There’s a significant difference between professional dog trainers and many dog owners: Owners tend to react to things the dog has done that they don’t like; in their minds, this reaction is what might be called “training.” In contrast, trainers set up situations so that their canine pupils don’t have any opportunities to practice undesired behaviors, and actively teach dogs how rewarding it is to perform desirable alternative behaviors, instead.
The good news: You don’t have to be a professional trainer to reap the advantages of trainers’ effective tactics!
A couple of factors are pivotal to the success of this approach. The first is to recognize that there are no “good” nor “bad” behaviors. Behavior is just information and communication. Once you understand this key element you can shift your goals from stopping “bad” behavior to looking for ways to encourage the behavior that you want to see again and again.
Second: Recognize that when your dog is doing something that you don’t like he may often not be giving you a hard time, but instead he might be having a hard time. If you support and guide your dog in learning the behaviors that will result in reinforcements, you won’t have to spend so much time contemplating punishment scenarios.
Dogs who already display unwanted behaviors (such as jumping up, barking when people come over, pulling on leash, etc.) may have you trying ways to stop or decrease the behavior – punishment-based reactions. But punishment can result in potentially dangerous side effects (including canine apathy, aggression, escape/avoidance, and generalized fear).
Worse – the punishment is frequently ineffective, because the dog has no clue what he should be doing instead!
Planning Ahead for Dog Training Success
The proactive approach is to know in advance about what you would like for your dog to be doing, and actively teach him to do these things – or to simply “catch him in the act” of doing these things and reinforce those behaviors!
For example, instead of focusing on your dog’s jumping and fretting about how to make him stop it, “mark” (with the click of a clicker or a verbal marker, such as the word “Yes!”) and reinforce him when he’s got four paws on the floor. Teach him to sit on cue, or train a “default sit” (where he is reinforced for sitting any time you are paying attention to him and haven’t given him any cue). Continue marking and reinforcing sitting and “four on the floor” and you’ll see more of it. And do it before he has an opportunity to jump!
In addition to reinforcing easy alternatives to the undesired behavior, think about your environment. Arranging antecedents – the things that occur right before the behavior you want or don’t want – allows you to set up your situation so that your dog will have the best chance at successfully doing the stuff you like, and not doing the stuff you don’t like.
To use our jumping example again: Position a baby gate or exercise pen that separates your dog from visitors. Demonstrate how they can greet or pet your dog over the gate when all four of the dog’s feet are on the floor, but should take their hands away if the dog is jumping. Or, plan to greet visitors with your dog on-leash while working on your training. This way you are setting your dog up to be successful by preventing him from practicing jumping.
Canine distemper virus (CDV) was once a common killer of dogs and other animals. Cats, ferrets, and raccoons are also quite susceptible to contracting this virus, but dogs are considered the “reservoir” host. This means that CDV prefers to hang out in dogs, and they serve as a source of infection.
However, thanks to a very effective and readily available vaccine, distemper has become fairly rare in companion canines. Still, CDV is not eradicated, so it’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms of this virus. This is especially true if you are dealing with puppies in shelter or foster settings, “backyard-bred” dogs, or dogs that have been imported from other countries.
Currently, the most likely place that CDV is encountered is in rescued puppies in shelters. These pups often have multiple health issues and suppressed immune systems, making them more susceptible to illness. Many of these puppies have gastrointestinal (GI) parasites like roundworms and hookworms, and external parasites such as fleas, ticks, and mites. As a final insult, many have received poor nutrition prior to rescue.
All of these factors contribute to a poor immune response, so when a life-threatening virus makes the rounds, puppies are often the first infected. And when you house them in a stressful shelter, they become prime targets for opportunistic bacteria and viruses.
CDV is spread through respiratory secretions; sneezing and coughing are frequent modes of transmission. As you can imagine, in a shelter, there may be lots of both! This is exacerbated by the sort of crowded and stressful housing conditions that are often seen in rescues. Dogs can mount successful immune responses and fight the disease off, but it’s more difficult to do in a shelter.
The incubation period between exposure and the development of clinical signs in unprotected dogs may be as little as one week to as long as six weeks, with the majority of dogs showing signs within one to four weeks.
Making control of the contagion more difficult is the fact that dogs who are infected with distemper can start shedding the virus (be contagious) up to five days prior to the onset of clinical signs of the illness.
Signs of Distemper in Dogs
The clinical signs of CDV occur in stages and in three main body systems: the upper respiratory tract, the gastrointestinal tract, and the central nervous system.
Initially, a dog may show signs consistent with upper respiratory disease: coughing, sneezing, high fever, lethargy, and nasal and eye discharge. This is often mistaken for other canine respiratory tract infections like parainfluenza, influenza, and Bordetella.
At the same time, or slightly after the development of the respiratory signs, a dog may demonstrate GI upset (vomiting and diarrhea). Afterward, recovery may seem to occur.
Generally, however, within one to three weeks, neurological signs may develop. These can include myoclonus (a rhythmic jerking of a group of muscles), seizures, and behavior changes. “Gum chewing” seizures are a well-known manifestation of neurological distemper. They look exactly like they sound – the dog sporadically displays a rhythmic chewing motion.
It is important to know that the three stages of infection present in this order as a general rule; as with any rule, there are exceptions. Dogs can demonstrate only neurological symptoms or only upper respiratory symptoms. Thus, CDV should always be suspected in young dogs with symptoms in any of those systems.
The severity of these symptoms varies widely with the immune status of the dog. If a dog has a healthy immune system, she may successfully fight off the disease and clear it from her body with no long-term effects and minimal clinical signs. In some cases, there will be permanent damage to the enamel of the dog’s teeth, as well as marked thickening of the foot pads (called “hardpad disease”). If a dog is immunosuppressed in any way, the symptoms tend to hit her harder and have a higher risk of death.
Canine Distemper Diagnosis
There is no simple bedside test for canine distemper. In fact, diagnosing it can be a little tricky. Your veterinarian will start with a thorough physical examination (a “nose-to-tail” assessment including vitals like heart rate, weight, and rectal temperature) and a detailed history. This should include questions about where your puppy was adopted and any history of illness, as well as vaccine status.
If your vet suspects CDV, he may recommend one of several tests. Initially, he will likely run blood tests to check red and white blood cell counts, as well as organ function. In the early stages of infection, there may be mild anemia and a low lymphocyte (white blood cell) count. The veterinarian may also look at a blood smear, as dogs with CDV can have small “inclusion bodies” noted in their white blood cells. This is a rare finding and it’s unlikely that your veterinarian will see this, but it never hurts to look!
If your vet suspects concurrent pneumonia, x-rays of the chest will be recommended. For a thorough work-up, a urinalysis may also be conducted.
There are several specific laboratory tests that may be used to diagnose CDV. The most frequently utilized is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which works well to detect distemper in dogs who have not yet been vaccinated against distemper – but which does not reliably discriminate between a dog who is actually infected with distemper and a dog who has been vaccinated against it.
In February 2017, the veterinary diagnostic laboratory Idexx announced that it now offers a test that can differentiate between vaccinal strain interference and actual infection with CDV. In an infected dog, the level of replicating virus is exponentially higher than that found in a vaccine. The quantitative test that is now offered will give actual levels of the vaccine strain present, helping to distinguish between distemper vaccination and true infection.
Another test that your veterinarian may recommend is an immunofluorescence assay (IFA). The problem with this test is that it is generally only positive for the first three weeks after infection. Often, distemper isn’t suspected until the development of neurological signs. That may be beyond the period where it is reliably detected by IFA. As a result, this test gives positive results only in certain groups of patients.
Usually, a diagnosis of distemper can be confirmed through the combination of the dog’s history, veterinary examination, and PCR testing with blood, urine, or a swab from the eye (called a conjunctival sample). But owners should be aware that there are cases that elude certain confirmation.
Distemper Treatment for Dogs
Unfortunately, the only treatment for CDV consists of basic supportive care. It is a virus, so antibiotics are not warranted specifically to fight the distemper. Frequently, though, the illness can trigger secondary bacterial infections like pneumonia, in which case antibiotics will be indicated.
Medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) may be used to reduce fever and inflammation, as well as to help the dog feel better. Patients who aren’t eating or drinking will need IV fluids and IV antibiotics. If the dog isn’t eating, nutrition may be supplied via the placement of a feeding tube.
Pneumonia often develops in CDV patients. This is treated as above and with the addition of oxygen therapy, nebulization (a device that delivers medication via a mist that is inhaled into the lungs), and coupage (a physical therapy during which the dog’s chest is struck in a precise way with cupped hands). These treatments help loosen and clear secretions in the lungs.
If your dog is hospitalized, she will be kept in an isolation ward, as CDV is highly contagious and spread through sneezing and coughing.
Distemper Prognosis for Dogs
It is not hopeless if you have a puppy diagnosed with CDV, but the road to a complete recovery can be a long one, and a rosy outcome is never certain. Prognosis depends on the presence or absence of neurological signs like myoclonus and seizures.
If a puppy survives the initial infection, she may go on to live a fairly normal life – or she may experience persistent seizure activity and myoclonus indefinitely. These can sometimes be managed with anti-seizure medications, but the prognosis is very hard to predict.
Two other unsightly after effects of a distemper infection, enamel hypoplasia (no development of enamel on the teeth) and thickened nose and footpads (hyperkeratosis) also can persist for life.
Distemper Prevention
Finally, for the good news: Vaccinations for CDV are available at any general practice veterinary clinic and are highly effective.
There are two types of distemper vaccines: modified live and recombinant. Modified live vaccines (MLVs) offer the strongest protection from the disease. They also pose a tiny risk of conferring a CDV infection. However, according to veterinary virologist Dr. Melissa Kennedy at the University of Tennessee, the chances of this happening are “virtually nil” – the risk for reversion to an infective strain is so low that we take that very tiny risk over the much greater risk of CDV infection from other infected dogs.
The other type of CDV vaccine is a recombinant vaccine – one that has been produced through recombinant DNA technology. These vaccines have zero chance of ever reverting to a pathogenic strain, but historically were considered less effective than MLV vaccines. More recent studies have demonstrated that they are just as effective as the modified live vaccines, and thus are being used more frequently (and are what we use in my veterinary clinic).
Immunity takes about two weeks to develop after vaccination. The immune system must be given time to recognize the virus and then produce antibodies against it.
Because of the possibility that maternal antibodies can interfere with earlier vaccinations, puppies shouldn’t be considered safely immunized against distemper until they have received a vaccine when they are past 18 to 20 weeks of age (the age at which no more maternal antibody interference is possible).
