Puppies require more calories per pound of their body weight than adult dogs do; they also require higher levels of protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, and a few more minerals. Feeding them food that is labeled for "adult maintenance" will leave them nutritionally deficient.
Michael Pollan, author of the best-selling books on diet The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and Food Rules, once came up with the world’s most succinct guide for a healthy human diet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
If only we could come up with something that simple for puppies! The advice could start in a very similar fashion: “Feed food. Not too much….” But in order for the slogan to be nutritionally sound, the next part would be far too complicated to put on a book cover or tote bag: “Mostly quality sources of animal protein, delivered at adequate levels. Same goes for fat. Not too much calcium, but enough, depending on the expected adult size of the puppy . . . .”
There’s more, but you get the idea. There are a lot of factors that have to be carefully considered when feeding puppies – that is, if you want them to grow into healthy and sound adult dogs.
On the other hand, I don’t want to scare anyone; feeding puppies isn’t rocket science. But there are a few little details that you need to attend to in order to make sure your pup grows at an appropriate rate – things that aren’t as critical with an adult dog.
STANDARD ISSUE
The differences between the nutrient requirements for puppies and those for adult dogs are laid out in tables developed by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO); these are called the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles, and they include the standards for what comprises the legal definition of “complete and balanced” diets for dogs. One lists the nutrient levels required for the “maintenance” of adult dogs only; the other lists the nutrient levels that meet the needs of breeding animals, pregnant or nursing females, and growing puppies. The latter is often referred to as the “growth and reproduction” nutrient profile.
These tables differ in notable ways. Puppies need higher amounts of protein (including higher amounts of many specific amino acids that contribute to the food’s total protein), fat, calcium, phosphorus, and several other minerals than the amounts needed by adult dogs. This is why you must make sure that the food you buy for your puppy (any dog less than a year old) is formulated to meet the standards for complete and balanced nutrition for growth.
Often, dog food labels say that the food contained in the package meets the standards for dogs “of all life stages.” This implicitly includes puppies. If a food is labeled as either meeting the nutrient levels or passing a feeding trial for dogs of “all life stages,” it has to meet the “growth” requirements.
Often – but not always – food that is formulated to meet the needs of puppies has the word “puppy” in the name of the food. Again, if the label indicates that it’s “complete and balanced for dogs of all life stages,” it has met the AAFCO standards for growth (puppies). But if the label says it is “complete and balanced for adult maintenance,” it is not suitable for puppies.
Always look for the AAFCO (for nutritional adequacy) statement to make sure the product you are considering is intended for puppies – and puppies of the size you expect your pup to be as an adult.
Where will you find this information? This is where things get weird: This statement is the most important thing to check on the label of your puppy’s food, and I will almost guarantee that it will be printed on the bag or can in teeny, tiny type. Scan the label carefully for the words “AAFCO Nutrient Profiles” or “AAFCO Feeding Trial.” The block of text containing one of these phrases will probably appear on the back or even the side of the package, and it will reference either “growth” (great!), “dogs of all life stages” (super!), or “adult maintenance” (womp, womp, no!).
CHECK THE SIZE
All puppy foods used to be formulated to meet the same nutrient standards. In recent years, however, animal nutrition experts came to understand that large-breed puppies should receive less calcium than puppies of smaller breeds to prevent their bones from growing too quickly. Excessively fast growth can result in the development of bone and joint abnormalities in large-breed puppies. So, in 2016, AAFCO began to require food makers to explicitly state whether their products contained calcium at an appropriate level for large breed puppies (defined as those pups expected to reach an adult weight of more than 70 pounds).
If the AAFCO statement says the food is for growth/all life stages “including growth of large-size dogs (70 pounds or more as an adult),” it is safe to feed to large breed pups.
If the statement says the food is for growth/all life stages “except for growth of large-size dogs (70 pounds or more as an adult),” it should not be fed to large-breed puppies.
To be safe, if you have a large-breed puppy, or a mixed-breed pup who looks like he may grow to more than 50 or 60 pounds, you should choose foods with the “including growth of large-size dogs” statement. Smaller-breed puppies can be safely fed foods with either statement.
Dog Food Selection Criteria
Hallmarks of Quality
✓ Lots of animal protein at the top of the ingredients list. Plant-sourced protein is less appropriate than animal protein.
✓ When a fresh meat is first on the ingredients list, there should be a named animal-protein meal immediately or closely following the meat.
* “Animal plasma” or blood meal as a protein source.
* Added sweeteners.
* Artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives (such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin).
OUR USUAL CRITERIA
Once you are confident that you can identify foods that are appropriate for puppies of the size you expect your pup to be, you can search among those products for diets that meet our usual selection criteria (listed in the box below) and that are in your price range.
Check the protein and fat content of the food you are feeding your pup right now. If his weight and energy are good, try to buy only those foods that contain similar levels of protein and fat. Be aware that these levels range widely. If you start feeding him a product with double or half the protein or fat content of the food you are giving him now, you will see changes in him; his appetite, weight, stool quality, and/or energy may be affected.
Finally, don’t be afraid to try different foods. Pet food companies want to win your loyalty, but the fact is, variety is actually good for your puppy. The more you change foods, the more accustomed his digestive tract will become to a wide variety of ingredients. Also, because each manufacturer’s products contain different levels of each required nutrient (within the AAFCO specifications), by routinely switching products, you are sure to provide “balance over time” and prevent him from suffering ill effects of any potentially excessive or deficient nutrient levels.
Reinforce your dog frequently and generously when he's doing what you want him to do. In most cases, it's less productive to randomize the reinforcement "schedule" than it is to make sure you reinforce the behavior you desire frequently enough for him to understand what you want him to do!
There’s an old saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Fortunately for our beloved dogs, that’s not necessarily the case in the world of dog training and behavior. Granted, there are still far too many professionals who cling to old-fashioned methods that employ the use of force, pain, and coercion. For them, things do seem to stay the same. However, the corps of enlightened training professionals that routinely read about, absorb, and apply innovations of behavior science grows daily, and I’m proud to consider myself one of these.
Of course, that means from time to time I have occasion to change what I say and how I say it. I sometimes look back at something I wrote years ago and cringe when I realize that, as much as there may have been general agreement with it in the profession then (whatever it is), there is growing or widespread agreement now that it isn’t really so. Here are some examples of things about which I have changed my mind over the years:
* The importance of putting reinforcers on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement.
Early on, when using treats in training was somewhat revolutionary, we “foodies” took a lot of heat for our use of treats. As a result,in the past, we put a lot of emphasis on moving the dog from a continuous schedule (in which he gets reinforced every time – very important when he is first learning a new behavior) to an intermittent schedule of reinforcement, which means he learns to offer the behavior multiple times when asked and gets reinforced only occasionally. Continuous reinforcement, we thought, would make dogs and humans dependent on the presence of the treat in order to get the behavior to happen.
We have come to realize that it’s not all that important to use intermittent reinforcement unless you need the behavior to be durable – resistant to extinction. There is absolutely nothing wrong with reinforcing the behavior every time it happens. And I pretty much do! The Miller dogs are generally on a continuous schedule of reinforcement, even if it’s sometimes just a cheerful “Good dog!”
Remember, “reinforcement” doesn’t have to mean a treat. While I almost always have treats in my pockets, I can also use praise, a toy, petting (for dogs who love to be petted), opening a door to go outside, the opportunity to perform another behavior the dog loves – or anything else the dog finds reinforcing, in place of a treat.
We do know that a behavior extinguishes over time if it is not reinforced and that behaviors that are intermittently reinforced are more durable than others. But how many of us are often in environments with our dogs where we can’t reinforce behavior every time, or most of the time? I can think of a few – a dog in an American Kennel Club obedience trial, a canine actor on stage in a play, a working dog who, by nature of his job, has to work at a distance from his handler . . . not all that many!
