, it’s not directed at the dog, who is simply learning what he’s taught.

  • THE FORBIDDEN COUCH. In the quest to get a “yes” from a reluctant spouse, let’s say the dog-seeker has made promises. “Okay, the puppy won’t be allowed on the couch!”

Months later, while the reluctant spouse is out of the house, the dog lover figures what they don’t know won’t hurt them and encourages the couch cuddle. The snuggling feels so nice it happens again and again. Two weeks later, the reluctant spouse is shocked when their dog happily – confidently – leaps onto the couch to settle in. 

Household frustration starts to build. Ideally, it is not directed at the dog, who is simply learning what she’s taught.

EASY FIX: TALK IT OUT

I’ve highlighted three common sabotage areas here, but the list could go on and on. No matter what you’re trying to teach your dog, if somebody in his life is teaching the opposite, there’s going to be trouble. 

The solution starts with all the humans in the household talking it out. Here are the two key ideas to get across:

1. “Think how hard this is on our dog!” Often the guilty family member believes they’re giving the dog a happy time by letting the rules slide sometimes. In truth, it’s the opposite. The momentary happiness sets the dog up for future confusion and increased household stress. One of the kindest things you can do for your dog is to make this mystifying human world more predictable. 

2. “You matter! You play a key role.” Saboteurs usually have not thought through just how much their undermining is slowing the dog’s training. In their minds, they’ve simply been assuming that one day he’ll automatically be house-trained, or naturally grow out of jumping. Nope! That will not happen. You’re teaching the dog something whenever you’re around the dog, whether you intend to or not.

LOOK FOR COMPROMISE

That simple discussion might lead to everyone getting on board. But it also may reveal something more difficult: that the sabotage was not from thoughtlessness but was instead because of a lack of consensus. The truth is, we don’t all agree about how we’d like to live with our dogs. 

I received an email the other day from a woman who is about to move in with her boyfriend, whose dog “needs training.” She wanted me to work with the dog, listing a dozen behaviors she doesn’t want to live with. Hmm. The boyfriend was not the one to call me, nor was he mentioned as a key part of this training session. I suspect the boyfriend is just fine with the way he’s living with his dog. 

Here’s the thing: The first order of business is to accept that there is not a universal list of “must-have” behaviors decreed from on high. It may feel obvious to one of you that your dog shouldn’t sleep in bed with you – and just as obvious to the other that that’s the whole point of having a dog. Because it’s imperative that there is clear direction for the dog, it’s time for an official household meeting about what you each want life with a dog to look like. When there’s disagreement, dig deeper, because as you talk out the “whys” of each of your desires, solutions can arise. 

Let’s take the case of a husband welcoming the jump greeting, while the wife is trying to keep the dog from jumping on everybody else. That one can have a surprisingly simple solution: Put the jumping up on cue! 

We actually do that at our house because we are weirdly fond of our giant dog’s exuberant hello. Whenever we come home, we enter saying, “Wait,” and then once we’ve put down our groceries or whatever, we tap our shoulders and say, “Big hug!” George, our 90-pound puppy, happily does his thing at that time. The dog gets 100% consistent direction, and we get to enjoy jumping up when we want it and not when we don’t. 

With just a little thought, it’s surprising how many household training disagreements can result in a compromise plan that works for everyone.

  • For the person who wants to feed his dog table scraps, who’s living with people who don’t want a dog staring at them all through dinner: What if you wait until you clear the table, and dish out that food by the sink? 
  • For the person who wants to snuggle with the dog on movie night, living with someone who doesn’t want dog fur all over the couch: What if you make the couch by invitation only? Ask the dog to “stay” in a sit on the floor, then put the special blanket on the key couch spot and cue, “Couch time!” Alternatively, agree on one piece of furniture that’s designated as the “dog chair” that the dog snuggler can share. 
  • For the person who loves to sleep with the dog, whose partner doesn’t want to feel squished in bed: How about if the early-to-bed person enjoys dog cuddles until the partner goes to bed? Or what if the dog jumps in for that last hour in the morning once the early riser is gone? I have many clients who do this, and whose dogs completely understand the drill!

Generations ago, most dog-training advice was more or less standard issue; there was one set of rules, as if every dog and owner were the same. But of course that’s ridiculous. Gather your household and decide what you want, then commit to teaching it. When nobody’s sabotaging the message, your dog can learn incredibly nuanced things. 

Fostering Adolescent Dogs Takes Patience and Experience

By
Nancy Kerns
-
16
cute maltese puppy

We all have different breaking points as dog owners. I’m currently fostering a dog who is really barky – whose immediate, reflexive response to every new stimuli is to let loose with an ear-piercing BARK!  – and this is proving to be my Achilles heel.

A friend adopted this dog from Craigslist, knowing full well that she had to travel out of town for a month two weeks after adopting the dog, whom she named Sophie. The dog sounded like it might be a good match for her, so I offered to board Sophie for the month when my friend had to leave town – but by the time her first two weeks with the dog were up, my friend was already convinced that Sophie was not the right dog for her. So, now I’m fostering (rather than boarding) Sophie, and we’re looking for the right home for her.

If it sounds flaky, wanting to rehome a dog after two weeks of taking possession of her, consider this: Sophie was turned over to my friend in a poor state, exceedingly thin, ungroomed (Sophie is a Maltese/Poodle-mix, with a coat that requires daily care and monthly clipping), and – get this – pregnant. (Ah, that helps explain why the family with “not enough time for a dog” was in such a rush to rehome Sophie.) Even though my friend was, from their first day together, having doubts about whether she and Sophie were compatible, given Sophie’s neglected condition, she never considered bringing the dog back to her previous family, and willingly paid for grooming and spay surgery, knowing both should be done before the little dog is rehomed.

Fortunately, my friend knew Sophie was intact and she had made an appointment for spay surgery before she even went to meet the adorable little dog, so when the vet detected the pregnancy just prior to surgery, it was early enough to abort the pups of unknown parentage and go through with the spay. (Sad, but better than potentially having to pay for an emergency C-section on the small, skinny dog and spend a couple of months caring for and then trying to find homes for puppies.)

I met Sophie a few days after my friend brought her home, and was impressed by how exceedingly trainable she was. I showed my friend how to increase her name recognition, in order to bring her attention back from things she wanted to bark at. She already had a solid “sit,” and I taught her a “down” cue within just a few minutes. I met my friend for a walk on a local trail, and was thrilled to see how good Sophie was as a walking companion. My friend had been taking her for off-leash trail walks already, which made me quite nervous (I advise people to wait for weeks of bonding before trying any off-leash time in unfenced areas). But Sophie stayed with us like she had been walking with my dogs forever. Though she clearly enjoyed exploring and sniffing things along the trail, she never got more than 30 feet ahead of us and would turn around and “check in” frequently.

Over the course of the two weeks Sophie was with my friend, we spoke nearly daily. I offered her lots of advice on the issues she was having with Sophie, but by the time she was due to leave town, Sophie had chased her elderly cat a few times and had many “accidents” in the house, and Sophie’s relentless attention-seeking had proved to be her Achilles heel. In fact, by that time, my friend was pretty well convinced she shouldn’t have a dog at all.

My friend’s complaints about Sophie:

  • Barking at every passerby
  • Going potty in the house, and not at all outside
  • Chasing/lunging at the cat
  • Barking and screaming hysterically when crated or left alone behind a baby gate in another room
  • Being hysterical in the car, unless on the driver’s lap while in motion (very dangerous!). If the car stops, she starts spinning and barking in anticipation
  • And, my friend said, “I can’t have a moment to myself! She’s constantly wanting to be held or petted. She demands attention from me at every moment.”
maltese puppy playing catch
This dog is an active athlete who is *obsessed* with playing fetch. Throwing a ball for her is a more meaningful reward than even food treats. She’ll do anything for a ball.

