You just picked up your dog from boarding after a lovely vacation. Everything seems fine – and then your canine companion starts coughing. He has some nasal discharge. He feels warm, and he doesn’t want to eat. You remember that you just saw on the news that canine flu was causing problems. Oh no! You panic. Has he contracted the flu during his stay at the boarding facility?
It’s certainly possible; boarding kennels and other places where high numbers of dogs congregate are the most common place for dogs to come into contact with one of the flu viruses.
Currently, two strains of flu have been identified in dogs within the United States: H3N2 and H3N8.
The initial outbreak in 2003-2004, identified as H3N8, was restricted to Greyhounds in Florida and had a high mortality rate (38 percent). There was then a lull in cases until 2015; then, in Chicago, another outbreak occurred and was later identified as a new strain of canine flu: H3N2.
The most recent flare-up starting in mid-2017 and into spring of 2018 included both strains, though H3N2 was more prevalent and found to be more virulent. As of now, canine influenza has been reported in 40 states.
Dog Flu Symptoms
Symptoms of flu include sneezing, coughing, runny nose, fever, lethargy, and loss of appetite. About 80 percent of the dogs who are infected with the virus will have only mild symptoms, with about 20 percent of infected dogs showing no symptoms whatsoever (these dogs, however, are still able to spread the virus). Most dogs recover in two to three weeks.
In severe cases, however, the flu can progress to pneumonia. Symptoms of pneumonia are high fever; thick, purulent nasal discharge; and difficulty breathing. In severe cases, the illness can be fatal.
Unfortunately, flu represents a diagnostic challenge. The clinical symptoms cannot be distinguished from those of other common canine respiratory diseases such as bordetella bronchiseptica, parainfluenza, respiratory coronavirus, and distemper virus.
Further, there are no point-of-care tests currently available to veterinarians. Unlike in human medicine, where a quick bedside test can be conducted to diagnose flu, testing for canine flu can be difficult. Careful specimen collection and handling is essential, and tests must be sent to outside laboratories. Due to the expense and difficulty of this, often canine influenza is not definitively diagnosed; instead, it’s treated like other canine respiratory diseases.
How to Treat Dog Flu
There isn’t a specific treatment for dog flu; rather, general supportive care is given, especially if your dog is only mildly affected.
If your dog has more severe symptoms or evidence of pneumonia, he may be treated in the hospital with antibiotics (in case of secondary bacterial infection), intravenous or subcutaneous fluids, oxygen therapy, and fever-lowering NSAIDs. Your dog may also be isolated in a low-stress environment to prevent further spread and to help minimize his anxiety.
Canine Influenza Transmission
Influenza is highly contagious and spreads rapidly in social situations. Transmission is via aerosolized droplets (coughing, sneezing) and direct contact. It can also be spread on contaminated objects such as food or water bowls, leashes, and kennels. The flu virus can live up to 48 hours on these surfaces, so proper disinfection is a critical part of prevention.
The most common places for a dog to catch the flu virus include dog parks, grooming facilities, kennels, and daycares.
Dog Flu Vaccines
Could you have prevented your dog from contracting the flu? There are vaccines available that protect against both strains. All of the canine influenza vaccines contain killed viruses.
As with the human influenza vaccine, it is important to remember that the flu vaccine doesn’t always prevent your dog from getting sick. In the event that he does contract the flu, the vaccine helps lessen the duration and severity of symptoms, including pneumonia and lung lesions. Dogs who were vaccinated against the flu but still transmitted the disease will shed the virus into their surroundings for a shorter period of time than unvaccinated dogs.
Side effects of the vaccine are uncommon and generally similar to other vaccine reactions: lethargy, low-grade fever, a lump at the site of injection, hives, and itching. In very rare cases, severe reactions can occur.
Pregnant dogs should not be vaccinated against the flu.
The influenza vaccination has been described by the American Veterinary Medical Association as a “lifestyle” vaccination, not a “core” vaccine (core vaccines are recommended for all dogs). A lifestyle vaccine is recommended for dogs who are at a higher risk due to their increased exposure to other dogs – such as dogs who attend daycare, boarding, or group classes, or frequent dog parks or dog shows. The first vaccine can be given as early as six weeks of age, and in all cases, it is critical that a booster is received two to four weeks later.
Don’t wait until a few days before boarding to get the vaccine. The dog should not be considered protected from disease until two weeks after his second vaccination. After the initial series, the flu shot is given annually.
If your dog is not in social situations or flu has not been reported in your state, the flu vaccine is not necessary. If you’re uncertain whether your dog should receive the vaccine, your veterinarian can help guide you.
Want more information on vaccination protocols for dogs? Find it here.
Conclusions
Overall, while canine influenza can be serious, in most cases the symptoms are mild and self-limiting. Even in severe cases, the mortality rate is low – but some dogs do die from the illness. Vaccination is very effective and should be pursued for dogs in highly social environments.
Catherine Ashe graduated the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008. After a small-animal intensive emergency internship, she has practiced ER medicine for nine years. She is now working as a relief veterinarian in Asheville, North Carolina, and loves the GP side of medicine. In her spare time, she spends time with her family, reads voraciously, and enjoys the mountain lifestyle.
For the past 16 years, I have been teaching puppy kindergarten and adolescent-dog classes at The Canine Connection, my training center in Chico, California. The number of graduates of my classes is likely more than 1,000 puppies – but it feels like I’ve answered client questions about potty training at least a million times. What’s one more time, if it helps someone live more happily and harmoniously with their new dog or puppy?
Potty-training situations are of three types: (1) dogs who have never learned the appropriate place “to go,” (2) dogs who were once housetrained but are having a training regression, and (3) dogs who are pottying involuntarily – that is, they have no control over their urination or defecation. It just happens without any intent and often without the dog even realizing it is happening at all. Let’s look at these in order.
Housetraining For the Never-Housetrained Dog
Perhaps you have a brand new pup or a newly adopted teen or older dog. One thing that is vitally important to building a happy interspecies household is that your new dog becomes housetrained as quickly and reliably as possible. You should be equipped and ready to start housetraining your new dog from the moment that you bring him home.
Housetraining involves more than just learning where to potty; dogs and puppies must also learn to “hold it” until they get to an appropriate potty location and how to notify you to get them there. To help dogs build these skills and to help keep us on track with our housetraining responsibilities, I encourage people to think of housetraining in terms of C.R.A.P. Each letter of the acronym stands for an important part of the housetraining program: Confinement, Routine, Attention, Platinum rewards.
How to House-Train A Dog
Confinement
Preventing your dog from pottying in the wrong place is the first and most important housetraining task. Since most of us cannot keep our eyes on our dogs every minute, having a safe, comfortable confinement area is key to housetraining success. Most dogs naturally avoid going potty in their sleeping areas, so confining your dog in a small enough area that is more bed-like than room-like not only prevents unwanted accidents but also will help him develop bowel and bladder control.
What are appropriate confinement areas? I am a huge fan of crates, used appropriately, once dogs are comfortable with them. An area that is fenced off with a portable exercise pen or a smaller room (such as a bathroom or laundry room with a baby gate across the door) can also serve as a confinement area.
The key is that any confinement area should be small and cozy enough for your dog that he will choose “holding it” over pottying in it. When confinement is in place and used appropriately, there will be a decrease in potty accidents and an increase in bowel and bladder control.
As your dog enjoys continued success at pottying outdoors appropriately and not pottying indoors, you can increase the size of the area where he is confined when not being supervised. Don’t go too far, giving him whole-house freedom after he hasn’t had an accident for a few days. Instead, use an exercise pen to expand his confinement area by, say, 50 to 100 square feet more per week of success.
Routine
Both dogs and humans benefit from a predictable, consistent housetraining routine. This routine should account for confinement time, potty breaks, meal times, play time, training time, walks, and all the other enriching activities that are part of your dog’s daily life.
I recommend my clients create a written routine that includes potty breaks a minimum of every hour or two, depending on the age and situation of the dog. The general rule for “holding it” in a crate or pen is that dogs should have the ability to hold their bowels and bladder, in hours, the number of months they are plus one. So, a three-month-old pup ought to be able to hold his urine and poop for four hours. However, there are so many exceptions to this rule; most notably, that activity often makes a pup have to “go.” The best routines, then, are based on a solid understanding of your dog.