In the real world, few owners “over-reward” and end up with dogs who refuse to work unless a treat is shown to them first. More commonly, I see owners who fail at “catching their dogs doing something right” – that is, fail to frequently reinforce their dogs for the behaviors they like to see. Lacking reinforcement, and thus, experience that teaches them which behaviors will reliably result in enjoyable consequences produced by their owners, dogs will find things to do that please themselves!
That’s why I now advise you to reinforce your dogs any and every time you see behaviors you like – looking at squirrels out the window without barking, going to her mat when the family sits down to dinner, checking in with you on a walk, greeting friends at the door with all four paws on the floor. And reinforce these terrific behaviors with anything your dog finds enjoyable – a treat, a cheerful word, a belly rub, a favorite toy, or a rousing game of tug o’ war.
* Rules for playing tug o’ war with your dog.
Use a toy that’s long enough to keep his teeth away from your hands – and call for a “Trade!” every so often.
Speaking of tug, I’ve considerably lightened up on my recommended “rules for tug o’ war” with dogs. Again, sensitive to criticism from the old-fashioned trainer crowd, we used to dictate strict rules for playing tug with your dog. Playing tug even under these rules used to be considered dangerous by many old-school trainers, who warned owners that tug could make their dogs aggressive. I wouldn’t ever go that far – though I certainly wouldn’t advise an inexperienced owner to casually play tug with an already aggressivedog or one who is known to guard resources.
Many dogs love to play tug with their owners, so it has a ton of potential for use as a mutually enjoyable and fantastically reinforcing game. To get the most out of the reinforcing nature of the game, ask your dog to play by some basic rules; to keep yourself safe, play with a few safety guidelines in place. Here are my current rules and guidelines for playing tug:
• Use a toy that’s long enough to keep your dog’s teeth far away from your hands and that’s comfortable for you to hold when he pulls.
• Hold up the tug toy. If your dog lunges for it, say “Oops!” and quickly hide it behind your back. He needs to be polite when he plays tug with you.
• When he’ll remain sitting as you offer the toy, tell him to “Take it!” and encourage him to grab and pull. If he’s reluctant, play gently until he learns the game. If he’s enthusiastic, go for it!
• Randomly throughout tug-play, ask him to “Trade!” Offer him a yummy treat, which he can take after he relinquishes the tug toy to you. Then, offer the toy and tell him to “Take it!” again.
• While you are playing, if his teeth creep up the toy toward your hands, say “Oops! Too bad!” in a cheerful voice, have him give you the toy, and put it away briefly. (This is for safety reasons. You can get it out and play again after 15 seconds or so.)
• If your dog’s teeth touch your clothing or skin, say “Oops! Too bad!” and put the toy away for a minute (again, for safety reasons).
• Children should not play tug with your dog unless and until you are confident they can play by the rules. If you do allow children to play tug with your dog, always directly supervise the game.
• Only tug side to side, not up and down (up and down tugging can injure your dog’s spine) and temper the vigor of your play appropriately to the size and age of your dog. (You can play tug more vigorously with an adult Rottweiler than you can with a Rottie puppy or a little terrier.)
Here are the rules for tug that I have discarded or modified:
• Keep the tug toy put away. Bring it out only when you want to play tug. (There is no logical justification for keeping the tug toy away from the dog at other times.)
• Ignore the dog if he invites you to play tug. You get to decide when tug happens. (What does it hurt if your dog asks you to play? You can always say, “No thanks! Not now!”)
• You should “win” most of the time – that is, you end up with possession of the toy, not your dog. (As long as you allowed the dog to take the toy, and he didn’t take it in an aggressive manner, there is no harm in letting him have it sometimes, or even frequently. In fact, some dogs quickly learn that playing with the toy by themselves is nowhere near as much fun as playing with you.)
• When you are done playing, put the toy away until next time. You control the good stuff. (Playing with you is the really good stuff! It’s fine to let the dog trot off with the toy when you’re done, as long as it’s safe for him to have.)
As you can see, I’ve removed all the rules that insist you always have to be in total control of the game – the ones that were based in the old-fashioned thinking that if you weren’t in total control your dog would take advantage of you and perhaps even become aggressive. We know better now. Happy tugging!
* Leave It/Walk Away
We’ve found that most dogs find the “walk away!” behavior to be much more fun (and thus, easy to remember to do when they hear the cue) than “Leave it” or “Off!” At least part of the reason for this is the emphasis on doing something, rather than not doing something.
Many of us teach our dogs a cue to “Leave it!” (also known as “Off!”) for use in those situations when you see something you don’t want your dog to mess with – whether it’s a pile of cat poo, a discarded chicken bone, a cat crossing the sidewalk, or a snake. I still teach that cue for use when I want the dog to understand “Whatever you are coveting or considering going toward, I want you to leave it alone.” But I also teach an alternative cue, “Walk away,” which means “Whatever you are looking at, I want you to do a 180-degree spin and run away with me.”
While there are many situations where the two cues could be used interchangeably, and some cases where “Leave it” is still the more appropriate choice, I find that dogs respond much more reliably to the “Walk away” cue, simply because we teach them that it’s a fun game. Given the choice, it’s my much-preferred behavior to ask for.
I first discovered this with my Cardigan Corgi, Lucy. She had learned “Leave it!” in her adolescence and responded reasonably reliable to that cue. When she was 10 years old, I learned about New Jersey trainer Kelly Fahey’s “Walk away” protocol, and taught it to Lucy.
Then I did an experiment. I set a bowl of tasty food on the floor, and as Lucy walked toward it, I said, “Leave it!” She took two more steps and started eating. Then I said, “Walk away!” and she spun away from the bowl and ran away from it with me.
The moral of the story and a good reminder: We are almost always more successful asking our dogs to do something (run away with me!) than not to do something (don’t eat that!). It’s one of the basic tenets of positive reinforcement-based dog training.
For complete instructions on teaching “Walk away” to your dog, see the “Walk Away!” sidebar in the “Frustrated on Leash?” article in the October 2019 issue of WDJ.
* Head halters can help – or hurt.
Some dogs find head halters highly aversive, even after desensitization and counter-conditioning efforts have been made with the intention of associating them with good things.
Just like almost every other positive trainer, I was enthusiastic about head halters when they first made the training scene around 1995. They helped many people prevent their dogs from dragging them around on walks, without the use of painful yanks from choke chains or pinching prong collars. With a regular collar, the leash is attached at the dog’s neck; with a head halter, the leash attachment is right under the dog’s head, making it very difficult for him to brace against the leash and pull.Gentle pressure on the leash from the handler turns the dog back toward the handler.
But the more we saw halters used, the more it became clear that the majority of dogs hated them, even after fairly thorough efforts were made to desensitize and counter-condition dogs to wearing them.
Then front-clip harnesses came along and fulfilled much of the same function: giving us a significant degree of control over dogs who pulled hard. It was easy to switch my allegiance to these new products (and we described all the reasons for this in the February 2005 issue of WDJ).
Most dogs accept harnesses without protest, and they are far less likely to do damage to a dog’s neck or spine if they hit the end of the leash hard. (I occasionally come across a dog who finds front-clip harnesses aversive, and I don’t use them with those dogs.)
For a review of front clip harnesses, see “Harness the Power,” WDJ April 2017.
* Modified recommendations for crating your dog.
Some people believe that confining your dog in a crate – ever – is cruel.Never fear: I am still a strong advocate for crating. There are a couple of things regarding crates, however, that I do differently now than I did years ago.
I used to be on board with this common caveat to owners: “If your dog/puppy is crying in his crate, ignore him until he stops crying, or you will reinforce his vocalizations.” I shudder now to think of that.
Okay, granted, if your dog barks a few times, it’s still good advice to ignore it so you don’t reinforce him for barking. But anything beyond that – ongoing, emotional vocalization – needs to be addressed behaviorally. Leaving a dog to cry in his crate for long periods increases his stress and gives him an even more negative association with being crated.