I wasn’t particularly worried about any of these behaviors. My experience with foster dogs is that it doesn’t take long for not-very-enjoyable, disruptive dogs to transform into well-behaved and fun dogs once they have an opportunity to experience a structured and well-managed environment. The key is giving them few chances to practice unwanted behaviors, lots of exercise, and, most of all, lots of reinforcement for every bit of the kind of calm behavior that most dog owners want to see around the house.

It also helps immensely to have already well-behaved, calm dogs who can help model the behaviors I want to see and demonstrate how to win rewards (of treats, attention, praise, and petting) based on my everyday expectations.

I’ve been providing all of this to Sophie for the past three weeks, in spades. I don’t have a cat, so the cat-chasing is the one behavior we haven’t had an opportunity to work on, but she’s improved soooo much. In three weeks, I’ve gone from secretly agreeing with my friend that this dog is just too much, to genuinely enjoying her. She’s a delight on the trail, she’s a fetching fool (good competition for my own fetching fool of a dog, 6-year-old pit-mix Woody), her zoomies are hilarious, and she’s very sweet and affectionate.

To manage her attention-seeking, which my friend found most annoying, I put an exercise pen around my desk so I can work without her jumping up on and pawing at me, and gave her a variety of chewies and toys to occupy herself with. At first, she would jump up on the pen and whine and bark for attention, so I started by marking and rewarding her brief moments of quiet – and by increasing the value of the food-stuffed toys and chewies I gave her. I tried to frequently “catch her doing something right,” and praising her when she was entertaining herself – and offset all of this quiet time with a daily off-leash walk and frequent breaks to go outside and throw a ball for her. We even play fetch at night with a light-up ball! I was able to take down the exercise pen after just a few days, and she’s learned that I will absolutely give her attention and affection at various points throughout the day, but not when she demands it by whining and jumping on me.

At first, I drove only with Sophie harnessed and belted into the back seat, to stop her from constantly trying to get in my lap while I drove. Now she’s happy to ride in the back even without the harness, and even if she has to share the seat.

I managed her car behavior with a harness and a tether that clips into the back seat seatbelt receptacle. By day three of daily short rides in the car (to the trails and home) she realized there was no getting out of the arrangement and began riding very calmly in the car. One exception: She still yodels with excitement when she recognizes an impending stop at one of our trail-walking spots. With all of the other issues we’re working on, that battle is not worth fighting (to me).

As regards potty training: I started out by treating her like a tiny puppy, taking her out at least every hour and patiently waiting outside with her every time until she eliminated. If she never did, after 10 minutes or so of cooling our heels outside, I’d pop her into a crate for another half-hour or so, and then try again. For the first five days she had no house training lapses. Of course, then I got overconfident and less vigilant, and she sneaked a few pee puddles in my bedroom when I was busy in the kitchen. Since then, I have learned her schedule, and she’s learned the cue I’m using to encourage her to eliminate quickly for a reward, and she hasn’t had an “accident” in my house or office for 10 days or more.

Sophie’s separation anxiety was not severe – though it certainly seemed so to my friend, who wasn’t at all prepared to spend copious amounts of time working on that behavior. Mostly, this consists of V E R Y S L O W L Y increasing the amount of time that you step away from the anxious dog, desensitizing her to the sensation of being alone. Since I work at home, I can work on that all day, every day!

I let her shadow me for the first few days, including every trip to the bathroom, every trip to the mailbox or my car, and every trip back and forth from my office building (about 100 feet from my house), until she understood the lay of the land. Within about a week she would elect to keep working on her peanut butter Kong in the living room while I went to the bathroom without her. Within about two weeks she could wait in my office without screaming while I went to the house to get a cup of coffee without her.

dogs hiking outside
Sophie is terrific on the trail, enjoying exploring but staying close and checking in frequently. She’s a bold, brave little thing, interested in everything.

It helped immensely that Sophie really enjoys being outdoors, and the weather has been so mild – warm and spring-like – that I’ve been able to leave my office door open while I work, giving her the opportunity to leave me to go outside and explore my fenced two acres. I have to give that a lot of credit for her ever-increasing confidence with being physically separated.

On our three-week anniversary, I pushed the envelope by leaving her in my office while going out for about 6 hours in the evening, and she was calm when I got home. Hurray! I think that if her adopter can do something similar to this, her anxiety about being left alone will resolve in a reasonable amount of time. (For more about dealing with separation anxiety, see “Amicable Separation,” WDJ June 2020; and “Separation Anxiety in Dogs,” WDJ October 2016.)

The last thing we’re working on is the barking. She doesn’t bark that much during play, and even if she did, I regard that as a normal and natural thing. Her biggest trigger for barking is people walking down the road past our property; she’s constantly scanning for these “intruders.” Unfortunately, she considers the neighbor’s property to be worthy of surveillance, too. If she’s outside for a while by herself, she is prone to standing at the fence line that separates my property with my closest neighbor, and barking anytime she sees a person, car, cat, or dog move. It’s a multi-generation household, so there is a fair amount of movement to be seen.

dog barking behavior outside
While entertaining herself outside, Sophie will sometimes camp out at the fence near my neighbor’s house and bark at them. I don’t let her practice the barking, but go outside and call her to come to me (and often reward her for coming to me with throwing her ball). Now, she will bark and then immediately turn around and look for me. Trying to get a photo for this post, I sneaked outside when I heard her bark. She was already turned and looking toward my office, waiting for me to call her! Smart cookie – too smart!

I’ve countered this surveillance by calling her and richly rewarding her with high-value treats every time she comes back to me. A couple of times, she’s looked at me and made the choice to just stay there barking; in those instances, I’ve walked to her, praised her for letting me approach and pet her, picked her up and carried her back into my office. I don’t scold her, but she loses outdoor privileges for a while. After three weeks of this, she’s figured out the consequences (loss of outdoor fun), so now she comes running when I call, takes her treats and then (most of the time) will choose to do something else with her outdoor time.

The barking that I find hardest to deal with calmly is Sophie’s completely out-of-the-blue, single, loud, sharp, shrill alarm bark. When I’m concentrating at my computer, and she’s been asleep or absorbed in chewing a toy, and suddenly she lets loose one of these BARK! noises – I have to admit that my immediate reaction is to bark back. “HOLY CRAP! NO!” I’ve shouted at her as I unstick myself from the ceiling – even as I start admonishing myself for such an ineffective strategy.

Intellectually I understand that yelling back at her is a strategy that’s bound to worsen this sort of barking, as it can’t help but to increase the anxiety she feels about whatever made her bark in the first place, but I’m only human! And it’s time to go review some of the articles about dealing with barking that we’ve run in the past (including “Why Dogs Bark and How to Stop Them,” March 2017, and “Bark-a-holics Not Very Anonymous,” October 2018.

Wish me luck!

How to Wash Dog Toys and Pet Products

By
Stephanie Colman
-
4
how to wash dog toys
Washing your dog's toys regularly also gives you an opportunity to examine them for damage that might lead to accidental ingestion. Remove any cracking rubber toys and thread-shedding toys from your dog's rotation.

Does your dog have a favorite toy? He plays with it daily, sleeps with it nightly, and when guests come over, he excitedly parades around with it. That toy is the source of much joy and happiness, but if it’s not cleaned regularly, it’s also the source of significant bacterial build-up.