Callejera’s story
Many veterinarians and veterinary technicians travel to third-world countries to help with preventive health clinics. These are invaluable services that protect both animal and human health worldwide. But sometimes, the big heartedness of these individuals leads to heartbreak.
That’s how Callejera (Spanish for “street dog”) came to the United States from the Dominican Republic. She was a stray presented to a preventive clinic. “Callie” quickly stole the heart of April, an American veterinary technician who was volunteering at the clinic. Callie was vaccinated and spayed, despite having a fever and some eye discharge. Despite the fact that Callie’s history was unknown, April elected to adopt Callie and bring her back to the United States.
Callie did well for about a week once the fever subsided. She easily won the devotion of all who knew her. Then she became very ill. She began to vocalize and “bite” at her legs – and even bit at April. She became lethargic and disoriented. Then her back legs began to jerk rhythmically, all day, every day. She cried in pain, day and night. Antibiotics, pain relief, and gentle, loving nursing care did not give her any relief. A number of possible diagnoses, including panosteitis and other infectious diseases, were entertained and ruled out.
After a few days and failed treatment, distemper was considered as a possible diagnosis, and tests confirmed this suspicion. The most likely explanation is that she already had been infected with distemper before she got vaccinated. Despite supportive care, Callie was suffering and only getting worse. She was showered with love and treats by April and the staff of the veterinary specialty clinic, and then she was peacefully euthanized. She drifted off in the arms of the person who loved her.
Callie’s story is sad but serves as an important reminder that dogs imported from other countries often bring with them a host of parasites and infectious diseases. Careful consideration should be given to the risks, as well as the possible heartbreak, of adopting dogs from third-world countries.
Catherine Ashe graduated the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008. Dr. Ashe practiced ER medicine for nine years and now works as a relief veterinarian in Asheville, North Carolina, and loves the GP side of medicine.
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Some years ago, I was driving along the main route to our home in rural upstate New York when I spied a small dark terrier, scurrying along the roadside. While I was overdue at home for some family get-together, I could not leave that little lost-looking guy behind. After quite a bit of effort and the emergency enlistment of my husband and his brother, we managed to use a blanket to scoop up the little dog and get him in my car.
Once we got home and he was safely indoors, the terrier was more relaxed and allowed me to pet him and give him a look. He had a collar and a rabies tag, but no other identification. The rabies tags in our state provide the vaccinating veterinarian’s information, but the clinic was closed for the weekend. So we hosted the little stranger for the weekend.
On Monday, I called the vet’s office. To protect the owner, they would not provide me with any information but promised to try to reach the owner of the dog. It took a couple days, but finally we got a call from the owners; they were in Florida and the dog had been in the care of another family. He had traveled – either on his own paw power or with the assistance of someone who snagged him and let him go – many, many miles!
The point of this anecdote is to remind you, as I do my dog-training clients, that it is wise to make sure your dog is always wearing identification, with up-to-date contact information! Ideally, your dog’s tags have enough information that anyone who might find your dog could contact you directly, 24/7, in the event that she darts out, gets lost on a hike, etc. There are many options for you to employ!
We use multiple forms of identification on our dogs. It’s our nature to have backup systems in our home; we have a double-door system for our front door, which also is posted with a warning not to let our deaf dog out. Our dogs’ collars carry the tags, and when we walk, we attach our dog-walking harness to the collar with a carabiner.
Our tags include the required New York state license (which provides only a registration number and the name of our town, but this could be a start for someone); a rabies vaccination tag (that vaccination is required in every state in the United States – we want people to know that our dog is not a health threat); and a standard identification tag with our contact information on it. I add another tag if I ever leave my dogs in the care of a pet sitter; the pet sitter’s number is on that last tag to streamline recovery should my pups get separated from their caretakers.
Types of Dog Tags
The tag that has my contact information on it is a metal tag that I got at PetSmart. It’s inexpensive and quick. You may want to get a fancy artisan tag if you get a new dog, but in the meantime, go to a pet supply store that has a tag-engraving machine. It’s super quick and fun! The tags are thin metal, and don’t appear to be that durable, but I’ve found them to last a few years. This type of tag is handy to get when your dog will be staying somewhere away from home and you want the sitter’s contact info on your dog.
Many pet supply stores sell custom designs, or you can go on Etsy.com and see the many well-crafted designs out there. Some of these are made out of fancier metals like brass or hard plastic. Custom-designed tags cost a bit more and may take a couple of weeks to receive. There are also a multitude of Internet name-tag companies and they often offer deals on repeat or multiple orders. I opted to add a fancy little brass tag to our little dog’s “charm bracelet.” The brass tag lets people know that our dog Helen of Troy is deaf.
Silidog sells silicone dog tags – soft, durable, non-fading tags that are engraved on both sides with your information and shipped to you for $20 each.
Some local chapters of AAA offer free dog tags and registration for your dogs. These plastic tags sport the AAA logo, color scheme, and toll-free number. If someone finds your dog and calls the number on the tag, AAA will contact you and tell you how to reach the person with your dog. A benefit of this feature is that the tag does not display any of your personal information. Ask your local AAA representative if this benefit is available in your area.
I just received a similar service through Embark, one of the DNA-testing companies. We bought the DNA kit to test our new dog, Petey. In the box was a very nice tag with his Embark registration number and a phone number. The registration number was affixed to the tag and does not appear integral to its structure so I’m not sure how long that will last – but it’s a nice perk.
Jingle Hell?
Personally, I like the jingling noise that all my dogs’ tags make as the dogs walk around my house; it helps me know where they are! But some people find the sound of dog tags very aversive. No problem! There are any number of little pouches that can contain and mute your dog’s tags.
I found a stylish leather wrap-around “tag bag” that fastens to a dog’s collar with both a little clip and hook-and-loop fabric. They are made and sold by LongDogLeather on Etsy.com, $11.
ThunderCover is a translucent silicone pouch that contains the tags. Made by ThunderWorks, the same company that makes the ThunderShirt, the pouches are available widely in stores and online. Chewy.com offers them for $8.
Tag Switching
For those of you, like me, who like to change your dog’s collar frequently, there are companies that have designed clips that can host the tags and are easily removed to place them on different collars, such as the Rubit Dog Tag Clip from Rubitclip.com ($8).
Personally, I use a key ring for attaching ID tags to my dogs’ collars; they are much stronger than the little rings that often come with rabies or license tags and are easily found in any hardware store. Remember: Never attach your leash to the flimsy rings that come with tags – they are not strong enough and you could lose both your dog and your tags!
Identification Collars
Another means of identification for those who are tag-phobic is to get a collar that has your pet’s name and your phone number sewn into or printed on the collar. This eliminates the jangling tags (though I appreciate hearing that sound so I know where my dogs are in the house).
There are a number of companies that make these collars. Orvis sells eight different models, including collars with reflective stripes and martingale collars. The most basic is the Personalized Adjustable Dog Collar, $21.
DogIDS.com offers a dozen or so more personalized options. I like their Waterproof Soft Grip ScruffTag Personalized Collar. It’s made out of a very strong waterproof material (poly-coated nylon webbing) with a built-in stainless steel plate that is engraved with your dog’s information for $34. These collars are made to a specific length based on your dog’s measurements. Note that they are made with a traditional stainless steel tang buckle; for an option with a plastic side-release buckle (which offers a quick release in an emergency), get their Nylon ScruffTag Personalized Collar ($29).
Microchipping
In addition to their tags, my dogs are also microchipped. A microchip is implanted under the dog’s skin with a needle, usually above the shoulder blades. Most veterinarians, shelters, and rescues microchip dogs routinely.
A microchip not only identifies your dog even if he loses his collar, it can confirm his identity and your ownership if he’s ever stolen.
There are a number of microchip registration companies to choose from, including Home Again, AKC Reunite, Petkey, and 24 PetWatch. Before the microchip was inserted in Petey, my veterinarian scanned the chip to make sure it was active. She said that it was rare but on occasion the chip may be a “dud.” After the chip is implanted, the technician usually scans it again, to make sure it’s still readable.
After the microchip is inserted, make sure that either the veterinarian, shelter, or you has registered the required information with the microchip company – then, it’s up to you to keep the contact information on file with the microchip company up-to-date! There is nothing a shelter or rescue worker hates more than finding a dog with a microchip, but being unable to reach the registered owner due to out-of-date contact information.
Most of the microchip companies offer a plastic tag to go on your dog’s collar that has the company’s toll-free number on it. Some of the companies, including 24PetWatch, also print a unique ID number on the tag, so even if the person who finds your dog doesn’t have access to a microchip scanner, they can still call the company and a representative will help connect them to the dog’s owner.
Tags from some of the other companies have no unique ID number on them; instead, the tags simply indicate that the wearer is microchipped. The dog still needs to be scanned so the microchip number can be reported to the chip company.
Since the inception of the microchip, there have been many rumors that they can cause diseases like cancer. While the rice-sized chip can occasionally migrate, ending up somewhere down the dog’s shoulder or leg, there is no scientific evidence to support significant harm. Depending on where you have your dog chipped, the fee for insertion and chip registration can range from $20 to $50. Some companies offer some additional services if you pay an annual fee.
Use Anything! But Use Something!
The collar and tag identification options are vast, so no excuses! Pick an option that suits you and your canine and will result in a speedy reunion lest you are inadvertently separated.
There is no doubt that it’s immensely beneficial for dogs to be able to run off-leash. Most dogs cannot even come close to getting adequate exercise on the end of a leash, and lack of exercise contributes to a whole host of behavior challenges. And adequate exercise can be a huge factor in the success of behavior modification programs.
But taking a dog for a walk or hike off-leash must be done appropriately and legally in order to prevent any number of risks to the dog, other dogs, or humans who may encounter the off-leash dog, as well as livestock or wildlife in the area. Off-leash dogs may run off and get lost, run onto roads and cause serious accidents, cause hikers to fall and bicyclists to crash, and chase or even kill other animals.
Readers of WDJ will likely appreciate another hazard of off-leash dogs: The unfettered approach of an off-leash dog can trigger all sorts of behavioral issues in dogs who are being walked on-leash. Service dogs, for example, should never have to be distracted by, much less defend themselves or their human partners against an incursion by an off-leash dog (whether its exuberantly friendly or attacking!). Dogs who are anxious about, terrified by, or even offensively aggressive to other dogs and are being treated for these behaviors can suffer long-lasting or even permanent behavioral setbacks following even just one untimely, uncontrolled approach by a loose dog.
