I just finished reading my June issue of WDJ and, as usual, loved it! I just have one comment/question regarding “Vaccine Titer Tests” where you state, “Rabies is a slightly different case. Because the disease poses a significant risk to human beings, it’s the only vaccine that is required by law to be administered to dogs. Each state has its own legal requirements for rabies vaccination. Some require annual rabies vaccinations; the rest require the vaccination be given every two or three years (depending on the state).” To my knowledge, the part I’ve italicized is not correct. In recent years, every state has adopted a three-year rabies vaccination policy, thanks in large part to Ronald D.
Schultz, PhD, (whom you quote elsewhere in your article) and his colleagues. That said, Dr. Schultz, professor and Chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and head of the Rabies Challenge Fund, notes that dog owners should check their local regulations, as municipalities in some states have the right to set rabies laws that are stricter – but not more lenient than – state policies.
Diana Laverdure Via email
Thanks, Diana, for this correction. And thanks to Dr, Schultz and everyone else who worked to make this positive change happen! It’s important that dogs are vaccinated against rabies and equally important that they not be over-vaccinated.
I just started reading my June WDJ, and when glancing at “What’s Ahead” I was terribly excited to see that you are going to do something on L-Tryptophan.
I am sure you have already written the article, but I just wanted to say that my dog’s life was saved (well, okay, absolutely his quality of life was definitely saved) because I was able to use this very effectively when he was so OCD he could not even train for five minutes. Ruffie was diagnosed clinically as OCD (CCD for dogs, more accurately) at Tufts, by Dr. Nicolas Dodman himself. But I had to keep researching because all they wanted to do was put him on Prozac, which I refused to do.
Thanks to L-Tryptophan, Ruffian was able to completely turn around. To make a long story short, now at 10 years old, he has earned every single multiple top championship agility titles well beyond my wildest dreams. He won the CPE nationals a few years ago as well, and placed at the USDAA Regionals in tournament classes a couple of times as well. He wins classes at the DOCNA championships every year. And because of some other dietary changes (no grain, low carbs) made a few years ago, he no longer needs the L-Tryptophan either.
Barbara Rogers Atlanta, GA
No doubt by now you’ve seen the article on L-Tryptophan in our July issue (“Talking Turkey”), which indicated that in double-blind studies (and one single-blind study), the supplement didn’t prove to be as helpful for anxiety-related disorders as some hoped it would. But we’re proponents of doing what works, with the least harm, and the supplement fits the bill in both of those categories. We’re very happy that you found “what works” for Ruffian!
Regarding “What’s SUP, Pup?”, your article on stand-up paddleboarding in the August issue: While the pastime and the bonding is admirable, I’m curious about one thing in particular.
As a dog trainer of 40-plus years and a professional mariner of 37 years, I find the pictures of the handler most grievous. While the author makes great mention of personal flotation devices (PFDs) for the dog, she makes only makes small mention of such for the handler. Drownings are common to persons ill-trained in water-related activities. Combine that with a dog who under normal circumstances is obedient and stable with an unknown situation such as distress in unfamiliar surroundings and you have a recipe for disaster.
Trent Farrell Via email
Point taken. As the article mentioned, the Coast Guard requires the presence of a PFD on any vessel when paddling beyond the limits of swimming or surfing areas.
I was reading yet another terrific issue of the WDJ tonight, and felt like I needed to tell you how very much I value this publication. As I started thinking about it, I realized that I feel a special connection with it after all these years.
I’ve subscribed for a very long time, long before I was interviewed for an article on my use of gold bead implants for my female Doberman’s Wobblers syndrome. The gold bead implants were so successful that my dog even returned to agility. And I really owe you thanks for the series of articles you did on various dog sports in 2009, and one in particular, on K9 Nose Work, in the August 2009 issue. I do Doberman rescue with Jane Fratesi, and Jane emailed me in November 2009 and asked me if I thought nose work would ever come to Atlanta. I told her I had an idea of how it might, and I called (frequent WDJ contributor) Lisa Rodier, whom I had known for years. The rest is how K9 Nose Work came to this part of the country, including the popular K9 NW Camp, co-directed by Lisa.
The dog I took to my first nose work workshop was my 8-year-old agility star, Parker. Once we tried nose work, we were hooked, and because I wanted to learn all about what she was doing when she hunted, I videotaped all of our training. The founders of the sport saw the videos and asked if they could use them for their first introductory DVD. That DVD was in the finals for the Dog Writers Association of America contest this past February. It lost to Turid Rugaas; no shame in that! But it remains a Dogwise best-seller. And Parker turned 12 in August.
I’ve not even mentioned the health information (I love Zeel, Wobenzyme, coconut oil, I’ve shared the Budwig diet with friends), and training ideas. And toys, and crates, and oh! Great info about food! Thanks! I’m only touching the tip of the iceberg regarding the things I love and am grateful for from WDJ!
Christy Waehner Atlanta, GA
Christy, thanks so much for your long-time support (and occasional contributions to Lisa’s articles!). We’ve learned a lot over the years, too!
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Ive been fostering a litter of six puppies, who are probably only about five weeks old. And I think I have lost my mind. Im tired, my sleep schedule is all off, I havent walked myself or my own dogs for a week, Ive been eating at weird times (and not with my husband), and I feel alternately so full of love for and weepy about these little guys (they are all boys!) . . . and its only been a week. Talk about that new-mom feeling!
How did this happen? I wrote an article for the October issue about intestinal parasites worms and I called my local shelter to see if they had any wormy puppies I could photograph. Most puppies have at least one type of worms (roundworms, which they get from their mothers in utero and in the milk! Ack!) and some of our shelter puppies have every type of worm in the book. The shelter vet tech told me she had a young litter with the typically round, bloated look of wormy puppies, which was perfect for my photo.
But when I asked about the puppies Where was their mom? How old are they? Where are our usual puppy foster people? I learned that, basically, we dont know about the mom, they really are way too young to be without her, and our puppy foster people are unavailable. Well, I couldnt just exploit them and leave them there; puppies that small dont always make it at this shelter. So I had to take them home, right?
