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Fitness for Aging Dogs

By
Lori Stevens
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0

[Updated August 3, 2018]

When we live with and see our dogs every day, we don’t always notice the little changes that age brings, especially when we have more than one dog. All of a sudden our senior dog can appear old – and we hardly noticed the minute signs of aging along the way.

Maybe it’s that your dog no longer runs as far or as long in the park. Maybe she’s not as comfortable jumping up on the bed or into the car. Or maybe she doesn’t get up as often to follow you around as she used to. When our dogs lose the ability to function as well as they used to, it’s difficult to know what to do.

Many clients bring their aging dogs to me for private sessions because they have started having difficulty or reluctance with – or can no longer perform – normal life activities like climbing stairs, getting into the car, or walking on smooth flooring. These problems are often related to muscle atrophy in the hind end. Once the dogs get the all-clear from their veterinarian, we work on fitness exercises designed to rebuild hind-end strength; we increase the difficulty of the exercises slowly over time until more function returns.

It should be obvious that there are cases where a dog is suffering from more than age-related muscle atrophy. If you suspect this is the case, see your veterinarian for diagnosis. Also, watch for hearing and vision loss – these changes often occur and can affect behavior and function quite a bit. I can’t stress enough how important it is for your dog to get regular checkups by your veterinarian, especially as your dog ages.

We know that everything slows down with age. We also know that studies show exercise prolongs life, as does weight management, and that using and exercising the brain holds off mental deterioration. The similarities are great enough that it’s safe to extrapolate that what applies to senior humans applies to our senior dogs, too. So let’s keep our aging dogs’ minds and bodies more active through some simple fitness exercises! The dogs’ quality of life will improve with more physical and mental activities – and our quality of life may improve as well, if our dogs regain function and need less help with everyday activities.

exercises for old dogs

Benefits of Fitness Exercises

Gentle and effective exercise prevents loss of independence and mobility in the aging dog. Fitness exercises keep our aging dogs functioning with confidence in everyday life and can improve:

Proprioception

This is the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself. Dogs lose proprioception as they age, but they can regain some with targeted fitness exercises.

Muscle Strength

Dogs lose muscle strength as they age, especially in the hind end. Dogs can regain muscle strength with fitness exercises, developing hind end, core, and stabilizing muscles as well as front-end (shoulder) muscles.

Gait

A dog’s gait can gradually decline due to weakening muscles, pain, compensatory movement that becomes habitual, and loss of proprioception that occurs with aging. Gaits can improve with specific fitness exercises.

Balance and Stability

Along with flexibility, balance and stability can be regained with fitness exercises.

Endurance

This often reduces with aging. Fitness and conditioning exercises improve physical stamina and/or endurance. Your senior can then manage longer hikes, sports activities, walking, and running.

Confidence

Confidence often blossoms as a result of a fitness program, probably because the dog is succeeding, getting stronger, and getting reinforced often for fitness-related behaviors. I think that the increase in body awareness also helps with confidence.

Attitude and Focus

Focus often improves from doing fitness exercises. Attitudes change for the better when the dog can learn to focus again and feels more confident.

Training Fitness Behaviors

When training fitness exercises, just as in training any behaviors, you can use shaping, luring, prompting, or capturing.

  • Shaping consists of reinforcing successive approximations along the way to the final goal behavior.
  • Luring consists of encouraging the dog to follow something he wants, usually food, then giving it to him as he performs the desired movement. Be sure to use a lure as few times as needed (i.e., two or three times) to get the dog to do the desired behavior, then “fade” (discontinue) the lure. The movement you made with the food or toy can become a hand signal or prompt.
  • Prompting involves encouraging or assisting with an aid that helps the dog understand the desired behavior.
  • Capturing is done by reinforcing the dog when she naturally performs the behavior on her own.

When you see movement toward, or achievement of, the actual goal behavior, “mark” that moment with an auditory or visual marker (such as the flash of a penlight or the click of a clicker) and then reward your dog to reinforce the behavior. I use verbal markers and clickers to mark behaviors. You can use a variety of reinforcers. I usually use very small, yummy treats.

The exercises in this article provide a good fitness foundation for any dog and can be challenging for aging dogs. Work slowly, take video, and work to sharpen your observation skills. It’s extremely important for you to see your dog’s physical alignment. His spine should be in a neutral position and his legs under his hips and shoulders during these exercises. I also think it’s important to look for the joy on our dog’s faces during these exercises.

Note: I never push a dog into position as a way to get behavior. I want dogs to learn to interact with us and any equipment willingly. I find that rushing or pushing dogs onto equipment is not beneficial for the dog. In fact, it can make the dog avoid the equipment in the future or could actually injure the dog. Dogs have more confidence when they get to choose to participate in training, including fitness exercises.

When your dog makes an error, you can cue something simple, such as a nose-to-hand touch, so your dog succeeds. Then reinforce him (feed him a treat) in a position that helps him be ready for the next cue.

exercises for old dogs

Lori Stevens

Prerequisites for Exercising a Senior Dog

Before doing these exercises with your aging dog, get an all-clear to move ahead from your veterinarian. If your dog is overweight, work on weight management first. Also, it’s crucial your dog has properly trimmed nails.

Fitness Exercises for Older Dogs

The following exercises are a good foundation set to do for aging dogs. They use a variety of muscles that contribute to your dog’s core strength, flexibility, and balance.

Walk Over Short Poles

Lay some poles on the ground or on something that elevates them no more than two inches off the ground. The spacing should match the length of your dog from her withers to the base of tail or from the ground to the top of her withers. The poles can be round or flat but not more than two inches wide; broomsticks or lengths of one-inch PVC pipe are ideal. If the poles are on the ground and may easily roll, you can use painters tape to hold them in place. You could also place poles or a mop and broom over two-inch tall tuna cans and use painters tape to hold them in place.

Walk your dog slowly back and forth over the poles a couple of times. Look forward rather than at your dog.

You can place mats on the ground a few feet from the end of your row of poles so your dog has something to focus on as he walks or trots over them. Reinforce your dog on the mat for doing this exercise without hitting the poles.

If your dog hits the poles every time, change the height or the spacing of the poles. Determine if your dog improved or not. Also, try going slower to see if that makes a difference.

As long as your dog isn’t hopping or hitting the poles, you can continue with this exercise. Aim for 10 to 15 repetitions of crossing all of the poles in walking. You can also try trotting the dog over the poles as a separate exercise.

This exercise is good for the hip flexor muscles and for proprioception. I do this exercise with most aging dogs who enter my practice, including as a warm-up exercise.

WALK OVER POLES DEMONSTRATION VIDEO 1
WALK OVER POLES DEMONSTRATION VIDEO 2

Standing Leg Lift-and-Hold

The goal is for the dog to shift weight onto three legs while lifting her fourth leg. Ask for each paw to be lifted in turn (hopefully via a cue such as holding out your hand).

Important: Please do this on a non-slippery surface, and do not force your dog to lift her paw. If she doesn’t want to lift a paw, try again later. Continue with this exercise if your dog can easily give you a paw and therefore do a weight shift while standing.

If you can’t lift a paw or two, that’s fine; assume that it’s not easy or comfortable for your dog at this time. You can try again at another time, such as when she first gets up or after she’s been walking around a bit. It’s always good to check in with your veterinarian to make sure there isn’t a medical reason for her to want to keep her paws on the ground.

When you lift one of your dog’s front paws, support her elbow joint. When you lift a hind paw, support the stifle/knee joint. I demonstrate this in the following video.

LEG LIFT-AND-HOLD DEMONSTRATION VIDEO

Observe the weight shift. When the dog lifts her front right paw, her weight shifts to her left hind paw. Can you see this happening?

Leg lifts are important for balance and postural muscles. Doing leg lifts also ensures that both sides of the body work. You can take the leg lifts even further by lifting a leg and holding it up for progressively longer periods, building duration for an increase in balance and strength. Here’s how:

At this point, you’ve determined that your dog can lift each leg and stay in position and balance for a few seconds. Your dog should be standing as squarely as possible, with her front paws under her shoulders and her back paws under her hips. If your dog has balance issues, then have her in a well-fitting harness so you can support her with your hand, if needed.

  • Ask for a paw lift; I usually start with a front paw. You might have to help bring the paw up. Do not force this.
  • Hold the leg directly under the shoulder or hip, being sure to support the flexed joint (elbow or stifle/knee). Don’t bend the leg more than is needed to lift it.
  • Hold the paw up for five to 10 seconds. Build duration gradually by adding two to five seconds each week until you reach 20 seconds. Increase duration only when your dog is comfortable at the current duration.
  • Do a set of two to three holds per leg every other day.

Your observation skills are incredibly important as your dog progresses. Video yourself and your dog so you can really see what happens during this exercise.

Watch the videos of Cassie doing more advanced versions of this exercise.