Mandatory Prerequisites for Off-Leash Dog Walking
We assume that you, as a caring, responsible dog owner, are as concerned about the safety and well being of other dogs as much as your own. Before you even think about taking your dog off-leash anywhere other than your own safely fenced yard, you should be able to accomplish the following prerequisites.
■ Know your own dog’s personality and temperament well. Your dog must be dog-friendly and human-friendly if you are going to take her off-leash anywhere. There is too much risk, and too much to lose, if your dog attacks another dog or bites a human.
■ Teach an excellent recall. You must be able to call your dog back from any temptation – wildlife, small children, grannies with walkers, other dogs, etc. Even if she is dog-friendly, there may be other dogs who don’t appreciate her attentions. And – heaven forbid she chases a cow or deer deep into the woods, never to be seen again. Note that in some places, it is legal for anyone to shoot a dog that is chasing livestock or wildlife.
For more information about teaching a fast, reliable recall, see Whole Dog Journal‘s articles on this topic by three different trainer/authors in the September 2015, September 2014, and September 2012 issues.
■ Know and obey leash laws. Regardless of how friendly and well-trained your dog is, you must obey local leash and control laws. The consequences of any incident that might occur are greatly magnified if you’re in violation of local animal control laws. Make sure your dog is currently licensed and wearing her tag!
■ Learn about the hazards in your potential off-leash hiking areas (and how to avoid or combat them) before you take off your dog’s leash there! We wouldn’t suggest taking off your dog’s leash in any place you hadn’t been before, unless you are with another dog person who is familiar with all the potential hazards and can alert you to them ahead of time.
Before the leashes come off, you should know what, if any, potentially dangerous conditions are present in that location. A few of the possibilities include things such as:
Venomous snakes
Pond ice that your dog could fall through
A spot along the beach where the ocean undertow is unusually strong
Ponds that sometimes contain toxic algae
Cliffs, caves, or abandoned mine shafts your dog could fall into or over
Wildlife predators that could grab your dog
A gap in a boundary fence near a busy road or highway.
If you are aware of these hazards, you can proactively prevent your dog from going near them, or respond quickly and effectively if a potentially dangerous encounter happens despite your best efforts.
Which Dogs Should NEVER Go Off-Leash?
There are a few canine behaviors that absolutely preclude off-leash options for your dog, other than your own safely fenced yard, including:
Strong, uncontrollable predatory behavior
Strong, uncontrollable scent-tracking behavior
Aggression toward other dogs or humans.
Unless or until these behaviors are modified and you have trained a superbly reliable recall, you have no business having your dog off-leash anywhere in a public or private place where you might encounter/threaten the safety of others or of your own dog.
Sample Leash Laws
Most state laws have some form of dog control laws that prohibit an owner from allowing a dog to “run at large.” In addition to state control laws, counties and local municipalities are also free to pass more restrictive leash law ordinances – and many do. Know your local laws – and obey them! Here are some examples:
State of Delaware: No dog shall be permitted to run at large at any time, unless the dog is accompanied by the owner or custodian and under the owner’s or custodian’s reasonable control and is licensed in accordance with county ordinances. (Note: This is a “control” law; the dog does not have to be leashed, but must be under the owner’s/ custodian’s immediate control.)
Marin County, California: Dogs shall at all times be kept under the immediate control and direction of a competent, responsible person who is capable of controlling such an animal. Any dog which is not subject to such control and direction may be seized and impounded. (Again, this is a “control” law, it does not state that the dog has to be on a leash. However, most of the cities within Marin County have actual leash laws.)
Alachua County, Florida: A dog owner has a duty under Section 72.12 to maintain “physical control” of the dog when the dog is off the owner’s property. “Off the owner’s property” includes streets, parks, public property, and private property of others. Physical control means immediate and continuous control through the use of a leash or continuous control through the use of an enclosure. (This is an actual county-wide leash law.)
New York City: A person who owns or controls a dog may not allow it to be in any public place or in any open or unfenced field abutting a public place, unless the dog is effectively restrained by a leash or chain no more than six feet long. (This is a city leash law.)
You can find your local ordinances online on government websites, and/or ask your local animal control agency for a copy of local animal control laws.
Things to Teach Your Dog for Off-Leash Reliability
It’s not enough, however, to have a friendly and well-trained dog; you need to keep your dog’s responses to your cues sharp and fresh. Here are things to practice regularly so she doesn’t lose her edge:
Regular, automatic check-ins.
Your off-leash dog should stay fairly close to you, and frequently turn back toward you, or, better yet, return all the way to you – all without being prompted to do so.
Anytime you notice your dog turning toward you and/or looking at you, mark the moment with the click of a clicker or a verbal marker (such as the word “Yes!”) and give or toss her a treat. The more frequently the checking-in behavior is reinforced, the more frequently your dog will offer it. This valuable behavior should be kept fresh with frequent reinforcement, whether that means treats, a quick game with your dog’s favorite toy, verbal praise, and/or petting.
On the trail, you can encourage your dog to stay close to you and keep glancing back toward you by paying close attention to her and marking/reinforcing her check-ins.
Another game you can play to encourage your dog to keep an eye on you is to occasionally step behind a tree or duck behind a boulder on the trail; when she glances back and doesn’t see you, she will likely turn and run back toward you to locate you. Don’t make it difficult to find you; you don’t want her to race past you in a panic! Instead, as you hear her approach, you can step out of hiding and throw an enthusiastic reward party! Note that this should be a fun game, not something that makes her anxious. Skip this game if your dog suffers from separation anxiety or gets panicky if you step out of her sight.
You can also do unannounced U-turns and playful changes of pace – breaking into a jog or even taking off in a little sprint. Most dogs will respond to these behaviors by speeding to find or catch up with you. When your dog does this, reinforce her well with high-value treats and/or preferred play.
Emergency sits and downs.
These can sometimes work better than a recall in an emergency. Practice at a short distance (perhaps five or six paces away from you) and gradually cue her for these behaviors at greater and greater distances, until she will sit and/or drop to a down immediately on cue, even at a distance.
Reliable recalls.
A fast, reliable recall is worth its weight in gold. Practice, practice, practice. Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. Use whatever your dog loves best in the world for off-leash recall rewards.
Walk Aways.
My new favorite! The Walk Away behavior can be used to cue your dog to quickly turn away from any potential hazard you (or she!) just noticed. When you want your dog to actively avoid going near something, you say “Walk away!” and move away with her, feeding a jackpot of treats from your hand or tossing treats out in front of her. It’s a fun and dynamic behavior – and because it’s unlikely that it has been “poisoned” (associated with a potentially aversive result, making the dog speculative about the cue), it may work more effectively than a recall.
Here are some situations where Walk Away could be used:
You see your water-loving dog running toward a pond that is covered with a dangerously thin sheet of ice. Say “Walk away!” and when she swivels her head toward you, run away to encourage her to run after you, away from the pond. When she reaches you toss treats on the ground or feed from your hand and throw a happy party. Good dog!
A horseback rider appears around a bend in the trail just 20 feet away. Your dog perks up and starts to move forward. You say “Walk away!” and when her head swivels toward you, step off the path and feed treats from your hand as she follows you. If necessary, continue to feed treats until the horse is well past.
I’ve heard a disturbing number of reports in recent months from clients who were walking their dogs on-leash in areas where dogs are legally required to be on-leash, when their dogs were attacked by loose dogs. In most cases, the attackers were either dogs who were walking off-leash with their humans or dogs who charged off of their own properties at passers-by. But sadly, I have also heard about these incidents happening in places where it is legal to have your dog off-leash – dog parks, for example, private fenced yards, playgroups, open space areas where dogs are allowed off-leash, and jurisdictions that don’t have leash laws.
It pays to be armed and ready if you take your dog anywhere – on-leash or off – both to be able to prevent encounters as well as break up a fight if one occurs. Of course, prevention is the much-preferred option! These are all things you do before the other dog gets close enough to make contact:
1. Be an assertive advocate for your dog. If you see someone with an inappropriately off-leash dog headed your way, loudly (but not angrily) call out, “Please put your dog on a leash!” If you get the “It’s okay, he’s friendly” response, answer, “Mine’s not!” (Even if she is.) This might work. And it might not. Be prepared.
2. Use a noise aversive. Potential noise aversives include a marine air horn, a loud whistle (my favorite is the Storm Whistle), loud hand-clapping, or a variety of party-favor style noisemakers. With any of these, as with other suggested aversives, be sure to condition your dog to the sound first, so you don’t scare her in the process.
3. Use a visual aversive. A pop-open umbrella may effectively startle an approaching dog who is getting close (remember to condition your own dog to love the umbrella first!). A loud “Go home!” accompanied by an angry face and arm motions also might work for an unaccompanied dog who charges off his property.
4. Block with a physical barrier. You can block an approaching dog by stepping in front of yours, using your own body as a visual/physical barrier. Alternatively, you can teach your own dog a “get behind” cue so you can ask her to step behind you. Keep an eye out for natural barriers the two of you can get behind (or on!) – cars, trees, garbage cans, fences.
Too Close for Comfort
When all else fails and the other dog is clearly going to make contact, all bets are off, and force-free/pain-free goes out the window. The following are products that you can use to deter an approaching dog (they are obviously never to be used on your own dog!), and that I would never recommend for any other purpose: SprayShield Animal Deterrent (citronella spray) may be effective, and the Pet Corrector shoots out compressed air while making a hissing noise. Carry a stout stick, and don’t hesitate to use it if necessary.
Transitioning from On- to Off-Leash
Once you are certain that you and your dog possess the basic prerequisites for off-leash walking (you know your dog well, she has a reliable recall, you know the local leash laws, and you are aware of the potential hazards in your walking destination), and you are equally certain that she poses no danger to anyone else, you are ready to introduce her to off-leash hiking.
How you begin depends on your dog and her level of energy and excitement on the trail. Mature dogs and inexperienced puppies may be inclined to stay close to you regardless of their energy levels and can be let off-leash right away. In contrast, if you have an athletic eager beaver, and her enthusiasm may carry her too far from you too quickly, begin the walk with her on-leash, at least until some until her raw energy has dissipated a bit. Reward her amply for checking in. Practice Walk Away a time or two.
When your dog has demonstrated that she’s listening and responsive to you, quietly unsnap the leash and continue walking as before – rewarding her for checking in and occasionally practicing a recall or Walk Away.
