Everyone in the family, including children, should play with their dogs. Even young children can be suitable playmates for many dogs, with some important caveats. Assuming your dog likes to play, the more humans she gets to play with, the more humans shell think are wonderful because they make good stuff happen, and the better socialized shell be. Dogs who are will-socialized are far less likely to bite or otherwise engage in behaviors that are likely to get them into serious trouble.
In addition, the more that each family member has fun interacting with the dog, the more likely it is that the dog will stay in that home for her entire life. Play helps build strong bonds, and relationships that support lifelong loving homes for canine family members.
The last thing he wanted to hear on a Saturday night. Hes gone, I cant find him.
Jay looked up from his study book. Wasnt he with the other two boys? Maybe he is hiding?
But Fred was not hiding. He was missing. I looked through the house & I searched the entire yard. Our smallest Brittany had disappeared.
Jay grabbed his flashlight & his field dog whistle and started hiking around the neighboring properties. Since they were small pups, all of our dogs have been trained by the sound of a whistle. A blast of a whistle means come here and Fred is the most obedient of them all. If Fred hears a whistle, he comes running, no matter how far he has to run. After the first half hour of calls and shrill whistling, Fred did not return to our side. It was clear that he was truly lost.
I took my Avalon & headed west on Leona Avenue; while Jay headed east in the Scion. We drove up and down private driveways yelling Fred! followed by a loud whistle call. Nothing. I drove up hillsides & down canyons to the far end of town. I stopped the car & listened. All I heard was the jubilant celebration of a pack of coyotes as they enjoyed a wintertime feast. I started to cry. Living in wild country is quite beautiful, but this stunning beauty is filled with risks to a dog. Coyotes, mountain lions, fast cars, poison, any number of hazards could take our little boy. I dont know what I would do if he were hurt .or killed. And now, a full hour has passed. Our property is only a few lots away from the Angeles National Forest. He may never be found.
While I thought the worst, Jay did not panic. He went back home. Knowing that Fred is not a fence jumper, Jay reexamined the property one more time. He searched around the temporary home thoroughly & then faintly heard clink clink clink, the sound of Freds identification tags hitting against each other.
Fred was trapped beneath the house & did not know how to get out. Upon opening the trap door to the side of the house, the light of the flashlight shined through the darkened place, with a frightened dog, covered in dirt and dust crouched far away. Come here Fred! Cautious at first, Fred knew to leave the darkness & follow the stream of welcoming light. And when he did, he found his way back to the safe arms that he always loved.
Many of us search high & low for the meaning of life. We often do this by conquering a great task, going on a fantastic voyage, purchasing a fast car, climbing the biggest mountain or finding our way to a mysterious land. We travel far & wide, over land & sea, never realizing that what is most important & what gives us the most meaning is in the place we are least likely to look. At first glance it seems to be elusive, if not missing. But if we look real hard & listen quite carefully, we will find that the search for what truly matters was never far away.
It is not in a canyon, a valley, on a hillside or in a forest. It was never in a mysterious far away land. In the end you will discover that your life has meaning & that what you were seeking was never truly lost. It has always been & will always be beneath the shingled roof with a flickering glow of a fire at the most welcoming place on Gods green earth a place we all call home. Welcome home Fred. You were never lost. We were.
About the author: Alice Benoit is a real property consultant, council person, and dog rescue volunteer. She lives in Leona Valley, California with her husband, three Brittany dogs and her Shepherd/Greyhound mix who thinks he is a Brittany. Read her updates and view her photography on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alicewollman
I met a small dog recently who had breath that could knock you over. Because I’ve had small dogs before, I knew enough to lift her lip and take a peek at her teeth. Even so, I was shocked, though not surprised, by the appearance of her teeth. That is, you could barely SEE white tooth material, for the accumulation of hard calculus tartar on her teeth. Her gums were inflamed and swollen, too.
It apparently didn’t occur to anyone who knew or handled the dog that her bad breath wasn’t some sort of character flaw, it was an actual health problem exacerbated by neglect. Rather, she was criticized as a “fussy eater.” I imagine I’d be a fussy eater, too, if I was in excruciating pain from infected gums.
Small dogs, especially the ones with crowded mouths (overlapping teeth) or underbites or overbites that keep the mouth partially open at all times, are prone to more dental disease and accelerated accumulation of dental plaque. Daily brushing is highly recommended and annual exams and frequent veterinary cleaning is critical to prevent the relatively fast development of such a serious tartar build-up (the dog I’m describing is only four years old!).
She’s since had her teeth cleaned and eight of them had to be extracted. She’ll receive pain meds for 4 days and antibiotics for 10. Her breath is now completely inoffensive, and she’s eating anything offered to her.
The experience made me check my own dogs’ mouths. Both of my dogs are 6 1/2 years old. Tito the Chihuahua has had one dental cleaning already, about two years ago. His breath is not at all bad, and his teeth look pretty good. I was surprised (when I took a whiff ) that my big dog’s breath is not as fresh as I expected it to be, and when I lifted his lips to examine his teeth, I saw no tartar at all . . . on ONE side of his mouth! On the other, I found a rather large chunk of tartar on one of his upper molars. I think of myself as being fairly aware of what’s going on with my dogs’ health, and completely missed this! He was examined by a veterinarian recently, too, for an annual health checkup, and she hasn’t spotted it, either. I’ll be taking him back in for a further exam – and likely, a cleaning — this week.
How often do you check your dog’s teeth? Make sure you look at the ones all the way in the back, too.
Given the opportunity to examine an older dog, I’ll very likely find at least one or two cutaneous (within the skin) or subcutaneous (just beneath the skin surface) lumps and bumps. Such growths are common by-products of the canine aging process. In this regard, I liken them to the brown spots that appear on our skin as we get older.
The good news is that most cutaneous and subcutaneous canine tumors are benign. It’s the small population of malignant masses that keeps us on our toes. They are the reason it’s important to have your veterinarian inspect any newly discovered lumps and bumps your dog develops. The smaller a cancerous growth is at the time of treatment, in general, the better the outcome.
Pet Your Dog to Find Tumors
In terms of “lump and bump patrol,” your first order of business is to pet your dog. No doubt you and your best buddy already enjoy some doggie massage time. What I’m asking you to do is a more methodical petting session. Once a month, slowly and mindfully slide your fingers, palm sides down, along your dog’s body. Move systematically from stem to stern while inspecting for any new lumps or bumps.
Also, look and feel for changes in the size or appearance of those previously discovered. Any new findings should be addressed with your veterinarian, who relies upon your help with this surveillance. Imagine your vet trying to find a tiny growth on a shaggy Sheepdog or Sheltie during the course of a single exam. Some lumps and bumps are bound to be missed without your assistance.
When to See Your Veterinarian
Does finding a new growth suggest that you must see your veterinarian right away? Not necessarily. Say that you’ve just spotted a new bump in your dog’s skin that is no larger than the size of a pea. She is due for her annual physical examination in three months. Must you rush to visit your vet with this new finding, or can it wait the three months? The answer depends on the behavior of this newly discovered growth.
My recommendation is that you continue to observe it once a week. Examining it more frequently can make it difficult to accurately assess change. If the mass is growing, or otherwise changing in appearance, best to have it checked out sooner rather than later. If no changes are observed, waiting to address it at the time of the annual physical exam makes perfectly good sense.
In contrast, say that in the course of examining your best buddy you discover a prune sized, firm, subcutaneous growth that feels attached to the shoulder blade. Based on the larger size and deep attachment of this mass, it’s best to have this one checked out right away. If ever in doubt, give your veterinarian a call to figure out the best course of action. As with most things medical, better to be safe than sorry.
In advance of your veterinary visit, mark the location of any lumps or bumps requiring inspection. You can clip some hair over the site or mark the fur with a ribbon, hair band, or marking pen. Growths discovered at home when an animal is lying down in a relaxed, comfortable position have a habit of magically disappearing when the dog is upright and uptight in the exam room.