ADVANCED LEG LIFT-AND-HOLDS VIDEO 1
ADVANCED LEG LIFT-AND-HOLDS VIDEO 2

In video #4, Cassie is doing leg lifts on foam padding on a massage table. Watch how she carefully adjusts her balance before lifting each leg. In video #5, Cassie is standing on rubbery inflated discs; she has to really work to maintain her balance while she lifts and holds each leg up. This is a highly advanced version of the lift-and-hold exercise. It’s hard work and should be rewarded accordingly!

Sphinx-Down and Sphinx-Down to Stand

This exercise will likely be different from the “down” you learned as an exercise in dog sports. If this is the case, use a different cue for this exercise so that the two are distinct and unique behaviors.

For this exercise, start with your dog standing. Make sure her paws are square under her shoulders and hips. Ideally, all four of her paws will remain fixed in place during this entire exercise. I often start teaching this exercise with the dog standing on a low platform, just a couple of inches high, that’s a few inches wider and a bit longer than the dog is when in a down. Having to keep all four paws on the platform helps the dog learn to keep all of her paws in place.

Prompt (or lure a couple of times) your dog to fold back and down to sphinx position. All four limbs will flex or bend as your dog moves into the down position.

Then ask her to stand. She should do this by pushing up while all four paws remain in position. You might need to lure or prompt this as well.

I recommend luring this exercise two to three times. Then remove the food and use your hand as a prompt for as long as you need to. Later, you can add a verbal cue.

These exercises are good for core strength, leg-hip joint flexibility, as well as strengthening the hind end.

Aim for five to 10 repetitions per set, if your dog can do this many. If your dog can do only two sphinx-downs with proper form, then ask her for just two.

You can add a couple of sphinx-downs per set every couple of weeks until you reach five to 10 per set.

You can do as many as two to three sets every other day. Do not ask your dog to do strengthening exercises every day.

SPHINX-DOWN DEMONSTRATION VIDEO

Two Paws Up

A wonderful strengthening exercise for your dog’s hind end is a form of “perch work” or “two paws up.” Your dog will stand with her two front feet on a slightly elevated object or surface.

To start, you can use a two-inch-thick book that is a few inches wider than your dog’s stance (measuring to the outside of each paw) or you can use a two- to three-inch-high platform. If using a book, I suggest wrapping it in duct tape and then wrapping it in anti-slip material.

Put the book or other platform on the floor only after you’ve made a plan and filled your treat pouch. Be ready to mark the behavior you are looking for, then reinforce with a yummy, small, soft treat.

You can lure your dog up the first two to three times, but be sure to fade the lure quickly. Go from a treat in your hand to using your hand as a prompt. Once your dog puts both front paws on the platform, click and treat (mark and reinforce) a few times, ending the behavior with a click and treat off of the platform.

It should be relatively easy for your dog to step up on the book. If your dog cannot do this, be sure to bring this up with your veterinarian in case there is a medical issue preventing her from being able to do this.

Remember to watch for fatigue and to give your dog plenty of breaks. You are looking for joy on your dog’s face and excitement when you bring out the book or the platform. When you are ready for a break or to stop training, toss a treat for your dog (I say, “All done!”) and pick up the book or platform, to make it clear to your dog that the training session is over.

Once the behavior of stepping up with two paws on the book is solid, you can build duration. I suggest that you initially build duration to about 10 seconds per repetition up on the book and that you do three repetitions per set. If your dog is strong in the hind end, ask for a duration of 20 seconds.

After about seven to 10 days at 10 (or 20) seconds per repetition and three repetitions per set, you can then add another five seconds. Gradually build up to 30 seconds per repetition by adding five seconds every seven to 10 days. Keep your dog at 30 seconds per repetition for at least seven to 10 days before you increase the height of the platform.

Once your dog is completely comfortable keeping her front paws up for 30 seconds for seven to 10 days, you can increase the height of the platform to as much as four to six inches. But -this is important – when you raise the platform, you must reduce the duration that you ask your dog for. Return to 10 seconds, and then build to 30 seconds after another week or two.

As long as your dog finds this exercise to be easy and fun, you can continue to increase the height of the platform. Just make sure that each time you increase the height, you reduce the duration on the platform back to 10 seconds, and then build up to 30 seconds after another week or two. Stop adding height once your dog can work comfortably at your goal height. The typical height of a stair is eight inches; this is the goal height (with your veterinarian’s approval) for many medium and large dogs. For shorter and smaller dogs, or dogs with physical issues, the goal height might be two or four inches.

Tip: One thing you want to watch for is the widening of your dog’s hind legs. If your dog is standing wider in the hind legs when her front paws are on the platform, then the exercise is too difficult. Reduce the number of repetitions, the height, and/or the duration of the exercise so she can do it without widening her stance. It’s possible you moved through the steps too quickly.

Outside Fitness Work

While you are out walking, you can find all sorts of surfaces for your dog to put two front paws up on, such as curbs, large rocks, and logs. Putting her front feet up will put more weight on her hind end, which is what we are after. Just be sure to support your dog, if needed, on uneven surfaces. A well-fitting harness that doesn’t restrict movement is ideal for both walking your dog and supporting her during fitness exercises. (Of course, as the creator of the Balance Harness® by Blue-9 Pet Products, I recommend that one!)

Look for hills or inclines to walk or run up as many times as you can. Another beneficial exercise for outdoors is zigzagging down hills, which works one side of the body at a time. Sphinx-downs are also fun to practice in the park. Practicing spins in each direction can increase and maintain flexibility throughout the spine.

In warm weather, my dog Cassie walks or powers through shallow water and swims regularly in the local lakes. She also rides on a stand-up paddleboard, which is great for balance and stability muscle work for us both.

Good Form and Fun

The most important thing is that you and your dog enjoy these exercises and be safe doing them. Strengthening exercises should be done every other day, not daily.

I highly recommend finding a professional who can initially go through the exercises with you and your dog, to ensure your dog is in proper alignment and can safely do the exercises. Professionals who can help include Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioners or Therapists (CCRP or CCRT) and Certified Canine Fitness Trainers (CCFT). Regular practice, with good form, should help your dog enjoy herself and function better in her senior years.

Lori Stevens has certifications and expertise in behavior consulting, canine massage, canine fitness, and Tellington TTouch Training. She is the creator of the Balance Harness® (Blue-9 Pet Products), and has an established companion animal practice in Seattle, WA. The most recent of her DVDs is called “Gift of a Gray Muzzle: Active Care for Senior Dogs” and is co-presented with Kathy Sdao (Tawzer Dog Videos, 2017). Lori also teaches online classes for Fenzi Dog Sports Academy; her six-week course, “Helping Dogs Thrive: Aging Dogs,” which includes bodywork, fitness, and movement for aging dogs, begins on December 1, 2017.

Grabbing Your Dog’s Collar: Why and How to Practice

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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0

[Updated January 31, 2019]

While we discus collars in the December 2017 issue, let’s also take a moment to talk about collar grabs. I see a worrisome number of dogs who duck away when their human reaches for their collar. This is not only annoying for the human, it is also dangerous. Imagine what happens in an emergency, when the owner needs to quickly corral the dog to keep her out of danger, and the dog ducks away from the reaching hand and runs off.

If your dog has a positive association with being reached for, it could save her life. It’s easy enough to teach with most dogs and well worth the effort. All you need is a supply of tasty treats, and your dog, wearing a collar. Here’s how:

1. Move one hand toward your dog. Feed a treat from the other hand while your first hand stays in place. Remove both hands at the same time and hide them behind your back.

collar desensitization 1

If your dog moved away when you did this or otherwise had a negative reaction (such as a nervous nose-lick, as seen in the photo), you moved your hand too close to her, or too quickly. Move your hand less and more slowly on the next trial.

2. Repeat many times, until, when you present your “reach” hand, your dog looks for the “treat” hand to appear. This “look” is called a conditioned emotional response, or CER.

collar desensitization 2

3. When your dog consistently offers the desired CER at the distance of your original reach, reach a little farther next time. Keep working at the shorter reach distance until you consistently get the desired CER.

4. Gradually move your reaching hand closer and closer, getting the desired CER at each new reach distance, until you can touch, and then briefly grasp, your dog’s collar.

collar desensitization 3

5. When she happily responds to you grasping her collar, ask other people to do the same exercise. Have the person start at Step 1, until your dog is happy about anyone reaching for her (in case she gets away from you and someone else tries to catch her).

Getting Rid of Fleas in the House

By
Nancy Kerns
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2

REMOVING FLEAS FROM THE HOUSE: OVERVIEW

1. A good vacuum is the best tool in the war on fleas. Vacuum your entire home thoroughly and deeply, concentrating on rooms and areas where your dog spends the most time.

2. Move furniture so you can vacuum underneath and close to furniture legs. Remove cushions and pillows from chairs and sofas, and use a crevice tool to vacuum deep in fabric folds.

