There are many examples where eye contact is useful in our training and every day activities with our dogs. Here are some of them:
✓✓ Attention for focused heeling
✓✓ Keeping attention while waiting to give next cue
✓✓ Maintaining attention so your dog doesn’t pester passersby in public places
✓✓ Keeping focus for duration of a wait or stay”
✓✓ Holding attention during demonstration of behavior for imitation training
✓✓ Keeping attention while hiding treats to teach “Find it” behavior
✓✓ Teaching directional exercise in advanced obedience competition
✓✓ Teaching directional signals for Treibball and herding
As valuable as eye contact can be, there are also times when it can be a hindrance. In K9 Nosework, tracking, earthdog trials, and a variety of other canine activities, the dog is supposed to be focused on the task, not the handler. As I recently learned, this is true of agility, too.
Our Kelpie, Kai, is a master at eye contact. My husband and I recently signed up for a foundation agility class with Kai at Kamp Kitty in nearby West Virginia. We entered the training center proudly on the first day of class with him heeling next to me, and beautifully focused on me. To our dismay, we were told that kind of focus is detrimental to agility, where the dog needs to focus on the equipment, not the handler. Fortunately Kai is bright and adaptable, quickly figured out the new rules, and dearly loves to play the agility game.
As much as we value eye contact, we also need to remember to give our dogs time just to be dogs. Focused leash-walking is great, but it’s quite taxing. (Imagine taking every walk with your eyes fixed on your best friend’s face the entire time!) Our canine companions also need plenty of time to smell the flowers, read the pee-mail, and chase the occasional squirrel up a tree.
In late autumn, we closed our pool, an annual event that all four of our swim-loving dogs dread. They will swim as long into the fall season as we allow and I am pretty certain that our Toller, Chippy, would bring out an ice pick and break his way through the ice if he could. In addition to the daily joy, excitement, and happiness that our pool brings to us all, we have found that it has had an additional benefit for some of our dogs. The pool and the daily swims that it provides help to keep itchy dogs from itching all summer long.
Over the years, several of our dogs have suffered from atopic dermatitis (also known as atopy). This is not unusual given that we have Golden Retrievers (a breed that is genetically predisposed to atopy) and we live in the Midwest, an area with lots of allergens for hypersensitive dogs to react to.
We have successfully managed this using frequent bathing, topical medications, and when absolutely necessary, short periods of oral (systemic) medication. And now, we also have the pool. Once our dogs started to have daily swims, we found that this form of frequent bathing kept allergy signs at bay throughout the summer, simply by its ability to physically reduce exposure to allergens and to cleanse the skin.
This benefit is not that surprising because, according to two reports (See here and here) by an international task force on canine atopic dermatitis, frequent bathing of dogs, with the specific purpose of removing and reducing exposure to allergens, is identified as one of the most important factors in relieving pruritus (itchiness). Indeed, the task force has quite a bit more to say about effective and not-so-effective approaches to managing itchy dogs.
Treatment Guidelines
In 1999, the American College of Veterinary Dermatology (ACVD) established a committee to study canine atopic dermatitis (hereafter CAD). The initial group spent two years reviewing existing knowledge about CAD and published its findings in 2001. That collection of 24 papers provided practicing veterinarians and dermatologists with up-to-date information about the diagnosis, treatment, and management of CAD.
The committee was eventually expanded to include international representation, and its name was changed accordingly, to the International Committee on Allergic Diseases of Animals (ICADA). Now comprised of veterinary dermatologists from around the world, the committee has a series of objectives. One of the most important is to develop and distribute a set of practical guidelines for veterinarians to use when diagnosing and treating CAD. The first set of these guidelines was published in 2010 and recently, a revised edition was made available.
A central component of these guidelines is that they follow the tenets of evidence-based medicine. This means that the committee recommends only procedures and treatments that have supporting scientific evidence and that they systematically rate the scientific merit of that evidence. Naturally, there is a lot of information in these reports that is of interest primarily to researchers and practicing veterinarians. However, there is also an abundance of helpful information for owners who wish to learn more about CAD and about how to best manage this disorder in their dogs.
CAD is a Diverse (and Complex) Disorder
The ICADA’s most recent description of CAD is a genetically predisposed pruritic (itchy) and inflammatory skin disorder. It is most commonly triggered by one or more types of environmental allergens such as dust mites, pollens, and molds. Although the actual sequence of events that leads to a chronically itchy dog is complex, the general progression involves these steps:
1. Exposure to the allergen (or allergens). These either are absorbed through the dog’s skin, are inhaled, or, when a food allergy is the cause (see below), are consumed. Note: Recent evidence suggests that absorption of allergens across the skin, called percutaneous absorption, may be the primary trigger of the allergic response in atopic dogs (See here).
2. This exposure causes an immune system response in the body, which includes the production of a cascade of immune factors and inflammatory agents. One of these factors is allergen-specific IgE, which is considered to be a hallmark indicator of CAD.
3. IgE migrates from the bloodstream to the dog’s skin, where it binds to mast cells (a type of immune cell) and to certain types of nerve cells. When the dog is exposed again to the same allergen, the immunological reaction is amplified and now involves both immune cells and the nervous system. This “neuroimmodulary” response is the major cause of the intensely pruritic (itchy) response that a dog with CAD experiences.
4. Without treatment for the intense itching, the dog begins to scratch, rub, and bite at the affected areas, which causes breaks in the skin, inflammation, and the development of sores and infections. Breaks in the skin (changes in the skin’s integrity) allow more allergen access, which further ratchets up the immune response. The result is a vicious and unending itch-inflammation cycle.
The genetic component of CAD means that certain breeds of dogs are at greater risk for developing the disorder, including Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Lhasa Apsos, Wire Fox Terriers, West Highland White Terriers, Boxers, and Bulldogs.
Although not completely understood, the underlying mechanisms that make certain individuals more susceptible to CAD include being born with skin and an immune system that are hyper-responsive to allergens, having a highly sensitive (i.e., easily triggered) inflammatory response, and having a reduced ability to arrest or slow down this response.
CAD and Food Allergy
The ICADA recognizes the complexity of the relationship between CAD and food allergies (technically referred to as “cutaneous adverse food reactions”). Although not true for all dogs, some dogs with CAD can also have food allergies or develop food allergy at a later point in time. Difficulties lie in the fact that the clinical signs of food allergy and CAD can be indistinguishable in a given dog, making diagnosis of either disorder very challenging for veterinarians.
Currently, the ICADA recommends testing a dog for food allergy when the signs of CAD are chronic and non-seasonal. Food allergy should also be suspected in dogs with previously well-controlled CAD who show a sudden return (flare) of symptoms that cannot be explained by environmental allergens.
Unfortunately, the only proven method for diagnosing food allergies continues to be dietary restriction trials lasting at least 8 to 10 weeks. Therefore, in most cases, a diagnosis of CAD is first ruled out or confirmed before moving to include food allergy as a potential cause.