Fine Needle Aspirate for Cytology
If a newly discovered growth is large enough, the usual first step your veterinarian will recommend is a fine needle aspirate for cytology. Cytology refers to the microscopic examination of cells. The purpose of this step is to attempt to noninvasively clarify the cell type within the mass, and whether it is benign or malignant.
Collection of a fine needle aspirate is a simple process that is easy on the dog and rarely requires any sort of sedation. Using a needle no larger than the size of a vaccination needle along with some gentle suction, your vet will remove a smattering of cells from the growth. These cells are then spit out onto a glass slide and evaluated under the microscope.
Some cytology interpretations are a slam-dunk, and can readily be interpreted by your family vet. Others require the eyeballs of a specialist – a clinical pathologist who works in a veterinary diagnostic laboratory. Remember, the goal of the cytology testing is to determine the underlying cell type, therefore whether the growth can be left alone or requires more attention. Fine needle aspirate cytology is often (but not always) definitive. If the results do not provide clarity, a surgical biopsy of the mass may be recommended.
If your veterinarian recommends surgical removal of a mass as the very first step (chooses to forego the fine needle aspirate), I encourage you to consider getting a second opinion. It is disappointing and frustrating when a veterinarian foregoes cytology, proceeds with surgery, and the biopsy report reveals a malignancy with cancer cells extending beyond the margins of the tissue that was removed. In other words, cancer cells were clearly left behind. Had the veterinarian known in advance from the cytology report that the tumor was malignant, a different approach (much more aggressive surgery and/or radiation therapy) would have been undertaken, almost certainly resulting in a better outcome.
A second “bad news scenario” that can arise from forging ahead with surgery without benefit of fine needle aspirate cytology is failure to identify a cancerous growth that may have already spread elsewhere in the body. If the cytology reveals a malignancy, screening the rest of the body for metastasis (spread) is a logical next step. If metastasis is discovered, removal of the originally discovered mass is unlikely to provide any benefit. Rather, such surgery will only subject the patient (and the client’s pocketbook) to a needless procedure. Leaping into surgery to remove a mass without the benefit of cytology is risky business.
Lipomas (Fatty Tumors)
Lipomas are one of the most common types of canine tumors. Fortunately, the vast majority of them are completely benign. They arise from fat (lipid) cells and grow in subcutaneous locations, primarily in the axillary regions (armpits) and alongside the chest and abdomen. Occasionally one will develop within the chest or abdominal cavity. Rarely does a dog develop only one lipoma. They tend to grow in multiples, and I’ve examined individual dogs with literally hundreds of lipomas.
Should lipomas be treated in some fashion? In the vast majority of cases, the answer is a definite, “No!” This is based on their benign, slow-growing nature. The only issue most create is purely cosmetic, which dogs could care less about!
There are a few exceptions to the general recommendation to let sleeping lipomas lie. A fatty tumor is deserving of more attention in the following situations:
A lipoma that is steadily growing in an area where it could ultimately interfere with mobility. The armpit is the classic spot where this happens. The emphasis here is on the phrase “steadily growing.” Even in one of these critical areas there is no reason to remove a lipoma that remains quiescent with no discernible growth.
Sudden growth and/or change in appearance of a fatty tumor (or any mass for that matter) should prompt reassessment to determine the best course of action.
Every once in a great while, a fatty tumor turns out to be an infiltrative liposarcoma rather than a lipoma. These are the malignant black sheep in the family of fatty tumors. Your veterinarian will be suspicious of an infiltrative liposarcoma if the fine needle aspirate cytology reveals fat cells, yet the tumor feels fixed to underlying tissues. (Lipomas are normally freely moveable.) Liposarcomas should be aggressively surgically removed and/or treated with radiation therapy.
Occasionally a lipoma grows to truly mammoth proportions. If ever you’ve looked at a dog and thought, “Wow, there’s a dog attached to that tumor!” chances are you were looking at a lipoma. Such massive tumors have the potential to cause the dog discomfort. They can also outgrow their blood supply, resulting in potential infection and drainage from the mass. The key is to catch on to the mass’s rapid growth so as to surgically remove it before it becomes enormous in size and far more difficult to remove.
How can one prevent canine lipomas from occurring? No one knows. Anecdotally speaking it is thought that overweight dogs are more predisposed to developing fatty tumors. While I’m not so sure I buy this, I’m certainly in favor of keeping your dog at a healthy body weight.
Sebaceous Adenomas
These are the most common benign skin tumors in dogs. Sebaceous glands are microscopic structures found just beneath the skin surface. They secrete an oily substance called sebum that is transported to the skin surface via microscopic ducts, and can arise from the gland or the duct.
Sebaceous adenomas tend to be small, no more than 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch in size. They may appear round, or they can have a wart-like appearance. Sebaceous adenomas occur primarily in middle-aged and older dogs. Any breed can develop sebaceous adenomas, but certain breeds are particularly predisposed: English Cocker Spaniels, Cocker Spaniels, Samoyeds, Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, West Highland White Terriers, Cairn Terriers, Dachshunds, Miniature Poodles, Toy Poodles, Shih Tzus, Basset Hounds, Beagles, and Kerry Blue Terriers.
Because of their benign nature, the vast majority of sebaceous adenomas require no treatment whatsoever. There are some exceptions to this general rule, and they are as follows:
Surgical removal is warranted for those sebaceous adenomas that recurrently bleed or become infected because of self-trauma (the dog bites or chews at them) or because they get in the way of the groomer’s clippers.
Some sebaceous adenomas secrete oodles of sebum, creating the constant appearance of an oil slick on the dog’s hair coat. The grease rubs off on hands, furniture, and anything else the dog contacts. No fun!
Some sebaceous adenomas are pretty darned unsightly, looking like warty little aliens poking through the hair coat. Although this is not bothersome for the dog, it can be a significant issue for the person living with that dog.
If a mass believed to be a sebaceous adenoma is growing or changing in appearance, it is important to ask your vet to have another look. What was thought to be a benign adenoma may be its less common cancerous cousin, a sebaceous carcinoma.
The Importance of Histopathology for Your Dog
If your veterinarian surgically removes a growth from your dog, do not, I repeat, do not let that tissue sample wind up in the vet clinic garbage can! A far better choice is to have the mass submitted for histopathology (biopsy) to a veterinary diagnostic laboratory. There, a veterinary pathologist will evaluate paper-thin slices of the mass under the microscope to confirm the identity of the mass.
Even if fine needle aspirate cytology indicated that the growth was benign, histopathology is warranted. On occasion, the pathologist discovers something quirky such as a malignant tumor within the center of a benign lipoma.
If histopathology is not affordable, ask your vet to place the growth that was removed in a small container of formalin (preservative) that you can take home for safekeeping. This way, should multiple masses begin growing at the surgery site or should your dog develop a tumor at another site, you will still be able to request histopathology on the original sample. Formalin is toxic stuff, so keep the container lid sealed tightly.
Lumps and bumps are a very normal part of the canine aging process. Teaming up with your veterinarian to assess them on a regular basis is the best way to insure that they never create a health issue for your best buddy.
Nancy Kay, DVM, DACVIM, is the author of Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life,and Your Dog’s Best Health: A Dozen Reasonable Things to Expect From Your Vet. She lives in North Carolina. You can read her blog at speakingforspot.com/blog.
The ability to carry a little dog onto an airplane with you is one of the greatest advantages of owning a small dog that can’t be shared by owners of medium or large dogs. Most (though not all) of the risks of flying a dog on a commercial flight are posed by the dog’s handling by airport employees behind the scenes and by the dog’s unattended experience in the cargo hold of the plane; in contrast, the risks to a dog who is with you at every moment of your flight are very slight – and under your control. That said, there are a lot of things you need to know and contingencies for which to prepare if you are going to subject your dog to air travel. Here’s how to make the carried-on dog’s flight as enjoyable and stress free (for both of you) as possible.
