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I read with interest your article about collars, tags, and the risks associated with both. (“Don’t Wait! Prevent Collar Accidents,” December 2020.) I have three dogs, including a Border Collie who likes to lie over one of the floor vents, especially in the summer when cool air is being pumped out. Twice, he’s gotten his metal ID and rabies tags caught in the grate and ended up in somewhat of a panic dragging the grate around the kitchen.
After reading your article, l decided on a fix. I took a couple 1/4-inch-wide strips of duct tape and taped the tags flush to the collar so they could no longer get snagged. If for some reason the tags have to be read, the tape can easily be removed. I think my solution will work just fine without removing potentially valuable information should he get in trouble one way or another regarding the dog’s identity or shot records.
Chuck Meyer, longtime subscriber – Beaver Dam, WI
Food Review Questions
I love WDJ but I have questions. In your dry food list (“Approved Dry Dog Foods 2021,” February 2021) only one is available in my area. I need help! I have three small dogs, two Miniature Pinschers and one Chihuahua.
Edith Bunch – via email
We’re sorry, but we can’t make specific recommendations for diets for individual dogs.
Some of the companies on our list sell directly to consumers. Alternately, if you have a good independent pet supply store in your area, we’d suggest asking the manager if they can order one of the products you are interested in; most stores are happy to do that. You may be bringing a product to their attention that they are not aware of.
Also, most of the foods on our lists are available through online retailers. If a particular product appeals to you, go to the company’s website; they usually have a link showing where their products are sold. Or check the big online retailers: Chewy, Amazon, and Petco.
Again, we’re sorry, but we can’t possibly make recommendations for specific dogs. Nor would we be able to know what’s in your budget.
I noticed an incorrect statement on your 2021 approved dry foods list. Regarding Annamaet’s foods, you state “Annamaet’s formulas are made with low-ash chicken, salmon, or lamb and healthy whole grains (no legumes).” Their grain-free formulas most certainly do contain legumes. I know because I feed Annamaet’s food and have spoken at length with this wonderful company. They produce excellent, well-researched foods, but their grain-free formulas definitely do contain legumes.
Deborah Grodecka – via email
Argh! You’re right. None of Annamaet’s seven grain-containing foods contain legumes. But its grain-free foods do indeed contain legumes. We regret the error.
We just reviewed the ingredients of all of Annamaet’s dry dog foods, again! Here are the legumes used in its grain-free foods: Lean Formula (field peas, lentils); Aqualuk (field peas, chickpeas), Salcha (lentils, field peas, chickpeas); Manitok (lentils, field peas, chickpeas, pea protein); Sustain (lentils, green peas, pea protein isolate); Ohana (lentils); Re-Juvenate (green peas, lentils, pea protein isolate).
If you remove a food from your approved list,. it would be helpful if you made a note as to why.
Dean Mair – via email
Thanks for the suggestion; we will absolutely add that to our coverage. We’ll explain the discrepancies between the 2020 list and the 2021 list here:
We noted in the introduction to the 2021 dry dog foods list that, for the first time, we had stopped including companies that make and sell only one product or are sold in only one state or part of the country. We did not name the companies that were eliminated from our list by this change; they are Bench & Field, Pet Chef Express, and Petguard. The foods made by these companies meet our selection criteria , but we want to keep our focus on companies with the resources and full-time commitment to best serve consumers on a national scale.
Castor & Pollux has discontinued its Ultramix line of foods.
Weruva is no longer making a dry dog food.
Dr. Tim’s Pet Food was previously on our lists, though we had warned in past articles that we are not fans of including animal blood as a protein source in dog foods, and that some of Dr. Tim’s foods include this ingredient. This year, we learned that all of Dr. Tim’s foods include dried porcine plasma, so we removed the company from the 2021 list.
Access to Past Articles
I read your comments about quick fixes versus longer term efforts.(“Sound Solutions,” WDJ February 2021) and was struck by a comment you made regarding calendula tincture for skin issues and needing to work on determining underlying causes. I was so excited, as I have a couple of rescue Pekes that have some significant skin issues, which have managed to defy all our efforts so far and mystify my vets.
I was disappointed to check through the entire magazine and not discover the article, so assume it was something printed at some time in the past.
I was hoping you could send me the article you referred to. If there’s a cost, please let me know. I’m hoping to use the information along with the advice about dog foods to try and improve life for Bonnie and Clyde.
Jackie Wagoner – Tennessee Pekingese Rescue
Hi Jackie, thanks for your note. The calendula reference was meant to be an example of the type of information we include in our articles. This is in contrast to articles frequently seen elsewhere that lack specifics on how to put the information in the articles to use!
Here are two of the articles we have published about calendula and its many uses: “How to Use Calendula on Dogs,” April 2008, and “The Many Benefits of Calendula for Your Dog,” February 2007.
I also would like to make you aware that current subscribers are able to access all of our back issues and articles on the WDJ website, whole-dog-journal.com. Just go to our site and type the topic you want information about into the search box in the upper right corner. If we’ve covered that topic, a list of articles will appear.
You do need to register for online access, if you haven’t already. At the very top center of the website, there is a box that says “Activate My Web Access.” Click on that, and fill in the boxes to help us find your subscription status. You will then be instructed to choose a user name and password. Once that’s done, as long as your subscription is current, you will have access to everything we’ve ever published.
Good luck with the Pekes! I hope that a calendula rinse proves to be helpful!
Thanks for the Information
My first issue of Whole Dog Journal was Volume 2, No. 2, February 1999. I have been an avid reader since then, reading every issue nearly cover to cover. It is with a good deal of sadness that I anticipate receiving January 2021 issue, my last.
After 22 years, I didn’t want to leave without thanking you and telling you why I’m letting my subscription lapse. First, why: In November 2018 and July 2019, I said goodbye to my two beloved Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Tamu and Pendo. My heart is still broken. Because of recent changes in my life, I don’t anticipate ever having another dog.
Tamu came to us as a puppy. We gave him that name – Swahili for “sweet” – in honor of Nunda, my first Rhodesian Ridgeback, who had died in March 2008, just three months before Tamu was whelped. Tamu was a show dog until he was about 7, when he and I decided it was time for us to retire from the ring. Pendo was about 4 years old when we rescued him. His name is Swahili for “love,” with which he was overflowing. He and Tamu were close in age, and they became best friends. I miss them both immensely.
Now for the “thank you.” Over the years, I have learned so much from WDJ, and that knowledge greatly enhanced my understanding of my dogs and my relationships with them. When we got Nunda as a puppy, I was a novice in the world of dogs, and I had no clue how to train him, care for him, or bond with him. It was 1996, and I had never heard of positive, force-free training, so I didn’t understand why I was having so much trouble mastering the punishment-based training techniques being taught in the obedience classes to which we went. I also had a gut feeling that I shouldn’t have to be so cruel to him to get him to do what I wanted him to do. It just felt so wrong.
Then I discovered WDJ. You and your wonderful contributors taught me why I felt so uneasy about the training methods I had been taught. It took some time to repair the damage I had done to my relationship with Nunda in those first couple of years without WDJ, but by the time Tau and then Pendo came to us, I had the knowledge and resources I needed to get off on the right foot from the beginning. Whether it was training, nutrition, products, health, or behavior, I always knew where to go to find answers and solutions.
Thanks you for all you’ve done for me and my dogs in the past 22 years. Keep up the good work. If I ever do welcome another dog into my life, you can be sure I’ll be back.
With gratitude,
Deborah blankenberg – Lodi, California
Deborah, I can’t tell you how much your letter means to us. I’ve shared it with our long-time WDJ contributors, and it’s made each of us cry! It has always been our goal to encourage dog owners and help them find effective, dog-friendly answers to the problems they may be having. We are proud to hear that we helped you and your dogs, immensely grateful to you for your long-time support, and sincerely hope that circumstances again find you with a dog to love and to love you.
Early last year, one of my friends fostered a young dog through a long recovery from an extensive surgery. The dog had been hit by a car and surrendered to our local shelter; they were going to amputate her broken leg, but a rescue group raised funds for a surgical repair instead. They placed her with a foster care provider – where she broke the leg again.
The rescue raised more money and paid for another, more extensive surgery. This time, they looked for someone with experience at caring for a convalescent dog. Having seen her own dog through two surgeries, my friend Leonora volunteered. For two months, she kept the dog on a leash. She used food puzzles, food-dispensing toys, “brain games,” and enrichment to ensure the active, playful dog remained calm.
The dog was finally placed in an adoptive home, still in need of one more surgery to remove some of the hardware that was holding her leg together. By the time her recovery from that surgery was complete, the dog had been in pain (or at least discomfort) and not allowed off leash for about 10 months. And she has a permanent limp!
My friend and I both thought that it would have been far kinder to the dog if her leg had been amputated after the initial injury. She was only about 5 months old when her leg was broken; she could have recovered from amputation surgery in a few weeks! Instead, she spent practically her whole adolescence on a leash or in a crate!
PUT TO THE TEST
Just weeks later, a different rescue group was looking for a foster provider with a puppy who had been found in a ditch with a crippled leg. I volunteered to take him in, and not just because he was crazy adorable – a little brown muppet with a fuzzy face; I hoped to advocate for the puppy to receive more responsible treatment choices than those that had been made on behalf of my friend’s foster dog. I made a veterinary appointment and arranged to meet the rescue group leader (and the puppy) there. I’d take the pup home with me after the appointment.
The vet was grim-faced when she came out of the clinic to show the pup’s x-rays to the rescue group leader and me. The x-ray of the puppy’s hock joint looked like a cigarette that had been extinguished under someone’s shoe – shattered, crushed, and twisted. Worse, the vet thought it had happened weeks prior; in her opinion, the injury was too old to repair. She recommended amputation.
“What if we brought him to Davis?” the rescue group leader asked, referencing a veterinary college not far away. “Could we consult an orthopedic specialist? He’s such a handsome puppy! I hate to cut off his leg if there’s hope!” The veterinarian shook her head. “I mean, you could,” she said reluctantly. “But it would take multiple surgeries to sort all that out – and he’d have to be kept quiet for months. And even then, it could all fail, and he’d have to lose the leg anyway…”
The rescue group leader had also met that dog my friend Leonora had fostered. I said, “Remember everything that dog went through? Months and months of living in a crate – and three expensive surgeries? If we amputate, he’ll be ready to go to a new home in a month!” I felt like I needed to be the strong voice, advocating for getting the puppy some relief and into a home as soon as possible.
