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Our test dog works to eat around a slow-feeding device called the Gobblestopper. (The GPS tracking device he's wearing on his collar is being tested for a product review that will appear in the next issue of WDJ)
Can your dog make an entire bowl of food disappear faster than you can say, “Bon appétit?” Has he ever inhaled a bowl of food so fast he vomited it back up a few minutes later? Does her seemingly frantic consumption lead to gagging or choking?
If any of these scenarios sound familiar, it’s wise to check out one of many commercially available slow feeders or experiment with creating one yourself to help your dog dial down her speed-eating ways.
Eating too fast can lead to gagging and choking – plus, speed eaters tend to gulp air as they execute their deep-dive into the food bowl. This excess air can interfere with digestion, cause gas, and even lead to gastric dilation and volvulus, commonly known as “bloat,” a potentially fatal condition where the stomach fills with excess gas and flips on itself, restricting blood flow and requiring life-saving emergency surgery.
Slow-feed bowls and other tools also can help turn mealtime into an opportunity for enrichment. When using a slow feeder, your dog can tap into his problem-solving abilities as he maneuvers the device. This engages his brain more than when simply diving face first into an open bowl of food. Mental exercise is just as important as physical exercise in creating a well-rounded canine companion.
The ability to slow a dog’s eating is also critically important to the success of certain training protocols. For example, when working with a dog who tends to guard his food, it’s helpful if he’s eating slowly enough to give us time to implement some behavioral interventions.
A common positive-reinforcement approach to working with a dog who guards his food is to pass by the dog as he eats and drop a food item considered “better” than what’s in his bowl; this helps to counter-condition how the dog feels about a human approaching his food. However, if the dog inhales the contents of the bowl before you can approach, this is difficult to accomplish!
Who Needs a Bowl, Anyway?
While slow-feel bowls are helpful, another approach to slowing a speed-eater is to ditch the bowl all together in favor of stuffed food puzzles, planned scavenging opportunities, or even hand-feeding via training.There’s no rule that says dogs must eat meals at set times, and from a bowl! Often, high-energy dogs benefit from a “sit quietly and color” activity such as extracting part of a meal from a well-stuffed, frozen Kong or a Toppl toy, and it’s easy to split a dog’s daily ration of kibble into three or more puzzle toys to be offered at different times throughout the day.
Snuffle mats allow dogs to fully engage their sense of smell as they poke around the fabric strips in search of kibbles. You can even offer a wide-spread kibble scatter out in the yard as if you’re feeding chickens! (Admittedly, these last two techniques work better with kibble than with home-prepared or raw diets, but these work well in Kongs and Toppls.)
And of course, there’s training time! On busy training days, my dogs have always eaten very little from a bowl. Rather, I’m leveraging their daily caloric intake in an effort to generously reinforce desired behaviors – especially when working with them as young puppies.
Don’t be afraid to ditch the dog bowl in favor of more creating feeding strategies that support your training goals and the development of a harmonious household!
SPEED TESTS
We selected five commercially available products that are marketed as able to slow a fast eater. We timed how long it took our test dog, Saber, an 8-year-old Golden Retriever, to navigate each bowl. Each timed trial was compared to his baseline of 2:00 to eat a meal consisting of two cups of kibble with a small amount of water (to dissolve a powdered supplement) from a regular stainless steel dog bowl.
We recognize our test dog’s standard approach to a bowl of food doesn’t necessarily qualify as “speed eating” – many of you may have even faster chow hounds – but he’s in no way a “picky eater.” He dives into the bowl, eats with enthusiasm, and doesn’t leave the bowl until the food is gone.
Beyond timing how long it took to empty each bowl, we also considered cost, materials, ease of use, and how easy each product is to clean. Hungry to know more? Here’s what we discovered, listed in order of least to most additional time needed to finish a meal.
DOG HOG
Dog Hog
The Dog Hog is a weighted stainless steel ball, reminiscent of those gazing balls popular in backyard gardens in the early 1990s. It comes in two sizes: The small Dog Hog measures 2.88 inches in diameter and weighs six ounces and the large measures 3.5 inches and weighs 8 ounces.
The Dog Hog is super easy to use. Simply place it in your dog’s bowl and add food around it. The smooth, slippery nature of the Dog Hog makes it difficult for a dog to be able to successfully lift it out of the bowl in order to better reach and gobble the food. Its weight makes it challenging to shove it out of the way. It’s certainly not so heavy that it can’t be moved, but in our test, it wasn’t easily chased around in the bowl by an enthusiastic snout.
It should be noted that sound-sensitive dogs may not appreciate the sound of the stainless steel ball rolling around in a stainless steel dog bowl.
Its simple design gives Dog Hog high marks for ease of use both in the bowl and when it’s time to clean the device. However, it added only 1:02 minutes to the time it took Saber to finish a meal, bringing his total eating time to 3:02.
WOBBLER SLOW FEEDER
Wobbler Slow Feeder
As I unpacked the Wobbler, I was reminded of the classic 1970s childhood toy and its jingle, “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!” This fishbowl-shaped slow feeder functions in much the same way; it can be pushed over in all directions, but thanks to its weighted silicone base, it rights itself as soon as it’s released. You pour your dog’s food inside the fishbowl, er, bowl, and your dog has to put his head inside it to chase the food around the inside of the bowl.
The Wobbler stands about 5.5 inches tall, is about 4 inches deep, and has a 5-inch opening. The top 2 inches can be unscrewed and removed, reducing the Wobbler’s overall height to 3.5 inches, but more importantly, reducing the depth to just 2 inches and increasing the diameter to 6.5 inches. This is great for smaller dogs – or any dog who might be leery about lowering his head into a relatively small space.
The bottom half of the Wobbler sphere has an interior bowl with a series of ridges inside, creating channels around which the kibble falls. This interior bowl spins within the external sphere, but when we spun it by hand, we felt a fair amount of friction, so we’re not quite sure how much, if any, spinning happens as the dog eats.
When it came time to clean the bowl, we couldn’t figure out how to remove the internal bowl, and were ready to just chuck the product altogether. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and WDJ’s editor pointed us toward a video on the Wobbler’s Amazon page that showed how it can be done. Okay! It was back in the test.
According to the manufacturer, the Wobbler holds up to four cups of food, is made with food-safe plastics, and is BPA-free. We appreciate its unique ability to adapt to both large and small dogs.
The Wobbler added 1:50 to the time it took Saber to finish a meal, bringing his total eating time to 3:50.
GOBBLESTOPPER
Gobblestopper
When we selected products to review, “ease of use” was one of the attributes we looked for, and the Gobblestopper looked very easy to use, so we gave it a try.
The Gobblestopper consists of a molded plastic bone on a one-inch base that suctions onto the bottom of any flat-bottomed dog bowl. The dog has to eat around the obstruction and use his tongue to sweep the food out from under the bone.
We used the Gobblestopper in a stainless steel bowl with an interior diameter of 7 inches, which left about 1 to 2 inches of space between the device and the walls of the bowl. It took Saber an extra 2:51 minutes to finish a meal, bringing his total eating time to 4:51.
We did run into an issue with the suction cup not sticking well to the bottom of the bowl, and near the end of the meal, we noticed it was being pushed around as Saber worked to extract the final kibbles. The suction cup itself is extremely shallow, which likely makes it difficult to achieve a strong seal. Adding water to Saber’s food may have also lessened the strength of the seal.
Had the suction cup done a better job, we’d give the Gobble Stopper higher marks, as it’s easy to use, easy to clean, and more than doubled the amount of time it took our test dog to eat a meal. Unfortunately, given that it sometimes fails to stick to the bowl for the duration of the meal, we’re less enthusiastic about recommending it.
BRAKE-FAST BOWL
Brake-Fast
Many people prefer stainless steel bowls for their non-porous quality, so we were happy to add a stainless steel slow feeder to our roster. The stainless Brake-Fast Bowl is essentially a standard dog bowl with three removable posts around which food is added. This bowl is available in small (1 quart), medium (2 quart) and large (3 quart) sizes. We tested the 2-quart bowl.
With more than 2 inches between the posts themselves, admittedly, we weren’t expecting much in terms of challenge, so we were surprised to discover it added nearly 3:00 to our test dog’s eating time, increasing the total eating time to 4:52!
Interestingly, we noticed Saber tended to pick up and chew bites of food more often using this bowl compared to other bowls, and kibbles positioned between a post and the side of the bowl seemed especially challenging to extract. The Brake-Fast bowl has a non-skid edge, but it did slide a little as Saber worked to get the final few pieces of food.
While we loved the unexpected challenge this bowl provided for Saber, we were less than thrilled to discover that the product comes with five-part cleaning instructions.
Per the manufacturer, to properly clean the bowl, one must first unscrew the posts, hand wash all parts with warm soapy water (while taking care to not submerge the posts), dry thoroughly, and then reattach the posts without over-tightening. That’s a lot of steps!
The company also makes a plastic Brake-Fast bowl with molded permanent stanchions, and, as much as I like stainless steel, I think I’d prefer the simplicity of hand-washing the plastic version that doesn’t have to be taken apart and put back together for cleaning.
DIY Slow-Feed Bowls
Chances are, you already have items around the house that can be repurposed to create a slow-feed bowl for your dog. Try experimenting with one of these DIY alternatives to a commercial slow-feed bowl:
* Add a small, upside down terracotta pot to your dog’s dish. The pot placement creates a “moat” from within which the dog works to extract the kibble. Similarly, you can add a large rock to the center of the bowl. (To protect his teeth, make sure the dog doesn’t try to pick up the rock.)