ICADA Recommended Treatments
The committee makes a distinction between treating acute flares of CAD and treating/managing chronic cases of CAD. An acute flare refers to the sudden onset of clinical signs, usually in a localized region of the body, in a dog who has either not been previously diagnosed or who had been diagnosed but whose symptoms were well managed.
Chronic CAD is identified as long-term cases that have either remained undiagnosed or have not been treated successfully. Chronic cases are characterized by widespread skin involvement, self-induced lesions, infection, skin changes, and severe and prolonged discomfort in the dog.
The primary goal in treating both acute flares and chronic cases of CAD is to stop the itch. This is of vital importance because it is the itch-scratch cycle that leads to self-induced trauma, unrelenting inflammation, and infection. Stopping the itch not only makes the dog feel better (consider how we feel when we have poison ivy and are able to relieve the itch), but also breaks the itch-scratch cycle and allows the skin to heal. Long-term management approaches of CAD include limiting the dog’s exposure to allergens (if they are known) and preventing the recurrences of flares.
The ICADA emphasizes that therapy for the atopic dog must always be approached on an individual basis and will usually be multimodal. This means that it will include various combinations of topical or oral anti-pruritic medications, control of secondary infections and parasites, allergen avoidance when possible, and in some cases, allergy hyposensitization (“allergy shots”). The current ICADA guidelines identify a variety of oral (systemic) and topical medications along with several management approaches that have been demonstrated through research to be effective:
Improved Skin Hygiene and Care – Frequent bathing with a non-irritating shampoo physically removes allergens from the body, cleanses the skin, and may reduce bacterial colonization (growth). One study showed that using a lipid-containing antiseptic shampoo reduced pruritus in dogs with CAD and that the benefit was enhanced when the dog was bathed in a whirlpool.
However, bathing the dog using the whirlpool alone (without the shampoo) also reduced itchiness, suggesting that the complete elimination of allergens and thorough cleansing of skin was more important than the type of shampoo that was used. ICADA states that there is currently no evidence supporting the benefit of any specific type of shampoo ingredient, such as oatmeal, antihistamine, or glucocorticoids. The bottom line is that frequent bathing (or perhaps swimming?) may be one of the most important therapeutic approaches for atopic dogs.
Identification and Avoidance of Flare Factors – Because dogs may be allergic to more than one allergen in the environment (or in food), flare factors are considered to be anything that causes a sudden return of symptoms in a dog. For example, the implementation of an effective flea-control program will remove flea-associated dermatitis as a potential flare factor.
Because house dust mites are considered to be the most important source of allergens in dogs with CAD, measures for controlling these mites in the home may be effective (though, admittedly, difficult to accomplish). Additionally, as stated previously, the ICADA recommends an elimination food trial for those dogs who have suspected food allergy.
Without question it is difficult (if not impossible) to prevent a dog’s exposure to many types of environmental allergens. Therefore, as much as it would be nice to say that simply bathing and reducing exposure to allergens will do the trick, most dogs with CAD will also require some form of medical therapy.
Topical Medications – A wide variety of topical sprays and spot-on treatments are promoted and sold as aids for reducing itching and supporting skin healing in dogs. However, of the many ingredients that are found in these products, only two are supported with scientific evidence.
The strongest evidence is for spray-on medium-potency glucocorticoid sprays. Three randomized, controlled research trials showed that two brands of these sprays, Genesis® and Cortavance®, both produced by Virbac, effectively reduced pruritus and self-induced skin damage in dogs. The ICADA recommends the use of these sprays (or similar products) primarily during flares on a localized region such as the dog’s belly or feet.
Because long-term application of even low concentrations of glucocorticoids can lead to skin thinning and other skin problems, these sprays should never be used in chronic cases and should be limited to a short period of time (less than two months).
There is one study showing that a topical immune-modulating ointment called tacrolimus (Protopic®, Astellas Pharma) reduced signs of CAD when used for several weeks. Tacrolimus may be helpful in healing skin in chronic cases as it does not have the long-term side effects on skin that are associated with topical glucocorticoids.
Oral Medications – When a dog is chronically affected or when symptoms cannot be controlled using hygiene and topical medications, a short course of systemic oral medications may be required. The two types of oral medications that have the strongest evidence for efficacy are the oral glucocorticoids and cyclosporine. The most commonly used glucocorticoids in dogs are prednisone, prednisolone, and methylprednisolone.
A major difference between glucocorticoids and cyclosporine is that a reduction in pruritus (itchiness) occurs much more rapidly, often within 24 hours with glucocorticoids, while treatment for 4 to 6 weeks is required before clinical benefit is seen with cyclosporine (Atopica®, Novartis).
In both types of drugs, a higher loading dose is used initially to control signs. The prescription is then gradually reduced to the lowest effective dosage. This helps to prevent the side effects associated with glucocorticoids (increased appetite, drinking, and urination and increased risk of urinary tract infection). Although reported at a low rate, side effects of cyclosporine include nausea and vomiting. (Note: When a dog has a concurrent bacterial skin infection, oral glucocorticoid therapy is not recommended prior to treating the infection).
Although some owners (and veterinarians) are resistant to using glucocorticoid therapy because of its long-term risks, the ICADA supports their use – for as short a period as possible and at the lowest effective dose. Similarly, although there are fewer documented side effects with cyclosporine, its use may be cost-prohibitive for some owners. It should be noted that these drugs are recommended only when signs are too severe or too extensive to be controlled with frequent bathing and topical formulations.
The ICADA also recommends medications that may have a steroid-sparing effect be investigated. These are adjunctive (supporting) therapies that, when added to a treatment regimen, may allow lower dosages of glucocorticoids or cyclosporine.
Between 2010 and 2015, one new oral medication was tested using a series of clinical trials and was approved for use as an antipruritic (anti-itching) drug in dogs. It is a drug called oclacitinib, marketed by Zoetis under the trade name Apoquel®. Oclacitinib is in a class of drugs known as the Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKs). It has a different mode of action than other anti-inflammatory agents such as prednisone and cyclosporine, and functions to inhibit the neuronal itch sensation – the nervous system component of the itch-scratch cycle discussed above.
The benefits of oclacitinib include a very rapid reduction in pruritus, with dogs showing reduced itchiness within four hours of the initial dose. A series of trials comparing Apoquel to glucocorticoids and cyclosporine reported equal or better effectiveness with the new drug when used to treat dogs with CAD.
Anti-microbial therapy – Antimicrobial therapy is only needed in dogs who have concurrent skin and/or ear infections that have developed as a result of CAD. While these infections can develop during flares, they are most commonly seen in dogs who are chronically affected. The two most common microorganisms that are involved are Staphylococcus bacteria and Malassezia yeast.
Similar to its recommendations for anti-inflammatories, the ICADA recommends using topical anti-microbial agents for infections whenever possible. Oral (systemic) antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs should be used only when needed to control recurrent or severe infections.
Allergen-Specific Immuno-therapy (ASIT) – Better known among dog owners as “allergy shots,” ASIT refers to the practice of administering low and gradually increasing concentrations of an allergen extract subcutaneously.