Continue to pay close attention to how your dog responds to the environment and other people and animals. If she begins to get overstimulated, paying less attention to you and a little too much attention to those ducks in that nearby pond, take the next opportunity to reward her for checking in or coming to you, and cheerfully snap the leash back on for a little while.
Keep the on-leash experience very positive and let her off-leash again as soon as she has calmed down and is once again responsive to your cues; you don’t want her to think that every time she comes back to you she might be put on leash for the rest of the walk. To that end, make sure every time you leash her you are happy, using a cheerful tone of voice, and delivering lots of reinforcement.
Do NOT Do These Things with Off-Leash Dogs
While there are a number of things that should be practiced at least once during every off-leash walk, there are also things that you shouldn’t do while walking your dog off-leash.
Focus on your mobile phone. Your dog is your first and primary responsibility. If you must answer your phone, keep the conversation short and keep your eyes on your dog at all times. No texting, no Googling, no game-playing.
Socialize and fail to closely monitor your dog.Your dog is your first and primary responsibility. Keep your eyes on your dog at all times, even if you are chatting with other dog owners or hikers.
Ignore hazards. Do not fail to take action to prevent a potentially dangerous encounter. If you see a bicyclist, horse, another dog, a frozen pond, or some other attraction in the distance, call your dog to you and keep her safely secured until the hazard has passed.
Off-Leash Walking is the Best!
There are few activities more rewarding and enjoyable for you and your dog than a long off-leash hike in the woods, up and down hills, through meadows, across beaches, and anywhere else that the two of you can enjoy the natural world at its best and your dog gets to just be a dog. Conversely, there are few experiences more traumatic than losing your dog – either because she runs off, gets gravely injured, or is impounded after attacking someone else’s dog. If you use common sense about whether, when, where, and how to allow your dog off-leash, and always remember that your dog is your first and primary responsibility when you are out and about with her, you should be able to enjoy her company for many outings to come.
Many dogs are amazing athletes, capable of running faster, jumping higher, and displaying better endurance than most human sports stars. But even when they are not very athletic, dogs are hard on their joints, particularly their stifle joints. The dog’s stifle is analogous to a human knee and is commonly (and interchangeably) called a knee or a stifle.
One of the most common athletic injuries in humans is damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee. If they haven’t torn it themselves, most people know someone who has. In human athletes, this is known as the “plant and twist” injury. It’s seen most frequently when the foot is planted firmly and the knee is then either twisted or run into (picture those cringe-worthy clips of soccer and football players being hit from the side).
In dogs, we see this same injury, often resulting from the same sort of forces, but we also see chronic wear and tear leading to cruciate ligament tears. To fully understand why this is so, you need to appreciate the mechanics that lead to cruciate ligament injuries.
Canine Knee Anatomy
The knee joint in a dog is the point where the thigh bone (femur) and “calf bones” (tibia and fibula) come together and interact. Refer to Figure 1 (right) so you can fully understand what the dog’s knee is up against, literally and figuratively! Here are the anatomical terms you’ll need to know:
Femur – Upper leg bone extending from the hip to the knee.
Tibia – Primary lower leg bone extending from knee to ankle.
Fibula – Secondary lower leg bone extending from knee to ankle.
Stifle – Knee joint.
Cranial cruciate ligament (CrCL) – This ligament provides front-to-back stability (and a tiny bit of rotational stability) between the femur and tibia in the knee joint.
Meniscus – C-shaped cartilage cushion that provides shock absorption in a joint.
Dog Knees vs. Human Knees
Picture your dog standing: His knee joints are slightly bent, ready to propel him forward like a coiled spring. Now picture yourself standing next to your dog: Your knees are straight, possibly even locked in place. The disparity in the posture of our knees when we are standing is one of the biggest differences between dogs and humans – and it contributes to the frequency of injuries to dogs’ knees.
The bottom of the femur is rounded in both dogs and humans. The top of the tibia is flat. When a human is standing, that round femur rests neutrally on a flat surface. It takes very little effort to keep that position – and gravity helps. A round structure on a flat surface will pretty much stay in place, as long as that flat surface is level.
Now, think back to the dog. His knee is bent. That means that the round end of the femur is on a tilted platform. Something needs to keep that femur in place.
That something is, in large part, the cranial cruciate ligament. As the name implies, the cruciate ligaments – both caudal (toward the tail) and cranial (toward the head) – form an “X” in the knee joint, holding the femur to the tibia. The cranial cruciate ligament starts at the back of the femur and attaches to the front of the tibia. It is constantly being strained by the natural position that the dog stands in. The slope to the top of the tibia, combined with the round end of the femur, means that the femur is always trying to fall off the back of the tibia.
Ligament Tears in Dogs More Common Than in People
A loose string can be moved around with little risk of breakage, but the more you increase the tension on the string, the easier it will tear. The same is true of a ligament. So, in dogs, with this ligament under constant strain, tears are more common than in the human knee. In fact, this is the most common orthopedic injury that veterinarians see. In humans, this ligament gets periodic “rest” breaks and is really under strain only during physical activity. In dogs, it is in constant use – and over time, especially in large-breed or overweight dogs, it wears out.
A CrCL injury in a young, healthy dog is typically an athletic injury. In older dogs, it is usually an injury of chronic wear and tear. This explains why it’s so common for a dog who has damaged the CrCL on one side to then tear it on the other side. When you take one back leg out of commission, the work load shifts to the other, increasing the strain on the ligaments of the “good” leg.
This is simplifying things a bit. There are many contributing factors to this type of injury, from the dog’s build (conformation) to his activity level. Some things that can predispose a dog to this type of injury include obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and other joint problems (such as “trick” knee caps). Overweight dogs experience far more strain on their joints than their fit counterparts. Dogs who are not very active also strain their ligaments more, as their untoned muscles don’t contribute much to the task of holding things in place.
Dogs Don’t Have ACLs (They Have CrCLs)
The ligament that provides front-to-back stability in the knee is called the cranial cruciate ligament (CrCL) in the dog, but the same ligament in the human knee is called the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Why the different anatomical names?
It has to do with how the front of a quadriped (four-legged animal) is described as compared to the front of a biped (two-legged animal).
In a quadriped, the “cranial” refers to the head end of the animal. The cranial side of the dog’s knee is the side closest to his head.
In an upright biped like a human, the same surface of the knee (as just one example) can’t accurately be described as being closest to his head. Instead, the “front” is called the anterior or ventral surface.
This can be confusing, especially when people refer to a dog’s ACL. It’s not the correct term, but when it’s used, it is meant to indicate the CrCL.
To add to the confusion, the cranial cruciate ligament is sometimes abbreviated as CCL and sometimes as CrCL. Since CCL could also stand for caudal cruciate ligament, we prefer the more precise abbreviation of CrCL.
Dogs Most At Risk for Torn Cruciates
Let’s look a bit deeper at the patients who most commonly present with this injury: small dogs, young big dogs, and old big dogs.
When a small-breed dog, young or old, is diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament, it’s very important to check for a specific, concurrent problem – medially luxating patellas. This is a fancy way of saying knee caps that slip to the inside of the joint. This is a very common congenital problem for dogs under 20 lbs. When they are born with knee caps that move incorrectly, they are at higher risk for ligament tears because of the abnormal forces on the joint. This is important because it can and should be fixed at the same time as a torn cruciate ligament.
When a young large-breed dog is diagnosed with a torn cruciate, I look for conformation problems. Do his legs bow like a cowboy? Do his paws turn out like a duck? I also ask about activity level, since these are the dogs who will most commonly get this injury through athletic injury, just as with humans.
If it’s an older, bigger dog, it’s usually a wear-and-tear injury, which increases the risk for a tear in the other back leg.
All of these dogs have one thing in common, though: Their risk of a ligament tear is lower if they are fit and at an appropriate weight! Overweight dogs are at a much higher risk for joint problems in general, from arthritis and strains to fractures, dislocations, and ligament tears. Keeping your dog (young or old), active and at a healthy weight will stave off many potential problems.
Diagnosis of Canine Cruciate Ligament Injuries
So now we know the anatomy and the “why” of this injury. Let’s talk about how it’s diagnosed. Any dog who comes in with a back leg limp should be checked for a torn cranial cruciate ligament.
The first clue is a knee joint that feels swollen. Anytime the knee joint is swollen I am on high alert for a ligament tear.
To look for this injury, veterinarians do something called a “drawer test,” which involves moving the tibia in relation to the femur. If I can move the lower leg bone forward in the knee, the cranial cruciate ligament is not doing its job. Sometimes, in a big, strong dog, this requires sedation. But in small dogs, it’s pretty easy to do during a routine physical exam.
Once this injury is suspected, x-rays are the next test. Now, let me say this and say it loud: YOU CANNOT SEE A LIGAMENT ON AN X-RAY. Nevertheless, x-rays are still very important, because they let us double-check for other injuries (such as small bone fragments) and help us evaluate whether arthritis might already exist.
The position of the leg bones (as seen in the x-rays) will also give us clues as to whether and how severely torn the cruciate ligament might be; certain changes in the position of the bones can indicate that the ligaments are not stabilizing the joint properly. Finally, x-rays also help with planning for how to treat the injury (which we’ll talk about in the next issue).
Complicating Factor
A torn meniscus is one concurrent injury that can be suspected, but not diagnosed, until surgery. This is another injury that’s common to both human and canine knees.
The meniscus is a little piece of cartilage that provides cushioning and shock absorption in the knee. When the cruciate ligament is torn, that cartilage starts getting squished and rubbed in an abnormal way, which can lead to tears in the meniscus. A chronically torn meniscus may lead to further arthritis and discomfort in the future. There is no good data on whether or not removing a torn meniscus improves long-term pain control in the joint. Some surgeons recommend removal and some do not, but that’s a discussion to have on a dog-by-dog basis with your doctor.
Future Options
The stifle is a complex joint with a lot of working parts. The joint is prone to injury because of the way it’s formed and the way it’s used in the dog. A cranial cruciate ligament tear is not an emergency, but it’s worth a trip to your veterinarian to talk about options.
Cranial cruciate disease is a constellation of signs and symptoms that have a lot of different management options. We’ll dig into those options in the next issue. Until then, keep an eye on your dog. I bet you’ll notice a lot more of the dynamics of his knees than you did before!
A 2011 graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Kyle Grusling, DVM, practiced emergency medicine for three years before switching to a general practice. Dr. Grusling works at Northland Animal Hospital in Rockford, Michigan.