* Turn a muffin tin into a meal puzzle. Add varying amounts of kibble to each of the individual muffin cups. Top cups with dog-approved items to be removed first, such as a tennis ball or Kong toy.
FUN FEEDER SLO-BOWL
Our winner in the slowing-down-the-dog contest? The Fun Feeder Slo-Bowl, which added a whopping 8:15 to the time it took Saber to finish a meal, for a total eating time of 10:15!
Fun Feeder Slow-Bowls
The Fun Feeder comes in three sizes, five colors, and four challenging designs. We tested the Large/Regular “Purple Flower” Fun Feeder, which is 11.75 inches in diameter, two inches deep and holds up to four cups of food. The mini Fun Feeder of the same design is 8.5 inches in diameter, 1.75 inches deep and holds up to two cups of food.
This entire feeder is a complex challenge; there’s not a single area of the bowl that appears to create the opportunity for an easy-grab bite. The widest part throughout the interior of the design is only about 1 inch, making it nearly impossible to reach in and “bite” a mouthful of food. Rather, it seems food must be scooped into the mouth using the tongue as a spoon. If you need to really slow down a dog, this seems like a good option.
My dog would probably be happy to know that the bowl createdchallenges for me, too. I add a powdered supplement to Saber’s food, and mix it into his food with a little water, but because this slow-feeder doesn’t have any bowl-like area in which to mix the supplement into the food, I had to use a separate bowl for mixing, and then dump it into the Fun Feeder, scraping as much of the (expensive!) supplement off the sides of the first bowl. Kind of a pain.
Also, the narrow channels made it difficult to hand-wash, but per the manufacturer, it’s top-rack dishwasher safe. It’s also free of PBA, PVC, lead, and phthalates.
VARIETY, SPICE OF LIFE
I’ve always been a fan of food puzzles for dogs, especially young puppies. All of my dogs have consistently eaten at least some of their daily ration of food out of frozen stuffed Kongs or Toppl toys, or from a snuffle mat of some sort.
While I’m not worried about the general speed with which Saber eats his meals, I’ve still chosen to keep the Dog Hog, Wobbler and Fun Feeder in weekly rotation to add a little extra variety, and hopefully, mental stimulation to what can be an otherwise very predictable dining experience.
Many dogs will "work" for ordinary kibble or cookie-style treats at home, but need a higher-value treat in order to focus on you and your cues when in the face of a more distracting (or more stressful) environment. And some dogs get too stressed in public to take any treats, no matter how meaty and delicious. Finding a non-food reinforce is critical for training these dogs.
I use treats when I train. So do my clients. Now that positive reinforcement training has a 25-year-plus track record in the dog world (supported by studies that affirm its effectiveness), the use of treats in training has become widely accepted and embraced.
There are times, however, when you can’t use treats. Perhaps your dog isn’t particularly motivated by food. Maybe there’s a medical reason your dog can’t have food right now. Or perhaps (horrors!) you ran out of treats. The good news is that food isn’t the only form of reinforcement we can use in training – there are a number of others ways you can reinforce your dog’s behavior.
How to train a dog that’s not food motivated or without treats
When, on a leashed walk, this little dog sees other dogs, he gets so stressed that he loses all interest in food treats of any kind, regardless of value. Only when the other dog is at a greater distance will he relax and calmly take food.
The fact is, all dogs must be food motivated, at least to some degree, or they truly will starve. We all have to eat to live.
But it’s true: Some dogs are more interested in food than others: Labrador Retrievers are notorious for being “food hounds.” In fact, a recent study found this breed is more likely to have a very strong interest in food because they have a specific gene mutation associated with food obsession. (Flat-coated Retrievers have it too, but it has not been found in any other breeds.) Still, all dogs must eat, so the first questions we need to ask are:
Why is my dog not more interested in training treats?
Are there things I can do to increase my dog’s interest in training treats?
If I can’t get him to be more interested in treats, or if he can’t have treats right now for some reason, or if, inexplicably, I ran out, are there other reinforcers I can use in my training program?
There are several reasons why your dog might not appear to be motivated by food during training:
Medical causes. We always want to consider and rule out or treat any possible medical causes for or contributors to a behavioral challenge, including anorexia. If your dog truly has little to no interest in food, if you have not already, please discuss this with your veterinarian as soon as possible. There is a long list of possible medical reasons why your dog may not be interested in food, and some of them are very serious.
Treats are low in value to your dog. Perhaps you’ve heard the suggestion to use your dog’s regular kibble for training. This could well work for a Lab and for other very food-focused dogs, but for dogs who aren’t as interested in food, kibble just might be too boring.
Easily bored with your high-value treat. Some dogs get bored with (or just too full to be very interested in) a great number of the same delicious treat. Be prepared with a list of treats your dog considers high-value, and when her interest in one starts to wane, switch to another.
Most dogs love chicken (baked, boiled, or thawed-out frozen chicken strips), and yet we often see dogs tire of it at our academies, where they are plied with training treats throughout the day. Other treats dogs tend to love include roast beef, cheese, cooked hamburger, meatballs, peanut butter squirted from a tube, ham, baby food – the list is endless. If your dog is less than enthusiastic about food, the longer your list of potential high-value treats needs to be.
Your dog is easily distracted, or the environment holds too many or too highly disturbing distractions. If your dog is on the mild-to-moderate end of the food-interest continuum, environmental distractions can serve to deflect her desire for treats, especially if she is easily distractible, and/or if you haven’t done your homework to generalize her behaviors to a variety of different locations. If this is the case with your dog, try higher-value treats and/or do more training in a less distracting environment before generalizing to more distractions. (Your backyard might seem perfect – but not when there are squirrels racing around the trees, or the neighbor’s dogs are barking at you through the fence.)
Your dog is not hungry. This is a concept totally foreign to your average Labrador, but a lot of dogs who are not as crazy about food as the Lab will be less enthusiastic about working for treats if they just finished a meal. This is an easy fix: Schedule your training sessions before mealtimes, not after, and don’t feed your dog just before training class.
Your dog is stressed. This is one of the most commonly overlooked reasons for dogs to turn up their noses at their training treats. It is biologically appropriate, for survival reasons, for her appetite to shut down when your dog is stressed. When the brain signals “danger,” the last thing an organism should do – if they want to survive – is stop for a bite of food, so the part of the brain that controls appetite turns off until the danger is over.
If your dog is reluctant to take treats because she is stressed, you may be able to tempt her with higher-value treats, but the best solution is to figure out how to make the stress go away – or at least decrease enough so she can happily eat again. (If she can normally take a treat gently, but in a stressful situation goes from not taking the treats to blindly grabbing at the food, sometimes getting your fingers in the process, her stress level is still too high for effective learning; move farther from the stressor.)
Sometimes a dog will learn to take treats in the face of her stressor just through habituation (she just gets used to it), although a concerted effort at counter-conditioning and desensitizing her to the stressor tends to be more effective and faster. (See “Counter-Conditioning and Desensitization,” WDJ March 2020.)
In some cases, if the dog’s stress levels are persistent, behavior modification drugs are in order. This calls for another discussion with your vet. If your veterinarian is not behaviorally knowledgeable, she can schedule a phone consult with a veterinary behaviorist for assistance in determining what medication(s) might be appropriate for your dog. Your vet can find a list of Certified Veterinary Behaviorists at dacvb.org/search.
Positive reinforcers for dogs (that aren’t food)
Nova is excited and she wants to race around and smell the grass. Jessie asks her for some basic behaviors of a fairly short duration – like this bit of loose-leash walking – and then uses the chance to sniff the grass as reinforcement. Jessie marks Nova’s nice eye contact on a loose leash with a “Yes!” and then releases Nova with a “Go sniff!” cue.After a bit of sniffing, Jessie will ask Nova to walk with her again. By asking for short sessions of calm, attentive behavior, which is reinforced by a tiny bit of freedom to explore, they are able to traverse the field without Nova getting overexcited by total freedom or frustrated by too much tight control and no opportunities to check out her surroundings.
One of the great things about using food as a reinforcer in training is that the dog can eat the treat quickly and immediately go on to the next behavior. But anything your dog perceives as “good stuff” can theoretically be used as a reinforcer. Play, for example, is an excellent, very strong “other” reinforcer for many (but not all) dogs. Keep in mind, however, that other reinforcers can take more time to deliver and regroup from, and thereby are more likely to interrupt the flow of training.
Now that the use of food in training has become so widespread, it’s easy to forget that there are a multitude of other ways to reinforce your dog’s behavior.
The definition of a reinforcer is “something that causes a behavior to increase.” In positive reinforcement training we teach our dogs that certain behaviors make “good things” (reinforcers) happen, so our dogs learn to offer those behaviors in order to make good stuff happen.
Food is what we call a primary reinforcer, meaning it has innate value to the dog. Dogs don’t have to learn to like food; they are born looking for their mother’s milk. A scratch under the chin feels good – it has innate value – so that’s another primary reinforcer.
Other non-food reinforcers for dogs include: toys, sniffing, going on a walk or a car ride, or playing a game.