In a 2011 germ study by NSF International, pet bowls and toys each ranked among the top 10 germ-infested items commonly found within the home. Left unchecked, toys become a breeding ground for a variety of bacteria such as staph, yeast, mold, and even fecal contaminants like e. coli.

Developing a cleaning schedule for your dog’s toys and bedding can help keep both pets and people healthy by reducing the amount of bacteria and allergens in the environment. Toys that can be “stuffed” with food, such as Kongs, Toppls, or similar items, should be thoroughly cleaned after each use. Food and water bowls should be cleaned daily, too.

HOW TO WASH DOG TOYS

According to Rachel Goldammer, a service-dog breeding consultant and interim kennel manager at Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar, California, it’s important to use a degreasing agent when washing both hard and soft toys. 

A degreaser is needed to break up biofilm, that slimy layer commonly found at the bottom of your dog’s food and water bowls. It’s also what makes used hard toys and bones feel slippery when wet, and what makes well-loved, unwashed soft toys start to feel a little crispy. It may seem like harmless dog slobber, but it’s actually a pesky mix of bacteria – hiding out underneath a protective layer of proteins and lipids – with the potential to make both pets and people sick. 

When washing hard, non-porous bones and toys, dish soap (such as Dawn Dishwashing Liquid) works well, as it’s designed to cut grease on kitchenware. Fill the sink with hot water and add soap. Allow bones and toys to soak for five to 10 minutes. Scrub and rinse well. For maximum cleanliness, finish with a disinfecting soak in a diluted bleach-water bath using 2 tablespoons of bleach per 1 quart of water. Rinse well. 

You can clean dishwasher-safe toys using your dishwasher’s sanitize mode, as long as the water temperature reaches at least 120° F. 

Many people prefer a more natural approach to disinfecting. For example, The Honest Kitchen recommends soaking hard bones and toys in a bath of equal parts water and white vinegar, using a sprinkle of baking soda on toys in need of an especially good scrub. While this may suffice under normal conditions, Goldammer says certain bacteria and protozoa can survive many of the natural cleaners, so consider your personal circumstances when deciding how to clean. 

HOW TO CLEAN SOFT DOG TOYS

how to clean soft dog toys
Bacteria-laden biofilm is what makes soft toys feel crunchy when dry; washing with a soap that contains a degreasing agent eliminates that film.

For washing soft dog toys, Goldammer recommends Tide Original liquid laundry detergent on a hot-wash cycle. “It doesn’t leave a residue, and a little goes a long way,” she says. Tide Original is her product of choice not only for its proven degreasing properties, but also because it contains fewer chemicals than most laundry pods or specialty formulas. 

Tossing your dog’s toys in with your weekly hot-wash load, regardless of which laundry product lines your shelf, is a good start. But remember – while it will get the toys visibly cleaner, it may not effectively kill all the bacteria. If you share your home with immunocompromised pets or humans, it may be worth switching to Tide Original for its biofilm-busting properties and some added peace of mind. 

It’s good practice to wash your dog’s toys every couple of weeks. Creating multiple sets of toys can help establish a cleaning routine while keeping your dog excited about the “new” toys that seem to appear every other week. As you rotate toys, be sure to inspect for damage that might lead to the accidental ingestion of pieces and parts. 

Separation Anxiety in Dogs

By
Malena Demartini and Maia Huff-Owen, KPA-CTP, CSAT
-
1
separation anxiety in dogs - dog in window
Separation anxiety is akin to a phobia in humans. Fear like that cannot be modified by using quick fix remedies - but it can be modified, and the systematic desensitization protocol used for this is tried and true. Photo Credit: Elvira Shatalova / Dreamstime.com

The advent of the pandemic in 2020 caused many of us to begin spending most of our time at home with our dogs. Many people used the opportunity of having more time at home to add a new dog to their families. 

Then, seemingly overnight, there were reports everywhere in the mainstream press and on TV discussing the huge, catastrophic,  impending wave that’s supposedly about to strike our nation: a wave of canine separation anxiety – the common expression for dogs who experience distress when left home alone. On every media (and social media), journalists are worrying about how our canine family members will adjust to being alone once our families return to school and work outside of the home. 

The good news? All that buzz created has more awareness than ever about separation anxiety in dogs. And that awareness means that people are clamoring for information. 

The bad news is that much of the information that has been made available to dog owners includes confusing or incomplete recommendations, which leaves them feeling overwhelmed and at a loss as to where to begin. 

And the really ugly news? With the increase in attention and demand for separation anxiety training services, inhumane and ineffective methods, promoted as guaranteed quick fixes, have flooded into the marketplace. Add the fact that the media has been indiscriminately airing both urban legends about canine separation anxiety (SA) as well as false claims about quick fixes, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for a lot of potential cruelty inflicted on an already highly stressed canine population.

Here are some important corrections to the most prevalent and potentially harmful inaccuracies about canine separation anxiety commonly shared today:

WRONG: “The separation anxiety crisis is new.”

CORRECTION: Media attention is new, but this is one of the most common issues addressed in professional behavior practices. 

According to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, problems that occur during the owner’s absence represent up to 40% of the caseload in behavioral practices in North America. That is a lot of separation anxiety. Fortunately, because this concerning behavior is not new, there is also a lot of research available to help with its understanding. In the past four decades, separation anxiety has been the most commonly discussed disorder in published studies of experimental research and retrospective research in the fields of applied animal behavior and veterinary behavior (Ogata 2016).  

The process of training a dog who exhibits separation anxiety was originally developed in the 1950s. While the implementation of that process has been refined and improved over the years, the basic principle of systematic desensitization is the same. (See “Amicable Separation,” WDJ June 2020.)

WRONG: “Separation anxiety results when dogs are too attached to their families.”

CORRECTION: Much media attention focused on the sheer number of hours that we were spending at home with our dogs. The worry seemed to be that being home all the time would create hyper-attachment and therefore lead to separation anxiety. However, a landmark study showed otherwise. Video analysis showed that dogs with SA spent no more time in contact with or in proximity to their owners during the attachment test than dogs without SA (P>0.05) (Parthasarathy, 2006). Being more bonded does not mean more separation anxiety.

Our canine behavior practice has focused on SA exclusively for more than 20 years. In all that time, we have not seen a correlation between so-called “Velcro dogs” and separation anxiety. Nor have we seen that dogs who spend a lot of time with their owners are more likely to have signs of separation anxiety than dogs who spend less time with their owners. 

As far back as the early 1990s, we began seeing peer-reviewed research that refuted the notion that dogs who are “spoiled” by their guardians are more likely to engage in problem behaviors such as separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is not linked to any particular behaviors on the part of the dog’s owners. A lot of our work resides in reassuring these loving dog guardians that they did not create this problem. 

Have you felt guilty about what others have said about your supposed role in your dog’s separation anxiety? Please, right now, absolve yourself of any and all guilt. This condition is not your fault.

WRONG: “More exercise will fix dogs with separation anxiety.”

CORRECTION: We’re all for physical exercise and mental enrichment, but these aren’t a cure for fear in this or any case. We shout from the rooftops that dogs need appropriate enrichment both physically and mentally. 

However, this is because enrichment contributes to the overall health and wellbeing of our dogs. More physical exercise or mental enrichment unfortunately does not result in a resolution of fear-based behaviors like separation anxiety, despite how prevalent these recommendations are. 

Let’s say you are terrified of flying on an airplane, but you must make a flight later that day. What if your friend told you to run 10 miles prior to boarding in order to feel less afraid? We think you’ll agree that this would not help. Physical exertion cannot overcome panic, particularly not in the long term. 