Intradermal or serology testing is first used to identify the specific agents (allergens) to which the dog reacts. Once identified, the specific environmental (note: NOT food) allergens to which the dog reacts are used in the immunotherapy regimen.
ASIT is not universally effective; studies report that between 50 and 80 percent of treated dogs show improvement of signs over a 6- to 12- month period. Because ASIT is time-consuming and expensive, the ICADA recommends it when other anti-inflammatory treatments have been unsuccessful or when other treatments are associated with unacceptable or severe side effects in an individual.
What the ICADA Does Not Recommend
The ICADA has a strong consensus that the diagnosis of atopy in dogs is a clinical diagnosis, based upon the dog’s signalment (breed, age, living situation), clinical signs, and disease history. The committee emphasizes that neither serological (blood) nor intradermal (skin) testing is reliable as a tool for diagnosing CAD because of these tests’ high risk of false positive results. However, following a diagnosis, these tests may have some use in identifying flare factors for allergen-avoidance management or if immunotherapy is being considered. However, as attractive as it may sound to dog owners, CAD (just like food allergy) cannot be successfully diagnosed through a simple blood or skin test.
There are also several proposed treatments for CAD that do not have sufficient evidence to support them and are not recommended. Perhaps the most important of these, when one considers the popularity of their use with itchy dogs, are the type-1 antihistamines. Examples of these are hydroxyzine, diphenhydramine (Benadryl), clemastine (Tavist), and chlorpheniramine.
When examined as a group, there is no conclusive evidence that these drugs are effective for either acute flares or chronic cases of CAD. There is some evidence of a very moderate prednisone-sparing effect when trimeprazine was administered to dogs with CAD. However, because antihistamines also have a sedating effect in dogs, it is possible that the sedating effect was responsible for the small benefit that was reported in that study. While it is possible that antihistamines may be helpful to prevent recurrence when administered daily after an atopic dog’s signs have been controlled, studies are still needed to test (and support) this hypothesis.
The ICADA also reports that increasing a dog’s essential fatty acid (both omega-6 and omega-3 classes) intake through either supplementation or by feeding an EFA-enriched diet is unlikely to provide measureable benefit to dogs with CAD when used alone. There is evidence that increasing EFAs in a dog’s diet can improve coat quality and reduce dry skin (aid in skin hydration). However, there is no evidence that supports the use of any particular combination of EFAs, dosage, or ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.
A single study reported that increasing EFAs in the diet using a Chinese herbal supplement (Phytopica, Intervet-Schering Plough Animal Health) had a glucocorticoid-sparing effect in some dogs with CAD. However, no other product has been shown to be effective, so the ICADA could not make a recommendation for the use of essential fatty acids in general.
Similarly, the ICADA reports note that there is insufficient evidence to support the use of topical formulations that contain essential fatty acids, essential oils, or complex lipid mixtures to benefit dogs with CAD.
The Bottom Line
Happily for owners of dogs with CAD, it seems that one of the most highly recommended practices to prevent flares and reduce the itchiness in our dogs is the simple practice of frequently rinsing off our dog’s coats (and any adhering allergens) through weekly baths using a mild and non-irritating soap (or, perhaps, a nice swim in the pool).
Reducing a dog’s exposure to flare factors such as fleas, an identified food allergen (when present), and environmental pollens is also key. Treating flares with topical anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agents is similarly recommended.
When topical treatment is not effective or when dogs are chronically affected, veterinarians and owners have several medications to choose from for systemic therapy. In all cases, the ICADA emphasizes that treatment for CAD is “multimodal,” involving a variety of possible approaches that meet the needs of the individual patient and owner, with the primary objectives of reducing itchiness, maintaining a healthy skin and coat and supporting the dog’s long-term health and well-being.
As for my dogs, I hope that we continue to see the anti-itch benefits of our pool that go beyond enjoying swimming, dock diving, and retrieving!
Linda P. Case, MS, is the owner of AutumnGold Consulting and Dog Training Center in Mahomet, IL, and author of Dog Food Logic and other books on nutrition for dogs and cats.
You will never find a more ardent lover of off-leash dog walking than me. But I’m lucky: I have access to thousands of acres of “wildlife area” near where I live. It’s not quite a state park, but state-managed land where certain types of hunting are allowed in various seasons. Dogs can be off leash there much of the year, except for a short period in spring, to allow the many species of ground-nesting birds to lay their eggs and raise their young. When that happens, I either leash up my dogs, or go elsewhere. As much as I love walking my dogs off leash, and as well-mannered as they are, with near-perfect recalls, I’m not ever going to be one of the many people I see who walk their off-leash dogs past the signs that appear there every spring saying, “Dogs must be on leash from March 15 to June 30 for the nesting season.” I appreciate and respect my access to that land the REST of the year; I don’t want to risk losing access to it EVER.
Recently I had an opportunity to explore a new hiking area a couple hours from where I live. I took along a friend who is accustomed to going out with me and my dogs in our local off-leash areas. She was surprised when I snapped on my dogs leashes, and waited for her to do the same on this new trail. So surprised, in fact, that she asked me, “Seriously?” “Serious as a heart attack,” I said. Who would walk onto a trail marked like the one in the photo without leashing up?
I’ve read a lot of posts and essays from people whose dogs are reactive about how far their dogs’ training can be set back by one out-of-control off-leash dog running up to them – even those so-called “friendly” off-leash dogs. I would be MORTIFIED if my off-leash dog caused someone else’s training to go awry, or if my dog caused a horse to spook, a fragile hiker to fall, or a bicyclist to take a tumble. That’s why, on multi-use trails, even with my super-well-behaved Otto, he wears a leash. With these near-perfect dogs, it can be tempting to “poach” a trail, but the sudden appearance of a mountain bike or trotting horse reminds us that there are other people out here, too, and the only way we can share the trails nicely is by cooperating a bit. Even if it takes a little edge off the fun.
Have you ever “poached” trails with your well-behaved dog off leash? Would you do it again?
There was a week in December when I had 16 foster dogs staying with me. It’s not quite as crazy as it sounds; 15 of them were puppies – they took up only two crates’ worth of space at night! Nine of those puppies were from one litter of pit bull-mixes that were brought into my local shelter. Six were from another litter, perhaps Chihuahua/terrier-mixes, and are being fostered by a friend, but she was traveling (with her own three dogs!) over Christmas and couldn’t drag the tiny puppies along, too. Both sets of puppies were estimated to be about 4 to 5 weeks old when they were brought to the shelter by people who claimed to “find them.” The last foster who was with me – and is still with me – is a year-old hound.
When your dogs are adults and you’ve had them for years, it’s easy to forget how much you’ve put into making them the dogs you enjoy living with. Having all of these puppies and an active adolescent has been a stark reminder of what a huge investment it takes, in terms of time and money, to make a good dog. Let me recount some of the ways . . .