A dog who is stressed about crating but still needs confinement for management purposes needs a gradual program of habituation (a few seconds at first with you right there, then longer and longer, with you gradually removing yourself), or needs alternatives to crating (an exercise pen or a dog-proofed room).
My other change having to do with crates regards size. I used to say that a dog’s crate should be just big enough for him to stand up, lie down, and turn around. That is still true if you’re housetraining – you don’t want the crate to be big enough that he can soil one end and sleep dry and comfortably in the other.
But after he is housetrained, if he still needs to be crated, there’s no reason to continue to deprive him of more spacious quarters.
THE GOOD NEWS
In general, the positive dog training world has made a quantum shift from, “I will make the dog do want I want him to do … I bought him so I could compete with him in agility and he’s damn well going to do it!” to “I will explore options with my dog to see what he would like to do. I’ll be really happy if he wants to do agility, since I love agility, but if he tells/shows me that he would prefer to do nosework, or rally obedience, or canine freestyle, I’m good with that, too.”
Personally, I have also made a quantum philosophical shift. I used to be fiercely competitive with my dogs. My wonderful terrier-mix (and “crossover dog”) Josie had multiple obedience titles and was one of the first 26 dogs in the world to earn a rally obedience title through the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). I no longer need my dogs to be precise competitors, doing perfectly straight sits in perfect heel position; just being who they are is good enough. Today, while I respect those who find joy in mutual partnership and competition with their dogs, I just want to be with mine, doing barn chores, hiking on the farm, and sharing and enjoying our life together.
As I read through my past writings to find things that I now disagree with, I was pleased to find there weren’t as many as I thought there might be. I went through my articles all the way back to Whole Dog Journal’s inception in 1998, and didn’t find anything horrendously objectionable. Yes, I found some things I would do or say differently now, but nothing that would get me kicked out of the force-free trainer club. It’s always good, though, to remind ourselves that when we know better, we do better.
Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT‑KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She and her husband live in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, where she offers dog-training classes and courses for trainers. Miller is also the author of many books on dog-friendly training. See page 24 for more information.
A "viewport" in the fence is perfect for this senior gentleman, who wouldn't dream of barking at every passerby. But it could cause real problems for a dog who is more reactive to passing joggers, bicyclists, and dog-walkers.
Given the sensible advice to socially distance, what better time to create a safe, at-home haven for your dog? Here are five ways you can increase your dog’s (and your own!) enjoyment of your yard.
1. Invest in a good fence. A secure fence is the most critical element of a safe place for your dog to potty, play, train, and just hang out. Sometimes a dog owner will tell me, “We don’t need a fenced yard; we have a large property for the dog to run on.” I explain that while my husband and I live on about 300 acres, we have fenced a much smaller area next to our home so we have an absolutely safe place for them to be outdoors without supervision.
What type of fence? There are many to choose from, including chain link or other wire fencing, wood, composite, or plastic. It’s up to your budget, your aesthetic preferences, your location (homeowner’s associations may limit your options), and your dog.
Why do I include “your dog” on the list of factors that will affect your choice of fencing? The height of the fence is most obvious; if you have small dogs, you may not need a six-foot fence. But if you’ve got leggy dogs known for their interest in chasing game (ahem, hounds), a six-foot fence might not be secure without an inwardly angled section or “coyote rollers” at the top.
Height isn’t all there is to it, however. Some dogs enjoy their ability to see through a wire fence, and never get excited by passersby on bikes, skateboards, or on foot. Other dogs might lose their minds when faced with this much stimuli. Also, if there are dogs next door, their presence and/or behavior on the other side of the fence may be frustrating for your dog. In these instances, a solid privacy fence may be advisable.
If your dog is a digger, you may need to bury wire fencing along your fence line, or build the fence on a concrete pad or path. Digging out may not occur to some dogs ever, but others may detect any sign of light under the fence and get to work digging out immediately!
Think carefully about the type of gate that is used to access the area. It should be easy for you to open (especially when you have only one hand free, with a leash in the other) but not at all easy for your dog to open.
Just Say No to 'Fenceless Fences'
Note that when I say fence, I do mean a real, physical fence. Electric fences (a.k.a. “shock fences”) may keep your dog in but can’t keep other animals out– that is, critters who could harm your pet, aggressive stray dogs, or even a human who could steal or harass your dog).
Also, if your dog is motivated sufficiently to chase something, she could go through and then likely would not return, scared to try to cross the boundary now that she’s not overstimulated by chasing something.
Last but not least, a dog that gets zapped for coming close to the boundary to investigate a passing jogger, bicyclist,or other dog is likely to begin to associate those with punishment and may develop fear and/or aggression related to those previously neutral stimuli.
Need more convincing? See these past WDJ articles:
2. Consider the flora. Are there parts of your yard that you don’t want to be disturbed? In this case, a lower level of decorative fencing may make the most sense – and keep you from tensing up every time you see your dog approach your award-winning roses or dahlias.
Many of us dream of having a lush garden and a dog who respects the garden boundaries – but some of us end up with uprooted vegetable beds “planted” with buried dog toys and half-chewed bones. A separate fence for the garden might be needed.
A couple of our dogs used to enjoy raiding the vegetable garden just when the cucumbers or strawberries ripened! That made me smile so I made no effort to cordon off the area.
If you haven’t already planted a garden, consider your dog’s current pattern of uses before planting. Note where your dog spends the most time so you can design accordingly; don’t put plants where he’s created well-worn patrol paths, for example. Consider sacrificing those areas and putting down some river rock, permeable pavers, sand, or bark mulch.
When choosing plants for your yard, keep in mind that many of the options found in your local garden supply stores can be toxic for your dog. One that is distressingly common to see is the sago palm; just a few nibbles on the leaves or roots of this plant can cause liver damage and even death. For an exhaustive list of plants that are toxic and non-toxic to dogs, see the ASPCA’s website: aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/dogs-plant-list.
Don’t forget to research the mulch you are considering for use in your yard; mulch made from cocoa beans, in particular, is toxic for our canine friends!
3. Designate a potty spot and train your dog to use it. You’ll thank me later for this one. Even if you’ve had your dog or puppy for a while, it’s worthwhile to spend the time to teach him to potty in the same area. This saves time when you’re cleaning up (no hunting for the poop in the dark or rain) – and prevents squishy surprises!
Some people want their dog’s potty area to be located close to the house for quick access; others might want it to be hidden from view of the places in the yard where you spend time. Either way, make sure it’s in reach of a hose. An area that is layered with at least three inches of 3 absorbent sand, covered with pea gravel or small river rock, will be easy to keep clean and odor-free with an occasional hosing.
To teach your dog or puppy to use the potty, pretend you are starting house-training all over again. Accompany your pup on leash to this area several times a day and handsomely reward him or her upon elimination until this habit is deeply ingrained. Be sure to pick up the poop and hose down the area regularly.
4. Add enriching “playground” equipment. Our yards should be about more than just containing our dogs; ideally, they are also a super fun place to play with our dogs and to let them play.
Many dogs like to climb or to have a raised platform of some kind where they can survey their terrain (obviously, away from the fence). My Boxer-mix, Petey (seen above), loves to hang out on a homemade A-frame we built out of scrap lumber and covered with artificial grass carpet. Make sure to apply something to prevent slipping – whether you paint the surface with a paint to which sand has been added, or you apply rubber or sand-textured non-slip adhesive-backed strips.
A recent WDJ article (“The Play Way,” June 2020) promoted the power of play to help fearful dogs gain confidence. Our family’s new addition, a rough-coated Jack Russell Terrier, Archie, had very little socialization during his first year of life and is fairly fearful. We engage him in tug, chase, and fetch play sessions in the house, but Archie is also enjoying climbing and playing on the A-frame. We are seeing a new dog emerging!