But it took a few days to figure out how to manage them. Or, more specifically, their poop. They had received a dose of dewormer, and they were all suffering from upset tummies most likely a combination of a too-rapid transition from their mothers milk to wet food and the worms dying. So they were pooping machines! And of course, too young to know to poop away from their food or to try to avoid walking through the gooey, sticky poop. Ive been employing newspaper (useful), shredded paper (less useful), puppy pads (expensive), old towels and sheets (absorbent but makes for a lot of laundry), and wood shavings (my favorite substrate so far), and lots of paper towels for wiping up random messes made when I let them charge around the kitchen floor (super fun) and for wiping off faces and paws after meals, and puppy butts whenever needed.
Im feeding them four times a day, and will probably be moving that back to three times in another week or so. For the first five days, there was always at least one or two puppies who wouldnt eat one meal or another, and who was looking a tad depressed and lethargic. I gave those puppies straight milk replacer (fortunately, no one got too sick to be interested in lapping that up) and they bounced right back. But each time one sunk a little, ah, my heart!
I dont know how people raise puppies on a regular basis. Oh wait, right, the puppies usually have mothers who clean and feed them. Then I dont know how people foster puppies on a regular basis. Well, actually, if I was to do this regularly, I would invest in more infrastructure, and now I would know how to better manage the puppies daily demands. But I still dont know how someone would manage emotionally . . . for all my complaints, I think its going to really hurt to send them back to the shelter when they are big enough and old enough to be placed. For now, Im just trying to enjoy them, and be happy about the fact that it looks like they are all going to make it.
Cole at the vet, waiting for help with the bone stuck on his lower jaw.
My son reminded me recently of something that happened to his dog a little over six years ago. I wrote a post about the incident then, but upon re-reading it after talking to my son about it, I thought it might serve as a reminder to dog owners this week.
****
Last weekend, my son got his first taste of emergency veterinary medicine (and the resulting surprise of its cost). Fortunately, it was for a non-serious accident, not a horrid injury or illness. But still: his college graduation present may well end up being a health insurance policy for his dog, Cole.
He was at a weekend team-building retreat for his sports team – so, a bunch of young men and a few of their dogs. One of the other young men had brought a raw chew bone for his own dog, Mister. My son caught Cole with the bone and took it away, putting the bone up on a table; he (correctly) judged the bone to be poorly suited for Cole. It was too small for a big dog, presenting a choking risk, and shaped like a ring. It was likely, a cross-section of a cow’s “shin” bone. In horses we call that the cannon bone but I don’t know if it’s called that in cattle.
But at some point, Cole got hold of the bone again and the next thing my son knew, Cole was writhing in distress and guys were jumping in, trying to see what was wrong with the usually ebullient young dog. It was the best-case stuck-bone incident you can imagine: It wasn’t stuck in his throat or actually hurting him, but Cole had somehow gotten the bone looped around his lower jaw and was freaking out. If he didn’t have canine teeth (“fangs”), it would have slipped right off, but any efforts to remove it caused the bone to pinch his gums and chin. The guys tried to get the bone off in a number of ways, but Cole grew increasingly scared and anxious and defensive.
My son eventually called around and found an emergency veterinary clinic that was open, about 40 minutes away. The vet gave Cole a sedative, but he still fought any efforts to manipulate the bone, so the vet fully anesthetized him. Within about five minutes, the vet was finally able to twist and turn and unlock the puzzle and remove the bone. The vet then administered a reversal drug, monitored Cole long enough to see that he awoke and was going to be fine, and that was that: $250. Ouch.
Lessons learned: Raw chew bones are awesome for dogs, but they need to be appropriately sized, and the dogs need to be monitored with them. In fact, ALL chew items need to be appropriately sized (GIANT is the safest size for any dog) and dogs need to be actively supervised while they are chewing. If you are somewhere and there is a hazard that you can’t control (such as a family member or a friend who might give your dog a treat or toy you haven’t approved or another dog who may be a counter-surfer), you should put your dog somewhere out of harm’s way: on leash or in a crate or closed securely in a bedroom. And pet health insurance is an awesome idea for a young, active dog who lives with a young, active, social man.
Automatic attention is the mother of all behaviors and one of the first things you should teach your dog. There is no point in teaching your dog how to do things if he is going to ignore you when you ask him to do them. If your dog is off in a mentally distant land and you repeatedly call his name, you are just like static in the background to him. The only thing you will have accomplished is to devalue his name. Even if you got yourself one of the excellent dog training books out there and followed the instructions in it exactly, you would probably find that your Pigs Fly dog still doesn’t preform when you want him to. That is often because he is not paying attention to you.
Lack of attention is often, sadly, the issue that causes owners to give up on their impossible dogs. Take heart! Training a dog to have attention is absolutely no different than training a dog to sit or dome when called. You are not going to get a gimme when it comes to attention. You are going to have to train it like any other behavior and that means more work for you. The good news is that it can be trained and, once you have your dog’s attention, anything is possible.
You are not going to teach an attention cure or command. Attention is going to become your dog’s default behavior, and you will not have to ask for it with nagging commands. Teaching a dog a verbal cue to pay attention implies that is OK for him not to pay attention unless she gets the verbal cue. Instead, if your dog is with you, he should be conditioned to watch you like a hawk all the time because he never knows when you might do something interesting or fun. If you call your dog to you, or take him out on a leash, you should become the center of his universe and his eyes should be pretty much glued to you whenever you are together. How will you get that attention? By free shaping it, of course. You have already laid the foundation for attention in your powering up the clicker exercise, now you just need to make sure you have that same attention everywhere you go, no matter what is going on.
I think my favorite dog book published in the past decade is Merles Door, by Ted Kerasote. The book is, in part, a memoir of one special dogs life shared with the author. But Kerasote weaves meditations and essays about the greater philosophical dimensions of our collective human lives with dogs into the story. (This essay on the authors own website gives a good example of the type of content youd find in the book: http://www.kerasote.com/essays/ted-kerasote-merle-essay.pdf)
The title of the book references a struggle that Kerasote experienced with Merle, a former stray dog, regarding Merles desire to come and go from Kerasotes house (located near a small village in rural Wyoming) as he pleased. The author discusses his fears for his dogs safety outdoors, as well as the dogs frustration with being locked in or sometimes, being locked out and having no way to get back in (for example, when Kerasote had to go somewhere while the dog was out roaming). The discussion touches on every aspect of what it means to take full responsibility for a dogs life and movingly describes how the installation of a dog door in Kerasotes house fundamentally changed his relationship with Merle. Kerasote had observed that Merle was an exceptionally intelligent survivor, capable of handling just about anything that his rugged Western environment might throw at him without violating human rules about livestock or other dogs or humans, so he gave his dog the means to leave (and return) whenever he wanted and the arrangement made both of them much happier.