WRONG: “You can prevent separation anxiety.”

CORRECTION: Helping your dog learn about spending time alone is a great exercise for many reasons. But the idea of prevention gets fear in dogs all wrong. We cannot “prevent” that for which we don’t know the cause. Separation anxiety may be well-researched, but what causes it still remains unclear. 

We can do a lot to help dogs learn that alone time is safe, and we can prepare them for the eventuality of time spent without us. However, even these worthwhile tasks do not guarantee the prevention of separation anxiety. 

WRONG: “Separation anxiety in dogs can be fixed quickly.”

CORRECTION: It’s so tempting to think that there’s a way to speed up fear recovery. If there were a gadget, a pill, or an app that fixed separation anxiety, we would be all over it, but none exists.

It’s imperative to understand that separation anxiety training has to be adjusted to the individual dog with whom we are working. The dog sets the pace, and no two dogs are the same. These are living, breathing, sentient beings, and we can’t apply cookie-cutter training and expect resolution.

Separation anxiety is akin to a phobia in humans and the level of panic that the dog experiences when left alone may not be logical to us, but it is very real to the dog. Fear like that cannot be modified by using quick fix remedies. 

But you can take comfort in this: The scientifically supported training that is used to resolve SA is not new; it’s been tested and true.  

WRONG: “Nobody knows how to help these new dogs with separation anxiety!”

CORRECTION: We do know how to help dogs with separation anxiety. Thankfully, we already have good practical experience and don’t need to reinvent the wheel. 

The successes that we have witnessed are countless. Additionally, members of our team have helped many more dogs, and the collective accomplishments are inestimable. The dogs we’ve seen are incredible. They just need help feeling safe in this modern world. Our clients’ dogs who suffer from separation anxiety are truly extraordinary in every way; they are simply terrified of alone time. We can help them thrive. 

The premier specialists with this behavior issue are Certified Separation Anxiety Trainers (CSATs). CSATs are the only separation anxiety practitioners recommended by the American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior. 

WHERE TO BEGIN: TREATING SEPARATION ANXIETY IN DOGS

Are you worried about leaving your dog alone? Don’t heed the myths and confusion shared in the popular press and social media. Contact a qualified dog professional and get started. We’ve been here all along and we’re here for you now. You can get through this and your dog can, too. 

Malena DeMartini-Price is renowned in the dog training world for her expertise in dog separation anxiety issues. She is the author of the books Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs, as well as Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next-Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices.

Maia Huff-Owen is a KPA-CTP and a CSAT. She is also an instructor for Malena DeMartini’s Separation Anxiety Certification Program, a 14-week, intensive course that teaches dog trainers how to work successfully with separation anxiety cases. See “Resources,” page 24, for contact information. 

Excessive Copper in Dog Food May Cause Copper-Associated Hepatopathy

By
Dr. Eileen Fatcheric, DVM
-
6
doberman Copper-Associated Hepatopathy
Copper-associated hepatopathy (sometimes referred to as "copper storage disease") used to be considered a concern only in certain predisposed breeds, including Dobermans and Bedlington Terriers. However, veterinarians today see it in dogs of every breed, indicating that copper levels in many dog foods are too high.

We all know good nutrition is critical for the health and longevity of our dogs, and most of us rely on commercial dog foods to help us achieve that. Now, what if we told you those complete-and-balanced diets – the quality food you’ve carefully chosen for your dog – may be slowly killing him? 

It’s true, says Dr. Sharon Center, Emeritus James Law Professor of Internal Medicine at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Center is nationally renowned for her expertise in liver diseases of dogs and cats. She says the excess amount of the essential trace mineral copper in commercial dog food can cause a serious, potentially lethal, illness called dietary-induced, copper-associated hepatopathy (CAH). The incidence of CAH is increasing at a rate that’s causing alarm among veterinarians and dog owners, with one study showing 30% of canine liver biopsies revealing evidence of CAH. 

Certain breeds of dogs are predisposed to CAH, including Bedlington Terriers, Labrador Retrievers, Dalmatians, Dobermans, and Westies – but this is no longer considered a danger to just those breeds. CAH can develop in any dog, and it is expected to happen more and more if copper levels in dog foods remain too high. In fact, it can be actively happening in the liver of a dog showing no outward signs of illness.

ESSENTIAL COPPER IN DOG FOOD

Dietary copper helps your dog make red blood cells and absorb iron. It also functions in the formation of skin and hair pigmentation and connective tissue. A deficiency, though rare, can cause muscular and skeletal problems, so copper is a necessary mineral in our dogs’ food.

Copper-associated hepatopathy in dogs occurs when the amount of dietary copper ingested exceeds their tolerance level and accumulates in the liver. Once in the liver, it can cause acute, severe liver inflammation with immediate, disastrous consequences, or it can cause chronic, insidious damage over time, resulting in widespread scarring of the liver (cirrhosis) and liver failure. 

Symptoms of late-stage CAH include abdominal swelling, decreased appetite, diarrhea, increased thirst, jaundice, lethargy, and vomiting. But keep in mind that in the early stages of copper accumulation, there may be no symptoms at all.

“There is certainly a rise in copper-related hepatopathies these days,” says Dr. Joseph J. Wakshlag, Professor of Clinical Nutrition and Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Section Chief of Nutrition at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “It may very well be related to a lack of safe upper limits of copper consumption and higher than expected levels in dog foods,” he says. 

Currently, the legal minimum for copper in an adult canine maintenance diet is 7.3 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram), but that means little to the average consumer because the copper level is rarely listed on dog food labels (you can call your dog-food manufacturer and request it). At this time, however, there is no maximum limit for copper in your dog’s food. At one point, there was, but that was eliminated when the recommended type of copper used in dog foods was changed to a more bioavailable form. Why the limit was eliminated is not clear, but the results most certainly are. 

THE EFFECTS OF COPPER IN DOG FOOD

dog with high levels of copper
Vira’s hepatopathy was caught at her annual wellness examination, when a routine blood test revealed a high level of ALT, and repeat bloodwork showed the level to be increasing. A liver biopsy confirmed the diagnosis.

Meet Vira, a happy, seemingly healthy 4-year-old, spayed female Labradoodle. Routine bloodwork performed at her annual wellness exam showed a concerning elevation of alanine transaminase (ALT), a liver enzyme that increases in the presence of liver inflammation or injury. When repeat bloodwork one month later showed an ongoing increase in ALT, Vira underwent liver biopsy surgery. Biopsies confirmed the presence of excessive copper levels in her liver with associated hepatocellular damage or CAH.

Treatment for CAH usually includes administration of an oral copper-chelating agent (a compound that binds to copper to help remove it) called d-penicillamine. Dogs with CAH are also fed a copper-restricted diet to prevent further copper accumulation in the liver. Antioxidants like vitamin E and S-adenosyl-methionine (SAMe) are recommended as supplements. 

It can take many months of treatment for the liver damage to resolve. Repeat biopsy is the only definitive way to determine how the affected dog is doing. Because this is an expensive proposition – and most of us don’t want our dogs undergoing multiple invasive surgical procedures – progress is usually monitored with a blood test that measures the liver enzyme ALT. All affected dogs should be fed copper-restricted diets for life, and some dogs will require chronic, low-dose chelation therapy.

Vira has responded favorably to her treatment and her ALT level is now normal. She eats a copper-restricted diet called “The Scoop” (available at safedogfood.com). Other commercial options for copper-restricted diets include Hill’s l/d Liver Care and Royal Canin Hepatic Veterinary Diet (both require a veterinary prescription). 