Potty Training
If you had nothing else to do, I suppose you could start training even tiny puppies to go potty in a certain easy-to-clean place. But I had a lot to do in December, and way too many puppies to train. So I bought a lot of puppy pads, and did daily loads of laundry – old sheets, towels, tablecloths, etc. – for the first few weeks in order to keep the puppies clean and dry. By the end of our month together, with them a little older, they were using a potty area outdoors fairly reliably, and the laundry was down to a load every two or three days. The more they went outside, the less clean up was needed, but all those trips outdoors took a lot of time!
Finding the Right Diet
It took weeks (and probiotics) to get their little tummies happy so that they produced nice stool, as opposed to stinky, gloppy piles.
Parasite Control
Both litters required deworming twice in the first month. The little pups also needed treatment for fleas.
Socializing
I invited everyone I know to come over and play with the puppies. It was hard work, but it has to be done.
Training
Yes, training. Even tiny puppies need to learn that it’s rewarding to come when called, to sit politely if they want to be petted, and not to cry and fuss when they are locked in crates or behind a baby gate. And the year-old foster dog is learning how to wait at doors (rather than darting through), to walk on a leash, and to greet people calmly.
Specialized Puppy Equipment.
I bought a pet-specific heating pad for the puppies to sleep on; they were just so young and it was so cold! They found a small hole in one bed and completely destuffed it overnight; that had to be replaced with a stuffing-free bed. I also bought a bunch of toys and chews.
A person forgets about all of this when her dogs are middle-aged and perfect – and that’s a good enough reason to go kiss them right now. And to foster again soon.
Be honest: The main reason that many of you are reading this right now – the reason that many of you have subscribed to WDJ! – is to learn which dog foods are the “best” ones. Am I right? If so, then I’m sorry to have to report that there isn’t any product out there that is “best” for all dogs . . . . On the other hand, I’m happy to tell you that there probably are a bunch of foods that are “best” for your individual dogs! You’re going to have to do some homework and some feeding trials, though, in order to learn which foods work (and which ones don’t) for each of your dogs. Not to worry, though; we’ll walk you through it!
Many people are under the impression that all foods that are labeled as “complete and balanced” contain an ideal, uniform amount of nutrients – just enough of what dogs need, but not too much. That would be lovely, if anyone knew precisely what the optimum nutrient levels for dogs are, or if the nutrient requirements for all dogs were the same. But there is no more consensus among veterinary nutritionists about optimum canine nutrition than there is about optimum human nutrition among human nutrition experts. There are legal standards and definitions for what constitutes “complete and balanced” dog food, but the appellation really only gets you in the ballpark.
Whole Dog Journal has assembled a complete list of approved dry foods, which you can access right here.
In the U.S., there are three very different ways that a dog food can be designated as “complete and balanced.” Once you know what they are, you can see why any single product can’t be counted on to ensure that your dog will receive optimal nutrition if the “complete and balanced” product is fed as a sole diet long-term. Let’s take a quick look at the three qualifying standards for a “complete and balanced” canine diet.
Speaking from a regulatory perspective, “complete and balanced” means that the food either (A) contains at least the minimum levels of all the nutrients (and not more than the maximum levels of some nutrients) that have been determined to be essential for dogs (this is called a “nutrient levels” qualification); or (B), has sustained a population of dogs in a laboratory setting for a period of time (“feeding trial” qualification); or (C) has been formulated to closely resemble another product made by the same company that had passed a feeding trial (“family member” qualification).
The disparity between these qualifying methods has resulted in anything but nutritionally uniform formulation from pet food company to pet food company. Instead, there is a wide range of nutrient levels in the “complete and balanced” dog foods on the market. And this is why we don’t want you to search for just one ideal food for your dog – because there may not be one! Instead, we recommend hedging your bets, as it were, by rotating between a number of good foods that suit your dog.
Foods, Not Food
The variety of qualifying methods for “complete and balanced” diets results in a product category with a wide range of amounts of macronutrients (protein, fat, fiber, and moisture) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). If you feed your dog only one type of food for months and months – perhaps years! – you are, in effect, concentrating the nutritional attributes of that food in your dog.
Is the food a little higher than it should be in some minerals? Does it contain the absolute minimum of some vitamins? These things may not present a problem for any individual dog in the short term, but after months (or years!) of eating the same food, these less-than-ideal nutrient levels can cause health problems, such as a toxic accumulation of minerals (e.g., iron, copper, selenium), or persistently low vitamin D or E levels in the blood.
Fortunately, these problems are easily prevented by switching your dog’s diet from food to food – and using products from different manufacturers, too, since some food makers use the same vitamin/mineral “premix” in all of their products. Switching foods frequently helps guarantee that your dog will receive nutritional “balance over time,” if not in any single product.
“But, wait!” you say. “My vet/breeder/rescue group/doggie daycare operator/best friend told me that I should never switch foods, because it will upset my dog’s stomach. In fact, I switched foods once, when my pet supply store stopped carrying my favorite food, and my dog had diarrhea for a week! I can’t go through that each time I need a new bag of food!”
Here’s a secret: Most dogs have far more robust digestive systems than we do. And for millennia, they have been opportunistic feeders, eating literally anything edible in front of their noses, including grasses, fruits, eggs, animals they killed and animals they found dead (including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, bugs, you-name-it), as well as whatever scraps of human’s food that they could charm us into giving them, as well as the stuff we were throwing away . . . . Including poop. Our poop and almost any other poop dogs come across is fair game: deer, rabbit, sheep, cow, horse. Sorry to get disgusting, but it’s true. The point is, dogs are built to be able to eat just about anything and make use of it, without getting sick.
So why did your dog suffer from a week’s worth of diarrhea the last time you switched his food? When this happens, it’s generally due to one of two things:
You’ve been feeding the same food for months(years?) and his body now lacks a variety of digestive enzymes and gut bacteria. The body quits producing enzymes it doesn’t need, and the population of gut bacteria that help break down your dog’s food changes in response to what it’s fed. If you have fed only a rice and lamb diet for years, and switch overnight to a chicken and quinoa diet, it will take your dog’s body a week or two to adjust.
Your dog is allergic to or intolerant of one or some of the ingredients in the food, or intolerant of diets with the macronutrient levels present in that food. We recommend recording all of your dog’s dietary changes, and his response to them, in a notebook or calendar. It’s the best way to identify trends in any adverse reactions he has to certain ingredients or nutrient levels in his foods (such as a reliably bad reaction to diets containing fish, or to particularly high-fat foods).
In general, the more variety you build into your dog’s diet, the more robust his digestive system will become (unless, again, he has allergies to or a reliable intolerance of certain ingredients). Just keep in mind that the more frequently you switch foods, the more alert you need to be to any problem your dog might experience after each meal.
For example, if you feed one type of food in the morning and another at night, and your dog starts vomiting at 10 p.m., will you be able to definitely tie his digestive upset to his most recent meal? If he’s home alone all day and has a dog door, say, it could be possible that he was actually vomiting on and off all day; in that case, you could end up suspecting his dinnertime food, when in fact it was the breakfast food that contained something that disagreed with him. Your unique schedule and ability to observe your dog throughout the day may dictate how much variety is right for your dog.