I dont have a dog door in my house, but I do have a curtain-style screen that hangs over the open doorway of a wide sliding glass door that goes from our kitchen to a large deck and our backyard. Thanks to a Mediterranean climate, we leave that door open at night from around March through October, so the dogs and cats can come in and go out as they please without waking us up to open the door for them. Until we got the curtain-style screen, they would open the door, but of course none of them know how to close it, so we had mosquitoes in the house, which I cant abide. With the curtain, they just push their way through, and its weighted bottom edge swings it back into place. The arrangement works perfectly for all of our adult dogs, who dont sleep in our room; less so for my sons adolescent dog, Cole, who usually does sleep with my son.
Im afraid Cole doesnt yet have the maturity or judgment to know what to do with the freedom to go inside and out all night, and this past week, with me dog-sitting again while my son was again traveling with his sports team, he found increasingly novel things to do each night. One night, I was awakened by odd thumping sounds, followed by chewing sounds; he had taken a piece of firewood off the woodpile, dragged it across the lawn, deck, through the house and into my bedroom, where he proceeded to chew it like a rawhide. Another time he removed a small and highly specific part a pressure valve from a plastic pressure sprayer that I had recently used to stain a deck (and Ive been unable to find it anywhere including his stool). This morning, when I looked out my kitchen window as I prepared a pot of coffee, I was surprised and then horrified to see a dozen or more apples and a bunch of leaves and twigs from one of our apple trees spread all over the lawn. He basically picked every apple within reach of his tiptoes, and chewed on some of the branches. Fortunately, Im the first one up each morning, and was able to clean up all of the evidence before my husband saw, although Im sure hes wondering why I picked so many apples a tad too early.
Thank goodness, my son came back from his travels today, and Cole can sleep with him in a closed bedroom. I think it will be wiser to wait at least until next spring to try an open-door policy with him again.
The point of this training session which should last no longer than five minutes is to get your dog used to walking on the leash the way you want him to. I recommend that you use a six-foot leash and come prepared with lots of treats.
1. FOCUS FIRST. Before you take your first steps together, make sure that your dog is focused on you. Then hold a treat in your left hand and lure your dog in the direction you want to walk. If you have a small dog, get ready to bend down a lot. Start walking forward, allowing a lot of slack in the leash.
2. BE A TREE. When your dog starts to pull, stop walking, hold the leash tight to your chest, and stand still and firm, like a tree.
3. MARK AND REWARD. The moment he looks at you, say good and lure him toward you with the treat as you take two steps backward. Praise him, touch his collar, and reward him with the treat. Your timing needs to be precise, so watch for that moment when he looks at you, even if only an instant at first, because thats when his attention is returning to you.
If your dog doesnt look at you, break down the lesson and reward his tiny improvements. If he continues to lean forward against the leash without trying to take a step, look for the moment when he slackens the leash and praise that. If he still doesnt give you attention, make a slight sound to attract him. If that still doesnt work, silently reel yourself in to your dog (dont pull him toward you, but go hand-over-hand up the leash as if you were pulling yourself up a rope), and then lure him to start walking in the opposite direction. If he looks at you as you reel yourself in, praise, stop reeling, and lure. Remember that this isnt a walk for distance or heeling; its a five-minute walking exercise to teach you how to hold a leash and to manage pulling. Be patient.
I virtually met Sandi Pensinger a few years ago, when WDJ Training Editor Pat Miller wrote an article for the April 2011 issue about the sport of Treibball its a herding-type sport played with large exercise balls on a large grass field; you direct your dog into herding (pushing) them into soccer goals. Sandi is a dog trainer from Capitola, California (next door to Santa Cruz); her business, Living With Dogs, offers group and private classes for puppy and dog training, and lots of fun dog sports, including Treibball. (She also produced a series of instructional DVDs about the Treibball, available from Dogwise.com.) Sandi provided a lot of photos of dogs of various sizes playing Treibball for our article (whole-dog-journal.com/training/tricks_games_sports/try-treibball-the-new-herding-sport-no-sheep-required/ ).
I recently became aware that Sandi was offering classes — and more significantly for me, someone who lives about four hours away from her training location — monthly fun practices for another canine sport, lure coursing.
Real lure coursing is different from our practice event in a number of ways; the fun practice is mainly meant to introduce people and dogs to the basic premise: a fleece or plastic bag lure is fastened to a small cable and is whisked around a course in an open field; dogs chase the lure as fast as they can. In the official version, dogs are scored for speed, agility, endurance, enthusiasm, and following (as opposed to taking short cuts across the field). There is also a time limit for the handler to get control of his dog at the end of the course.
Owners attended the just for fun practice event I went to for a number of reasons. Some, like me, seemed to be there just to see whether their dogs would chase the lure at all and a few dogs didnt! One little Labradoodle could not be less interested in the lure, but seemed to enjoy just walking around the field with her owners. Other people brought their dogs for the exercise. One German Wirehaired Pointer ran the course beautifully for one lap, and when the lure was stopped, just kept running and performed a second lap with no lure at all (he eventually had to be tackled to a halt, though). There was a young black Lab who wiggled and whined and was generally a bit inattentive and rowdy while waiting her turn, until her owner brought her out to the lure course. THEN she focused and ran like the wind after it! Her owner told me, Were hoping she learns to behave that appropriately in other settings in time, but for now, she loves this and sleeps well for a few days afterward, so . . .
My dog Otto loves to chase rabbits and squirrels when he gets a chance, so I thought he might chase the lure; I was thrilled when he did on the very first try. I told the lure operator (Sandis husband) that Otto had never seen this before, so he kept the lure close enough to Otto to keep him interested all the way around the field which, by the way, was fenced off so dogs who were entirely new to the sport couldnt shortcut across the course; they had to follow the lure. On the first try, Otto sort of bounced and pounced toward the lure all the way around the course, trying to figure out what it was; he didnt run flat out, because he could see it wasnt a rabbit or other potential prey, but it was intriguing (and I was yelling Get it! Get it!). He was confused but game.