The first time I met Annie, a year-old German Shepherd Dog, it was at about 9 p.m. on February 10, 2017. I am certain of the date only because I can look up the events immediately before and after our meeting on Wikipedia. I met Annie in the middle of the Oroville Dam Spillway disaster – after the main spillway collapsed, and just before Oroville was evacuated due to fears that the “emergency overflow spillway” was in danger of collapsing, too.
I wrote about all of these events in a blog post, but I didn’t mention Annie by name. She was just one of the dogs I helped load into a crate and move in a friend’s horse trailer. They were on their way to another friend, who had offered shelter as an emergency evacuation site: The Canine Connection, a daycare, boarding, and training facility owned by trainer Sarah Richardson, in Chico, California.
My local shelter, very much in the path of the potential flood that would occur if the rising lake continued to undercut the spillway, was sending away all of the animals in its care. My shelter was offering free adoptions, fee forgiveness, fostering, transfer to other shelters, or breed rescues to get the situation under control. Even with all these efforts to empty the shelter, there were about 40 dogs left we needed to find safe places for. Sarah offered to take up to 20 dogs. Given the fact that her facility was secure and professionally staffed, some of the largest dogs and a few behaviorally challenged ones were chosen to go to The Canine Connection.
A couple days after staff and volunteers helped completely evacuate the animals from the shelter, a genuine mandatory evacuation was called for the city of Oroville and other towns downstream. Over 180,000 people left town overnight, taking shelter wherever they could find to stay out of the path of the potentially deadly flood. Three days later, the county Sheriff relaxed the evacuation order to a “warning,” meaning that people could go home, but residents were ordered to stay ready to evacuate again.
All in all, my local shelter stayed empty for about two weeks. Given that it took a few days to completely empty the shelter as a precaution, the shelter director wasn’t about to move animals back until there was <em>zero</em> risk of having to evacuate them again. During that time, shelter employees were also caring for evacuated cats, who were moved to staff homes in banks of cat cages; volunteers were caring for the rest of the evacuated dogs (and other small animals) in their homes. At The Canine Connection, Sarah, her staff, and many volunteers were caring for 18 or so dogs that came from the shelter.
About half of the dogs that Sarah took on had been on the shelter’s adoption row. After discussion with the shelter manager, Sarah was given permission to place any of those animals she could into good homes. Sarah took to social media and started promoting the adoptable dogs and got a lot of them adopted!
A German Shepherd Seemingly Beyond Help
Annie was not one of the dogs who was on the adoption row prior to the evacuation. In fact, she had been on the list for euthanasia. Annie had a number of things working against her. The most significant were these: She could be highly reactive to other dogs. She would seem fine, and then suddenly explode in a frenzy of barking and try to attack every other dog she saw. And she appeared to have serious physical problems; she moved like she had bad hips and torn ligaments in her knees.
But adding to the unattractiveness of her total “package,” she had chronic, explosive diarrhea. She seemed to have no impulse to keep her kennel free of urine, either; she peed frequently in her kennel, no matter how many times and for how long she was walked outside. In fact, she seemed to prefer to “go” in her kennel; she would come in from a 45-minute walk during which she did not pee or poop, and immediately “go.” Also, she was highly reactive to any activity in the kennel. When you opened the door to the room where her kennel was, she would start spinning – liberally spraying her latest diarrhea and urine all over her kennel walls and herself.
Lovely.
I was not a fan of Annie. When Sarah asked me what I thought about her, I grimaced. “She’s a mess, physically and behaviorally. Who would or could ever adopt her?”
“Have you walked her yet?” Sarah asked me. “She’s actually really nice on a walk. And she loves people. She is happy to meet any human she sees. She just lights up! And she doesn’t pull!”
I rolled my eyes. Sarah can find something to like in any dog.
During the evacuation, the veterinary staff from the shelter made the rounds, visiting all of the evacuated animals. When the staff came to The Canine Connection, it was quickly determined that Annie needed medication for a urinary tract infection and for a giardia infection. The care she received didn’t mean she was off the euthanasia list, though. Nobody at the shelter saw anything to like about Annie, either.
In fact, I think Sarah may be the only one who looked at this giant young German Shepherd Dog and saw anything to like at all. When the shelter reopened and the few dogs that Sarah had not been able to find homes for went back to the shelter, Sarah asked if she could continue to foster Annie. The shelter manager, grateful to Sarah for her help, couldn’t say no, even though she had very little faith that Sarah could turn things around for Annie. But she agreed to let Annie stay with Sarah indefinitely. So Sarah took Annie home from The Canine Connection – to Sarah’s own home. And she started managing the dog’s life in an entirely new manner, trying to find the keys to making the dog adoptable.
Fixing the Whole Dog: Lots of Progress, Lots of Work
That was almost two years ago. Annie is still living in Sarah’s home. And Annie is an entirely different dog.
It has taken an enormous amount of work. I can’t think of anyone else I know who would have been so committed to turning this dog around – Sarah can be stubborn that way. Once she believes in a dog’s potential to live safely and happily in someone’s home, she won’t quit trying to make that happen.
From the very first days, Sarah was heartened by Annie’s happiness at meeting people, and how good she was on walks. Annie loves getting outside and exploring the world. She’s interested and curious about everything; she will often stop and just observe something – not balking or spooked, just interested. And she’s not particularly reactive to passing dogs when out on walks! If the passing dog is calm, so is she; if the other dog barks or lunges, she will strike a similar posture, but, with a savvy handler, she can be redirected and calm again in a minute. So Sarah dug in and started a total dog-life makeover for Annie.
It took Sarah months to get Annie’s diarrhea stopped. A combination of prescription medications, a ridiculous amount of cleaning and sanitizing, probiotics, digestive enzymes and time eventually got it under control. Part of the problem was giardia, but even after the giardia was for sure cleared up, any sort of stressful event could bring the diarrhea back.
Sarah kept Annie separated from her other dogs at home while she tried to get to the bottom of Annie’s unpredictable dog-aggression. Annie seemed very curious about other dogs, and her body language and behavior consistently indicated that she was interested in playing.
Sarah used her own very dog-friendly, dog-savvy dogs to act as “neutral dogs,” and used leashes and long lines and wide-open spaces to see if Annie could learn to be comfortable around other dogs. But it seemed like Annie just didn’t “speak dog,” and could misinterpret any random signal from other dogs as an attack. She would freeze for a moment, and then dramatically launch an offensive; if not for alert handling and the long line, she could definitely hurt another dog.
To meet Annie’s exercise needs, to both burn off some of her excess mental and physical energy, Sarah hired a dog walker to take Annie for an hour-long walk every day. The more she exercised, the better her gaits and posture got. Sarah would occasionally send me photos or video of Annie playing fetch or walking, with notes that said, “She’s so much better! Look how tall she is now!” The wobbly gaits and plantigrade stance completely disappeared as the dog gained fitness.
Curious about the dog’s past, Sarah asked the shelter if they would pass along her contact information to the people who had surrendered Annie. The couple contacted Sarah, overjoyed to hear that the dog had ended up in the hands of a professional dog trainer. At Sarah’s request, they met to discuss Annie’s life to date and the people’s reason for surrendering the dog at 11 months of age.
The couple had bought Annie as a puppy to be a companion for their elderly Basset hound. Unfortunately, the Basset never liked Annie, and was quite aggressive toward her – until Annie grew to several times the Basset’s size, and had enough maturity to realize that she didn’t have to take the Basset’s abuse anymore. The dogs started fighting regularly, and Annie ended up in a crate most of the time – and when she was let out of the crate, she was a maniac. The people finally gave up and brought her to the shelter.
The back story certainly explained why Annie was so unpredictable and stressed about dogs, and why she had so little competence at relating to dogs. Her only experience with another dog was traumatic. The story also explained why she was so crippled and weak-looking when we first met her; she had probably been spending 23 hours a day in a crate.
Sarah used every tool in her dog-trainer’s toolbox to try to determine what amount, if any, of dog companionship Annie might be able to handle. She introduced Annie to lots of different dogs through fences, for safety. Annie wanted to play; she would run up and down the fence playfully, inviting chase games. Sarah found that Annie got along better with female dogs than males, and that she would tense up and be prone to making an attacking sort of lunge if introduced while on-leash, but rarely would do this if off-leash (or on a loose long line). If another dog showed aggression toward her, however, it was on. Like the former abuse victim she was, she seemed to say, “I’m never going down again without a fight.”
Sarah said it was the saddest thing ever the first time Annie saw a Basset Hound in her care. The dog, an amiable old soul, belongs to one of Sarah’s employees. Annie was at The Canine Connection that day for daycare (exercise in a private play yard). When she saw the Basset in an adjacent play yard, she ran in a blind terror, and hid, trembling.
At one of Annie’s veterinary visits, Sarah asked her vet about some sort of anxiety-reducing medication for the big German Shepherd, and the veterinarian agreed to a trial of fluoxetine (Prozac). Sarah said the drug made an almost immediate improvement in the dog’s anxiety level. She seemed more relaxed and playful, less guarded.
Annie Still Needs A Home
As the trainer worked with Annie, she would occasionally publish a social media post asking for help in trying to find a home for Annie.
Whenever someone who fosters a dog tells the dog’s story, someone will always make the observation, “She’s so happy with you!” followed immediately by the question, “Why don’t you just keep her??”
Sarah has been asked this question countless times. The simple answer is, because she owns three other dogs – and is always going to own more than one dog – and because she feels that Annie would be most successful and comfortable in a home where she was the only dog. (And no cats. Sarah has a cat, who does not approve of Annie one bit. Annie does not like cats.)
After many experiments in socializing the dog with other dogs, Sarah has learned that Annie is capable of making a dog friend and playing happily with that friend. But given her size (a very fit 95 pounds) and the speed and ferocity with which she is capable of taking offense by another dog’s actions, in Sarah’s professional opinion, it would be best if Annie were an only dog in someone’s home. Also, says Sarah, “Annie deserves to live with someone who really loves and needs a big friendly dog. She thrives on human attention and affection. She loves everyone she meets, from old people to youngsters – although, given her size, I think she would be best suited to a home with adults who were not frail, or has little kids.”