Verbal praise, however, is a secondary reinforcer; it takes on value through its association with a primary reinforcer such as food treats, excitement, and scratches under the chin. Toys, too, are secondary reinforcers; they take on value through their association with the predatory chase response. (Doubt this? Have you never met a dog who was initially mystified and uninterested in toys, but learned to play with them over time?)
How to do positive reinforcement dog training without treats
Nova will do anything for a ball. Sit? Sure.
Lie down? No problem.
Good dog! Okay, here you go!
Nova: “I have it now! So long, sucker!” She trots across the field for a private romp with the toy.
Oh man! Jessie has another ball! Abandoning the first ball, Nova responds to Jessie’s recall cue. The opportunity to chase a thrown ball is more reinforcing for Nova than the ball alone.
If you want to (or have to) make use of reinforcers other than food in your training, start by making a list of all the other things your dog loves. Here are some potential non-food reinforcers:
Tennis balls, or balls with a pleasing squishy texture
Squeaky toys
Playing tug
Playing “chase me” games
Going for a ride in the car (a chief pleasure for some dogs, aversive for others; know your dog!)
Leash walks
Off-leash hikes
Swimming (again, it’s important to know your dog; some hate water!)
Sniffing
Performing a favorite trick for an appreciative audience
For each item on this list, write down how you might be able to use that as a reinforcer in your training program. Some are easier than others. Here are some examples:
Use sniffing to reinforce your dog’s polite leash walking. Have your dog walk politely with you for a reasonable stretch (short enough that she can succeed!), then give her a release cue and say, “Go sniff!” (This works especially well at first if you give her the “Go sniff” cue when you know you are near something that she would like to sniff.)
Use tug to reinforce your dog’s “Stay.” Have your dog stay for whatever length of time she is able (set her up to succeed!), return to your dog, mark her for staying, give your release cue, then invite her to tug.
Remember to pause various lengths of time before your release cue, so she doesn’t start anticipating the release. You can even remind her to stay, hold up the tug, put it behind your back and hold it up again, several times, so the mere sight of the tug toy doesn’t become the cue to release from the stay. This, by the way, is a great impulse-control exercise.
Use a squeaky toy to lure and reinforce sits and downs. To lure a sit, hold the toy over your dog’s head the way you would a treat, and when she sits, squeak and toss the toy. To lure a down, slowly move the toy toward the ground and, when she lies down, squeak and toss. If that doesn’t work, move the toy under your knee or a stool, so she lies down to crawl after the toy. When she does, squeak and toss.
Use a tennis ball to reinforce your dog’s recall. She comes when you call, you mark her for coming, and then throw the ball for her to chase. If she’s one of those who won’t bring it back, have several balls within reach so you can call her back and toss the next ball when she comes. If you want her to sit in front of you as part of your recall, wait for her to sit before you mark and throw.
Now take your own list of reinforcers and write down scenarios that incorporate them into your training program. You will likely find some reinforcers that are impractical for training (say, the dog who loves to roll in deer poop), but you should end up with a treasure trove of possibilities!
If there are secondary reinforcers you would like to use that your dog isn’t already enthusiastic about, you can “charge” them by associating with something your dog already loves. If you want your dog to be happier about your verbal praise, repeatedly praise her and then throw her beloved ball, so she begins to associate praise with the joy of chasing a squeaky ball. If she’s not crazy about car rides, start taking short car rides that always end up at someplace wonderful (such as the swimming hole, if she loves swimming).
You get the idea. Whether your dog won’t take or can’t have treats, if you look for and create a good long list of other high-value options, you will always be prepared to reinforce your dog for appropriate and desired behaviors. She will love you even more for that.
Montana author Kathryn Dunning enjoys winter adventures with her dogs, who are also game to explore and play - even in sub-zero temperatures. But precautions must be taken to protect the dogs' paws.
The sky was a brilliant blue, with glimmers of sparkling snow flashingacross the path ahead as a light breeze blew it into the air, adding a pinch of magic to the scene. The temp hovered around a lovely 25°F (-3°C), and the only sound heard for miles was the swish of my skis combined with the heavy breathing of happy dogs with tongues lolling. We were running out of light, so I peeled off our scheduled route and zipped up a hill, a quicker, albeit steeper, way home.
As we climbed, I noticed my Border Collie pause briefly and look at his feet, but he kept going. I made a mental note to check his paws when we got home. We turned the corner, began our descent, and joyfully charged downhill.
Then, he stopped – suddenly – and started frantically biting at his feet. I kicked my way out of my ski bindings so I could reach him and help him with what I (correctly) guessed was bedeviling him: Snow had stuck to the hair between his paw pads, and icy balls had formed and expanded between his pads, causing his toes to splay uncomfortably. I felt terrible. In my enthusiasm to get out into this beautiful day, I failed to check the length of the fur on his feet before we left and he paid the price for my oversight.
Had I attended to this winter dog husbandry chore before we hit the trail, our outing would have been near perfect; the snowy, cold, but clear conditions were perfect for my athletic canine sidekick, who is well habituated to our chilly Montana winters.
THE BASICS OF WINTER PAW MAINTENANCE
John Wright raises and trains Springer Spaniels in Bozeman, Montana – and also takes beautiful photos of his dogs. Frequent nail-trimming, he says, is key to healthy paws in winter. Nails split and break more readily in winter – especially if they are too long.
But snow, ice, and cold aren’t the only foes our canine companions’ paws have to contend with in winter. In other parts of the world, there are other hazards that wreak havoc on the four-footed – including salt and other de-icing agents and persistently wet and/or muddy conditions – and a little regular maintenance goes a long way to keeping our friends up and running. Literally.
* Nail trimming. While many dog owners long to believe that time running on hard surfaces is sufficient to wear canine nails to an appropriate length, it’s just not so. No matter where you live, no matter what weather or surfaces your dogs are exposed to, regular nail trimming is vital to healthy paws.
John Wright, a trainer of champion Springer Spaniels in Bozeman, Montana, logs serious miles daily year-round with his dogs and knows all too well the importance of nail trimming. “Long, neglected nails are more likely to break or split in winter conditions with frozen ground or hard, slippery ice. A broken nail is a lame dog for a week or two,” he explains.
“Clip those nails! It’s quick and easy once you get the hang of it, it’s a 90-second gig for four paws,” Wright adds. Easy for someone with a lot of experience, perhaps less so for others. Nail trimming can be an anxious endeavor, which raises the anxiety for our canine companion receiving that care. Have you ever had your hair cut by someone who was unsure of what they were doing – or who actually nicked your ear with her scissors? That’s a chair everybody’s quick to jump out of!
An article in WDJ’s October issue (“Rotary Club”) discussed nail trimming techniques and tools. It may be additionally helpful to get an in-person tutorial on nail trimming from your favorite groomer or vet tech or whomever has the skills that instill ease and confidence in your dog. If you are like me, once you have the know-how you’ll wonder what you were so worried over in the first place!
I turn nail trimming into bonding time. At least once a month, my dogs get a relaxing turn at the (home) spa, complete with a pedi-pedi and a paw pad massage (more on this below).
* Hair trimming between pads and toes. As my experience on that otherwise perfect day illustrates, medium and long-haired dogs need to have the hair between their paw pads and toes kept short. This prevents the formation of snow and ice balls that can cause painful bruising and injury to tendons.
I prefer to do this myself, rather than go to a groomer, because it’s a quick and easy job with the right clippers. The best clippers for paws (around faces and ears too) are small, quiet, and cordless.
Many years and several pairs of clippers later, I discovered Cyrico cordless professional pet clippers and swear by them. Forget about trying to find an outlet in a spot where hair can conveniently fly; cordless trimmers allow you and your dog to be wherever you are most comfortable. And they hold their charge surprisingly well! (Here is a link to my favorites:tinyurl.com/WDJ-cordless-clippers.)
Whatever clippers you choose, it’s helpful if they are relatively quiet, helping to reduce noise and vibration, which can trigger anxiety in some dogs. Of course, even the quietest clippers still make noise, so I found it helpful to teach my dogs to associate a tasty treat (they highly recommend bacon-flavored Cheez Whiz) with the sound of clippers before they even touch the dog’s fur. It’s a tiny bit of effort that allows for a lifetime of calm clipping.
If the snow doesn’t fly where you live, but the rain is frequent, keeping the hair trimmed on your dog’s paws will reduce mud and crud that can accumulate between the dog’s toes (and track onto your floors), and it helps paws to dry properly. Excess water can create bacterial buildup between the toes, leading to itchiness, sores, and infections.
* Protect with paw balm. Salt and chemical deicers on sidewalks are great for reducing slips, but can cause paws to become irritated, and some can be dangerous if ingested. Applying a balm to paws prior to heading outdoors provides a nice buffer between the paw pads and the treated walkways.
The reigning standard balm for paw protection in winter (and summer!) is Musher’s Secret. It’s made from a blend of food-grade, organic waxes that form a semi-permeable shield on the pads, allowing perspiration to escape through the toes. It’s also non-toxic and non-allergenic.
While I find it to be a very useful product, its maker claims that Musher’s Secret will prevent balls of ice and snow from forming on a dog’s paws and in between their toes. In test after test on a variety of dogs, all medium and long-haired, Musher’s Secret has never prevented paw-snowballs for my dogs. Ever. This is not a deal-breaker, just a bit of an over-sell.
You will still have to keep paw hair trimmed. (If this just prompted groans, I assure you trimming is not that bad. In a winter season in Montana that lasts six months or more, I trim paw-fur three or four times and it takes five minutes or less per dog. It’s really not that bad!)