Tearfully, the rescue group leader agreed, but the soonest available surgery date was 10 days away; this happened in the early days of the pandemic and the vet’s office had just started seeing a full schedule of patients again. I used a confident tone, trying to reassure her that this was the right thing to do. “Don’t worry!” I told her. “I’ll keep him quiet, bring him back for surgery, get him through recovery, and by the end of the month, he’ll be ready to go to his new home!”
Once I got the little guy home, I introduced him to my dogs. Like all my foster puppies, he was magnetized by “fun uncle” Woody, my 5-year-old Pit/Lab-mix. He attached himself to the big, amiable dog, and they played, ate, and slept together. I controlled the puppy’s activity by keeping Woody under control.
Here’s the thing: The more time I spent with the pup, the worse I felt about amputating his leg. He did use it a little, mostly for balance on turns. He didn’t put much weight on it, and when he did, it tended to bend in sickening, wrong ways that had to hurt, even with the pain medication the vet had given us. But he did use it – and I found myself wavering. Could the crushed joint be fused, since repairing it seemed impossible?
Another talk with the veterinarian firmed up my wobbly resolve. “You’re talking about thousands of dollars and months of time – and even if it works, that joint will be arthritic. Or the whole thing might fail and he will still need amputation,” she told me.
Diesel uses his long tail for balance. His family assures me that neither he nor the squirrels he keeps out of the backyard know that he is disabled.
Long story short: A family fell for his adorable face on the rescue group’s Facebook page, and they came to meet him while we waited for his vet appointment. They named him Diesel and agreed to adopt him as soon as he recovered. On surgery day, I cried when I dropped him off at the vet’s office (masks and sunglasses are really helpful in this situation) – but he looked as cheerful as ever when I picked him up that evening. While it is always upsetting to see a large surgical incision on a dog, he didn’t pay any attention to it. Perhaps because he hadn’t been able to put much weight on that leg for quite some time, he didn’t seem to miss it at all. Diesel’s new family took possession of him a week after surgery. He’s a normal, mischievous pup who gets into all the regular puppy trouble, and they love him.
I can say from experience: Making the amputation decision for your dog’s health is the hardest part. While you may grieve for the loss of your dog’s normal appearance, I can assure you that your dog will not. The pain-free time you spend together after recovery will more than make up for the angst you felt beforehand.
Two "tripawd" dogs (as they are affectionately referred to by their owners) meet and play at a dog park. Amputation of a canines limb is not uncommon today, especially as more seriously injured dogs are rescued and treated for these injuries, rather than euthanized in shelters. That's a good thing, because these dogs have as much joy to experience and much to offer us as any dog.
I’m not sure which is more difficult: making the decision whether or not to have your dog’s diseased or broken limb amputated, or picking up a three legged dog from the veterinarian after amputation surgery. The responsibility of making such a weighty decision for your uncomprehending dog feels terrible. So does seeing him immediately after surgery – a huge swath of him shaved to the skin, stumbling as he figures out how to ambulate in a new way – the whole thing can be shocking.
But this is the important thing to know: It gets better. The incision heals, his hair grows back, and your dog gets around just fine. The pain of whatever had to be amputated – a terribly broken bone, severed nerves, or cancer – is now gone. Typically, after surgery, three legged dogs perk up more by the day, making their owners realize that the dogs’ grouchiness or lack of enthusiasm was likely caused by tremendous pain prior to surgery. With the problematic limb gone, they feel better!
PRESERVE, DON’T OVERPROTECT
That doesn’t mean all of your troubles are over, however. The fact that amputees feel so much better can actually cause them to hurt themselves as they try to run, jump, and play with the energy and enthusiasm they had before the event that precipitated surgery – only now, they have one fewer limb to help them carry their weight and maintain their balance.
Those three remaining limbs require a bit more consideration and care, because a dog can’t really spare any more! (While there are dogs who cope with the loss of two limbs, and everything in this article is applicable to them, fortunately the need for this is rare.)
Don’t get me wrong: Three-legged dogs can still run, jump, and play; you just need to provide a little supervision and judgment, to ensure they don’t overdo it. Dogs are just not that good at anticipating potential consequences of their enthusiastic physical antics!
It’s up to you to determine whether it’s too icy or if that muddy field is too slippery for them to be playing chase games with another dog. Jumping should be kept to safe, modest heights and limited in number. If they were super-fit athletes before surgery, accustomed to accompanying their owners on long jogs or off-leash hikes, their mileage should be reduced a bit.
Thin Is In and Fat Is Bad
The single most important thing you can do to preserve your tripod dog is to keep him thin. I know, wesay that about all dogs! But it’s especially true for these dogs.
There is a very human tendency to feel a bit sorry for handicapped dogs, and, perhaps subconsciously, try to “make it up to them” with a bit more food, a few more treats. Don’t! The best way to care for these dogs is to ensure that they stay skinny throughout their lifetime. This will help prevent injuries in the amputee’s remaining limbs and preserve his flexibility and mobility.
The battle against excess weight is one you can’t afford to lose, so enlist all the help you can get. If you keep reducing your dog’s food portions and he doesn’t seem to lose any weight, talk to your veterinarian. She may be able to recommend diets that are more appropriate for weight loss and lean-body maintenance than the products you are feeding.
A THREE LEGGED DOG MEANS THAT EACH LEG CARRIES MORE
When a dog loses a limb, each of his other limbs has to carry more of his weight. The burden increases the most for the remaining leg on the same end of the dog as the amputated limb.
Dogs carry about 60% of their weight on their front end. If you could compel a dog to stand with each foot on a separate scale, you’d find each front limb holding up about 30% of their body weight apiece, and each hind leg holding up about 20% of their body weight. So, do the math: If one front limb is removed, the remaining front leg has to hold up a whopping 60% of the dog’s body weight by itself! If a hind leg is removed, the remaining hind limb will need to carry about 40% of the dog’s weight.
This underscores the need to keep the dog’s weight under strict control; you don’t want any of the limbs to carry any more weight than they must. These dogs should always be kept thin.
Carrying an increased percentage of the dog’s weight as he ambulates is not the only increased burden for his remaining limbs. A single front leg has to catch all his weight for a moment every time he jumps down from a car or a couch. A single hind limb has to propel the dog forward with every stride. No matter which end of the dog is missing a limb, swimming will make the remaining leg on that end have to work much harder, too.
When, due to amputation, a three legged dog results, his stance will naturally change in order to maintain balance and stability. Instead of standing with his feet arranged in a rectangle, with a foot in each corner, the limb that’s lacking a partner will start to shift toward the center of his body, so that his footprints form a triangle. This change in his stance can tweak the rest of his body – spine, neck, shoulders, and hips. For these reasons – an increased workload and a shifting stance – tripods will benefit from some specific accommodations and health interventions:
* Provide nonslip surfaces in the house. Slick floors, whether they are tile, hardwood, or laminate, are the bane of tripod dogs. Dogs who slip tend to flail and/or make quick movements to try to catch themselves – and it’s these frantic motions that are often responsible for torn muscles or ligaments. Wherever possible, provide a route with improved traction (with nonslip carpet runners or yoga mat material) for your dog through the most slippery rooms; you’ll find these will become his favorite paths. Don’t forget the stairs!
Traction socks or non-slip booties are an option for some dogs.
* Prevent your three legged dog from jumping down. If your dog is in the habit of leaping off your bed or couch, or routinely launching himself out of the car after a drive, you may be a bit skeptical about your ability to control this. But any veterinarian will tell you that the hard landing experienced in this sort of jump is one of the most destructive forces on your tripod’s body that there is. Working on a solution will be worth the effort!
When getting out of the car, block his exit and get hold of his leash. Guide him to the floor of the car, so he doesn’t jump off the much higher seat. If even the floor of your car is high, see if you can use a ramp, or lift him out of the car. In the house, provide him with “puppy stairs” (these are readily found in pet supply stores and online) or ramps, and teach him to use them with high-value reinforcements. He may still jump off the couch or bed when you’re not present to encourage the safer way, but you will have at least reduced the total number of hard landings he subjects his body to.
* Train him to walk on a loose leash. In our opinion, good leash skills are important for every dog, but they are critical for tripods. He already has to work harder to ambulate than a four-legged dog; if he is pulling against you the entire time, he’s working far too hard and in all the wrong ways. Consider a private lesson with a qualified, force-free training professional and practice! (For more information about training a dog to walk on a loose leash, see “Loose Leash Walking,” WDJ April 2017 and “Frustrated on Leash?” WDJ October 2019.)
* Bring a stroller on walks. If your dog becomes fatigued on walks, consider purchasing a dog stroller. After she rests for a bit, your dog may express an interest in getting out and walking again. This will help maintain the length of your exercise time, so your dog (and you!) don’t lose fitness by taking progressively shorter walks.
* Use joint-support supplements – right away. Again, because he has fewer legs over which to distribute his weight, the impact on his remaining joints will be greater than for a four-legged dog. This means he will be at higher risk of developing osteoarthritis.
Don’t wait for your three legged dog to develop arthritis; at that point, providing pain relief is about all you can do. Joint supplements will help prevent, slow, or delay the development of arthritis, which is far better than waiting until the disease is established.
Adequan is the only FDA-approved disease-modifying osteoarthritis drug that has been proven to inhibit cartilage loss in a dog’s joints, thus helping prevent or stave off the development of osteoarthritis. It’s available only with a veterinarian’s prescription and administered as a series of intramuscular injections, twice weekly for up to four weeks. Usually, your vet will administer the first dose; if you think you’re able to inject the next doses, your vet will show you how. If not, most clinics will have a technician deliver the rest of your dog’s doses.
The array of oral over-the-counter dietary joint-health supplements on the market is overwhelming. These may contain glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) such as glucosamine and chondroitin. Herbal supplements containing turmeric, boswellia, and/or devil’s claw have been shown to reduce joint pain caused by osteoarthritis. Fish oil, which contains the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects, as have green-lipped mussels. Ask your vet for product recommendations and therapeutic dosages for your dog.
* Provide physical therapy. The value of physical therapy for three legged dogs cannot be overstated. The goal is multi-pronged:
• To relieve pain from over-tight muscles
• To support and maintain joint range-of-motion
• To stimulate and improve circulation, which promotes healing and health
• To gently warm up and stretch muscles, ligaments, and tendons before and after exercise
• To detect soreness that might escalate into an injury if the dog’s exercise is not modified
• To improve the dog’s balance and muscle control
Even a single consultation with a veterinary physical therapist is valuable. These specialists can detect subtle gait or posture problems or adaptations that your three legged dog has made following his amputation. They will then prescribe specific stretching and strengthening exercises and teach you how to do them with your dog. Some therapists also use massage, laser therapy, and exercises in therapy pools and underwater treadmills. Ask your veterinarian for a referral.