3. Floors should also be vacuumed well. Focus on cracks in hardwood, laminate, or tile floors, and near baseboards.

4. Don’t forget to vacuum your car!

5. Wash your dog’s bedding frequently, at least once a week (but more often is better) in water that reaches at least 140 degrees for at least 10 minutes; bleach in the wash also helps kill flea eggs and developing flea larvae. Dry thoroughly at the highest heat setting.

6. Consider the use of an insect growth regulator to help break the flea life cycle in your home and yard.

Once upon a time, all commercial products that were intended to rid your pet of fleas focused on killing adult fleas. As the study of fleas advanced, researchers realized that killing the adults was never going to be quite enough; if even just a couple of fleas anywhere in a dog’s environment avoided getting killed by whatever insecticide was applied, the fleas could repopulate the area fairly quickly. Scientists began looking at how to control some of the flea’s other life stages concurrently.

vacuuming for fleas

Researchers learned that in a typical census of fleas in a flea-infested household, at any given time, the adult fleas would represent only about one to five percent of the flea population!

Where’s the rest of the gang? The studies indicate that, at any given time, flea eggs would make up about 50 to nearly 60 percent of the population in your home. Flea larvae would make up about 35 percent, and the pupae (a life stage of the flea that comes after larvae and before emergence as an adult) about 10 percent.

The job of ridding your home of fleas, then, really consists of taking on both the adults and all the other flea life stages. One could think of the non-adult phases of the flea as another species of pest, given that each stage has differing life needs and vulnerabilities. Because flea eggs, larvae, and pupae all have the potential for turning into fleas, destroying the insects in the non-adult stages is critical to preventing the population from repeatedly bouncing back into your and your dog’s lives. Here’s a primer on these non-adult stages and how they can be eradicated.

Flea Eggs

After adult female fleas feed and mate, they start producing eggs. They lay eggs on their hosts (generally, your dog, cat, or local wildlife), about 25 to 30 eggs at a time, but the eggs fall off within a few hours. The eggs can land anywhere, but most commonly accumulate where your pets sleep.

In ideal conditions for flea populations – which, by the way, many of our homes just happen to be (optimal conditions would entail temperatures between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity of about 70 percent or more) – flea eggs hatch in just two to three days. Not all the eggs hatch; some are non-viable. Under-less-than ideal conditions, such as cool temperatures or an extremely dry climate, it may take up to 12 days for the eggs to hatch. Outdoors, the eggs will die if exposed to temperatures below 55 degrees.

How to Get Rid of Flea Eggs

A powerful vacuum with a rotating brush (also known as a beater bar) is a powerful ally in the war on fleas. Frequently vacuuming the areas where our pets hang out indoors can remove a lot of flea eggs; flea eggs cannot survive the physical trauma of being vacuumed. The thicker or deeper your carpets are, the more difficult it will be to vacuum up all the flea eggs. Vacuum every two to three days for best results.

Flea eggs can survive being wet, but being washed in hot water (more than 140 degrees) and exposure to detergent (which can penetrate the egg’s outer “skin”) can kill flea eggs. Time in a hot clothes dryer will also kill flea eggs. Dessication (drying out) is more lethal to flea eggs than moisture. Desiccant carpet powders, such as food-grade diatomaceous earth and Flea Stoppers Carpet Powder (a boric acid powder), can help kill flea eggs.

itchy flea dog

© Cunaplus | Dreamstime

Flea Larvae

Larvae are what you call the things that hatch from viable flea eggs. Get this: The freshly hatched larvae immediately start looking for and eating any non-viable eggs they can find, as well as the feces of the adult fleas. Yum!

It takes about six days to two weeks for the larvae to develop through three distinct larval stages before they may become a pupa. The larvae avoid sunlight, burrowing deep down into carpets or other substrates.

After they have molted three times, most of the developing larvae start spinning cocoons around themselves; the majority of the larvae develop into pupae in these cocoons, although some (called naked pupae) are able to transition without cocoons.

How to Kill Flea Larvae

Vacuuming can remove larvae from rugs, but the deeper your carpet, the less likely your vacuum will be able to reach the larvae. However, if a flea larvae doesn’t eat for three days, it will die, so vacuuming to remove non-viable eggs and flea feces (the main food sources for flea larvae) will help starve and kill the larvae.

Larvae like moist areas, but can drown if immersed in water for long. They can survive the usually brief “bath” they may receive from a wet mopping of a kitchen floor, but heavy rainfall outdoors would likely drown them. Water dissolves flea feces, though, so wet mopping can help destroy one of the flea’s food sources.

Flea larvae may able to survive a washing machine -but fortunately for us, a thorough drying in a hot tumbling dryer kills them. Drying out is more lethal to flea larvae than moisture. So, as with flea eggs, flea larvae can be readily killed by desiccant carpet powders such as food-grade diatomaceous earth and Flea Stoppers if the powders can reach the larvae deep in the base of your carpets.

Flea Pupae

Bad news: The developing fleas that have survived to the pupal stage are the hardest to kill and can survive for the longest period of time of any of the flea life stages.

Cocooned pupae typically develop into adults in seven to 19 days, but cooler temperatures can slow their development time. And once they have matured into adults, they may not leave their cocoons right away; they can stay quiescent in their cocoons for months, waiting for the right conditions and stimuli to emerge.

In more humid environments, the adults emerge more quickly; in dryer climates, the pre-emerged adults stay quiescent longer. The temperature also plays a big role in how long it takes the adults to emerge from their cocoons; in warm climates (think 90 degrees), most adults emerge within a week. At 50 degrees, it might take adults as much as 20 weeks to emerge.

Pre-emergent adult fleas can quickly emerge if they detect a nearby host. Pressure and heat – think, a dog sleeping on his bed – will trigger the adult fleas to emerge from their pupal cocoons. When they do emerge, they need to feed on a host animal within a week or they will die.

Getting Rid of Pupae

Cocooned flea pupae are tough. They can survive dry environments that would dryout and destroy their earlier life stages. Cocooned adults can survive immersion in water. If you manage to vacuum them up, they will die, but the cocoons are far harder to vacuum out of carpets than larvae and eggs.

The Flea Comb: Inexpensive & Invaluable

In our opinion, every pet owner should have a flea comb on hand. These are small combs with teeth that are so closely spaced that when you comb through a dog’s coat, any fleas – or pieces of flea poop – that are present will get caught between the teeth of the comb. (Those dark little specks in the comb are flea poop. Where there is flea feces, there are fleas.)

flea comb

Flea combs are invaluable when used as a surveillance tool, to help determine whether any fleas have established a beachhead on your dog or cat. And if you do find fleas, you can use the comb to capture the noxious little insects, removing them from your pet and dropping them into a glass of soapy water to drown.

We’ve known pet owners who were themselves chemically sensitive, or who had chemically sensitive pets, who relied on this tool alone to control fleas. It would be tedious, but it could work. Enlist a powerful vacuum in the war effort and the odds of your victory would improve considerably.

Insect Growth Regulators

In the happiest of cases, a dog owner who finds fleas have cropped up in her home can use her powerful vacuum, washing machine, and dryer – and perhaps a single dose of a spot-on pesticide or oral flea-killing medication for her dog – and quash the uprising before a population can gain a foothold.

If the blood-sucking settlement has already gotten established in your home, but you are determined to avoid the use of toxic insecticides, consider using a product that contains an insect growth regulator (IGR).

IGRs are chemical compounds that mimic the natural insect hormones that control the insects’ growth and prevent them from maturing and reproducing. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) categorizes many IGRs as having “reduced risk” for human health and the environment. And insects are less likely to become resistant to IGRs.

IGRs can be used to control flea populations in several ways. There are topical “spot-on” preparations that contain insecticides to kill adult fleas and IGRs to prevent the maturation of any eggs or larvae. Flea pupae are not as dramatically affected as flea eggs and larvae. There are also IGR sprays that can be sprayed in the home and yard, concentrating on areas where household pets spend time.

The most commonly used IGRs for flea control are pyriproxyfen and methoprene.

Pyriproxyfen can be found in the topical “spot-on” product K9Advantix II, and in NyGuard and Nyguard, commonly found home and yard sprays. Methoprene can be found in the topical spot-on product Frontline Plus (which also contains the insecticide fipronil). Precor is the best-known “premise” (home and yard) spray that contains methoprene. Sunlight causes these IGRs to degrade; they are effective for less than two weeks outdoors.

Oral IGRs

There are also two prescription oral medications for dogs that contain insect growth regulators. Both are made by Virbac Animal Health of Fort Worth, Texas, and both contain the IGR lufenuron, formerly offered by itself in another veterinary prescription product named Program. Virbac discontinued Program, but rolled out Sentinel and Sentinel Spectrum. In our opinion, that’s a shame; we like the option of administering a targeted medication if needed, not the shotgun, multi-use approach favored by the drug companies.

Sentinel contains lufenuron plus milbemycin oxime, which is used for heartworm prevention and for the treatment of hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms. Sentinel Spectrum contains lufenuron, milbemycin oxime, plus praziquantel, which is used for the treatment of tapeworms.