I admire Sarah’s commitment to this dog. I know for a fact that Annie would have been euthanized by my local shelter, had the dam disaster and evacuation not happened. And had Annie been adopted into a home with another dog, at some point, Annie would have been triggered and someone would have gotten grievously injured and Annie may well have found herself back on a shelter’s euthanasia list. Sarah saved this dog, and found all the good things about her: the dog’s intelligence and ability to learn, sensitivity to and curiosity about humans, her enjoyment of walking outdoors with her person, her sense of fun and playfulness.
But there is a real shortage of homes with no other dogs and no cats – only humans who are physically capable of living with a large, exuberant dog, and with people who will be committed and able to walk this large dog every day (she’s great on leash!). Many people have expressed interest in Annie over the past two years, but literally not one person has stepped forward who meets all the criteria Sarah knows Annie is going to need to be successful.
As I write this, Sarah is about to start construction on a huge expansion/remodeling project on her training center. The plans include a suite for Annie – a large private area with attached outdoor run, where Annie can have tons of room to live and play, without the stress of seeing or dealing with other dogs. The suite will allow her 24-hour access to the facility’s boarding and daycare staff (who all really love Annie, too), and is adjacent to Sarah’s office, so she will be near people at all times.
When the construction is complete, Sarah plans to move Annie to her new suite, so that her own dogs can finally have the run of her entire home, not just half of it, and she won’t have to go through multiple dog gates to travel from one end of her house to the other.
Having the dog reside at her business isn’t ideal, but on the other hand, Sarah has spent the past two years learning all about what works and what doesn’t work to keep Annie happy, healthy, and behaviorally consistent, and she knows she can continue to do the same. Sarah says she will keep the big dog for the rest of Annie’s days if she’s not able to find the right home. “I absolutely love Annie,” Sarah says. “She is happy right now, but she would be even happier if she was an only dog. I really want that for her – but I won’t let her go any place where she is doomed to fail. Humans failed her utterly in her first year, and she very nearly didn’t survive that.”
This isn’t necessarily the best time to try to find Annie a new home; there are hundreds of animals who have been displaced by the more recent disaster in this county (the Camp Fire), and dozens of people looking to rehome their pets due to their own dislocation.
In addition to the heroics she performed for the animals from the Northwest SPCA when the dam disaster happened, Sarah stepped up to put a program in place to help connect fire victims and people who are willing to foster displaced pets until their owners can find housing where they can have their pets. She’s been so crazily busy with that program and preparing for this massive construction project at her boarding/training facility, I know her own dogs are getting the short end of the stick – a common hazard for dogs who belong to overworked dog trainers!
The time I spent with Sarah volunteering to help the animals who were staying in the emergency evacuation shelter (from the Camp Fire) convinced me that Sarah could use a break, and some extra help in putting the word out about Annie’s need for a very special home.
If you know someone who needs Annie – and has what Annie needs – would you ask if they would contact Sarah Richardson via email? Reach her at Sarah@thecanineconnection.com.
Mast cell tumors (MCTs) are one of the most frequent skin cancers seen in dogs. Mast cell tumors are the reason why careful monitoring of any skin growths is essential for maintaining a healthy canine. Any new masses on the skin should be evaluated by your veterinarian. In regards to MCTs, there are several predisposed breeds including Boxers, American Staffordshire terriers, and pit bulls.
Mast cells are important in the immune system, particularly in allergic reactions. They are found predominantly in the skin, but they are also found in lower numbers throughout the internal organs. Rarely are they found in the bloodstream. These cells are filled with substances such as histamine and heparin. During an allergic reaction, they degranulate – meaning they empty their contents onto or in the area of the offending allergen. The effect of mast cells can be seen when a patient develops hives and welts, as well as itching and redness.
As with any cell in the body, mast cells can develop cancer. The word cancer merely means the uncontrolled proliferation of cells. It can be divided into 2 broad categories – malignant and benign. Malignant cancers can be locally invasive and damaging, spread to other organ systems like the lungs, or both. Benign tumors do not spread to other organs and are cured by removal.
The symptoms of a MCT on dogs begin with a skin mass, most of the time (in rare circumstances, they can start in the internal organs, but this is more common in cats). They can be as small as a pea or as large as a softball. One important aspect is that they tend to wax and wane. They can start as small and suddenly become large, red, and irritated or weepy. This is a sign of degranulation, meaning the tumor has become irritated and released the nasty substances within it. The hallmark of a mast cell tumor is a tumor that grows and shrinks periodically.
If you note a skin mass on your dog, it should be checked by your veterinarian. As with any veterinary visit, your dog should have a nose-to-tail examination including weight and vitals, followed by a detailed history. Your veterinarian will ask how the mass has behaved, how long it has been present, and if it has changed significantly. They may also measure it with calipers.
After a history and physical exam, your veterinarian will focus on the mass with gentle palpation. It is likely they will recommend a fine needle aspirate. This involves taking a very small needle and obtaining a sample of cells from the tumor. Another option is just having the entire mass removed and submitted for testing (excisional biopsy).
If your veterinarian is suspicious of a mast cell tumor and wants to sample it, they may recommend pre-medicating with Benadryl, an antihistamine. As we discussed above, one of the substances found in mast cells is histamine. Giving Benadryl may help prevent the tumor from degranulating during sampling. Sudden degranulation can cause a systemic reaction (anaphylaxis) and can be very serious or even life-threatening. Your veterinarian will handle any suspected MCTs gently, as a result.
Diagnosis is generally by a veterinary pathologist. MCTs are graded on two different scales – the older Patnaik scale (giving a number I through III with I being the least malignant), and the newer Kiupel system that simply evaluates high grade versus low grade.
If your dog is diagnosed with a mast cell tumor, your veterinarian will recommend staging as the next step. This means determining if the cancer has spread by conducting bloodwork, urinalysis, chest xrays, and abdominal ultrasound. Once staging is completed, a clearer picture of prognosis can be seen.
Treatment of mast cell tumors in dogs involves initial surgical removal followed by evaluating whether the whole tumor was removed. If it wasn’t (called “dirty margins”), a second surgery may be needed. Radiation is also an option when the entire tumor wasn’t removed. It may seem “simple” to remove a whole tumor, but sometimes the cancer cells have infiltrated the surrounding tissue on a microscopic level. For low grade (Kiupel system) or grade I-II (Patnaik system), usually removal is sufficient if the margins are clear. Even with removal, a dog will be at higher risk for developing MCTs again.
With high grade/grade III tumors, following surgery, oncologists recommend chemotherapy. This is usually administered by a veterinary oncologist. If chemotherapy is not pursued, a dog with high grade MCT will likely stay on Benadryl and steroids to suppress the MCT until symptoms become too severe. As the disease progresses, the mast cell tumor will spread to distant sites like the liver, spleen, and lungs. Symptoms will correlate with the system that is affected.
A mast cell tumor is not the end of the world, but they can be very serious. It is important to notify your veterinarian when you find any skin masses so that they can be promptly evaluated. Early detection and treatment are critical to a successful outcome.
When temperatures hit near- or below-zero, you may need to strongly encourage your dog to potty – actually, insist on it! Veterinarians see spikes in the number of cases of urinary tract infections in winter, when dogs tend to “hold it” for as long as possible, declining invitations to go outside at their usual potty times, and failing to take the time to empty their bladders fully when they do go outside. The longer urine is held in the body, the more bacteria can grow in that urine; when the population of bacteria tips past a level that the dog’s immune system can control, discomfort and systemic illness can result.
iStock / Getty Images Plus / cunfek
You may need to encourage your dog to drink adequate amounts of water when it’s super cold, too. Many dogs become reluctant to drink when it’s cold, and end up getting dehydrated, which can set the stage for a wide constellation of disorders, especially in senior dogs. If you come home from work and your dog’s water bowl has gone untouched all day – it’s at the exact level where it was when you filled it fresh that morning – you should start experimenting to find whatever works best to get your dog to drink more. Some effective tactics include filling the bowl with fresh water more frequently; warming the water to something more than room temperature; or adding bone broth, chicken broth, or even a bit of honey to the water. Feeding him a high-moisture food will also help, whether it’s canned, fresh home-prepared, raw frozen, or simply his regular kibble soaked in warm water or broth.
Assuming your dog is drinking enough, here are some tips for encouraging him or her to potty as fully and often as usual:
If you can, make a designated potty station outdoors. A covered outdoor area, preferably a spot with some protection from driving wind, is very helpful. Put down anything that will help protect your dog’s paws from the cold ground (or ice or snow): some straw or wood shavings work great, but a few squares of artificial turf (even if it’s just a door mat) that your dog can stand on to pee, will help. You can hose them off (or even toss them out) when the temperatures thaw! This is an emergency!
Some folks walk their dogs to the nearest parking garage, or set up a “potty box” in their own garage when the weather is too nasty to spend an adequate amount of time outside.
Do you live in an apartment or other urban setting where you have to potty your dog on walks? If so, we hope you have already invested in and accustomed your dog to wearing some sort of paw protection. Wearing boots can help protect his feet from freezing temperatures as well as potentially dangerous ice-melt substances that can be found on urban sidewalks.
Make sure you are bundled up, too! Trying to rush your dog into going potty quickly because you are freezing can backfire; back in the house, when you step in a puddle in your socks, or find a pile under the dining room table, you can go ahead and smack yourself over the head with a rolled-up newspaper. “Naughty owner!” Dress as warmly as possible and let your dog take her time outside.
Make sure you give your dog some extra-yummy rewards when he or she goes potty outdoors in extraordinary temperatures. Anything you can do to help your dog associate going outdoors with good things, rather than an aversive experience, will help keep him or her “regular,” and help prevent “accidents” in the house.
Would you forgive me for doing a grab-bag sort of blog post occasionally? I get a lot of mail asking for updates on topics I’ve started, here or in the print version of the magazine, and this is as handy a place as any to answer questions.
The 2019 Dry Dog Food Review
The February issue – the one containing our annual discussion and review of dry dog foods – has been published, and as is often the case, we missed a company or two that should have been included on our list of approved foods. WHEN will we be perfect? Not this year, sadly. We will update the online version of the list as errors or omissions are detected and include corrections in the March issue.
The Mange Puppies
While the Camp Fire was still burning, I took on a litter of puppies who were brought into my local shelter, skeletal with malnutrition and looking like burn victims, with little hair and red, inflamed skin. (I blogged about them here and here and here.) They hadn’t been burned at all; they had something far more prosaic: demodectic mange (and I quickly asked one of our veterinarian contributors to prepare an article for us on the topic of mange; the resulting article appears in the February 2019 issue).