Here’s another winter hazard for our dogs’ paws: those huge swings in temperature and humidity as you travel indoors and out. These are absolutely fabulous conditions for drying out and cracking paw pads– your hands likely suffer the same fate in winter! I personally want one balm to rule them all, protecting and treating dog paws and mine too, so I make my own (see my recipe on page 15). I add essential oils to enhance the spa experience!
Ruffwear’s Polar Trex Winter Dog Boots
* Boots. There comes a time when winter conditions will make boots your best friend’s best friends.
Dogs have varying sensitivity to cold, but by -10°F (-23°C), you start to see all dogs holding up paws, sometimes trying to simultaneously lift three or four paws off the cold surface – it’s quite a sight to behold!
Older dogs, especially, don’t thermoregulate as well and their feet become increasingly sensitive to cold. Boots can make a huge difference for them, allowing them to comfortably get out and enjoy winter. Dogs with short or thin coats need extra protection, too.
However, if your dog has never worn boots and you suddenly toss them on, prepare for a high-stepping protest march complete with bucking and kicking. Boots take some getting used to.
You’ll have to spend some time introducing them to your dog. Putting them on and then doing something fun right away distracts them from this new, very awkward accessory. Several short sessions will start to ease a dog toward boot-happiness.
A good fit is critical for your dog’s comfort, although it can be challenging to find just the right size; every manufacturer’s sizing varies slightly. When in doubt, order products in the two closest sizes and try them on indoors at home. Don’t try to “make do” with a close fit; you’ll just end up hurting your dog and souring him to future attempts with better-fitting boots.
How should you identify good boot candidates? Look for:
• Durability. Look for quality material without excessive bulk.
• Flexibility and comfort. Dog boots need to be supple and flexible, especially at the dogs’ wrists and ankles. Dismiss the ones that are stiff throughout, rising high on the leg, with a lot of straps to keep the boot in place, which can hinder movement and do more damage to a foot than the elements!
• Good workmanship. Seams, zippers, and patches of hook-and-loop material (such as Velcro) should be minimal, and nothing should feel rough on the inside of the boot. Anything that protrudes on the inside of the boot can cause sores on the dog’s foot or leg.
• Visibility. The brighter the boots, the more likely you will find them after your dog manages to lose one or more.
I’ve tried many models from a number of companies, but I find myself going back to the same two companies again and again.
Ruffwear (ruffwear.com) is great about helping dog owners find the right boot and fit for their dogs’ needs. Most of their boots are a bit technical; figuring out how to get them on and worn comfortably can take some work, but they’re worth it.
Hurtta (hurtta.com) also makes great boots. Their products are easier to put on the dogs and tend to be comfortable straight out of the box with minimal fuss.
Once your dog is accustomed to his boots, don’t tune out; you need to stay alert to any sign of discomfort. If a boot slips or twists, it won’t take long for an errant seam to rub a paw raw. Check the fit periodically when you’re out to prevent these sorts of unfortunate boot-mishaps. Few things can ruin an outing faster than a boot rubbing the wrong way.
Homemade Paw Balm
Yields six 1-oz jars
You’ll need:
•Small pot and glass bowl or double broiler
•2 oz olive oil
•2 oz coconut oil
•1 oz shea butter
•4 tsp beeswax
•Optional scent: Use only therapeutic-quality essential oils to meet your personal scent preference. My favorite combination is 3 drops each oflavender, mandarin, and chamomile essential oils.
•Also optional: 1⁄4 tsp vitamin E oil as a preservative
1. Pour an inch or two of water into the bottom of a double boiler, or set a glass measuring cup into a pot of water so that the glass bottom is submerged and the top is exposed. Bring the water to a simmer.
2. Add coconut oil, olive oil, and shea butter to the glass cup or the top of the double boiler.
3. As the mixture warms and melts together, add the beeswax. When the beeswax begins to float to the top, stir the mixture continuously.
5. Set out six 1-oz jars and add the essential oils (and optional vitamin E for increased shelf life) to each jar.
6. Pour the melted base into the jars. Stir lightly (a chopstick works well for this) to mix the essential oil and vitamin E into the base.
7. Cover with breathable material (e.g., cheese cloth) and cool until they harden.
Enjoy for one long, cold winter (longer if you add the vitamin E).
Tether your dog in locations where he is safely out of household traffic and can't get tangled in anything. Give him a comfy mat or bed and a food-stuffed toy or chewy.
I’ve long been a proponent of the appropriate, judicious use of tethers for dog training and management. This doesn’t mean tying up your dog in the yard all day while you’re at work, or for hours while you’re grocery shopping; it means short-term restraint under the direct supervision of a responsible human. Proper use of tethers can be a lifesaver in your dog’s training and management program.
You can purchase ready-made tethers (my favorites are from pettethers.com)or make them yourself out of sturdy, good-quality materials. While some people just tether with their dog’s leash, I don’t recommend this (except for short-term emergency tethering), as your dog can chew through a leash. A nylon-coated cable tether with sturdy clips on both ends can be attached to an eye-bolt screwed into a solid wall beam.
We recommend tethering only with a plastic-coated cable, which resists tangling and can’t be chewed.
Alternatively, if you clip the tether to an eye-bolt screwed into a block of wood, you can then slide the tether under a door and close it; the door will hold the tether in place (as seen in the photo above).
You can also use the Pet n’ Place anchoring system to set up a portable tether outdoors and/or when you are traveling. This product is suggested for dogs who are less than 60 pounds; if your dog weighs more, use two!
APPLICATIONS
There are a multitude of ways a tether can enhance your life with your dog, including:
* Housetraining. Reduce your not-yet-housetrained dog’s crate confinement by tethering instead of crating. It’s easy keep him with you as you move around the house, and he will still be inhibited from soiling his immediate tether space.
* Chewing. Rather than crating to supervise his puppy/adolescent predilection to chew everything he can get his teeth on, tether in chew-proofed locations so he can still accompany you around the house.
* Polite greeting. Tether your dog while you repeatedly approach to teach him to sit politely to greet people. You can also tether him while you greet visitors to your home, and then instruct your guests on how to greet him in order to reinforce polite greetings. For example, “When all four of the dog’sfeet are on the floor, you can pet him. But if he jumps up, just step back out of range.”
* Present yet managed. Your dog may be social – perhaps too social. If he’s inclined to sit in everyone’s lap and not all your guests appreciate close encounters of the canine kind, you can tether him, rather than shut him away in a back room. He still gets to enjoy the company but can’t pester people. Again, coach your visitors that if they want to approach him, he needs to offer a polite sit in order to be greeted.
* Counter-surfing. In the kitchen, this is a must-do while you work to modify his counter-surfing behavior! (See “Useful Matters/Mat Training Tips,” WDJ January 2020 and “Counter Productive,” July 2020.)
*Training. Use a tether when you need your dog to stay in one place during a training or behavior modification session, but his stay is not yet solid, for example, while playing “Nose Games,” etc. (see “Everyone Nose That/Understanding Your Dog’s Nose,” September 2019).
* Other animal companions. If your dog is an attention hog, and every time your other dog comes up for some petting, he pushes her away and demands that you pet him instead, use his tether to ensure that she gets equal petting time. If your dog chases the cat out of the living room every time she tries to come in for a lap-visit, tether him and do counter-conditioning for the presence of the cat while also giving your feline family member some safe living room time.
* Restricted activity. If your dog is on the dreaded “restricted activity,” and if he will stay calm on a tether, tethering can be an alternative to crating.
* Feeding. Perhaps one of your dogs tends to gobble his food so he can go scavenge your other dogs’ bowls before they are done. You can tether your gobbler at his feeding station so you don’t have to constantly play traffic cop.
* Human mealtime. If your dog has learned the fine art of begging at the table, you can enhance your own dining experience by tethering him nearby, far enough away to prevent him from bugging you. He gets to be part of the family at mealtime but learns to mind his manners.
The tether can be a great tool when used properly and can be instrumental in helping your dog stay in your lifelong loving home rather than be rehomed, or even euthanized. Value it, and use it with care.
Tether Do's & Don'ts
The tether isn’t for every dog, nor every restraint situation. Here are some things to keep in mind if you use a tether with your dog:
Do these things when tethering:
✓ Take the time to introduce your dog to his tether gradually, with treats, so he has a positive association with it. This is especially important if he is sound-sensitive, as the tether clips can make a clanking noise, or if he has prior negative experiences with being chained or tethered.
✓ If your dog has any tendency to pull hard/yank on his tether, attach the tether to the back clip of a harness to avoid potential damage to his neck.
✓ Instruct your guests on how to greet your dog properly when he’s tethered, and provide them with treats so they can reinforce him properly when he sits.
✓ Provide constant supervision for your tethered dog so he can’t become tangled and injure himself.
✓ Provide your dog with a food-stuffed toy or other chewie when appropriate (i.e., if you are tethering during your meals) to help him settle and relax on his tether. (You can tether a stuffed Kong to his tether attachment so it doesn’t roll out of his reach.)
Don’t do these things when tethering:
✓ Don’t use a tether if your dog is even mildly frightened or wary of it, unless you do ample conditioning first to convince him that it is wonderful.
✓ Don’t use the tether as punishment. It’s okay to use it as a calming time-out, but it should not be associated with any reprimands or coercive handling.