Prepare Your Dog for Air Travel
Before you count on being able to bring your dog on any flight with you, you should be aware that there is no cut-and-dried rule regarding the size of dogs who can be carried on a plane. Most accurately, the limiting factor for which dogs can be carried onto a flight is the size of the dog’s carrier, and how well the dog appears to fit inside it. But every airline has different maximum dimensions for kennels and soft-sided carriers – and airlines sometimes have different maximum dimensions for the various types of airplane that may be employed on your journey. And there is quite a range! I found airlines with stated maximum carrier heights as small at 7.5 inches (in this case, for a hard-sided carrier on Alaska and United), and as much as 11 inches (and in this case, specifically for a soft-sided carrier on United). The maximum dimensions for the width and depth of the carrier vary quite a bit, too. We found a range of maximum carrier width from 11 to 19 inches, and a range of maximum length from 12 to 19 inches.
In addition to their carrier dimension limitations, some airlines also have a weight limit for the pet and her carrier. For example, JetBlue dictates that the combined weight of the dog and carrier cannot exceed 20 pounds.
Dogs are supposed to be able to stand up, turn around, and lie down naturally and comfortably in the carrier. It doesn’t pay to try to stuff a borderline too-large dog into a small kennel; airline representatives, who may or may not be knowledgeable about pets, can refuse to allow you to board with your dog if they feel the kennel is too small and causing (or potentially causing) your dog undue distress.
On top of the size and weight considerations, there are federal regulations regarding the minimum age for puppies who can be carried on a plane. These regulations (and common sense) require puppies to be at least eight weeks old and weaned at least five days before flying.
If your dog is small enough to fit comfortably into a carrier that will meet the airline’s size specifications for the plane used on the journey you plan to take, read on!
Buying the Plane Ticket
It’s weird and annoying: I haven’t yet seen an airline’s website that allows a traveler to indicate that she would like to bring a pet on board for a flight. Generally, you first book the flight for yourself, and then call the airline directly to reserve a spot for your dog. That’s a weird order of operations, given that airlines allow only a limited number of pets on any given flight; if the flight you have booked for yourself already has reached its capacity for pets, you will have to select a different flight. Although the airline won’t charge a “change fee” for this, if the new flight costs more than the one you originally booked, you will have to pay the higher price. Take home point: Book your flight as early as possible, and call the airline to reserve a spot for your dog immediately after booking.
Dog Health Requirements for Air Travel
When you make the phone call to reserve your dog’s spot on your flight, ask the reservation agent whether any health certificates or vaccinations are required for your dog for that flight. A health certificate, issued by a veterinarian who examined your dog within a short period (usually 10 days) before your flight, is required for all international flights, but generally not for domestic travel in the U.S., with a couple of notable exceptions. Because Hawaii is the only place in the U.S. that is completely free of rabies, that state has special requirements for inbound pets. And certain destinations in Alaska have vaccination requirements (for canine parvovirus and rabies).
Pay a Pet Travel Fee
All airlines charge an extra fee for your carried-on dog, and the price (like all airline add-on fees) has gone up in recent years. Unlike the price of your ticket, the fee doesn’t seem to be dependent on the length of the flight; a flat fee is applied no matter how long (or short) the flight is, and varies from airline to airline, from about $125 to $200 (one way). Payment for the pet fee is made at the counter when you check in for the flight.
Getting Your Dog Ready to Fly
Ideally, you’ve bought your ticket and made your dog’s reservation months (or at least weeks) in advance of your flight. That gives you time to prepare your dog for some of the experiences she will be subjected to on the day of travel, so she’s not miserable on the airplane – and so you and your fellow passengers aren’t made miserable by her distressed behavior, either.
It’s most important for your dog to practice spending time in a small carrier – and, while there, being jostled about and subjected to strange noises and movement. Small dogs who are regularly carried in soft-sided bags are likely to accept everything about the air travel experience with ease. But if your dog has rarely graced the inside of a crate, or is unhappy being in one, you need to start conditioning and desensitizing her to this ASAP. (See “The Benefits of Crate Training,” WDJ January 2011, for more information about teaching a dog to be comfortable in a crate.)
Flying with Your Dog
Once your dog is comfortable spending time in a crate or carrier at home, make sure she is equally comfortable being carried in it, subjected to the sounds and motion of a vehicle in it (people who crate their dogs in the car, with the crate securely belted or strapped in, are way ahead of the game here), and will go into it happily at any time. Ideally, your dog will be familiar with and comfortable in the carrier you plan to use on the trip well before you travel; don’t subject her to an entirely new carrier on the day of the flight if you can help it.
You may need to take your dog out of and put her back into the carrier several times during your travel. The airline representative at the front counter might want to see your dog out of the carrier to make sure she’s in a correctly sized carrier. You will be asked to remove her from the carrier again when you go through security. If you have to change planes, you will probably want to seek out a “pet relief area” at the midway airport so your dog can go potty. You want to be able to remove your dog from the carrier without her trying to escape in a panic at all of these points, as well as at your final destination. So in the weeks before the flight, practice asking your dog to enter the carrier, and taking her out of it, in all sorts of different environments: dark, bright, loud, indoors, outdoors, etc. Keep the experience highly rewarding (with high-value treats and praise) each time she enters and exits calmly.
It’s also a good idea to bathe your dog a day or two before your trip, so that she’s odor free and comfortable.
Finally, make sure your dog’s nails (including the dewclaws, if any) are clipped short. A dog who tries to paw or dig her way out of a carrier can easily catch and tear a nail, especially in a soft-sided carrier. Bleeding, whining, and distress can follow. Having all the nails short and sound (not split and snaggy) will help prevent a slightly stressful trip from turning into a very stressful one.
Day of the Flight
It should go without saying that your dog should be wearing an ID tag with your current contact information on it; ideally this includes your current mobile number. It’s also best if your dog is microchipped (in case he somehow got his collar or harness off) and that the microchip registration is also up-to-date.
It’s usually recommended that you not feed your dog within six hours of a flight; you really don’t want him to vomit, urinate, or defecate in the carrier on the plane if you can help it. But whether or not you heed this recommendation totally depends on how well conditioned your dog is to spending time in the carrier. Dogs who are super comfortable spending even long stretches of time in their carriers aren’t likely to vomit or need to eliminate any more than usual. But if your dog is not as well accustomed to the carrier as he should be, is a nervous traveler anyway, can’t yet go for very long without needing to eliminate (like most puppies), or suffers from motion sickness in a car, you may want to withhold food and give him just small amounts of water in that time frame before flying.
Note: If you are flying with a very young puppy, or a toy breed puppy of any age, don’t withhold food before flying; you don’t want to add to the risk factors of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Hypoglycemic attacks can be brought on by stress, and may result in seizures, listlessness, muscle weakness or staggering, tremors (especially in the face), coma, and even death. The stress of shipping is a common cause of hypoglycemia in puppies, especially those of the toy breeds. Other causes include missing a meal, becoming chilled, and exhaustion (this can happen when people get a new puppy and, thrilled with their new friend, keep instigating play and not letting the puppy rest).
Start your day as early as necessary in order to have enough time to walk your dog far enough (or be outside long enough) so that he eliminates as fully as he ever does! Once you have arrived at the airport, give him a leisurely (not rushed) chance to urinate one more time outside before putting him in his carrier and taking him inside.
Never Accept Travel Condition Changes for Your Dog
Imagine this for a moment: You have arrived at the airport, dog in carrier and carrier in hand, and were told at the front counter that a mistake had been made and there was no room in the cabin for your dog after all. The airline could, however, put your dog in the cargo area. What would you do?