* Consider complementary therapies such as chiropractic and acupuncture. Both of these modalities can help relieve pain and keep the joints free and the muscles loose.
* Provide pain relief as needed. Your veterinarian is a critical partner in this essential task.
* Last but not least: You must check out tripawds.com. This exhaustive website is a clearinghouse for information about amputation (as well as the many health conditions that necessitate this surgery) and caring for three legged dogs (and cats). The site also hosts blogs and supportive discussion forums for owners. Perhaps the most valuable resource are the books and ebooks published by Tripawds, containing countless links and references for further information.
We asked followers of the WDJ Facebook page if they had a tripod dog and if so, what supportive care they use to preserve their dog’s soundness and mobility. We received a number of informative responses, but person who shared her dog’s journey just flattened us. Trainer Carolyn Baynes of Ellendale, Delaware, wrote:
“I rescued a 6-week-old pup with a twisted leg. I thought the leg was broken, but vets confirmed severe nerve damage in the pup’s shoulder. At 10 weeks, her right leg and scapula were amputated. Ari handled recovery with courage and strength that I never could have imagined. She told me, ‘I’m OK Mom, let’s get going!’
“Within 18 months, Ari has earned AKC Star Puppy, AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC), and AKC Novice and Intermediate Trick Dog Titles. She is a Registered National Capital Therapy Dog and is the ‘spokescanine’ behind AKC’s decision to allow three-legged dogs to compete in Virtual Obedience effective March 1, 2021!
“To keep Ari healthy, I keep her weight down, work with core-strengthening exercises several times a week using a wobble board, travel board, exercise ball, etc. Ari swims beautifully and climbs the hay bales in the barn without effort, which also helps to keep her strong. I feed her human-grade food with a fish-oil supplement and a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement.”
Ari is accomplished at rally obedience and recently started learning barn hunt skills and scent work. Don’t miss the photo of Ari and Carolyn’s chocolate Labrador Chayce, who are featured on the cover of this issue, as they participated in a presentation of National Capital Therapy Dogs.
It's common for dogs to behave in a way that seems standoffish with their new families. They may even display signs of tree when approached (or even if someone just looks at or talks to them), such as yawning, averting their gaze, getting up and moving further away, beginning to pant, and so on. If given time and space to feel safe and decompress, they should grow increasingly comfortable with their family's attention and affection.
The term “decompression” has become popular in dog training and behavior circles. A strict definition of the word references the process of releasing or reducing pressure. In the dog world, we use the term in a behavioral context to describe the process of reducing a dog’s stress – mental pressure – which often gets inflated by being put through a number of environmental changes. Sometimes, the changes that dogs experience as they make their way from their birthplace to their would-be “forever home” are tremendous. I’m thinking of dogs who were born on the street in countries that are very different from ours and then captured, transported on airplanes, quarantined for a period, and housed in foster situations before being made available for adoption. But even dogs who lived in just one home before finding themselves in a shelter or being given to someone else often are often overwhelmed with the changes in their lives. Often, the dog’s circumstances are changed for the better when she’s rehomed. But it’s undeniable that the stress of these moves can hinder and delay the dog’s adjustment to her new life. I hope that understanding how this stress affects your new dog can help you dedicate yourself to the process of helping her settle smoothly into your home and bond with your family.
A Word About Cortisol
Known as the stress hormone, cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands (along with adrenaline) when an organism (such as your dog) is under stress. The short-term effect is to help the organism cope with the stress. Long-term effects are more insidious. Any stressful event can cause an increase in cortisol in your dog, which weakens the immune system and can cause or contribute to significant health issues, both short-term and long-term. A short-term stress event can produce cortisol that stays in your dog’s system for two to three days. Ongoing long-term stress keeps cortisol in the system constantly and does a lot more damage. The longer a dog is under constant stress, the greater the impact on the immune system. This is one of the reasons dogs in shelters are so susceptible to getting upper respiratory infections. In addition to its impact on the immune system, excess cortisol can trigger anxiety, cause digestive problems, slow wound healing, and interfere with learning. It can take weeks or even months for the cortisol levels of a dog who has been living with chronic stress to reduce to normal levels for that dog. Until that happens, try to keep the dog’s environment as calm as possible.
WHAT STRESS LOOKS LIKE
Stress-related behaviors can range from “shutting down” to being fearful, vocal, destructive, ill-mannered, or aggressive. The expression “shut down” is often used to describe a dog who is behaving in an abnormally inactive or unresponsive way. Many dogs are shut down to at least some degree when they first arrive in their new homes, especially if they are shell-shocked from the stress of being in a shelter or crowded rescue facility long-term. The most severely shut-down dogs may appear near-catatonic – unwilling at first to even move, eat, drink, urinate, or defecate. Less severe cases may appear deceptively well-behaved, showing their real personalities and behaviors only after being in their new world long enough to let down their guard. So how do you tell the difference between a stressed, shut-down dog and a naturally calm, well-behaved dog? The truly calm dog will have soft, relaxed body language and clearly enjoy her interactions with you. The “well-behaved” stressed (shut-down) dog will be stiffer in her movements, is likely to have a look of caution in her eyes, and will perhaps tolerate your interactions but not truly enjoy them. She may not pay much attention to you or your family members at first, avoiding eye contact, declining your invitations to interact, and seeming to not particularly enjoy being petted. Again, though your new dog may seem “well behaved,” you should be aware that this is not necessarily an indication that she knows not to get into the kitchen garbage, chew up sofas, chase the cat, etc. She may be too intimidated or anxious about offering any behaviors that might have resulted in punishment in her past. Or, she might simply be observing the household and deciding whether it’s safe to move around freely.
How Not to Decompress
How quickly a dog will “come out of her shell” after rehoming is variable and depends on many factors. Just be patient.
One of the first versions I saw of a decompression protocol presented the “3-3-3 Rule,” which basically says the dog is likely to be pretty much shut down for the first three days, require another three weeks to settle in and develop a routine, and a total of three months to become completely comfortable in a new home. Though I appreciate that the intention of this formula was to encourage owners to give their new dogs time before they imposed behavioral expectations on the dogs, I took an immediate dislike to this 3-3-3 decompression “formula.” Dogs are not machines, and they do not follow a set formula. I have known dogs who seemed at home as soon as they set foot in the door, dogs who have settled in well before three weeks, and dogs who were completely comfortable long before three months are up. At the other end of the scale, I’ve known dogs who were shut down for weeks, even months, and who were not “completely comfortable” in their own homes even after a year. That doesn’t mean I don’t like the idea of decompression for your new dog. I like it very much. I just strongly dislike any behavior protocol that offers fixed guidelines and timelines. Again, it’s great that people are even discussing decompression for adopted dogs – but, my oh my, some of the advice being given to supposedly help a dog decompress is awful! An internet search on “dog decompression” offers a wide range of suggestions, including one site that advocates two weeks of “crate and rotate” where any other household dogs are kept crated any time the new dog is out of her crate. This site suggests that dogs can go on walks together (but kept a distance apart) after the first week but should not even be allowed to interact with each other for at least the first two weeks. Really? I have added more than 20 new dogs to my family during my adult years (and fostered quite a few more). All of them have fully integrated into my canine household well before two weeks were up, and many of them were interacting easily with each other on Day One. Another piece of bad advice I see frequently is to crate your new dog – a lot – starting on Day One. The problem here is that many dogs come to their new homes without prior crate training, and while some dogs will adapt rapidly and readily to the idea of crating, many will not. You will only add stress to your new dog’s life – possibly considerable stress –and potentially create a significant behavior problem, if you just shove her into a crate on Day One and expect her to stay there for hours at a time. If I have a set formula for helping a dog decompress, it’s to be patient and treat her as the individual she is, giving her time to get to know and trust you, without the expectation of a specific deadline for various behavioral milestones.
WHAT DECOMPRESSION MAY LOOK LIKE
As a shut-down dog grows more comfortable in her new home, and her stress-increased high cortisol levels begin to decrease, she may start to display more behavior. She may sleep or rest less and explore and interact more with the other members of her household. This may be a great thing – she’s happy! She feels confident about coming to you and asking for affection and attention. That’s good. However, the increase in her activity may look like a bad thing! No longer inhibited by fear or feeling paralyzed by chronic stress, your new dog may spontaneously chase the cat or jump up on the counter to see what’s up there. She might start barking at every sound coming from the other side of your backyard fences. This doesn’t mean she’s bad, spiteful, acting out, or any of the other pejoratives I’ve heard overwhelmed owners assigning to their new dogs. These behaviors are actually a sign that the dog is finally feeling less inhibited and showing you the true extent of her understanding of how to live with humans! It also means you have some work to do, including managing her environment so that she doesn’t get reinforced for those behaviors.
Introducing The New Dog to Your Other Dogs
When it seems to you that your new dog has become comfortable enough to relax and take in her surroundings with calm interest and confidence, it will be time to introduce her to the rest of the canine family. This, again, is a very individualized process and will depend on your own dog(s)’ past history with other dogs as well as your new dog’s behavior. If all parties are happily dog friendly, it should go reasonably well. It’s a good idea to do introductions in a large open area (fenced, of course) if possible and in a neutral space (such as a friend’s or neighbor’s yard). Be sure any valuable items (toys, chews, food bowls, etc.) are removed from the area before the introductions happen. I like to start introductions with dogs on leashes on opposite sides of the safely enclosed space. Keep the leashes loose, if possible. Watch the dogs’ behavior. They should seem interested in each other, alert without excessive arousal. Ideally, you’ll see tails wagging at half-mast, soft, wriggling body postures, play bows, ears back, squinty eyes, and no direct, hard eye contact. These are clear expressions of non-aggressive social invitation. Warning signs include stiffness in the body, standing tall, ears pricked hard forward, growling, hard direct eye contact, stiffly-raised fast-wagging tails, perhaps even lunging on the leash, and aggressive barking. If you see appropriate social behavior, proceed with the approach until the dogs are about 10 feet apart. If they continue to show unambiguous signs of friendliness, drop the leashes and let them meet. As soon as you can tell that they’re getting along, remove their leashes and let them play unencumbered. If you are not confident about introducing your dogs, have a very dog-knowledgeable (force-free) friend help you, or seek out the services of a qualified dog training professional.
HOW TO DECOMPRESS
Remember, every dog is an individual. Planning a decompression protocol for a new dog completely depends on the dog and her response to her introduction to her new world. Here are the general decompression guidelines that I suggest:
Keeping potential stressors and excitement to a minimum for the first few weeks will help your new dog shed the physiological, emotional, and mental stress of the changes she endured before she joined your family.