✓ Don’t leave your dog tethered and unattended. He can become tangled and injure himself.
✓ Don’t tether your dog where he can be harassed by other dogs or humans.
✓ Don’t tether your dog with a flat collar if he tends to pull hard on his tether, and never tether your dog on a choke chain or other collar that tightens. (They are called “choke chains” for a reason!)
✓ Don’t tether your timid dog where unfamiliar humans can approach him. If he must be tethered when humans are present, tether him at a distance where he can feel safer and you can still keep an eye on him, and surround him with exercise pens so no one can approach past his threshold distance. If he’s significantly fearful, do not tether him, ever, where unfamiliar humans might approach. Instead, put him in a safe room away from the action, inaccessible to visitors.
Wellness visits are not covered by most "major medical" pet insurance plans. If you'd like an entire year to spread out the cost of routine care (a well-pet checkup with a blood test and perhaps a vaccination, heart worm test, and a prescription for a heart worm preventative), adding a wellness rider to your dog's major medical plan might work well for you.
At the close of 2019, 2.82 million pets had health insurance, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. Over the past five years, the industry has grown 22.1% annually on average. That outstanding growth rate is big news.
But pet insurance isn’t news to our readers. We’ve discussed the topic in depth twice over the past five years, in the September 2015 and March 2018 issues. And little has changed since those articles were published except for one thing: the increased number of companies offering wellness riders – optional insurance policy provisions that add benefits to or amend the terms of a basic policy.
“WELLNESS PLANS” ARE NOT HEALTH INSURANCE
Traditional pet health insurance plans help owners pay for the costs of diagnosis and treatment of unexpected and/or catastrophic injuries or illnesses; they don’t usually cover the cost of routine well-pet exams.
Historically, pet insurance companies have offered “wellness” or “preventive” coverage as an add-on to a traditional pet health insurance policy. These are often marketed as incentive programs that will motivate us to make annual or semi-annual well-pet visits. If you’ve paid for a well-pet visit already in the form of a wellness rider that will reimburse you for that visit, you are more likely to follow through and get your dog in to see the vet! The twist is: If you don’t go, you don’t get reimbursed!
We’re all for well-pet visits. Dogs who are seen by their veterinarians regularly are most likely to have any problems with their health detected in the earliest stages, when treatments are most effective. Any tool that encourages owners to schedule these visits can literally save dogs’ lives. There’s a big catch, though: Despite the fact that the insurance companies market wellness riders as a way that owners can reduce and plan for the cost of routine veterinary care, these plans won’t necessarily save you money. They can do so – but you have to be extremely organized and knowledgeable about what routine care your dog will benefit from in the year ahead in order to realize savings from their purchase.
HELPING KEEP YOUR DOG’S HEALTHCARE ON TRACK
To repeat: Classic wellness plans essentially act like a financial incentive program that encourages the pursuit of routine veterinary examinations by reimbursing the insured pet’s owner for a set of pre-selected benefits, such as a well-pet visit, a screening blood test, vaccinations, heartworm testing, etc.
For example, a wellness rider may cover the cost of an annual heartworm test and reduce the cost of monthly heartworm preventative medications. The routine administration of the preventative keeps your dog free of heartworms – and reduces the chance you will file a claim for a dog who needs treatment for heartworm disease.
As another example, some companies’ wellness plans reimburse owners for a significant part of the cost of an annual dental cleaning. In small dogs, many of whom suffer periodontal problems that result in tooth loss, annual cleanings can help a little dog avoid losing 20 teeth in a $3,000 surgery – a win for everyone involved.
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
Again, these wellness riders are offered as adjunct to, not replacements for, your dog’s health insurance, which is what does help cover the cost of unexpected trips to the vet for injury or illness. Think of wellness plans, instead, as a pro-rated trip or two to the vet, where the cost is spread across an entire year, which can help ensure it’s in your monthly budget.
As such, the potential reimbursements offered by the wellness plans are strictly limited in value. A plan that costs you $30 per month, for a total cost to you of $360 per year, might have an annual allowance of $400. Yes, the potential savings for that year is only $40 – and you will save that money only if you use every penny of the annual allowance by booking all of those wellness benefits. You could actually lose money on the plan if you fail to schedule and bring your dog in to your vet for the services you’ve paid for.
Honestly, it’s a bit like a casino: Unless you are a very savvy consumer, the odds favor the insurance company. It’s far more likely that the average dog owner will pay more for a wellness “plan” than they will receive as reimbursements for services their dogs enjoyed. You can get more value out of a wellness plan that you pay for in a monthly premium, but again, you have to be organized. You have to thoroughly research the plan ahead of time, making sure it will pay for (or significantly reduce the cost of) all the routine healthcare you plan to obtain for your dog – and then make sure you get that care. If you aren’t that disciplined, you may well lose money on these plans.
Comparing Wellness Plans Offered by Health Insurers
The table below lists only some of the many companies offering wellness riders to their health insurance plans and only some of the benefits the plans include. The health insurance companies don’t make it easy to compare their products with those of their competitors, but we’ve tried to simply illustrate how different the available plans are.
The prices listed here are the amounts we found for wellness plans for a 2-year-old, small, mixed breed dog. As we built this table, we noticed that prices and allowances change frequently; these are accurate as of 10/1/20.
Some companies offer more than one benefit level; we’ve used a slash symbol ( / ) to indicate the prices, allowances, and benefit levels of each tier of the plans offered.
The largest benefit offered by many companies in their wellness plans is a reimbursement that can be used either for a spay/neuter surgery, dental cleaning, or other major expense. Our guess is that this is done because a dog may need spay/neuter surgery as a younger dog or a dental as an older dog, but rarely both in the same year. We showed those major benefits in the last column.
COVERAGE WILL VARY
The wellness plans offered by pet health insurance companies vary widely. Some give you a ton of options; some lock you into a specific and limited set of veterinary services that qualify for reimbursement.
Some of the plans offer an extensive list of preventive options that you can use in their wellness plans. Embrace Pet Insurance, for example, includes Reiki, massage therapy, anal gland expressing, wearable pet activity monitors, acupuncture, and even medicated shampoos in the list of services that the plan will reimburse you for. Other plans, like Pumpkin Pet Insurance’s “Preventive Essentials Package,” focus on preventive basics with one well-pet veterinary visit, one fecal test, one test for a vector-borne illness test (such as Lyme disease), and two vaccinations.
The difference is reflected in the cost. A wellness rider from Embrace for a small 2-year-old dog would cost $35 a month (a total cost of $420 for the year) with a $450 allowance. It offers the widest range of coverage choices we found and doesn’t dictate how much you can spend on each item. You could choose to spend the entire $450 allowance on acupuncture therapy, if you wanted – and you could do it all the first month of coverage, if you wished, but you still would be required to pay the monthly premiums for both wellness and health insurance for the full year.
Most riders we examined used monetary limits for their wellness coverage by individual items. For example, AKC/Pet Partners will reimburse you for a maximum of $50 or $65 (depending upon the level you choose) for flea and tick prevention. The actual the cost of a year’s worth of spot-on flea treatment for a small dog is more than that – depending on the product used, it may cost as much as $120. In cases such as this, the plan simply helps defray the cost of caring for your dog; it won’t cover the entire cost.
Other plans cover a set quantity of specific services, such as the Pumpkin Pet package described above. The cost for this package for our hypothetical 2-year-old small dog would be $19 per month, for a total cost of $228.
That sounds great – mostly because, at many clinics, the cost of all that likely exceeds $228, so Pumpkin Pet’s reimbursement to you for all that should mean that you saved money. But you need to read the insurer’s customer agreement carefully to see if they have limits on how much they will reimburse you for that one veterinary wellness visit.
Another Option: Wellness Packages Offered By Veterinary Practices
Many veterinarians and veterinary companies, like the 1,000-clinic Banfield Pet Hospital, have designed “wellness packages” for their clients. The benefit to you, as with any wellness coverage, is that it helps to defray the cost of the preventive measures your dog needs to be healthy. The benefit to them is that it pretty much binds you to their veterinary clinic for the year.
These plans are prepaid preventive options that don’t require you to also purchase an accident/illness policy. They can be extremely helpful to those on a budget because, when working directly with your own clinic, you usually don’t have to pay the money up front and then be reimbursed. You just pay your monthly premium, and your dog gets the preventive care he needs.
THE RIGHT RIDER
Not all screening tests and preventive procedures are necessary. Ask your veterinarian for recommendations regarding preventive care and health screens, based on your dog’s age, activity, and predominant breed.
Keep in mind that most of these riders are offered in combination with your accident/illness coverage. Because that part of your policy is your primary concern, the first thing you need to do is decide which insurer offers what you need for your dog. For more information about choosing a major medical policy, see “Rest Insured,” WDJ March 2018. To recap that article briefly: We advise that you choose an accident/illness policy without monetary or treatment policy limits and that you make sure that the actual fees on your veterinary invoice are used to determine reimbursement (as opposed to a “fee schedule”).
Also important: Read the policy in full to ensure that any exclusions will not be a problem for you – and there are usually a lot of exclusions. For example, if you have a German Shepherd Dog, you’ll want to be sure hip dysplasia is covered. If you have a Papillon, look carefully at the dental coverage. Your veterinarian can offer an expert opinion to help you choose.