If this happened to you – as it has happened to more than one person I know! – I strongly suggest that you calmly refuse to allow your dog to be put in the cargo area, even if it meant you had to take another flight. If you had a legitimate reservation for your dog to be in the cabin, you should hold the airline to it, or accept their offer of reticketing (without fee) on another flight with an upgrade.
The only possible exception would be if your dog were completely comfortable being in a crate, without you, and with travel; you had an appropriately sized “hard” crate already; your dog is a fit, healthy, adult, non-brachycephalic breed; the weather conditions were perfect (neither at all hot nor at all cold); and the flight wasn’t a terribly long one. In my opinion, those are the only conditions under which any dog should be shipped via cargo – but honestly, somebody’s life would have to be at risk before I would consider letting my dog travel that way.
En Route
Check all the zippers and fasteners on your carrier carefully, to make sure they are completely closed, and can’t be pawed or nosed open. Some bags have double zippers with tabs that can be clipped together with the snap from your leash to ensure that the bag cannot be unzipped without unsnapping the tabs first.
Consider teaching your dog to lick water from the slightly opened spout of a sports bottle (sort of like a rabbit’s water bottle). You can bring an empty bottle through security, and fill it up from a water fountain in the gate area. That way, you can offer your dog an occasional lick of water on the flight if she’s panting or seems hot. If you are certain she won’t try to escape, you can offer this by unzipping one of the carrier’s doors just enough to permit the insertion of the tip of the sports bottle. Or just hold the tip up to the mesh of the bag; if she licks the mesh, she can still get enough water to wet her mouth.
Don’t break the rules and allow your dog out of her carrier on the plane; she’s far safer, and your fellow travelers will be far more comfortable, with your dog contained. Also, if your dog did vomit or relieve herself in the crate, letting her out will only make matters worse in terms of the mess and odor! Wait until you deplane to try to improve the situation. Ask a flight attendant or the gate attendant (upon deplaning) for the location of the nearest pet relief station and head straight there.
It should be a huge relief to you for both of you to have arrived safely!
Should You Tranquilize Your Dog?
Veterinarians generally advise against administering a tranquilizer to dogs for air travel. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has a Traveling with Your Pet FAQ page on its website, with this statement: “It is recommended that you DO NOT give tranquilizers to your pet when traveling by air because it can increase the risk of heart and respiratory problems. Short-nosed dogs and cats sometimes have even more difficulty with travel. Airlines may require a signed statement that your pet has not been tranquilized prior to flying.”
The AVMA goes on to quote Dr. Patricia Olsen of the American Humane Association (AHA): “An animal’s natural ability to balance and maintain equilibrium is altered under sedation and when the kennel is moved, a sedated animal may not be able to brace and prevent injury.”
If you are concerned about your dog’s behavior or anxiety on an upcoming flight, spend time daily getting him accustomed to being in his carrier. See “The Benefits of CratingTraining,” WDJ January 2011, for tips on teaching a dog to be happy in a crate.
What About Large Dogs as Cargo?
There are people who routinely airship dogs as cargo across the country. I am not and will never be one of those people.
The federal government requires airlines to report incidents to the U.S. Department of Transportation every time an animal on a commercial flight is injured, lost, or dies. The reports appear online in a remarkably timely fashion. The owners’ names are redacted but all the other basic facts about each incident are recounted in the reports.
If you spend a few hours reviewing those “animal incident reports,” you may find yourself turning in your dog’s wings. The reports describe pets who were sickened, injured, escaped from their crates, or lost during air travel – as well as those who were dead on arrival at their owner’s destination.
The reports certainly do serve to educate. Ongoing analysis of the reports (compiled since the law mandating their collection went into effect in 2005) has exposed the most potent dangers of air travel to pets. For example, in 2010, analysis of five years’ worth of animal incident reports revealed that dogs with short muzzles (such as Pugs, Boston Terriers, Boxers, some Mastiffs, Pekingese, Lhasa Apsos, Shih Tzus, and Bulldogs) are much more likely to die on airplanes than dogs with normal-length muzzles. One-half of the 122 dog deaths associated with airline flights in that time span involved these short-faced breeds.
An alarming number of incident reports involve dogs who manage to escape from their crates (and are found by the ground crew at their destination loose in the cargo hold), dogs who were injured in frantic attempts to escape from their crates – descriptions of blood-spattered crates and limping dogs dot the incident reports – and crates that are found to be cracked upon arrival.
Industry observers say that since the airlines (those operating airplanes that seat more than 60 passengers) have been required to collect and publish these reports, the number of incidents have gone down. Industry spokesmen tend to minimize the number of pet losses; you will find all sorts of projections – based on estimations of the total number of pets flown on airlines – as to the rate of pet injury or loss that make air travel look very safe for your dog.
However, it’s far less safe for your pet to fly than it is for you. It’s telling that most of the airlines have increased the number of limitations on which pets they will accept as cargo, on which routes, and at what times of year. And some airlines no longer accept pets as cargo at all.
Alternatives to Cargo Flights For Transporting a Dog
Before flying a dog as cargo, I would recommend exhausting every other option for moving a dog from one place to another, such as:
-Chartered flight (where even large dogs are allowed in the cabin). Example: Magellan Jets
– Professional pet ground transportation service. Example: Royal Paws
– Driving the pet yourself.
– Transatlantic move? Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is the only ship that allows the transatlantic transportation of dogs.
No Alternative?
If you had to ship a dog as cargo, consider the following:
– Dogs with any sort of breathing or cardiac impairment, those who are elderly, obese, and/or in poor health, very young puppies (especially those of toy breeds), and brachycephalic (flat-faced dogs) are at extremely high risk when flying.
– Do not ship during times of year when extremely hot or cold weather can add to the risk.
– Choose an itinerary with the shortest flight time and direct route to minimize extraneous moving (and potential mishandling) of your dog’s crate.
Thoroughly condition and desensitize your dog to spending long periods in the crate, and being in the crate when it is transported. Load and unload the crate into your car with your dog in it, and take long drives with him in the crate. If he shows signs of anxiety or discomfort during these trips (panting, whining, barking, pawing or chewing at the gate, trying to escape, etc.), understand that he will be even more anxious (if not panic-stricken) in the crate as it is handled by baggage crews – and when unattended in the baggage hold during the flight or flight delays.
Buy the strongest, heaviest crate you can buy.
Follow (and exceed) all of the airline’s rules for fastening and labeling the crate. Experienced shippers drill holes near the crate door and use plastic zip ties to keep the door closed in the event that the spring-loaded latch gets jostled open.
Get more information on flying with your dog at Dogster.com.
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So, Im flying this week with a small dog, a carry-on dog, in the cabin. Im transporting my daughter-in-laws dog from her previous home in Boston to her new home here in California. When she moved here, she flew with an 18-month-old, extremely active boy, and that seemed like enough with which to burden a young mother flying otherwise alone. Her dog has been languishing for a few months with her parents, waiting for someone in the family to fly with, in the passenger cabin. I dont recommend flying a dog as cargo except when there is absolutely no other choice, and only under specific conditions.
Why? Everything I know about flying dogs appears in the May issue.
Unfortunately, one of the things I learned when researching this issue is that there is no such thing as airline-approved carriers for small dogs. Or rather, I learned that the phrase does not, in reality, mean what all of us think it means. The popular understanding of the phrase is If I buy this airline-approved carrier, I will be able to carry my small dog on the plane (with proper reservations/booking, of course).
In reality, airline-approved tends to mean, Some airline allowed someone sometime to carry a dog in this bag on board, but dont count on this happening when YOU check in for a flight with YOUR dog on any given day.
The airline agent manning the front counter for your flight are the ones who decide whether or not your carrier is approved for that flight. And the persons approval not only varies by individual, by the airline she or he works for, but also by the specific model of airplane (or airplanes, if you have a multi-leg flight) used in your itinerary.