1. Don’t rush your dog’s initial arrival. When you first arrive home with your new dog, start by taking her for a walk – on leash – around your yard before even bringing her into your house. If you don’t have a yard, walk her in the quietest area of your neighborhood that you can find. This is to give her a chance to settle and relax from the tension of the ride home, as well as the stress of the environment she was in before the car ride (especially if she was in a shelter or crowded rescue facility). During this first walk, encourage her to eliminate. If you want her to use a designated bathroom spot in your yard, take her there and hang out for a while. If you have other dogs who use this area as their bathroom, the scent will help prompt her to eliminate there. Spend a good bit of time in this bathroom area, just relaxing, not hurrying anything. This will allow your new dog to really take in the sights and smells of this spot, and hopefully relax enough to eliminate there. Take as much time as she needs so you can reinforce that behavior and so when you take her into the house, she doesn’t have a full bladder or bowel, which would likely be an additional stressor for her. If you have other dogs, close them in a back room or put them out in the yard before you bring your new dog into your house. Still on leash, give her a tour of her new home, allowing her as much time as she wants to sniff and explore. Keep your other dogs separated until you see signs that she’s relaxed and actively interested in finding and meeting her new canine family members; this may take minutes, hours, or days, depending on her level of fear and past experiences! During this time, do not allow her to be overwhelmed by family members (especially children). To avoid additional stressors, it’s also best not to have visitors at this time.2. Watch her for signs of stress. These may include panting, salivating, a lowered body posture, tucked tail, flattened ears, trembling, yawning, trying to escape, and more. Is she reluctant to move? Does she startle when a car passes or when she hears a dog bark? Does she freeze when a human approaches? If so, restrict your activities to low-stimulus ones. Keep visitors to your house at a minimum. On walks, spend time just standing still until she is willing to move, and wrap her in virtual bubble-wrap: assertively preventing anyone from approaching, and walking away from anything that might worry her. Make note of your dog’s stress behaviors, ideally in a journal that you maintain for at least her first few weeks with you. Watch for these behaviors to decrease over time – this will tell you that decompression is working. If they stay at the same level, or worse, increase, seek professional assistance to help her adjust to her life with you. 3. For at least the first day or two, try to arrange to have someone with her at all times until you can gradually help her adjust to being alone. It’s not uncommon for dogs to experience distress when they are first left alone in their new home. If you can avoid leaving her home alone until she is comfortable and familiar with her new surroundings, it may forestall triggering your still-stressed dog into an isolation-induced panic. If your dog was previously an “outdoor dog,” and she seems less stressed in your yard than in your house, leaving her in the safely fenced yard for periods of time can also help reduce her stress. Watch her closely the first several times you do this to be sure she isn’t a climber, jumper, or digger – you don’t want her to Houdini out of the yard and vanish into the sunset; that could be why she ended up in a shelter in the first place! If your dog is significantly stressed about being left alone in the yard or in the house (crying, howling, trying to dig or chew her way out), crated or not, she may have some degree of isolation or separation distress, and you will have some work to do. Depending on the severity of her distress, you may not be able to leave her alone at all until her behavior is modified, and you may need to consult a qualified behavior professional or veterinary behaviorist. (Here are two great sources for help:malenademartini.com/about/meet-your-team/ and subthresholdtraining.com/find-a-trainer.) For more information, see “Separation Anxiety in Dogs,” WDJ October 2016. 4. Establish a routine early, during the first few days of her new life with you. Knowing what to expect will help her relax and settle in. Have treats in your pockets at all times, and be prepared to create positive associations by feeding her treats anytime you notice her concerned by household sounds, activities, etc. If she’s allowed on the furniture, fine; you can invite her up from the get-go. If she’s not going to be allowed on the furniture, don’t feel sorry for her and let her jump up the first few days only to forbid her from getting on the sofa later. Be sure to use management (such as baby gates, tethers, and closed doors) and positive reinforcement to implement house rules rather than verbal or physical punishment. If she jumps onto a forbidden sofa, toss a treat away from the sofa and encourage her to “Find it!” Then, redirect her to her own soft bed, or gate her out of the living room, so she can’t keep trying to get on the sofa. Note that everyone in the family needs to be on board with the agreed-upon rules. A lack of consistency will keep your dog unsettled and lacking in confidence about what is okay to do and what is not allowed. 5. You can begin training at home (force-free, of course) as soon as your new dog seems receptive to your invitations to perform easy behaviors. For calm, easygoing dogs this might even be on Day One. Others will need a few days or more to be able to focus enough to do any training. Some dogs will be ready to join a training class within a week or two of joining your family, while others may need to wait weeks – or months – before they are ready to join the group class training community. If you want to start training but you know your dog isn’t ready to handle a group training class, consider hiring a professional to do in-home training with you. Read your dog’s behavior signals and develop your training plan accordingly. Your new dog may fit right into your family as if she’s lived there all her life, or you may be challenged by the decompression process. Remember, she may have been through some very tough times before she came to you, and she needs your sympathy and understanding.
The Wyze Cam Pan offers 360 degrees of panning and 93 degrees of tilt.
Many of us wonder what our dogs do when home alone. How is my young puppy handling the first few trials of being crated when I leave the house to head to the store? Does my adolescent dog endlessly pester my older dog? Is my ailing dog seemingly comfortable throughout the day? Does my dog really stand and bark at the window all day, as reported by my “cat-person” neighbor?
Thankfully, modern technology offers an easy, inexpensive way to make the otherwise secret life of our pets a little less of a mystery by using a wireless IP (Internet Protocol) camera. Fun Fact: “Wireless” refers to how the camera communicates, not how it’s powered. “Wireless” IP cameras all require access to an electrical outlet. (“Wire-free” cameras, which require batteries for power, are also available, but we didn’t include any of these in our review.)
There are plenty of inexpensive consumer-grade surveillance cameras to choose from, and each of the four in our review sell for less than $50. While all of these cameras proved to be competent at giving us a real-time look at how our test dog spends his days home alone, our concerns about the data security offered by home surveillance cameras led us to recommend only two of the four.
Attend to Security First
Experts say data privacy issues are the biggest risk associated with inexpensive cameras. In hindsight, we probably should have guessed that even a camera touting “financial-level encryption,” might not be as secure as we’d like, especially considering how often major credit card companies have their data breeched! We could find no information relating to the data security offered by certain products and, as a result, do not recommend those cameras.
One way to improve security when considering a wireless IP camera is to keep software and firmware up to date. This includes the app used to view the camera’s feed remotely, the camera itself, and even your router at home. (Experts say if your router’s manufacturer no longer offers firmware updates, it’s time to retire it for a more current model.) It’s equally important to choose a strong, unique password for your home WiFi system and to change it often.
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES
Each of the four cameras in our test are quite similar, so picking a favorite came down to minor differences. It’s worth noting that none of the cameras support 5G WiFi, a faster WiFi that’s often found in Whole Home WiFi or Mesh WiFi systems and that have gained popularity as so many people work from home during the pandemic. If you’re on a 5G network, be sure to look for a camera with this specific capability.
Though each of the cameras we tested could be positioned on a shelf or table or mounted to the wall for our tests, we got the best view of the room and area we wanted to monitor by mounting the cameras on a tripod. The Wyze Can Pan is shown (from behind) on the tripod in this photo.
In general, each of the four cameras operate the same way. Setup begins by downloading a proprietary app, pairing the camera to the app, and connecting it to a WiFi network. Setup for each of the four cameras was quick and easy. The app gives you real-time access to the camera feed, and, depending on your selected settings, will push text-based notifications when the camera detects movement. Users can also opt to manually record a video or take a picture of the scene while viewing the live stream.
Two of the cameras we reviewed automatically record short videos of motion events. These videos are saved within the app for a short period of time. The ability to capture longer motion events, or to preserve any motion event for longer than a few days requires the use of a micro SD card or a subscription to the manufacturer’s cloud storage system.
All four cameras feature 1080p resolution with varying degrees of app-controlled pan, tilt, and zoom capability as well as infrared night vision. They also feature two-way audio, allowing one to see and hear what’s happening at home and, if desired, communicate with those on-screen. Admittedly, I never once tried using the speaker to talk to Saber, our test dog; it just felt mean! But I did activate the speaker to make a loud noise in an attempt to (successfully!) interrupt some obsessive licking I happened to observe during a check-in.
Among the features that stood out to us are the option to use a hardwired Ethernet connection to support a more reliable network connection, and the presence of a screw hole on the camera base that fits a standard tripod mount. I found it easiest to mount the camera to a tripod when determining where to position the camera in order to capture the best view of the room.
Each of the cameras come with mounting hardware or can sit flush on a flat surface such as a shelf or table. Two of the cameras have the ability to integrate with Alexa or Google Assistant for voice control.
OUR WINNER, BY A HAIR
In considering data privacy and security issues, Wyze Cam Pan comes out on top for its detailed explanation of security issues and the company’s commitment to security, as outlined on the “Security and Trust” section of its website. Wyze uses symmetric and asymmetric encryption, consistent hashing, AES 128-bit encryption, and each camera has its own secret key and certificate to validate identity during connection.
The Wyze Cam Pan offers a full 360-degree range of left and right panning, 93 degrees of tilt and 8x digital zoom. Pan, tilt, and zoom can be controlled manually via the app while viewing the live feed.
The Wyze camera also has the ability to track motion. As long as the motion begins within the camera’s field of view, it will track the movement. This sounds great, but in reality, we found the tracking to be a bit jerky, not at all as smooth as represented on the company website. It’s also surprisingly noisy when panning – so much so that, for the first few days of its operation, our test dog eyed the camera suspiciously whenever it moved. However, if you’re looking to monitor the play style of two dogs who might be romping across the living room, the ability to track movement would be a plus.
If you don’t need the ability to track movement or pan/tilt via the app and can position the camera in such a way as to see enough of the room you wish to monitor, the original Wyze Cam with a fixed lens might be worth a look for its lack of motor noise and the company’s commitment to data security.
Wyze Cam Pan also gets high marks for its ability to record and temporarily save short motion events within the app (for 14 days, for free) even without a cloud storage subscription, as well as for the most economically priced subscription plan at just $1.99 per month or $15 for a year.
Barking by the author’s dog barking triggered a text alert to be sent to her phone – but so did an ambulance passing her home with its siren howling
I was surprised by one of the best features of the Wyze Cam when I received two “noise-detection alerts” via text message from the app one day when I happened to leave Saber home (he often accompanies me to work). A 12-second video from the camera was attached to the text.