Some important notes about potty breaks:
1. You must go with your dog to the potty area so you can reward the deed when it occurs. By delivering an immediate reward, your dog quickly comes to understand that “Oh my gosh, going pee or poop in this location is nothing short of brilliant!”
2. It can be very useful to teach your dog a cue for pottying behavior. Some people use the simple phrase, “Go potty!” Others use a euphemism such as “Get busy!” Whatever phrase you use, say it once just before he starts to potty (don’t say it over and over again), and then reward and praise him mightily when he’s done. Soon, he will understand that the phrase is a cue – an opportunity to earn rewards for doing what he now knows it means: going potty. This will help him understand what you want when you take him to go potty in a new environment, or under distracting conditions he has not yet experienced.
3. If you expect your dog to potty on- and off-leash, your potty outings with your dog should sometimes be on-leash and sometimes off-leash. Why? From a dog’s point of view, pottying while on- versus off-leash can be a very different experience. Familiarizing him with both will pay off in the future.
4. While it might seem convenient to have a dog who will potty only in your yard (I call these private pottyers), it’s important that your dog learns to potty in other outdoor places, too. Indeed, I want dogs to be public pottyers (with responsible guardians who will clean up after them) so that day and even overnight outings are comfortable for all. I pity the poor dog who has learned to potty only in the privacy of his home when his family decides to bring him on a long vacation!
5. Also in the interest of adaptability to new environments, dogs should be exposed to different surfaces as part of housetraining. Dogs can develop “substrate preference,” the willingness to potty only on specific surfaces, such as grass or concrete.
While your dog’s inclination to develop a preference for pottying on certain substrates can be helpful in creating a defined toilet space in your yard, it can also limit your dog’s adaptability to new environments if he is not allowed the option to potty on different substrates.
6. Potty outings should be mission-driven. if your dog tends to fiddle and frolic prior to pottying, restrict your dog’s access to play until the deed is done. Fiddling and frolicking can then become part of the reward.
7. If you are away from your home for extended periods of time during the day, you must have a plan for getting your dog to his potty spot in your absence. Sometimes it takes a village to housetrain a dog, with friends, family, and neighbors, perhaps assisted by professional pet sitters, dog walkers, or trainers helping with the potty outing shifts.
Attention
The first question I ask when a client asks me a question about a difficulty with their dog’s housetraining is: “Are you catching your dog in the act of pottying inappropriately or just finding the evidence after the fact?” More often than not, people sheepishly confess that they usually find the mess after the fact – and this always means their attention needs to be improved.
There are two huge benefits to maintaining a laser focus on your dog when he is not confined. First, you can start to recognize and reward your dog’s “gotta go” signals. When your dog begins to pace, circle, and sniff, you can applaud his signaling (“Awesome doggie! Let’s go, go, GO!”) and rush him to his potty place. Rewarding “gotta go” signals will encourage your dog to become more demonstrative when he feels the urge – communication that is as helpful to us as it is to our dogs.
Second, when we catch him in the act we can provide immediate feedback. A simple “Hey, hey!” while hustling him to his potty spot will make the point that there’s a difference between the spot where he started and that special place you want him to go.
Platinum Rewards!
When housetraining a new dog (puppy or adult) I make sure I know what my dog considers “platinum level rewards.” Housetraining is a big deal, and it requires that we acknowledge our dog’s success with a fitting outcome for his or her achievement. High-value food rewards should be stored on a shelf or table by the door so you can grab them on the way out with your dog. And the rewards of praise and play should be abundantly part of the potty party that celebrates your dog’s success at pottying in the proper place.
Housetraining Regression
It is distressing when you believe housetraining has been achieved, only to find improperly located puddles or poops. Here are some reasons your dog’s housetraining might unravel:
Urinary tract infections or other medical concerns can result in potty accidents. If your fully housetrained dog begins to potty in the house, your first stop should be your veterinarian. Physical problems must be ruled out before assuming the problem is a behavioral one. Prior to your visit, assess your dog’s water and food intake so you can report any changes that might be part of the picture.
Recognize that a dog’s housetraining may not transfer to new environments. I have had many clients whose dogs’ housetraining fell apart when visiting the home of a friend, after a move, or even in a public place (how embarrassing!).
Just because a dog is housetrained in one environment does not mean he is housetrained in all environments. When you change environments, assume your dog is not housetrained until you have helped your dog understand that the habits learned in one place can also apply to the new setting. To do this, take your dog back to Housetraining 101.
Seasonal challenges. Just as your dog may need to relearn housetraining in a new environment, so may he need to relearn housetraining in different seasons. I have had many clients discover that their summer puppy’s housetraining unraveled at the first fall rain or winter snow.
I always advise clients to be proactive weather-watchers. If your dog’s potty place is outdoors, consider that potty habits can and might change with the season, and you may have to consider creative and proactive ways to keep your dog’s potty habits strong. For dogs who detest rain, the erection of a portable canopy might just ease the pain. A snow shovel goes a long way in helping small dogs deal with deep snow. Some indoor-outdoor carpet can buffer the heat of summer pavement.
Differentiate between relieving oneself and marking. Marking behavior can develop in dogs after their housetraining is concluded, as dogs mature and hormonal levels change. Marking is a natural behavior of both male and female dogs, though more pronounced in male dogs.
I approach marking like all housetraining problems, taking dogs back to Housetraining 101, with the emphasis on keen attention, since it is important to interrupt the urge to mark before actual house-soiling occurs. For dogs who are chronic markers, a belly band that prevents house-soiling may be a helpful management tool.
Consider the possibility of fear or anxiety being a contributing factor. One of my clients was dismayed when her Newfoundland started pottying in the house. As it turned out, the dog was pottying inside because he had become frightened of venturing into his yard following a neighbor’s home being re-roofed. The barrage of blasts from the nail gun had so traumatized the poor dog that he became housebound, leaving him no choice but to potty in the house, causing further anxiety.
In this case, we established an indoor potty area that was used while we worked on rebuilding positive associations with his backyard environment.
Potty Problems that are NOT Housetraining Problems
Involuntary urination and defecation can occur for a number of reasons with the common denominator to all being that the dog simply has no control over it. Here are some common reasons for involuntary pottying:
Excitement urination. Some dogs, especially young dogs, will involuntarily produce a puddle during happy homecomings and other joyful situations. Since most trigger situations can be predicted, the best way to reduce excitement urination is to downplay greetings and other emotionally charged situations by ignoring or only casually greeting your dog.
It also sometimes helps to give your dog something else to do in the moments when he is excited. For example, you might enter your home with one of your dog’s toys in hand, toss it away from you, walk past your dog while he retrieves it, then greet your dog several minutes later once the initial excitement worn off.
Because the trigger for excitement urination is a really big deal to the dog, it’s helpful to set up and practice mock greetings repeatedly so the trigger becomes less exciting – perhaps even a little boring.
Submissive urination. This form of involuntary urination is about social signals. It occurs when your dog’s emotional reaction to a trigger (e.g., a stranger or a family member) is one of appeasement, perhaps even fear. Submissive urination can be distressing to friends and family members who trigger it; they may think it suggests they have been threatening or unkind toward the dog, even when they have not. More often than not, the dog may be responding to the human’s body posture and size, voice volume and tone, or other characteristics that trigger an innate submissive response.
Submissive urination problems can be often be resolved by downplaying greetings, counter-conditioning the presence of the individual (building a positive emotional association with the trigger), coaching individuals who trigger the submissive urination to avoid provocative body language (such as direct eye contact with the dog, looming over or reaching for him, direct frontal approaches, and loud body language and voices).
I have also found that teaching the dog a cue that means someone is about to approach (such as, “Hello, I’m Here!”) can reduce submissive urination by removing the element of surprise from the interactions.
Incontinence. Age and illness can produce urinary and/or fecal incontinence in our dogs. Ill or elderly dogs may leak urine or expel feces while sleeping or may experience sudden urges to potty and be unable to make it out the door. Female dogs with hormonal changes may leak urine, too.