Virbac says lufenuron controls flea populations – we would say, “helps control flea populations” – by preventing the development of flea eggs; it does not kill adult fleas. When a dog is fed a single dose of lufenuron, the eggs of any fleas who are present and feed on the dog will be prevented from developing for 32 days. Keep in mind, however, that using one of these products may pose side effects related to the insecticides they also contain.

The Safest Types of Dog Collars (and the Most Dangerous)

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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21
A dog wearing a snazzyfido bamboo collar for safety and comfort.
Snazzyfido.com Bamboo Collar

What type of collar should your dog wear? It depends on your dog, your personal taste, and your training goals, philosophies, and needs. But from our force-free perspective, there are some types of collars we wholeheartedly endorse, some we support with caution, and some that we regard as unnecessary and risky.

The Most Dangerous Dog Collars

Let’s get these out of the way first. We recommend that you never use collars that are designed to work through the application of pain, discomfort, or aversive sensations, including:

  • Choke chains
  • Prong collars
  • Shock collars (training or no-bark)
  • Citronella spray collars
  • Any other collar designed to force compliance.

There are numerous current marketing attempts to make these collars more palatable to the public, including attractive, colorful cloth covers for prong collars, rubber tips for the prongs, and euphemisms for shock that range for “stim” and “tickle” to “e-collar” and “e-touch.”

In fact, shock-collar sales reps are quite skilled at convincing their clients that the application of an electrical stimulation doesn’t really hurt, while old-fashioned trainers are equally skilled at convincing these clients that the use of force is necessary to train a dog properly. Don’t be fooled. Shock hurts. And recent studies overwhelmingly support the position that, while old-fashioned, force-based training methods can work, they also come with a significant risk of causing injury (choke chains are known to damage canine tracheas) and creating behavioral problems, especially fear and aggression. These tools and the old-fashioned ways they are typically used often result in shutting dogs down – not something we want to see in our dogs. In contrast, we value confident dogs who are willing to offer behavior, something that many dogs who have been trained with behavior-suppressing methods don’t often do.

aversive choke chain dog collar

The bottom line with all these collars is that they work because they hurt or intimidate your dog – not a good training philosophy.

Dog Collars for Special Situations: Not for Every Dog

Then there are the products we would support the use of, in just the right situation, and in the right hands.

Head Halters or Head Collars

While there are many different varieties and brands of head collars, they all function by moving the point of attachment from the dog’s neck to the dog’s head. This gives the handler greater physical control of the dog’s head – and where the head goes, the body follows. A dog who is accustomed to pulling hard on leash with a conventional collar will find that he cannot easily pull while wearing a head collar.

Our first reservation about these collars is that many dogs (perhaps even the majority) find them mildly to extremely aversive. While they look kinder to us than prong and shock collars, if they are aversive to the dog, they are not a force-free training tool.

That said, if the handler takes enough time to properly condition a dog to a head collar, some dogs learn to accept the collars and seem reasonably comfortable with them. Other dogs dislike head halters no matter how much conditioning is done. You can see dogs who have worn these for years but still try to rub them off every chance they get.

Another concern about head halters is that they tend to shut down behavior, so you may think you’re seeing a behavior change when, in fact, the dog is so stressed by the head collar that he stops offering unwanted behaviors. In other words, the discomfort of the collar just suppresses the behaviors you don’t like; he hasn’t learned to exhibit the behaviors you enjoy more in order to earn rewards from you. If you try this collar with your dog, be prepared to discover that your dog is one of the many for whom it is not appropriate because it is aversive.

Our final reservation has to do with the fact that this tool can be used to severely injure a dog if used improperly. A handler must never yank or pull hard on the leash, or allow the dog to hit the end of the leash with force when it’s attached to a head halter. Doing so can badly injure the dog’s neck or even paralyze him. It’s critical that handlers are taught how to use this tool properly: gently and with great awareness.

Slip Lead / Show Lead / Loop Lead

These are collars of convenience, often used by animal shelters and rescues, but also often in conformation showing. A slip lead is actually a leash/collar combination, made of a length of nylon or leather with a handle at one end and a ring at the other. The leash is pulled through the ring to form a slip collar at one end. This means that, like a choke chain, the collar part can tighten without limit, so there is potential for choking the dog.

Because dogs in shelters often must be moved quickly without time for collar fitting, this can be an acceptable brief use. (A product with all the convenience and less risk than the slip lead is the martingale variety of the show lead, which can tighten only to a specified point; martingale collars are covered below). If shelter dogs are to be taken for “real” walks, more appropriate equipment, such as flat collars or front-clip harnesses, should be used.

Show dogs are presumably trained to walk with their handlers, so while those collars sometimes look tight around a dog’s neck, it’s unlikely the dog is pulling on them the way an untrained dog might on a choke chain.

The slip leads used in shelters and rescues are generally workmanlike and made of sturdy nylon. In contrast, the ones used in shows are usually made with lightweight leather, nylon, or a thin chain. However, the function is the same, and they all have some potential to choke and cause trachea damage if a dog pulls hard and persistently, or if the handler jerks on them, in a way that they were not intended to be used.

Whole Dog Journal‘s Favorite Dog Collars

Without getting name-brand specific, here are the types of collars we do like – and why.

Flat Collar

Your basic flat collar offers you many choices: leather, nylon, cloth; in solid colors, patterns, floral, embroidered, holiday-themed, bejeweled, reflective, glowing, padded; and with buckle or snap fasteners. You can even order collars embroidered with your phone number, in case your dog goes astray, and others with bow ties for “formal” occasions. A properly fitted flat collar allows you to slip two fingers under the collar (perpendicular to the dog’s neck).

The flat collar is great for everyday use, such as holding ID tags and perhaps for general walking and training purposes. If your dog is a dedicated puller, however, a front-clip control harness is a better choice for walks and training, until she learns how reinforcing it is to stay close to you.

See the “2018 Best Dog Harnesses Review” for Whole Dog Journal‘s harness recommendations if you think your dog is ready for one.

Martingale Collar

Also called a “limited slip” collar, the martingale has a loop that allows the collar to tighten somewhat, but isn’t intended to choke or give “corrections.” The primary purpose of this collar is to prevent your dog from backing out of the collar, as some dogs learn to do with a flat collar. The loop allows the collar to hang comfortably until the dog pulls back, then the loop tightens just enough to keep it from sliding over the dog’s head.

Note: Because the loop can get caught on objects, this collar should only be on the dog under supervision, not left on all the time.

Martingale collars are also commonly called “Greyhound collars,” as they are frequently used with this breed, whose narrow heads make it easy for them to slip out of flat collars. However, a martingale collar can also more securely hold thick-necked dogs, such as Bulldogs, whose necks are as wide as their heads are large.

The martingale collar should be fitted so that when the dog pulls it tightens just enough to prevent the dog from backing out of it, but not so tight that it chokes or restricts breathing in any way.

Safety or Breakaway Dog Collars

KeepSafe Break-Away Safety Collar from Petsafe

This collar has a mechanism that releases under pressure, to prevent accidental hanging if it gets snagged on something, or choking when two dogs are wrestling and playing collar-grab. The double-ring feature allows you to attach a leash without triggering the breakaway function even if your dog pulls hard. This can be a very useful collar, especially if your dog plays with other dogs who like to grab collars.

The downside is, if you have to grasp the collar suddenly in an emergency, it will come open and pull free from your dog’s neck. Therefore, while it can be useful, it does have limited application, and should not be used if you are in an open space where you may need to grab the collar.

Dog Collars for Unique Situations

Dogs who have extremely thin coats may benefit from wearing a fleece-lined collar, which won’t rub their hair off like many other materials can. Our favorite fleece-lined collars come from Planet Dog. Note that the fleece collars don’t come in a size suitable for tiny dogs, however.

Big, strong dogs who are allowed to pull strongly on leash, such as some dogs who work in law enforcement, tracking, and personal protection, are generally fitted with extra-wide collars, which disperse the pressure over a wider area on the wearer’s neck to prevent injury. Buckles on these collars are generally made with one or two metal tongues, rather than plastic or metal side-release buckles, for greatest strength. Check out the offerings from Blocky Dogs.

It can also be difficult to find collars that fit tiny dogs well – and often, when you do find a really small collar, the ring is so tiny that it’s hard to attach a leash or ID tag. We like this source for stylish small-dog collars.

Nix the jingling! We like collars that can be ordered with your contact information stitched right into the fabric, like these washable, durable bamboo collars from snazzyfido.com.

Avoid These Common Dog Collar Dangers

Even the best collars have the potential to cause harm to your dog if not used wisely. Here are some tips and cautions for proper, safe collar use:

1. Don’t Leave Collars on Unattended Dogs

Any collar left on an unattended dog has the potential to catch on something and hang the dog. In fact, some agility and barn hunt venues don’t allow dogs to wear collars while they are running the course, for fear that the collar could get caught on something. It is also possible for a dog to get her lower jaw caught in the collar.