GETTING HELP WITH COPPER-ASSOCIATED HEPATOPATHY

nutramax supplement to help with CAH
Nutramax’s over-the-counter SAM-e supplement, sold under the name Denosyl, is recommended by many veterinarians for helping dogs with CAH.

Dr. Wakshlag says that most of the low-copper commercial foods designed for dogs with liver disease are also protein-restricted, which is not appropriate for all CAH cases. “This is where I come in,” says Dr. Wakshlag, who offers nutrition services at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals. Since it’s hard to find commercial diets with low copper and higher levels of protein, a home-prepared diet formulated by a veterinary nutritionist may be the best alternative. “We have been formulating diets for these copper-related hepatopathies in dogs for nearly 20 years,” says Dr. Wakshlag.

It’s also wise, if you have copper water pipes in your home, to flush the lines for several minutes before filling your dog’s water bowl to reduce the copper content in his water.

Electing to have a routine blood chemistry run at Vira’s annual wellness exam most likely saved her life. Please consider this relatively inexpensive option for your dog at his or her annual wellness examination to catch any life-threatening copper toxicity in your dog.

Dr. Center is relentlessly lobbying the FDA to immediately re-establish maximum-allowed copper levels in commercial dog foods and to reconsider current federal canine dietary copper recommendations, but we all need to make our voices heard (see “What You Can Do: Contact the FDA,” below) in order to make this an industry-wide change. 

The Regulatory Players
AAFCO statement on dog food label
All “complete and balanced” dog foods must carry one of these statements, indicating that they have met one of the two AAFCO nutritional adequacy protocols.

Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). A non-profit organization consisting of the state officials who are responsible for enforcing state laws regarding the safety of animal feeds. AAFCO provides a forum where state agencies, federal agencies, and industry develop uniform language and model regulations that states may adopt or reference. AAFCO committees have developed protocols for proving the nutritional adequacy of pet foods. In order to be represented as a “complete and balanced diet” for dogs, dog food companies must state on the product label which AAFCO nutritional adequacy protocol the product met; either the product performed adequately in a feeding trial conducted according to AAFCO standards, or it was formulated to meet one of the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles for dogs of a specific life stage. These Nutrient Profiles establish minimum recommended levels – and a few maximum levels – of each essential nutrient for dogs.

National Research Council (NRC). This is the operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), a congressionally chartered non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide independent scientific evidence and advice for the benefit of society. Reports from the NRC are used by the FDA to create policies and regulations regarding dog foods, and have helped inform the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles, as well.

United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of many marketed products, including animal foods and feed. The FDA is the only one of these three agencies with the power to change regulations regarding the nutritional content of dog foods.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COPPER IN DOG FOOD

The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), recently published a commentary written by a working group comprised of Dr. Center, Dr. Wakshlag, and other veterinary specialists, expressing their concern about the excessive amounts of copper in commercial dog foods; you can read it here.

You can also experience the FDA Virtual Listening Session where Dr. Center discusses CAH and the reasons she is imploring the FDA, NRC, and AAFCO to re-examine dietary copper recommendations, reconsider current guidelines, and establish a safe upper limit to copper amounts in commercial dog foods, by visiting bit.ly/WDJ_DrCenter.

What You Can Do: Contact the FDA

Dr. Center asks that if your dog has been diagnosed with copper hepatopathy, please complete the FDA questionnaire at https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/reportproblem/how-report-pet-food-complaint. Ask your veterinarian to do the same, as entries from veterinarians are taken very seriously. You can start by Selecting “Safety Reporting Portal,” and identify yourself as a guest. Then select, “Start a New Report.”

For a title for your FDA report, Dr. Center recommends “Dog Food Copper Over-Supplementation.” Fill out the form to the best of your ability, trying not to leave any entries blank. The entry marked “Problem Summary” is the most important entry, says Dr. Center. Make it clear to the FDA that your dog was affected by copper overdose through dog food and add personal commentary regarding your experience.

For example, you might say: “My dog was impacted by copper-associated hepatopathy thought to be due to over-supplementation of copper in commercial pet food. I implore the FDA to take corrective action to lower the maximum copper concentration in commercial dog food to mitigate this avoidable and potentially fatal illness.”

We recommend that you expand this entry with your personal commentary of hardship you endured. Tell them about the expenses you incurred, your dog’s illness, the difficulty of the diagnosis and management, and the emotional stress to yourself and your family. 

This article originally appeared in Cornell Dogwatch, the official publication of the Cornell Margaret and Richard Riney Canine Health Center. To subscribe, visit www.dogwatchnewsletter.com.

Download The Full March 2022 Issue PDF

By
Nancy Kerns
-
2
  • Excessive Copper
  • Saboteurs in the Family
  • Separation Anxiety
  • Anxiety Medications
  • Lessons from Force-Free Gundog Trainers
  • Creative Confinement
  • Wash Your Dog's Toys
  • Does Your Dog Hurt?
To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid subscriber. Sign in
If you are logged in but cannot access this content, a) your subscription may have expired; b) you may have duplicate accounts (emails) in our system. Please check your account status here or contact customer service.

Subscribe

Subscribe to Whole Dog Journal

With your Whole Dog Journal order you’ll get:

  • Immediate access to this article and 20+ years of archives.
  • Recommendations for the best dog food for your dog.
  • Dry food, homemade diets and recipes, dehydrated and raw options, canned food and more.
  • Brands, formulations and ingredients all searchable in an easy-to-use, searchable database.

Plus, you’ll receive training and care guidance to keep your dog healthy and happy. You’ll feed with less stress…train with greater success…and know you are giving your dog the care he deserves.

Subscribe now and save 72%! Its like getting 8 issues free!

Already Subscribed?

Click Here to Sign In | Forgot your password? | Activate Web Access

Finding the Best Dry Dog Food with Meat or Meat Meal (Or Both)

By
Nancy Kerns
-
3
aisle of dry dog food
It's hard to compare dog food formulas when you're in a pet supply store. Instead, you can use our searchable database to find products with just the traits you're looking for, or looking to avoid!

A few years ago, we added a column in our “Approved Dry Dog Foods” tables – an additional data point for people who are looking for certain attributes in their dog’s food. The column is “Meat, Meat Meal, or Both.” The information in this column helps consumers find products that are among the more than 1,100 options on our “Approved Dry Dog Foods” list that contain only a fresh or frozen source of (named) animal protein (in this instance, “meat” would be indicated in this column), “meat meal” (meaning a dry, rendered meal made from a named animal source), or “Both,” indicating both a named meat and a named meat meal (e.g., chicken and chicken meal).

The reasons behind our collection and inclusion of this information were thoroughly outlined in “Meat and Meat Meal: Sorting Through Animal Protein Sources.” But, to recap in an abbreviated way, “meat” is (relatively) fresh tissues from slaughtered animals. Because it contains a lot of moisture, its protein content is relatively low. In contrast, the protein content in “meat meal” is much higher, because much of the moisture (water) has been removed with heat. Pet food makers can use meat meal alone to produce a kibble with sufficient (and far more than sufficient) levels of protein, but if they use meat only, they often have to also include one or two or three sources of plant-sourced proteins. Often, the makers of premium pet foods use both, in order to have a higher-protein product that’s also maximally palatable (attractive in taste and aroma) to dogs.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

What’s better: Meat or Meat Meal in Dog Food?

What’s best? We won’t take a position on this. It’s practically a political or religious topic among some pet owners! Our opinion is always, “Whatever works best for your individual dogs.” Performance, in pet-food industry parlance, is what’s most important to us.