One of the alerts was Saber barking, presumably at the mailman dropping mail into the building’s mail slots, which are right underneath my window. The other one was when a loud ambulance went down the street. If someone owned a dog who was accused of excessive barking, or if you owned a dog with separation anxiety, this would be a really cool feature. The text alert could prompt you to turn the camera on via the easy-to-use, intuitive app and check to further investigate what was going on at home at that moment.
If we had to fault the camera for anything, it would be the omission of a port for a hardwired connection, as sometimes WiFi can be spotty, and the overall noise of the device motor when panning.
SUCH A CLOSE SECOND
The Wansview Wireless Security Camera performed nearly as well as our first choice
The Wansview Wireless Security Camera is similar to the Wyze product in terms of overall functionality. The range of view is slightly less than that of the Wyze, at 320 degrees of pan, 80 degrees of tilt, and a 4x digital zoom, but that was more than enough to see everything we needed. Like the Wyze Cam, the Wansview product may be turned on or off via the app. It is compatible with Alexa.
The Wansview doesn’t track motion, but does record short, 10-second event videos upon detecting motion, then pushes an alert with access to the video, even without a paid subscription. Videos are stored locally in the app for 48 hours, during which time they can be shared to your phone’s photo app for permanent storage. Users can also use the notification as a prompt to access the live feed to see what’s happening in real time.
Cloud service is required for longer video recording, and Wansview offers three rolling storage plans of seven days, 15 days, and 30 days. A seven-day rolling subscription starts at $6.99 per month or $69 per year, and videos recorded on the eighth day will overwrite the first day of recorded video. A 30-day rolling subscription is $16.99 per month or $169.99 per year.
Setup was simple using the app, and the camera easily attached to a tripod so I could position it as needed, so long as I stayed within the six-foot length of the power cord. Like Wyze Cam Pan, the Wansview camera lacks an Ethernet port for a hardwired connection, so I’m grateful to have experienced a consistent WiFi signal throughout the test period.
All of the cameras we tested offer infrared “night vision” video and stills, which look like black-and-white photography. No lights were actually on in this room when this photo was taken.
The only statement we could find about Wansview’s data security was the claim of“financial encryption technology” in its Amazon listing. We emailed the company for more information, and a couple days later, received this reply: “Wansview applies dynamic token, SSL, and https to protect the security when connecting camera to WiFi and using camera on app.”
All things considered, both products have strengths and weaknesses. I disliked the jerky motion tracking and noisy motor on the Wyze Cam Pan, but I liked its noise-detection feature very much. I preferred the Wansview camera, but its cloud subscription is considerably more expensive.
For my needs, the ability to simply check in on my dog when he’s home alone is enough. I don’t really need lengthy recordings of his activity. If a cloud subscription was important, I’d be inclined to lean toward a Wyze camera product for the far more budget-friendly subscription fee.
NOT RECOMMENDED
Information about the security of the Conico Pet Camera Monitor and the Kamtron Wireless IP Camera was lacking, we don’t recommend them.
We chose the final two cameras for our reviews – the Conico Pet Camera Monitor and the Kamtron Wireless IP Camera – based on their popularity on Amazon and because they each sell for less than $50. They both performed fine, but, when cybersecurity is considered, it’s bothersome to be unable to find any references to how one’s data may be secured. One company (Kamtron) doesn’t even appear to have a functioning website address.The Kamtron camera’s user’s manual lists only a Hotmail account as an email address and not a company website.
Also interesting is that both cameras utilize the same app. In terms of functionality, they appear almost identical, the only difference being the Conico camera tracks motion.
We did observe the motion tracking to be quieter than that of the Wyze Cam Pan. Both cameras offer 360-degree panning and 100 degrees of tilt. The Conico camera was the slowest off all four products to respond to swiping gestures when trying to pan or tilt via the app.
Both of these cameras offer seven- and 30-day cloud storage cycles starting at $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year for a seven-day cycle and $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year for a 30-day cycle.
At a time when much of our life is entwined in electronic data, it feels even more important to go the extra mile to ensure our safety and protection when entrusting even more of our life to an electronic device. As such, we can’t in good faith recommend these two cameras, and we were happy to quickly unplug and box them up after a short test run. Lesson learned: A high Amazon ranking does not a responsible purchase make!
WIRELESS IP HOME-MONITORING CAMERAS
WDJ’s Product Ratings
4 Paws = As good as it gets. We strongly endorse the product
3 Paws = A good product, with one or two significant flaws.
2 Paws = The product has some value, as well as some serious flaws. Some of its features may be useful in certain applications.
1 Paw = We are including the product only because of its potential for improvement.
0 = The product has no redeeming value that we can appreciate.
WDJ Rating
Product Name/Maker
Price on Amazon.com
Comments
4 Paws
Wyze Cam Pan
wyze.com
$30
360-degree panning, 93-degree tilt up/down. When motion or sound is detected, Wyze Cam Pan will automatically record a 12-second video clip and send it to your phone by text; clip is also saved to free cloud storage for 14-days. Cloud storage starts at $1.99 per month or $15 per year for a 14-day rolling subscription (videos recorded on the 15th day will overwrite the first day of recorded video); 30-day rolling subscriptions are also available. Works with Alexa and Google Assistant. Share access to the camera by invitation to others who have the app.
3.5 Paws
Wansview Wireless Security Camera Q5
wansview.com
$38
320-degree panning, 80-degree tilt up/down. When motion is detected, a text notification and 10-second video will be sent to your phone. A seven-day rolling subscription starts at $6.99 per month or $69 per year; 30-day subscriptions are also available. Works with Alexa. Share access to the camera with up to four users with the app.
2 Paws
Conico Pet Camera Monitor
conico.com
$48
350-degree panning, 100-degree tilt up/down. When motion or sound is detected, camera will send activity alert to your phone. Sound and motion sensitivity is adjustable. Cloud storage subscriptions start at $2.99/month or $29.99/year for a seven-day cycle; 30-day cycles are also available. Note: We bought our test cameras in late July 2020; Amazon says a newer model of this item is available for $19.99. Things move fast in the tech jungle!
2 Paws
Kamtron Wireless IP Camera
(model # 826)
$40
350-degree panning, 100-degree tilt up/down. When motion is detected within 20 feet of camera, a text notification and photo will be sent to your phone. A seven-day rolling subscription starts at $6.99 per month or $69 per year; 30-day subscriptions are also available.
Like most Kelpies, Kai would rather be running off-leash than standing around just looking at and smelling stuff. But since I've removed that option for the time being, until his broken leg is healed and strong again, slow leashed walks are the only kind he's going to get - and as it turns out, he actually enjoys standing around and looking at and smelling stuff.
A few days after Christmas, my husband and I found ourselves facing a challenge: Our Australian Kelpie, Kai, was romping around the yard when suddenly he came up three-legged lame, putting no weight whatsoever on his left hind leg. Kelpies are an intense, high-energy herding breed (I describe them as “Border Collies on speed”), and though Kai is pretty good about short-term confinement, I suspected that he had torn his cranial cruciate ligament (CCL), which might require weeks of restricted activity.
It turned out that the injury was even worse than I initially thought. Radiographs showed a shattered calcaneus bone (pronounced “cal-kay-knee-us”) in his hock – and my veterinarian informed me that its repair would require the services of an orthopedic surgeon.
By some miracle, I found a veterinary practice with an orthopedist who could take Kai’s case right away. We rushed Kai to the clinic, an hour away, and returned home. The surgeon called later that afternoon and said the surgery had gone well, despite the fact that she had never seen a calcaneus shattered that badly, requiring wires and many tiny screws to put it back together. She added that I could pick up Kai the next day – and he would need six to eight weeks of restricted activity.
I suspected that such a lengthy period of inactivity would put even our good-natured, well-behaved Kelpie to the test. I began digging out all the enrichment toys I own and researching all the stationary exercises I could think of.
Three weeks and three bandage changes into his incarceration, Kai’s leg is healing well. I’m feeling confident enough in the canine-brain-tiring tactics I’ve undertaken to keep Kai quiet that I’m sharing them with you! I hope you don’t have a medical reason to have to put them to use – inclement weather that keeps you cooped up would be a “better” reason! – but if you do, at least a few of these tools and stratagems should work for you and your dog.
WORK FOR FOOD
I’m a big fan of food-dispensing toys that can be given to bored dog to roll around, such as the Roll-A-Treat Ball. But in this case, food-dispensing toys that move are verboten, since the patient is not supposed to move around much. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for stationary treat-containing toys and puzzles:
* Kong. The classic Kong toy, made by the Kong Company, is a well-established favorite of many dog owners and trainers. While some people stuff them with kibble and glue it in place by stirring in some peanut butter or yogurt, I like to stuff Kongs with Kai’s moist, home-cooked food, which doesn’t work well in most treat-dispensing toys.
To make extracting the food take even longer, fill the Kong with moist food (canned, home-prepared, or rehydrated) and freeze the stuffed Kong overnight.
* Toppl. Made by West Paw Design, the Toppl is another chew-resistant toy that can be stuffed with a home-prepared moist diet. The opening to these toys is wider than the opening of a Kong, which makes it easier to stuff, clean,and for the dog to lick out all the food.
Kai works to solve a 12-year-old wooden puzzle, Nina Ottosson’s “Dog Tornado”. The dog must use his nose, and/or paws to turn the discs, which reveal treats in hidden compartments.
* Puzzle toys. Swedish native Nina Ottosson had two Bouvier des Flandres that she used to train and show, but after having two babies a year and a half apart, she found herself trying to devise toys to keep her dogs occupied with less actual time to exercise them. She crafted wooden puzzles that contained hidden compartments that held treats, which could be revealed and eaten by a dog who pushed levers, lifted blocks, turned discs, and so on.
Ottosson’s inventions worked so well, she started a company to manufacture and sell them. Eventually, she licensed Outward Hound to make plastic versions of her designs. I have a tub full of Ottosson’s original wooden puzzle toys, as well as some of the newer plastic ones from Outward Hound – and Kai is getting to play with all of them!
A decade ago, puzzle toys for dogs were a rarity. Now the market is flooded with them, some quite innovative. The mental exercise they provide can be as tiring as physical exercise. Do an internet search for “dog puzzle toys” and see what you get!
You can see my review of Nina Ottosson’s original wooden toys in the June 2008 issue of WDJ (“A Puzzling Activity”). For other interactive toy suggestions, see “The Best Food-Dispensing Toys,” WDJ April 2019.