I recently took Petey to a friend’s home where she has fenced about an acre for her dogs. Petey thoroughly enjoyed this space, not only for its size, but also because they had left many natural features like tree stumps and boulders for the dogs to explore and look for varmints. Consider leaving some natural features in your yard for your dog to sniff and hunt.
One of the most enriching things you can add to any dog’s yard is a digging box – a place where they can dig to their heart’s content, without getting in trouble! You can buy a child’s sandbox or build a basic frame, fill it with sand, and hide some doggy toys and bones for your pooch to seek out. In hot weather, keep the sand wet, and in no time at all, you’ll find your dog hunkered down in a freshly dug, cool, damp hole.
Most dogs will also appreciate a variety of lounging surfaces – lush grass, cool (or warm, depending on the season) concrete, and perhaps a raised cot-style bed – and move from one surface to the other throughout the day.
Home Field Advantage
I’m a huge fan of allowing compatible dogs to play together – but not at all a fan of dog parks. Not every dog at a public park is playful, and not every owner is super attentive, able to read their dog’s body language, and ready to intervene to keep the peace. A better alternative, if you have a playful, social dog and a secure yard, is to create your own mini dog park. Help your dog cultivate friendships with dogs who have a similar play style and set up play dates with their owners!
A safely fenced yard is also a fantastic place to train your dog! Inside your home is the best place to start training new behaviors to keep the distraction level low, but as your dog gains competence, take the practice out into your fenced yard. The distraction level outdoors will be just a bit higher, but not as high as the wider outside world. Practice there until his responses to your cues are solid; only then should you practice his new behaviors in the face of even more distractions.
A fun and safe dog yard is a beautiful thing – and for some of my elderly or handicapped dog-training clients, given their strength and mobility issues, a required tool for giving their dogs a chance to potty, exercise, and relax outdoors. Design yours so it meets your and your dog’s needs and have a blast!
5. Install yard lights so you can visually scan for critters, or go out with your dog and check the yard before every night-time potty excursion. How many of you have a dog who got skunked when you put him out for a late-night potty? I’d guess a pretty high percentage of us have experienced this, whether we live in the country or a suburb.
Skunks aren’t the only type of animal to look out for before allowing your dog to enter the yard at night, however. Depending on where you live, your yard just may be visited at night by a fox, raccoon, coyote, bobcat, badger, mountain lion, or bear. Turning on a light before sending your dog outside will send most of these animals back over the fence and keep your dog safe.
The tendency of dogs to chase anything perceived as prey – deer, bunnies, stray cats, etc. – is another reason to check the yard each time before you allow your dog out there. Turning on the lights and clapping your hands can warn any critters that they have just a few seconds to vamoose!
Author Helene Goldberger, Esq., PMCT, CPDT-KA, is an attorney in Albany, NY, who has been a professional dog trainer for six years (Heartdog Training). She is also a certified canine massage practitioner. See page 24 for contact information.
English bulldog checking out a pumpkin. Photo: GoDogPhoto/Getty Images
Indulging in everything from pumpkin beers to lattes has become a rite of fall for us humans, but your dog can also get in on the seasonal fun. Pumpkin is likely already in the food your pet eats, according to FDA reports and a reading of these top-notch freeze-dried food labels, and boasts some health benefits as well. Read on to make sure you get the right kind of pumpkin.
It Can Help Digestive Issues
Stomach aches happen to the best of us (and not just after overdoing it on Thanksgiving), and dogs aren’t immune. Pumpkin can help with digestive issues.
Whole Dog Journal Founding Editor Nancy Kerns keeps plain canned pumpkin on hand at all times. She’s sworn by it since her dog, Woody, ingested too much sand on a beach trip. After a few days of eating pumpkin, he was on the mend. Whole Dog Journal contributor Mary Straus also uses pumpkin for upset stomachs and offers these tips and recipes.
Pumpkin also acts as a binder and firms up loose stools in dogs — and it’s palatable to boot. Whole Dog Journal contributor Shari Mann suggests using plain canned pumpkin to make liver-pumpkin cookies (since liver is known to cause loose stools, adding pumpkin is essential).
Dog Siberian Husky eating a pumpkin. Photo: Sergeeva/Getty Images
Hold the Spice
Sugar and spice aren’t too nice for pups. Though pumpkin pie may be your favorite Thanksgiving dessert, avoid canned pumpkin that has added sugar or spices. Plain canned pumpkin is the stuff you want. You can sometimes find it sold in pet supply stores and labeled for dogs (and about twice the price), but it’s absolutely the same stuff you can buy in supermarkets. Canned pumpkin is highly palatable; most dogs will eat it mixed into their kibble or other food, or lick it right off a spoon. But if you want to make the treat a little more festive, try these mini-pumpkin pies made with plain pumpkin.
September is when we editors are expected to write “back to school” pieces. Dog magazine editors tweak the usual parenting advice about helping kids adjust to school hours, offering tips on how to help our dogs adjust to the autumn absence of kids (at least during the day). This year, of course, all forms of “usual” are useless. This helps explain why the first article in this issue discusses how to increase our dog’s (and our own) enjoyment of our own back, side, and/or front yards; it doesn’t look like many of us are taking our dogs many places for a while.
Speaking of changing with the times, our next article, written by our Training Editor Pat Miller, discusses a few of the significant ways that we have changed our minds about dog training and dog gear over the past 23 years that WDJ has been in existence. Change is a good thing! If you think all your methods and gear are perfect, you’ve stopped learning – and that’s a shame. We think we’ve found a few ways to improve on older technology.
Another article in this issue is also custom-tailored for the times. North Carolina veterinarian and frequent contributor Dr. Catherine Ashe has written a brief but informative piece about canine viruses. Truthfully, reading about the viruses that can affect dogs helped me understand some bits of information I’ve been curious about regarding the virus that’s so much in the news. (I think you know the one.)
There’s a quite long piece at the back of this issue. A new contributor to WDJ, Joanne Osburn, has written about stem cell therapy for dogs. Not only that, she took photos of almost every step in the process of harvesting a dog’s fat (that’s where the stem cells come from), extracting and enriching the stem cells, and preparing them for reintroducing them to the same dog in a powerful new form. How did she manage to take all those photos? She’s a lab technician in a veterinary clinic that uses this technology to help dogs heal after surgeries, regain mobility after years of pain and inactivity due to arthritis, and other medical marvels. As the owner of a rapidly stiffening senior dog who is nearly 13 years old, I am highly interested in this new therapy. It’s pricey, but I’d pay nearly any price to see Otto romp and play for as many years as he can, especially if it means we can delay the introduction of daily medications, which always seem to have some side effect when administered over the long term.
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I was really hoping to not write this post this year. But here we go again: There are wildfires in my neighborhood, and in the neighborhoods of several friends up and down California, so once again I’m here to stay: Folks, everyone has to have a plan for emergencies, and have a “go bag” for themselves and their pets ready.
If you have spent your whole life on the East Coast or the central states, you just can’t understand how dry summers in California are. We generally get zero rain from April or May to October or November – that’s normal for us. And summer thunder and lightning is not normal here. So it was highly unusual for us to experience a summer thunderstorm on late Sunday night and in the wee hours of Monday morning, and upsetting to hear reports of lightning strikes all over the northern half of the state. Though this strange storm brought a tiny bit of rain, we couldn’t appreciate that because of the more than 20 fires that were started by the lightning – one of which was in Lake Oroville State Park, about six miles from my home.
Lightning Is a Serious Fire Threat In California
I was alerted to the thunder and lightning by my senior dog, Otto, who woke me up at about 1 am by pacing in my bedroom and panting loudly. I hadn’t heard any thunder yet; I thought maybe he had an upset tummy and had to go outside, so I sleepily walked with him to the back door, only to have him balk at the threshold and look at me wild-eyed, panting. “Are you crazy?” he seemed to ask. “I’m not going out there!” As we stood there, looking at each other, a lightning bolt lit up the sky and I finally understood. I gave him a Trazodone tablet, left over from his Independence Day medication, and slept on the couch in the living room so I could comfort him and so that his pacing and panting (until the Trazodone took hold) wouldn’t wake my husband.