The companies who make and market foods with meat only make a case for their stance. Halo is probably the most vociferous about it; they have a whole page of information containing their rationale here. When you read marketing materials, though, you always have to be alert for hyperbole. Their page begins:

“Meat meal” is a primary ingredient in most dry cat food and dog food, and it is made from taking slaughterhouse and fish processing factory remnants that are not edible for humans, and cooking them, processing them under high heat, and dehydrating them into a dry powdery substance that goes into kibble.
label of dog food without meat meal
This is a “no meat meals” marketing blurb on the label of a food made by Bixbi.

What they don’t say is that the “meat” used in pet food is also taken from “slaughterhouse and fish processing factory remnants that are not edible for humans” and, to make kibble, is cooked under high heat and pressure and then dried into a granular substance.

That said, there are certain benefits to foods made without meat meal, and they “perform” best for some dogs. For other dogs, the often-high inclusion of plant-sourced proteins (or other factors) may offset those benefits.

Our recommendation is always this: Try products with different formulations and attributes and – this is critical – keep track of what you are feeding and what changes (if any) you observe in your dog. It’s absolutely undisputed that some dogs do better on foods without meat meal in them, some do better on foods without a high inclusion of plant proteins in them, and some dogs do fine on almost anything at all. But if you don’t keep some sort of record, you’ll likely be at a loss to understand what works best for your dog.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

How to find the best dry dog food with our database

There are two ways you can go about finding foods on our “Approved Dry Dog Foods” list that contain either meat only, meat meal only, or both. Of course, you can simply sort all the foods on our list by clicking on the top of that column and then scroll.

But if you really want to have fun, use the filters in the new searchable database! You can start simply by using the filter for the “Meat, Meal, or Both” column. By selecting “Meat” using that filter, I see that we have 158 products that contain no meat meal among all the products on our “Approved Dry Dog Foods” list.

dog food without meat meal ingredients list
Foods that contain no meat meal and no grains are likely to have a high inclusion of legumes.

Note: When I start examining the products in that list, I remembered one little complication: Some of the products found in that search contain dehydrated meat or freeze-dried meat. There is a reason we didn’t separate those potential responses in the “Meat, Meat Meal, or Both” column: There is little reason to distinguish those ingredients from “meat” in terms of quality. Both dehydrated and freeze-dried meats are subjected to their moisture-removing processes quickly, before the material can begin to go rancid or experience significant pathogenic bacterial growth. And neither is subjected to the kind of heat or fat-removing process that so radically alters the cellular structure of meat meals. In our view, meat, dehydrated meat, and freeze-dried meat all fall under the category of “meat.”

You can to add as many more selection attributes that might be helpful to you and then sort the results by clicking on the top of “meat, meat meal, or both” column. For example, say I want a dry dog food that contains both meat and meat meal (because I’m not afraid of meat meals, I find the meat-containing foods are more palatable to my dogs, and I’m not a huge fan of plant-sourced proteins) but also doesn’t contain chicken or beef – and I need it to be on the low end of the range of fat. I started with my filters set like this:

dog food database filtered for dog food without chicken, beef and with meat and meat meal

Whoa! That resulted in only two foods, both “weight management” products. And look! They both contain lots of protein-containing plant-products. This makes sense because I started with a fat content that was too low. Think about it: Kibble is made with protein, fat, and carbs. If you reduce the fat a lot, the protein and carbs necessarily increase. Legumes contain both. So maybe, to find products that better meet my criteria, I need to increase the amount of fat I’ll accept in the candidate products, and use another filter to eliminate grain-free dog foods (which almost always contain legumes). I got 34 candidate foods when I set my filters like this:

dog food database filtered to have meat and meat meal

Looking down the list, I do actually still see some products that contain legumes, but there are enough candidates to choose from that I would still have plenty of products to try.

Try the filters in the searchable database! Have fun! And let us know in the comments if you are having trouble of any kind setting up your filters.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

An overabundance of needy dogs

By
Nancy Kerns
-
35
cute scruffy dog up for adoption
This was so nearly my new dog. Oh, my heart.

My friend Leonora, owner of tiny Samson (my dog Woody’s BFF), is starting to search for a second dog. It’s been over a year since her last big dog died, and she’s just starting to look for just the right new family member. The candidate has to be gentle and dog-friendly enough to live with 4.8-pound Samson, whose legs are like chopsticks, so we’ve been frequenting our local shelter, which, sadly, is packed to the roof with dogs at the moment. Yikes.

Over the 14 years that I’ve been living in this town and volunteering for the shelter, I’ve earned the privilege of getting to visit and work with dogs when the building is closed to the public. So Leonora and I are able to wander through the adoption wing on weekends when she’s off work and take out any dogs we like.

I wanted to show her two puppies that I spotted. If my 14-year-old Otto was already gone, I would have adopted one of them myself. They both had irresistible scruffy faces like Otto and seemed like they were going to be a bit smaller than him, which I want for my next dog. I can’t bring a puppy home while we’re going through end of life stuff with him. I just can’t. But I was sorely tempted.

Leonora spent a long time with those puppies, and some time with a younger puppy. We’ve learned over the past few years that Samson can hold his own with very young puppies, effectively training them when they are young to not step on him or knock him over; if they do, he goes at them with a great show of ferocity, scaring but not hurting them. As they grow well past Samson’s size, they become increasingly careful with him! So getting a very young puppy might be the best way to raise a Samson-safe friend; older pups, in contrast, might not respect his ferocity, coming as it does in such a small package. For this reason, plus all the other work of raising a puppy, complete with housetraining and puppy kindergarten, Leonora is leaning away from the idea of adopting a puppy this time. Since she lives alone and works full time (and tiny

two dogs up for adoption
SO TEMPTING. These pups will get adopted quickly. LOOK AT THOSE FACES!

Samson gets to come to work with her, but a second dog could not), she’s not wild about the idea. And besides, puppies ALWAYS get adopted quickly; she’d like to help an older dog get out of the shelter.

I later learned that the two pups who tempted me so strongly were transferred to a shelter in the San Francisco Bay Area that has far fewer dogs. I’m so glad; they will get adopted in a hot minute down there.

Looking at adult dogs to adopt

We didn’t see just the right dog – but we saw one who needed help. There was a female Great Pyrenees, about 18 months old, pasted to the back of her kennel, who wouldn’t make eye contact with us. We looked at her cage card. She had been adopted two months prior, but was recently returned to the shelter because – I’m not making this up – shedding.  No kidding!! A Pyrenees! There was one very hard, dry poop in her otherwise dry kennel; she was “holding it.” No wonder she looked so miserable.

I went inside her kennel, but she was petrified and wouldn’t approach me – wouldn’t even look at me. However, neither did she give me any aggressive signals. I scratched her chest for a moment, and she leaned a little closer to me. I slipped a leash over her head and she immediately moved to the kennel door; she knew this meant I would take her out.

Once outside and freed in a large run, the Pyr urinated for what seemed like several minutes, and then pooped several enormous poops. No wonder the poor baby looked so miserable inside!

This was Saturday morning on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday weekend, so the shelter was closed to the public for three days in a row. The staff would be cleaning and feeding, but the dogs don’t get outside on those days. I texted the shelter manager and asked if we could bring the Pyrenees home for the weekend, and happily she agreed. Much of the fencing on my property is only four feet tall, whereas Leonora has six-foot chain-link fences, so she agreed to hold the dog over the weekend. The dog’s name was supposedly “Pearl,” but she didn’t seem to recognize it over any other word, so we started calling her Delilah (you know, to go with Samson!).