Let’s Go Shopping!
We hope by now we’ve convinced you to look for at least a couple of good foods for your dog the next time you go shopping. If you are shopping for a new dog, or are newly convinced to look for a few prospects to add variety to your dog’s diet, schedule your next shopping expedition for a day when you have a significant amount of time to do some things and observe some things that you may never have done or observed before!
Here’s an ideal strategy for a “major” shopping day, when you have time to really study all your dog’s dietary options at your local pet supply store.
1. First, walk around the entire area where the dry dog food is displayed, checking to see what brands are present in that store. All brands are not available in every store. Things you should know:
– It’s the pet food distributors that service your area that really decide which pet food brands are available in a given area. National distributors carry mostly high-volume products from the corporate pet food giants; smaller regional companies may specialize in the “natural/holistic” niche of products. Distributors have to be able to move a certain amount of any given company’s food in order to make it worth their while to carry it – and the same is true for your local store, too.
– The type of store where you shop will partly determine what brands are available to you. Some pet food companies sell only to independent pet supply stores; others sell their products mostly in “pet specialty chains” (think Petco and PetSmart, as well as smaller, regional chains such as Centinela Feed, Kriser’s Natural Pet Store, Pet Food Express, and Pet Supplies Plus). Still others concentrate their sales in “big box” stores (Target, Walmart) or grocery store chains.
– Pet food companies offer incentives – sometimes in the form of credit or even as actual payments – to pet supply stores for premium placement of their products. In many stores, the first brands you see as you enter the dry dog food section will have paid the store to be positioned in the most prominent or first location you encounter when entering. The higher-cost foods (which are generally, but not always, also the higher-quality products) will be clustered together close to the most premium position. And, in general, the lowest-cost (generally, the lowest-quality) foods will be located in the farthest corner of the dry dog food section.
In a minute, we’re going to discuss what sort of ingredients meet our selection criteria for good foods, and which ingredients signal a low-cost, low-quality product. If the store where you habitually shop has only a few (or none) of the products that meet the selection criteria discussed more fully below, you should probably shop elsewhere!
When I first moved to the town where I have lived for the past decade, the sole pet supply store in town offered only one brand of food for sale: Science Diet, a company that (at the time) made not a single product that met my selection criteria. And there are no specialty (human) food stores (such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s) in my town that might sell a premium pet food. So for years, I drove to one of two nearby towns (about 20 miles to either one) that had independent pet supply stores with a good selection of premium foods to choose from.
People in even more remote areas may end up having to have good foods shipped to them directly from online pet specialty businesses; that’s an increasingly affordable option these days.
2. Next, walk around more slowly and look at the food prices, getting an idea of which foods are within your budget, and which are too costly to consider.
Price is an important, inescapable factor in the buying decision for many dog owners. It may not strongly influence dog owners who are wealthy, nor a family with a good income and just one dog, or people with small dogs. But for those of us with several dogs, people who foster or breed, and people with very large dogs, the price of food can’t be completely disregarded, especially when it can range so widely, from scarily low (such as $20 for 52 pounds of Kal Kan Dry Adult Dog Food, or $.38 per pound) to prohibitively high (such as $98 for a 28.6-pound bag of Champion’s Orijen “Regional Red” variety, or $3.32 per pound!).
We have always recommended buying the best food that’s in your budget for your dog – but not everyone can buy the most expensive food, nor should they feel guilty for not doing so. Part of being a responsible pet owner is making sure you can afford his care. It doesn’t make sense to buy expensive food if you might have to surrender your dog because you can’t pay for an emergency vet bill (not to mention the electric bill!).
It should also be said that some dogs do absolutely fine on lower-cost, lower-quality food. If they didn’t, not nearly as much of these foods would be made and sold! But some dogs on low-quality diets will suffer from poor digestion (the most frequent signs being chronic diarrhea or just very loose stools and/or persistent gas); rough, dull coat and itchy skin; and/or poor overall health. Whenever a dog has chronic signs of disease, we recommend improving his diet. But if he looks like a million bucks on a diet comprised of lower-cost foods, more power to you.
I myself have been in the position of buying different foods for the different dogs in my home: the highest-quality food for my hypersensitive, elderly Border Collie, and a lower-cost food for the younger, healthy foster dogs and litters of foster puppies that may stay with me for months at a time.
A final consideration regarding the cost of food: At some price point, it might make more sense to feed a home-prepared diet, or a good commercial raw (frozen or dehydrated) diet. Some of the best and most expensive dry dog foods are actually comparable in price (or even more expensive than) some of these less-processed (and, we would argue, healthier) diets.
3. Now, the exciting part: reading labels! This is where the rubber hits the road. We’ll start with some of the big type on the front of the bags.
Originally, we wrote #2 as “. . . look at food prices and ingredients,” because you’ll find that there’s usually a direct correlation between the food prices and their ingredients.
There is usually big print or a starburst of some kind on the label announcing when a product is grain-free. Often, these foods are more expensive than foods that contain grain. Whether you want or need a grain-free food for your dog is a topic for another day, but suffice to say here that not all dogs benefit from them, and some dogs do much better on a more conventional formulation with grains. If you are already aware that your dog’s health and/or digestion is better when he’s on a grain-free diet, then these are the foods you need to focus on. If you don’t have a compelling reason to try them, and your dog is already in fine condition and a good weight, we wouldn’t recommend switching to this type of food.
Similarly, food companies generally go out of their way to make it obvious when a food contains novel proteins (such as kangaroo, venison, buffalo, rabbit, and so on). These products also tend to cost more than products made with prosaic proteins, such as beef, chicken, lamb, turkey, and pork. Just as with grain-free foods, products that are made with novel proteins are very useful for dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of the far more common protein sources, but come with an unnecessarily high price for dogs who don’t need them.
Time to start flipping the bags over and reading the ingredient lists.
Things You Want to See on the Ingredient Lists
The following are desired traits – things you want to see on the label.
Lots of animal protein at the top of the ingredients list. Ingredients in pet food, just like human food, are listed in order of the weight of that ingredient in the formula, so you want to see a top-quality animal protein at the top of the list.
Importantly, that animal protein should be identified by species – chicken, beef, lamb, etc. “Meat” is an example of a low-quality protein source of dubious origin. “Poultry” is more specific but not specific enough!
Animal protein “meals” are made through a process called rendering, wherein the animal tissues (muscle, fat, skin, connective tissue, and some smaller amount of bone, hair, and/or feathers, depending on the species) are ground, and then heated to separate the fat and reduce the moisture. If it’s made from rendered chicken, the resulting product is chicken meal; if made from lamb, it’s lamb meal, etc. Just as with the fresh animal protein, look for a named species (i.e., “chicken meal”) but avoid “meat meal” or “poultry meal.”
When a fresh, named meat is first on the ingredient list (such as “chicken”), there should be a named animal-protein meal (such as “chicken meal”) in a supporting role to augment the total animal protein in the diet. The closer to the top of the ingredient list that this supporting meal appears, the better.