While many people accept incontinence as an inevitable part of their dogs’ health or aging, both western and eastern medicine offer remedies, so a visit to your veterinarian is a must. The use of belly bands, doggie panties, and potty pads in sleeping areas may help lessen the burdens of clean-up.
Essential Tools for Housetraining
It makes the whole housetraining task a million times easier if you are prepared in advance of your new dog or puppy’s arrival with all the things you will need to manage his whereabouts and support his progress. Here are the essentials:
A crate, portable exercise pen, or small room equipped with a baby gate, so you can create an appropriate confinement area for your dog. This will prevent unwanted accidents from occurring. Preventing unwanted accidents ensures our dogs don’t rehearse pottying in inappropriate places and keeps the non-potty places from becoming infused with those potty scents that can trigger a dog into making a mistake.
Some good clean-up products to eliminate potty smells from your home should an accident happen (as it might, since we’re only human and we do make mistakes). While there are many on the market and recipes for potty clean-up concoctions can be found online, my personal favorite is unscented Anti-Icky Poo by Mister Max (available in some pet supply stores and online). It contains enzymes that help destroy the odor-causing compounds in urine.
A ready supply of high-level (as defined by the dog) rewards to dole out to your dog when he or she gets it right. Appropriate pottying is not a minimum wage activity; consider it a canine act of genius when your new dog gets pottying right and reward with the stuff (food treats, toys, and play) that your dog really values.
In some cases, potty pads may be helpful, though I personally prefer to exclude them from my housetraining protocols (it’s one less step to fade out to get to the final goal of the dog pottying in a specific spot).
For some, it’s helpful to create an indoor toilet area – a litter box for dogs, so to speak. If an indoor toilet area for your dog would be helpful for you, the “litterbox” should be available as a potty destination from the get-go.
In cases involving urine marking, belly bands can be a very helpful tool. They don’t prevent marking but they do prevent house soiling, and many dogs seem to refrain from marking when the belly band is on. Belly bands are available in various sizes from pet supply stores and online.
Potty Pads for House Training?
I am not a fan of introducing potty pads as part of a housetraining regime. If the goal of housetraining is for your dog to potty outside, then potty pads create a middle step that must eventually be phased out as part of the overall housetraining plan. I would rather start focusing a dog’s attention immediately on the final destination. Why create an extra step if we don’t have to?
Some people, however, plan for their dogs to have an indoor toileting spot, with potty pads as part of their dogs’ lifelong scenario. This can be convenient, so you don’t have to make that trip outside, by giving a dog a legal potty place indoors. However, they don’t magically attract dogs to eliminate on them; dogs need to be taught to use them, just like they need to be taught to go outdoors. Either task can be accomplished by following the rules of house training 101.
People sometimes decide to use potty pads because they have to leave their dogs alone indoors for longer periods of time than their dogs can hold it. If this is the case with your dog, make sure you leave her in a larger long-term confinement area than the aforementioned crates or cozy confinement area. Make an area for sleeping and hanging out, and a separate space for eliminating on the potty pads.
Dog Doors: Yay or Nay?
As the proud guardian of both a brand new Aussie puppy and a “sudden urge” Greyhound senior, I am grateful for my dog door. My dogs go in and out at will, never needing to call on me to use my opposable thumb to turn the handle to open that door. At my house, there’s no need to find the attendant to get the restroom key; the bathroom door is always unlocked. My dogs go out, my dogs come in. There’s nary a potty accident or worry.
(Note: Some people worry about things that can happen to their dogs outside in their yards if the dog is unattended. The yard that is available to my dogs through my dog door is super dog-proofed and double-fenced. That said, there are more dangers to an unattended dog outdoors than indoors, but this is a risk I have taken with my dogs for many years without a problem. You may make a different choice.)
Without a doubt, my new pup has learned to go outside to potty and I am thrilled that she has learned to use the dog door. When nature calls she hops through and out. There hasn’t been an accident in weeks and I’m off the hook as door attendant. But is my new puppy fully housetrained? The answer is…no!
Besides learning where to potty, our dogs need to learn to “hold it” when they can’t get access to the potty place. And they need to learn how to inform us that they need our help to get from here to there. Without these lessons, housetraining is incomplete and potty mishaps are bound to occur when dog doors aren’t available – perhaps when the dog door is inadvertently left closed or when we’re visiting the home of a dog-door-deficient friend.
My new pup will be traveling with me soon and I don’t think the dog-friendly hotel has a dog door (that’s a bit too friendly). I’d better get going with Housetraining 101, rather than letting my dog door allow me take the lazy way out. And, as an adjunct to the basic training, I’ll be teaching my new pup to ring a “Hey, I gotta go!” bell. It’s pretty simple to train a dog to ring a bell (I think of this as a call for room service) and in terms of my learned response (jump up and attend to her), I’m a pretty quick study. (For instructions on teaching a dog to ring a bell on the door, see “Target-Train Your Dog to Ring A Doorbell“.)
Proper House Training is A Great Investment of Time
This might all sound like a ton of work; it isn’t necessarily so. If you observe the CRAP guidelines (Confinement, Routine, Attention, and Platinum rewards) from the very first day with your new dog or pup, he should quickly figure out when and where to “go” (perhaps on cue!), and how to “hold it” at all other times. His success at these tasks may make or break your happiness at living together, so give it your very best!
How to House-Train A Puppy: Problem-Solving
Amber was a darling Golden Retriever pup who had graduated from my Puppy Kindergarten with honors. She had a strong foundation in socialization and training, which had resulted in her having a happy and positive worldview and good puppy manners. Most importantly, Amber had mastered housetraining. At the time of her graduation, her parents proudly noted that Amber had not pottied in the house in weeks, and when she had to go, she let her parents know by whining at the door.
I next heard from Amber’s mom when Amber was a little over six months old. Completely unexpectedly, Amber had started peeing in the house! While the peeing was problem number one, a second problem was that Amber had started to ignore her owners and seemed generally more “out of control.” The appearance of these two behaviors together led her dad to one conclusion: Amber’s inappropriate peeing, along with her inattentiveness and unruliness, all coming at this teenage moment, was proof positive that she wanted to exert her dominance on her family. Oh, boy.
I had another thought that I shared with Amber’s mom: When a fully housetrained dog starts urinating and/or defecating in the house, one must get thee and thine dog to a veterinarian to rule out a medical cause! Urinary tract infections are a very common reason that a formerly housetrained dog might start urinating in the house; the painful condition causes an urgency that few dogs can resist.
Sure enough, Amber’s medical work-up showed just that. After a course of antibiotics – and her owners’ renewed training practice sessions – Amber’s “dominance problem” fully disappeared.
Sarah Richardson, PhD, CPDT-KA, CDBC, CSAT, is the owner of The Canine Connection, a boarding, training, and daycare facility in Chico, California. Over the past 12 years, she and some of her assistant trainers have often modeled for photos that illustrate articles in WDJ, but this is the first article that Richardson has written for WDJ!
Credit: Juana María Gonzalez Santos | Damedeeso/Dreamstime
Should dogs eat avocado? Not really. Avocados contain persin, which is a fungicidal toxin. It is a poison for horses and birds. Avocados hold the highest concentrations of persin in their leaves, thick skin, and pits, making those parts of the fruit toxic to dogs as well.
The avocado flesh, which is what most of us eat, contains lower levels of persin, so a few thin slices of fresh avocado may be fine for your dog, depending on the dog’s size, of course, and whether he has a food allergy to it. But, why do you want to take the chance? Limit your dog’s consumption of avocado to a slice or two, but that’s it. Too much avocado can cause gastrointestinal upset in dogs (and people), including vomiting and/or diarrhea, and you could wind up with a big veterinary bill.
Whole Avocados Are Extra Risky
Never give your dog a whole avocado. If there are avocado trees in your area, don’t let your avocado-eating dog scarf them down unsupervised. In addition to the persin, avocado pits present a serious choking hazard to dogs, and some dogs do try to chew or swallow them.
Is Avocado Healthy for Dogs?
One medium-sized avocado contains roughly 320 calories and 29 grams of fat. That’s a lot of calories for a dog and, because of the fat content – yes, even the “good” fat – too much could trigger pancreatitis.