While hanging potential is greatest with a choke collar (yes, this sadly happened to a St. Bernard of mine when I was young and too dumb to know better), it can also happen with regular flat collars. I do leave flat collars on my dogs – the tradeoff is that if you remove collars, your dog has no visible identification and may be harder to capture if she does somehow escape. You have to decide what hazard is a more likely threat to your dog’s safety.

2. Don’t Leave Collars on Playing Dogs

Dogs who are playing together can get tangled in each other’s collars, especially if they engage in mouthy play. This, also, happened to one of my dogs: while Darby and Keli were playing, Keli got her jaw caught under Darby’s collar and then spun around, twisting the collar so that Darby was being choked. Fortunately, I was able to pick up Keli and un-spin her, releasing the tension on the collar and allowing the dogs to separate. Neither dog was harmed – but it could have been significantly worse. Dogs have broken their jaws, and others have choked to death in this way.

If you feel you must leave a collar on your dog when he’s playing with other dogs – say, at a dog park – make sure it has a quick-release buckle, or better yet is a safety or breakaway collar, which will release under pressure.

3. Watch Out for Tags on Collars

Dangling tags can catch on crate wires and heater vents. You can tape tags to the collar so they don’t dangle, or look for a dog tag “pocket” that holds the collars flat against the collar. Slide-on ID tags are available from a variety of sources, including this one. Alternatively, you can use a collar with your number stitched on it, or use a light-weight ring for the tags that will bend and release under pressure.

Now Go Find that Perfect Dog Collar!

If you need help deciding what’s best for you and your dog, find a good force-free trainer who can guide you in making collar decisions that are compatible with your training goals and philosophy.

I’m sharing a terrific quote that was passed on to me, offered by trainer Nicolas James Bishop at a recent conference of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers in Australia:

“Punishment gets compliance; reinforcement gets cooperation.”

Keep this in mind as you choose your dog’s collar!

Download the Full December 2017 Issue PDF

By
Nancy Kerns
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The problem is, many dog owners have little understanding of animal behavior or training, poor animal behavior-observation skills, and bad timing. When you put a tool that works by causing pain in their hands, the result is often poor. Those who consistently hurt sensitive dogs or inadvertently punish dogs when they are doing the right thing are likely to produce dogs who resent and/or fear their handlers and/or walking on leash.
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Reel It In – Why I Don’t Like Retractable Leashes

By
Nancy Kerns
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There’s an old joke about if there’s one thing that two dog trainers can agree on, it’s that the third one is doing it wrong. But if you know me at all, you know I hate online squabbles; I don’t participate in digital fights about training methods or tools. That said, I think I’ve found something that very nearly ALL dog trainers agree on, and that I will defend anywhere, anytime, and it’s this: Retractable leashes have no place in dog training.

It almost reaches the level of a joke: If you go to a dog park or almost any gathering of dog people and their dogs, the worst-behaved dogs will be the ones on retractable leashes. It’s sort of a chicken or the egg thing: What came first, the poorly behaved dog or the leash that teaches him nothing?

I get how convenient it is to be able to walk along with your dog on leash and have your dog stop for a moment to smell something or take a quick pee, and you only have to slow your pace for a moment, rather than stop dead. When he’s through or he hits the end of the retractable line, he can trot to catch up, and you don’t have to scoop up all that line the way you would with a long leash, you can just allow the spring-loaded retractable thingie to wind it up.

However, what do you do when your dog is at or near the end of the line and:

  • You are suddenly confronted by a loose dog, looking a little aggressive, coming your way, fast.
  • Someone walks quickly out of a storefront, in between you and your dog.
  • Your dog suddenly sees a squirrel on the ground across the street and bolts into the street in an effort to reach the squirrel.

The biggest problem is with these and countless other situations, when your dog is more than a couple of feet from you, there is nothing you can do very quickly to get him back to your side. The products can retract only when there is not tension on the line. As you know if you’ve ever used one, you really cannot grab the part of the cord that retracts into the handle and pull even a smallish strong dog back toward you. About the only way you could pull a dog to safety would be to mash the lock button down, while quickly turning in the opposite direction and trying to call or drag your dog in the other direction – depending on whether you’ve trained him to do emergency U-turns or whether he’s engaged already with the other dog or still on the hunt for the squirrel.

And to retract the slack when there is a chaotic situation brewing, like when that loose dog – or even one on leash! – is squaring off with your dog, and they are spinning around? Lock to prevent the dog from getting farther away, release to retract, lock, release, lock, release . . . it’s darned hard to do in calm circumstances.

When I want a dog to explore his environment without taking him off leash, I use a long line – a 20 or even 30-foot leash. I only use a tool like this in an environment where there are NO other people or dogs who might get tangled up with us, and the line is as smooth and easy to handle as my leash; I can easily grab anywhere on the line and manually reel in the dog if I have to.

And what about the many cases in which someone accidentally dropped the handle, which started dragging on the ground and clattering loudly behind the dog, and spooked him into running in a blind panic into traffic? A dog who takes off dragging a regular leash stands a good chance of being caught by someone who manages to step on or grab the leash. But the retractable leash is likely to retract after being dragged a way, so that it’s short and very difficult to grab.

We don’t even have to discuss emergency situations to get most trainers to chime in about how useless these tools are. They more or less train dogs to pull against pressure, by rewarding/reinforcing the dog when he pulls against the product’s spring (there is always some tension, even when the operator isn’t pressing the lock button) in order to reach something he wants to investigate. Getting to sniff something he was curious about is a reward – and behaviors that are rewarded get repeated. Simple as that.

Yes, a person can lock the handle and prevent the dog from pulling the line out of the device, preventing him from getting this reward. But then, you may as well just have a fixed-length leash.

As a final point against them, all I can say is, when this blog gets posted to the WDJ Facebook page, go ahead and post your photos of the deep, slashing cuts that you or someone you know has received when a retractable cord got wound around their leg when a dog was going nuts. That should give a little credence to the warnings against these products.

Can anyone honestly make a case for the responsible use of retractable leashes?

Cleanliness is Doggyness

By
Nancy Kerns
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A few months ago I was horrified to learn that my good friend (and frequent model for WDJ articles, Berkeley trainer Sandi Thompson) was giving a dog she has owned for five years the first bath he’s had since she rescued him – literally rescued him, as a volunteer during the historic floods in Thailand in 2011.

This summer, Sam had his first encounter with a good old American skunk, which prompted the bath (and cute photos), but I was incredulous: How can that possibly be his first bath in more than five years??

Sandi Thompson

I bathe my dogs at least three or four times a year. Before I lived close to a river, where my dogs swim almost daily in hot weather, I probably bathed them even more often. I like a clean, fresh smelling coat when I kiss my dogs, and I love the way a clean coat feels when I stroke them. When I feel I have to wash my hands immediately after petting a dog, either due to the funky aroma or a greasy, dirty residue left on my hands, that dog has to get bathed. I’ve bathed friends’ dogs for this reason!

This topic is on my mind right now because I’m fostering a mama hound dog and her seven puppies for one of my favorite breed rescue groups, the American Black & Tan Coonhound Rescue. She was recently “sprung” from a shelter by the group; she’s heartworm-positive, and delivered her pups in the shelter two weeks ago. The ABTCR will see to it that her puppies are vaccinated and neutered and adopted to qualified homes, and that she gets treated for her heartworm infection and placed in a very special home; she’s as sweet as any dog I’ve ever met, she just craves human affection. Which makes it even more bizarre to me that she’s so neglected: Her toenails are super long, she’s super thin, and, ugh, heartworms. And to top it all off, she reeks of the shelter, like any dog who has had to sleep on pee-soaked concrete. She needs a bath!

Sandi Thompson

But she’s also nursing, and anxious about her pups, so I haven’t yet whisked her off to either the bathtub or a groomer.  I’m leaning toward the groomer, because they will be far faster than me at shortening those thick, long nails, and are better equipped for a fast but thorough bath, with cross-ties and a waist-high tub.

I don’t think there is any reliable science regarding an optimal number of baths for dogs. The most you can get veterinarians to say is that if you give your dog too many baths, or fail to rinse all the soap out of the dog’s coat, you risk drying out his skin and worsening any sort of itch he might have.

I’ve never had a thick-coated dog, but I had a groomer tell me once that the worst mistake that people can make when bathing their thick-coated dogs is not drying the coat thoroughly enough. Dampness in the base of the coat can also start nasty skin conditions.

Back to Sam, who got his first bath in five years (and his pack-mate, Turtle the dog, who was thrown into the tub for good measure): Sandi says that she originally didn’t bathe Sam because of the trauma he suffered in the floods and the international air travel (to get him to the U.S. from Thailand), and then, the severe separation anxiety he displayed (the long story of how Sandi helped Sam recover fully from separation anxiety is harrowing but heart-warming). Sandi felt she had to protect Sam from any unnecessary stress, especially since he hates water. Fortunately, she says, his coat is pretty “self-cleaning” – dirt pretty much falls off of him and he doesn’t seem to ever smell – at least, until he met his first skunk.