There are many retail sources for snuffle mats, but it’s actually easy to can make one yourself. Here are some instructions for this, thehonestkitchen.com/blog/diy-make-your-dog-or-cat-a-snuffle-matt/
* Snuffle mats. These are another of my favorite relatively new additions to the dog-training world, available in astonishing variety. If you feed dry food, you can feed your dog’s meals in these. I put multiple small treats in mine for Kai to find and he loves the search.
* Slow feeder bowls. These are bowls with deep grooves or other obstacles so your dog has to work to get the food out. I’ve just ordered one for Kai. For a review of some different designs, see “Savor the Flavor,” WDJ November 2020.
* DIY Muffin Tin. Kai’s having fun with this one too – and I can feed his meals in it. Just take a muffin tin, drop treats or smear moist food in the cups, and cover the cups with tennis balls. Then let him work at removing the balls from the cups to access the treats underneath.
COGNITION GAMES
Games that require a lot of mental problem-solving are perhaps even more tiring for dogs than they are for us! Fortunately, they can be just as entertaining as they are exhausting for a convalescing dog.
If your dog becomes adept at learning colors, shapes, and object discrimination, you may at some point be able to tell you to select the yellow square or the blue ball from a stack of toys. Deanne Davenport is shown here working with Kai to recognize colors at “Cognition Academy” at Miller’s training center in Maryland. Photo taken pre-pandemic and well before Kai’s injury.
* Color discrimination. Yes, you can teach your dog to recognize colors! Then you can ask him to touch a target of a specified color or fetch a ball of a certain color. Dogs see blue and yellow well, so those are the best colors to work with. It’s thought that dogs see other colors as shades of brown, so you could add one more color (and perhaps black and white).
Start by asking your dog to “Wait,” then present one color (I use colored paper plates). If I was teaching a dog to identify blue, I’d say “Blue,” pause, and then say “Touch” (you want “Touch” to be the cue, not “Blue”).
Next, repeat the same process with yellow.
After several repetitions with each color individually, present both colors and ask him to touch one color. (If he heads for the wrong one just whisk it away, reset, and try again.) At first, position the one you’re going to ask for a little closer to your dog. As he is consistently successful at touching the color named, gradually present the two choices more evenly, until he can select the correct color without the offset assistance.
* Shape discrimination. Teach your dog the word for a few basic shapes. The process is the same as with colors. Present one shape first and name it, then present the other, and then the two shapes together, offset at first.
* Object discrimination. Dogs can also learn the word for some basic items, whether it’s a variety of toys (such as ball, disk, bone, or toy alligator). Kai is pretty good at indicating named objects, such as Ball, Roomba, and Stuffy.
No surprise – the process is the same as above. Present one object and name it, then present the next object, and then the two objects together, offset at first.
For more detail on how to teach these cognitive discrimination games, see “Are Canines Cognitive?” WDJ October 2017.
This dog is learning to copy an active behavior (walking around the cone). Because Kai needs to be as inactive as possible, he’s been learning to copy more stationary behaviors , such as “cross your paws”, nodding “yes” and shaking his head “no”
* Imitation. Teach your dog to “do what you do,” imitating movements such as a bow, a yawn, or a comically vigorous “no” nodding of the head. This is a much more complex cognitive challenge – and more brain-tiring than the discrimination exercises.
Here’s a simplified description of how to train this: It’s easiest if you start with a behavior he knows well on verbal cue. Let’s use “spin” as an example. Have your dog wait in his starting position while you demonstrate the human version of a “spin.” Return to your start position, say “Copy!” Pause for a second or two, then give his cue for the “spin” behavior. Repeat up to three times in a row.
Then, repeat the process with a second behavior – say, backing up. Ask him to wait in a starting position, back up yourself, say “Copy!” pause, and then give his cue for “back up.” Repeat this a few times.
Then, repeat the process with a third behavior.
Finally, start randomly alternating these until he starts to offer the correct behavior on the “Copy” cue without needing the verbal cue for that behavior.
Note: If you continue with the same behavior too many times in a row, he will just think “Copy” is a new cue for the behavior you’re demonstrating, rather than a new training concept.
For a more complete description of the imitation protocol, see “Train Your Dog Using Imitation,” WDJ October 2013.
* Counting. This is definitely an upper-level cognition game. A protocol for teaching “quantity recognition” was developed by noted trainer Ken Ramirez, the former executive vice president of animal care and training at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, now the executive vice president and chief training officer with Karen Pryor Clicker Training. Here’s a very simplified explanation of Ramirez’s protocol:
The dog’s “answers” of one through five are made available to him in the form of small boards that are sprinkled with one, two, three, four, or five black dots. The “question” is put to the dog in the form of a tray, upon which are arranged one, two, three, four, or five items. The dog is shown the tray, laden with objects, and then asked “How many?” The dog indicates the number of items he saw on the tray touching the board with the same number of dots.
To see a couple of videos of Ramirez discussing this brain-game, see kenramireztraining.com/media/.
TRAINING GAMES
Zeus, a shelter dog from Ohio, is learning how to do a “chin rest” in one of Pat Miller’s Behavior Modification Academies. A dog’s understanding of this behavior is very helpful for low-stress, low- or no-restraint veterinary examinations.
You can also enrich your dog’s restricted environment by training him to do a variety of stationary behaviors, such as:
• Paw Targeting: Teach him to touch his paw to a designated target.
• Nose Targeting: Teach him to touch his nose to a designated target. (When he knows paw and/or nose targeting you can teach him more low-activity fun stuff like pushing a talking button or light button, and playing a kiddie piano.)
• Say “Yes” and “No” – Teach him to nod his head up and down and to shake his head left and right.
• Wait: Teach him to not eat a treat within reach until you give him permission.
• Balance a Treat on Your Nose: This is easiest if he already knows “wait.” Then start with the treat at the bridge of his nose (between his eyes). As he grows more advanced at holding still, you can gradually move the treat toward the tip of his nose.
This is a great opportunity to work on useful cooperative-care procedures such as the Bucket Game (featured in “Care to Cooperate,” WDJ February 2021) or a “chin rest,” where he’d rest his chin on a rolled-up towel while you perform an exam or husbandry procedures. Both a chin rest and the Bucket Game are performed with the mutual understanding that you will stop the procedure if he looks away from the bucket or lifts his chin off the towel. He learns that you will not proceed until he gives the “okay to continue” signal of looking at the bucket or resting his chin again.
JUST WALK
Though Kai is not supposed to exercise, he does have to walk to go to the bathroom several times a day. So I figure that we might as well make use of these bathroom breaks as best we can, with a calm, quiet, slow on-leash walk.
Accustomed to ripping through the woods and across the fields at top speed when we go hiking, Kai is tolerating these short walks and I am loving them. It amazes me that he likes to stand like a statue and just look at and smell our surroundings, for minutes at a time, only his nostrils moving as he picks up scent and watches for movement. He has always enjoyed scent work, and it’s fun to watch him detect and follow a scent. Sometimes I go outside before I take him out and “salt” our walking path with treats for him to find.
REWARDING TIME
Whatever you do to pass this quiet time with your convalescing dog, rather than agonizing over the pain of managing her restricted activity, try to breathe deeply and enjoy doing enrichment activities with your dog. You might find out later that this was some of the most rewarding time you’ve spent together.
Clipping your dog's nails is much easier if she's got white nails, which allow you to see the "quick" inside. Those of us whose dogs have thick, black nails have to guess where the quick is and take more care not to clip it.
If there were something simple you could do that would make your dog much happier, you’d do it in a flash, right?
Every day I see owners going to great lengths, and spending small fortunes, to indulge their dogs. That’s why I’m perplexed when I see those very same folks ignoring the smaller, easy-to-rectify issues that diminish their dog’s daily quality of life, causing anything from mild irritation to major pain.
Marketers may sell us on products for our dogs: expensive food and treats, beds, and toys. But some of the most important keys to our dogs’ happiness are free or low-ticket items that nobody advertises – so they can often go under the radar. Here are five simple things that you can fix to greatly improve your dog’s quality of life:
1. LONG NAILS. Ready for the hard truth? You need to be clipping or grinding your dog’s nails every three weeks.
I know. Your dog hates it. You hate it. So you put it off, and ask the vet or groomer to do it whenever your dog goes in. Unfortunately, unless you’re in the habit of monthly visits, that’s not nearly enough.
Here why too-long nails have a giant impact on your dog’s day and can become a true emergency:
* Each step your dog takes on those nails puts inappropriate pressure on the toes. That makes them twist unnaturally – and hurts!
* The pain causes dogs to compensate by adjusting their posture. That can cause orthopedic issues and can eventually be the source of hind-end weakness/soreness.
* Long nails give dogs even less grip on slippery wood or tile floors, increasing the likelihood of muscle strain. This is particularly hard on older dogs who’ve lost muscle tone. Imagine trying to walk across an ice-skating link wearing shoes with a smooth sole. That’s how your dog feels on slippery floors!
With a few exceptions, if a dog’s nails are clicking on the floor, it’s time. And if you’re thinking that’s not true for your own dog because clipping that short would absolutely mean cutting the quick, I have more bad news for you. The quick – the nerve inside the nail that bleeds when you cut it – grows along with the nail. So if you let the nails get too long, the quick gets too long, too.
The only remedy is an intense phase of even more frequent trimming! The quick always recedes back from the edge of the nail. After six weeks or so of weekly careful trimming, you should have a quick short enough that you can keep those nails from clicking on the floor.
Maybe you’ve always known how important nail trimming is but want to leave it to the “experts” because you still remember that time you cut a nail too short and made it bleed? My own “Aha!” moment came when my daughter interned at the local vet, and let me know that there is not some kind of perfect nail magic happening in that back room. Instead, they do their best, and sometimes they mess up. The difference is that you don’t see it happen and they use styptic to stop the bleeding. It’s a pain-free experience – but only for you.
That information was huge to me. I realized I was putting my dogs through extra stress so that I could avoid the drama myself. I decided that if this is to be done every three weeks, surely it’s better for my dogs to experience it with me, in the comfort of their own home. So, I worked on this skill; it’s not brain surgery! I’m pretty good at it now, and you can be, too. Here’s what will help:
* Make sure your clippers are sharp! Dull blades compress the nail before they cut through and so they can cause discomfort, even when the quick isn’t nipped. As soon as you notice that they require more force to snip through your dog’s nails, buy some new ones. I buy new clippers regularly since I clip a lot of dogs.
* Try a grinder! I was always afraid of these but have come to adore this option which leaves the nails with nice soft edges and avoids the possibility of cutting the quick with a single snip. (For more tips on using grinders, see “Grinders vs. Clippers,” WDJ October 2020.)