The ingredient list of the best foods will start out with something like, “Chicken, chicken meal . . .” and go on from there. Fresh meat contains a lot of (heavy) water, so if meat is first on the list, it acts like a diluted protein source; while it adds an appealing flavor and aroma to the food, it doesn’t actually contribute that much protein. That’s why another named source of animal protein should appear in the top three or so ingredients.
Whole-food ingredients: vegetables, fruits, and/or grains or other carbohydrate sources such as potatoes, peas, chickpeas, or sweet potatoes. Fresh, unprocessed food ingredients contain nutrients in all their complex glory, with their vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants intact. Don’t be too alarmed by one or two “fractions” (a byproduct or part of an ingredient, like tomato pomace or oatmeal), especially if they are lower on the ingredient list. But the more fractions present in the food, and the higher they appear on the list, the lower quality the result.
Undesirable Ingredients
We also think it’s important that you know some ingredients to look out for. Avoid the following:
Meat byproducts, poultry by-products, meat byproduct meal, and poultry byproduct meal. Some of the animal tissues that go into the ingredients that are identified on labels as animal byproducts are highly nutritious, such as lungs, spleens, kidneys, brains (of some animal species, not all), livers , blood, bone, fat, and emptied stomachs and intestines. Poultry byproducts also includes necks, feet, and underdeveloped eggs. In addition, poultry byproduct meal may contain poultry heads.
However, believe us when we say that these ingredients are not handled as nicely as the higher-value cuts of meat of which they are “byproducts.” Because they are not headed for human consumption, these products are not kept clean and chilled through processing and transport; it’s a given that whatever bacterial burden may flourish during this time will be reduced by later processing. As they become oxidized – rancid – these animal tissues develop a certain level of peroxide. Pet-food producers may specify byproducts with lower peroxide values, but these cost more.
A “generic” fat source such as “animal fat.” This can literally be any mixed fat of animal origin; it need not have originated from slaughtered animals. Meaning, it can be obtained from renderers that process dead animals. “Poultry” fat is not quite as suspect as “animal fat,” but “chicken fat” or “duck fat” is better (and traceable).
Added sweeteners. Dogs, like humans, enjoy the taste of sweet foods. Sweeteners effectively persuade many dogs to eat foods comprised mainly of grain fragments (and containing less healthy animal protein and fats).
Artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives (i.e., BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin). The color of the food doesn’t matter to your dog. And it should be flavored well enough with healthy meats and fats to be enticing. Natural preservatives, such as tocopherols (vitamin E), vitamin C, and rosemary extract, can be used instead. Note that natural preservatives do not preserve foods as long as artificial preservatives, so owners should always check the “best by” date on the label and look for relatively fresh products.
Other Considerations
Many of the other things we want you to read the label for are neither good nor bad, just things you need to be aware of when shopping for your specific dog. Remember, each dog is an individual, and while it’s great when it works out that all of your dogs do well on the same food, don’t take it for granted that you will be able to feed them all with the same products.
You will need to become aware of how much protein and fat your dog thrives on – how much is too much, and how much is too little. Top-quality foods contain a lot more protein (and often, more fat, too) than lower-quality foods, so you may have to reduce the amount of food you feed quite a bit if you switch from a low-quality food to a really good one. (One upside is that good foods are much more digestible, and your dog’s poop should shrink a lot, too.)
The fat and protein content appears on the label in an important section called the “guaranteed analysis” (GA). The nutrient levels reported on the GA are literally guaranteed. If a food is tested by a state feed control official, or even by a lab at the bequest of a private consumer, and the food fails to contain even one of the nutrients listed on the GA in at least the amounts shown there, the food may be subject to enforcement.
The more nutrients that a pet food company lists on the GA, generally, the more confident they are in their formulations. We admire companies that include this detail for nutrients that consumers may be paying extra for, such as omega 3 fatty acids, or nutraceuticals such as glucosamine and chondroitin.
There is no nutritional difference between “puppy” food and food that is for dogs of “all life stages.” All “complete and balanced” foods are required to have a “nutritional adequacy” or “AAFCO” statement somewhere on the bag, though sometimes these are printed in incredibly tiny type. The statement contains information about which type of dogs the food has been formulated for: adults only, or “all life stages.”
Food that is designated as “puppy” food on the front label may say that it’s formulated for dogs of “all life stages,” “puppies,” “growth,” or “growth and reproduction” on the nutritional adequacy statement; all of those phrases mean essentially the same thing. The required nutrient values for puppies (“growth”) are higher than for “adult maintenance,” so if a food meets the requirements for “all life stages,” it meets the standards for puppies.
In contrast, a food with a nutritional adequacy statement that says it is formulated for “adult maintenance” is not adequate for puppies, and may not contain enough protein and other nutrients for senior, pregnant, lactating, or high-performance dogs.
Keep in mind that adjectives are present on labels to appeal to your appetite; they mean nothing! Frankly, I get irritated when I see hyperbolic things like “Farm-grown carrots” (where the heck else would carrots be grown?!) and “Sun-ripened cranberries” (ditto).
Look for a “best by” date that’s at least six months away. A best-by date that’s 10 or 11 months away is ideal; it means the food was made very recently. Note: Foods made with synthetic preservatives (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin) may have a “best by” date that is 18 months or more past the date of manufacture.
Please don’t forget to check the date! Recently, I was in a store and examining food ingredient lists for almost an hour when I finally chose the last bag of a particular food. I put it in the cart, started to walk it to the register, when I remembered to check the best-by date. I was horrified to see that the food had a best-by date that was more than a year prior! I think the odor of a food that old would have tipped me off when I opened the bag – oxidized (rancid) food has a particular aroma – but I’m glad I didn’t risk feeding it to my dogs, or have to make an extra trip to return it.
List of Approved Foods
HERE is the long-awaited list of foods that meet all of our selection criteria. Whether or not you have seen them before, or can get them, may depend on where you live and where you shop – although, remember, many of these products are increasingly available through online pet supply retailers.
Please note that these are not the only foods on the market that meet our selection criteria. There may be other foods available to you that we are not familiar with. Read the labels; if they meet the criteria we’ve outlined above, and they fit your budget and suit your dog, they have our blessing.
Last but not least: We’ve always ordered the foods on our “approved foods” list alphabetically under their maker’s name, because some companies make several lines of food and we didn’t want to repeat the contact info for each company. But, every year, we hear from people who want to know why their favorite food is not on our list, because they were looking for it alphabetically under the product name, not its maker. We gave up! We’ve ordered this year’s list alphabetically by the name of the food. Happy shopping!
Here is the long-awaited list of foods that meet all of our selection criteria. Whether or not you have seen them before, or can get them, may depend on where you live and where you shop – although, remember, many of these products are increasingly available through online pet supply retailers.
Please note that these are not the only foods on the market that meet our selection criteria. There may be other foods available to you that we are not familiar with. Read the labels; if they meet the criteria we’ve outlined on our Annual Ratings page, and they fit your budget and suit your dog, they have our blessing.