On our second turn, he took off faster, but when he started to take the first turn, I think the change in direction caused him to hear me yelling for the first time and, since we work on long-distance recalls, I think he thought I was calling him to come back. He looked over his shoulder toward me, back toward the lure, and then came running back to me. The operator reversed the lure so that as Otto sped toward me, the lure passed him, and as he approached me, I yelled, Get it! Get it! Get it! and he obligingly ran past me in pursuit of the lure in the new direction and ran that lap faster than the first.
A friend came with me and brought her iPad, so I have video of some of this. The video posted here is our third try. By now, Otto was figuring it out, and I told the operator to let Otto go for two laps if he was running well (so Otto wouldnt think he was always supposed to just run one lap and then stop). He maintained his enthusiasm for both laps, although he did look a little wobbly legged for a minute after the anaerobic effort.
Am I going to take up the sport of lure coursing? No but Im definitely going to attend another fun practice session. It was a blast to try something completely different with my dog, particularly because I thought it was something he might enjoy, and to see how he would behave in a completely novel environment (surrounded by barking, excited, ramped-up dogs). He did great, and I was super proud of his focus on me and how well he listened and returned to me at the end a great test of our relationship, which, of course, he passed with flying colors. Im going to bring more friends and their dogs to the next practice session.
I often dog-sit for friends and relatives. It’s easy for me, because I have all sorts of dog gear, food, treats, and chews laying around. Also, my own home and the house down the block where I have my office are both securely fenced (and well-outfitted with crates and dog beds of various sizes). Plus, if the dogs are fidgety and in need of exercise and stimulation, I can grab my camera, load the dogs into my car, and head out to a nearby open space area to run them on trails or allow them to swim in the river – and any good pictures I get, or interesting experiences I have with the dogs, are helpful to my job!
But I realized this summer that my own dog is not nearly as comfortable being left with other people as their dogs are happy being left with me. (I’m aware that it’s not me that the dogs enjoy; it’s the doggie Disneyland setup, complete with nice, friendly dogs to play with and lots of enriching activities.) When left in the care of someone other than my husband, Otto frets and mopes, whines and paces. At the vet, he’s the dog who has to be lifted and put into the cage (he won’t go in on cue like he does at home, because he knows it’s not home).
In contrast, our other dog, Tito (who was left by a relative with us more than three years ago), would go with anyone who was nice to him. He sees every outing as an opportunity to meet people who love him. And when we visit other people’s homes, he immediately starts guarding their dogs’ dishes, takes over the cushiest dog beds, steals any tennis balls or rawhide chews he finds, and climbs into and defends any nice person’s lap from the dogs who live there. Hey! He might end up living there, too; it’s happened to him before! Tito had been in the care of five or six different family members prior to coming to stay here, so maybe he can be forgiven for so assertively making himself at home anywhere he goes.
As opportunistic as he is, I think Tito is far healthier from an emotional standpoint than Otto is. As flattering as it might feel to have your dog highly bonded to you, it’s not a very good thing for him. I’ve fostered a number of shelter dogs who had lost their owners (whether the owners lost them, died, or were forced to surrender them due to financial or health reasons); the ones who are willing and able to approach and bond with new people find homes readily. It takes far longer to place the ones who remain distant and morose, seeming to wait for their special people.
Working dogs (including many herding, hunting, police, military, and service dogs) are often trained and handled by a number of different people in their lifetimes, and while they almost always bond tightly with the person who handles them the most, they are taught from an early age to trust and work with anyone who speaks their language – any people who know their work and their cues. These dogs also tend to be confident, accepting, and friendly with new people.
I don’t plan to become separated from my dog for very long, but for his sake, I’m going to make an effort to teach him to be happier with other people, in other places than home. I think it’s time we take some more classes – in agility, K9 Nose Work, whatever – and I allow other trustworthy people to handle him, too. I’d like to know that if anything ever happened to me, he’d have no problem adjusting to life without me.
Occasionally we are asked to rate the various options that owners have for feeding their dogs, based on the relative “healthiness” of each major type of food: home-prepared (raw or cooked); commercial raw, frozen diets and freeze-dried or dehydrated dog food raw diets; canned food, and kibble. Actually, in our opinion, that list of food types is ranked accurately right there, from best to worst, in terms of their potential for improving or supporting a dog’s peak health.
On what do we base that ranking? While it’s difficult to get nutritionists to agree on just about anything, it’s likely that most would agree on the following general idea: that a diet that was formulated to be “complete and balanced” and comprised of fresh, lightly processed or unprocessed species-appropriate ingredients is healthier than a “complete and balanced” diet containing highly processed ingredients that are uncommonly consumed by a given species in nature. That general theory explains our high esteem for the dehydrated and freeze-dried diets that we’ve listed in the attached 2014 Dehydrated Dog Food Review
We’ve lumped a lot of disparate diets into this category. Even though they vary widely in terms of ingredients, “rawness,” manufacturing process, finished form, and protein and fat levels, what all of these diets share is their high inclusion of high-quality animal protein and fats, and a method of preservation that only lightly alters or damages the nutrients in the food: drying. The idea is to remove moisture from the food; the less moisture that is contained in a food, the longer its nutrients will remain unspoiled and available to the consumer (your dog).
Drying can be accomplished at low temperatures, but it takes longer and leaves meats and fats vulnerable to oxidation (spoilage); most dried foods are prepared with temperatures of 140ºF to 180ºF. (Food can rot when kept in temperatures between 140ºF to 32ºF; If it’s held in temperatures colder than 30ºF, it freezes; if it’s exposed to temperatures higher than 180ºF, it will start to cook.) Dehydrators actually lightly cook the food as it dries, altering the cellular structure of meats, fruits, and vegetables. In contrast, proper freeze-drying doesn’t affect the appearance or taste of foods as much.
Freeze-dryers expose foods to low temperatures, freezing them relatively quickly, and then to high air pressure (freeze-drying machines resemble large pressurized gas tanks). When the pressure inside the chamber is high enough, small heating units are turned on, heating the trays that the food sits on, and causing the frozen water (a solid at that point) in the foods to transform into a gas (water vapor). Pumps pull the vapor out of the chamber while keeping the internal air pressure high. The term for freeze-drying is sublimation: the act of a solid shifting directly into a gas.
It sounds radical, but the process actually leaves most foods less damaged than dehydration. Freeze-drying doesn’t shrink or toughen most food ingredients, and it leaves most aromas and flavors in the food intact. There are some food compounds that don’t freeze-dry well; those that contain vinegar or alcohol don’t sublimate nicely, but these are not common ingredients in canine diets!