Because lightning in the summer almost always means fires in this part of the country, first thing in the morning, I checked the news and, sure enough, there were reports of quite a few fires.
One was close to my sister-in-law and niece, an hour away. Another was even closer to both my sister’s house and mine! As the day wore on, the wind picked up, the fires grew, and some evacuations were ordered. My phone buzzed with calls and texts from a friend who is hosting evacuees and needed to borrow bedding; a friend whose elderly relatives (and one dog) live in the evacuation zone closest to me and was wondering what to tell them; my sister and brother-in-law (and three dogs), who live in a neighborhood that is in the path of the next zone to be evacuated, and my sister-in-law, asking if she (and my niece and their little dog) could evacuate to my house from HER local fire.
I also received alerts from my local animal rescue group, asking for volunteers to staff the emergency shelter that the group operates for holding animals for families who need to evacuate and can’t keep their pets with them.
Fortunately, two years after the tragic Camp Fire, there are plenty of other trained volunteers who will step up to help take care of animals from families who had to evacuate the fire zone and couldn’t bring their animals with them.
In the middle of all this, I have to leave in a few hours to drive my grandson to the airport; he’s headed back to the East Coast after a fun summer here with my husband and me. He’s disappointed that he’s leaving in the middle of all this drama and excitement, and argued that I should go volunteer with the animal rescue group anyway – so he could come along to see what that’s like. He was bummed when I said that getting him to the airport to go home was more important than volunteering at this moment (he cheered up immensely when my evacuated niece arrived here, so he had someone to play with on his last night in California).
Have an emergency plan ready before you need it
But I will be leaving my husband behind with our “go bags” packed – complete with important paperwork (passports and birth certificates, etc. for us, medical records for the dogs), medication (for Otto), food (Clif bars for emergency energy, dog food for the dogs), extra cell phone chargers and batteries, and a few jugs of water (always helpful). We have a plan already in place for anything that might happen, including where to meet (if the fires exploded and I couldn’t even come home after the trip to the airport).
Before all the lightning struck, emergency preparation had been on my mind; I had been reading about the devastating wind storm in Iowa and the fires in southern California. No matter where you live, you have to be ready for any sort of natural disaster that might possibly befall you and your family, human and nonhuman.
Take a few minutes today and look through your “go bag” or action plan. Do you have nonperishable food for at least a few days? Up-to-date contact information on your dogs (including up-to-date information on file with the microchip registries for your pets’ microchips)? The more you discuss the plan with your family, neighbors, and friends, the better prepared you will be to take in strays or be evacuated yourself. Here are two of the best resources available about emergency preparedness. Don’t just read them; take action!
When dogs' physical appearance and conformation is paramount in a breeding program, over generations, their health may begin to decline.
To anyone who has been involved in shelter or rescue work, the idea of intentionally breeding mixed-breed dogs, or even unregistered purebred dogs, seems a bit bananas. There are too many homeless dogs! What the heck?
But there is a group of well-respected people with a variety of dog-related professions who are promoting just that: the purposeful breeding of dogs without breed registration, and with a purpose that is not producing dogs with a specified morphology, that is, dogs who look a certain way or meet all the physical characteristics of a breed standard.
Why, you might ask?
The Functional Dog Collaborative
The group’s name, the Functional Dog Collaborative, offers the first clue. This group is trying to promote the breeding of dogs who are, above all, functional in terms of health, both physically and behaviorally. The group states on its website that when those health goals are in conflict with a breed standard or closed studbooks, the functional goals are considered more important. That puts the group at cross purposes with those who maintain that breed “purity” is paramount, as well as those who are breeding animals with an appearance that is fashionable, but unhealthy (think flat-faced dogs who can’t breathe, droopy-skinned dogs whose eyes require surgery to avoid painful interference with their lashes, breeds with long backs who often develop painful spinal conditions, etc., etc.).
The group is in the process of developing information resources that will help interested breeders, including breeders of both purebred and crossbred dogs, learn how to produce dogs who are physically healthier (more able to breathe freely, move without pain, reproduce and give birth without veterinary interventions, and with less inherited disease and longer lifespans), as well as behaviorally healthier (dogs with minimal fear of novel humans and other dogs and animals, maximal ability to cope with change of environment and conditions, minimal behavioral pathologies such as separation anxiety or compulsive disorders, and minimal unchanneled aggression).
Ultimately, the group hopes to provide a place to deposit and search health records, so that breeders can access them for help with making wise breeding decisions. In addition to providing a podcast with interviews with experts on canine breeding and genetics (the Functional Breeding Podcast), the group is working to build educational resources that will help breeders produce dogs meeting the descriptions of health above. They hope soon to provide a curriculum for breeder education. Finally, it’s their hope to provide a “supportive and open community” for breeders with these shared goals, “through both social media and face to face opportunities, for mentorship, friendship, and social support.” (The project has an active Facebook group, “Functional Breeding,” that currently does just that.)
We can do better…
The project was originally the brainchild of Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD, who is a researcher at the Karlsson Lab at the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, studying the genetics of canine behavior. Dr. Hekman also teaches online webinars and courses about canine genetics. (She has also written articles for WDJ, most recently, “Behavioral Probiotics” in the August issue.) I asked Dr. Hekman about her original impetus for starting the organization. She responded, “I think a lot of us have known for a while that we could do a better job of breeding dogs to be healthy pets and working partners. The reasons we don’t aren’t scientific, they’re social. Why do we maintain breeds with a heavy burden of genetically mediated disease? Why do we insist that people get pets from breeders who are breeding for the conformation ring, and the pets are the second best dogs? Why do we castigate pet owners who want doodles? Because that is part of the traditional way of looking at breeding dogs. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If it were a different way, what would it look like? Can we just do it? I think we can just do it.”
I think the group is onto something. I’d only add that when we urge people to buy puppies or dogs only from a “responsible breeder,” that these goals of health are the most important part of how “responsible” is defined.
Every registry for purebred dogs maintains a description of the ideal representative of that breed, a “breed standard.” In many of these standards, only the dog’s physical conformation (how it’s built) and its movement is described. In some others, the dog’s demeanor or personality traits are also described, to some extent. Breeds whose origins are performance-based (hunting dogs, herding dogs, etc.) rarely mention the ability to do that work in their breed standards. And if health is mentioned in ANY breed standard, I’d like to know about it!
When looks come first, health starts to suffer
One thing is for certain: When dogs are bred to look a specific way – to be a predictable size or color, or with a certain kind of coat – often, traits that are more important (to me and many other dog lovers) fall by the wayside. The lovely, friendly Golden Retriever starts to become dog-aggressive and tends to die young of cancer. The brave, biddable Doberman becomes neurotic and dies of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) at 5 to 7 years of age. The amiable Bulldog can’t be taken for walks, lest he keel over from heatstroke on an 80-degree day. In my view, I don’t care how many Championships a puppy’s parents and previous ancestors earned, I’d look for breeders who select their breeding stock for health and longevity, perhaps bucking the breed standards or current trends that are awarded ribbons in the show ring.
Many of us have owned a unique dog we wish we could clone: Sound of mind and body, friendly to all, easy to communicate with, a terrific learning partner, confident and game. Some of these dogs may have been purebred; some may have been the result of a purposeful mix; some may have been a shelter mutt or a roadside dog that found its way into our families and hearts. Often, these dogs resulted by chance – they were happy accidents resulting from an intentional breeding focused on their morphology, or from a strictly profit-oriented breeder, or a chance breeding far from human supervision. What if dogs with these traits were intentionally produced? I don’t care what the results looked like; I just know there would be far fewer dogs in shelters as a result.