This is primarily because there is a great deal of variation in the size of the bag that can fit under the seat of various airplanes.
But airline agents are also the ones who will look at your bag to make sure that it is in good condition and can securely contain your dog (if it looks too flimsy, torn, or the zippers dont close tightly, they can reject it, and your dog, from that flight). They also are empowered to (and charged with) making certain that your dog is in a carrier of an appropriate size that you havent stuffed a too-large dog into a too-small bag. Your dog is supposed to be able to stand, turn around, and lie down comfortably in the bag. Puppies who are younger than 8 weeks are not supposed to be carried (or shipped) on airplanes, either, and ostensibly, the front counter personnel can ask for verification that the puppy is of sufficient legal age to travel.
Some agents have great judgment and experience at this job, and some do not. Some may allow a too-young puppy or too-large dog stuffed into a hot, uncomfortable crate onboard, and some may stop a perfectly appropriately crated dog in a perfectly good and appropriate carrier from flying.
The article that appears in the May issue discusses how you can stack the deck in your favor, to make as certain as you can that you and your dog will be appropriately prepared for acceptance onto the flight.
But Im curious: How many of you have flown on commercial flights carrying your small dog? Have you ever been prevented from carrying your dog on board? If so, why? And how did you solve the problem? And if youve never had a problem with the front counter agents, tell us your secret!
While today many pet professionals are aware that the company that owns and sells the brand they feed may not actually be manufacturing the food, many dog owners do not. A substantial number of companies co-pack their foods, which means that the pet food company gives their formulation (recipe) to a manufacturing company that produces, bags, labels and ships their food. The manufacturer mixes ingredients according to the specified formulations and produces a wide variety of pet foods that are sold under different brand names. So while you may think that P&G or Nestle Purina make the food you feed your dog, in some cases the company that actually puts together the final product is a business you have never heard of such as Ohio Pet Food, CJ Foods and Simmons none of which would qualify as household names.
This process becomes even more convoluted when one considers that, like many consumer goods today, the supply chain of ingredients may be outsourced to several different middleman companies (consider the sequence from the 2007 disaster Chinese supplier to ChemNautra to Menu to Pet Food Brands). In addition, pet food companies also may contract food production to several different factories, some of which are located in the US, while others are not. One of the reasons that the Menu Foods recall was so extensive was that Menu Foods specialized in producing wet (canned) products. While many of the large pet food companies own and operate their own dry food factories, there are only a handful of factories that operate as canneries and produce wet pet food. As a result, many companies, including the large corporations, contract the manufacture of their wet foods to another company, typically referred to as a co-packer. Another example is chicken treats, many of which, until the 2012 recall anyway, were completely sourced and produced in China.
Need help choosing a food for your dog? Want assistance wading through the ads, labels, hype and information bombarding you every day? Learn what matters most by reading Dog Food Logic. Buy it today from Whole Dog Journal.
Is it my imagination, or is a plague of ticks currently in effect? Everywhere I go with my dogs these days, they come back crawling with ticks. I use Frontline on them, though I’ve used Advantix in the past – as well as apple cider vinegar rinses and essential oil sprays and Skin-So-Soft wipedowns. For whatever reason, Frontline seems to work better than anything else on my dogs, in my area, though I hear contrary reports from other dog owners in other places. I’m seriously considering making a line of Tyvek canine coveralls, instead.
Due to the tick plague, I have to allot extra time for walking the dogs, or rather, for combing them after walks. I pour a glass of water, put a little dish soap in it to reduce the surface tension, and drop all the ticks I find into it as I work. The little insects immediately sink, waving their tiny legs, but not for long.
Every time I have ever mentioned dropping ticks into water, I get letters from people who insist that you can’t drown a tick. I invite you to do some “citizen science” and put your own ticks in a jar of water, and follow this fun activity with observing the results. You can even dry out their little dead bodies afterward to see if they “come back to life.” Trust me; ticks drown.
They can also live without food for a week or two (but not forever) in a jar that contains no water. Ask me how I know.
You can Google these things, but sometimes you just have to see for yourself. Like, when I was reading about ticks the other day (I’m mildly obsessed right now), I kept coming across the stated fact that ticks can’t jump. I just can’t fathom how they are so damn successful at getting all over my dog, who runs like the wind the whole time we’re out on walks, if they can’t at least launch themselves quickly toward something. So, after combing and pulling ticks out of Otto’s coat on our last walk, I saved a few individual ticks in a dry jar, and ran a few trials. I released one tick at a time onto a white plastic folding table (so I could be sure to spot and apprehend any escapees from my “test lab”). They sure do ambulate faster than I could bear to watch for long, but I didn’t observe any jumping activity – but then, I never let them get close enough to the table’s edge for reliable data regarding jumping off something onto someone. I guess I’m going to take Google’s word for that bit of trivia.
There’s just one bit of good news on the tick front: I have discovered the world’s best tool for removing ticks, one that surpasses all previous favorites. It’s called the Pro Tick Remedy, and it features a V-shaped slot that narrows tightly enough to scoop up and pull out even the tiniest, most freshly latched-on tick. It comes on a keychain paired helpfully with a small magnifying glass, so you can confirm that you really did get the whole thing. I bought six, so I could have them stashed everywhere I might happen to be petting Otto and feel a tick. I’ve never been so grateful for something that costs so little (less than $5).
It’s very disconcerting when your well-housetrained dog suddenly starts having accidents in the house. It may be human nature to think he’s doing it to spite you, but that’s not the case – a well-trained dog doesn’t just start soiling indoors on a whim. There’s a legitimate reason it’s happening, and you owe it to your dog to find out why.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Explore possible medical causes of your dog’s accidents.
Something as simple as a urinary-tract infection or as complex as diabetes (causes increased thirst and water consumption, which causes increased urination) can be the cause of your dog’s indoor puddles. There are many common medical causes of increased urination. Gastrointestinal distress, which causes anything from slightly loose stools to liquid diarrhea, can prompt your dog to defecate indoors as well. Any dog can have an accident, but if yours has uncharacteristically started house soiling regularly, get thee to thy veterinarian as soon as possible for a complete workup.
2. Check if medications are causing your dog to soil the house.
A number of canine medications used to treat common health conditions can also cause increased water consumption followed by increased urination. Prednisone, used to treat a variety of ailments, is a prime example. Other medicines can cause gastrointestinal distress, which can also result in house soiling. If your dog is on any medications, ask your veterinarian whether that could be the cause of his break in training.
3. Look for possible stressors for your dog.
Urination and defecation can be a dog’s response to stress. Check your environment to see if there’s something going on that might provoke this stress response in your dog. Construction next door with loud machinery? Neighborhood kids who have discovered it’s fun to bang on your door to tease the dog? A watch alarm beeping in a drawer? Set up your laptop camera or nanny cam and see if you can make a correlation between stimuli, stress, and soiling. If you can’t find a specific trigger, then evaluate your dog’s total stress load and see if removing as many stressors as possible can help him return to his prior fastidious habits.
4. Evaluate your routine.
Are you working overtime a lot? Stopping on the way home at a local pub for some face time with your new honey? Perhaps your dog was just barely holding it with legs tightly crossed before, and the extra time it’s taking you to get home now is just more than he can handle. If so, and if you can’t return to your prior schedule, then make arrangements with a neighbor or family member to let your dog out at midday or late afternoon, or hire a good petsitting service to do it.
5. Revisit basic housetraining lessons.
It’s worth putting serious energy into discerning the cause of your dog’s house soiling. If you discover and remove the cause of his problem, your dog may immediately return to his former pristine ways.