She’s a strange girl, with some weird fears and apprehensions. She hops readily into the car, but then won’t get out. At first, we had to practically drag and push her into and out of the house; she didn’t like going through doorways. She chose to sleep in Leonora’s bathroom. The first night in the house, she didn’t move from the spot where we put a big blanket for her; the next night, she went into the bathroom and slept wedged between the toilet and the shower.

Come Tuesday morning, neither of us could stand the idea of taking the big, shedding dog back to the shelter. The shelter staff had already reached out to a Pyrenees rescue, and they are trying to find a foster or adoptive home for her, but for now, Leonora is fostering her and hoping to bring her more and more out of her shut-down behavioral shell.

Training another rehomed dog

pyrenees and malti-poo
Delilah the Pyrenees and Sophie the Malti-Poo, both with some issues, both looking for homes.

Right when all that was going on, another friend of mine had adopted a dog – rehomed from Craigslist – but had to travel for much of the month of February. When she was making arrangements for the adoption, I told her I could dog-sit the new dog until she got back. So she had the dog for just over two weeks before I was going to dog-sit, and every day that passed, my friend was more convinced that she had adopted the wrong dog. This little Maltese/Poodle-mix (also about 18 months old, hmmm) is barky, not house-trained, has separation anxiety, and chased her elderly cat. And returning the dog was not an option. Oops! I told her not to make any hasty decisions, but to let me spend some time with the dog; we could more easily find the little cutie another home with a little training under her collar.

Sophie’s understanding of housetraining is fine, but she’ll sneak a pee indoors if you’re not paying attention. And her separation anxiety is not severe; she’s improving with my efforts to only slowly increase the duration of the minutes I leave her alone. I’ve been working a lot on name recognition and “leave it,” so whomever she ends up with will have solid tools to get her to turn away from whatever she is barking at and come back.

Five dogs go, six return

Given the exercise needs of both of these adolescent dogs, Leonora and I have been taking a lot of walks together. Given her mild separation anxiety, Sophie is terrific off-leash (I like to joke that the problem with separation-anxiety dogs is that you can’t leave them, but on the other hand, they won’t ever leave you!). She likes to run with my big dog, Woody, and looks extremely cute bounding through the tall grass in our local open spaces.

We don’t take Delilah off leash. The Pyrenees rescue group warned us that no matter how attached to you a Pyr seems to be, when given the opportunity, they tend to take off running and not look back. And since it’s still a challenge to get Delilah to so much as look at us when we say her name (she can do it well without distractions, but out in open spaces, forget it), we keep her on the long line.

otto, dog swimming in pond
One our walks, we let my 14-year-old dog Otto set the pace, and swim whenever he wants to.

Last weekend, Leonora and I took all five of our dogs (my three: Otto, Woody, and Sophie, and Leonora’s Samson and Delilah) for a short, slow, sniffing walk in the hour before sunset in a part of our local “wildlife area” where we don’t often walk. All of our dogs except Delilah were off-leash. When we were almost back to Leonora’s car, we heard a dog barking at us – though at first, we couldn’t tell where the barking was coming from. We have been out on the trail at this time of evening and had coyotes barking at and watching us, so Leonora scooped up tiny Samson and I quickly called Sophie to me and snapped her leash back on. A minute later, the barker revealed herself: a short, fat, (maybe) Cattle Dog-mix, came rushing out from underneath a tree, looking for all the world like a castaway on a desert island who just saw a boat on her beach. She was wary of all of our dogs, but came at me in a frantic fashion, “Oh my dog I am so glad to see you thank you thank you thank you I thought I was going to starve out here!”

Given that Leonora had her hands full with tiny Samson in her arms and giant Delilah on a leash, I told her to walk ahead so I could try to assess what was going on with the stray dog.

This wild enthusiasm had little Sophie freaked out – she wanted to get away from the whirling dervish – so I unclipped her leash and dropped a loop around the neck of the castaway, to try to contain her writhing and leaping about. Instantly she transformed into a wild horse at the end of a lasso: “What the heck? Are you trying to kill me? Help! Someone! Help! I’m dying!”

I hunkered down, food treats in hand. “Hey, buddy, it’s ok! Look! Food!” But the little dog was convinced she was about to be murdered. I slipped the leash off – and she reanimated immediately. “Thank you, thank you! Friend! Thank you!”

Given how portly she was, I wondered if she had pups under the tree; she was too close to the ground for me to see if she was nursing. I walked back over to the tree where she had been. The grass was all pressed down in that area, as if she had been hanging out there for some time, and there were torn-up fast food bags and wrappers strewn around. Had she raided garbage cans in the area and brought the bags back to her hiding spot? Or had she been abandoned there with a bag of food? There’s no telling.

Given that we already had a car FULL of dogs – small ones in the front seats with us, the giant one taking up the full back seat, and my two boys in the generously sized “way back” of Leonora’s SUV – I was worried about whether we could (or should even try to) bring the castaway with us in the car, especially given that she had not, apparently, had a leash on before. I decided not to make her come along with us, and instead, see if she would follow us the short distance back to the car, or go back to her tree. She not only followed, but hopped into the car pretty easily, hunkering down on the passenger side floor on my feet. Okay, well, we don’t have to worry about coyotes eating her, but where are we going to put her? I texted the shelter manager and asked if I could bring her in, and put her in one of the outdoor pens where local law-enforcement officers sometimes bring dogs they catch after hours. Thankfully, despite the crowding in the shelter already, she agreed.

found cattle dog
Our “desert island” dog — a neutered male! Even hunkered down low, I didn’t see anything to tip me off. 🙂 He’s still unclaimed at my local shelter; I think he was probably a “garage’ puppy and dumped out there.

At the shelter, I took pictures of the dog and put her in one of the outdoor holding pens with food, water, and a blanket. Back at home, I posted her picture on all the local “lost/found pet” sites I know and made a “found dog” flier to post back in the area where we found her the next day.

I had to scratch out the “female” part of my fliers the next morning when a shelter staffer texted me to let me know that my desert island dog was a neutered boy, not a girl. Whoops! He was fuzzy and low to the ground! But despite being neutered, no microchip. Argh!

I hear that in some parts of the country, there is a shortage of dogs to adopt? If that’s you, let me know! We’ve got way too many here.

Limited Ingredient Dog Food – How to Find the Best Dog Food for Allergies & Intolerances

By
Nancy Kerns
-
4
limited ingredient dog food

So much of what’s on dog food labels has to do with marketing, rather than nutrition. The phrase “limited ingredient” falls somewhere in between.

There is no agreed-upon definition for “limited-ingredient foods.” In some cases, pet food makers use the phrase to designate foods that contain only one animal protein source and one carbohydrate source; these products may contain very few ingredients overall… but this is not always the case. In some cases, using only a single animal protein source results in a food that contains less protein than the pet food maker wanted, so a plant protein source (or two, or more) are added.

By the way, no matter how “limited” the formula is, it may appear to contain dozens of ingredients. The pet food makers don’t really consider all the ingredients that go into their vitamin/mineral pre-mix when they call a food “limited ingredient,” even though they have to name each of the ingredients included in that pre-mix on the list of ingredients on the product label. Generally, when the phrase is used, it’s meant to mean all of the major ingredients, not the vitamins and mineral sources, and certainly nothing that’s named among or below those sources on the ingredients list. (Since the ingredients are listed by the weight of their inclusion in the mix, anything that’s included in the same amount or less as some individual vitamin or mineral is present in the food in a very small amount – not enough to worry about for any but the most allergic dog ever.)