Bravo!Pup Dog Training

Fortunately, all the work Sandi invested in Sam’s recovery from separation anxiety have paid off; today, he is a confident, happy dog, fully able and actually preferring to stay home. He has even handled his first – and second – post-skunk-encounter baths in this country with aplomb, though of course Sandi hopes there aren’t many more of these on the horizon.

How often do you bathe your dogs? 

Is Your Dog Itchy? Consider a Food Allergy.

By
Nancy Kerns
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A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a message from Patty, a massage therapist I know. I’d call her “my” massage therapist, but it would be overstating how often I engage her massage therapy services – not more than two or three times a year, usually when I’ve done something bad to my shoulder or neck. I most recently saw Patty in early April.

The message I received started, “Hi, I wanted to update you on Pepper.”

Pepper is her senior Cattle Dog-mix. The last time I had a massage, we spent a good deal of the time talking about Pepper’s itching, chewing, and scratching. In the course of the conversation, we eliminated fleas as a potential cause for Pepper’s itching (because Patty hadn’t seen a flea on any of her animals for ages, and all the animals in the household were receiving regular topical treatments for fleas), and discounted the possibility that it was environmental allergies (as the itching seemed to have no seasonal component; Pepper had been itching for months and months).

I proposed that Pepper might have an allergy to something in her diet. I suggested, as I always do when I hear a similar story, that Patty write down the ingredients in any food that Pepper had received in the past few months. Once she had all the major ingredients written down, she should try to find a food that contained none of the major protein sources or carbohydrates that were found in the foods she had been eating. In other words, she should try an informal food elimination diet, by feeding only foods with ingredients that were novel to Pepper.

Patty had been considering whether a food might be triggering an allergic response in her dog, and had tried a number of different foods, but to her dismay, realized on the course of our conversation that she hadn’t really kept track of the ingredients in the foods. She told me she’d try to recreate what she had fed Pepper and look for something with ingredients that Pepper had not yet experienced.  Again, that was back in April. I hadn’t heard anything else from Patty until the note I received a couple weeks ago. After her greeting, the note continued:

“Your allergy suggestion, I believe, cured [Pepper]. Her dermatitis is almost gone, the itching has stopped. She is a much, much, happier dog. Thank you so much! I would like to give you a free massage as a special thank you from Pepper. Please give me a call.”

I happily took Patty up on her offer; my chronically sore shoulder had been bothering me! When we talked during my most recent massage, Patty explained that she had gathered the ingredients list from every food she could remember buying and feeding to Pepper. When she compared the ingredients list, she realized that every single food she had fed to Pepper contained chicken. She looked for a food that contained no chicken and started feeding that to Pepper – and within two weeks, she observed that the dog was scratching and chewing far less. By the end of a month, Pepper was no longer spending any significant amount of time chewing or scratching at herself, and her coat was growing back in! Her skin, which had been red and bumpy in the places that Pepper could most readily reach, looked like the skin in places where Pepper could not reach! She really was on the mend.

I warned Patty to keep an eye out for treats that might contain chicken, too, and Patty said, “Right! We already learned that! A client came by with some treats for Pepper, and not a day later, Pepper broke out in itching and scratching and chewing again. It took another week or more before the itching stopped.”

I’m grateful that Patty shared both the good news about Pepper with me. As nice as the free massage was, the fact that such a nice dog is more comfortable and healthy was wonderful for me to know.

For more information, check out this article about benefits of a food elimination trial.

Successful Dog Adoption, Part 2: What To Do at the Shelter

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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[Updated August 24, 2018]

So – you’ve made your list of desired qualities and located a well-regarded shelter, rescue group, or breeder, and are ready to start your search. Perhaps you’ve already identified a prospect on an organization’s website. What now?

Go meet some dogs!

Here are six important observations to make for each dog you look at. Remember: take your time and don’t settle for a dog unsuitable to your lifestyle or needs.

1. Watch: If you can, stand back and watch your adoption prospect for a while.

Ideally, he comes forward and happily greets all visitors. Is he an equal opportunity greeter, happy to meet children and adults, men and women, people of different races, and people with odd mannerisms? If he’s in a foster home rather than a kennel, again, watch and note how he interacts with any humans present.

Concerns: If he happily greets some people but is troubled by others, he may need significant behavior work to help him accept those types of people. If he barks and lunges at passing humans or dogs, he could be generally reactive or aggressive, or it could just be barrier reactivity. This behavior may or may not continue when he is no longer kenneled. If it does, you will be doing significant behavior modification work.

If he moves to the back of the kennel and avoids contact with humans, he is likely fearful and/or undersocialized. You cannot fix fear with love alone. Dogs who are fearful will require a lot of management and behavior modification in order to be comfortable and safe (not a fear-based biting risk). Again, this may just be a response to the overwhelmingly stressful kennel environment, or it could be a bigger behavior issue. Some dogs behave like entirely different dogs when they are removed from their kennels and taken to a more normal environment, such as a get-acquainted room.

DOG AND KIDS

2. Engage: Assuming you are comfortable with his responses to others, approach the kennel.

Does he come up to greet you? When your other family members approach, does he stay engaged and friendly? Do you like what you see? If so, continue.

Concerns: He needs to respond well to all family members. A dog who is afraid of or reacts badly to one or more family member will likely be a source of conflict and is not a good choice.

3. Meet: Now it’s time to see him in a different, less-stressful environment.

Hopefully, the shelter or rescue has a quiet room or outside fenced area where you can spend get-acquainted time with the dog, away from the chaos of the kennels. Watch as the staff person or volunteer leashes him and removes him from the kennel. Does he avoid them and/or their touch? Do they have difficulty leashing him?

Concerns: Discomfort with or avoidance of close human contact can be an indication of lack of socialization or of abuse. This may require moderate to significant behavioral work.

4. Interact: Spend time with the dog, preferably in a separate room or fenced area.

Give him a little time to sniff and explore the room, without making an effort to engage him in any way at first. After he’s explored the room a bit, does he turn his attention to you and your other family members? Does he interact appropriately with you and other family members? Will he play with toys? Does he appear to have had any training? (Most dogs who have had some training will at least respond to a “Sit” cue.) Can he calm down and settle after you play with him, or does he stay aroused? Is he mouthy (putting his teeth on human skin)?

Think about how his behaviors will mesh with your family. Is he too energetic for your children? Does he pull too hard on the leash for them (or you!) to safely walk him? Are any of your family members afraid of him? Conversely, does he have no interest in you? Does he run away, or hide?

Concerns: The dog you adopt needs to be an integral member of your family. If you have children, the dog must adore small humans, and demonstrate this during your family’s interactions. “Tolerate” isn’t good enough. If he has behaviors that are wildly inappropriate, or that threaten the safety of family members, he will be a source of tension, and will likely end up shut away from the family a good part of the time, or perhaps returned to the adoption agency.

5. Ask: Shelter/rescue personnel may have additional information that they have not yet shared.

Was a behavior assessment done? (Remember to take assessment information with a grain of salt; see “Adoption Options,” below.) Is there an owner questionnaire that you could see? Behavior notes from staff and volunteers? Medical records? More information is always better.

6. Think and discuss: Assuming all has gone reasonably well so far, have a family discussion (or a mental discussion with yourself).

There are lots of dogs in need of homes. If this one isn’t a good fit, there will be one who is. Be willing to wait. On the other hand, if this is the right dog for you, full speed ahead! Get ready to comply with any additional adoption requirements the organization may have (fill out an application, landlord check, meet your current pets, etc.) and then be prepared for a lifetime of joy and fun with your new family member.

shelter dog

Adoption Options: Progress Isn’t Perfect

Adopting a dog hasn’t gotten any easier in the 40-plus years I’ve been involved professionally with animals. My two decades in animal sheltering (1976 to 1996) were prior to the emergence of the so-called no-kill movement. In those days, the art of doing behavior assessments for shelter dogs was just becoming the norm. We did our best to make available for adoption only those dogs who were likely to be successful companions and who could function reasonably well in society. We then trusted our adoption counselors to help make good matches, with a goal of placing every dog in a life-long, loving home where canine and human were well-suited to each other’s needs. We weren’t perfect, for sure, but we tried. Even then, finding the right dog was not an easy task for a prospective adopter.

Two significant changes have occurred in the past 20 years that can make it even harder. First, well-meaning, warmhearted “no-kill” animal lovers have made it their admirable mission to reduce the numbers of dogs and cats euthanized in shelters around the United States. Their efforts, alongside the ongoing spay/neuter and educational programs and hard work of shelters over the years, have not been fruitless; euthanasia numbers have dropped significantly. An estimated 18-20 million dogs and cats were euthanized in shelters in the 1980s; today’s estimate is two to three million. That’s great news, to be sure.