Or he may not. If that’s the case, or if you simply can’t find a reason, it’s time to go back to basic housetraining. You probably won’t have to implement the puppy “every hour on the hour” routine, but you do need to make sure he gets outside more often than he has to go. If you work all day, this might mean putting him back in a crate or exercise pen until he is successfully retrained, and hiring a professional petsitter (or arranging with a friend or neighbor) to let him out for a potty break at least once, preferably two or even three times during the day.
Just keep in mind that there’s a reason your housetrained dog might eliminate indoors – and neither spite, anger, jealousy, nor any other human emotion we might blame has anything to do with it. It’s up to you to find the reason and help him return to spotless living.
As Frodo learned all too well, messing around with someone’s eye can be asking for trouble. And while administering ophthalmologic drops or ointment to your dog isn’t quite as hairy as tangling with the Red Eye of Sauron, it still can be an unpleasant experience for both of you if you are unprepared.
Eye drops and ointments are prescribed for a variety of ocular conditions in dogs, including glaucoma, corneal ulcers, and recovery from cataract surgery. Even a minor eye infection like conjunctivitis – what the kids in your grade-school days called “pink eye” – can require regular administration of drops.
But when it comes to putting anything in their eyes or those of their dogs, “people are naturally freaky about it,” says Dr. David Maggs, professor of veterinary ophthalmology at the University of California at Davis. “And it’s just difficult to aim: You’ve got a wriggly dog and a very small target.” It doesn’t help that eyes in need of medication tend to look very off-putting, to put it mildly: Even a superficial scratch of the cornea, which in many cases will resolve in a few days, can make your dog look like something out of a low-budget horror flick.
If you’re feeling trepidation, your dog probably isn’t looking forward to the experience, either. Most would rather be somewhere, anywhere, else rather than getting a generous splash of wetness plopped into their eye, which likely isn’t feeling so great to begin with. “Depending on the dog, they can be very sensitive, especially if they have ulcers in the eye, which are extremely painful,” says Dr. Tomas Infernuso, of Veterinary Traveling Surgical Services in Long Island, New York. “And they associate any kind of contact with pain.”
That said, there is something worse than having to deal with a dog’s resistance to getting eye medications: Having matters escalate to the point where you can’t give them at all. “I’ve seen dogs who have lost an eye because people couldn’t medicate them,” Dr. Infernuso says. And that’s really not an option.
Find a Technique That Works For You
Ask 10 veterinarians, and chances are that you’ll hear 10 different (and sometimes contradictory) recommendations on how best to give eye medications. The following are some tips to make the process a little smoother; pick the ones that work best for you and your dog.
Ask 10 veterinarians, and chances are that you’ll hear 10 different (and sometimes contradictory) recommendations on how best to give eye medications. The following are some tips to make the process a little smoother; pick the ones that work best for you and your dog.
Cornered! Dr. Brad Holmberg, a board-certified ophthalmologist at the Animal Eye Center in Little Falls, New Jersey, likes to position the dog so she can’t back away: For small dogs, that’s on a table or countertop, with the dog’s rear against you – “butt to belly,” as he puts it.
Dr. Holmberg recommends straddling large dogs (who need to stay on the floor) with your thighs and elbows, and maneuvering their backs into a corner so they have no way to escape.
“Place your left hand on their chin and angle their head up,” he explains. Rest your right hand on the dog’s forehead, with the applicator ready. Using the thumb of the left hand, which is still steadying the chin, pull up the eyebrow – not the eyelid – to expose the white of the eye, and apply the drops.
Lessrestraint. Dr. Infernuso, by contrast, prefers not to restrain the dog unduly. “I usually start by rubbing the dog on the head, so he knows I’m not just going for the eye,” he explains. “Then I gently massage the area around the eye,” being careful, of course, not to put any pressure on the eye itself.
Restraining a dog, he notes, usually will mean that she will resist you. “They learn that when they’re held, something’s going to happen, so it usually turns out to be more of a struggle than an easy way out, and usually you get the opposite of what you want.”
Instead, with most patients, he offers food with one hand and administers the medicine with the other. (In a variation of this, a dog rescuer recently exulted on Facebook that she had found the perfect distraction: peanut butter smeared inside a yogurt cup, then held high to induce a helpful head tilt.)
I’ll take Ointment. Dr. Infernuso prefers ointment, because it lasts longer, and administers it by using his thumb to pull down the bottom eyelid, then deposits the medication on the pink tissue, or conjunctival sac. “You don’t have to open the eye that much, and you don’t want to touch the cornea,” he says. He administers drops this way, too.
Going steady. Take a tip from the manicurist: If you’ve ever gone to a nail salon, you might have noticed that the technician stabilizes the hand she holds the nail-polish brush with by resting her pinky against the table; it gives her more control and accuracy. Use that same technique with the hand that holds the eye medication.
“Resting your hand on your dog’s head is important – you don’t want to be holding the bottle above his head,” says Dr. Jacqueline Pearce, an assistant professor of comparative ophthalmology at the University of Missouri in Columbia. “Hold the medicine bottle or tube with your thumb and forefinger, and rest your pinky on the dog’s forehead.” Use the fingers of your other hand to hold the dog’s eyelid open.
Don’t telegraph your plans. Dr. Pearce also advocates the element of surprise, bringing the bottle from behind. “Move your hand along the dog’s neck toward the back of the head,” she advises. “That’s better than if you come straight at them with the bottle.”
Hands Off. Administering eye medication is a tricky little dance: You have to get close enough to ensure that the liquid or ointment actually gets into the eye, but not so close as to let any portion of the applicator make contact with it. With eye drops, hold the applicator about an inch from the eye, and be conscious of where it is at all times. “I’ve seen people rupture the eye by holding it too close,” Dr. Infernuso warns, “or the dog turns his head and basically perforates the cornea.”
Though you might be tempted to squeeze ointment on to your finger before applying it, don’t: No matter how well you clean your hands, you will transmit bacteria into your dog’s eye. Again, with ointment you don’t apply it to the eye itself, but rather to the strip of pink tissue behind the eyelid. Once placed there, the ointment will dissolve and distribute itself across the eye.
BePrepared. “Get your drops ready,” Dr. Holmberg says. “Remember to take the top off before you start.” To soften ointment so that is more viscous and easier to spread, put the tube under your armpit or in your pants pocket for five minutes. “It will be more like a gel than toothpaste,” he explains.
If you’re short on time, you can also run the ointment under warm tap water for a minute or so, Dr. Pearce adds. She notes that eye drops rarely have to be refrigerated, but if yours do – or if they have been in a cold car or storage area for any length of time – leave them out for ten minutes so they warm to room temperature. Overly cold liquid is uncomfortable for your dog.
Helpwanted. If at all possible, have a capable helper on hand. One person can help support the head and body to keep the dog still, while the other person focuses on holding and administering the medication.
Accentuate the positive. “One thing that’s really helpful is to reward the dog after he gets eye drops, so he associates it with something positive,” says Dr. Pearce of the University of Michigan. “I’ve had clients who say their dogs remind them it’s time for their drops.”
Tough Customer?
Oh, to have a pliant and pleasant Lassie who lifts her comely head to you in trust and deference as you administer those all-important drops. But the reality is that some dogs are simply not willing to follow a script when it comes to medical procedures, and if you want to get the job done, some vets offer more compulsory methods to consider. This may go against your personal philosophy in handling your dog, but, as always, measure it against the potential repercussions of not being able to medicate at all.
Several veterinarians suggest giving the antihistamine Benadryl, which can have a subtle settling effect, about a half-hour before applying the eye medication. (The recommended dose is 1 milligram per pound of body weight.) Dr. Infernuso notes that because many eye conditions are painful, it can be appropriate to have the dog on some pain medication to manage that discomfort to begin with.
“Sometimes, a soft muzzle will preoccupy a dog” long enough for an owner to administer the medication, Dr. Pearce notes. And sometimes that kind of mouth restraint is required with dogs who may be unhappy or panicked enough to attempt to bite when the bottle draws near.