Commercial Dog Foods
A few pet foods contain avocado oil and/or avocado meal. Neither avocado oil nor avocado meal (dried and ground avocado) contain persin, and both are safe for dogs, if your dog tolerates it. As with any new food, watch your dog’s response over a few days or weeks to determine if an avocado-based dog food is right for your dog. If you see diarrhea, vomiting, itching, or any other adverse response, switch back to a food he has previously tolerated well.
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I know, I know: we are first and foremost supposed to support our local pet supply store. Believe me, if I had one in my town, I would not be writing these words. The closest independent pet supply store is 30 miles from me, and believe me, when I go to that town for any reason at all, I also go to that store and buy stuff. (Shout-out to my friends at Trailblazer Pet Supply!)
In my town, we have a chain pet supply store, and I was super glad when they opened a store here a few years ago; it meant that there were at least a few foods I could pick up there, and at least a few toys, leashes, and other items that meet my standards for safety and quality.
When I want really cool, top-quality stuff made by U.S. manufacturers, I go to the independent stores. And I mean, any independent pet supply store I see open in any town in any state I travel to. My family members all groan when they see me spot a “pet supply” sign when we are on vacation, because they know we are going to pull over and they are going to have to amuse themselves for at least a half-hour while I walk the aisles and chat with the employees. (Independent store owners all stock different, unique stuff that grabbed them at one or two of the huge annual pet supply trade shows, and I think of them as curators; almost every independent store offers something that I’ve never seen before.)
But, guys, when I open the dog food container and all of a sudden it’s incredibly low, or I’m feeding a starving mama and her nine growing puppies and going through food at an unpredictably fast rate and I’ve been crazy-busy putting the magazine to bed and haven’t so much as taken a shower for a couple of days, being able to punch up my favorite online store and order food and have it on my porch in two days – you guys, that’s a blessing.
Mama is not keeping up with the demand, and I just ordered five pounds of milk-replacing formula to get us through the next couple of weeks. And the dry puppy food I like to soften in formula and feed to the growing pups is not one I can get in my very close chain store, OR my favorite independent store 30 miles away. Yes, I could have them order it, and wait a week, and drive a half-hour over there and a half-hour back… but no, placing an online order is just too easy. And when you are feeding four big dogs – Otto, Woody, my tenant’s dog (I don’t know exactly how this happened, but here we are…) and the foster mom – food goes much faster than my fractured attention span can keep up.
I imagine that everyone who works or volunteers in animal rescue, or human social services, gets overwhelmed at times with what seems to be a relentless tide of innocents in need of help. Intellectually, I know that there are FAR fewer unwanted pets being brought to animal shelters and fewer animals being in euthanized in shelters than when I was a young person, and yet at times the sheer volume of dogs I’m aware of who are in need of rescue, fostering, transportation, and medical help is just crushing.
I’m fostering a mama dog and her nine puppies. They were surrendered to my local shelter when the pups were about a week old. I’m glad someone brought them all to the shelter; they could have as easily drowned the puppies or dumped the whole bunch in the woods. The shelter was able to improve their chances immeasurably: They were all treated for the hideous flea infestation they had, as well as the intestinal worms AND a lovely case of coccidiosis. The very-thin mama started to put a little weight on immediately. And, in a couple of months, they will be well-started in housetraining and basic manners, well-started on life-saving vaccinations, get spayed/neutered and microchipped, and will be adopted to screened, qualified homes. Things are looking up – even though they were set back a tad by the kennel cough they picked up in the week they were at the shelter being treated for coccidia, before they came to my house for fostering. With good home care and treatment, we will pull them all through this, no problem.
But I can’t help but think: Who failed to spay the mama dog in the first place – or at the very least, failed to contain her so she couldn’t get pregnant? Who failed to seek out treatment for what had to have been several months of diarrhea caused by a coccidia infection? Or even as little as a flea preventative? Why do people who don’t care for their pets HAVE pets?
And I’m far from the only one. Friends from all over are dealing with similarly depressing situations. One friend who runs a doggie daycare has DOZENS of hounds in foster care in her facility. Another friend who fosters for her local shelter is in despair over the city government’s recent decision to award the shelter-management contract to a new organization, one without a track record of any kind, despite the current management’s accomplishment of achieving the best adoption rate in that shelter’s history. Another friend has been fostering a special-needs dog for over a year, and has been steadily improving this dog’s health and behavior while seeking an appropriate home for the dog – an admittedly difficult task, as the dog shouldn’t be kept with any other dogs or cats – but without a single lead.
On some days, like today, I am just a little overwhelmed by it all.
The best cure for this? Little bits of good news. Facebook photos of a former hard-to-place foster dog, depicted sleeping sprawled out on a beautiful sofa (indicating a loving owner and comfortable living situation) and romping in a grassy field with new toys in his mouth. Positive emailed reports from owners of the last puppies I fostered, who are now thriving in homes all over the state. And, just now, a few minutes spent sitting in a pen full of puppies, kissing their little heads and smelling puppy breath as they lick my nose and cheeks, and feeling those little tails wagging furiously. That will have to do for now.
My large mixed-breed dog, Otto, will be 11 years old in November. He is big-bodied, much thicker through the middle than my younger dog, Woody. And I have lost count of the number of middle-aged and senior dogs I know who have been lost to splenic tumors – dogs who seemed absolutely fine one day, and then hideously sick the next, and euthanized a few hours later due to a tumor that suddenly grew enough to rupture, or cause some other fatal problem in the dog’s abdomen.
Yes, I’m paranoid. Thankfully, I can afford the pet insurance that enables me to ask and pay for the advanced diagnostic tests to put my mind at ease that, at least so far, Otto is as healthy as he can be, and he is not hiding a potentially lethal mass somewhere in his thick body.
First, I had to make an appointment with a veterinary hospital where a board-certified internist whom I like very much practices – but not just any appointment. I left a message saying I knew it would likely take longer and require special consideration in scheduling, but that I wanted to make an appointment for Otto to have a senior dog wellness exam, as well as blood and urine tests (wellness panel, including complete blood count and chemistry, plus a test for tick-borne diseases, plus urinalysis), radiographs of his whole chest and abdomen, and an abdominal ultrasound – and I wanted to be with him the whole time.
Ordinarily, this clinic would ask the owner to leave the dog in either the morning or afternoon, and come back for him some hours later, so they could move him from station to station in the treatment area of the hospital as there was room and personnel available. He might be put into a cage to wait for various bits of time in between. I know, because this is how a similar visit was handled two years ago at the same practice – a visit that Otto came back from reeking of what a friend used to euphemistically refer to as “butt juice” (Otto emptied his anal glands in fear at some point).
For some dogs, it’s being handled by strangers that scares them about the veterinary hospital experience. For some dogs, it’s the restraint and discomfort of the procedures that they are subjected to. For some, it might be getting put into a cage or the smells – and of course, for some dogs, it’s the whole enchilada. I swear that for Otto, it’s mainly about being rushed along slippery floors! He likes meeting people, he doesn’t mind restraint (he loves hugging of all kinds), he’s fairly stoic about pain (needles and such), and he is comfortable in all types of crates and cages. But if you rush him even a teeny bit over a slippery floor, he starts panting and shaking and his legs go all wobbly and he turns into a hysterical old lady with legs like Bambi on ice!
I have done my very best to build a relationship with the veterinarian who would be doing the exam and ultrasound, and she is the medical director of this large practice (which turns into an emergency hospital after hours and on weekends). So she knows me, and knows that I am not a hysterical old lady myself, won’t take up more time than is necessary to help move Otto through the stations, won’t ask about any other dog or procedure I see taking place in the treatment area, and won’t ask her a million unrelated questions about Otto or my other dog – in other words, she knows I will be respectful of her time, given that I will be asking for more of her time than usual. So, when I left my request for this sort of appointment with her scheduler (a different person than the hospital’s usual scheduler), I got a call back a day later with details for an appointment about 10 days later. I was warned that emergencies could affect the timing of all the tests; I might have to wait with Otto for any amount of time if the ultrasound or x-ray equipment was needed for an emergency case. Of course!