After you’ve chosen your dog’s “health” insurance, read the wellness rider in full before you sign. Sometimes, the broad-strokes description of a wellness plan leaves owners with a more generous impression of what they will get for their money than what is described in fine detail in the customer agreement.
And, finally, remember that you need to exhaust the available benefits of a wellness plan over the course of the policy year to make the policy worth having; the funds do not roll over from year to year. If you have a $450 allowance and you used only $300 of it, you will have lost $150 when the policy renews.
Cynthia Foley is a freelance writer and dog agility competitor in Warners, New York.
I’ve always been sort of a wuss about my dogs, but just typing the headline above made tears spring into my eyes. Otto is fine, but he also just turned 13 years old and has a few health conditions my veterinarians and I are watching carefully. (Yes, of course I have more than one veterinarian on Otto’s healthcare team!) Thank dog for good insurance, which has been paying for semi-annual abdominal ultrasound examinations (keeping tabs on some growths on his liver) and blood and urine tests. I may not be able to keep him from getting older, but I am not going to be surprised by some long-developing condition, by golly.
But I have to say, it pains me to see him struggle ever so slightly to get up from a nap sometimes. Or to start panting suddenly, even when it’s not hot and we are just laying around. Or to feel yet another lump under his skin when I’m massaging his neck (his favorite) or rubbing his tummy – he’s already got a dozen or so lipomas hidden under that scruffy coat.
I just can’t even believe it’s already November – and in a way, the November of my life with Otto.
Speaking of slowing down: On page 20, we have a review of products that are designed to slow your canine speed-eater down. Long-time contributor and dog trainer Stephanie Colman actually timed all of her poor dog’s meals, looking for the tools we could all use to help our dogs eat more slowly – perhaps even tasting the food before it goes down the hatch! I think I’m going to have to exert editorial privilege and ask Stephanie to ship the winning products to me; I’m always inventing ways to try to make meals last longer for my younger dog, Woody.
Woody got to model for a different article in this issue: On page 6, that’s him enjoying a little down-time with a food-stuffed Kong (just one of the tools I already employ to make him work for his calories). He’s demonstrating another one of my favorite dog-care tools, the tether, a short bit of plastic-coated cable with snaps on either end, which can be used to secure your dog in a safe, supervised, comfortable spot for a short time. The author of the article, WDJ Training Editor Pat Miller, is another long-time fan of tethers; she’ll tell you why she loves them so much in the article.
I couldn’t resist using another photo in the article, one that I took to accompany the first article Pat Miller wrote about tethers for WDJ – way back in 2001. The photos is of a young boy standing just out of the jumping-up range of a jumping Jack Russell Terrier. That boy is my son, and he’s 28 years old now.
See what I mean? Time flies. Don’t waste it. Go give your oldest dog an extra hug and a kiss, right now!
I couldn't take video and swim with Coco at the same time, but I was able to document her enjoyment of riding on paddleboard while Woody and Otto swam and ran along the shore.
If only it was summer. I have been so eager for the end of the hot, dry weather that characterizes every summer in my area – but now that I’m fostering a dog who would really benefit from swimming, I’m reneging on all my wishes for rain and lower temperatures.
Coco is the little dog I first wrote about here. She’s an estimated six months old (this has been revised upward, given better exams of her teeth, which we can now examine at will). She can’t walk or trot like a normal dog, due to an as-yet undiagnosed problem with her hind legs, which only move together like a bunny or a kangaroo. (Speaking of kangaroos, a friend who is a regular volunteer at a zoo tells me that kangaroos can’t use their hind legs individually, either; they, too, apparently can *only * hop. Huh!)
For the past two weeks, I’ve been waiting for an appointment with a veterinarian who could actually see Coco move, to get a better idea of what’s going on with her. In the meantime, I’ve been working with Coco daily, doing some physical therapy exercises I found online for dogs who are recovering from injuries or surgery (this site has great descriptions and videos; here’s another video that shows a hind leg range-of-motion exercise I’ve been doing with her).
Based on my understanding of physical therapy, I’ve been speculating that whatever the cause of Coco’s condition may be, her brain is unaccustomed to exercising the nerves that trigger a normal movement pattern, so any exercise that send signals to the brain regarding new, better (more normal) movement options would be beneficial. To that end, swimming is often considered as one of the best therapies for issues like Coco’s. It’s non-weight-bearing and completely novel, which may be enough to help initiate the brain’s signals to kick her legs in the normal way for a swimming dog.
There is a river and several large lake-like reservoirs locally where I can take Coco and my other dogs to swim – but the water is FREEZING cold. I know that seems weird, given the hot weather. But the river and the reservoirs where I can take the dogs are downstream from the Oroville Dam – the tallest earthen dam in North America. This means that the water that comes out of the bottom of that dam is coming from a very deep, cold place. The water is super cold, which is a delight in super hot weather – but not great when the ambient temperatures drop, and not great for physical therapy-type swimming (which is typically conducted in warm pools, which keep the muscles loose and relaxed).
The lake behind the dam is warmer, at least at the kind of shallow depths that dogs swim in. But it’s been accessible only for the past week or so; miles and miles of its shoreline and tens of thousands of acres around it were burning until very recently. But finally, the other day, the planets lined up and I had a day off when it was hot and I got to take the dogs swimming.
Woody came along to the vet with us; his friendly, steady bulk makes Coco feel more confident in every new situation. When we first entered the vet’s exam room, Woody went right for one of the client chairs – and Coco jumped right up to sit with him. (Yes, the hospital has several “clinic cats”.)
Alas, we swam enough that I could see that Coco quickly started swimming in the same way that she runs: “dog paddling” with both front legs normally, and stroking both hind legs at the same time – essentially bunny-hopping in the water, too. It wasn’t a wasted trip by any means, though; Coco had fun in the water and running (hopping) along the shore with Woody, and the extra swimming time (and a life jacket) made her that much more comfortable in the water than she had been the first time I took her swimming. At the very least, I’m hoping that when I am able to find a pool or underwater treadmill for more therapy, she’ll be more comfortable and happy in the water. If this warm weather persists, we’ll go back to the lake for more non-weight-bearing exercise. It absolutely can’t hurt.
Until today (as I write this) Coco hadn’t been seen by a veterinarian who had seen her move; she was still frozen with fear of people and the novel situations she had been thrust into when the North Complex Fire prompted area-wide evacuations. Today was a breakthrough for several reasons: A veterinarian finally saw her move! The clinic I took her to, in order to see this specific veterinarian, is back to allowing clients to come inside the clinic again – so I was able to go inside and discuss Coco’s history with the veterinarian, in person! We waited for our appointment outside, we wore masks, we paid for the visit and scheduled another while in the exam room, among other COVID-era accommodations – but at least I could go inside with Coco! And the vet was able to touch Coco without any party experiencing any fear – Coco is now experienced enough with humans that she allowed the vet to pet and massage her body and flex her joints, and the vet was without fear that Coco might bite her in fear! I could have cried!
After the vet examined Coco, the little dog felt comfortable enough to sit in her own chair in the exam room.
I was, at a minimum, hoping for a referral to a veterinary neurologist at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) at the University of California – Davis. But the vet who examined Coco thinks that her issues are not necessarily the result of some exotic neurological condition; she thinks that it’s likely that Coco was injured as a very tiny puppy, possibly even as she was born, and that the neurological “wiring” for a normal gait might still be sparked into action through physical therapy and exercises targeted to build her hind-limb muscles. In addition to practicing conventional veterinary medicine, this veterinarian also uses complementary therapies including acupuncture and chiropractic, and she suggested that Coco could really benefit from both continued physical therapy exercises and some acupuncture and laser therapy treatments. Excellent! We made another appointment for next week.
My most dog-crazy friend, Leonora, lives about a mile away from me. She is the owner of Samson, Woody’s tiny little buddy since they were puppies. Like me, Leonora fosters for our local shelter, and she was fostering a litter of six tiny puppies who were the exact same age as the litter of nine big puppies I was fostering five years ago. We both, without consulting the other, ended up keeping a puppy from our respective foster litters. She kept the tiniest pup, Samson; I kept the largest pup, Woody. We (all four of us) attended the same “puppy kindergarten” classes (Puppy 1 and 2) and Samson and Woody often play and hang out with each other, best of buddies in spite of their 65-pound size difference.
Despite the 65-pound difference in size, these two have been best friends forever.
Anyway, Leonora recently had to say goodbye to her senior dog, and no doubt because her house seems empty with just one tiny dog in it, she volunteered to have Coco stay at her house when I’ve had to pull a volunteer shift or even just go to town for errands. Having Coco spend time (and some nights) at Leonora’s house has given Coco experience with more humans and dogs, Samson someone to play with, and Woody gets a break from the constant attention he gets from Coco otherwise. (She’s sort of smitten with him, and who could blame her!) Leonora also helps with Coco’s PT exercises and she’s falling for the goofy little dog, I can tell.
That said, we’re not talking about permanent placement anywhere yet. We won’t be looking for a permanent home for Coco until we know that we’ve done everything we can to get her to move more comfortably and confidently through the world, so those wonky back legs have the best chance of remaining problem-free and arthritis-free as long as possible.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of over 90 cannabinoids produced by the Cannabis sativa plant and has great potential for therapeutic application in veterinary medicine. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the regulated production and use of hemp and hemp products that contain less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the United States, and since then, CBD products have become widely available and interest in using CBD to treat our pets is increasing. This is due to not only anecdotal reports, but also scientific evidence of beneficial behavioral and health effects, especially for such conditions as pain (particularly with arthritis), inflammation, anxiety, seizures, and immune system modulation in companion animals.