Dr. Holmberg notes that wrapping a small dog in a towel is sometimes very calming, though this may have more to do with the dog being immobilized rather than any more relaxed emotional state. Following this train of thought, consider using a pressure wrap such as an Anxiety Wrap or ThunderShirt. Tight-fitting garments made of elastic fabric that distributes pressure across the body, these wraps can decrease anxiety for some dogs, though of course they will do nothing to physically restrain them.
Dr. Maggs of UC Davis suggests putting the dog “in an area where he is not emotionally sure of himself – where he tends to freeze and be still.” For large dogs, he suggests an elevated area such as a table – provided you have enough help and control to keep the dog there during the process – or a bathtub; for smaller dogs, a sink often does the trick.
In the interest of “getting the job done,” using compulsion can seem like the most logical and expedient choice. But remember that once a dog is “wise” to your tricks, things can escalate, and you are put in the position of using even harsher measures to get the same effect. In the interest of preserving and building the bond you have between you, keep your interactions as positive and rewarding as possible. The results might not be as immediate, but they will very likely be longer-lasting.
Strike that Balance
It should go without saying, but let’s say it anyway: Be gentle. In particular, don’t put too much pressure around eye and be mindful of hurting your dog if he is so unruly that he’s bucking like a bronco. At the same time, don’t be so tepid or unsure that you communicate this to your dog. Remind yourself that this is a simple medical procedure that even the greenest layperson can do with the proper technique. And you’ve just learned it.
The problem with eye medication is most dogs don’t have a chance to be introduced to it in a gradual, positive manner: Instead, the need for it is often instantaneous and unexpected, and owners simply don’t have the time to build up a positive association, the way they would with other potentially invasive procedures such as nail trimming or bathing.
But if your dog develops a condition that requires long-term daily administration of ophthalmologic drops or ointments, it may be worth it to you to you to take the time to condition your dog to love the eye-drop bottle or tube. Veterinarian, trainer, and author Dr. Sophia Yin recommends systematically pairing the bottle and progressively intense handling with food rewards over the course of a couple of weeks.
To start, use an empty drop bottle smeared with canned cheese or peanut butter, and “let the dog lick the treat off,”
Dr. Yin advises. “It’s best to spread it flat and thin so the dog has to lick repeatedly instead of sucking up the entire treat with one quick roll of the tongue.”
Once your dog is consistently happy to see the bottle, Dr. Yin recommends starting to pair food with touching the dog’s face, systematically and gradually approximating how you will touch it in order to give the drops, such as parting the eyelids. Once she accepts that, you reintroduce the treat-smeared bottle, allowing her to lick the food off the bottle as you mimic the steps of administering the medicine, eventually quickly moving the bottle into position above the eye before returning it to a place where she can continue noshing.
“Keep switching back and forth, systematically increasing the length of time that you hold the bottle above her eye,” Dr. Yin explains. “When you’re consistently able to hold the bottle above her head for three to five seconds, you’re ready to administer drops. Switch the fake practice bottle out and replace it with the real bottle of medications. Administer the drops, and then hurry and follow with treats.”
Denise Flaim of Revodana Ridgebacks in Long Island, New York, shares her home with three Ridgebacks, 10-year-old triplets, and a very patient husband.
When my husband asked me to come to the shelter where he worked to meet the 8-year-old Australian Shepherd he had fallen in love with and wanted to adopt, of course I said yes. When Paul first met Missy, she threw herself on her back at his feet, and he was hooked. When I saw her striking red merle coat, her stunning “odd eyes” (one brown, one blue) and her delightful personality, I was smitten, too, and didn’t need any arm-twisting from my husband to agree to add this beautiful girl to our family. She slipped into her place in our home with barely a ripple, just as did Mandy, an 8-year-old tri-color Rough Collie and my first senior adoption, some 30 years prior.
If you are embarking on a senior adoption adventure, you’re likely to have many questions about your new old dog. What should you expect? How active will he be? How much management will he require? Should you plan to do any training with him? Will he need any training? If so, how much, what kind, and when? We asked several different trainers to share their wisdom on senior-dog adoptions.
Realistic Expectations
While adult-dog adoptions often go as smoothly as Mandy’s and Missy’s, they don’t always. There can be immense benefits inherent in adopting a dog who may already be housetrained and well beyond the puppy chewing and adolescent stages. However, because senior-dog adoptions aren’t always trouble-free, it’s safest to make no assumptions about your new adult canine family member.
Cindy Mauro, CPDT-KA, of Cindy Mauro Dog Training in West Milford, New Jersey, is very familiar with the rewards and challenges of older-dog adoptions.
“I have adopted many senior dogs. The last two were 13-plus years, and I’m expecting a senior girl to come to me in a couple weeks from a puppy-mill rescue,” she says.
“I keep in mind that training may require changing old habits, which requires patience. I never assume that the older dog is already trained, so instead of setting myself up for disappointment, I start off as I would any new dog – with a plan in place for training and management as soon as she comes in the door. I am pleasantly surprised and pleased any time things go easier than I thought they would.”
Absent solid information to the contrary, behave as though your new dog is not housetrained. He may have belonged to someone who forced him to soil indoors so he thinks carpeting is the appropriate substrate on which to eliminate, or maybe he spent the first eight years of his life with only shoes and sofa cushions for chew toys. Or, although he may be physically capable of “holding it” because he’s a mature adult, he’s lived outdoors all his life and never learned rules for indoor living.
Plan on implementing a senior-dog training and management plan that will set him up for success, by using an “every hour on the hour” puppy housetraining protocol. Also, practice diligent puppy-proofing – putting everything away that your new dog might view as a potential chew object. With a little luck he will quickly show you that your precautions are unnecessary and you can relax your standards. If, however, your precautions are justified, you will have set him up to succeed by not allowing him to be reinforced even one time for unwanted behaviors in his new environment. This will help him to learn new rules and appropriate new behaviors much more quickly.
My standard practice of keeping small Tupperware containers of treats in every room will serve you well with your senior adoptee, as will a never-ending supply of cookies in your pockets. You don’t want to miss a single opportunity to reinforce him for doing the right thing as the two of you create your relationship.
There’s No Hurry
This sort of proactive management will help you and your new dog get off on the right foot, but when it comes to actual training, it’s wise to take it slow with your senior adoptee, unless he makes it clear he’s ready for a fast track. Christine Danker, CPDT-KA, KPA-CTP, PMCT3, of Hemlock Hollow Dog Training in Albany, New York, offers these useful tips:
Give the older dog a quiet place to settle in for a few days. This should be located somewhere that enables her to see and/or hear everything going on in the house, or to retreat without disturbances if she prefers.
Plan on being home, or at least reduce your regular schedule considerably, so you can observe the new senior. Will she be afraid to be left in a room behind a baby gate? Will she be comfortable in a crate? Is she housetrained? Does she have hearing loss or mobility issues?
Slowly integrate the new senior into a house with other dogs. Was the new dog living alone? With other dogs? An active younger dog could be too rambunctious for a senior, but if their sizes are similar, the senior may really enjoy interacting with another dog.
Remember, a mature dog who lived for many years in one home can take longer to adjust to the sudden changes in his life than a younger dog might.
“Be mindful that a senior dog may have formed a strong bond with his former family,” says Dawn Kalinowksi, CPDT-KA, of Poised Pups, LLC, in Norfolk, Virginia. “Realize that he may even be mourning the loss of his beloved humans and the familiarity of his previous home. Don’t overwhelm him. It’s important to go slow and allow him time to bond with his new family and settle into this new environment.”
Susan Sarubin, PMCT-2, CPDT-KA, of Pawsitive Fit LLC, in Easton, Maryland, is in total agreement.