The group is built on volunteer effort and is very much community-driven. Want to help? There are lots of ways to get involved. Check out the group’s website for more information: https://functionalbreeding.org/
pit bull dog in a life jacket in a red canoe on a calm lake in Colorado in fall scenery, recreation with your pet concept (pit bull dog in a life jacket in a red canoe on a calm lake in Colorado in fall scenery, recreation with your pet concept, ASC
Summer is in full swing, and with the hot weather comes swimming and boating – activities often mutually enjoyed by dogs and humans. Despite the swimming prowess of many canines, dogs can drown; it is estimated that thousands of dogs die in the water every year.
Dogs drown for many reasons. Some breeds, especially brachycephalics like Bulldogs and Boston Terriers, are physically maladapted to swimming. Many of them, even if they try to swim, simply sink like rocks to the bottom of a pool. Even competent canine swimmers tire quickly, and if they fall into a swimming pool unsupervised, may be unable to find the steps that allow them to climb out. In open waters dogs also tire quickly. A boating accident, or lack of human attentiveness, can put a dog at high risk for drowning.
Keep your dog safe in the water
Take the time to find out if your dog can swim. Maybe give him swimming lessons! Teach him how to locate and use a pool ramp to reduce his risk of drowning. To prevent accidental fall-in drowning tragedies, provide close adult supervision and/or a solid fence around the pool with no dog-access unless accompanied by a responsible human. Always have your dog wear a flotation device if he’s hanging out around the pool, actually playing in the wet stuff, or joining you on boat rides.
Canine life vests come in a variety of styles, ranging in price from $15 to as much as $80. Quality is important, so Google “dog, life jacket” and read all the information for the various brands before buying, rather than just opting for “cheap.” You don’t want buckles to fail when you are counting on the vest to save your dog’s life. Look for one with a sturdy handle on the back, so you can lift him out of the water when you need to save him!
You’ve done your research, purchased the life jacket – now it’s time to toss it over your dog’s head and go for a test swim, right? Wait a minute… slow down!!
You want your dog to love his vest. Even if he’s a resilient soul who tolerates just about anything, take time to make sure he isn’t spooked by the bulky thing going over his head, with all the straps and buckles that have to be adjusted and snapped closed. Here’s how to ensure your dog loves his swimming gear:
1. Fit the vest carefully before even approaching your dog. There will still be some adjustments needed, but minimize them.
2. Show him the vest. While he’s looking at it, feed him a high-value treat. (Boiled or baked chicken is good!)
3. Hide the vest, pause, then present it again, and feed chicken.
4. Repeat several times until the appearance of the vest causes your dog to get happy and look for the chicken.
5. Now (super-important!) hold up the vest by the handle with the straps unbuckled and invite him (with a treat) to walk under it. He’s choosing to put it on himself, rather than you putting it on him. If this part worries him, go slow – one step at a time – until he’s happy to have the vest resting on his back. (Or – leave the chest strap buckled and invite your dog to step forward and put his head through the opening. Do not just plop it over his head – be sure he volunteers to move through the opening.)
6. Now take some time to pair the sound of the buckles with chicken, so he also thinks that “snap!” equals chicken!
7. When he’s comfortable putting himself into the vest and hearing the “snap!” sound, you can buckle him in. Have someone feed high-value treats while you snap the buckles closed, or use Lickimats to keep him happily occupied with peanut butter, squeeze cheese or yogurt mashed into the grooves. (See Play With Your Food, April 2019). Alternatively, you can smear gooey foods on your refrigerator door or vinyl floor while you buckle.
8. At first, keep the vest on for short periods – 10 to 15 seconds. Gradually increase the length of time he wears the vest, until it’s clear he isn’t bothered by it.
9. Now you’re ready for the water! Again, take it slow. Even if your dog is an accomplished swimmer, it may feel strange to him to be more buoyant. Introduce him slowly to the water and convince him that swimming with a life jacket is fun.
This might seem like a lot of effort just to get your dog to wear a life vest. It will all be well worth it someday when it saves his life.
We often read discussions of whether dogs experience guilt; we’ve published a few, too. But here is a twist I don’t think I’ve ever seen discussed: A dog owner’s guilt over something related to their dog ownership.
Many of us who are old enough to have owned dogs before the advent of positive-reinforcement-based dog training – yes, this was before cell phones and when candy bars cost just a quarter – probably feel some amount of guilt and/or shame about how they trained dogs in their youth. There is a term that describes us – “crossover trainers” – those of us who started training dogs with choke chains and collar “pops.” This was the norm for anyone who wanted a well-trained dog who would walk on a loose leash, once upon a time. (It’s hard to fathom how different and wonderful it must be for trainers and owners who are, say, 30 years old or younger, who came of age in the dog world when positive reinforcement was the norm.)
Things I feel guilty about
Me and Tavi in 1977
I think back to the dog I was allowed to keep for my very own, starting when I was about 13 years old, and who lived with me into my mid-twenties. He was a half-Kelpie, part-hound-mix, dog-aggressive and, it seemed to me then, hard-headed. Frustrated by his many attacks on other dogs and not knowing anyone who knew any better than me, I physically punished him for his many transgressions. I know now that all of that punishment only hardened his negative feelings about other dogs – and far from correcting the issue, it made his hatred of other dogs worse. This was a lifelong conflict between us, and I never found a better way to deal with the behavior. Forgive me, Tavi, I honestly didn’t know any better.
My heaviest burden of guilt has to do with the death of little Tito, a Chihuahua-mix who was sort of dumped on my husband and me by his niece some years back. I didn’t really want another dog at the time, and Tito didn’t really want new owners, either. It took us all a long time to get to know each other; he was a prickly little tough guy. He didn’t like to be picked up, he was a ferocious resource-guarder, and he generally just kept his own council. Over time, though, we got used to and accepted his tough-guy independence and we all actually grew quite fond of each other.
A couple years after we had finally accepted that Tito was a member of our family, he was mortally wounded by a dog I was fostering. It took me nearly a year to process and understand what happened and to write about it; as penance for the ignorance that led to Tito’s death, I still tell the story to anyone I know who is considering fostering an aggressive dog. It’s not that dogs who display aggression can’t be rehabilitated – they certainly can. But people need to know what they are getting into, and need to protect their own families (human and canine) from getting hurt in the process. I didn’t protect Tito, and he paid for my ignorance with his life. The dog who attacked him was euthanized following the event – and this death, too, is on my hands. I am not sure when or if I can, or should, forgive myself for these deaths.
Accidents can happen to the best of us
I know two different people who accidentally backed their cars over (and killed) their own dogs, each of whom was sleeping in the driveway. Two! Both of those people were understandably wracked with guilt about these horrible accidents.
I have another friend who will never forgive herself for letting her dog off-leash to chase some birds, who were covering a huge grassy playing field at a college. But the dog chased and chased and wouldn’t come back, and eventually chased them across a busy street and was hit by a car. Despite almost immediate emergency veterinary care, he died at a veterinarian’s office less than an hour later. My friend is almost pathologically careful about letting her current dog off-leash, which is good, but I’m sorry that she still suffers about her former mistake.
Dog ownership is a huge responsibility; their lives and health are fully in our hands. Guilt over the things we’ve done wrong, I guess, helps keep us alert to the possibility that we might make other mistakes, that we have to be more careful with these precious lives. And, as the saying goes, when we know better, we can do better. Sometimes I just wish learning some of these lessons wasn’t so hard.
What do you feel guilty about? Maybe others can learn from your mistakes.
The shape, size gaits, temperament, and abilities of many breeds have been radically altered over time to meet current demand for certain fashions. Breeders who produce dogs that display extreme deviations from historic breed standards may experience a bump in popularity and thus profitability, but often, the dogs suffer. The inbreeding practices that quickly produce novel or extreme traits also quickly cultivate inherited health problems.