But there has also been an exponential proliferation of hoarders (individuals and rescue groups who take on far more animals than they can care for). Today, many dogs are “saved” from shelters – many of which are eager to improve their live-release numbers – only to be “rescued” by hoarders and forced to suffer from overcrowding, poor sanitation, disease, malnutrition, and death in the hands of their would-be saviors. Some supposedly no-kill shelters have, themselves, become institutional hoarders.

Plus, in the quest for better numbers, a significant percentage of non-hoarding adoption sources are placing poorly socialized dogs, dogs with other behavior problems, and even dogs with a known history of aggression. (A recent example: A rescue group in Virginia adopted a dog with a known history of aggression to a family that included a 90-year-old grandmother. The dog killed the grandmother on the first day in his new home.) Those who adopt from both hoarding and non-hoarding situations often find themselves facing significant health and/or behavioral challenges with their new canine companions.

To make matters worse, several recent studies suggest that shelter behavior assessments aren’t as useful as we have long believed them to be. The studies show that not only are there are a lot of “false positives” – dogs who show undesirable behavior in the assessment but not in a home environment, meaning they may be euthanized unnecessarily – but also, there are many “false negatives” – dogs who don’t show behaviors in the assessment that do show up later in the home, meaning adopters may be given false assurances about their new dogs’ behaviors. As a result, some organizations have discontinued any assessments, lowering or removing adoption screening standards, harking back to the unfortunate old days of “You want him? Plunk down your adoption fee
and he’s yours” – the standard practice when I started working in shelters.

ADOPTING A DOG: OVERVIEW

1. Give careful thought in advance to the qualities you and your family want in your new dog. Don’t allow yourselves to be swayed by an adorable face if the dog behind the face doesn’t meet at least most of your desired criteria.

2. Take your time. There are lots of dogs looking for their forever families. You might as well hold out for one who will do well in your home.

3. Consider utilizing the services of a training/behavior professional if you are not confident in your ability to make a good choice. Many trainers are aware of dogs, perhaps belonging to former clients, who need new homes for any number of sad reasons (divorce, illness, financial difficulties, etc.).

Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, of Fairplay, Maryland, is WDJ‘s Training Editor. 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.

Switch Your Dog’s Food Up

By
Nancy Kerns
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It’s not even close. When people learn what I do for a living, or when they know what I do and have an opportunity to “ask me anything,” they nearly always ask, “What kind of dog food is the best?”

whole dog journal

I always respond the same way. “There is no single ‘best’ dog food! You should find out which foods suit the dogs you are feeding; they all have different needs, just as we do.”

Rarely do people want to hear this. So they try trickery. “Just tell me this, then: Which food do you feed your dogs?” they ask.

Ah, but they missed a very important plural “S” in my previous answer. So now I get to redirect them, to send them in a direction that will help them understand my previous answer. I tell them that I almost never feed my dogs the same food from bag to bag or can to can. I switch foods constantly, rotating among brands, varieties within brands, and forms of food (wet, dry, frozen, dehydrated, home-prepared). All the foods I feed are good ones, I tell my friends and acquaintances; I would never feed just one!

That tends to shock people; it seems that most people feed one brand and variety of food to their dogs day in and day out – year in and year out! I just don’t understand why so few people question this practice, especially when they would never consider feeding themselves or their children the exact same diet every day for years on end.

I’m certain the practice originally got promoted by one of the pet-food companies. They likely observed that dogs who had been maintained on the same diet for months at a time – such as company-owned dogs inducted into long-term feeding trials that are used to develop and test new foods – often experienced transient diarrhea or upset stomachs when suddenly switched to a new diet. Some smart market researcher said, “Eureka! We can use this to build brand loyalty! Let’s tell dog owners that switching foods causes digestive problems!” And it was likely an easy sell, because, in fact, people seem to have an innate tendency toward brand loyalty; most of us tend to buy the same type of dish soap or laundry detergent or breakfast cereal every time.

The fact that eludes many dog owners, however, is that humans, too, will experience an upset stomach if they eat the same thing for every meal for months, and then are suddenly fed something new. But if they – dogs or humans – eat a varied diet all the time, very few have a problem switching. And because the nutrient levels in every commercial food are different, and no one knows what levels are ideal, it’s smart to rotate among a few good foods to achieve balance over time. And I’m more than happy to tell you how to select several good foods for your dog. See the preface page for this year’s Approved Canned Food list for detailed buying advice.

From Rescued Dogs to Rescuer Dogs

By
Stephanie Colman
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In January 2010, a massive earthquake rocked the West Indian island of Hispaniola, bringing the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to its knees as hundreds of thousands of people were missing or feared dead amid the destruction.

As myriad relief teams sprung into action, some of the most highly skilled members hadn’t yet reached a double-digit birthday, worked with enthusiastic barks and tail-wagging, and were happiest with “paychecks” they could tug.

They were urban search and rescue dogs, many of whom were trained at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in Santa Paula, California.

NDSDF training course
Search Dog Delta works a 10,000 square foot rubble pile at the National Training Center of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Photo courtesy NDSDF

One Woman’s Vision

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is the brainchild of Wilma Melville. It started when her retirement hobby as a civilian canine search-and-rescue handler took her to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the wake of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995. At the time, Melville and her canine partner were one of only 15 canine teams certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the entire country. As she debriefed from the experience, she decided there had to be a better way to develop qualified teams capable of meeting FEMA standards, and one short year later, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF) was born.

Today, the foundation trains about 20 dogs per year, placing the canine graduates with approved first-responder handlers all around the country. Canine candidates are recruited almost exclusively from dogs living in shelters and with rescue groups. A network of trained canine recruiters research and evaluate prospects from across the country. Approximately 30 to 40 dogs find their way each year to the foundation, where they are further evaluated for acceptance into formal training. Dogs not accepted for formal training, or who are released from training at any point, are either placed with qualified families as part of the organization’s Lifetime Care Program, or helped into a different working dog career.

Wilma Melville, founder of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, with search dog Allie. Photo courtesy of NDSDF.

“It’s important to us to use re-homed dogs; it’s simply the right thing to do,” says Sylvia Stoney, NDSDF’s manager of canine recruitment. “There are so many dogs who need a job – a purpose – and so many of these dogs possess the qualities we look for that make them the perfect candidates for our training program.”

Indeed, the qualities of a good search dog frequently misalign with many pet owners’ idea of a good family dog. A dog with the right amount of intensity and perseverance needed for life-saving search work is often very challenging in a pet home. A good search dog doesn’t just love toys. Rather, he has an “obsessive, visceral response to a toy, and an insatiable desire to chase, hunt, and possess it.” This is not the dog whose behavioral needs are met by a daily walk around the neighborhood, some basic training, and a backyard game of fetch.

“Where one person might see destructive energy, we see a great opportunity to redirect that energy into a fun game of hide-and-seek,” explains Stoney.

In search-and-rescue training, the “victim” is hidden with the beloved toy and the dogs are taught to locate the victim’s scent and bark to alert the handler. Upon finding the victim, the dog is rewarded with an exciting game of tug. It’s all a fun game to the canine heroes!

Expecting the Unexpected

One of the biggest challenges facing search-and-rescue canine teams is the ability to train under a range of circumstances that even remotely mimic what they will encounter at an actual disaster site.

“You’re often at the mercy of concrete recycling centers, but that only gives you rubble search,” says Debra Tosch, the foundation’s program and finance administrator, and a former FEMA-certified canine-search specialist. “Maybe you can get access to a building with furniture, but nothing is overturned, so you aren’t really working under realistic conditions.”

Tosch and her canine partner Abby’s first deployment was the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11/01. Because all of their training had been at recycling centers or other pristine, by comparison, sites, Tosch initially worried about her dog’s ability to navigate the complex labyrinth of twisted steel that stood before them. “I’d never seen my dog work on anything like that,” she says.

Fortunately, Abby’s training carried her through the challenging searches. But for Tosch, the experience emphasized the need for a more realistic training center where teams would gain more real-world experience.

“It’s very important to be able to remove questions of, ‘I wonder if my dog can do this?’ and allow handlers to show up feeling like, ‘I know my dog can do this!'” Tosch says.

NDSDF trainer Kate Horwick directs search dog Delta on obstacles in an agility arena at the NTC. Dogs practice their balance, footwork, and directional control as they maneuver across elevated ladders, gently swinging tubes and other challenges. Photo courtesy NDSDF.

Disneyland for Dog-and-Handler Teams

In 2009 the foundation broke ground on what would become a first-of-its-kind, 125-acre National Training Center (NTC) solely dedicated to the training of canine disaster-search teams. Nestled deep in the Santa Paula foothills, about 90 miles from Los Angeles, the state-of-the-art center connects teams from around the country with skilled professional trainers while they face complex search tasks – scenarios that far exceed what can be staged at typical training sites.

“When the teams come out here, we challenge them. We don’t set them up to fail, but we challenge them. Then they take what they’ve learned back to the team and share with other handlers on their task forces,” says Tosch. “We really want these teams to be prepared when that call comes and they head out the door. That’s how you strengthen disaster response in America.”

There is no shortage of challenges to be had at the training site, which features areas that are dedicated to different types of disasters in varied locations. Elements were designed with input from working handlers who recalled what they found most challenging about various deployments.

“Search City” is currently comprised of multiple buildings, including a convenience store filled with overturned shopping carts (a complex agility challenge) and a two-story tilted house, with rooms in various states of disarray, designed to elicit feelings of vertigo in the human handlers as they accompany their canine partners. It also includes three Hollywood back-lot-style building facades (a schoolhouse, a firehouse, and a townhouse), each with its own debris pile.

NDSDF training course
A 10,000 square foot pile of concrete and other debris seen in the distance is situated near “Search City.” To be certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a canine candidate must find a number of victims in an area larger than what’s shown, within a strict time limit. Photo by Stephanie Colman.
Two railroad cars simulate a derailing scenario. In addition, the NTC features several buses, RVs, planes, boats, and many cars. There is also an area that simulates a collapsed freeway – and things are moved around often, so conditions are never exactly the same for return trainees. Photo by Stephanie Colman.

“Industrial Park” is home to a two-car train wreck and simulated freeway bridge collapse. Overturned cars, abandoned RVs, mountains of wood pallets, and the occasional small airplane litter the area. A 10,000 square foot rubble pile rounds out the currently available elements, and a tower where teams can learn to rappel with their dogs is also in the works. Tosch says the exact layout of the elements is expected to change quarterly, allowing teams who visit repeatedly to face new challenges each time.

One of the most interesting features of the NTC is its use of a proprietary scent-delivery system that can deliver live human scent to various places within the buildings, even to locations where it does not appear a human could be. For example, as the victim is stationed in a small outbuilding, his scent can be delivered to a specific area, such as underneath a bathtub in a Search City building. Seeing the dog alert on the bathtub drain can confuse the handler, often leading him to believe his dog is incorrect. Foundation trainers oversee the exercise and validate the dog’s alert when needed, reminding handlers to trust their dogs.

“As humans, we’re visual. The dog might be barking and be totally on the scent, but the handler is using his eyes and thinking there’s no way someone can be there,” explains Tosch.

The NTC is also equipped to house handler teams in its 24-bed handler lodge. The lodge helps cut travel-related costs for out-of-area teams and allows teams to train for longer hours, over multiple days, a common real-world experience. This helps teams build the endurance necessary to maintain motivation throughout a mentally and physically challenging search.

NDSDF training course
The “Earthquake House” was actually built on a slant, to give dogs and handlers alike experience with the strange sensation of negotiating a partially collapsed building. The house is surrounded by rubble and debris that can also be searched. Photo by Stephanie Colman.
Inside the Earthquake House is more debris, just as there would be in an actual building that partially collapsed in an earthquake. A nearby building is in a similar state of disarray, filled with toppled grocery carts and fallen shelves. Photo by Stephanie Colman.

In its mission to strengthen disaster response in America, the NDSDF makes training at the NTC financially accessible to teams from all around the country. In addition, its highly trained dogs are placed with approved first-responder handlers at no cost. The entire operation is funded exclusively by corporate and private sponsorships and donations; the Foundation receives no government funding.

The NDSDF is Well Received

Teresa MacPherson’s first glimpse of the NDSDF training center was via helicopter, as she and her task-force canine handler teammates were air-lifted into position – another element of “realness” made possible thanks to the foundation’s commitment to authenticity. MacPherson, a civilian member of FEMA’s Virginia Task Force 1, helps evaluate and train other teams, which allows her to travel to a variety of training sites, often with her dog. Still, she was thrilled to get the chance to experience the National Training Center.

“It’s a really cool site,” she says. “They were able to surprise me, they really made me think, and they challenged my dog with a lot of complex scent pictures and agility scenarios. I’ve done a lot of training, but this was really challenging. We have to expose our dogs to all kinds of different scenarios in training so it all comes together and, when we hit ‘the big one,’ the dogs aren’t surprised, they’re prepared.”

Firefighter Captain Jason Vasquez of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and a member of California Task Force 2, agrees that the NDSDF’s center strengthens the skill set of the dogs trained there. Vasquez has a long history with the foundation. He received his first foundation-trained canine partner in 2004 and has been partnered with two more foundation-trained dogs since then. Vasquez says the growth of the NDSDF, including the development of the National Training Center, has created better prepared, more sophisticated handlers through the creation of an in-depth handler’s course and continuing education opportunities.

NDSDF training course
Search dog Clancy and Jake Armendariz of California Task Force 2 search a staged train derailment at the NTC. The ever-changing nature of the NTC scenarios keeps things fresh for teams. Photo courtesy NDSDF.

“The handlers are 100 percent more advanced from when I started,” he says. In the past, the task force would recommend a team member to be partnered with a dog, but the team member often didn’t begin learning his full range of handler responsibilities until after he was paired with a dog. Now, handlers begin learning about their role as early as six months prior to placement, and they attend a two-week handler’s course at the foundation. This shift has led to less handler washout and a better FEMA certification success rate.

For Vasquez, the biggest advantage of the National Training Center is the diverse collection of training scenarios. Not only are the scenarios challenging, thanks to the creative expertise of the on-site training staff, but they consist of elements that are difficult, if not impossible, to otherwise access. For example, Vasquez says West Coast teams are often known for being especially skilled on rubble piles, as they are readily available. On the other hand, building searches are harder to come by, as the area’s homeless population often overruns abandoned buildings. Conversely, East Coast teams are known for being especially good at building searches, but they often lack access to rubble piles. “At the training center, you have both. We can take advantage of things we don’t otherwise have access to and we can access a lot of different training elements in one stop,” he says.

From Grassroots to a Leadership Role

As the foundation continues its mission, another goal is to develop a deployment readiness certification designed to help task forces determine whether or not their certified teams are deployment ready.

“The FEMA certification is the minimum standard needed to go out the door with a task force,” says Tosch. “Certification tests the minimum skills required to certify on that particular day, but certification is not deployment.”

According to Tosch, FEMA certification is important, but can’t be an accurate assessment of deployment readiness, because it doesn’t adequately recreate the complex mental and emotional challenges of deployment. The foundation’s goal is to create an assessment that would provide teams with a more realistic picture of the myriad challenges – for both dogs and handlers – that exist while on a mission.

“It’s so impressive to look at where the foundation started, and to see where they are today,” Vasquez says, noting the much-appreciated ability of the organization to maintain a grassroots feel and foundation-family atmosphere.

“That’s one of the reasons I keep coming back. I’m proud of my canine partner and I’m proud to be part of such a great organization,” he says.

SEARCH AND RESCUE DOGS: OVERVIEW

1. Support the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in its mission to strengthen
disaster response in America. More funding means more trained dogs are paired with first responders, potentially saving lives when disasters strike.

2. Be sure your shelter knows about the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in the event they might have a candidate dog.

3. Learn more about the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. You can even request a tour of the National Training Center.

Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Southern California.

Training Tips from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation

By
Stephanie Colman
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[Updated December 26, 2018]

1. Fluency is a critical concept in training.

How well does your dog know a behavior? Your dog might correctly perform a set of skills at home or while attending training class, but that doesn’t automatically mean he can perform anywhere, anytime, under any conditions.

When dogs fail to correctly perform cued behaviors in new settings, or in the face of distractions, they aren’t being stubborn, willful, or dominant, as many people believe. Rather, they are struggling to meet the demands placed upon them in that moment. In order for a dog to truly know a behavior – for it to become fluent – we must invest the time to train for the many types of situations we are likely to encounter with our dogs. See “Fluency and Generalization in Dog Training,” for more details.

NDSDF dog training

NDSDF

2. Not every dog is the right fit for every home.

The decision to share your life with a dog should not be taken lightly. Do your homework before even getting a puppy or dog! This can include researching individual breed qualities (to make sure the dog’s likely natural tendencies will be a good fit in your household) and taking the time to find a reputable breeder or rescue organization. (See “Successful Dog Adoption Criterias, Part 1,” from this issue.)

It’s also vitally important that everyone in the home is committed to training and management to help the new family member succeed. Dogs aren’t born understanding how to co-exist in our complex human world; they rely on us to teach them how to thrive. This takes time. Attending a single session of a training class will not result in a well-trained dog. It’s important to make sure you fully understand the amount of work that goes into creating the canine companion you likely imagine when you think about getting a dog.

Still, sometimes, despite our best efforts, a specific dog is not a good match in a certain home. Although this can be heartbreaking, it is often in the best interest of all involved to help the dog find a more appropriate placement by returning him to the breeder or rescue organization. To that end, we feel that a truly reputable breeder or rescue organization will support clients, offering advice to help remedy the situation when possible, or accepting return of the dog without blaming or shaming the family.

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