* Take the time to condition your dog to the experience. Pair even just the sight of the clippers or the sound of the grinder with something delicious. Dried fish! Feta cheese! Do that as frequently as you have to until you see that happy head swivel at the sight of the tool. Next step: Touch the tool to the paw, then treat. A baby-step approach can work wonders. While this may sound like it will take tons of time and patience, each interaction like this takes only seconds.
* Start small. Remember there’s no rule that you have to do all of the nails at once. With some dogs, I do two nails and call it a day.
I implore you to work on this. You’ll screw up at first and you’ll want to give up. Stick with it because the more you do it, the better you get. And once you are skilled, you’re going to hit that every-three-weeks mark. It may never be your favorite part of the day, but you and your dog can get to the point where you don’t dread it. The sooner you get brave and learn to deal with this, the sooner your dog will find walking to be much more comfortable.
Some owners enjoy hearing the jingle-jangle of their dog’s ID tags; some use the sound to help keep track of their dog’s whereabouts in the house or yard. But consider that your dog may be irritated by the constant noise.
2. CLINKING TAGS. Does the sound of your dog’s clinking tags ever bug you? Now imagine those tags were around your own neck 24/7, and you had incredibly acute hearing. Sad, right?
Sure, maybe most dogs get used to it. But why in the world should they? There are fantastic products out there that make clinking tags a torture device of the past.
Before you examine those new options, take the easiest step: simply reduce the number of jingling objects. Remove outdated license or rabies tags, and ponder whether you really need that rabies tag. Most counties do not require them as the license itself indicates an up-to-date vaccination history.
Once you’ve minimized the number of tags, it’s time to make them quieter. One option is to bundle them so that they don’t bang against each other. Plenty of do-it-yourselfers have always done this using rubber bands or electrical tape. Sure, it’s not easy to get to those tags, but if your dog never gets lost nobody will ever need to read them! However, if you’re looking for a cuter option, there are now great little pouches that can slip on, and wrap those tags together in silence.
Another thought is to take advantage of silicone. You can opt for a silicone ID tag rather than a metal one, or buy rubbery silencers that fit around the edge of the tags. Easily available online, they come in all sorts of colors and in the typical tag shapes.
Finally, there’s the no-dangling-ID-tag approach. There are slide-on tags that loop over the collar and lay flat. (I use these, with our generic family ID information, for my foster dogs, because I can easily move them from collar to collar.) You can also order a custom collar with ID information either engraved on a metal plate that’s riveted to the collar, or stitched on the collar itself.
Even if you don’t really want to change anything about your dog’s tags, give mealtime a consideration. I had a client who was perplexed about why her dog was finicky about eating at home, but happily wolfed down the exact same food at the pet-sitter’s house. A little investigation revealed the difference: The pet-sitter used a low plastic plate rather than a high steel bowl to serve the dog’s food,reducing the noise that was interfering with the dog’s ability to eat in peace! Now that he has a new dish at home that tags don’t bang against, that pup eats normally.
Many owners find it handy to leave their dogs’ harnesses on all the time, especially for dogs who are difficult to “dress”. This practice not only poses the risk of rubbing a raw place on your dog but also is not as comfortable as being “naked” when he’s home.
3. ILL-FITTING, 24/7 HARNESSES. Harnesses have many uses,but they must fit perfectly, and in most cases they should not be left on 24/7.
While it’s easy to get a collar to fit well, a harness is another thing entirely. There are so many contact points – so many spots where, depending on how the dog is sitting, moving, or lying down, there may be rubbing, pinching, and discomfort. When you get a harness, it’s critical to invest the time needed to figure out exactly how it’s supposed to fit. Many manufacturers have posted video instructions on YouTube – those are always worth watching. After that, make sure you check and adjust regularly, particularly if you have a growing puppy.
Even if you have a perfectly fit harness, though, remember that in most cases it is specifically for leash walks. It feels like you need a PhD to get your dog into some of these contraptions, which is one reason people simply leave them on. But … gosh. Would you want to wear that every minute of your life? Many dogs just tolerate this, but why do we ask them to do that if we love them so much?
4. MINOR SKIN/COAT/EAR ISSUES. We’ve all had that moment when we discover something on our dog that we should have found earlier: a tick, an infected ear, a mystery cut, a burr tangled deep in fur. No matter what it is, the sooner it’s found, the easier it is to fix. That timing can mean the difference between a simple at-home treatment and an expensive vet bill. More significant is the amount of discomfort your dog had to endure for goodness knows how long!
When your life is busy and your dog is active, though, it’s easy to miss things. The more you groom your dog, the more you have a chance to catch all sorts of things: new lumps and bumps, changes in fur texture, hair loss, parasites, mats that could be painful.
Whether you use a groomer or not, it’s a great idea to get into a once-weekly home exam routine. I now keep my tools (brush, nail clippers, little scissors, ear cleaner) in a basket near the TV so that when we’re relaxed at night I can slip over and make sure everybody’s in good shape. If I had to walk over and get it, I probably wouldn’t, because I’m lazy! This way, grooming has become a habit and I feel I’m always well aware of each dog’s status – and confident nobody’s suffering in silence.
All the previous “fixes’ we’ve proposed are inexpensive or free. Providing your dog with regular dental care can be costly – but not as expensive as treating the health problems that neglected dental issues can cause.
5. NEGLECTED TEETH. If your dog’s breath is super stinky and her gums are red, please contact your vet’s office and schedule a dental exam!
Dental problems not only cause daily discomfort but also can have serious downstream health effects, like endocarditis from a chronic bacterial infection caused by the buildup of dental calculus. Endocarditis is six times more likely to occur in a dog with advanced gum disease as a dog with healthy gums.
Dental problems also cause chronic pain, which can make a dog cranky,reactive, and/or anti-social. Those of us who work in rescue have seen formerly neglected dogs with dental problems who seemed unfriendly and shut-down transform into seemingly younger, happier, and more engaged dogs after they had a veterinary dental cleaning and extractions or repair of broken or rotten teeth.
I’m all for indulging dogs with luxuries to make them happy and comfortable, but I think if we asked our dogs, they’d ask us to address the issues above first. It’s the low-hanging fruit of canine quality of life!
Kathy Callahan, CPDT-KA, the author of 101 Rescue Puppies: One Family’s Story of Fostering Dogs, Love, and Trust, loves to coach people and their puppies into a great pack life. See page 24 for book and contact information.
When I was 13 years old, my 19-year-old sister came home with her 3-year-old hound-mix, Frecklebelly (FB for short), and FB’s 10 puppies. My sister, who had moved out/been kicked out at age 16, wasn’t home to stay; she was just there to rid herself of the canines that had proliferated beyond her ability to cope.
My parents were likely dismayed by this development, but any aggravation they may have experienced would have been lost on me; I was in heaven. Ten pudgy, delicious, freckled puppies to play with! And the return of FB! – who had been a puppy herself when my sister stuffed her in a sack and left home, sticking her thumb into the air and departing for parts unknown with another 16-year-old girl and her dog, Jamaya. (This was 1976 – it was a different world.)
One by one, the puppies found homes. As their numbers reduced, my begging to keep one increased. I promised to support the dog myself; I’d get a job to feed him, if need be. I swore he’d be the best-trained dog on earth. I pointed out that I had always taken care of the family dogs, including FB and Argo, my other sister’s dog, whom she left behind when she went to college. I promised I’d never come home and dump puppies or dogs on my parents. And I committed to taking the puppy and FB with me when I left home.
Somewhere in all that, my mom gave up her resistance. I got to choose my pup from among the last three puppies who hadn’t yet been given away.
Frecklebelly had spent some time on a cattle ranch where a working Australian Kelpie was the only dog allowed to run free all the time; the rest of the dogs on the ranch were hounds (including FB’s mom) who lived in a big fenced pen and slept in tipped-over steel barrels that were filled with wood shavings; they only got out of the pen when the rancher took them to the mountains to hunt bears or to the slough to hunt wild pigs. The pup I chose came from the half of the litter that resembled the Kelpie enough to declare that they were half Kelpie. I called him Tavi, after the mongoose Rikki Tikki Tavi (from the Rudyard Kipling story of the same name).
I trained Tavi relentlessly with the only methods I had ever been exposed to: heavy-handed, choke-chain-based training. I wish I had known better; he was a smart dog of a working breed, but he would have been incredible if trained with the knowledge I have now. He was well-behaved, although he could be aggressive to other dogs later in life. Again, I know now that if aggression is met with aggression, more aggression ensues. Tavi, thank you for your companionship. You were a good dog; you deserved better. I’m sorry.
Gone are the days when standard advice was to ignore a crying puppy. “Ignore him,” we said, “until he stops crying. If you go to him while he’s crying, you’ll reinforce him and teach him to cry more.” That’s horrid advice and I regret that ages ago I was guilty of saying it to clients.
Now that competent, educated dog training and behavior professionals have a much better understanding of the science of behavior and learning, we won’t tell you to ignore your pup’s cries. You must take action when your pup is in distress. That’s what his cries are – he’s communicating to you that he’s distressed – sometimes very distressed. (Note: This does not apply to “demand barking” – that requires a different response.)
While some puppies survive having their cries ignored and grow into normal, healthy adult dogs, others suffer with stress-related behavioral issues for the rest of their lives, including separation anxiety, due at least in part to not having their needs met when they were so desperate for help. So what should you do when your puppy cries? He’s crying for help. Help him.
Why is puppy crying?
When a puppy arrives at his new home, his world has turned upside down. His mother and siblings are gone. The familiar sights, sounds and smells of his birth home are gone – replaced with an alien environment. Even if he came from a responsible breeder who helped prepare him for this life change (sadly, a small percentage of possible puppy sources) the stress of rehoming may still trigger distress behaviors.
It’s critically important to take things slowly. Your pup may have never been alone before, ever. Being left alone now could be horribly traumatic, especially if you ignore his pleas for help. Your best approach is prevention. Assume your pup has never been crated or left alone, and plan on staying near him at first. Even if he has been previously crate-trained, the stress of relocating to your home can contribute to panic attacks.
How to help your puppy
Whether you are faced with a newly-arrived puppy or one who’s been in your home for a while, here’s what you need to do:
Why is he crying. What’s stressing him? After identifying his stressor(s), figure out how to make them go away. (Go to: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/stressed-out/)
Anticipate when he’s likely to stress-cry, and pre-empt the crying by engaging him in some other activity, food toy, or providing company.
Keep him near you, and gradually acclimate him to being alone. Isolation is a huge stressor for a puppy!