Two of the puppies succumbed – one to parvovirus, against which they had been vaccinated, but the vaccination had not yet conveyed protection; one spent days receiving veterinary care for a perplexing set of symptoms that slowly paralyzed her and made her unable to eat or drink. She was euthanized without a definite diagnosis – meant to humanely end her suffering, but upsetting and haunting for me and the friends who helped care for her.
Four of the remaining five puppies, however, gained weight, got stronger, grew their hair back, and made their way onto the adoption row at my local shelter, where each was quickly adopted into a loving home! I met only one adopting party – a very nice couple from a town about an hour away. But I had assurances from the shelter staff that each of the four had found a very nice home indeed.
I’m still fostering the last puppy. Odin, as I am calling him, was the biggest of the puppies from the day I met them, and less affected by the mange than the rest of his littermates. He had about 40 percent of his hair when I first met them; the rest had from about 10 to 20 percent of their hair. Unfortunately, though, he has been dealing with other health problems that necessitate more care and time being fostered.
The first thing that happened was he developed a big, swollen eye, which quickly turned blue with inflammation (I wrote about this in more detail here). This has been diagnosed as idiopathic (but possibly immune-deficient) uveitis. We’ve had three visits to the ophthalmology department at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) at UC Davis, and have another scheduled for this coming Monday. The doctors seem confident that he hasn’t lost sight in that eye, and that continuing treatment should “defog the windshield” (as the clinician who has seen him the last two visits put it).
However, he developed two new issues. The first was a bit of a limp. It was very mild at first, and worse when he first got up from a nap than it was after he had been walking around for a bit. The veterinary ophthalmologist who examined him last did a brief lameness exam, flexing his joints to see what, exactly, was hurting, and he expressed the opinion that it was Odin’s right elbow that was bothering him – and he correctly predicted that the symptom might worsen. Odin has been on a low dose of a steroid(prednisone) – prescribed as part of the treatment to reduce the inflammation in his eye – and when that dose was reduced (and is now even lower, as we are now tapering him off of the drug altogether), the limp increased visibly. So, he’s scheduled for some x-rays so we can try to figure out what’s up with his apparent joint pain.
While the prednisone was effectively reducing the inflammation in Odin’s eye (and elbow), it also left the puppy vulnerable to infection. Last week, he developed a hacking cough overnight, and though he was eating and cheerful and had no other symptoms, the cough was so severe that I was afraid he had something stuck in his throat. We ended up at the ER in the wee hours. After an exam and x-rays, the vet diagnosed, instead, another round of “kennel cough” (the whole litter had been treated for this early on). He thought it was likely that the prednisone prevented Odin’s immune system from protecting him from another viral or possibly bacterial agent that caused a bronchial infection.
The strong cough (and resulting gagging) also inflamed his esophagus, so Odin was prescribed a new round of antibiotics, as well as two medications meant to soothe his inflamed esophagus and prevent the irritation from developing into megaesophagus, and a strong cough syrup (the kind where you must show your driver’s license to receive it!).
So, I take Odin and our Tupperware box full of medications and eye drops everywhere I go. This week, it’s three different eye drops (one is two times a day, the other two are three times a day) and four oral medications (it was five, but he doesn’t need the cough syrup any more). Next week, he should be off all of the oral meds and we will see about the medications for the eye – which is s-l-o-w-l-y looking better and less blue. And we will see what the x-rays say about his joints.
NO, I’m not keeping him!! He’s a darling little guy and he’s learning a ton and he loves my younger dog (and vice versa) – and he’s going to be somebody’s DREAM DOG someday. He’s calm and friendly and rides (and waits) well in cars, but I want him to have a home of his own someday, when his medical issues are resolved or at least under control.
So, the bad news is, Odin has been to my local vet five times (including the first visit for treatment of the demodectic mange, and several visits to see the vet who has a special interest in ophthalmology) and the UCD VMTH four times (including the first visit to assess the whole litter’s hyperflexed joints early on, when they were still recovering from malnutrition).
But the AMAZING news is that YOU GUYS have made all this veterinary care possible, and it hasn’t bankrupted me or hurt the ability of my local shelter to help other dogs. I did ask if any of you felt so moved, if you could donate to the Northwest SPCA (the legal owners of the puppies), and enough of you did that their medical care has been completely covered by your donations.
And it’s not just this litter of deserving puppies that your generous contributions have helped.
Two weeks ago, I was at my local shelter right after it closed to the public, staging some large crates for the transport of three large dogs. The Northwest SPCA shelter has been so heavily impacted by the Camp Fire – we have had far more than the usual number of owner-surrendered dogs and unclaimed cats – that they put out the call to a number of other northern California shelters for help in getting animals adopted.
A friend and I volunteered to transport three large dogs to one shelter in the San Francisco Bay area, and we had to load up and leave at about 7am to meet volunteer drivers from the other end. While I was getting the crates ready, I heard some kennel attendants talking about a tiny blind Chihuahua that the shelter had for adoption; it seems they were trying everything, but she wouldn’t eat. I asked to see her, and after taking just one look, asked the shelter manager if I could foster her over the weekend (at a minimum). The tiny dog was already quite thin, but when she refused some freeze-dried chicken treats from my treat pouch and some canned cat food, I knew she needed some extra TLC.
I kept her at home that night, offered her everything under the sun, but she just wouldn’t eat. She drank water, but wouldn’t eat the next day, either; she just stayed on my lap curled in a little ball during the next day’s transport. Knowing that there was still a positive amount from your donations in the shelter’s medical fund, I asked the shelter director if I could take her to the vet for some diagnostics and further care, and the director agreed.
Blood and urine tests were normal, but the vets were stumped by the tiny dog’s disinterest in food and rapidly declining condition, despite the administration of IV fluids and nutrients – until an ultrasound revealed a large mass on her pancreas and an accumulation of fluid in her abdomen. Thirty hours of care, lots of medications, lots of tests – and the prognosis was absolutely dismal. The vets who saw her and the shelter director agreed that she should be euthanized – and though this was absolutely NOT what I had hoped for when I took the little smidge to the vet, I was glad that her condition was at least diagnosed faster than it would have been in a crowded shelter over a weekend and her suffering ended sooner than later.
As I said to my friend who had driven her van during that weekend transport, and who called to ask about the tiny dog’s condition (it was she who started calling the little dog Smidge), fostering for an open-admission shelter is not for the faint of heart. And lately, it’s been absolutely heart-rending for me! It’s hardly ever like this, with so many sad outcomes. But when I think of the dozens and dozens of puppies I’ve fostered without incident or loss, I know that these recent experiences are outliers. Even so, the ability to obtain top-shelf medical diagnostics and treatment for these needy dogs, without either busting the shelter’s budget or my own, has meant so much – it makes me cry every time I think of it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, all of you who have donated to the Northwest SPCA.
Disaster Preparation Training
Last weekend, I participated in the annual training session for the North Valley Animal Disaster Group (NVADG, pronounced colloquially as “nav-dag”) – the group that was so instrumental in rescuing, sheltering, and caring for hundreds of animals during and after the devastating Camp Fire in nearby Paradise, California. I was not always happy about the conditions and practices in the temporary shelters set up and run by NVADG – but the only way to have any credibility in critiquing the things that I didn’t like, and to (I hope) help craft changes in these practices in any future local disaster is to join the group officially and participate. I’ve taken the first step in that process, and plan to take more classes and workshops organized by the group.
New Year’s Resolutions
Progress report on my three resolutions: Still haven’t brushed my dogs’ teeth. Am taking my first private agility lesson with Woody this week. And am signing up for another class to work on a Canine Good Citizen title with Woody, too.
Cancer is a word that strikes fear in the hearts of dog owners. As human cancer deaths rise in the United States, you may wonder if a similar phenomenon is happening in our canine companions. According to veterinary oncologist Dr. Stacy Binstock, estimates show that 25%-33% of dogs will have cancer at some point in their lives. It is the number one cause of death in older dogs. Those are sobering statistics. The good news is that you can help with early cancer detection and early treatment of your dog.
The first step is semi-annual or annual examinations with your veterinarian. These are not just vaccine appointments. A visit is needed for a thorough physical examination. Your veterinarian will check your dog’s weight, vitals, lymph nodes, heart and lungs, palpate the abdomen, and perform a rectal exam. These are all essential to early detection of illness. Weight loss may be the first sign and can be easy to miss at home. Secondly, as your dog ages, your veterinarian will likely recommend bloodwork, urinalysis, and other diagnostics. These can detect changes in organ function, possibly indicating cancer.
E+/ hoozone
Types of cancer in dogs are varied and include skin, orthopedic, blood, and bone malignancies. As a result, the symptoms differ wildly and depend on which system is affected. The four most common cancers and their clinical signs are listed below.
iStock / Getty Images Plus/ Obradovic
Lymphoma. This is a frequently diagnosed cancer in dogs. It can originate in the lymph nodes, bone marrow, or organs like the spleen. The first signs may be very vague and often include large knots that are palpable under the jaw, behind the elbows, and behind the knees. These are all locations of lymph nodes that can enlarge with cancer. Other symptoms may include lethargy, weight loss, and increased drinking and urinating.
Osteosarcoma. This is a type of bone cancer seen often in large breeds such as Great Danes and Wolfhounds, although it can occur in any breed. Osteosarcoma typically grows silently at the end of a bone (called the diaphysis) until the bone is severely weakened. Early symptoms may include swelling and tenderness. Often, there are no symptoms until the tumor destroys the bone enough to cause a fracture. When this happens, your dog may suddenly be unable to walk on the affected leg and demonstrate signs of severe pain.
Hemangiosarcoma. Another type of cancer that often has no obvious clinical signs is hemangiosarcoma. These tumors can grow anywhere—on the skin or in the spleen, liver, or other internal organs. In dogs, it is most frequently encountered in the spleen, liver, or heart. Usually, no signs are noted until the tumor grows very large and ruptures. This sudden, catastrophic rupture leads to internal bleeding, weakness, and collapse.
Mast cell tumor. Boxers are especially prone to these skin malignancies. Mast cells are normally found in the skin and react when an allergen is introduced. They are filled with histamine and other substances that are released in an allergic reaction, leading to the formation of hives. Unfortunately, cancer can arise from these cells. The hallmark of an MCT is a growth on the skin that waxes and wanes in size and character. They can be small and “quiet,” or they can become large, inflamed, and weep fluid.
Always observe your dog carefully for any changes. Any skin masses or lumps that you palpate should be checked out by your veterinarian sooner rather than later! Remember, early detection is critical in catching and treating cancer.