Some owners seek out these diets specifically for their rawness; they believe feeding raw meat is natural and beneficial to their dogs. If a raw diet is your chief motivation for considering these diets, avoid the products that contain dehydrated ingredients in favor of the ones that contain freeze-dried ingredients.
In addition to being (mostly) raw and lightly processed, dehydrated diets offer a number of other benefits to dogs – and their owners.
Very low-moisture foods can be stored longer at room temperature (in unopened packages) without spoiling or rancidity than conventional kibble. Most dehydrated diets contain less moisture than conventional kibble, which generally contains about 10 percent moisture. The less moisture there is in a food, the less biological activity can occur.
Dehydrated foods weigh less and are more compact than foods containing more moisture. This makes them especially well suited for travel. It also means they cost less to ship.
When rehydrated, these foods are highly palatable to most dogs. It may be due to the concentration of flavor in dehydrated food ingredients or their light processing.
As a generalization, the makers of these products are targeting the top end of the market, and have an extraordinary commitment to sourcing top-quality ingredients. In many cases, “human-quality” (“edible”) ingredients are used, though only one company can legally make this claim (The Honest Kitchen, because every single ingredient in the product is human-quality (the legal term is “edible”) and the products are made at a human food manufacturing plant.
The Different Kinds of Dehydrated Dog Food
As we mentioned earlier, the dried foods discussed here are diverse in content, appearance, and form. Some contain grains and some don’t. Some include lots of vegetables, fruits, and herbs, and some are almost all meat. Some utilize organic ingredients, and some don’t. And some manufacturers utilize pasteurization of some kind, and some don’t. (For more on this, see “Safety Issues,” below.)
Most of these products are meant to be rehydrated with water, though most can be fed without rehydration.
Some of these products are presented in a dried “patty” or “medallion” form; others have been dried into nuggets or dried and then sliced into cubes. Others are very powdery, which makes them turn into a sort of mush or gruel, depending on how much water you add. Still others have relatively large chunks of identifiable dehydrated meats, fruit, and/or vegetables mixed into a powdery meat base. This can be either an advantage (if your dog enjoys the contrast in taste and mouth-feel) or a disadvantage (if your dog seeks out only the chunks or mush and eschews the other).
The most significant difference between these foods and more conventional commercial products, though, is the high fat and, to a slightly lesser extent, high protein levels that most contain. Some are very high in fat and protein; others compare in these respects to conventional kibble. Always check the guaranteed analysis when switching to a product in this category; they are so nutrient-dense that you may have to significantly reduce the volume of food that you feed your dog in order to prevent him from gaining too much weight.
The Cost of Dehydrated Dog Food
The cost of feeding this sort of diet may be prohibitive for many dog owners. These products are pricey. In general, the freeze-dried products cost the most, because freeze-drying is an energy-intensive process. (For what it’s worth, however, shipping costs of these light-weight foods are minimal!) My guess is that they are fed mostly under the following conditions:
– Cost is not a factor (wealthy owner).
– Owner has one dog, or very small dogs (and so won’t need to buy large amounts).
Products are used as “complete and balanced” training treats, rather than sole diet.
Owner usually feeds a raw diet (home-prepared or otherwise) but is traveling, so one of these diets is used short-term replacement.
– Dog is extremely picky (and thin), but will eat these foods with relish. (We frequently hear about this with the freeze-dried foods, which seem to retain their palatability very well.)
– Dog’s health is generally precipitous, but currently well-managed thanks to one of these diets, so it makes the most sense to “pay for the food, rather than the vet.”
– Dog’s health is poor, and these highly palatable products are being used as a short-term tactic to keep him eating.
Safety Issues with Raw Dog Food
Raw diets aren’t for every dog or owner. These foods will be especially attractive to owners who already feed a raw diet to their dogs, or who have researched raw diets and who are ready to take responsibility for feeding their dog a raw diet (and perhaps, have the support already of a veterinarian who is comfortable with and knowledgeable about raw diets).
If you are fearful about the potential for exposing your dog to pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella or Listeria, or you have an immune-compromised dog, you may want to either skip these diets, or seek out the ones who pasteurize their products and utilize a vigorous “test before releasing” program, such as Stella & Chewys.
Understand that experienced raw feeders, as they are known, are not afraid of these bacteria. They frequently point out that there have been far more recalls of conventional kibble that is “contaminated” with Salmonella than raw food products, and very few dogs have gotten ill as a result of eating these foods. Dogs have much sturdier digestive tracts than humans, and only very rarely have a problem eating food that is contaminated with these bacteria. (Dogs with compromised immune systems, like humans with similar conditions, would be most at risk.)
Some companies use high pressure processing (HPP, also known as high pressure pasteurization or Pascalization) to kill any pathogenic bacteria that might be present in the food; others use HPP only on products that contain poultry (the most likely meat to be contaminated with bacteria); and still others rely entirely on buying the best possible meats, handling them with care, and using superior sanitation throughout the manufacturing process. Ask the maker of the food you are considering what they do (or don’t do) to pasteurize their products.
The companies we’ve highlighted on the following pages make extremely good dog foods, but as always, only you can determine which ones are right for your dog and your budget. As a comparison tool, we selected one variety from each manufacturer and listed its ingredients and guaranteed analysis. To help directly compare the unique formulation approaches taken by each company, we selected the “beef” formula whenever that variety was available.
I love incorporating play and training, especially when training recalls. The recall is a really important behavior – one that can mean the difference between your dog having to stay on leash or having leash-free romp time. It is also a life-saving skill – like when a dog is running toward a busy road, and you need him to respond to your cue to return to you, quickly! But teaching the recall behavior to your dog can be challenging – and sometimes a little overwhelming.
Take some pressure off by turning your recall practice into fun and games. This can help you and your dog enjoy the training and take it to the next level. Some of these games focus on a specific element of “Come,” while others help build enthusiasm for the recall.
The Keep Away Game
One of the most important elements of coming when called is what your dog does when he gets to you. Dog trainers call this the “finish” or end behavior. To play the “Keep Away” game, first think about what you want your dog’s end behavior to look like. Get a really clear picture in your head. Here is my picture: My dog runs up to me, flies into a sit, and makes eye contact. Some people want their dogs to run up and stand, touch a hand target, or run to their side into the heel position. All are great choices.