Overall, CBD use in dogs appears to have a good safety profile and is at low risk for side effects. “Appears” is the key word here, however. Because cannabidiol and other hemp products were federally illegal until 2018, we are only now beginning to see the results of recent scientific studies conducted on these products.
It is known that dogs, like humans, have an endocannabinoid system (a complex cell signaling system); however, experts haven’t yet determined how it all works. Because we are in only the very early stages of understanding just how cannabinoid-based medications affect the canine body, we need to be cautious in administering CBD to our dogs. While we wait for the results of new and ongoing research, here are some key points to be aware of when considering CBD:
Currently, there are no veterinary drugs containing CBD that are approved by the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA). CBD products are currently sold as nutritional supplements and “drug claims” about their use are strictly illegal.
There is little documented research, control, or regulation over CBD products. This can result in highly varying compositions, concentrations, and quality, even from one batch to the other of the same product. Because of this, consumers may not know what any individual product contains.
A recent study (“Cannabinoid, Terpene, and Heavy Metal Analysis of 29 Over-the-Counter Commercial Veterinary Hemp Supplements”, Vet Med (Auckl). 2020;11:45-55) by Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine and ElleVet Sciences, a manufacturer of pet CBD products, tested 29 CBD pet products. Label guarantees to the cannabinoid concentration contained in the supplement were present on 27 of the 29 products, however, only 10 of the 27 “were within 10% of the total cannabinoid concentrations of their label claim.” Several tested below their label claims of cannabinoid concentration, and two products were found not to contain any CBD at all. Heavy metal contamination was found in four of the products, with lead being the most prevalent contaminant (three products).
Owners and veterinarians considering the use of CBD need to be aware of the prevalence of low concentration products. Obtaining a certificate of analysis (COA) from a third party laboratory will enable correct calculation of dosage.
There is not yet any data available as to the effects of long-term administration of CBD to dogs. It is also not known if there is any cumulative effect.
Of particular concern is any potential interaction between CBD and other medications. Because CBD is metabolized by the cytochrome P450 family of enzymes, it can affect the metabolizing of the other medications in the system. In turn, this can alter the efficacy of these other drugs, either by enhancing their activity or inhibiting the desired activity. Studies with humans have demonstrated that this interaction has impacted drug concentrations in the blood. It has been determined that there is the potential for interaction in humans with the drugs warfarin, tacrolimus, theophylline, ketoconazole, and zonisamide. As these drugs are also used in dogs, it is possible that that there may be interactions in the canine body as well. Other medications that CBD may interfere with include antibiotics, antipsychotics, antidepressants, blood thinners, and any other drugs metabolized by P450 enzymes.
Scientific studies have shown that CBD can cause an increase in the liver enzyme alkaline phosphatase (ALP), but the significance of this is not yet known. CBD is thought to be able to enhance the effects of certain drugs. This may present an opportunity or need to reduce the dose of certain medications that are administered to a patient who is also being given CBD.
As NSAIDs, Tramadol, Gabapentin, and anti-anxiety drugs rely on P450 enzymes for metabolizing, approach the addition of CBD carefully.
When given with trazadone, CBD was found to inhibit the ability of trazodone to lower blood cortisol in a recent study by Morris et al (The Impact of Feeding Cannabidiol [CBD] Containing Treats on Canine Response to a Noise-Induced Fear Response Test, Front. Vet. Sci., 22 September 2020). This highlights the potential drug interactions associated with CBD and may support previous work that shows CBD to be a potent inhibitor of the cytochrome P450 family of enzymes.
Continued research is essential to furthering our understanding of how CBD affects the canine body. As with any medication, consult your veterinarian before treating your dog with CBD.
Have you ever read a short little news piece – a bit of journalistic fluff – that you nevertheless couldn’t stop thinking about? Maybe there’s something that just doesn’t make sense, or there’s a loose end in the story – for some reason, it’s just keeping you up at night. Most of the ones that haunt me, as you might imagine, have a dog in them somewhere.
I’ve got one such story in my head. Let’s see if it bothers you as much as it does me.
This piece, headlined “Missing Boy Found Wandering St. Louis Streets With Protective Stray Pit Bull by His Side,” was being circulated on Facebook, and many of my friends were sharing it. The People magazine story was generated by a story aired on the 6:00 pm television news on October 1 by a Fox affiliate in St. Louis.
According to the Fox news piece, a two-year-old boy was spotted wandering on a St. Louis sidewalk by a woman who was walking her dogs early in the morning of October 1. The boy was wearing pajamas, but no shoes, and he was unaccompanied – at least, unaccompanied by any humans. He was toddling around in the company of a large pit bull-type dog.
The woman, who wished to be anonymous, was interviewed on camera (with her face obscured) by the Fox news crew. She said she knocked on doors all up and down the street, keeping the toddler and his pit bull friend in view, hoping to find someone who recognized or was missing the child. She also posted an alert to a neighborhood social media web site – and somehow, it was there that the father of the child recognized his son, and ran to meet the anonymous Samaritan and recover his son.
It’s unclear from the story whether the father knew his son was missing from the home before he saw the post. This is but one of the missing details of this story that are bothering me.
In the news clip, police officers are seen holding the toddler and speaking to the boy’s father, but the news piece doesn’t mention whether the anonymous woman, the boy’s father, or someone else had called the police, or what other role the police may have played in the story. That’s also a mystery.
But the biggest mystery of all is the dog. Despite the dog’s major presence in all the headlines of all the iterations of the article, which was picked up by dozens and dozens of news sources across the globe, the fact that the dog who stayed by the toddler’s side, reportedly for hours, was a stray dog – not the family’s own protective dog, but a dog who was unknown to the family – got very little attention. Hero of the story, presumably kept the boy safe – a stray dog. Wow!
And then this, a couple of suspicious little throwaway lines at the end of the piece. One of the news anchors who introduced the taped segment says at the very end of the segment, over film of a policeman putting the pit bull, now on a leash, into a police car, “By the way, the little guy there, Taylor, says he really liked the pit bull who was like a guard for him; he kept saying, ‘Puppy!’ while he was being reunited. We’re told St. Louis city police might be adopting that guy.” Awww! A double happy ending?
Well, after a day of that little news piece just driving me nuts, I wanted to know: Who was that hero dog? And is some St. Louis policeman really going to adopt him?
So I reached out to the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department; they actually have a Facebook page that is monitored by media relations people. I sent them a link to the People magazine story and asked, “Do you have more information about this story, or the dog, that I could share with my readership?” The answer came in just a couple of hours. “The dog ran from the officers and animal regulation was notified.”
So, despite the filmed footage of the leashed dog cooperatively hopping into the back of a police cruiser . . . we’re to believe he “ran from the officers.” I’ll never stop wondering about that dog.
I cringe whenever I hear someone refer to a dog as “stubborn.” It is patently unfair to label a dog as stubborn. Dogs do what works for them (as we all do), and when they aren’t doing what we ask, they have a good reason. When your dog doesn’t respond to your cue, perhaps he’s come to associate it with something aversive, perhaps he doesn’t understand what you’re asking, or perhaps he’s too distracted or stressed and your request doesn’t even register in his brain. In any case, it’s our job, as the supposedly more intelligent species, to figure out how to get our dogs to want to do what we want them to do.
Some humans believe dogs should do what they are told, simply because we tell them to. “Because I said so!” hearkens back to childhood, when parental directives were often accompanied by the implied “Do it, or else!” In these days of a more enlightened dog training philosophy, this coercive approach isn’t what many of us want with our dogs. We prefer relationships based on a cooperative partnership.
If your dog isn’t doing what you ask, consider these questions:
Are you training competently? Remember, dogs shouldn’t have to do what we say just because we tell them to – or just because they love us. We want them to want to do it. Make sure your reinforcers are valuable enough that your dog will eagerly offer the behaviors you ask for, and that you are marking and/or delivering the reinforcer with good timing so your dog associates the reinforcer with the desired behavior.
Is there something aversive about the behavior? Years ago, my first Pomeranian, Dusty, started refusing jumps when we were training for the Open Division of obedience competition. I didn’t punish him for not jumping – I took him to my veterinarian and discovered he had bad hips. It hurt him to jump. A behavior can also be emotionally aversive. If a car ride always means a trip to the vet, your dog could become very reluctant to jump into the car. Your challenge is to make car rides consistently predict “good stuff” – a hike in the woods, a trip his favorite canine pal for a play session, or? If he’s refusing to enter his crate because he has mild separation distress and associates crating with you leaving, alleviate the separation distress through behavior modification (and possibly appropriate medications), and then convince him that crating is wonderful.
Does he not understand? You may have taught him to respond to a cue for the desired behavior, but perhaps you’ve used body language prompts in the past without realizing it, and now, absent the prompt, he doesn’t understand what you’re asking of him. Fade all prompts if you want him to respond reliably to verbal cues. Perhaps you’ve always trained in the kitchen in front of the refrigerator, and so he thinks “Sit” means “Sit in the kitchen.” When you ask him to sit in the living room, he doesn’t sit because it’s not the kitchen. He’s not being stubborn – he needs you to help him generalize his behavior so he understands that “Sit” means to put his tail on the ground wherever you ask him to do it. Even your tone of voice can matter. If you usually give cues with a happy voice but your own emotional state causes your voice to sound different, he may not understand.