A significant percentage of my clients come to see me because they have dogs with aggressive behaviors. Often, they will ask me if their dogs should wear a muzzle. My answer is almost always, “Good idea!” In each case, however, we have a serious discussion about the reason why the client’s wants to use a muzzle, when and how the dog’s aggressive behavior presents, and – this is the clincher – whether the client is willing and able to take the time to condition her dog to love the muzzle before starting to use it.
Why and When to Use A Dog Muzzle
The “why” seems obvious: You use a muzzle to prevent your dog from biting someone – human or other animal. Duh! But there are a few certain circumstances where it is appropriate to use a muzzle and many others where it is definitely not.
Let’s start with the situations when it is definitely not appropriate to muzzle your dog.
How NOT to Use A Muzzle on Your Dog
It is not ever appropriate to muzzle your dog so you can put her over-threshold in an avoidable situation. Here are some examples:
“Oh gee, the grandkids are coming over and Muffy might bite them. Let’s muzzle her so the kids can have fun with her and she can’t bite them.” NO! Instead, either use scrupulous management to keep her and the kids safe from each other while the young’uns are visiting, send her to a friend’s house for the day, or perhaps board her for a longer grandkid-visit.
“My friend wants to take her dog to the dog park, and she wants us to come with her, but Rocky, who loves my friend’s dog, might bite the other dogs at the park. Let’s muzzle him and take him along.” NO! Rocky doesn’t get to go to the dog park. Ever.
“Chomper guards his food bowl. Let’s muzzle him and show him we can take his bowl away from him because he needs to learn that humans are the boss.” NO, NOT EVER!
Photo by Aditi Joshi
When It IS A Good Time to Use the Muzzle
Here are some appropriate times when a muzzle could or should be used:
Emergencies. Any animal in pain may bite. If your dog is injured and must be moved or handled it is strongly advised to muzzle her. This, of course, will be easier and less stressful for everyone during an already stressful event if you have taken the time to convince her that a muzzle is wonderful.
Procedures. When your dog must be handled or examined by your veterinarian for an unexpected condition, or treated at home for an injury, and there’s a good likelihood she will bite during the procedure, she will need to be muzzled for everyone’s safety.
Muzzles should be used as needed for emergency or unavoidable procedures. If your dog needs to be muzzled for routine care or grooming, you have some counter-conditioning work to do to help her learn to love (or at least happily tolerate) these events!
Note: While veterinarians often use “sleeve” muzzles, these are not recommended, as they inhibit your dog’s ability to pant and take treats, and they can be very stressful for dogs. Most veterinarians will allow you to use your own good-quality muzzle.
Public safety. A muzzle is an appropriate tool if you know that your dog might try to bite a toddler who rushes up to hug her, a well-meaning dog person who insists that “all dogs love me,” or an off-leash dog who bounces up to say hi.
Even if your dog is on a leash, you will still be responsible (and she will be in big trouble) if she bites someone who invades her space. Muzzling her when you take her out in public keeps everyone safe (and her out of trouble!). It also tends to keep people away, as they assume (often correctly) that a dog who must wear a muzzle would prefer not to be social.
Of course, you will need to fiercely protect her to prevent people and other dogs from interacting with her, even if she is muzzled; the muzzle itself is just a backup.
In a behavior modification program. A muzzle can be a useful tool in situations where, based on all the behavior-modification work you’ve been doing, you’re 99.9 percent sure it’s going to go okay, but you’d like a little extra insurance.
Say you’ve been working with dog-aggression issues between your own canine family members, or you’ve done a ton of counter-conditioning with your dog’s dog-reactive behavior, and you think you’re ready to let her interact with other dogs. Perhaps she’s been fearfully aggressive with your grandchild in the past and you’ve worked your tail off using the CAT procedure (Constructional Aggression Treatment) to convince her that she loves the toddler, and you think it’s time to let them meet.
This is the ideal time and place for your dog to wear her well-loved muzzle. Not only does it prevent that tiny 0.1 percent chance of a tragic “Oops,” but it also helps you relax, so that your stress about that first interaction doesn’t add to your dog’s level of stress. (Remember, stress causes aggression!)
10 Tips for Teaching Your Dog to Love a Muzzle
All of the “could or should” situations are predicated on the assumption that you have taken the time to teach your dog to love her muzzle. You will use classical conditioning – giving your dog a wonderful, happy association with her muzzle, to make any muzzling experiences as positive as possible. Here’s how:
1. Purchase a top-quality basket muzzle.
(See the muzzles we love most below). Good basket muzzles allow your dog to breathe, pant, eat, and drink, which reduces muzzle-related stress and prevents overheating.
Measure your dog to ensure a perfect fit; most muzzle websites include a sizing chart that will help you take proper measurements and order the proper size. The best sites will custom-fit your dog’s muzzle. For additional information about how to find the right muzzle for your dog, see the MuzzleUp Project.
2. Show your dog the muzzle.
Don’t even try to put it on yet! Just hold it up, then feed your dog a yummy treat from the other hand. Hide your treat hand and muzzle behind your back, then show it to her again, and feed.
Repeat this step until, when you bring the muzzle out from behind your back, her eyes light up and she looks for the treat. She now thinks muzzle = yummy stuff!
3. Feed treats in the muzzle.
You can push high-value treats through the front of the muzzle or use squeeze cheese through the straps; the important part here is that your dog puts her nose into the muzzle voluntarily, you do not push the muzzle onto her nose. If she backs away, don’t follow her with the muzzle, wait for her to come back to you.
4. Increase the duration.
When your dog voluntarily offers to put her nose into the muzzle (ideally shoves her nose into the muzzle), gradually increase duration by feeding, pausing, then feeding again several times while she keeps her nose in the muzzle.
5. Play with the straps.
Now, while holding the muzzle with one hand and occasionally feeding treats, play with the straps a little behind your dog’s head as if you are getting ready to buckle it.
6. Condition your dog to the sound of the snap.
If your muzzle has a snap rather than a buckle, and your dog might startle at the sound of the snap, take time to condition her to the sound separately from putting the muzzle on. Hold it up so she can see it, snap the snap in place, and feed her a treat – until the sound of the snap makes her eyes light up and she looks for the treat.
7. Close the snap or buckle briefly.
This can be tricky. For starters, how do you keep feeding treats while using two hands to close the snap or buckle?
Perhaps you have a partner who can help by feeding the treats while you manipulate the hardware. If not, you can smear peanut butter or squeeze cheese on your refrigerator door or on a vinyl floor to keep your dog happily occupied while you snap or buckle.
Alternatively, try the Chase ‘n Chomp Sticky Bone, which can suction onto your floor, wall, or refrigerator door.
8. Leave the muzzle on for longer periods.
Gradually leave the muzzle on your dog for longer periods, making sure to keep her happy (feed treats!) while it’s on. Over time you can reduce the frequency of treats, but always be ready to treat occasionally to keep it happy for her.
9. Refresh the positive association.
Be sure to do “happy muzzle” sessions routinely, so she doesn’t only wear the muzzle for bad/scary times. Once you have conditioned her to love her muzzle, if she wears it only for trips to the vet’s office, her association will change from positive to negative and you’ll have to start all over again. A good rule of thumb: Give your dog at least 10 happy muzzle experiences for every stressful one.
10. Watch this video.
This Youtube video by superb trainer Chirag Patel (of Domesticated Manners in London, United Kingdom), is an excellent tutorial for teaching your dog to love a muzzle.
Okay now, time to get to work! Check out our favorite muzzles, measure your dog, order one, and start convincing her that it’s the best thing since sliced chicken!
Best Dog Muzzles
We asked our trainer network to tell us about their favorite muzzles. We expected to hear about a variety of different muzzles, but there was overwhelming consensus about just two brands. Here are the two, and some of our trainers’ comments about them:
Photo by Jessica Miller
The Baskerville Ultra Muzzle
The Baskerville Ultra Muzzle is widely known for security and comfort. The rubber material can actually be heated up and molded to better fit the shape of your dog’s face. Here’s what our trainers say:
Kelly Fahey, PMCT2, DogSmith of Hunterdon, Pittstown, NJ
“The Baskerville muzzle is my go-to muzzle. It allows your dog to pant, drink, and eat. There are other basket-style muzzles on the market, but they don’t seem to have a space to feed treats while working with your dog. I also like the extra strap that is on the Baskerville Muzzle. It attaches to the dog’s collar for a more secure fit.”
Jessica Miller, CPDT-KA, PMCT, CNWI, Go Pawsitive Dog Training, Clear Spring, MD
“The Baskerville saved us when our house flooded. My dog Handel had to be carried across a knee deep river, lifted into a truck by a firefighter (whom he tried to bite), walked through a flooded town surrounded by other stressed-out people and children, stationed at a church for an hour when we couldn’t get out, and then had to live at my mother’s house for three days before we could find a new place to live. I was able to feed him, he could drink, I knew he wouldn’t overheat, and I was sure it wouldn’t come off or fail. If we didn’t have his muzzle, almost all of that would have been impossible and I dread to think what could have happened. Plus, it was a nice light blue color that stood out against his dark fur, so that strangers could see he needed space.”
Cindy Mauro, CPDT-KA, Cindy Mauro Dog Training, Northern NJ
“I do a lot of work with dogs who need to be muzzled. My go-to is the Baskerville muzzle. The dog can easily eat treats, drink, pant, and bark with this muzzle on. With proper muzzle training, there is little fuss. ‘Good things happen with the muzzle on.’”
The Bumas Muzzle
The Bumas Muzzle is made to order. It can be customized with fewer or more straps (depending on your dog’s anatomy and the level of security needed), and you can specify the color of each strap on the muzzle. These muzzles are very expensive, however. If we had a dog who needed to wear the muzzle often, it could be worth the expense, but it’s not likely practical for a dog who only needed to wear a muzzle at the vet once or twice a year.
Cindy Mauro
“The Bumas muzzle is my top choice for flat-faced dogs. It comes in many custom colors, which makes it like wearing a nice pair of glasses. The colors tend to appear ‘friendlier’ on the dog.”
Laura Dorfman CPDT-KA, PMCT1, Kona’s Touch, Chicago, IL
“The Bumas offers a good custom fit for lots of differently shaped dog faces, and I like the colors too.”
Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT‑KA, is Whole Dog Journal‘s Training Editor. She lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Miller’s newest book is Beware of the Dog: Positive Solutions for Aggressive Behavior in Dogs.