Now that you have a picture in your head, help your dog understand what you would like her to do. For a sit-in-front finish, back one step away from your dog, say “Come!” (or whatever your recall cue is) and encourage her to follow. As she comes up to you, ask for a sit, and when she does it, click – or use another marker, such as the word “Yes!” – and reward your dog with a tasty high-value treat. Practice your finish behavior in a low-distraction environment until your dog understands what to do when he hears “Come.” (Dogs usually get it in a few short sessions.) This is where the real fun begins!
Now that your dog knows that “Come” means move toward you and sit in front of you, you can make it more exciting and interesting by adding in the “keep away” piece. Complete the exercise as described above, and then, immediately after rewarding your dog, turn 90 degrees, and say “Come!” while moving a few steps away.
Click (or “Yes!”) and treat when your dog catches up and does the finish behavior. Repeat with the excited attitude of “You can’t catch me!” and then celebrate when your dog does! Gradually make this more fun and more difficult. For example, once your dog is finding your front easily, say “Come” and then turn and run in the other direction for a few steps before you stop. Your dog will enjoy the chase and have fun practicing the finish.
Tips: Be exciting. Use high-value rewards, such as great food treats, tug games, or chase games to build enthusiasm. If you can’t move quickly or run, try tossing your treat rewards a short distance away so that your dog has to run back to you to play again.
Whiplash Head Turn
Where the “keep away” game trains the end behavior of a recall, the “whiplash head turn” exercise trains the beginning – when your dog turns his head quickly away from something interesting and re-orients to you. There are tons of versions of this game. Here is one of my favorites.
Start with tossing a treat a few feet away from you so that your dog moves away to get the treat. I like to say, “Get it!” as I toss so she knows she has permission to eat it. As your dog is finishing the treat (but before she looks back at you), say her name. As her head turns in your direction, click or “Yes!” and give him a really awesome reward – something super special. Then repeat, gradually tossing the treats a little farther away as your dog’s confidence in the game grows.
A fun variation on this game is to toss a treat in one direction, tell your dog to “Get it,” and then, as he grabs that treat, say his name and toss another treat in another direction. Repeat until your dog is racing back and forth. For energetic dogs this is a great way to build excitement for the head turn.
Tips: Timing is important with this game. Be sure to click or “Yes!” when your dog’s head is turning back to you to encourage the speedy whiplash turn. If your dog loves to run, gradually toss the treats farther away so she gets to run more.
Hide and Seek
Hide and seek is a fun game to play in the house, in your garden, or on off-leash walks. It can be played with your dog knowing the game is afoot or as a surprise game, played at unexpected times throughout the day. It helps your dog learn to look for you when she hears your recall word and, when played randomly, it also helps your dog learn to come when she is otherwise engaged.
To get started with the basic game, have your dog wait in one place or one room. If your dog doesn’t know how to wait, you can also have someone restrain or distract her. Go into another room, behind a tree or around a corner and hide. Ask your dog to “COME find me” (emphasize your cue for the recall). When your dog finds you, give a great big happy reward: a game, happy petting, or a special treat. Repeat few times (stop while your dog is really engaged).
Once your dog understands the basics of this game, you can play the surprise version at various points during your day. For example:
When walking at the beach, when your dog is sniffing something, hide behind a nearby rock. Call her “Come find me” and when she finds you, get crazy happy and play one of your favorite beach games such as tossing the ball or running into the water together. Note: If your dog doesn’t head in your direction pretty quickly, pop up from behind the rock and wave your arms so she can get to you.
In the woods, duck behind a tree when your dog is just a little way in front. Call her enthusiastically and when she gets to you, reward her with a small handful of great treats.
When your dog is hanging out at home or cruising the backyard, hide and call, “Come find me!” Reward her with a great game of tug when she finds you.
Tips: When you are away from home, do not make the hiding place too difficult. This may cause too much stress for your dog, which will not be fun. In addition, time your calls so that you know your dog will disengage from his exploring easily. I do not recommend hide and seek as a way to frighten your dog into thinking you’ve abandoned him because he was not paying attention. Make this game fun, upbeat, and full of happy reconnections.
Round Robin Recalls
This is a great recall game that involves two or more people. It is also a great game to play after you’ve played “keep away” and “whiplash head turn.” “Round robin recalls” build on your dog’s ability to turn away from something she likes (a person who has just given her a treat) and run to the person calling her.
To get started, you and your game partners will stand about 10 to 12 feet away from each other. If you have two people, you will face each other. With three or more people, create a circle with all of you facing the center. Your dog is with one of the people or in the center of the circle.
One person calls the dog by saying the dog’s name and then “Come!” For example: “Jessie, come!” As the dog looks for the caller, the caller can encourage the dog to come by clapping, opening his or her arms, getting low, cheering, or running a few steps away; encourage your dog in any way except by saying her name or giving the recall cue again.
Once your dog gets to the caller, the caller will click or “Yes!” and reward the dog generously. Each person calls the dog randomly and in no particular order. At first, make it super easy for the dog by keeping the distance close, providing encouragement, and rewarding generously and with enthusiasm. As your dog gets the hang of the game, encourage her to do the “finish” behavior when she gets to the caller.
To make this game more exciting, increase the size of the circle so your dog really gets running. After a few play sessions, try having people move randomly in the area to new spots. This helps your dog start to look for and find the caller. (After dozens of play sessions, my dog will now run across the park to get to us when we play this game. We also move from place to place in the park so that she has to figure out where we are; it’s tons of fun and great exercise for us all.) Do remember that your dog runs a lot in this game; stop while she is enjoying it and before she gets too tired.
Tips: At first, have everyone who is calling the dog use the same treats. But after the dog learns the game, you can vary the types of treats between each person. Just make sure they are all things the dog really loves (silly play, great food treats, or a game of tug).
A Few More Games to Show Your Dog
Here are three more quick games:
Dinnertime recalls. Have your dog sit or down and stay while you prepare his dinner. When his meal is ready, move a few feet away and say, “Come!” When your dog gets to you, put his dinner bowl down. Once your dog is really good at this game, continue to have your dog stay while you take the food bowl into another room. Call your dog to you; getting to eat his yummy meal is the reward.
“You’re the most wonderful dog” recall. Call your dog to you. When your dog comes, get down on the ground and play, play, play for at least three solid minutes. (I love this game because my dog’s reward is also my reward!)