Is he distracted? If you haven’t generalized your dog’s behavior to distracting environments, his attention will naturally be drawn to the multitude of exciting things happening around him. He’s not ignoring you; he probably isn’t even hearing you because he’s so focused on the fascinating world around him. Help him hear and respond to your behavior requests by training in various environments with gradually increasing distractions.
Is he stressed? “Stressed” is an even bigger challenge than “distracted.” When stress happens, the thinking part of the brain (the cortex) shuts down and the emotional part of the brain (the amygdala) takes over. We even have phrases in the English language to describe this phenomenon: “I was so scared I couldn’t think straight.” “I was out of my mind with worry.” When your dog is so stressed he can’t think straight, it’s unfair to blame him for not doing what you ask. Relieve his stress (remove him from the stressor, and/or do behavior modification to change his association with the stressor) and try again.
Your relationship with your dog will be so much happier when you stop characterizing him as stubborn and realize how you can help him be more responsive to your behavior requests. Now get busy helping him want to do what you want him to do.
She's pretty, and sweet. I've ordered a DNA test for her.
There’s an old Chinese parable that goes something like this:
A farmer gets a horse, which soon runs away. A neighbor says, “Oh, so sorry for the bad news.” The farmer replies, “Good news, bad news, who can say?”
The horse comes back and brings another horse with him. Good news, perhaps.
The farmer gives the second horse to his son, who rides it, then is thrown and badly breaks his leg. Ack! Bad news! “Well,” says the farmer. “Who can say?”
A few days later, the emperor’s men come and take every able-bodied young man to fight in a war. The farmer’s son is spared. So, good news!
The message of the story: “Good news, bad news, who can say?” We can never know ahead of time how things that may appear to be good or bad will turn out.
I’m thinking about this at the moment, because I am fostering a puppy with a “Good news, bad news, who can say?” sort of back story.
As I’ve written about before, I’ve been volunteering at the emergency shelter being provided to evacuees of the North Complex Fire, one of many that erupted in California following a dry lightning storm on August 17. My local animal rescue group, the North Valley Animal Disaster Group, opened the shelter on September 8, when a windstorm pushed the North Complex fire 30 miles overnight and right into our backyard (10 miles from my literal backyard). And an army of volunteers have been caring for hundreds of dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, llamas, donkeys, chickens, ducks, you name it ever since.
I was evacuated for a few days, myself. When my husband and I (and our dogs, of course) were allowed to go home, the first thing I did was report for duty at the shelter to walk and feed dogs.
The emergency shelter is a temporary facility; dogs are kept in crates, so they HAVE to be walked multiple times a day. Not an easy task, when they are in close quarters, the air is full of smoke, there are dozens of strangers walking among them, their crates are packed close together next to those of other stressed dogs … It’s a very tough situation.
On my first day of volunteering, I was assigned to work in two rooms at the shelter – which is located in a series of rooms in the bowels of a former county hospital. (One of the rooms used to be the county morgue! The building stopped being a hospital sometime in the early 1970s.) One of the rooms I was overseeing was the “isolation” room, where puppies who were likely to be as-yet unvaccinated were being kept. Among them were three pups who appeared to be siblings, about 5 months old. (Hey! Good news! Their owner evacuated the fire zone and brought them to an appropriate place for care!)
All three of these puppies were terrified of people and of being held in the crates. One, who appeared to be the runt of the litter, would shyly wag his tail at people, but the other two didn’t want to make eye contact and avoided touch. And one, the only female, appeared to have something very wrong with her back end; she was limping or crippled or something. (Yikes, bad news, right?) Hard to tell in the crate. They were going to be especially challenging to care for.
A day later, I learned that the female pup had been placed under a 10-day quarantine. She had bitten one of the volunteers who was trying to get her out of her crate for a walk. Terrible news, right?
A mystery condition: what’s wrong with her back legs?
The county animal control officer overseeing the shelter contacted her owner, informing him of both the bite and quarantine, and also informing him that the pup needed to be transported to a veterinarian for medical care; what was going on with her rear legs? Citing the difficulties of his situation (I believe his home was burned in the fire), the owner relinquished her to the county. (Bad news? No, actually, good news! The county can pay for her to be seen by a veterinarian!)
“Coco,” as she is now known to be named, was transported to a local veterinarian. She was so incredibly scared, the examination was rather perfunctory. A soft-tissue injury was suspected, pain meds were prescribed to see if they help, and she was sent to the local permanent shelter to serve out the rest of her quarantine. Hard time! Bad news?
Well, no: Upon intake to the permanent shelter, she was vaccinated, like all “stray” dogs and dogs who are relinquished to the city or county by their owners. A week later, at the emergency shelter, it was reported that seven owned dogs who were being cared for at the emergency shelter had developed parvovirus. Oh my gosh, this is terrible news for those dogs – and I didn’t yet know whether it was Coco’s brothers who were infected, or some other dogs, because I hadn’t been to the shelter in the past week (busy getting the November issue of WDJ to the printer) – but being sent to the permanent shelter was great news for Coco, who got to miss being exposed to parvo, and who received the benefit of what may have even been her first vaccination.
I was keeping track of Coco’s incarceration, because I made it known that I would be happy to foster her when she was released from her quarantine; I knew she needed further medical care, to see what was going on with her back end, and was afraid she’d get lost in the shuffle. It just seemed to me that she had gotten a really poor hand of cards so far in life. Following her last day in quarantine, I started pushing the animal control officer in charge of her case for information about her vet care, and asked if I could foster her. Happily, the officer agreed that we couldn’t know for sure what was ailing the puppy unless she had x-rays taken, so he made an appointment to go back to the vet and I volunteered to transport her.
Coco on her way home from the shelter and the vet’s office.
After 10 days in a kennel at the shelter, she was both more habituated to loud, barky surroundings and seeing people. She still looked tense and scared, but the shelter vet tech was able to pick her up and carry her to my car without having to put a muzzle on her. At the vet’s office, of course, they did put a muzzle on her, so they could safely sedate her for x-rays.
The radiographs came back without offering a single clue as to the source of her problem: Spine fine, hips fine, pelvis fine, knees fine. Good news?
At this point, it must be said, nobody had been able to see Coco move about freely, to really study exactly what was wrong with her. As she moved around in a crate or kennel, always trying to avoid contact with humans, all you could tell was that she couldn’t really stand up or walk properly.
Woody to the rescue once again
So, I brought her home! In the car, I put a soft, padded harness on her – carefully, gently –and attached a long line to it. I own two fenced acres and two dogs who are experienced with foster puppies and strange dogs.
It took about an hour for my five-year-old “fun uncle” dog, Woody, to convince her that no one was going to try to murder her at our house. It took only another hour and many Stella and Chewy’s freeze dried chicken Meal Mixers (my dog training secret weapon) to convince her that I was safe, she didn’t want to go anywhere (I could take off the harness), and that Woody was her absolute crush. I mean, honestly. It’s a little embarrassing.
“I might survive if I can be near you, Woody!”
Over this past week, while I’ve been tied to my home office and computer, Coco has gone from terrified to terrific – at least as far as being comfortable with humans is concerned. (She likely was fine with her original human family, but the abrupt move under emergency conditions into a crate in a crowded facility just blew her little mind.)
And all this week, I’ve been taking pictures and video of Coco on the move. Good news, bad news, who knows? It’s a mystery.
She certainly can move; she can run and jump and go up and down stairs – but her rear end doesn’t move right – I mean, properly. She hops like a bunny behind; both hind legs move as one: hop, hop, hop. She does not – can not? – move her back legs independently of each other. If you hold a treat in front of her nose and try to get her to move forward just one leg at a time, she will step, step with her front feet, and streeeeettttchhh with her back feet, and then hop with both. If you hold one of those back legs (gently) to see if she will step with the other one, she just falls down.
I really, really wanted to see what Coco would do in water. Would the non-weight-bearing environment make her comfortable enough to move her legs in a normal movement pattern? Would her brain be “reset” by the need to swim into paddling her back legs independently? A friend and I took her to a local reservoir that has a shallow, soft bottom. I carried her out to a depth where her feet could just barely brush the ground, supporting her with one hand under her chest and feeling with the other hand under water to see what her hind legs would do.
They paddled independently.
This made me so happy. There is hope! She is happy, she is able, she is not in pain … She is not right, but there is hope for her.
They sleep like this daily.
I got an unofficial consult from a friend who is also a NVADG volunteer (except she’s a BEAST on the animal evacuation team, who goes into the fire zone rescuing animals) and an equine massage therapist when our county is not on fire. Tamara came to my house and met Coco, watching her hop and run and play with Woody. She also massaged and stretched the little dog, and she agrees: Coco’s condition is weird, but there’s hope. We both think Coco needs more swimming time, and time on an underwater treadmill. Acupuncture? Massage? Stretching? Physical therapy? We think she needs all of it.
So, sorry, Otto, we’ve got one more project puppy we need to help. Though, frankly, if I can find an underwater treadmill and a PT specialist to help me with Coco, I will sign up Otto for therapy, too! At 13 years old, he would benefit from this sort of care just as much as I think Coco will.
Years ago, I had high hopes for participating in dock diving sport with my now-9-year-old dog, Woody. But it turned out that my high-jumping, strong-swimming dog absolutely hates getting water in his ears!