There are 3 ways to read this list: By scrolling through it below, clicking on the individual pages to the right, or downloading the PDF here.
One last thing: We’ve always ordered the foods on our “approved foods” list alphabetically under their maker’s name, because some companies make several lines of food and we didn’t want to repeat the contact info for each company. But, every year, we hear from people who want to know why their favorite food is not on our list, because they were looking for it alphabetically under the product name, not its maker. We gave up! We’ve ordered this year’s list alphabetically by the name of the food. Happy shopping!
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It struck me one day when I was out for a hike with two of my best dog-owning friends and our combined eight dogs: Some people like female dogs best, and others like males. I was there with my two male dogs and my son’s male dog (whom I selected as a prospect for my son from my local shelter), whereas both of my friends have only female dogs (three and two, respectively). The longer I thought about it, the more the trend was apparent: every dog I’ve chosen for myself has been a male. And my two hiking companions said it was true for them, too; their “heart dogs” have all been females.
I’m currently fostering a litter of nine pitbull-mix puppies, seven of whom are female. I’ve had them for about four weeks now – long enough that I have sorted out their little personalities and quirks. Five of the nine are quick to detect when there is a little training session going on and they leap to volunteer, whereas the other four consistently decline these sessions in favor of playing among themselves. A couple of them are far more interested in exploring their environment than making a connection with the humans in it, though several more are little snugglebunnies who just want to sit in someone’s lap and exchange loving looks. One is already sort of a bully with her siblings. And one – who just happens to be one of the two males in the litter – is making me strongly consider whether I really do want only two dogs (as I have maintained for a number of years), or whether three makes far more sense. I am so in love with this boy! And of course it’s one of the only two boys. There is just something about his calm, stolid demeanor and the focused attention he pays to me that is immensely attractive to me in a dog – and while the odds are good that there is a female in this 8- or 9-week-old litter with the same trait, I just haven’t “seen” her yet; it’s this guy I find my eye constantly drawn to, and my heart flopping around for.
I wonder: How many of you have same-gender or mixed-gender “packs” in your home? Have you had “heart dogs” of both genders, or only one? And if you are like me, and have a strong preference for dogs of one gender or another, what is it about male or female dogs that you most enjoy?
I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before, but if I haven’t, I should have. How many of you have electric windows in your car? If you do, and your dog can reach the window, you should always press the LOCK button on the electric windows. I could end this reminder right here.
I am fostering a hound – and can I just ask right now what it is about hounds? Why do they get into on everything you don’t want them to? So many of them are so smart, so agile – and fortunately, so sweet, because you want to wring their necks one minute, and the next, you want to hug them for an hour. But this hound I am fostering, even with a harness and seat belt, she manages to step on the buttons on the arm rest in my car. She did it with a back foot the other day! She has locked and unlocked my doors, and of course, made her window go up and down, every time I forget to press the window and door “lock” button. I’m slowly but surely getting trained to hit that button every time she gets in the car.
I don’t have a horror story to tell, thank goodness. But I’ve heard plenty, about dogs jumping out of car windows, and dogs getting their heads trapped in a window that was closing. So just do me a favor and consider either crating your dog and securing the crate properly (something I can’t do with this big dog and my small car), or pressing the lock button, even with your seatbelted dog – especially if he or she is a hound!
If you have a car-button-pressing dog and a horror story to pass along, to cement this public safety message, please do share.
This may not look like a big deal, but for me, it’s HUGE!
This is the Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball. It’s made of a soft, rubbery material. You pour kibble and/or treats into the hole at the top, and it takes a dog a good long time to get the treats and/or kibble out. They have to knock it around and toss it; chewing it doesn’t really do any good – unless they are the destructive kind of chewer, in which case, this treat-dispensing toy is not appropriate for them! But for dogs who have the persistence needed to work this sort of toy, and who don’t chew toys up, this is a really great time-consuming, fun thing.
There are other products made by other companies that offer a similar toy, only made of hard plastic. These usually are made with a trap door, or two halves that unscrew so that you can remove any treats that failed to come out, or rinse out the toy. The hard plastic ones are all easier to clean, but sound AWFUL when a dog is batting them around the house, whacking them across hard floors and into walls and furniture.
In contrast, the Omega Paw Tricky Treat Balls are much quieter, and because I don’t have carpet in my house or office, I like them much better. Also, if Otto or a large foster dog gets one stuck in a corner, because it is made of a soft plastic, he or she can always pick it up and start again in a better location. Dogs often need help retrieving the hard plastic balls when they get stuck somewhere.
But there is one thing that has driven me crazy about the Tricky Treat ball for literally YEARS: the last few treats in a ball can be almost impossible to remove. And I don’t want my dogs eating old, or dog forbid, moldy kibble. So if I find one of the balls around the house, and I don’t know how old the kibble inside it is, I feel compelled to take it to the sink and run it under water, filling it again and again in an attempt to get the old kibble or treats to float out of the ball. Given how the hole in the ball is a sort of tube that sticks down into the ball a couple of inches, getting these last bits of food out is really difficult.
Only, as I JUST discovered today, it’s not. How have I been so dense??
I am fostering a dog with a low threshold of boredom, and I’m busy, and it’s raining, so I have been employing all three of the Tricky Treat balls I have in my possession (as well as one of our 2014 Gear of the Year top picks, Planet Dog’s Orbee-Tough Snoop, but that’s another story). This morning, I was cleaning out one of the Tricky Treat Balls, and complaining as usual, when I happened to push my finger down into the tube, trying to rinse some of the dog saliva out of the toy, and I realized that the tube is flexible enough to pull out. I pulled, and the tube inverted, so you can GET ALL THE TREATS OUT OF THE BALL! Why have I never tried this before??
It’s ridiculous that I never knew this before. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent, filling one of these toys with water and shaking it and squeezing it in an effort to get the last kibble out. And the solution was so easy.
Now I want to know two things: If you had or have a Tricky Treat ball, did you know you could do this?
And is there another little life-changing tip or trick you’ve learned that has made caring for your dog’s needs this much easier? If so, please share!
I sat in wonder as I watched the coyote nibbling twigs from a wild rose plant, just 100 feet away. It was late September and the rose hips were red, ripe, fat, and juicy. Delicious, in fact, whether it be for tea or to tuck into one’s mouth as a tart boost of vitamin C in the course of a long day afield. What made me wonder wasn’t that the wily, scruffy-smallish dog was dining at a wild rose bush; that is typical foraging behavior. Everything in the forest eats and relishes rosehips – even me! But this guy wasn’t eating the fruit. Instead, he was selectively nibbling from the end twigs of the bushy plant. The coyote was, like so many other animals I have observed, using plants – herbs – as something other than food. He was taking medicine.
As an herbalist I already knew rose twig tea is an internal astringent, helpful for relieving inflammation in the lower gastrointestinal tract. It can also help reverse diarrhea or inhibit minor cases of internal bleeding. Externally the tea works well to relieve mosquito bites – a common malady in these parts. I learned these uses from books and other herbalists, but Wile E. Coyote didn’t learn from anything but his own intuition. He had a specific need that he was trying to address through pure instinct, a natural gift that humans have largely lost.
I spent a total of 10 years living atop a remote ridgetop in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, studying plants and the wildlife that lives among them. During that time there were countless occasions when I would see coyotes, deer, elk, and moose nibbling on the bitter blossoms of knapweed, or chewing the seed tops of cow parsnip – a native member of the parsley family that early settlers and Native Americans used to alieviate gastric bloating and cramping. I even once witnessed a mountain lion as it rolled like a giant house cat in a pungent stand of wild valerian, utilizing the calmative, relaxing effects of the pungent herb through unique olfactory receptors – the same nose-direct-to-brain connection by which housecats enjoy a dose of catnip.
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I learned through my research during the writing of Herbs for Pets that I wasn’t the only one who had discovered the amazing abilities of how animals can self-medicate from nature’s wild pharmacy. In 1993, Eloy Rodriguez, of the Phytochemical and Toxicology Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine, collaborated with Richard Wrangham of Harvard University’s Department of Anthropology to produce Zoopharmacognosy: The Use of Medicinal Plants by Animals, a fascinating study of how wild animals use tropical plants to self-medicate.
Several studies followed, all with a similar conclusion: wild animals know not only know which plants to select and ingest, but also exactly how much to take and when to stop their herbal therapy.
Plants are the most universally accepted form of medicine of all life on Earth, and it is quite clear that the foundations of modern internal medicine came from early man’s observation of wild animals. Animals are Earth’s original herbalists, and our first teachers of internal medicine.
Dogs can help themselves, too
There is evidence to support the theory that dogs and other domesticated animals also possess the innate ability to self-medicate from nature’s bounty.
At least one person has devoted her life to researching this ability. Caroline Ingraham, founder of the Ingraham Academy of Zoopharmacognosy in the United Kingdom, has been studying how to help connect captive and domestic animals with plant-based medicines that they themselves can select and utilize.
Ingraham recently described a case involving a 3-year-old Jack Russell Terrier named Mouse, who ripped a deep hole in his chest muscles while climbing through barbed wire. She claims that Mouse was presented with a variety of herbs and other natural healing materials, and selected (likely by pawing or sniffing) a combination of yarrow and green clay, a wound-healing combination that has been used by human herbalists to heal wounds since the Dark Ages. The poultice was applied to Mouse’s wounds at regular intervals, and within a couple of weeks he was completely healed.
This is just one of many cases cited by Ingraham, whose work was born purely out of true love of animals and a deep respect of their choice of medicine. Which brings me to the work I wish to share with you in WDJ in the future.
Regardless of how far removed they may be from their wild canid ancestors, the dogs in our lives are metabolically and energetically designed by nature to utilize plants as their primary medicine. We see their struggle to access their choice of medicine all the time, from the eating of grass, to nibbling the ends off the household aloe plant, or a ravenous yet unusual craving for melon. But most people fail to see these behaviors as the cues that they really are: instinctive attempts to utilize the healing powers of plants. Grass for long fiber, and silica and other nutrients to maintain gut health. Aloe, for its healing and sometimes laxative properties. Melon, to cool the liver and help inhibit parasites.
My goal in the months to come is to share what I have learned about the safe and effective use of herbs in dogs. But more importantly, I want to help you take into heart and mind the importance of your role as an animal guardian, and the value of using herbs. The dogs who touch our lives, bring us smiles, and heal us every day do not have immediate access to the herbs they need, nor do most retain enough of their ancestor’s instincts to survive in the wild. It’s up to us to bring nature to them – to bring the right choices of their medicine into their lives.
To me, the deepest meaning and greatest rewards of using herbs is not with how we can exploit their chemistries, but with the deep connections they offer to the natural world around us. Herbs stand as living, healing entities that are here to serve all who walk above them or crawl beneath their roots. The goal of the holistic herbalist is not to suppress symptoms or crush what we recognize as a form of “disease,” but to help bring the body into a balanced state of wellness within itself, through utilization of a healing system that has been serving all life on Earth since the first mammal emerged more than 100 million years ago. It’s about honoring and trusting the nature that lives within and without all of us – and the rewards of this approach go way beyond disease prevention and reduction of veterinary expenses.
To use herbs at their greatest potential we must learn more about the true nature of the recipient. How does our dog’s body differ from ours? What constitutes optimum nutrition for a dog? How does his body deal with illness? What can be done, through the supportive chemistries and energies of herbs, to help the body do what it is naturally designed to do for itself – heal and stay healthy? These are questions from a holistic herbalist.
It has been sixteen years since I left my mountain ridge home in Montana. Since then I have traveled the world to speak, share, and learn – and I’ve learned so much. I look forward to sharing the answers I have found, so that you may share in the nature of your dog. And I promise: In pursuit of finding these answers we will not only find healthy solutions for the dogs we love, but new insights that can lead us onto a path of healing for our dogs, ourselves, and Earth as one.
Greg Tilford is the author of five books on botanical medicine for animals, including the acclaimed Herbs for Pets, the Natural Way to Enhance your Pet’s Life (i-5 Publications, 2nd ed. 2009). Tilford is a charter member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Animal Supplements Council (NASC), and founded and currently chairs the Animal Products Committee of the American Herbal Products Association, with a mission to promote and protect responsible commerce of herb products intended for use in animals. Tilford is also the CEO and formulating herbalist for Animal Essentials, Inc., a company that produces natural supplements for companion animals, and lectures about herbs to veterinarians and owners worldwide.
Coyotes aren’t the only canines that can benefit from the healthy attributes of Rosa species, and in fact, wild roses aren’t the only varieties with healing powers. In fact, all species of rose are useful, including domestic varieties in the garden. The astringent tannins contained in the twigs, bark, and roots of the plant help reduce minor inflammations of the skin and digestive tract, making the herb useful in a broad variety of applications.
My favorite use for the herb is a soothing, healing skin rinse, ideal for relief from flea and insect bites as well as virtually any other case of itchy skin.
To make a skin rinse: First, be absolutely certain that the bushes you are harvesting from have never been sprayed with a pesticide or other chemical agents. Then clip a handful of three-inch twigs from the tips of several stems. Cut them into small (1/4-inch to 1/2-inch) pieces and place in a glass or ceramic saucepan. Cover them with water and place over a medium flame on your stovetop. Heat the mixture until it comes to a low boil, then remove from the heat immediately and allow to stand for at least one hour until cool. Strain the cooled mixture through a sieve, into a measuring cup or other vessel that will be easy to pour from.
The strained mixture, which should be a light yellowish-brown, is then poured liberally over your dog until the skin and coat are thoroughly soaked. Allow to drip dry; do not towel off. This can be done daily, if necessary, to bring down the heat and itch.
To add a wonderful, rosy aroma to your companion’s coat that may also lend a calming effect, add a handful or two of freshly plucked rose petals to the mixture, just as it is removed from the heat.