“Dogs who are re-homed later in life may need a more extended period of adjustment to a new home, given their longer history of behavior in their old home. Many older dogs come with additional fears and anxieties that extend beyond just normal adjusting to a new environment or new humans. For those dogs, the best way of dealing with this may be to just give the dog space, allowing him to choose where he wants to be, and when he wants to be with you and your family.
“Sometimes I think we’re in too much of a rush to teach older adopted dogs the behaviors we ultimately want them to learn to successfully assimilate into the family. Unless behavior is truly problematic and needs immediate attention, allow time for the dog to view you as predictable, safe, and the source of wonderful things (petting, treats, toys, walks, etc.). Teaching new behaviors will be easier to train once your new dog is less stressed and trusts you. Be patient, capture the behaviors you like, and forgo dedicated training sessions until your dog is happily interacting with you and appears calm and relaxed in his new home.”
Getting Along With Others
If you already have other four-legged family members, helping your new old dog adjust to his new home includes careful introductions and a management plan that protects your senior adoptee from the unwanted attentions of younger, more active dogs.
Here are some recommendations from Sharon Messersmith, owner of Canine Valley Training in Reading, Pennsylvania, who says, “If you are adding a senior dog into your household with younger dogs, specific training with all dogs will help with the transition.”
Teach all dogs to wait at steps to allow your older dog to go first, or vice versa.
Give each dog her own space and teach all your dogs to respect each others’ spaces.
An older dog might not be able to tolerate constant play all day. Give her a crate or room that is just for her when she needs some alone time.
Be Considerate of Physical Needs
Finally, keep in mind that your senior adoptee may have mobility issues that impact his daily routine in your home. Past injuries or simply age-related arthritis may dictate that you assist him with getting into vehicles, going upstairs, or even navigating the small raised threshold of a doorway. While Missy was able to climb our stairs to the second-floor bedroom for most of her time with us, for the last year of her life I routinely assisted her. In her final few weeks she slept downstairs, as it became too much of an ordeal to ask her to climb. Make sure water bowls and beds are easily accessible for your mobility-challenged new old dog, and consider installing ramps where possible to make life easier for the oldster.
Training an Old Dog
You may or may not need or want to (or have to) invest much energy into training your new old dog. Your own preference as well as your individual dog’s personality and abilities can guide you here. If you win the adoption lottery and your new family member is already housetrained and has decent manners (like Missy and Mandy), you can slide on the training.
You may also discover that your adoptee has some mobility issues that limit his physical capabilities. When I first met her, I noticed that Missy had a slight limp. When we had radiographs taken we found that her right hind leg was an inch shorter than her left due to a prior broken leg injury that hadn’t been properly treated. If we had ambitious goals for her, this might have been disappointing. As it was, since we only wanted her to be a happy farm dog, it wasn’t devastating – it only meant that we needed to watch for arthritis as she aged and alleviate her pain as needed.
Most trainers recommend taking a slow training approach with senior adoptees – slower than you might with a younger dog. Peaceable Paws trainer Laura Nalven, PMCT, shares an experience she had with a recent client:
“I’m reminded of someone in my classes who adopted a senior dog (probably 10 years old or so) just a week or so before class,” she relates. “She wanted to start training immediately because she remembered how much fun her previous (and much younger) dog had and how much it helped them bond.
“The old boy couldn’t see anything more than about eight inches from his face if it wasn’t moving, and his owner hadn’t realized this limitation in the short time they’d been together. Hearing or vision problems, coupled with general achiness, can make group classes full of bouncy adolescents an overwhelming experience. The class environment just stressed this dog out, and his owner felt like she wasn’t doing enough to bond with him.
“I’d suggest that you allow older dogs a longer period to adjust to their new home than you might a younger dog. If they’re peppy and eager to do training games, go for it. But if they’re laid back and just want to sit in the sun all day, let them.”
Clean Slate? Or Highly Experienced?
Nan Marks of Silver Spring, Maryland, is a Peaceable Paws Academy graduate who trains at Capital Dog Training Club in Silver Spring. She is also a veteran adopter of mature dogs. She shares her thoughts about training:
“This topic is near and dear to my heart. In recent years I have adopted a Rough Collie, Robbie, at age 8; a large bronze (Golden/Chow/Newfoundland?) mix, Bruce, at age 10; and most recently another 8-year-old Rough Collie, Lucy.
“All three were basically outdoor dogs; two of the three had been tied out their entire lives. These dogs have taught me two primary things: first, never assume that they won’t learn and enjoy learning just because they are older; and second, let their behavior, not their age, tell you what they are willing to try. All three became delightful companions, trained and active therapy dogs, two of the three learned some agility, and one competed and titled in obedience and canine freestyle.”
On one hand, your senior dog may come to you will little or no training, as did Marks’ dogs, described above. On the other, he may have had some training with the less-than-positive methods that are still all too common in the real world.
Peaceable Paws Academy graduate Jackie Moyano trains at WOOFS! in Arlington, Virginia, and Coventry School for Dogs in Columbia, Maryland, and also volunteers at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, where she enjoys matching prospective adopters with appropriate senior dogs. She suggests having fun with your dog while introducing him to a new training relationship with humans based on mutual trust.
“While your mature dog may come to you knowing ‘sit’, ‘down,’ and ‘stay,’ you may not know the training methods used to teach these cues,” says Moyano. “Why not take a positive-reinforcement tricks class? Not only could this provide mental stimulation for your mature dog, it could accelerate your bonding!”
It Depends
So, the best answer to any question about a “new old dog” is . . . “It depends.” He may come to you already trained, or you may need to do a lot of management while you find out who he is and how you can best meet his needs. You may be able to jump right into a training program, or he may need time to settle in and take training at a slower pace. In any case, be prepared to fall every bit as deeply in love with your senior adoptee as you have with previous puppies and younger dogs who have been part of your family.
Just last year we said sad goodbyes to our beloved Missy when, at age 14, her injury-related arthritis finally dictated that we let her go. Although we were her humans for only six of her 14 years, it was as painful a loss as any we’ve experienced. When you adopt a new old dog, since you don’t have as much time to look forward to, you learn to treasure the years you do have with them.
Senior Successes
There is an endless supply of “new old dog” happy-ending stories like Missy’s and Mandy’s. Twelve-year-old Scooter is a beloved member of our family. We adopted the little Pomeranian five years ago when he was on the euthanasia list at our shelter after he failed his assessment due to his resource guarding (easily managed in our child-free home).
Trainer Susan Sarubin tells of her most recent adoption:
“The transformation in my 7 1/2-year-old adopted Rhodesian Ridgeback, Andy, has been quite remarkable since we adopted him over a year ago. There have been many ‘firsts’ in his behavior that have brought me tears of joy. Until recently, I spent little time with him that was dedicated to training – he experienced only the training that goes on with normal daily interaction, with rewards for desirable behavior. He has blossomed into the dog that he was never allowed to be in his previous life. We accomplished that in large part by letting him to come to it on his own. We have done 16 months of informal shaping, really. Now he learns behaviors on cue quickly – and most important, he’s a happy boy.”
Sometimes people worry that they won’t be able to bond with an older dog when they’ve missed out on the puppy and young-dog sharing experiences.
Trainer Nan Marks puts those fears to rest with these beautiful words:
“I remember early on fearing I would not love these older guys as much. Boy, was I wrong! For the most part I’ve found them easier to bond with quickly because they are more fully who they are already and not surfing the waves of puppyhood and adolescence.
“I also remember fearing that having only a short span to share with them would be too painful. I can only say that for the two who have now moved on, they were with me for three and four years, respectively, and those wonderful, loving years felt gloriously long to me in all the things that make having dogs meaningful.”
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, where she offers dog-training classes and courses for trainers. Pat is also the author of many books on positive training. She has a terrific brand-new book, How to Foster Dogs: From Homeless to Homeward Bound.
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