Get the Ball Recall. Have two balls ready. Call your dog to you, and as she comes to you, click or “Yes! for the sit or finish, and then instantly throw the ball. When your dog gets the ball and has turned back toward you, say, “Come!” – yes, even though your dog is already running your way! Click or “Yes!” when your dog gets to you, and throw a second ball in the other direction as the reward. This game can be fast and furious; it’s great fun for ball-crazed dogs.
Be careful to wait and call your dog back to you after she has the ball (so she doesn’t learn that getting the ball is part of the coming when called).
Recall Practice Makes Recall Perfect
Remember, just as when we play any new game with our dogs, it will take a few play sessions for your dog to learn the rules and goals of these “coming when called” games. But once your dog understands and enjoys them, you can get creative, adding challenges to the games, switching rewards, and building up by incorporating more distractions. In addition, make up new games to play and incorporate the things your dog loves into your recall practice. Practicing with games can motivate both you and your dog to train and play your way to a fantastic, impressive recall.
Author/trainer Mardi Richmond, MA, CPDT-KA, lives and works in Santa Cruz, California. She shares her life with her wife and a wonderful heeler-mix. She is the owner of Good Dog Santa Cruz, where one of her specialties is helping people work through recall issues.
Most people are familiar with the concept of a “placebo effect,” the perception that a subject’s health improved after the subject unknowingly received an inert treatment that should have had no effect on the subject whatsoever. The assumption is that because we believe that we have received an actual treatment, our mind tells us that we should feel a bit better. Then, amazingly, we do feel better. We notice a reduction in symptoms and ultimately conclude that the “medicine” must be working. The irony is that placebos actually can be powerful medicine (or something), at least for some people, for some diseases, some of the time.
The effects of placebos in human medicine are well documented. The highest level of placebo effect is seen with diseases that have subjective symptoms that are patient-reported, difficult to measure directly, tend to fluctuate in severity, and occur over long periods (i.e., are chronic). Examples include depression, anxiety-related disorders, gastric ulcer, asthma, and chronic pain. In medical research, an average placebo response rate of 35 percent is reported, with rates as high as 90 percent for some health conditions. By any standard, that is a powerful effect!
Although the reasons that we respond to placebos are not completely understood, medical researchers universally accept the importance of considering them when studying new treatments. Studies of new drugs or medical interventions include placebos as control groups to allow unbiased comparisons with the treatment or intervention under evaluation. Any effect that the placebo group shows is subtracted from the effect measured in subjects who receive the actual medication. The difference between the two is considered to be the degree of response attributable to the treatment. If a placebo control group was not included, it would be impossible to differentiate between a perceived response (placebo) and a real response to the treatment.
Today, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials are considered to be the gold standard of study designs by medical researchers. (The “double-blind” part refers to the fact that in addition to having both a placebo group and a treatment group, neither the researchers nor the subjects know which subjects receive the treatment and which receive the placebo until the trial is concluded.)
Placebos and Our Dogs
So, what about dogs? Can a placebo effect occur with dogs? Possibly, but things work a bit differently where our dogs are concerned.
The first major difference is that dogs are basically always blinded to treatments. Although they may understand that something different is being done to them (or that there is a strange pill buried in that piece of cheese), most people will agree that dogs do not understand that they are being medicated for a particular health problem or are on the receiving end of a new behavior modification approach. As a result, unlike human patients, dogs will lack the specific expectations and beliefs about health interventions that are necessary for a placebo effect to occur directly.
However, in cases where owners or caregivers are required to observe and report symptoms and changes in health regarding the dog’s response to a given treatment, a different type of placebo effect may occur – a “caregiver placebo effect.” As with human maladies, the conditions for which this type of placebo effect has been described in dogs are those that involve subjective measures of health (pain, activity level, appetite) and that have a tendency to fluctuate in severity.
When evaluating a drug for its effect on something that can be measured with objective tools, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, or hormone levels, our subjective opinion of the dog’s response is not relevant. But when the treatment is aimed at something like pain – something that can’t be easily measured with medical tests – our vulnerability to the placebo effect arises again, as recorders and reporters of our dogs’ health and symptoms. While highly communicative in many ways, dogs cannot specifically tell us what part of their body hurts, how intense the pain is, whether it is abating, or by how much. We use our knowledge of a dog’s behavior and body language for clues about how he feels – but how we feel about his situation, symptoms, and treatment may color what we “see.”
Let’s look at two situations where the caregiver placebo effect in dogs has been well observed: osteoarthritis and epilepsy.
Caregiver Placebo Effect Studied
The most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of bones wears down over time. It’s a painful and progressive health problem that can seriously impact a dog’s quality of life. Fortunately, a variety of medical and nutritional treatments are available for afflicted dogs, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS, such as deracoxib and meloxicam), nutrient supplements (e.g., glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate), and complementary or alternative medicine approaches (such as acupuncture or cold laser therapy).
Researchers who have studied these treatments often use subjective measures of lameness in which dogs’ owners and veterinarians numerically rate their dog’s degree of pain, mobility, and interest in daily activities in response to treatment.
Some studies also include objective measurements of arthritis symptoms – such as recordings of the weight distribution of each leg while standing or the amount of force that is exerted by each limb during movement. In a “static weight bearing” test, the dog is positioned with each limb on a separate scale; dogs with joint pain usually distribute their weight in such a way as to reduce weight bearing on the limbs that are most painful and increase it on the other limbs. In a “force plate” or “force platform” gait analysis, instruments measure the force of the strike of each limb as the dog moves.
In virtually all placebo-controlled studies of osteoarthritis treatments, a substantial proportion of owners (and veterinarians!) have reported improvement in the placebo-treated dogs. However, when measured using weight-bearing techniques, far fewer dogs show actual improvement.
The study: Caregiver placebo effect osteoarthritis1 – Two researchers, Michael Conzemius and Richard Evans at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, analyzed data from the placebo control group of another study – a large clinical trial that was testing the effectiveness of a new NSAID.
All of the enrolled dogs in the NSAID study had been diagnosed with osteo-arthritis and had clinical signs of pain and changes in gait and mobility. This was a multi-centered design, which means that each dog’s own veterinarian conducted the biweekly evaluations of gait and lameness. Both owners and veterinarians completed questionnaires that asked whether the dog showed improvement, no change, or worsening signs of arthritis over a six-week period. Neither the owners nor the veterinarians knew if their dog/patient was receiving the placebo or the new drug.