Wanna see a fight? Start a debate on social media about what’s best: adopting a dog or puppy from a shelter or rescue group or buying from a responsible breeder. If the sparks don’t fly quickly enough, throw some gas on the flames by supporting just one of those options – either one! – in very strong terms. That ought to do it.
In recent years, the “rescue dog” people have seemingly won the moral high ground in this argument, with their position helpfully shortened to a bumper sticker-friendly three words: “Adopt, Don’t Shop!” In fact, this position has become so politically correct that folks who do want to buy a purebred pup (or a “designer mix”) are often tight-lipped when they discreetly buy a puppy.
In my view, folks are fighting about the wrong thing altogether. Honestly, I don’t care whether you buy your puppy from a breeder or pay an “adoption” fee from a rescue or shelter. Because the truly most important thing is to make sure that the source is ethical and responsible and that they do far more than just meet the minimum standards of care for all the dogs in their custody.
Looking to add a new dog to your family? Be aware that there are many immoral and unscrupulous breeders, shelters, and rescue groups out there. One good way to reduce the number of these bad actors is to procure your dog or puppy from only a responsible, conscientious, and humane source, whether that’s a breeder, shelter, or rescue organization. Let’s look at how to identify them.
TRAITS OF RESPONSIBLE, ETHICAL BREEDERS
Yes, there is such a thing as a responsible, ethical breeder – thank goodness! Although many of the 30 or so dogs I’ve owned in my lifetime were rescued mixed-breeds, I’ve also owned a number of purebred dogs, and I appreciate a healthy, well-socialized representative of a pure breed of dog as much as anyone.
Here’s what I would look for in a responsible breeder. A responsible breeder will:
* Plan ahead and plan carefully. Only dogs who have been health-tested and cleared for all the identifiable, heritable genetic diseases common in that breed will be included in the breeding program of a responsible breeder. (For more about what those conditions may include, see the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association’s “Guide to Congenital and Heritable Disorders” at tinyurl.com/WDJ-heritable-disorders.) Good breeders also will provide verification of the sire’s and dam’s testing clearances to puppy buyers.
* Breed only dogs who are physically and behaviorally sound. Pay at least as much attention to the temperament of the dogs being bred as their genetics, movement, and structure. Far too many breeders overlook behavioral unsoundness in exchange for breed type and structure. Behavior is always a combination of genetics and environment.
* Breed in a limited fashion. Good breeders produce only as many puppies as they know they can place (have homes lined up in advance). They also limit the frequency with which any individual female dog is bred (not before the age of 2, not after the age of 5 to 8 years, and no more than one litter per year, maximum.
Note that the American Kennel Club will register puppies from dams who are as young as 8 months old to as much as 12 years old! In my opinion, that’s unconscionable.
* Avoid the lure of extremes. There are countless examples today:
• Brachycephalic (short-nosed) dog breeds (especially Pugs, Boston Terriers, Bulldogs, and French Bulldogs). In our opinion, the progression of these breeds to the point they can barely breathe and some can barely walk is criminal.
• German Shepherd Dogs – that is, the show-ring-favored slope-backed models. These dogs have significant problems with joint and cartilage distress, hip dysplasia, and osteoarthritis.
• Breeds with exaggerated loose skin (“wrinkles”). Shar-pei are the poster dogs for this, but Bloodhounds, Bulldogs (again), and various Mastiffs, often have chronic, lifetime issues with pyoderma (skin infections) due to bacteria and yeast getting trapped in skin folds.
• Tiny toy breeds. Many of the most extremely small dog breeds face major health issues, including hypoglycemia, heart defects, collapsing trachea, seizures, respiratory problems, digestive problems, and blindness. (“Teacups” are sometimes created by breeding runts to runts – and runts are more likely to have health defects to start with.)
• Dogs with “rare” colors, eye colors, coats, sizes, and other traits. Every extreme in canine fashion becomes linked to health problems in a small number of generations. To quickly develop a fashionable trait, unscrupulous breeders look for individuals with the trait and begin inbreeding with the progeny. This will produce salable individuals with the trait in the fewest number of generations – and cement the undesirable traits that the original individuals had into the progeny, too.
Ethical breeders move away from fashionable or marketable extremes and anomalies. They help bring their breeds back to healthy and traditional standards for the breed.
* Minimize stress. Pregnant mothers who are subjected to stress will flood their puppies with stress hormones in utero. This can cause a lifetime of negative behavioral effects on the pups she carried while stressed.
* Uber-socialize the puppies. Far too many breeders who consider themselves responsible don’t understand what true socialization involves, or that the primary socialization period starts as young as 4 weeks. A considerable amount of socialization must be done while the pups are still with the breeder. Most breeders don’t come anywhere near close to providing enough.
* Place only healthy puppies. A puppy with physical defects may be placed with someone capable of caring for a dog with disabilities, as long as the condition is thoroughly disclosed. But a sick puppy should never be transported or placed in a new home.
* Screen their puppy purchasers. A responsible breeder doesn’t sell her puppies to anyone with the purchase price. Instead, she questions would-be purchasers about their home, yard, fencing, family members (including other dogs and other animals), experience with dogs, intended activities with the puppy, and so on. She asks for a veterinary reference, and checks to make sure the veterinarian’s office has only praise for the prospective owner’s level of responsibility for their other pets.
* Allow potential purchasers to visit. Puppy buyers should be able to meet the friendly mother and see well-socialized puppies raised in a clean in-home environment (not an outdoor kennel). Not allowing potential buyers to see the home environment is a huge red flag.
Recently we viewed the website of a breeder that mentioned many times how many acres their “farm” was comprised of. However, Google satellite images clearly showed that the acreage was completely unfenced, and that there were only two major buildings on the property: a massive home and a two-story building. All the dogs bred on the property live in cages and kennels inside that building; they don’t get to romp on all those acres.
If you really care about dogs, make sure you visit their source and see for yourself where and how your puppy’s forebears have spent their lives.
* Provide references. A good breeder will be able and happy to share the name of her veterinarian, as well as contact information for people who have previously purchased puppies from the breeder.
* Provide support. A responsible breeder will be available to purchasers at any time during the dog’s life if the new owners have questions or concerns.
* Never – ever – sell to a pet store or puppy broker.
* Take back any puppy. This is critically important – and perhaps the most telling bit of information about a breeder of all. Responsible breeders will take back any dog they produced at any time during that dog’s lifetime, if the buyers are unable or unwilling to keep it for any reason.
Puppy Mills and the AKC
What is a puppy mill? There isn’t an official definition; it’s a pejorative term for a high-volume puppy producer, generally used by those of us who work in shelters or rescues and who deplore the overabundance of homeless dogs in this country. I’d define a puppy mill as a dog-breeding operation that puts profits over the welfare of the dogs, where dogs are forced to breed their whole lives until they are physically incapable of doing so and then abandoned – either auctioned off, sold to a rescue group, or killed in some manner.
I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me, “My puppy didn’t come from a puppy mill; she’s registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC).” This always makes me sad, because it’s clear that the person didn’t want to buy from or support a puppy mill and thought that an AKC registration indicated a high-quality breeder. Unfortunately, puppy mills and AKC registrations are not mutually exclusive. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of high-volume kennels that meet all the hallmarks of puppy mills, churning out pups who are registered or registerable with the AKC.
The only thing an AKC registration guarantees is that the puppy’s parents were registered with the AKC, too. In no way does registration guarantee the puppy’s health or quality or indicate a humane place of origin. In fact, the AKC is well known for opposing legislative attempts to monitor or regulate breeders in any way. The organization makes its money from the registration of dogs and from entry fees for events that only dogs who are AKC-registered can compete in. Taking effective steps to limit the mass-production of registerable puppies runs counter to its financial well being.