Before we walked into the hospital, I sprayed Otto’s feet with a rosin-based spray, to help give him a little more traction on the floor, and while I’ve not seen this help him deal any differently with our floors at home, I do think the added stickiness gave him a little confidence in the clinic – that, and not being hurried at all. I let him have a fairly long leash and pick his own path more or less alongside me as we walked up to the front counter to check in, and then over to a seat in the waiting area. I smiled and answered politely when a lady with a cat in a crate on the other side of the waiting area kept trying to engage me in conversation, but kept my focus and attention on Otto, asking him to repeat his best-known tricks while we waited, to keep him distracted and happy: sit, stand, down, back up, high five, and his theatrical favorite, “bang!” (He gives a very realistic groan when he “dies” and lies flat.)
I was instructed not to feed Otto the morning of the appointment, so his stomach would be empty; it helps during the ultrasound, to see surrounding structures. So, I was super stingy with the treats I fed Otto in the waiting area; I gave him just one nugget of Stella and Chewy’s “Meal Mixers” for about every 10th behavior. The nuggets are puffed up like popcorn, not dense like dried meat; if you smush one between your fingers, you can see that each one is comprised of a pretty small amount of meat. Fortunately, Otto is used to working long chains of behavior in between treats, and he’s happy with praise and snuggles in between treats. (Woody is more motivated by food, and gets annoyed by petting while he’s working.) So he ate only a little while we waited.
Then a technician led us to an exam room, and I talked to her about Otto’s current health: good, but he is getting a tad stiffer upon rising and slightly protective of himself when jumping into and out of the car. She said they would start off with taking a blood sample for the blood tests, and I reiterated my wish to be with Otto at all times; could they take the sample in the exam room? She said that would be no problem. And, in fact, it wasn’t a problem. Another technician came in to hold Otto, and he greeted her warmly, and snuggled into her restraint; again, Otto likes being hugged. He was calm when the other tech drew blood from a vein in his neck, and happy for a treat when it was over.
While we waited for the room with the ultrasound equipment to be ready, I used my phone to show the technician a video of Otto at our old house, where he used to display all sorts of weird behaviors whenever I removed the carpet runners I usually had positioned the length of the hall. For some reason, his slippery-floor phobia was absolutely worse in the hall than any other place in the house – an eccentricity that has continued in our new house, which has the same flooring in the living room as the bedrooms and the hall, but he avoids the hall like the plague. Perhaps it’s the closed-in feeling, the lack of options for picking his own path? I don’t know – but I wanted to show the technician that it’s not just at the vet, and I’m not exaggerating: he really does get stressed out about slippery floors, and it’s one of the reasons I’m so protective of what goes on “in the back” at the vet. The technician thought the video was hilarious and sad. “Poor Otto!” she exclaimed, and assured me that we would let him pick the pace and path into the ultrasound room and elsewhere in the hospital. Mission accomplished.
Abdominal ultrasounds are performed with the dog lying on his back in a V-shaped, padded cradle. The cradle is secured to the top of an examination table that can be lowered and raised with an electric motor. Two technicians lifted Otto and sort of rolled him over into the cradle on his back, while I stood at his head and rubbed his chest, telling him what a good boy he was. I stayed there while the one technician shaved his tummy and the other lightly held his hind legs; once the doctor came in to perform the ultrasound, the second technician held his front legs while I alternated between taking pictures and rubbing his chest. At no time did he struggle or get over-concerned with the procedure. And the veterinarian saw absolutely no worrisome abnormalities.
After that, the veterinarian examined Otto (eyes, ears, mouth, abdomen, etc.) while the techs went to prepare the x-ray machine. I wasn’t allowed to stay in this area during the x-rays, which makes sense, but did walk Otto into the room and reassure him when I handed his leash over to the technician, and told him to “wait.”
About 10 minutes later, one of the technicians and the vet brought a very happy-looking Otto to me in the waiting room – no butt-juice aroma this time, hurray! I fed him a huge handful of the Stella and Chewy’s food while listening to the vet: Again, she saw no abnormalities on Otto’s radiographs, though they would be sent to a radiologist for a more thorough look, and she would call me the next day with results from the blood and urine tests.
Today I got that call: All his blood tests came back in normal ranges, negative for heartworm, the tick titers were all negative, and his urine looked good except it was slightly more dilute than she’d like to see. She asked me to capture a sample first thing in the morning, and bring that in for comparison, which I’ll do tomorrow, to make sure that Otto’s kidneys are capable of concentrating his urine properly.
All in all, I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. We got through a major appointment without scaring him and aggravating his fear of floors, and my older guy is as healthy as I can hope for at the moment.
While some first aid may be possible in the event of a foxtail wound, in almost all cases you should get your dog to a veterinarian as soon as possible. Delaying treatment allows the foxtail to do further damage; avoiding foxtail treatment altogether could lead to your dog developing a chronic illness or could even lead to death.
SYMPTOMS: Squinting, discharge, an eye glued shut.
FIRST AID: Some trail first-aid advocates suggest removing a visible foxtail in the dog’s third eyelid by hand, by using blunt tweezers, or with a damp Q-Tip. However, you risk not removing it completely or driving it deeper. Instead, keep the dog from pawing at the eye and take her immediately to the vet – ideally to a veterinary opthalmologist.
TREATMENT: With a calm dog, the vet will use a numbing agent on the eye and remove the foxtail. A panicked or excitable dog may need sedation.
FIRST AID: Squirting mineral oil into the ear to soften the awn is a common recommendation. But Dr. Randy Acker, author of Field Guide to Dog First Aid: Emergency Care for the Outdoor Dog, cautions against it; if the eardrum has been damaged, the oil will do more harm than good. Get to a vet as quickly as possible.
TREATMENT: The vet examines the ear with an otoscope and uses alligator forceps to extract the foxtail. Sedation may be necessary.
Foxtails in the Nose
RISK: Chronic irritation, infections, tissue damage; may migrate into brain.
SYMPTOMS: Violent, explosive, serial sneezing. There may be a slight bloody dischage.
FIRST AID: None. Get to a vet as soon as possible.
TREATMENT: The dog must be sedated, and a topical anesthetic may be needed to numb the inside of the dog’s nose.
Using a rhinoscope, the veterinarian will visually inspect the area and extract the awn using alligator forceps.
Foxtails in the Mouth or Throat
RISKS: Damage to periodontal pockets, the tongue, or throat; infection; can be inhaled into lung.
SYMPTOMS: Hacking, gagging, difficulty swallowing when eating or drinking.
FIRST AID: If the foxtail is visible, you may pull it out by hand or with blunt tweezers. Feeding the dog bread may force the seed to move through the throat and into the stomach. In any case, see a vet for follow-up.
TREATMENT: The vet will anesthetize the dog and remove any foxtails.
Foxtails in Your Dog’s Paws
RISKS: Abscesses, infections.
SYMPTOMS: Continual licking of the foot or pad, bumpy swelling between the toes, or a small hole.
FIRST AID: If you can see the foxtail, you can try to remove it by hand or by using blunt-tipped tweezers. For embedded foxtails, soaking the paw (plain, warm water, 15 minutes, two to three times a day for three days) may promote the formation of an abscess that will eventually burst and expel the awn. If this happens, continue soaking in antiseptic water for several days.
A veterinary checkup is necessary if the foxtail is not expelled or if you see bumps forming in other areas of the paw or leg – a sign that the foxtail is migrating. Follow up with your vet in any case.
TREATMENT: The vet will locate and remove the foxtail.
Foxtails Under the Skin
RISKS: Infections, irritation, migration through the body; if it penetrates the body wall, it may injure a vital organ or cause secondary infection and abscesses.
SYMPTOMS: A hard bump or lump; may include a small hole in its center.
FIRST AID: None.
TREATMENT: The vet will surgically explore for the foxtail and remove it when found.
A full report on how to introduce new dogs to your pack exists here. In addition to the instructions and precautions discussed in that article, here are some additional things you can do to increase your potential for successful introductions between dogs.
Here are some general suggestions on how to introduce dogs to each other:
1. Exercise the dogs before initiating introductions. Happily tired dogs are more likely to interact well than those who are bursting with energy.
2. Have tools within easy reach in case you need to interupt an aggressive interaction (for more on breaking up dog fights, see “How to Safely Break Up a Dog Fight“.
3. Be sure to remove toys and other high value chew objects from the introduction area to minimize potential for guarding incidents.
4. Use extra caution when introducing a puppy to adult dogs to avoid physical injury or psychological trauma to your pup. While many adult dogs recognize the importance of being gentle with baby dogs, some do not. Some will play too roughly, and some will be actively aggressive. A bad experience with an overly exuberant playmate or an aggressive dog can have a significant negative influence on a pup’s future social behavior.
5. Be careful, too, when introducing a new dog to senior members of your pack, especially if the new dog is an adolescent or a puppy. Protect your senior dog from being physically damaged—bumped, bruised, body-slammed, or knocked over by a rambunctious pup. Keep your pup on leash in the presence of Granny or use a baby gate to keep them separated until he learns to modulate his behavior around your fragile, sometimes grumpy senior. Your geriatric dogs shouldn’t have to defend themselves from the overwhelming attention of fractious youngsters.
6. Consider size. Jean Donaldson, director of the San Francisco SPCA’s Academy for Dog Trainers, recommends no more than a 25-pound difference in size between dogs in a household or play group. More than that, she warns, and you risk predatory drift, where the larger dog suddenly perceives a small running dog as a prey object, such as a bunny or squirrel, and shifts from play to food-acquisition mode, sometimes with tragic results. Know that if you choose to introduce a new dog to a situation where there is a large size disparity, you may be taking additional risks with your dogs’ safety during introductions and thereafter.
7. Be sure to reinforce both/all dogs for calm, appropriate behavior in each other’s presence. Your reinforcers should be calming: treats, massage, and verbal praise are good choices; tug and fetch are not. You can use tethers, if necessary, to create calm, and follow Norwegian dog trainer Turid Rugaas’ suggestions to have dogs approach each other in a curving line rather than directly, allowing them to sniff the ground and do other displacement and appeasement behaviors such as looking away, as they choose.
Note: Turid Rugaas coined the term “calming signals” for many of the social behaviors dogs display when interacting with each other and with us. You can learn more about her work through her book, On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals, and her “Calming Signals” DVD.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also the author of The Power of Positive Dog Training and Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog.
This Elizabethan-type collar (the Foreyy Recovery Pet Cone) is a more comfortable example of the many alternatives to the classic clinic-issued “cone” that are now available in pet supply stores and online.
Dogs are naturally curious, physical, and exuberant, and while we love this about them, these characteristics can also lead to unintentional injuries. These can run the gamut from very minor to severe and life-threatening. How do you know the difference? When is it time to consult a veterinarian and when can you treat a dog’s wound at home? Here are some steps for assessing wounds and treating them.
1. Keep in mind that wounds are painful!
Even though your dog may have never snapped at you or bitten before, tender injuries can make even the most docile, sweet-natured dog snap or bite. Whenever handling an injured pet, make sure that someone restrains the dog properly while you examine and investigate the injury or wound for treatment.
2. All bite wounds should be evaluated by a veterinarian.
If your dog scuffles with another dog, cat, or a wild animal, immediate care with a vet is needed. This is true for several reasons:
First, animal teeth drive bacteria deep into wounds, even if they are only small punctures. Antibiotics are generally warranted any time that a dog is bitten by another animal.
Second, your dog might need to receive a rabies booster, particularly if he was bitten by a stray dog or cat or wild animal.
This doesn’t look like a very serious injury, does it? Despite the fact that the dog is standing and the wound looks small, it IS a serious injury: it’s a gunshot wound! A dog with any puncture wound of unknown cause or origin should be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible.
Finally, bite wounds are often referred to as “tip of the iceberg” injuries. Though the external wounds may not look severe, there can be underlying trauma to the muscles and other tissues (particularly in the case of a smaller dog being grabbed and shaken), or even internal bleeding.
3. Any punctures that have an unknown source should be treated by a veterinarian.
Puncture wounds can represent several types of injuries including gunshot wounds, bites from other animals, or foreign-body penetration. It is not uncommon for a stick or other sharp object to penetrate a wound and become lodged within it. Though the wound may look small from the outside, foreign material trapped in the wound can lead to delayed or lack of healing, localized infection, and/or tetanus.
4. A veterinarian should treat a dog’ wounds if they are over an inch long, occurs on the chest or the abdomen, is contaminated, or has jagged edges.
These wounds look clean along the edges, but they involve most of the cranial ear pinna, an area that is rich with muscular, nervous, and vascular contributions; the dog will benefit from veterinary attention.
It is difficult or impossible to treat a dog’s wounds at home or to deeply clean a wound without risking injury to yourself or traumatizing the wound. It is also important to note that wounds on the body (thorax or abdomen) can be more severe than they initially appear and always need to be addressed by a veterinarian, whereas wounds on the face (away from the eyes) or small, superficial wounds on the limbs may do just fine with at-home management.
5. Use hydrogen peroxide to treat a dog’s wound only once, if at all.
Hydrogen peroxide can be used initially on a wound to decontaminate it, but it should not be used repeatedly – and, truth be told, there are better ways to clean a wound. Hydrogen peroxide on a dog wound is extremely irritating to tissue. It can impede healing if used repetitively. If you do use it on a wound, use only after the initial cleaning and do not repeat.
Avoid alcohol on wounds, as the sudden, sharp stinging may provoke an otherwise well-behaved dog to snap or bite.
6. If the wound seems relatively minor (less than an inch long with clean edges), here’s how to treat dog wounds yourself:
You can clean gently with a warm wet washcloth and apply a thin layer of triple antibiotic ointment to the wound. If your pet licks the wound, use an Elizabethan collar (aka “cone”) or cone alternative to prevent self-trauma. You can also lightly wrap the wounds.
The ear looks much better after debridement (removal of damaged tissue) and suture placement.
It is imperative that you are careful when wrapping. As an emergency-room veterinarian, I saw many complications related to improper bandaging of a dog’s wound.
To make a safe bandage, you should use three layers. Start with a sterile dressing square over the wound. Over that, you can place two or three layers of a cotton-gauze wrapping. The last layer should be a stretchy wrap such as PetFlex. Before placing it, unroll the stretch wrap to remove some of the tension and then rewind it. This will help prevent overly tight application. Place two to three layers over the cotton. You should be able to insert two fingers under all edges of the bandage. If you cannot, the bandage should be removed and re-wrapped.
Bandages that are too tight can lead to decreased blood flow to the limb below, as well as decreased blood flow to the wound itself. This will slow healing.
It is also imperative that a dog’s wounds receive oxygen to heal. Change the bandage every 12 to 24 hours. If the wound appears to be healing well after 72 hours, you can remove the bandage.
These wounds are a result of improper bandage placement. As you can see, complications from incorrect bandaging can be severe. The original wound on this foot was bandaged for several days by the owner. The dog was seen at a veterinarian’s office after the bandage became wet and had an odor.
Any wound, whether being managed at home or by your veterinarian, should be monitored for sudden changes. Acute redness, swelling, or discomfort, or discharge that is thick, foul-smelling, or copious merits an immediate trip to the vet.
Is Your Dog Licking the Wounds?
Wounds go through several phases of healing, and just like with our own wounds, each phase can cause the dog to feel a variety of sensations. These can include itching, burning, pain, and a tight, pulling sensation as the skin knits back together. Dogs will frequently lick or chew healing wounds in an effort to alleviate these feelings of discomfort, but all that moisture and pressure can increase the damage to the wounds themselves (especially if there are stitches or staples present) and promote infection.
If your dog tries to lick his wound, it’s important to use an Elizabethan collar or some alternative product to prevent him from further traumatizing the area. “Cones” can be bulky and annoying to your dog, and though most dogs will adapt to wearing one relatively quickly, there are many lighter and/or more comfortable options. For a wide selection of products that might suit your dog better, see “Best Dog Cone Alternatives“.
Whatever product you use, be patient, and keep it on your dog until the wound is healed and/or your dog is no longer paying any attention to it.
Better Safe Than Sorry
It is important to remember that when in doubt, all but the most superficial wounds should be evaluated by a veterinarian. Wounds can seem misleadingly slight, belying significant tissue trauma beneath. Hopefully, your visit with the veterinarian will be a quick evaluation, wound cleaning, and some prescription medications. If not, though, the sooner a wound is evaluated, the better the chances for healing and recovery.
A dog with a classic and advanced presentation of tetanus may display "rictus sardonicus" (sardonic grin), with his ears and lips pulled tightly back and bulging eyes.
Your canine companion is walking calmly with you one minute, and the next, a rabbit! Off streaks your dog, ignoring your calls and bent on chasing the rabbit. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t notice the rusty old wire fence stretching across the landscape and runs right through it. Abashed, he returns to you with superficial wounds from the barbed wire on his legs and face. Your mind races: Do dogs get tetanus? Should your dog get a tetanus shot now?
Yes: Dogs can get tetanus. But, no, you couldn’t get him a tetanus vaccine even if you wanted to.
Fortunately, tetanus is relatively rare in dogs. Horses and humans are more susceptible to tetanus, while cats are highly resistant. Dogs fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum – but it does happen. As an emergency veterinarian, I have personally seen two cases of tetanus in dogs and read of several others.
The disease arises from the bacteria Clostridium tetani, which is introduced into the body via wounds. C. tetani is naturally present in some soils. Despite what many people think, C. tetani is not a particular hazard of rusty metal; it’s the dirt on rusty metal – as well as metal that is not at all rusty! – that carries C. tetani into a wound.
Another surprise is that the bacteria itself is not the problem. Rather, the tetanus malady is caused by a neurotoxin (“tetanospasmin”) that is produced by the bacteria after it is introduced to an oxygen-deprived setting (as in puncture wounds) and it begins to reproduce. The toxin binds to tissue in the nervous system and causes the classic signs of tetanus. In dogs, these signs include painful muscle contractions and stiffness or rigidity of the limb nearest the site of infection. This can progress to generalized signs that include r
In humans, we associate tetanus with wounds from rusty metal, which is why WDJ Editor Nancy Kerns was concerned when her dog Woody cut his nose on rusty barbed wire. But the tetanus bacteria is introduced into canine wounds from soil, underlining the need to clean your dog’s wounds – and watch puncture wounds especially carefully for any sign of infection.
igidity in all four limbs known as the “sawhorse stance.” The more classic presentation of tetanus is a dog with rictus sardonicus (“sardonic grin”). The ears are pulled tightly back, as are the lips. The eyes bulge, and the dog appears to be grinning.
Treatment for tetanus consists mainly of general supportive care while the dog’s nervous system recovers from the damage caused by exposure to the neurotoxin. Dogs with generalized tetanus cannot walk. They require attentive nursing care with soft bedding, frequent rotation to avoid decubital ulcers (“bed sores”), hand feeding or feeding by a nasogastric or gastric tube, assistance with expressing their bladder, and minimal stimulation. Recovery can take weeks or even months, but if they are provided with excellent nursing care, many dogs will survive.
Tetanus Prevention for Dogs
So, back to your furry friend and his barbed wire injuries. He has wounds on his nose from rusty metal. Now what? Shouldn’t he receive a tetanus vaccine?
As it turns out, he can’t! There are multiple FDA-approved tetanus toxoid vaccines for humans, horses, and sheep. Unfortunately, there are none for dogs. Since tetanus is relatively rare in dogs, the sales of a tetanus toxoid vaccine for dogs would likely never pay off the expense of its development by a pharmaceutical company, so it’s no surprise that it hasn’t yet been developed. Money aside, there are also ethical considerations to vaccine development: To study whether a toxoid vaccine works in dogs, researchers would be required to infect dogs with tetanus and then treat them. The infection and resulting illness, treatment, and possible side effects of the vaccines would cause significant suffering and some deaths in the research animals. On balance, the endeavor hasn’t yet appealed to any vaccine developer.
Since there is not a readily available vaccine against tetanus for your dog, how can you protect your dog from the condition?
Bites and puncture wounds are at special risk of developing tetanus; bring these to your vet!
Next, monitor your dog carefully after he sustains any open wound. If you notice stiffness at the site of the injury, do not wait to have your dog seen by a veterinarian. The more quickly tetanus is detected and treated, the better your dog’s prognosis will be.
Perhaps you’re thinking about taking your adolescent out-of-control dog, or your dog with significant behavior issues, to a board-and-train (B&T) facility, where they will work with her for a few short weeks and hand her back all perfect. Right? Wait a minute. What sounds like a perfect solution to your dog’s behavior and training challenges is fraught with danger. Remember that something that sounds too good to be true, often is.
Don’t get me wrong. There are certainly some fantastic B&T professionals who can indeed help you with your dog when you feel like you’ve hit a wall. It’s just that they are few and far between while the scary ones seem to be everywhere.
When you leave your dog in someone else’s hands and walk away, you are taking a significant risk that they will do bad things to your dog when you are no longer there to intervene. There is virtually no regulation in the dog-training industry in the United States, and even so-called “positive trainers” can do bad things to your dog when you aren’t there.
The Bad and the Ugly of the Dog Training World
There are a variety of B&T trainers who fall into the “bad and ugly” category. They are:
The Criminal Scammers. A tragic news article caught my eye recently about a B&T provider who was refusing to answer phone calls from worried owners. When authorities were called in, they found dead and other seriously neglected dogs on the premises. (And this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen.)
The Shock Jocks. These are B&T providers who are proud of the fact that they use shock collars along with other pain-causing tools and physical force and punishment to “dominate” their clients’ dogs. They insist that dogs need to know who is boss, and the only way to achieve this is with the use of force.
If there is one good thing about these folks, it’s that you can spot them a mile away and know immediately that you would never leave your beloved dog in their hands.
Balancing Act. Then there are the so-called “balanced trainers” who profess to using positive reinforcement as a first resort, but who are willing to use pain, force, and coercion when they feel a dog “needs” it. These trainers can be very good at talking you into thinking that force is sometimes necessary as a backup plan. (It’s not.) Some are even convinced they can use a shock collar as “positive reinforcement.” (It’s not. Ever.) Also, knowing they are willing to use those tools and methods, you will have no idea how much they are getting used when you’re not there to supervise.
Positive Pretenders. These are the really sneaky ones. They claim to be “positive” when in fact they aren’t. Sometimes they think they are positive because they give the dog a treat after they jerk on the collar – or because they are less punitive than they used to be. Some trainers say they are “positive,” but they don’t ever use food or treats as reinforcers. Food is considered a “primary reinforcer” – valuable to most dogs. If a trainer never uses treats, she is needlessly foregoing the most powerful reinforcer in the force-free training toolbox. She will likely be less successful and/or use coercion in her training. Trainers who pretend to be force-free are not likely to do anything overtly forceful in your presence. This is why you need to get good referrals from trusted friends and professionals and do your own research, too (more on that below).
Signs of a Good Board and Train Facility
If you are in a situation where you feel compelled to pursue a B&T option for your dog, it is critically important that you do in-depth research before agreeing to allow someone to work with your dog.
The following are due-diligence tips from well-respected trainers who offer Board & Train services themselves:
Leslie Clifton, CPDT-KA, CPCT, PMCT, is a force-free trainer who offers limited B&T services in Putnam County, Florida.
Christine Danker, CPDT-KA, KPA-CTP, PMCT3, of Albany County, New York, is a force-free trainer who has had considerable experience with B&T services.
1. Find a trainer who uses only reward-based methods.
Preferably this is a trainer referred to you by another training professional you trust, or a trusted friend who has had already used this service and is satisfied.
2. Check out the trainer’s website.
Look for professional certifications that support force-free training. Look for incongruities, such as trainers who call themselves “positive” but photos on their websites show dogs in prong collars, choke chains, and/or shock collars. Not a good choice. Instead, find a trainer who walks the walk as well as she talks the talk.
3. Visit the place where your dog will be staying.
Is it safely and securely fenced? Double fencing is ideal, with fence in good repair, and latches in good working condition. Some trainers have B&T dogs live in their own homes, with their own canine and human family members. (These trainers generally take a very limited number of B&T clients, sometimes only their own already-existing clients.) If your dog will be kenneled, are the kennels clean and well-maintained, with appropriate climate controls?
4. Verify what kinds of tools and methods the trainers use.
Confirm these in writing in your B&T contract. Flat collars, martingales, harnesses, treats, praise, and toys: all good. Any mention of “e-collars” or one of the many euphemisms for “shock” (such as “e-touch,” “stim,” “remote,” and “tickle”) should send you running for the door. If more than one trainer will be working with your dog, confirm that each trainer shares your philosophy of force-free handling and training.
5. Ask how many dogs the trainer takes at a time.
When you visit the property, make sure the number of dogs present seems reasonable for the facilities and number of trainers available to work with the dogs.
6. Inquire if your dog will be taken off premises, and if so, for what reason(s)?
Emergency vet visits, yes. Group play at the dog park or dog-pack walks should be a definite no. Will your dog be transported safely in a crate? If your dog needs veterinary care, will the trainer take your dog to your own vet, or to hers? (Yours is preferred, of course, but distance may be too great if you are traveling far to find an excellent B&T facility.)
7. Ask what skills will be worked on, and again, confirm the methods that will be used.
Have the trainer give a demonstration but be ready to assertively interrupt if she begins to use any coercive methods, such as leash jerks, a loud voice, or physically forcing the dog into position.
8. Look at the dogs currently in the trainer’s care.
Do they appear happy and relaxed? Quiet does not always mean stress-free; they may be intimidated. Look for dogs to move happily toward the trainer. Dogs who move slowly and/or with a lowered body posture and/or lowered head can indicate fear, deference, or appeasement. These are sometimes a sign that aversives are being used in training and other interactions with the dogs.
If dogs are barking and jumping at kennel fences and kennel doors, how does the trainer handle the situation? There should be no yelling, squirt bottles, penny cans, or other aversives used to quiet barking dogs. Rather, puzzle toys and other environmental enrichment tools should be in place to help keep dogs quiet, as well as management (physical barriers to reduce stimulation).
9. Ask for references from previous clients.
Contact and interview those clients in detail, asking specific questions about their dogs’ behavior before and after the training,and what tools and methods were used. Ask, too, what they loved about the trainer and her results, as well as anything that they were less than happy with.
Protective Board and Train Paperwork
If all looks good and you are ready to proceed, ask to see the provider’s intake forms. Ideally, the provider wants a lot of information about your dog! There should be rigorous intake forms, including a dog behavior questionnaire, a pet profile and medical history, a board and train contract, and a veterinary release form (should your dog become ill).
– Make clear that you are to be contacted immediately if your dog becomes ill; include this in your contract.
– Be prepared to sign a contract that states exactly where the dog will stay, what skills will be trained, what tools and methods will be used, and how the dog will interact (if at all) with other dogs on the premises.
Ask for the following to be included in the contract: that you will be sent daily updates and photos, that follow-up training notes and videos will be provided, and that emails or phone calls will be returned if you have questions, both during your dog’s stay and after she comes home. If the trainer doesn’t offer a contract, or these specifics are not included, ask for it to be created.
– Understand that you will still need to work with your dog when she comes home.
B&T can’t fix everything! Follow-up lessons with the owner should be part of the package and included in the contract.
– Insist on writing “owner visitations” into the contract.
You want to ensure your right to drop by the facility at any time, to protect your dog from the criminal scammers, if your dog is going to be at B&T for more than a week or two.
– Call in the authorities if even one of your visits is refused.
Remember that B&T professionals can’t just wave a magic wand and fix your dog forever. If they could, they would all be millionaires! They can help manage and retrain behavioral challenges, but you are still responsible for managing and training your dog. They can teach you how to live successfully with your dog, but you’ll still need to work with your dog yourself.
Because your dog likely has a prior history of being reinforced for the unwanted behaviors at home, she may well try them again, even if she learned new good-manners behaviors at the B&T. Make sure your B&T trainer gives you good information on how to help her generalize the desired behaviors to your home environment and is willing to continue giving you guidance along the way.
Trainers Comment on “Board and Train” Experiences
We asked several trainers how they feel about board and train practices. Here are some of their comments:
A friend of mine who is involved with rescue wanted to send one of their rescue dogs to a B&T that was recommended by someone and was purportedly “positive.” She sent me the link and the first thing I looked at was the photo gallery. I asked her to tell me what was wrong with the pictures. She didn’t understand; she didn’t see anything wrong. I told her to take another look; every single dog was wearing a choke collar!
Also, in a Q and A section about their dog training program, they said, “Our training techniques are all very humane. Every trainer at [Name Redacted]’s Dog Training Company is here because they love dogs … they are our passion. Therefore, we have found over years of dog-training experience that the most effective training method is positive reinforcement – not food or treats!”
This is obviously not a true positive-training facility.
I just started to offer B&T and I take only one puppy at a time, so it’s super small scale. But I wanted to offer an alternative to the local boot camps that take puppies at 16 weeks, kennel them, shock them to teach sit, then send them home as temporarily obedient zombies.
I keep the puppies in my home, living as part of my family, not only so I can love and care for them the way their own family would, but also so they get experience in a home environment. I send them home happy, socialized, loved, and well-mannered for the family environment in which they will live, using toys, play, and meals to teach. I video their training and play sessions and send daily video to the family. I wish I could take 100 puppies!
I’ve had a couple of dogs with issues from B&T. One was a client’s dog, a huge Rottie. I was supposed to work with her on aggression issues and general obedience. On my first day training her, I was reviewing the cues she supposedly already knew. When I asked her to “down” she growled at me and ran across the room. She repeated this behavior twice more.
I asked the owners if they could explain why she did this. They could not – but about two years earlier they had sent her to a B&T. She didn’t know the “down” behavior before, nor would she “down” on cue when she came back, but ever since she’d come back, whenever they would ask her to down she behaved in just this way – so, of course, they had quit asking her.
I feel certain she had been forced into a “down” at the B&T and the growling was a sign of her fear about this. So instead of asking her to down, I simply started “capturing” the behavior (this is when a handler rewards the dog every time she happens to perform the behavior, until she does the behavior on purpose in order to get the reward; then and only then does the handler add a cue). Within a few sessions, she would down with no growl, because she really liked hotdogs!
I’ve had only one board and train experience in my eight-plus years as a professional trainer. A young family was overwhelmed with an extremely energetic and intelligent Lab puppy. Mom, Dad, and three young kids were busy with careers, school, and sports, and barely had a moment left over for puppy training and exercise. The puppy spent long hours in a kennel and was a tornado of desperation and impulsive needs.
After half a dozen in-home training/coaching sessions, the family knew they needed more help and asked if I would board and train their puppy while they traveled for vacation. The puppy initially spent two weeks with us, then another week later during the summer when the family traveled again. During her time with me, the puppy was an all-star pupil. She was eager to learn and made meteoric progress.
When her family returned from their travels and picked her up, she went home with a “straight A” report card, an hour of in-home instruction in management and training games, and a detailed, written list of all her tricks and the signals to cue them. I could not have been more proud of the puppy or my efforts with her.
A few weeks later, I returned to their home for a follow-up session and found that the puppy had reverted to all of the fractious behaviors she practiced before our board and train project. The family had not changed their approach with her at all, and we were back to square one. It was beyond discouraging.
Soon after, the mom suffered a broken leg, dad was at wits’ end, the kids were very disenchanted, and the puppy was back in the kennel much of the time. The mom asked whether I would consider adopting the puppy. Daisy has been with us ever since and is now a model of happy, self-controlled, good manners and cooperation.
I’d probably never do B&T again. The more experience I accumulate in training and behavior modification, the clearer it is to me that there’s no substitute for a family or individual being able to understand their dog’s physical and mental needs and to build a skill-set for positive-reinforcement training. Training a dog is not the same as installing an app on a smart phone or changing the tires on a car. Good training means helping the family and the dog build a relationship based on good information, skills, and mutual trust; it takes commitment that board and train can’t replace.
Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT‑KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She and her husband Paul live in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Miller is also the author of many books on positive training. Her newest is Beware of the Dog: Positive Solutions for Aggressive Behavior in Dogs.
I have never owned a dog with separation anxiety, thank goodness. The condition is hard on the dog who suffers from the condition and hard on the dog’s caretakers, too, including owners, vets, groomers, pet sitters, and dog walkers. Care must be taken to prevent triggering the dog’s panic at being left alone—in severe cases, even just long enough for the person caring for the dog to use the restroom!