Keep in mind that Conzemius and Evans had nothing to do with the NSAID study; they simply examined data from the study’s placebo control group.
Results: The ground reaction force (GRF) tests remained largely unchanged for the dogs who were given placebos during “treatment.” Of 58 dogs, five (8.6%) had GRFs that worsened over the course of treatment; seven (12%) had GRFs that improved; and 46 (79.3%) had GRFs that remained unchanged.
However, half (50 percent) of the owners whose dogs received placebos stated that their dog’s lameness was improved during the study. Forty percent reported no change, and 10 percent said that their dog’s pain had worsened.
When these owner reports were compared with actual change as measured by the force platform, the caregiver placebo effect occurred in 39.7 percent of owners.
The dogs’ own veterinarians performed no better. A placebo effect occurred 40 to 45 percent of the time when veterinarians evaluated the dogs for changes in gait or pain.
This means that not only were the owners strongly invested in seeing a positive outcome, so too were their veterinarians. This effect occurred despite the fact that all of the human participants were aware of the 50 percent chance that their dog was in the placebo group not the drug group, and that there was no way to be certain which group their dog was in.
The study: caregiver placebo effect and canine epilepsy2 – Veterinarians from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Minnesota used an approach called a “meta-analysis,” which means that the researchers pooled and then reexamined data collected from several previous clinical trials. They reviewed three placebo-controlled clinical trials that examined the use of novel, adjunct treatments for canine epilepsy.
During the treatment periods in each of the epilepsy studies, owners were asked to record all seizure activity, including the length of the dogs’ seizures, the intensity of the seizures, and the dogs’ behavior before and immediately following seizures.
Results: The majority of owners (79%) of dogs who were (unbeknownst to the owners) receiving a placebo reported a reduction in seizure frequency in their dogs over the six-week study period. What’s more, almost a third of the owners (29%) said that the seizure activity decreased more than 50 percent, the level that was classified in the study protocols as indicative of a positive response to treatment.
Why Do Placebos Work So Well?
What’s going on? Well, several things, it appears. The most obvious explanation of the caregiver placebo effect in dogs is that owners expect a positive response when they assume an actual treatment is being administered to the dog.
Whenever we introduce a new medication, diet, or training method and anticipate seeing an improvement in our dog’s health or behavior, we naturally tilt toward seeing positive results and away from seeing no change (or worse, a negative effect). This is a form of “confirmation bias” – seeing what we expect to see and that confirms our preexisting beliefs.
In fact, an early study3 of the caregiver placebo effect in dogs found that when owners were asked to guess which group their dog was in, the owners whose dogs were actually in the placebo group but said that they were certain that their dogs were in the treatment group demonstrated the strongest positive (placebo) response.
Such expectations may be an especially strong motivator when we are dealing with maladies that have affected our dogs for a long time, conditions that infringe upon our dogs’ ability to enjoy life, and for which we feel that we are running out of options.
Osteoarthritis and seizure disorders were the conditions studied in these papers, but I can think of several other common canine health problems for which we caregivers may easily succumb to the power of the placebo effect. These include chronic allergies, adverse reactions to food ingredients, anxiety-related behavior problems, and even cancer.
Another factor that may contribute to the caregiver placebo effect is finding oneself in a state of contradiction. When we invest time and money (and hope) into a new treatment for our dogs, it follows that we will naturally have high expectations that the treatment will work. If it does not, we may experience cognitive dissonance, the uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradicting beliefs in one’s mind at the same time. For example, “I was told that giving my dog dried gooseberry rinds would cure his chronic itching; these rinds are expensive and hard to find. He doesn’t seem any better . . . This isn’t a good feeling.”
Psychologists tell us that our brain reduces this discomfort for us – without our conscious awareness – by simply changing our perceptions. In this case, convincing oneself that the dog does seem a bit less itchy, her coat is a bit healthier, and overall, she does really seem to be feeling better, immediately solves this problem for the brain and for our comfort level.
Finally, a related phenomenon that is common enough to have earned its own name is the Hawthorne Effect, also called observation bias. This is the tendency to change one’s behavior (or in our case, how we might report our dog’s behavior) simply as a result of being observed. The Hawthorne Effect suggests that people whose dogs are enrolled in an experimental trial may behave differently with their dogs because they know they are enrolled in a trial that is measuring many aspects of the dog’s life.
In the case of the arthritis studies, owners may have altered how regularly they exercised their dogs, began to avoid behaviors that worsened the dog’s arthritic pain, or began to pay more attention to the dog’s diet and weight.
The point is that when people are enrolled in a research trial or are starting a new medical treatment, or diet, or training program and are being monitored, they will be inclined to change other aspects of how they live with and care for the dog as well. These changes could be as important (or more important) than the actual treatment (or placebo). This is not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but is another reason why we always need control groups. It’s important to be aware that the thing that we think is working for our dog may not actually be what’s doing the trick.
Take Away Points for Dog Owners
When trying something new with our dogs, might we, at least some of the time, in some situations, be inclined to see improvement when it does not truly exist? When interpreting our dog’s response to a novel therapy or supplement or training technique, are we susceptible to falling for the sugar pill.
It seems probable, given the science. It is reasonable to at least consider the possibility that a placebo effect may influence our perceptions of our dog’s response to a new or novel food, supplement, training technique, or treatment. This is especially true if the approach being tried has not been thoroughly vetted by research through double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.
While the development of new medications, foods, supplements, and training methods is exciting and important, we must avoid the tendency to see improvement from something that is novel simply because we expect and desire it to be so.
Cited References:
1. Conzemium MG, Evans RB. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2012; 241:1314-1319.
2. Munana KR, Zhang D, Patterson EE. Placebo effect in canine epilepsy trials. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 2010; 24:166-170.
3. Jaeger GT, Larsen S, Moe L. Stratification, blinding and placebo effect in a randomized, double blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of gold bead implantation in dogs with hip dysplasia. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2005; 46:57-68.
Linda P. Case, MS, is the owner of AutumnGold Consulting and Dog Training Center in Mahomet, Illinois, where she lives with her four dogs and husband Mike. She is the author of anew book, Dog Food Logic, and many other books and numerous publications on nutrition for dogs and cats. Her blog can be read at thesciencedog.wordpress.com.
Years ago, I had high hopes for participating in dock diving sport with my now-9-year-old dog, Woody. But it turned out that my high-jumping, strong-swimming dog absolutely hates getting water in his ears!