TRAITS OF RESPONSIBLE, ETHICAL SHELTERS AND RESCUE GROUPS
Here are the things I would consider necessary for a shelter or rescue group to be responsible and ethical:
* Provide quality care to all the animals they take in. Meeting this first and foremost responsibility entails providing adequate amounts of good-quality food, water, and shelter; exercise and enrichment; and an environment where the dog feels safe and has species-specific opportunities for pleasurable experiences. (See “Beyond the Five Freedoms,” WDJ July 2019.)
* Employ standard-practice health care. This includes vaccinating on intake, keeping facilities clean, providing ample space provided for every resident (no overcrowding!), isolating sick animals in quarantine wards, providing veterinary care for any sick or injured animals, and adopting out only healthy animals.
* Conduct standardized, fair, and non-abusive behavioral assessments of each dog taken in. Full disclosure of the results of the assessments, as well as any knowledge of the dog’s history should be provided to prospective adopters. This must include any known prior bite history and behavior challenges, whether reported by a previous home or foster caretaker or observed by shelter staff or volunteers.
Note: Some shelters and rescue groups are quick to dismiss reports of aberrant behavior made by surrendering owners and adopters who returned the dog. The behavior may never be repeated in another person’s home, but potential adopters should be aware of the reports. The adopting family’s safety should be as carefully considered as the dog’s safety.
* Interview and screen prospective adopters and make appropriate adoption matches. No shelter staff member should be shaking her head as an adopter leaves the shelter with a poorly matched dog. Each dog should have the opportunity to go to a home where he has a likely chance of succeeding. Send every dog home with a collar, ID tag, microchip, and educational materials for the humans.
* Place pregnant dogs in foster homes to deliver. This reduces the mothers’ stress and minimizes the in utero impact of stress hormones on unborn puppies.
* Implement comprehensive socialization and training programs for all wards. All dogs in a rescue or shelter’s legal custody (whether in a foster home, a boarding facility, or the shelter) should receive human attention and dog-friendly training. They should commit resources to the physical and behavioral rehabilitation for suitable candidates.
* Ensure organizational transparency. Good rescues and shelters regularly publish statistics that including all the animals taken in and all their outcomes: returned to owner, adopted, in foster care, transferred to another organization, or euthanized. When animals are euthanized, the reason for that decision should be noted (injury, illness, behavior, space?). If the organization is “no-kill” and transfers an animal to another site or organization for euthanasia, this information should not be hidden.
* Euthanize animals that are not suitable for adoption. In our opinion, dogs who are suffering (including mentally suffering due to long-term incarceration) or who present a danger to their community should be euthanized using methods that are humane and accepted in the animal care industry.
Why You Shouldn't Adopt from Inhumane Shelters or Rescues
When looking for a new canine member of my family, my preference will always be to provide a home for a homeless dog. But while there are many outstanding shelters and rescue groups that I wholeheartedly support, there are some that are as bad (or even worse) than some puppy mills – and I wouldn’t adopt a dog from them any more than I would buy a puppy-mill puppy. Why?
Because just as any purchase of a puppy-mill dog supports the puppy miller, the adoption of a dog from a horrific shelter or rescue opens up space for one more dog to get pulled into their inhumane system.
How do I define “horrific”? I’d include any shelter that provides sub-par care for the animals in their facilities, or summarily euthanizes animals without any attempts to find homes for them. I’d include shelters and rescue groups that overcrowd their facilities and foster homes; good shelters and rescues don’t take on more animals than they can care provide individualized, quality care for. I also find it deplorable when rescue flippers and scammers pretend to have the dog or puppy an adopter wants, then scramble to try to find one that meets the description at another shelter (perhaps hundreds of miles away), or try to pass off a different dog.
I would also discourage people from “shopping” at shelters and rescue groups who consistently fail to make appropriate, responsible adoptions. It’s also horrific to me when I hear that a shelter or rescue routinely adopts out dogs with significant behavioral issues (all too often, these are not disclosed to the adopter) or dogs who present a significant threat to their communities (again, often without disclosure of prior aggressive behavior or serious bite incidents). It’s also inhumane and unfair to adopt out dogs to homes or families that don’t or won’t suit their size, energy, anxiety levels, and/or disposition; this sets up the dog and the adopter for failure and heartbreak.
ALWAYS SHOP RESPONSIBLY
It’s easy to understand why people get into arguments about buying versus adopting; they all love dogs! Before you fight with someone about it, though, just remember that there are good and bad eggs in both the shelter/rescue world and the breeding world. And the good eggs could use more support! Just make sure you don’t support a source that neglects and abuses the dogs we all love; no pet store puppies! Adopt or shop – as long as you do it responsibly!
Whether these puppies are in a breeder's kennel or a shelter pen is less important that the fact that they shouldn't be growing up in these environmentally impoverished, cramped, dirty, stressful conditions.
Here’s something that all of us can agree on: No one should ever buy a puppy from a puppy mill. Puppy mills are horrific and should be put out of business.
An estimated 2 million puppies are “produced” annually in puppy mills in the U.S. Since the number of dogs who are euthanized by shelters in this country every year is estimated to be 1.2 million, you can see why simply shutting down puppy mills is such an alluring idea to those of us who have worked in shelters. But it’s difficult to put an end to any practice that some people profit from, no matter how cruel it is.
That’s why we try to educate people – to make sure they understand, first of all, that any “purebred” or “designer-mix” puppy that’s for sale in a pet shop has been produced by a puppy mill, no matter what the store employees have been told to say.
We also try to make would-be buyers understand that when they pay for a puppy from a pet store, they are directly supporting canine suffering at the hands of all the shady breeders, brokers, and scammers that supply pet stores.
Most of us have seen photos and videos taken by animal protection groups following a raid on the worst kind of puppy mill, where the living conditions of the dogs are unspeakably horrendous, with cages crammed with sore-covered dogs stacked on top of more cages, and all of them full of filth. No one would argue for ”businesses” like this to be allowed to continue operation.
It’s much more difficult to recognize the cruelty of puppy mills that advertise how many veterinarians they have on staff, discuss their healthcare and socialization programs, and display pictures of shiny-clean facilities alongside their United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) licenses. The conditions look better – but their breeder dogs are still puppy-producing machines who have no semblance of quality of life. And the puppies will be sold to anyone willing to pay for them and shipped anywhere in the country at too-early ages.
The bottom line for mills is that puppies are simply “products” – and the puppy miller’s bottom line will always be more important than the welfare of the dogs.
The USDA’s Animal Welfare Act (AWA) establishes legal requirements for the care, handling, housing, transportation, and sale of animals at licensed breeding facilities. Puppy-millers and their downstream co-conspirators like to claim that their USDA licenses and unannounced AWA compliance inspections keep the industry honest. But the reality is, these laws are woefully inadequate. For example, under the AWA:
• There is no limit to the number of dogs on the premises. A puppy mill could have hundreds or even thousands of dogs.
• There is no minimum requirement for the number of staff that must be available to care for the dogs.
• Dogs may be kept in stacked cages.
• Mesh or wire flooring is allowed.
• Dogs may be forced to relieve themselves in their cages.
• Dogs may be confined in spaces only six inches longer than their bodies, not including the tail.
• A dog may be caged 24 hours a day for his or her entire life, only removed from the cage to be bred.
• There is no exercise requirement if dogs are housed with other dogs and minimum size requirements are met for the dog’s enclosure.
• Dogs can be housed indoors or out with minimal temperature regulation.
• Human interaction is not required.
• Breeding females at the first heat cycle and every heat cycle thereafter is permissible.
• Unwanted animals may auctioned off or killed in a variety of ways.
• There is no transparency to consumers or the public about the results of USDA inspections.
And finally, it should be obvious that the USDA can’t adequately inspect the entire puppy mill industry; currently there are only an estimated 110 inspectors on staff to inspect all the animal facilities under its supervision, including zoos and research labs, in addition to commercial dog breeders and brokers.
I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping. When I introduced her to a friend, my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing
