It used to drive me crazy when my parents used to say it, but, gee, time is going by faster than ever – and it never ever goes faster than when I’m gathering information for a dog food review (our annual examination of dry dog food will appear in next month’s issue). So many products to examine, from so many companies! And this on top of ordering, fitting, sending back, re-ordering, re-fitting, and photographing a dozen front-clip harnesses for an upcoming review of those. Product reviews are the most time-consuming thing I do!
Also taking a lot of my time: Managing my adolescent dog Woody’s energy. As long as I remember to bring my camera along on our off-leash runs in my local open space areas, he’s great for photography that I can use for miscellaneous things (that’s him “flying” on the bottom of this page). I’m also leaning on him quite heavily these days for official Whole Dog Journal modeling duty, just to keep him busy and engaged. He posed with products in our gift guide last month, our “Gear of the Year” picks in this issue, and has been mostly patiently enduring the seemingly endless harness fittings for the upcoming review mentioned above. Keeping him in front of the camera is a good way to keep a sharp eye on him, as he’s prone (like any adolescent) to get into mischief if left to his own devices for too long.
Watching him grow into lanky adulthood as my nine-year-old dog, Otto, matures into an elder statesman, is another contributing factor to my sense that time is passing over-quick. They grow so fast, and they don’t live long enough!
But, boy, am I grateful that I’ve had the collective wisdom of all of the past 20 years’ worth of Whole Dog Journal writers and contributors to draw on for help and guidance as I raise and train my dogs, as well as an all-too-steady stream of needy foster dogs. How else would I know how to make Woody vomit up things he shouldn’t have swallowed (four times already this past year!)? Or how to deal with his copious and deadly emissions of noxious gas?
Or why my super-socialized, gregarious puppy suddenly started growling and raising his hair when he meets certain new people? (Look for an article on the “adolescent fear period” in an upcoming issue of WDJ; we haven’t explicitly covered the topic before, but I’m tapping our experts to make sure that I – and you, of course! – will soon know everything a dog owner needs to know about this apparently common but unpredictable phase in canine development.)
And all the articles on caring for senior dogs, such as long-time Whole Dog Journal contributor CJ Puotinen’s piece in this issue? I’m beholden to all the experts who have contributed to this treasure trove of advice, as I do everything in my power to make sure my beloved Otto stays active and happy as long as possible.
I don’t know exactly where 20 years has gone, but I do know that I’m just as excited as I was two decades ago about “what’s next” in Whole Dog Journal. I hope you are, too!
Recently, I adopted a pup from my local shelter. The little guy was about 10 weeks old, had just been neutered, and was ready to get out and about and get socialized! I was looking forward to starting this process, because he was such a calm pup . . . or was he? I started to wonder if Tico’s lack of energy might be due to illness.
Sure enough, within a day or two of coming home with me he started coughing and developed a slightly elevated temperature. Diagnosis: Canine infectious respiratory disease (CIRD), also known as infectious canine tracheobronchitis (ITB), and far more commonly known as “kennel cough.”
For my pup’s “uncomplicated” form of kennel cough, the diagnosis was made based on his history of recent exposure to the disease in the shelter environment and his characteristic clinical sign of a honk-like paroxysmal cough. These coughing “fits” can occur in spasms of 10 to 15 or even 20 coughs in a row.
Typically, clinical signs of infection will appear three to 10 days after exposure; he was right on target at five days. As with the human’s common cold, the disease is often self-limiting. Kennel cough may resolve without treatment in a week or two, or it can worsen and require veterinary attention in order to help the puppy or dog bounce back.
Tico in the shelter before adoption. Calm? Nope! He was getting sick! After recovering from his kennel cough, he’s proven to be as energetic as can be.
Dogs with the uncomplicated form of kennel cough tend to be otherwise healthy and continue to eat, drink, and play. Their lungs will usually sound normal, but some may experience lethargy and have a slight fever like my young pup. Others may experience nasal discharge and sneezing; still others exhibit only a persistent cough – sometimes dry and hacking, or soft and wet. Excitement, exercise, and changes in temperature or humidity can induce coughing, as can pressure on the trachea, such as from a collar.
A small percentage of infected dogs may have no symptoms at all yet still shed the virus and spread the disease.
But here I had a pup who was still in the critical period of socialization. I knew I had to keep him isolated, but his socialization window was closing fast. Besides, I had already paid for a puppy class that was due to begin in three weeks.
Kennel Cough: Virus or Infection? Both?
CIRD may be associated with an infection from a single virus, bacteria, or it may have a multi-agent etiology. Both the viral and bacterial causes present with similar clinical signs so they are commonly grouped as “kennel cough.”
Very often, a viral pathogen is its primary agent, infecting the epithelium within the upper respiratory tract and causing damage to the tissues. This, in turn, predisposes the dog to invasion by bacterial, fungal, parasitic, or other virulent organisms. This can result in a secondary infection, causing further damage and clinical signs such as inflammation in the nasal passages (rhinitis), trachea (tracheitis), bronchial tubes (bronchitis), and the smallest airways in the lungs, the bronchioles (bronchiolitis).
The inflammatory response results from the disease replicating inside the cells of the respiratory tract, from the nasal lining to the terminal airways.
The two most common forms of infectious agents are bacterial: Bordetella bronchiseptica and several species of Mycoplasma (including Mycoplasma pneumonia), gram-negative bacteria that lack a cell wall. Identified in 1910, B. bronchiseptica is closely related to Bordetella pertussis – the pathogen in humans that causes pertussis (whooping cough), which also has a very distinctive cough as a clinical sign. B. bronchiseptica can infect a number of animals, including dogs, pigs, rabbits, cats, horses, and even seals, causing a range of pathologies. There are at least 15 different species of the bacteria known to infect canines.
The most common viral pathogens that can cause “kennel cough” include canine distemper virus, canine para-influenza virus type 2, canine respiratory coronavirus, canine adenovirus type 2 and canine herpes virus. Other pathogen possibilities include canine pneumovirus, canine bocavirus, canine hepacivirus, and Streptococcus zooepidemicus. Titer tests check for all of these viruses.
While there are no genetic factors or breed predilections with CIRD, it is theorized that brachycephalic breeds could be at a higher risk factor for more severe infection. Their short and narrow respiratory tracts, combined with longer soft palates that may obstruct their respiratory tract, may contribute to the retention of pathogens in the airway, causing re-infection.
Vaccinations for Kennel Cough
Given the number of possible causative agents, the CIRD complex, almost by definition, is not a vaccine-preventable condition. That said, the Bordetella vaccine is often required by facilities prior to boarding and daycare. There are three forms of the vaccine: injectable, oral, and intranasal. One recent study found the intranasal vaccine (when compared to the oral vaccine) conferred superior clinical immunity (though both resulted in significant disease sparing).
NOTE: Vaccination prior to potential exposure can prevent infection to the specific strains of Bordetella present in the vaccine, and may help reduce the severity of related infections, but protection against all the other pathogens that can cause CIRD is not guaranteed. Just as the human flu vaccine can’t protect a person from all flu strains, neither can the Bordetella vaccine protect against all CIRD pathogens.
How Do Dogs Get Kennel Cough?
CIRD is highly contagious, infectious, and is transmitted through direct and indirect contact between animals, through contact with aerosolized respiratory secretions (coughing and sneezing) from infected dogs, and through contact with contaminated objects – just like a cold at a daycare center!
Any situation that brings dogs together increases the risk of the dispersion of this communicable disease; accordingly, it tends to spread among dogs housed in kennels and shelters. Dog owners whose dogs are coughing or showing other signs of respiratory disease should not expose their dog to other dogs or take them to places where other dogs congregate (dog parks, training classes, boarding facilities, etc.).
That said, some dogs have been known to become infected following well-pet visits to a veterinarian, doggie daycare, or training class. A dog or puppy can be infected and shed a virus (that can infect other dogs) before his owner has noticed any symptoms! Some infected dogs never show signs of illness, even as they infect other dogs and puppies.
If infection spreads within a kennel or facility, it can be controlled. All items that have come into contact with an infected dog should be cleaned and disinfected after exposure. Generally, ridding a facility of the virus requires evacuating the premises for one to two weeks and disinfecting with commonly used chemicals, such as sodium hypochlorite (a.k.a. liquid bleach at 1:30 dilution), chlorhexidine, or benzalkonium. Though it can hurt financially, boarding kennels that have experienced an outbreak of kennel cough may be able to close long enough to stop new infections. But few if any shelters can completely close for a week or more, and while most will do the best they can do to disinfect their facilities without closing, agents that cause kennel cough can almost always be found in shelters.
When I brought my “calm” but not yet outwardly symptomatic pup home, he was already infected. My sister (who works at the shelter I adopted him from) had taken him to her own home before mine, and he was mostly likely shedding the disease while around her two dogs.
However, neither of my sister’s dogs developed the disease. They were adults (two and four years of age), and had come from the same shelter as my pup; it’s possible that they are immune to the causative agent of Tico’s infection, having been infected with it as puppies from that shelter years prior! Typically, healthy dogs in a home will only develop mild, if any, signs of CIRD after exposure to an infected dog.
CIRD affects dogs of all ages. Puppies less than three months old are more susceptible and the disease tends to be most severe in puppies who are six weeks to six months of age. In very young puppies, maternal antibodies (provided the mother has them herself) should protect the puppies until they are about three to four weeks of age.
Other high-risk dogs are those who are immunosuppressed, dogs without a history of vaccination or disease exposure, pups who lack maternal immunity (did not receive colostrum in the days after birth, or whose mothers had neither a history of vaccination or disease exposure), and dogs who have coexisting subclinical airway disease (such as a congenital anomaly, chronic bronchitis, or bronchiectasis – a chronic condition where the walls of the bronchi are thickened from inflammation and infection).
It is suspected that the disease presents in a seasonal pattern with a higher incidence in cold months due to pathogens surviving longer in cold and wet environments.
How to Treat Kennel Cough at Home
Adult dogs can, and probably most often do, recover from kennel cough with no treatment at all. Strong, healthy puppies raised in homes, too, often recover uneventfully and without treatment. But some puppies and dogs need a little help, even with a relatively uncomplicated form of the disease.
The medications of choice for the initial treatment of the uncomplicated form of CIRD are amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and doxycycline (usually for a three-week period); patients should respond to treatment in 10-14 days. My pup ceased coughing within two weeks, clearing the requirement set by the class instructor of being cough-free for a week prior.
As the cough can be quite loud and bothersome – for humans and dogs – a cough suppressant may be prescribed by your veterinarian. Restriction of exercise and prevention of excitement may shorten the course of the disease due to the reduction of irritation.
If the dog continues to cough for more than 14 days, the diagnosis of uncomplicated disease might need to be reevaluated. In otherwise healthy dogs, parasitic bronchitis, irritant tracheobronchitis, tracheal foreign body, and tracheal collapse may need to be ruled out.
Complications from Kennel Cough
The complicated, or severe, form of CIRD tends to manifest in dogs in the at-risk category. In addition to the clinical signs apparent with the uncomplicated form, the dog may also exhibit a fluctuating fever; inappetence or anorexia; exercise intolerance; dyspnea (difficult or labored breathing); increased intensity of normal lung sounds, with crackling or wheezing, often presenting with pneumonia. In these cases, CIRD can be life-threatening, especially in very young puppies and those who have had a rough start in life (like many puppies who are brought to shelters at a too-early age, with already compromised health).
In severe cases, thoracic radiographs may show lung patterns typical of bacterial or viral pneumonia; a complete blood panel may indicate early mild leukopenia (5,000-6,000 cells d/L) suggesting a viral cause, and neutrophilic leukocytosis (a high number of immature white blood cells, indicating an infection or inflammation) is frequently found in cases of severe pneumonia.
With suspected severe disease cases, a tracheal wash or tracheobronchial lavage may be performed to gather a sample at the site of infection; then the sample can be cultured in order to identify the pathogen and devise an effective, targeted treatment plan.
Medications of choice for severe disease are first generation cephalosporin with gentamicin, amikacin, or enrofloxacin. These are usually effective with antimicrobial therapy continuing 10 days beyond radiographic resolution of the disease.
Be aware that cough suppressants are contraindicated in patients with pneumonia. Fluid administration may be indicated for complicated disease and/or pneumonia, and the puppy should be on enforced rest for at least the duration of radiographic evidence of pneumonia. Radiography should be repeated at least 14 days beyond resolution of all clinical signs; the typical course of severe disease is two to six weeks.
Though rare, dogs can die from CIRD, but those cases are usually a result of severe pneumonia affecting multiple lung nodes.
Knowing that my puppy’s infection was most likely due to the prevalent mycoplasma at his shelter of origin, I opted to ask my veterinarian to consider prescribing a course of antibiotics, with the hope that Tico would be cleared in time to attend class. Happily, my veterinarian agreed this was a good plan, and Tico recovered fully in time to participate in puppy kindergarten.
Can Humans Get Kennel Cough?
Most of us who have worked in shelters joke about having kennel cough any time we have a cold. The vast majority of the time, it’s just that – a joke. It’s rare, but immunocompromised humans CAN be infected with Bordetella bronchiseptica. If someone in your family is immunocompromised, please check with that person’s physician before bringing home a sick puppy (or one who was recently exposed to the illness an at animal shelter).
And be aware that B. bronchiseptica can be transmitted between dogs and cats! Epidemiological studies have shown that cats who have contact with dogs with recent respiratory disease were found to be at risk for B. bronchiseptica infection, and if infected, can develop upper respiratory tract infections.
“Seriously?” you may say. “That little plastic platform gives you joy?” Oh, yes, it does! And I’m not the only one who gets carried away. The Klimb is described by its maker as “the world’s first professionally designed and engineered dog training platform . . . specifically designed to improve the relationship between you and your dog.”
Put plainly, it’s just a piece of equipment for dog training, but it’s an extraordinarily well-made, sturdy, stable piece of equipment that dogs feel very confident about jumping, standing, sitting, and lying down on. What’s more, it can be connected to other Klimb platforms by virtue of clever interlocking shapes on the Klimb edges side, and securely stacked on other Klimbs without getting wobbly. Its surface is rubberized, to prevent slipping, and Blue-9 offers little rubber “safety plugs” (sold separately) that can cover the leg openings of the top-most Klimb to prevent any dog from so much as catching a nail. They’ve thought of everything!
“Platform” or “station” training is all the rage these days, as owners discover the benefits of giving their dogs a secure, easily defined spot to remain within while they work on anything from tricks to show ring obedience moves (such as alternating between sit, down, and stand in the heel position). The Klimb offers a secure, durable place for training. And it’s handy for handlers, too. Each Klimb weighs just 14 pounds, and measures 24 inches square. Used without legs, the platform is four inches high; the standard legs that come with it make the platform 12 inches high (six-inch legs are sold separately). The legs can be removed and clipped into storage slots on the bottom of the platform. The Klimb is available in three colors: black, blue, and purple.
For training ideas and tips, see the Blue-9 website. But watch out! You may catch yourself smiling, and then ordering a Klimb or two for your dog’s training program!
Relax! Despite the name and the needle-like appearance, it’s not drug paraphernalia. But what it can do for your carpets might alter your reality.
This product is designed to allow you to deliver stain- and odor-neutralizing products to the place you’ve never been able to deliver them before: under a saturated carpet!
The product was invented by a carpet installer, who couldn’t help but notice (as he removed stained carpets and the stinky padding underneath them, prior to installing new carpets) that pet owners can’t ever seem to completely eliminate stains and odors when their pets have accidents indoors. If only there was a way, he thought, to inject odor neutralizers where spot cleaners and even high-powered carpet cleaners can’t reach. His solution was Inject N Clean. The sharp metal needle is pushed through the carpet in the middle of the “accident site,” and then paired with a custom-fit squeeze bottle. The operator uses the ball on the injector to pull the carpet up slightly, so when the bottle is squeezed, the odor-neutralizing fluid is sprayed right on the odor’s source.
Inject-N-Clean – $25 Inject N Clean Dundas, Minnesota (800) 645-4415
Pendleton National Park Dog Beds
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, Pendleton and the Carolina Pet Company teamed up to produce a line of pet products with a National Park Service theme. Pendleton created a beautiful color palette and design for 11 different park-themed collections – not just dog beds, but dog coats, collars, leashes, travel bowls, and matching Pendleton blankets for dog dads and moms. It’s the beds, though, that we feel most joyful about.
And how not? Look at those colors!
The Pendleton beds are covered with a non-pilling Polarfleece fabric, and filled with 100 percent polyester fiber made from recycled soda bottles, arranged in chambered liners to maintain a loft that elevates dogs off cold floors (the bed is approximately four inches thick). The bottom fabric is a diamond-quilted cotton canvas. The cover is removable and machine washable.
The beds are sold in four sizes, from small (28 by 20 inches) to extra large (48 by 36 inches).
Face it: Few dog beds are all that attractive; it’s a challenge to find some that actually improve one’s decor. But here they are! A percentage of the sales of these products will be donated to the National Parks Foundation. That might be our excuse to decorate our home with these beautiful dog beds – and maybe some matching throw blankets for the couch!
Pendleton National Park Dog Beds – $100-$170 depending on size Made by Carolina Pet Company Prosperity, South Carolina Sold by Pendleton in stores and online and at independent pet supply stores. We found the best prices at Frontgate.com.
Pupsaver
The first time we saw PupSaver – a car safety seat for small dogs – we thought it was being displayed backward. Then we spoke to a company representative and got the scoop. The PupSaver seat is designed to work just like a backward-facing infant seat, preventing (in this case) small dogs from being thrown forward in an accident.
Most car safety devices for dogs are comprised of some sort of harness that is worn by the dog and is strapped to the car as tightly as the dog can endure. AirPupSaver is more like an exceptionally durable pre-inflated air bag, that will contain and cushion a dog who is flung by the force of a crash. The dog is kept in the seat with a harness, but it’s not the harness – or the dog’s body – that will absorb the energy of an impact; instead, it’s the air bag contained in the AirPupSaver seat that will act as a protective barrier to prevent him contacting any hard surfaces in the event of a collision.
The development of PupSaver started with products designed for tiny and small dogs; today, the company makes seats for dogs up to 45 pounds. The seat is available in three styles: Original PupSaver (which is cushioned with polyfill and contains no air bag); and the AirPupSaver 25 and AirPupSaver 45, which are made with air bags and are fastened with heavy-duty metal hooks for lower latch (child safety seat) anchors in the back seat (the numbers 25 and 45 indicate the maximum weight of the dog the seats are intended for).
The PupSaver seats were crafted by a safety design engineer with 20-plus years experience in child safety seat design, and all of the products have been subjected to rigorous crash testing at the MGA Research Corporation. Videos of the crash tests can be viewed on the PupSaver website.
PupSaver seats are ideally positioned in the back seat of a car. However, recognizing that many dog owners prefer to have their dogs in the front seat, the company has issued guidelines for using the Original PupSaver and the AirPupSaver in the front seat, and says that if used according to instructions (including moving the seat as far back as possible and making sure the dog is snugly fastened in the seat), the PupSaver would protect the dog from being injured by either the crash or the car’s air bag. No other existing car safety product protects a dog from being hit by a car’s air bag in the event of a collision.
Pupsaver – $120-$180 depending on size and model PupSaver Cumming, Georgia (844) 728-7787
Rex Specs Dog Goggles
These dog goggles are seriously cool – and seriously pricey – but most of all, they are for serious dog activities. They have been used to protect the eyes and vision of military dogs who jump (with their handlers) out of airplanes and helicopters, scent-detection dogs on Coast Guard vessels, and search and rescue dogs who are being transported in the backs of trucks or other rough-terrain vehicles.
But people who have serious fun skiing or sailing with their dogs have also found Rex Specs to be helpful for blocking out damaging UVA and UVB rays.
Thee durable frames are edged with soft foam, so the Specs fit comfortably. The dynamic strap system ensures a secure fit while allowing for full jaw motion and zero interference with the dog’s nose or ears. All the polycarbonate (shatterproof) lenses are interchangeable, and available in clear and smoke-tinted versions, and reflective or matte finishes.
The Rex Specs website features instructional videos and diagrams, to help you order the right size product, fit it on your dog, and then accustom him to wearing the protective gear.
Rex Specs Dog Goggles – $80 Rex Specs Jackson, Wyoming (307) 203-0308
Tether Tug
The photo below pretty much describes and sells the product, but if you aren’t convinced your tug-loving dog is going to have fun with this product, go to the Tether Tug website and watch the videos of dogs having a blast!
The Tether Tug is a durable, interactive toy designed to provide your dog with hours of fun and safe play, even (possibly, depending on your dog’s energy level) when you’re not around!
The toy comes in six sizes, each with an amount of flexibility and strength appropriate to the size of the dog its intended for. The rope that the dog pulls on can be replaced; Tether Tug also sells a braided fleece rope ($10) for puppies and dogs with softer mouths. The Quick Connector allows toys to be easily swapped to fit any dog’s preference.
An indoor model, meant for small dogs and puppies, comes with a heavy metal base that you secure by placing it under a heavy sofa or table leg.
The outdoor Tether Tug is easy to set up. Simply drive the metal base into the ground, insert the 55-inch Tether Tug into the base, attach a Tether Toy and your dog is ready to play! The company also sells extra in-ground bases (just $8), so you can change locations without having to dig up the base each time.
The pole and rope part of the toy can also be used in hand as a tug toy and “flirt pole,” encouraging your dog to run and chase.
Not only does the company guarantee that Tether Tug will be fun for you and your dog, they also guarantee the toy. If you purchase it directly from the company and it breaks, they will either replace the product or refund your money.
It’s rare to find a toy with something altogether new to offer. When we first spotted the RhinoPlay toys at a pet products show, we very nearly just walked right on by, because they didn’t look that different. But as we passed the Go Dog (manufacturer’s) booth, we happened to run our hands across one of the toys on display, and had to stop and do a double-take. Hey! What’s this?
These toys are made of a unique material that Go Dog calls PopFoam NT, a nontoxic, long-lasting, durable, lightweight substance. It has what our dogs regard as the perfect texture to the tooth; when chomped on, it gives a little, puncturing slightly, but resists being chewed up! Go Dog describes them as deceptively light, and incredibly strong, and that’s been our experience with them. Fun stuff!
Even better, the company says the manufacturing process of the toys is environmentally friendly, and the products are all certified as nontoxic. In fact, they meet children’s safety standards EN71 and ASTM-F963. So there!
Go Dog makes four RhinoPlay toys, and each is offered in two sizes (small and large): Vexo is a stick-like toy; Cirq is a sort of donut-shaped creation; Flip is a flying disc that has an irregular shape, which makes it easy to pick up off the ground; and Beast is a self-inflating ball that never goes flat, even when it’s punctured.
If you’re in a store where these are sold, don’t miss the opportunity to touch one; you will immediately understand the appeal. And if you can’t find them stores near you, order one online. You’ll be happy you did!
RhinoPlay Toys – $11-$19 Go Dog, a division of Quaker Pet Group Denver, Colorado Sold in select independent pet supply stores and online. For locations, go to QuakerPetGroup.com.
My Dog Nose It Sunscreen
Skin cancer isn’t just on the rise in humans, it also affects our pets, especially dogs with white hair and pink skin, thin-coated dogs, and hairless breeds.
Fortunately, My Dog Nose It offers natural, safe, water-resistant UVA and UVB sun protection for these especially vulnerable dogs, and all vulnerable dog noses and ears. The product is alcohol-free, pH balanced, non-greasy, and proudly made in the USA.
My Dog Nose It Balm has a creamy texture, which dries quickly, even as it heals and adds moisture to dry, cracking, or fading dog noses. It comes in a half-ounce jar, which is estimated to last about four months if used daily on an average-sized dog’s nose! My Dog Nose It Body and Coat Spray comes in a four-ounce non-aerosol spray bottle. Both products are free of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which are present in many human sunscreens and are toxic to our pets!
My Dog Nose It Balm – $13 Body & Coat Spray – $20 My Dog Nose It Seal Beach, California (888) 444-5044
As any puppy owner knows, dogs are naturally oral creatures. Seems like a retrieve should, therefore, be an easy behavior to teach. Indeed, it sometimes is, but as many dog owners know, it often is not. Reasons a dog might not fetch naturally include:
1. The dog was punished as a puppy for picking up/chewing on things and therefore his oral tendencies have been suppressed.
2. The dog has been chased for picking up things and therefore plays keep away instead of bringing things back.
3. The dog is of a breed that has not been genetically programmed to bring things back to their humans (think terriers versus sporting and herding breeds).
There are many reasons to persevere in teaching even the most reluctant retriever to retrieve, however. A dog who retrieves can:
1. Be easily exercised and amused with long sessions of fetch in the backyard, or even in the house in inclement weather. Exercise is a great behavior modifier; a tired dog is a well-behaved dog – and makes for a happy human.
2. Learn to find and bring back lost objects.
3. Compete in obedience trials and other canine competitions.
4. Learn to do other things with his mouth, including service dog-type behaviors such as opening doors, picking up dropped objects, pulling wagons, carrying groceries, removing items of clothing, and more.
5. Engage in cognitive activities such as object and location discrimination.
When a dog loves to retrieve, the behavior can be used as a powerful non-food reinforcer, as well as a tool for keeping the dog’s attention around distractions, and for getting really sharp recalls and other operant behaviors. A highly valued tennis ball can be a great reinforcer – for some dogs, a ball is even more valuable than food! – for spiffy recalls and downs, among other behaviors. These are all great reasons to help a dog love to retrieve!
Formal Dog Retrieval and Informal Fetch
There are different types of retrieves. The majority of dog owners are happy with a dog who dances in anticipation of the ball, chases after it the instant it’s thrown, maybe runs around with it for a bit, then eventually brings it back at and drops it at the owner’s feet. We’d call this an informal game of fetch.
Compare that to a formal show retrieve, where the dog is supposed to sit motionless in perfect heel position while the owner throws a dumbbell, dash forward when the owner gives the cue, grab the dumbbell cleanly by the center bar, return quickly to the owner, and sit in front, perfectly straight, waiting for his owner to give the cue to release the object carefully into her outstretched hands. “Canine Sports: Competitive Obedience,” (July 2010) goes into greater detail on what is required for the show ring.
Even if you’re not interested in a formal retrieve, consider taking advantage of a good game of fetch as an opportunity to reinforce good manners behavior. Consistently ask your dog to “sit” before you throw the ball, until he starts offering to sit without being asked. “Sit” makes good things happen! It’s also a deference behavior, and good “self-control” practice. When he’s consistently offering a calm sit before you throw the ball, try building a similar routine to get him to offer a calm “down” before you throw the ball.
You can also use a valued fetch toy to install an off-switch for your dog. When it’s time to stop the game, use a cue like “All done!” or “That’s all!” and immediately put the ball where he can’t see it, such as in a pocket, a drawer, or a cupboard. Turn and walk away – totally ignoring any attempts on the dog’s part to re-engage you in the game. In time, your “All done!” cue will not only serve notice to your dog that the fetch game is over, but also indicate the end of other behaviors.
Whether you’re interested in an informal fetch or a formal retrieve, your task will be easier if you encourage rather than discourage retrieve-related behaviors early in your relationship with your dog. When he has something in his mouth, praise him; tell him he’s a good dog! If it’s something he’s allowed to have, you can sometimes praise him and let him be, and other times, you can say “Trade!” and trade him a treat for the item. Or, trade him a treat for the item, and then give him the item back again. That’s quite a reward!
But if, in contrast, he has something in his mouth that he shouldn’t have, cheerfully trade him for a high-value treat, divert his interest to a “legal” toy, and make a mental note to increase your management efforts to minimize his access to those things you don’t want him to have.
Shaping Your Dog’s Retrieve
Whether your dog is a natural retriever or not, the training process is the same. It’s just a matter of shaping the retrieve you want. If you’re going for a formal retrieve, it’s a matter of chaining or backchaining the “fetch” behavior into the whole show-ring retrieve routine. (See “Fun Dog Training Techniques Using Shaping,” (March 2006), and “Beyond Basic Positive Dog Training Techniques,” (April 2004).
Since the “hold” tends to be the most challenging part of the retrieve, we’ll start with shaping that behavior and work our way backward (backchain) to the completed fetch behavior.
You can indicate to your dog precisely which behavior will result in his receiving a treat or other reward by “marking” the moment with a clicker, using your mouth to make a clicking or clucking sound, using a verbal marker (such as the word “Yes!”), or by using an i-Click (a clicker with a raised button), positioned so you can click it with an elbow or a foot. Just be aware that if your clicker is in your hands, you may frighten your dog by clicking too close to his face. You definitely do not want to give him an aversive association with the retrieve game!
Remember, each time you mark a behavior, you need to deliver a treat pretty quickly afterward. The marker is a promise that a reward is on the way, and it gives the dog solid, instantaneous information about what behavior he can repeat in order to earn more rewards.
In Whole Dog Journal, we often use the phrase “click/treat” or “mark/treat” as shorthand for using a marker of any kind and then giving the dog a food reward.
Okay, ready? Designate your dog’s most favorite toy as his fetch object. Hold it in both hands and offer it to him, rather than throw it. If he sniffs it, mark that desired behavior with a click! (or your alternate marker) and give him a reward. If he merely glances in the object’s direction, mark the glance and give him a reward.
In the beginning, reinforce your canine pal just for paying attention to the object. In any series of “attention” trials with the fetch toy, sometimes he’ll sniff or touch it, sometimes he’ll just look at it, and sometimes he’ll put his mouth on it. Once he understands the game, you can up the ante (this is called “raising the criteria”); you mark the behavior and give him a treat only if he touches it. Then, later, you mark/reward only if opens his mouth (even slightly), and eventually, only if he actually puts his mouth on it, then for longer periods of “mouth on object.” (Of course, he will let go of the object to eat the treat after you click or use your alternate marker!)
When he will hold his mouth on the object for five seconds or longer, briefly remove your hands and then grasp the object again. Mark the behavior and give him a treat when your hands touch the object. Repeat, gradually increasing the length of time your hands are off the object. Remember to mark/treat when you replace your hands on the object.
The next step is to move your hands a few inches away from the object, and click/treat your dog for moving the object to your hands, eventually increasing the duration the object is in your hands before you mark and reward this behavior. The duration of the hold is important for a solid retrieve! When you have several seconds of duration, start varying the duration so your dog doesn’t anticipate the release and let go too soon.
Now place the article on the floor with your hands on it. If you’re lucky, your dog will transfer his mouth/hold behavior immediately to the object on the floor. If not, back up and use the same shaping process you just used to get the dog to hold the article to get him to put his mouth on it on the floor. (With the article on the floor, click/treat him for looking at or sniffing the article, and build again from there.) When he will mouth the object, move your hands a few inches away, and have him deliver it to you. Remember to vary the amount of time (duration) that you hold your hands on the object before you click/treat.
Next, gradually increase the distance between the article on the ground and your hands until your dog is picking the object up and delivering it to you from a few feet away.
(Have you noticed that I haven’t told you to add any cues yet?)
Next, start tossing the article a few feet and letting your dog go get it and bring it back. After a few successful toss/retrieves, ask your dog to wait (hold him gently if necessary) while you sometimes place, sometimes toss the article a few feet away. Return to his side, wait a few seconds, then release him to retrieve the object. (Vary the duration that you wait before releasing, just as you continue to vary the duration of the hold before you click and treat.)
When your dog is routinely picking up the object, bringing it back to you, and reliably holding it until you click/treat, add your verbal cue of “Fetch,” “Take it,” “Get it,” or whatever you plan to use. First give the cue just as the object touches the ground. When he will reliably dash out to get it and bring it back, add the “Wait!” back in (hold him if necessary), and vary the amount of time between the toss and the “Fetch!” cue.
You’re almost done. The next step is to add your “Give” cue to replace your marker (click, “Yes!” or what have you) as his signal to let go of the object. It’s important to continue to vary the duration of hold after your hands touch the article, as it’s easy for hands-touching-article to become a default cue to release – and you don’t want that! When your dog retrieves the object, grasp it with your hands, wait, say your “Give!” cue, and then click/treat.
Eventually – probably pretty quickly – you will be able to fade the marker and your dog will release the object on cue. At this point, if you’ve done your job well, your dog will love retrieving so much that you can reinforce the retrieve with the opportunity to fetch again.
The final step is to generalize the retrieve to other objects. Start back at the beginning of the shaping process as needed and work your way (probably much more quickly with each new object), first with other toys and articles the dog is likely to pick up, and eventually with more challenging objects like your keys and the TV remote.
Don’t forget to keep it fun! This should be the best game in the world for your dog. If at any time he “quits” – that is, he stops playing the game – you may have raised the criteria too quickly, or you may have trained for too long. Training sessions should generally be five to 15 minutes in length, several times a day (although some dogs have a strong work ethic and will happily work longer). Remember that it’s always better to stop when you and your dog are having fun and winning, rather than when one or both of you are bored, tired, or frustrated.
Teaching Your Dog a Cognitive Retrieval
For a real training challenge, add a cognitive piece to your dog’s retrieving abilities: object discrimination. Name each new object as you add to his repertoire of fetchable items. As you present it to him, use the object’s name. “Ball.” “Kong.” “Frisbee.” “Snake.” You will need to get creative with names as you add more objects to his list – and write them down so you don’t forget them. Then, when you give your “Fetch” cue, also name the object that you are asking him to retrieve. “Ball, Fetch!” “Snake, Fetch!” “Frisbee, Fetch!”
When your dog’s retrieve is very solid with individual named objects, you’re ready for the cognitive part. Place one object (say, a Frisbee) a foot away from him. Place another object (say, a snake) about six feet away. Cue him to “Frisbee Fetch!” (the closer object). As long as he retrieves the correct object, gradually move the closer object (in this case, the Frisbee) farther away, until it is also six feet away from you – and several feet to the side of the other toy (in this example, the snake).
If he starts making mistakes, you’ve moved too quickly. Bring the Frisbee back closer and continue. When he is at least 80 percent reliable with the Frisbee and the snake, put those two items away and bring out two more. Repeat the same routine – one close, one far away, until he’s getting it right. As he gets better at it and understands the concept of objects having names, you can add multiple objects and ask him to get one, then a different one. Take it slow! This is PhD work for you and your dog.
Want another cognitive retrieve challenge? Teach your dog the names of the rooms in your house. Take him into the kitchen and say, “Kitchen!” Repeat several times. Then stand outside the kitchen, say “Kitchen!” and run with him into the kitchen. Click and treat. Repeat until he will run into the kitchen without you when you say, “Kitchen!” Now repeat with other rooms in your house until he will run to any room you name. Next step: Add the retrieve. Have him wait outside the kitchen, and set the ball in the kitchen where he can see it. Return to him and tell him “Ball, Kitchen, Fetch!” Repeat with different objects from greater distances – and in different rooms, until he will fetch an object from any room you designate.
Want to get really fancy? When he’s really good at each of the above cognitive retrieves, combine the two. Place two (and eventually multiple) objects in another room and cue him to fetch one. Perhaps the snake and Frisbee are in the bedroom, with the snake closer to the door at first (remember to set him up to succeed!). Tell him “Snake, Bedroom, Fetch!”
With time and success, you can work your way up to object discrimination with multiple items in various rooms all over the house. Who knows, maybe your dog can rival the accomplishments of the brilliant and notable Border Collie, Chaser, who knows the names of more than 1,000 objects and can perform incredible feats of cognition. If not, the two of you will still be having a ton of fun together!
Thanks to trainer Sarah Richardson of The Canine Connection, in Chico, California, for modeling for this article.
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, where Pat offers dog-training classes and courses for trainers. 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 (Dogwise Publishing, 2016).
Whole Dog Journal's mission is to provide dog guardians with in-depth information on effective holistic healthcare methods and successful nonviolent training. The methods we discuss will endeavor to do no harm to dogs; we do not advocate perpetrating even minor transgressions in the name of "greater good." We intend our articles to enable readers to immediately apply training and healthcare techniques to their own dogs with visible and enjoyable success. All topics should contribute to improving the dog's health and vitality, and deepening the canine/human bond. Above all, we wish to contribute information that will enable consumers to make kind, healthy, and informed decisions about caring for their own dogs.
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Last summer I fostered a really disparate-looking litter of puppies for my local shelter. Most of the time, whether they are brought in as purportedly “found” puppies or their owners admit that they were accidental and unwanted, the litters of puppies that come to the shelter are fairly uniform, like the litter of 11 Great Dane pups I fostered immediately after the dissimilar group (there were 10 black and white pups, and one fawn-colored one, who nevertheless was the exact same shape and size as his siblings). But this one litter looked like they were from three different families!
As a side note, I should mention a fact that surprised many of my friends and family members, but isn’t news to experienced dog owners: puppies from the same litter can have different fathers. Each of the mother’s egg cells need to be fertilized by individual sperm cells, and if the mother has been bred by a number of males, the eggs can be fertilized by sperm of different males. When the owners of intact females fail to keep them safely separated or sequestered, and they escape and run loose, or loose, intact males are drawn from all over the neighborhood to them, anything can happen!
So, the odds are good that the pups who looked so different from each other were sired by at least two different dads – at the time that I was caring for them, I thought maybe even three or four fathers!
There were seven pups. Three looked pretty similar to each other, sort of like hound/German Shepherd-mixes, with short, reddish/tan coats with darker “saddles” on their backs.
Two others had short, black coats, with brown spots over their eyes and on their legs; they looked like Rottweiler-mixes.
One puppy had a very fluffy, long coat, but the color was similar to the hound/shepherd-looking pups.
And the last puppy was also quite fluffy/long-haired, but had a dark sort of black/dark-grey outer coat, and a lighter undercoat. She also had a naturally bobbed tail!
As it turns out, I know where four of the seven pups landed, and recently saw the bob-tailed pup in person. I am friends on Facebook with the owner of the other long-haired pup, and have seen photos of her more or less weekly since her adoption. When I saw the bob-tailed pup -well, now she’s an adolescent dog – I was temporarily confused. Her color has lightened and gotten much more red, and she looks super similar to her long-haired sister! When they were pups, I would have sworn they were sired by different dogs, but now – except for the bobbed tail – they absolutely look like full siblings. Genetics are so strange!
I was thinking about this because I’m currently fostering ANOTHER litter of seven mixed-breed puppies for my shelter. I don’t know WHAT they are, just that their cage-card read, “Mother, Husky-mix, DOA.” They definitely look related, but there are some striking differences among them. I think when these ones are ready to be adopted, I’m going to send along postcards asking the adoptive owners to keep in touch somehow, on Facebook or via email; I’d really love to see what they all look like, and I’m insatiably curious whether they will look similar or different as they mature.
This is absolutely not a knock on purebred dogs, but it occurred to me today, as I was kissing all these unique faces, that it might be boring when the pups all look very similar!
My husband and I were talking about childhood dogs for some reason, and he said, “We got a dog when I was little and it died of distemper, and my parents said, ‘That’s it, no more dogs.'”
When he said that, I suddenly remembered that my family, too, had lost a young dog to distemper when I was a child. I have a solid memory of my mother wiping up vomit, and the adolescent pup lying limply nearby, and my mother telling me, “I don’t think she’s going to make it.” I was probably about four or five years old, but I knew that this phrase meant the dog was probably going to die.
That memory compelled me to go look up the history of the canine distemper vaccine. Was it not available to the average dog owner in the mid to late 1960s? Or were our parents just irresponsible? Or what?
It turns out that both explanations were probable. The canine distemper vaccine became widely available only in the late 1960s – and neither my husband’s parents nor my own were particularly knowledgeable pet owners. It’s likely that the vaccine was something that was only newly available to pet owners, and not yet part of what every puppy from a responsible breeder or in a shelter received.
While some veterinarians still take a “wrap puppies in cotton wool” approach, advising owners to keep puppies sequestered at home until they are fully immunized – in order to prevent them from contracting any infectious disease – many others now consider puppies to be at a higher risk of developing social/behavioral disorders if they are prevented from socializing as puppies. Vaccination rates are so high today, that the deadliest canine infectious diseases are rare enough that taking pups into most environments is far safer than it was when I was a child.
Note that I said safer – not perfectly safe. Vaccination rates will never be 100 percent, and there are wildlife vectors that can bring diseases like distemper (and rabies) back into even very urban environments and set off waves of disease infection in areas where vaccination rates are low.
Today (here in the U.S., anyway), with effective vaccines being not just widely available, but also relatively inexpensive, I just can’t wrap my head around the idea of a highly contagious, highly lethal disease being so common that practically everyone who had a dog had heard of it, and knew someone whose dog died of it. I’m so grateful to have these lifesaving tools available, and I don’t take them for granted.
By the way, in the process of investigating the distemper vaccine, I came across a fascinating article about the race to develop the vaccine: “‘Saving the lives of our dogs’: The development of canine distemper vaccine in interwar Britain.” If you like dogs (and I don’t think you’d be reading this if you didn’t) and you like science-writing, you’ll enjoy this account of how competing scientists fought for understanding, funding and acclaim as they worked to defeat this terrible disease.
When parvo strikes, it moves fast. Infected dogs may appear to be in perfect health one day and violently ill the next. Emergency veterinary care is expensive, and unless dogs are diagnosed and treated early, many die from this serious disease.
In this article, we’ll discuss a number of parvovirus prevention and treatment approaches taken by veterinarians and dog guardians today, including the parvo vaccine. We’ll also explain how parvo is spread among dogs, why it’s so dangerous, and the parvo symptoms to watch out for.
But first, let’s review the most common myths about canine parvovirus, and some facts about the disease:
PARVO MYTH 1: Adult dogs don’t get parvo.
TRUTH: It’s true that the likelihood of a serious parvo infection decreases as dogs age, and that most victims are puppies. But adult dogs can become seriously ill or die from parvo.
PARVO MYTH 2: I can protect my dogs from exposure to parvo by maintaining a clean environment and restricting their contact with other dogs.
TRUTH: The virus is everywhere, and it’s impossible to prevent parvo exposure.
PARVO MYTH 3: My dog is strong and healthy. His immune system will prevent him from getting sick.
TRUTH: Under the right conditions, any dog can be vulnerable to canine parvovirus disease.
PARVO MYTH 4: The parvo vaccine will protect my puppy.
TRUTH: Vaccinated puppies can get parvo under certain circumstances.
Reactions to parvovirus vary widely – both among dogs and their human caretakers. In a world in which parvovirus is ubiquitous – it is literally everywhere except environments that have been sterilized – parvo kills some dogs and leaves others unscathed. And in the debate about vaccination against this disease, some people vaccinate their dogs early and often, while others refuse to vaccinate against parvo at all.
One good reason to avoid taking your puppy to heavily trafficked public parks – at least until you have reason to believe his antibody levels are at protective levels – is the pervasiveness of parvovirus.
But we won’t tell you which approach you should take with your dog. That, like all health-related issues, is a personal decision that must be made after you learn as much as possible about the risks and benefits of the various approaches.
Why is Parvovirus So Dangerous?
Parvoviruses infect birds and mammals (including humans), but until the 1970s, parvovirus did not infect domestic dogs or their wild cousins. The original canine parvovirus, later labeled CPV-1, was discovered in 1967. Eleven years later, CPV-2 emerged in the United States. It apparently mutated from feline distemper, which is the feline parvovirus. CPV-2 quickly infected dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, and other canines around the world. A second mutation, CPV-2a, was identified in 1979, and a third, CPV-2b, is in circulation today. A more detailed history of canine parvovirus, with additional preventative tips, see “Parvovirus in Dogs: What It Is and How to Prevent It,” (February 2017) by Barbara Dobbins.
The smallest and simplest of the microscopic infectious agents called viruses, which cause disease by replicating within living cells, parvovirus consists of a single strand of DNA enclosed in a microscopic capsid, or protein coat. This protein coat, which differs from the envelope of fat that encases other viruses, helps the parvovirus survive and adapt.
Infection takes place when a susceptible host inhales or ingests the virus, which attacks the first rapidly dividing group of cells it encounters. Typically, these cells are in the lymph nodes of the throat. Soon the virus spills into the bloodstream, through which it travels to bone marrow and intestinal cells. The incubation period between exposure and the manifestation of symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea is usually three to seven days.
When it attacks bone marrow, parvo damages the immune system and destroys white blood cells. More commonly, it attacks the intestines, causing copious diarrhea and debilitating nausea, which further weakens the dog’s system. Dogs who die of parvo typically do so because fluid loss and dehydration lead to shock, and/or because intestinal bacteria invade the rest of the body and release septic toxins.
Any dog who survives a parvovirus infection is believed to have lifelong immunity; serum antibody titers tend to stay high for prolonged periods after recovery from the virus.
Young puppies and adolescent dogs whose maternal antibodies no longer protect them but whose immune systems have not yet matured are at greatest risk of contracting parvo. Most parvo victims are less than one year old, but the disease can and does occasionally strike adults, too.
Some breeds are particularly susceptible to contracting parvovirus, including Alaskan Sled Dogs, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepherd Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Rottweilers, and American Staffordshire Terriers.
How Parvo Spreads to Dogs
Veterinary experts agree that virtually all of the world’s dogs have been exposed to canine parvovirus. The virus begins to “shed,” or be excreted by a dog, three to four days following his exposure to the virus, often before clinical signs of the infection have appeared. The virus is also shed in huge amounts from infected dogs in their feces for 7-10 days; a single ounce of fecal matter from a parvo-infected dog contains 35,000,000 units of the virus, and only 1,000 are needed to cause infection.
In addition, the virus can be carried on shoes, tires, people, animals (including insects and rodents), and many mobile surfaces, including wind and water. Because it is difficult to remove from the environment and because infected dogs shed the virus in such profusion, parvo has spread not only to every dog show, veterinary clinic, grooming salon, and obedience school, but every street, park, house, school, shopping mall, airplane, bus, and office in the world.
While a dog that is diagnosed with parvo will be quickly isolated by his veterinarian and his recent environment will be cleaned and disinfected, some infected dogs have such minor symptoms that no one realizes they are ill. Infected dogs, with or without symptoms, shed the virus for about two weeks. If conditions are right, the virus can survive for up to six months. Although parvo is destroyed by sunlight, steam, diluted chlorine bleach, and other disinfectants, sterile environments can be quickly reinfected.
Parvovirus Symptoms to Watch For
Here are the signs of parvo you should not ignore if you suspect your dog has been exposed. It is important to remember that most parvovirus deaths occur within 48 and 72 hours following a dog showing clinical signs.
– sudden inappetance (dog won’t eat)
– vomiting
– extreme lethargy or depression
– diarrhea (severe and/or containing blood)
– dehydration
– a bloated, tender, or seemingly painful abdomen
– rapid heartbeat
– red gums and eyeballs
– low body temperature (hypothermia)
Canine Parvovirus Medical Treatment
Most veterinarians treat parvovirus with intravenous fluids and antibiotics. In addition, treatment may include balancing the blood sugar, intravenous electrolytes, intravenous nourishment, and an antiemetic injection to reduce nausea and vomiting. None of these treatments “cure” the disease or kill the virus; they are supportive therapies that help stabilize the dog long enough for his immune system to begin counteracting the virus.
According to Los Angeles veterinarian Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, “Every day that goes by allows the dog to produce more antibodies, which bind with and inactivate the virus. Survival becomes a race between the damaged immune system, which is trying to recover and respond, and potentially fatal fluid loss and bacterial invasion.” Puppies and very small dogs are at greatest risk because they have the smallest body mass and can least afford to lose vital fluids.
Bill Eskew, DVM, sees more parvo patients than many veterinarians because he specializes in emergency care. A veterinarian for 25 years, Dr. Eskew currently works in busy clinics in California and Florida. He says fluids and electrolyte balance are the most important aspects of parvo treatment.
“My typical parvo patient is a four-month-old unvaccinated or partially vaccinated puppy,” says Dr. Eskew, “and I see as many as 20 a week. I’m convinced that of all the treatments we use, intravenous fluids make the most difference. In one case I treated a litter of puppies for a man who couldn’t afford antibiotics or other drugs, so I used fluids alone, and the pups all recovered. In fact, as far as I know, all my parvo patients have survived.”
While antibiotics have no effect on viruses, they are considered an important aspect of treatment, especially for puppies. The parvovirus causes the gastrointestinal mucosa, which usually serves as a protective barrier to infection, to slough away, leaving the puppy vulnerable to bacterial infections. Antibiotics protect the puppy from infection until his body’s own system of protection recovers.
Parvovirus Treatment Costs for Dogs
Many dogs diagnosed with parvovirus receive the fate of “economic euthanasia” because their guardians cannot afford treatment. Standard parvovirus treatment necessitates round-the-clock veterinary attention, which means hospitalization, which means a gigantic medical bill. Parvovirus treatment for a single puppy typically starts at $1,200 and can reach over $5,000. Anyone without significant financial means is faced with a horrifying choice: owe money they cannot pay back, or euthanize their sick dog.
Without intensive care, an already parvo-infected dog’s chance of survival is slim to none. There is, thankfully, one alternative to hospitalizing a dog for parvo that can cut the cost of treatment by over half the price. Colorado State University has created an outpatient protocol for canine parvovirus patients, used mostly by animal shelter staff and dog foster guardians, but which any dog owner can receive the proper training for.
The parvovirus outpatient protocol requires owners to nurse their dogs 24/7, at their own homes, administering fluids and antibiotics, syringe-feeding, and monitoring every step of their dog’s progress. Owners pay for the drugs and fluids plus some additional fees, which total around $400. Although most people will be unable to take time off work or find space in their home, the significantly lighter cost of this treatment makes it an important option. Read “New Home Treatment for Parvo May Prevent ‘Economic Euthanasia’,” for further details.
Canine Parvovirus Recovery Rates
According to Dr. Brooks, an estimated 80 percent of parvo-infected dogs treated at veterinary clinics recover.
Dr. Eskew credits his success rate to early diagnosis. “The minute we see a puppy that’s been vomiting or has diarrhea,” he says, “we give it a parvo test. The one we use is a rectal swab that shows results within 10 minutes.”
Of course, such early detection tools can be used only if the dog’s guardian is alert to the early signs of illness and hustles him to the veterinary clinic as soon as possible. The sooner the dog receives supportive care, the better his odds of recovery.
Parvovirus Vaccines: Imperfect Protection
Properly administered, vaccines protect most puppies and dogs from parvovirus. But there are cases of vaccinated canines contracting the disease.
In late 1998, Whole Dog Journal received a letter from a reader whose nine-month-old puppy had contracted (and, happily, recovered from) parvovirus. She was perplexed as to how her properly vaccinated puppy could have become infected, especially since she also owned a brother from the same litter who did not become sick, even though both pups had received the same vaccinations and had been exposed to the same things and places!
The experience of the letter writer’s next-door neighbor added to the mystery. After hearing about the puppy with parvo, the neighbor took her six-month-old, vaccinated puppy to the veterinarian for titer tests, to make sure this puppy was protected. The test indicated that the puppy had no immunity to parvovirus, so she had the pup revaccinated immediately.
For explanations for all these puzzling events, we turned to Jean Dodds, DVM, an expert in veterinary hematology and immunology. Dr. Dodds is also founder and president of Hemopet, of Garden Grove, California. Hemopet is a national nonprofit animal blood bank and adoption program for retired Greyhounds.
Dr. Dodds offered numerous explanations as to why, sometimes, the parvovirus vaccine fails to work as intended.
First, she made clear, no vaccine produces 100 percent protection 100 percent of the time. “Vaccination is not a sure thing,” she explained. “It certainly improves the odds that an animal will be protected from disease, but it does not guarantee this. There is no way, even with the best vaccines, to be sure that any given individual’s immune system will respond in the desired way to protect that animal.”
Not all dogs have perfectly functioning immune responses, and, similarly, not all vaccines function perfectly, either. “There will always be an occasional case of a ‘vaccine break,’ which is what we call it when a vaccine fails to protect an individual against an infectious disease challenge,” said Dodds. “However, when a break occurs, if the animal has been appropriately vaccinated, it will usually experience only a mild form of the disease.” Dr. Dodds speculated that this is the most probable explanation for what happened with the infected puppy mentioned above.
“While there are some rare exceptions, where an appropriately vaccinated animal nonetheless experiences a lethal form of the disease, it is far more typical that such an animal will experience only a mild form of the disease and will recover quickly,” she said.
However, the most common reason for vaccine failures in puppies is maternal antibody interference. Dr. Dodds explained that if a puppy receives a particularly high level of antibodies (passive immunity) from his mother’s colostrum (and to a lesser extent, in utero), these maternal antibodies may cause any vaccine antigens that are administered to be neutralized. Then, when these antibodies wane (usually between 6 and 16 weeks of age), the puppy is left without adequate protection, and has not become actively immunized.
“Maternal antibodies wane at an unpredictable rate, which is why puppies are vaccinated several times at intervals of two to four weeks apart,” said Dr. Dodds. “This was designed in an effort to cover any potential gap in protection or ‘window of susceptibility’ that arises from the waning of maternal passive immunity and the onset of active immunization and protection by vaccination.”
Because of this, a test for serum antibody titer or an additional vaccination is sometimes recommended at 15-16 weeks, especially in high-risk breeds.
Regarding the neighbor’s vaccinated puppy, whose antibody titers showed no antibody protection for parvo: Dr. Dodds thinks that the chances are very good that the puppy actually did have adequate protection from parvovirus, despite the misleading titer test results.
“There are two types of titer tests commonly offered by most veterinary medical laboratories,” Dr. Dodds explained. “One type is intended to detect whether or not a dog has the disease (a viral infection); the other type of titer test checks the level of immunity the dog received from vaccination. In the latter case (a vaccine titer test), antibody levels are expected to be several titer dilutions lower than those conveyed by active viral infection.
“When a veterinarian requests an immunity or antibody level measurement for parvovirus or other disease, the laboratory typically assumes that disease diagnosis, rather than vaccine immunity, is to be performed. When the lab technicians do a test to see whether the dog has parvovirus, they start with a much greater dilution in the test system than is normally used for the detection of vaccine titers. They do this to conserve reagent and reduce cost of testing. But because vaccine titers are lower than disease titers, they won’t be detected until the test reagent dilution is set lower.
“I’ll put it a different way: If they utilize disease exposure methodology, when what is really wanted is a test to assess the adequacy of vaccination, the results will be negative nearly every time,” said Dodds.
While this scenario sounds like an obvious oversight, Dr. Dodds said she has seen it numerous times. Given her expertise and research on vaccine-related issues, many veterinarians consult with Dr. Dodds regarding supposed vaccination failures.
“I’ve seen it again and again: The owner calls me and says, ‘But I keep vaccinating this animal, and my veterinarian keeps testing him and there is no immunity; what do I do?!’
“Very often,” said Dr. Dodds, “it’s a case where the veterinarian looked at the lab catalog and selected the test called ‘Parvovirus Antibody’ rather than the intended one, which would be ‘Parvovirus Vaccine Antibody’ or ‘Parvovirus Vaccine Titer.’ Meanwhile, the poor animal has been vaccinated repeatedly and unnecessarily, and when we finally get the correct measurement, we find that the animal actually had good immunity all along.”
Not Necessarily Parvo
Back to the puppy who was vaccinated but was stricken with parvo anyway: A final explanation is that his illness might have been incorrectly diagnosed. Dr. Dodds explained that veterinarians diagnose parvo by its symptoms – fever, depression, diarrhea, vomiting – and by checking the dog’s stool for presence of parvovirus or serum antibody level. But other gastrointestinal diseases can produce symptoms that closely resemble those of parvo. And even the presence of low levels of parvovirus in the stool doesn’t necessarily mean that parvo is causing the dog’s symptoms.
“Dogs who are vaccinated and fully protected against parvovirus may still shed the virus in their stool if they are exposed to the disease agent,” said Dr. Dodds. “Unless the stool sample revealed a moderate to heavy parvovirus infection, I would suspect that the dog’s symptoms are caused by something else, or a combination of parvovirus exposure and another infectious agent. For example, the puppy could have been exposed to both parvovirus and corona virus, and then suffered diarrhea and other symptoms as a result of the corona virus alone, because he was adequately protected by vaccination against parvovirus.”
Parvo Protection for Unvaccinated Dogs
Can a superior diet protect unvaccinated dogs against parvo? When parvovirus first infected the world’s dogs, thousands credited Juliette de Bairacli Levy’s Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat and its Natural Rearing philosophy for saving their dogs’ lives. Levy was the first to advocate a well-balanced raw, natural diet for pets. Read “A History of Holistic Dog Care,” (WDJ, July 2006) to learn about Levy’s Natural Rearing method.
Marina Zacharias raised four Basset Hound pups on the Natural Rearing diet. When they were six months old, they played with a puppy the day before it was diagnosed with parvo. “For 10 days after exposure, I gave them one of Juliette’s disinfecting herbal formulas plus homeopathic remedies to help boost their immune function,” she says. “On the tenth day, one of my pups started to show symptoms so I treated it with castor oil to help sweep away the virus as Juliette describes in her book, and I continued with homeopathics. Within two hours this pup was completely back to normal. The other three never showed symptoms and remained healthy.”
Zacharias has received similar reports from numerous clients whose raw-fed, unvaccinated puppies were exposed to parvo. Homeopathic nosodes, which are highly diluted remedies made from the disease material of infected animals, have become popular alternatives to conventional vaccines. But many veterinary homeopaths believe their use as surrogate vaccines is inappropriate.
One is Maryland veterinarian Christina Chambreau, who explains, “The best time to use a homeopathic nosode is after exposure. If you know your dog has been exposed to parvo, you would give a single dose of a 200C-strength homeopathic parvo nosode. This treatment can be given any time after exposure and before the animal gets really sick, such as when it shows minor symptoms like throwing up once or having soft stools.”
Dr. Chambreau says she is aware of about 50 cases in which unvaccinated or minimally vaccinated litters of puppies, kennels of dogs, or individual dogs were exposed to parvo, and after a single treatment with the parvovirus nosode, either did not get the disease at all or had only minor symptoms.
Dr. Chambreau also recommends feeding the best possible diet and boosting the dog’s immune system with supplements such as vitamin C and infection-fighting herbs like echinacea. It is not uncommon, she says, for holistically raised, unvaccinated puppies to have parvo without being diagnosed.
“Many of my clients choose not to vaccinate at all,” Chambreau says, “and it’s not uncommon for their puppies to get sick with a mild case of diarrhea or vomiting that we treat homeopathically or with other holistic therapies. These puppies recover quickly, and what’s interesting is that later, when they’re directly exposed to parvo, they don’t catch it. That minor bout of diarrhea was probably parvo. It’s possible to raise puppies so that they get a natural exposure rather than a vaccine exposure to parvo, and that builds a better immunity than the vaccine in most animals.”
California veterinarian Gloria Dodd first dealt with parvovirus when it appeared 20 years ago. “When parvo first mutated from the Feline Distemper virus, it hit the canine world hard,” she says. “Here was an entire population with no immunity to this new viral infection. In a single week, I was overwhelmed with 55 dogs that had severe clinical infection with bloody diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and shock.” The virus affected dogs of all ages, from puppies to 15-year-old dogs with congestive heart failure and others with liver and kidney disease.
“To treat this new illness,” she says, “I made an autoisode. An autoisode is a homeopathic remedy made from the secretions, excretions (saliva, urine, or feces), blood, and hair of the infected animal, for these substances contain the infective agent. I used them to make a sterile intravenous injection and gave this to all of the animals. I didn’t lose a single patient.”
The 30C potency parvovirus autoisode that she made during the epidemic has become the basis of her homeopathic parvo prevention, and she is not aware of any animals, either her own or her clients’, breaking with parvo. “On the contrary,” she says, “it has proven to be protective for unrelated infections by building and strengthening the dog’s own immune system to ward off other infective agents. When I gave it to a Connecticut kennel of Boston Terrier show dogs, they were the only dogs that did not contract kennel cough during an outbreak at a dog show in Massachusetts.”
Do You Need to Vaccinate Your Dog for Parvovirus?
We want our dogs be healthy and to live forever. Conventional veterinarians see parvovirus as an easily prevented, unnecessary illness, and vaccination as a simple, inexpensive component of basic care. Many holistic vets take a different view, and the possible damage vaccines cause is a concern for many as well. There are compelling arguments on both sides, and plenty of proactive steps to preventing canine parvovirus if you choose not to vaccinate your dog.
That being said, one dog owner’s particular experience after not immunizing her dogs makes Whole Dog Journal partial to dogs receiving parvo shots:
A Former Vaccine Rebel Has a Change of Heart
Joanne Levy has bred and exhibited Alaskan Malamutes since 1972 and has finished 17 champions. Last year, she and her husband shared their Rockland County, New York, home with seven Malamutes, one Akita, one Poodle, and two six-month-old Pomeranians.
Their peaceful life changed in December when Jonah, one of the Pomeranians, threw up his dinner. “Because his vomit contained a funky old apple from the tree outside and some asparagus fern, which is toxic to dogs, I thought he might have given himself a wicked tummy-ache,” Levy recalls. “I kept an eye on him, and during the night he vomited little circles of frothy white foam.”
The next morning, at her veterinarian’s office, Levy was asked whether any other dog in the household was sick. “If any of my other dogs had shown symptoms, they would have done a parvo blood test,” she says. “But because everyone else was fine, we approached it as a case of indigestion.
“If he didn’t improve by the next day, I’d bring him back.”
That night, Jonah’s symptoms advanced to bloody diarrhea and severe nausea. He stopped breathing, and Levy and her husband performed artificial respiration. Rushed back to the clinic, Jonah received IV fluids and other support therapies. But despite two days of intensive care and a vet bill approaching $2,000, Jonah died on New Years Day.
Three days after Jonah first showed symptoms, so did his brother, Micah. Three days later, eight-year-old Tyrone and two-year-old Vivian, both Malamutes, became ill. Levy caught their symptoms early because she kept all of her dogs confined and followed them individually to check for diarrhea. “Parvo’s diarrhea has such a specific, pungent, metallic smell,” she says, “that it viscerally imprints itself on the nasal passages. I believe I could diagnose any dog that has parvo by the odor of its feces alone.” Micah and Vivian were as ill as Jonah had been, but immediate treatment saved their lives. Tyrone had milder symptoms and did not require hospitalization.
Levy blames her vaccination protocol for the outbreak. In 1994, she stopped giving her adult dogs annual vaccinations and put her puppies on a reduced schedule of shots.
“For eight years I thought I was doing the right thing,” she says. “Then four of my dogs got parvo, three were hospitalized at great expense, and one of them died. I lost a spectacularly healthy, fat, robust, powerful, well-muscled six-month-old puppy who was in excellent condition and a joy to live with – to a disease that’s completely preventable.”
Now Levy is a vaccination advocate. “Losing Jonah was one of the most devastating experiences of my life,” she says. “I will never allow it to happen again. Parvo is terrifying because dogs that die from it suffer horribly and unnecessarily. I absolutely resent people who have their dogs on reduced vaccinations or who don’t vaccinate at all, for the obvious reason that all dogs, their own and others, are needlessly put at risk.”
Levy revaccinated her dogs for parvovirus and distemper and plans to repeat their vaccinations every two years. If she ever gets another puppy, she says she will probably alternate between parvo and distemper vaccinations until the puppy is six months old.
“To me the only valid argument is whether to give a multiple-vaccine cocktail or individual vaccines,” she says, “and I agree with those who favor individual vaccines. A month after vaccinations end, I’ll have the puppy tested. And I’ll keep him quarantined at home until I know he’s fully protected.”
Dr. Christine Chambreau says the decision to vaccinate your dog is a difficult one. “Which is more devastating,” she asks, “To have an animal die at any age from an acute disease? Or to protect it from the acute disease and watch it develop chronic skin problems, allergies, or autoimmune disorders before it dies of cancer? There are no easy answers.”
To conclude, deciding to not vaccinate your puppy or dog against parvovirus should never be the result of casual thought, laziness, or a reluctance to spend money at the vet’s office.
To forego vaccination against parvo, a dog guardian had better employ intensive alternative healthcare practices, significant dietary improvement, regular visits to an experienced holistic veterinarian, and utmost vigilance to signs of illness. The “vaccine rebels” who do all this feel that these practices reduce the dangers of contracting disease by creating a stronger, healthier dog. Even so, statistically speaking, more unvaccinated dogs than vaccinated dogs contract parvovirus, so people who take this path are essentially accepting that risk.
Again, these people think they can beat the odds, and we know people who have been successful in doing so. We are also aware of people, like Joanne, who have lost dogs to a preventable disease.
An all-encompassing holistic healthcare program and annual parvovirus antibody titer tests should be a minimum requirement for skipping vaccination against parvovirus.
Before you jump all over me, I totally understand why MY dogs jump and bark and run in circles when MY doorbell rings; the sound is a reliable predictor of visitors, both strange and wonderful. Most of the time when my doorbell rings, my husband or I get up and things start to happen.
But how do you explain that the majority of dogs not only respond to the sound that their own doorbell makes, but also to the sound of doorbells that are CLEARLY not in their home, as when a doorbell rings on TV? You can’t tell me they don’t know the difference; most dogs can tell the difference between the cellophane on a new sponge versus the new bag of treats – from the middle of a sound sleep! And doorbells on TV don’t usually predict any sort of behavior from the humans who are watching TV; we don’t get up and greet people or accept packages when the TV doorbells ring!
Even more mysterious: Why do dogs leap up and sound the alarm to the sound of TV or radio doorbells that sound completely unlike any doorbells they’ve EVER heard before?
Anyway, I’m not sure who hates doorbells more: me, or Otto. I was thinking about this because for the past two mornings in a row, a package delivery person rang my doorbell at precisely 7 a.m. As it turns out, on both occasions I was awake (though my husband was not), and I could immediately start shushing the dog storm that went off at the sound. (To be fair, Otto starts it, but usually shushes quickly. Woody and my niece’s 6-month-old puppy, Rosie, who is visiting for training, start slower but settle more slowly, too.)
I had fairly prompt success the first time, but on the second morning, the delivery person first hit the doorbell, and then paused to punch some beep, beep, beep buttons on his handheld computer, and then (apparently) scan the package and then some more beep, bop, beep, all of which seemed to drive Otto, my delivery-watchdog, into a near rage. Why someone who delivers dog food, treats, toys, beds, chews, and more to our door makes my dog so bananas is a blog post for another day; I’m just trying to suppress the full-on “must terrify the delivery person on the other side of the fence” behavior before adolescent dog Woody fully signs up for his own delivery watch-duty.
Do your dogs go nuts at the doorbell – even TV doorbells? Watch this video and then report back! (#5 is Otto’s kryptonite, although # 9 set him off, too.)
I recently saw a video on Facebook that was titled, “How Moms Think of Themselves Versus How Their Kids Think of Them.” It was a tad treacly, but bear with me for a moment.
In the video, mothers were being interviewed one at a time, and asked, “How would you describe yourself as a mom?”
All of them gave themselves fairly harsh assessments.
“I struggle with my temper.”
“I wish I had more patience.”
And even, “There are days I have my doubts about my abilities as a mother.”
Then their children were interviewed and asked about their moms.
“I have a lot of favorite things about my mom…”
“My mom is totally awesome…”
“She loves me a lot…”
“My mom is the best!”
I guess I’m far enough past parenting a small child and so overrun with dogs, that I immediately imagined a similar scenario with dogs in it. If only we could interview our dogs!
I know what mine would say!
“She takes us for great walks! She gets us so many toys! We always have good food, and great treats! We get to sleep in the house, and on the couch!”
But I also know that I would probably describe myself in a similar fashion to those moms.
“I would love to do something like agility with them, but I just can’t seem to make the time to train.”
“Sometimes, when I see some new thing Woody has chewed up, I snap and yell, even if it’s really my own fault that he had the opportunity to snatch it.”
“I feel that I let Otto down by taking on foster dogs.”
I know that the makers of the “mom” video had a pre-planned agenda: They were allowed to watch their children’s assessments of them, and made to realize that no matter what they think of their own shortcomings as parents, their children really do appreciate everything they do for them.
I don’t know that our dogs can feel exactly the same type of conscious appreciation of us that our children can … but it made me wonder.
How would you describe yourself as a dog owner?
And how would your dog describe you as his or her owner?
My one-year-old dog Woody is maturing into a WDJ model, which is great for me; his ability to quickly learn a new behavior and to stand patiently in place while I change lenses or something gives me an additional option when I need to illustrate something for the magazine, or for a newsletter I sometimes produce (as a volunteer for my local shelter). Plus, he has a nice short coat; when I’ve had to take photos of collars or harnesses on a dog in the past, I’ve always had to borrow a friend’s (untrained and/or inexperienced) dog rather than use my professional model, nine-year-old Otto, because it’s hard to see gear on a fluffy or fuzzy dog model!
However, everyone I know is giving me flack about it! Friends, acquaintances, and even Facebook “fans” of WDJ are commenting about the plethora of Woody pics in the magazine lately (Woody modeled with a lot of items for a “gift guide” in the December issue). I’ve heard “I miss Otto!” from any number of people.
Even those closest to me, who know I haven’t abandoned Otto, are teasing me. “Poor Otto!,” my son commented on the pictures I posted of Woody posing with some pancakes (taken for that shelter newsletter, to advertise an upcoming pancake breakfast fundraiser). “I think the ones you took a few years ago of Otto and the pancakes were way better than these,” my husband chimed in!
So, maybe I’ve gone overboard with using Woody lately. But anyone who has an older dog and a younger dog ought to be able to relate: When your older dog is behaviorally more or less perfect, and your younger dog still needs tons of guidance, practice, and management, you naturally find yourself spending more time with the young one. And if you are a training and behavior junkie like me – I love teaching dogs new things, and watching them figure stuff out! – then working with a “green” dog is just more interesting than working with Mr. Been There, Done That!
Also, I can’t yet leave Woody to his own devices for hours and hours on any given day, just yet. If we do a big hike on one day, then, yes, I could likely leave him for 6 or so hours the following day without anything being destroyed. But if we haven’t taken a good off-leash romp for a few days, his unsupervised time (indoors or out) has to be limited to just an hour or two, unless I don’t mind losing yet one more wooden thing (bamboo, rosebush, corner of the deck, etc.) to his restless chewing. So when I’m super busy, say, running a lot of errands, I tend to make sure he’s with me. Unlike Otto, he likes riding in the car, and is happy to run with me into Petco (home of Otto’s dreaded slippery floors) or the shelter (where Otto droops and starts panting in anxiety). Woody is happy to go anywhere, any time. So Otto gets left home with my husband, and I get teased some more about favoring “the new guy.”
I’m pretty certain there is some projection going on here, especially with my son and husband. Are they defending Otto because they, too, feel neglected? It’s possible.
But I haven’t forgotten Otto, and I’m not neglecting him. He still gets privileges that Woody hasn’t earned, and he always gets fed first, and receives the choicest bits of leftovers. I bring him and leave Woody home when I go to visit friends, so he can get some special attention from friends who have known and loved him for a long time. And when I need a rock-solid “demo dog,” like when a friend asked me to bring a dog to juvenile hall to talk to young inmates about dog training and behavior, Otto is my go-to guy. He seems to really enjoy being the dog with all the right answers and performs all his tricks for audiences eagerly. (He slayed the crowd with his dramatic “bang, you’re dead” trick; he always throws in a deep moan or groan as he “dies” and then lies still. The guys cracked up and asked him to do it again and again.)
Having these two dogs in my life – one older, wiser, and more reliable, and one younger, more mischievous, and unpredictable – is kind of like having a really great husband, and a fun new boyfriend, too! J
3. Chamomile, German (Matricaria recutita). Also called blue chamomile. Skin-soothing anti-inflammatory. Burns, allergic reactions, skin irritations.
4. Chamomile, Roman (Anthemis nobilis). Intensely calming and antispasmodic. Wound care, teething pain.
5. Clary sage (Salvia sclarea). Different from common garden sage. Gentle, sedating, calming.
6. Eucalyptus radiata (Eucalyptus radiata). The gentlest, best tolerated, most versatile eucalyptus (there are many). Anti-inflammatory, antiviral, expectorant. Diffuse as room air cleaner, deodorizer, flea repellent.
7. Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens). Tonic, antifungal. For skin ailments, yeast overgrowth, fungal ear infections. Ticks dislike all rose fragrances, including this one.
8. Ginger (Zingiber officinale). Fresh, warm, spicy (don’t settle for ginger that smells stale, musty, or rank). Motion sickness, indigestion (see Peppermint), useful in massage oils for sprains, strains, dysplasia, arthritis.
9. Helichrysum (Helichrysum italicum). Horrible smelling, incredibly effective essential oil (some people and dogs do like it). Also called Immortelle or Everlasting. Heals skin conditions, cuts, abrasions, wounds, injuries. Relieves pain.
10. Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia). Used by the makers of pet aromatherapy products more than any other essential oil. Gentle, antibacterial, antipruritic (anti-itch), stimulates rapid healing, acts as a central nervous system sedative, very relaxing, deodorizing.
11. Mandarin, Green (Citrus reticulata). The sweetest essential oil, very relaxing. For fear, anxiety, stress. Avoid red mandarin, which is not the same, and use only organic green mandarin. This is not a distilled oil but is pressed from the rind of the fruit.
12. Marjoram, Sweet (Origanum marjorana). Pleasing, smooth herbal fragrance, calming, antispasmodic effects, strongly antibacterial. A recommended replacement for tea tree oil in blends for pets. Bacterial skin infections, wound care. Repels insects. Reduces undesirable behaviors of intact males.
13. Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha). Ancient resin with deep, warm, earthy fragrance. Anti-inflammatory, antiviral. Puppy teething pain, irritated skin. Boosts immune system. Opoponax myrrh (Commiphora erythraea) has similar properties and repels ticks.
14. Orange, Sweet (Citrus sinensis). Popular, uplifting, pleasant. Calms, deodorizes, repels fleas, treats skin conditions. Use organic sweet orange oil to avoid pesticide residues. Pressed, not distilled.
15. Peppermint (Mentha piperita). Digestive aid; stimulates circulation for injuries, sprains, strains, arthritis, dysplasia. Insect repellent. Relieves pain and itching. To prevent nausea and motion sickness, mix one tablespoon vegetable oil, seven drops ginger, and eight drops peppermint; give three drops orally.
17. Rose (Rosa damascena). Expensive, wonderful, makes any shampoo, spray, or grooming product luxurious. Stabilizes central nervous system. Calming. Add one to two drops to blends for itchy, irritated, or dry skin.
18. Thyme linalol (Thyme vulgaris, chemotype linalol). Common garden thyme has six known chemotypes, or chemical profiles. Thyme linalol is the most gentle and useful. Relaxing, antibacterial, antifungal without the harsh skin irritation associated with common thyme. Balancing tonic.
19. Thyme thujanol (Thyme vulgaris, chemotype thujanol). Like thyme linalol plus immune system stimulant, liver detoxifier, antiviral. Kurt Schnaubelt, PhD, founder of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy, recommends applying thyme thujanol immediately after a tick or tick bite is discovered in order to help prevent Lyme disease. For immune-boosting blends or when a powerful antibacterial is needed without caustic, skin-irritating effects.
20. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). Relaxing, helpful for separation anxiety or fear of loud noises, storms, fireworks, new situations.
When she manufactured pet products, Bell’s best-seller was Calm Dog Mist. To make it yourself, place one teaspoon vegetable glycerin, one tablespoon grain alcohol or vodka, one teaspoon sulfated castor oil, and 10 drops grapefruit seed extract in an 8-ounce cobalt blue, green, or opaque spritzer bottle. Add three drops valerian, two drops vetiver, four drops petitgrain, three drops sweet marjoram, and two drops sweet orange essential oil. Add seven ounces spring or distilled water (fill to top).
If desired, add several drops of flower essences such as Rescue Remedy or gemstone essences such as rose quartz. Shake well before using. Calm Dog Mist can be spritzed into your hands and massaged into the dog’s neck and chest, sprayed on bedding, or misted into the air.