What advantage is there to a limited ingredient diet? A small ingredient list isn’t a virtue in and of itself; it’s only particularly helpful to dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of several food ingredients.

A review: An allergy involves an exaggerated or pathological immunological reaction (often referred to as a hypersensitive immune response) to a benign substance. True allergies cause the immune system to produce antibodies called immunoglobulin E (IgE). In dogs, allergies usually cause extreme itchiness; digestive issues such as diarrhea and vomiting are not out of the question, but they are far more rare than itchy skin (including itchy paws and ears).

A food intolerance, in contrast, is something that causes an adverse reaction such as vomiting, diarrhea, and extreme gassiness.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

Dog food elimination diet trials

The best way to find out which food ingredients your dog is allergic to or intolerant of is to conduct a dog elimination diet trial. In this sort of trial, you feed your dog an extremely limited-ingredient diet – generally a home-prepared diet consisting of a single animal protein source and a single carbohydrate source. The protein and carb are selected for novelty – something the dog (one hopes) hasn’t ever eaten before. For example, you may try bison for protein and barley for carbohydrates. This diet (and nothing but this diet) is fed for a few weeks while the dog is watched carefully for reactions. If he remains symptom-free, then a single new ingredient is added to the diet – perhaps another protein source – and he’s again watched carefully to see if any symptoms arise.

If he responds at any time with symptoms, the ingredient that was added most recently is suspected of causing his allergy or intolerance and removed from the diet until he’s free of symptoms again. From then on, the owner tries to make sure the dog’s diet is free of that/those ingredients. (For more about food-allergic dogs and how to conduct a food elimination trial, see this article.)

If you don’t know what food ingredients your dog is allergic to or intolerant of, you might find a limited-ingredient diet that doesn’t contain the ingredients that are problematic for your dog by sheer dumb luck. That’s great if you never change his food again, and if the manufacturer doesn’t ever change the formula, and if your dog doesn’t develop an allergy of/intolerance to any more ingredients (it happens). But a food-elimination trial is really the way to go, so you know what you are avoiding.

Dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of several or lots of common food ingredients (or even more) are the most difficult to find commercial diets for. They are the ones that a truly limited-ingredient diet is helpful for – as long as the product doesn’t contain the specific ingredients the dog is allergic to or intolerant to.

Use our searchable database to find limited ingredient dog food!

How can you find limited-ingredient foods? Well, it’s not the easiest task, mostly because (as I said earlier) there is no specific definition of the term. But some manufacturers who are taking this tack try to include “Limited Ingredient” in the product name – and these we can capture using the “approved food” searchable database on our site. I searched for the word “limited” in the “dry food variety” field and got 23 results. I expanded the ingredients list field on each food, to see exactly how “limited” they were.

limited ingredients dog food search

The most limited-ingredient products (shortest ingredient list) on our list are Taste of the Wild products in their “Prey Limited Ingredient” line. The Beef variety contains just four major ingredients: beef, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil.  The Turkey and the Trout varieties have the same formula, with just the different protein (turkey, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil in the Turkey variety and trout, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil in the Trout variety).

How do we define “major ingredients” in dog food? Essentially, we’re talking about the protein, carb, and fat sources high up on the label. As soon as you get into things like “natural flavor,” which comes next on the label, you are no longer in the land of “major” ingredients.

Personally, I’m not such a huge fan of products with a legume (or legumes) representing so much of the formula, but if your dog is intolerant of grains and legumes seem to suit your dog, fine!

Triumph Pet Food has a product called Limited Ingredient Lamb & Brown Rice in its Wild Spirit line with just six major ingredients: deboned lamb, lamb meal, brown rice, whole barley, peas, and chicken fat. I like the fact that the peas are lower down on the list of that product, but this is a personal preference.

You might find other dry dog foods on our “approved foods” list that have short ingredient lists but without the word “limited” in the name. It would be best if you knew exactly which ingredients you were trying to avoid because then you could simply build a search that omitted all of those ingredients – like a soy-free, corn-free, wheat-free, rice-free, and chicken-free dog food. Something like this example:

example of dry dog food filter

That search resulted in 73 prospects to look over – pretty good for your dog food search when your dog suffers from several food allergies!

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

Find the Best Dog Food For Your Dog with Allergies

By
Nancy Kerns
-
13
dog food for allergies

Many of us have identified certain ingredients that we don’t want to see in our dogs’ food.

Sometimes we have good evidence for this, such as a solid association (backed up by daily notes written on our dog’s health calendar) between our dog eating a certain ingredient and having diarrhea, or a certain type of food causing our dog to nearly instantly develop an ear infection. (Ear infections are often caused by inflammation in the ear that is brought on by allergies. See this article for more details and information on how to prevent ear infections.)

Sometimes we are trying to avoid a certain ingredient or ingredients because we are just worried about the possibility of potential adverse effects.

Whatever the case, if you want to find foods that are free of the ingredients you’re trying to avoid feeding to your dog, we think you’ll appreciate the new search tool now available on our lists of approved dry and canned dog foods. Read on to learn how you can find the best dog food for allergies, intolerances, and your dog’s preferences!

Our list of approved dry dog foods for 2022 – more than 1,100 products that meet our selection criteria – currently appears here on our website (note that only current subscribers can access our approved foods lists). In past years, the reviews of dry and canned foods printed in the magazine and posted on the website were the same and listed only the manufacturers who make the products that meet our food-selection criteria. A summary described the products made by each manufacturer on our lists. But now, on our website, we have listed every single one of the products made by the manufacturers on our “approved foods” lists – and you can use filters to look for foods that either do or don’t contain any ingredients that are of special interest or concern to you.

Before Otto, my previous “heart dog” was Rupert, a Border Collie with a serious and confirmed allergy to chicken in any form: chicken, chicken meal, chicken fat – you name it. Of course, chicken is one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in dog food; it’s hard to find chicken-free dog food.If only I had this tool back then!

Before, a chicken allergy in dogs would make finding a safe, healthy dog food difficult. Now, all I would have to do is scroll down on this page to where it says “Searchable Dry Dog Food Database,” click on the little box that says “Add Filters,” and set the filters to search for “Ingredients does not contain chicken,” and voila! A stunning 441 foods on our list don’t contain chicken!

dog food database filtered to not include chicken
If your dog is allergic to chicken, just filter out chicken as an ingredient.

You can also change the order that the foods appear in by clicking on the top of the columns where the detailed data for each food is tabulated. This enables you to sort and order the foods (highest to lowest, or lowest to highest) by average price per pound, protein content, or fat content.

Add as many filters as you like to find the best dry dog food for your dog’s allergies! You can search for a salmon-based food that does not contain any rendered meals for dogs of all life stages and that contains at least 30% fat (this search returned just one product), or any other combination of data about the food that would be helpful to you and your dog. Check it out! We hope you will find it as useful and interesting as we do!

dog food database filtered for salmon based food
We used product filtering to find a dry dog food with salmon and protein content higher than 30%.

A final note: Given the amount of data shown on the screen for each food (including the complete ingredients list, the minimum amount of protein and fat, whether the food contains meat, meat meal, or both; whether it’s for dogs of all life stages or adult maintenance, and its average price per pound), it’s MUCH easier to see and use the database on a laptop or desktop computer than on a phone screen.

1...107108109...390Page 108 of 390

Latest Blog

When are you too old to adopt a dog or other pet?
Blog

Too Old to Adopt?

Nancy Kerns 19
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
© Belvoir Media Group, LLC. All rights reserved.