Spend time acclimating him to his crate by playing crate games, preferably starting with his first day home (but it’s never too late). (Go to: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/dog-crate-expectations/)
If he is stressed by crating, use an exercise pen alternative (a collapsible wire pen) for confinement.
If you cannot determine his stressors and alleviate his crying, engage the services of a qualified professional force-free behavior consultant to help you, sooner, not later.
How to get a puppy to stop crying at night
A pup’s first night home can be make-or-break time. If he adapted well to his crate during your first-day crate games, you can probably crate him in your room for the night. Do not, under any circumstances, crate him away in a room all by himself. You have to hear him when he cries to go to the bathroom. Get up and take him out. Crating him in your room also saves him from feeling abandoned. If he’s stressed about the crate, use an exercise pen that you can set next to your bed with your arm draped over the edge if necessary, to assure him he’s not alone.
Give him a good bout of puppy playtime before bed, a last bathroom trip and time to settle before the two of you retire for the night. Have his crate or pen where he can see you. A microwave-heated towel can provide comfort for him. He may fuss for a moment or two. As long as it doesn’t escalate and he settles quickly, you can ignore brief fussing. If it starts increase to distress crying, intervene. Hang your hand in front of his crate or into his pen so he has company. Over time (days, weeks) you should gradually be able to remove your hand without causing distress.
The same philosophy holds true for other times, long after your first night is behind you – in fact, for the rest of his life. A distressed, crying dog needs to be helped, not ignored. Figure out why he’s upset, and determine what you need to do to alleviate his stress. Intervene when he’s distressed. He’s crying for help. Help him.
BoredPanda.com is a Lithuanian website that publishes articles about “lightweight and inoffensive topics,” including frequent posts about animals. A week ago, the site shared a Facebook post from a British group, “Yorkshire Rose Dog Rescue.” The post included a story supposedly written by an anonymous veterinarian, who claimed he increasingly had been asked to euthanize healthy young dogs that were adopted during the pandemic by people who couldn’t or didn’t train them. The Yorkshire Rose Dog Rescue group concurred, writing in some introductory post that they, too, had been seeing dogs surrendered by overwhelmed owners on a daily basis.
Sigh.
I’m looking for articles or news coverage that might support these allegations – that after a record number of adoptions and fostering in 2020, that people are starting to give up the pets they brought home last year. I didn’t find many.
I found an October 2020 article on the Today Show website that quoted a California rescue group that said they had seen an increased number of dogs who were given up due to pandemic-related financial hardship.
I found a link to a December 2020 Fox News broadcast alleging that shelters in Minnesota were seeing higher numbers of abandoned and surrendered animals, also due to pandemic-related financial hardship.
But I also found articles that alleged that adoptions and fostering are still taking place at a record pace. Sadly, I also saw many articles discussing the fact that puppy mills and backyard breeders have been producing puppies as fast as they can, to meet the pandemic demand.
My own experience, volunteering in a rural Northern California county shelter, is that the intake numbers are down, and “live release rates” (adoptions, fosters, and transfers to other shelters) are up. My local shelter has been increasingly sending animals to shelters in more populated and more affluent areas in the San Francisco Bay area.
Here at WDJ, we’ve tried to meet the needs of new dog owners with an increased number of articles aimed at basic education, especially for puppy training (including here, here, here, here, and here!). I remain hopeful that the increase in adoptions and fostering will contribute to an increase in responsible dog ownership and lower rates of euthanasia.
But I’m curious: What’s your experience? If you work or volunteer in rescue, are you seeing an increase in animal returns or surrenders? Or are dogs still in short supply? If you are trying to adopt, have you found a decrease or an increase in the number of dogs available?
Adoptions to families with kids need extra scrutiny, for the safety of all parties involved. Individualized judgments have to come into play! A family with three young boys was this dog's lottery jackpot – but could have been another dog's nightmare.
In last week’s post, I shared the information that I was on the hunt for a dog – searching on behalf of a couple I know. Both husband and wife are athletes who run for fitness and would love to have a dog who could accompany them on runs. But they are also both nurses who have long work shifts, so a dog who lives with them will have to be able to endure a certain amount of time alone at home (nursing not being a work-from-home sort of job!).
The couple lives in an urban area, so when they are at work, their dog will spend most of his or her time in their house, though they have a dog-sitter lined up (their neighbor downstairs, who has a dog I found for him!) and a dog-walker. Both the sitter and the walker will be available to take the dog out for midday breaks, but nevertheless, I know that it’s important to find a dog for them who will be content and comfortable spending time home alone. Of course, any dog can experience an onset of isolation distress – or, worse, separation anxiety – upon rehoming. But my goal is to find a dog with a mellow, “happy to accept my fate” bent to his nature.
Then I saw a social media posting for a local dog who needed a new home. He had been surrendered by a family who were having some sort of housing crisis, and had been living on a chain in a fenceless backyard for some months. The family’s neighbor, heartbroken over the dog’s plight, had begged the family to be allowed to find the dog a new home, and they agreed it would make their own lives easier to not have a dog as they try to find their next housing situation.
Well, it was a lovely dog, just three years old – but one of a highly active breed. I sent an inquiry to the woman who had possession of the dog, asking about the dog’s personality, and one thing she said made me more than a little interested: She mentioned that, despite the fact that the dog had very little shelter and was living in mud and filth, was never allowed in the house, and got very little attention from his former owners, he never barked! “Ooh!” I thought. That sounded like a good candidate! We made arrangements to meet a day later so I could meet the dog. I told her I’d be happy to foster him so I could get him neutered, tested for heartworm, and get to know him better. After all that, I would know better if he was in fact a good candidate for the couple I had in mind, or, if not, I would commit to finding a more suitable home for him.
She brought the dog to my home the next day, and I was even more interested. He has a lovely temperament, was very neutral with my dogs – neither excited nor threatened by Woody’s rambunctious play overtures or Otto’s grumpy admonitions to “Hold still while I sniff you!” The dog was quite predatory around my chicken pen, but he took my admonishments to leave them alone in stride. The most concerning behavior I saw was how he ran along every inch of my fenceline, multiple times, looking through and over the fence as he loped along, stopping every once in a while to inspect its height or a low spot underneath it. I wouldn’t expect much different from the sort of hunting breed he is, but mentally, I was already warning his new owners to not let him off-leash for months, until they got to know him very well and had a good recall on a long line.
Alas: Neither I nor the couple I was hoping to place him with made the cut. The woman who was rehoming him made the decision to place him with another family she knew, because – and here is the kicker – their home is on five acres of land. She loved seeing him run, and imagined that with five acres, he’d live out his life running around that acreage in perfect happiness.
Factors that go into dog placement decisions
My take on that decision? I was bummed, both for the couple I had in mind and for the dog. I have no way of knowing this, and I’m not going to follow up just to see if I’m right, but I’d bet $100 right now that if the dog did, in fact, go to the five-acre family, within a week’s time he’s either going to be in the wind (lost, ran away) or in a small fenced and covered pen. Not many people I know have five securely fenced acres, and without such a fence, that dog is going to be going, going, gone!
This particular placement decision was up to an individual’s discretion, so it’s not a great example. But this seemed like a good opportunity to talk about placement criteria, which, in every case, seems like it should come down to more than just one factor.
Shelters and rescues sometimes have a formal list of rigid placement rules that they follow when considering prospective adopters; in other cases, shelters or rescues may have internal guidelines as to what constitutes a “qualified home,” but they will make exceptions for the right family/dog combination.
My local shelter gives prospective adopters a questionnaire that is intended to spark a conversation with the adoption counselor and the prospective adopter. There are no hard-and-fast “wrong answers” that people can give in response to these questions that will eliminate their chance of adopting any dog – but some of their answers may call for a discussion about whether it’s appropriate for them to adopt a specific dog.
Some dogs can be trusted or taught to stay within a boundary fence that they could easily slip under or through – and other dogs would see this as an opportunity to run off and see the world! A rule that says a prospective adopter must have a “fenced yard” does nothing to qualify or disqualify this dog and this fence as a match.
For example, while I’m aware that some shelters require adopters to have a fenced yard – which eliminates many great prospective placements! – my local shelter will weigh their preference for adopters to have a fenced yard against the size, age, breed type, and personality of the dog. If the prospect is a little senior couch potato, for example, a litterbox and/or leashed walks will be just fine!
My local shelter is perhaps most concerned about making appropriate placements to families with babies or toddlers. They worry about tiny dogs in families with toddlers – but will make an exception if they meet the child or children in a “get acquainted” room with the prospective dog, and see that the kids are very gentle, have self-control skills, that the parents are paying close attention and giving alert guidance to the kids, and so on. They won’t place anxious dogs or excitable dogs who have little self-control with a family with small kids – and will decline to adopt any dog to a family whose child seems bent on hurting a dog, or engaging in activities that are sure to make a dog defensive. That said, you won’t find these policies written down anywhere; they just try to have a conversation with parents about what they are observing and try to make it clear that it’s their job to make safe placements for the sake of all parties concerned.
My two cents: Hard-and-fast rules don’t allow for appropriate individualized placements.
In a placement competition, who should get the dog?
Then there are the cases where a shelter or rescue has to decide, to the best of their ability, which of several prospective adopters should get the dog.
Some groups have a first-come, first-served approach, where the first qualified adopter would get the dog. Others may send someone to conduct home inspections, and make their placement decision based on whose home and family really seem to suit the dog best. That’s amazing, but not possible for many rescues.
I have known people who have become frustrated about “losing” in what seemed to be an adoption competition – some, more than once! – and who relieved their frustration by just buying a puppy, either from some Craigslist/backyard breeder or a pet store that’s stocked weekly with new “inventory” from puppy mills. Yuck!
In some cases, the rationale for their rejection was ridiculous. I know someone who was turned down by a shelter to adopt a cat, because they own an intact female dog! This person is a long-time steward of an uncommon breed of dogs, and has been breeding these dogs in an incredibly careful, responsible, and limited manner for over 20 years, but Nope! No cat for you! That’s nuts.
I don’t want to cast aspersions on anyone who is involved in having to make adoption or placement decisions; I assume that anyone involved with rescue has a vested interest in making safe and appropriate placements for the “recycled” dogs in their care. And I don’t want to encourage people to express the incredibly insensitive statement that some shelter is making it harder to adopt a dog than a baby. It shouldn’t be too easy to adopt, and families should have to meet some sort of minimum standards for the dog’s health and happiness. But sometimes, these criteria are too rigid. Where is the middle ground that results in the best placements?
What are some of the rules or standards that shelters or rescues have for prospective adopters that you consider very sound or ridiculous?
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.
