We do know that aggression is caused by stress. With the very rare exception of idiopathic aggression – at one time called “rage syndrome,” “Cocker rage,” or “Springer rage” and grossly overdiagnosed in the 1960s and ’70s – aggression is the result of a stress load that pushes a dog over his bite threshold.
It’s often relatively easy to identify the immediate trigger for your dogs’ mutual aggression. It’s usually whatever happened just before the appearance of the hard stare, posturing, growls, and sometimes the actual fight.
When you have identified your dogs’ triggers, you can manage their environment to reduce trigger incidents and minimize outright conflict. This is critically important to a successful modification program. The more often the dogs fight, the more tension there is between them; the more practiced they become at the undesirable behaviors, the better they get at fighting and the harder it will be to make it go away. And this is to say nothing of the increased likelihood that sooner or later someone – dog or human – will be badly injured.
For more details and advice on aggressive dog behavior, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook Modifying Dog Aggression.
I love being asked to find “the right dog” for friends or family. Especially when it’s for a person or family who is committed to taking their time to find the exact right dog –- people who don’t fall for the first cute but oh-so-inappropriate dog who comes along.
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I often foster and place dogs who have lingered in the shelter for months and months with no takers, and while it’s immensely gratifying to find a good home for those dogs, it’s far, far easier to search for a specific type of dog for someone who is ready and wants one. I often brag that, given enough time (and I’m talking months, not years) I can find any type of dog for a person who has a list of traits that they want in a dog, with reasonable flexibility.
For example, one of my most recent successes: My son’s girlfriend’s aunt let it be known that she was looking for a Corgi, an adult, who could easily co-exist with her, her husband, and her husband’s small and physically fragile 94-year-old mother. The elderly mother-in-law, who still “has the run of the house” but also has some dementia, ruled out puppies and dogs who might jump and hurt her, and dogs with complicated or unforgiving attitudes about humans. In other words, the dog needed to be very friendly and trained or easily trained.
I received the request through the chain of command (auntie, girlfriend, son) and pulled up my local shelter’s website. Lo and behold, they were currently holding (in the “lost” dogs section) a Corgi-mix, adult female. She looked like she might have some Australian Cattle Dog in her – a common breed in these parts. I looked at her intake date; she had come in as a stray, picked up by county animal control, three weeks earlier. That indicated that either no one was looking for her or knew to look for her at the shelter, and that she was long past the state’s minimum hold time of four business days (the amount of time that California deems adequate for making a stray dog available for claiming by an owner, after which the shelter can either euthanize or adopt the dog out). My local shelter usually holds dogs for far longer than four days before deciding what to do with them, both to give owners more time to look for the dogs at the shelter, and to give the dogs more time to reveal what they are really like.
I went to the shelter the next day and asked the kennel manager why the dog was still listed as “lost” and not yet available for adoption. The answer was that they were certain someone would come looking for her, she was such a nice, friendly dog. I took her outside, spent an hour or so with her, took some pictures of her for Auntie, and generally liked her more every minute. When I was done, the kennel manager said to go ahead and put her in an open kennel on the “adoption” side of the shelter; she had passed all of the shelter’s evaluations (health and heartworm tests, behavior evaluation) and was ready to be made available to the public.
I emailed my thoughts about the dog and some photos to Auntie, and received an immediate response: “If you like her, we’ll take her!” They had wanted a more purebred-looking Corgi, but this was close enough. Given that Auntie and her family live more than 100 miles from me, this required them to fill out the required forms and send payment to the shelter via phone and fax, and I picked up the dog so she could stay with me for the few days that it would take us to coordinate our schedules for a change of custody. That also gave me a few days to teach Ruby, as she is now known, a few basic behaviors (sit, down, come), introduce her to hanging out in a crate, and further evaluate her in order to be able to provide advice about her behavior, if needed, once Auntie and Uncle (and elderly Mom) had her. It also gave them time to buy some gear (baby gate, bowls, leash, crate, bed, etc.) and get the house ready for a dog.
We certainly have had some long phone calls and email exchanges about Ruby, but thankfully, none of them about her health or really problematic behavior. She’s doing great with all human members of the family, though she’s shown some aggressive behavior with visiting dogs belonging to more extended members of the family. That’s quite solvable. They also asked for a referral to a positive trainer, which I was all too happy to track down (from a trainer/writer friend not far from them). We’ve spent the most time talking about diet and portion control; the family wants Ruby to stay fit and trim (their last dog died of probably obesity-related issues, and they are determined not to repeat their failure to control this dog’s weight). Mostly, they LOVE the dog and want everything to continue to go well. All in all, a GREAT adoption.
Still riding high on that success, I was thrilled to be asked by my new next-door neighbor, an active, educated 80-year-old woman, whether I could help her find a smallish, short-haired, female, house-trained adult or senior dog. I’m going to the shelter this afternoon to start the search!
Positive does not mean permissive. We just have different ideas about the necessary nature of the negative consequence. When one is needed, positive trainers are most likely to use “negative punishment” (taking away a good thing), rather than “positive punishment” (the application of a bad thing). As an adjunct to that, we counsel the generous use of management to prevent the dog from practicing (and getting rewarded for) undesirable behaviors.
The result? Since all living things repeat behaviors that are rewarding, and those behaviors that aren’t rewarded extinguish (go away), the combination of negative punishment and management creates a well-trained dog at least as easily as harsh or painful corrections and without the very real potential for relationship damage that is created by the use of physical punishment.
For more details and advice on positive training, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook Positive Training Basics.
Most puppies will “come” to you whenever you decide to walk away because they instinctively like to follow you. Instilling a reliable response, however, usually takes months of consistency and positive reinforcement. The easiest way to teach your new puppy or dog the “come” cue is to begin using it as soon as you bring them home:
• Whenever your puppy or dog is coming to you on his own, wait until he is a couple of feet from you and then say his name and the word “come”.
• When he gets to you, make a big fuss over him.
• With this exercise, your dog will learn that coming to you is a really good thing. After a while, you can lengthen the distance between you before you say the cue word, but be careful that you don’t go too far too soon.
• If you want a reliable recall, do not chase your dog unless it is an emergency. Dogs love to be chased.
• If you call your dog a number of times and he doesn’t come back to you, don’t tell him off when he eventually returns. It is understandably annoying when your dog ignores you, but if he comes back only to find that you’re angry with him, he’ll actually learn to avoid you more. He won’t understand that you’re angry because he ignored you and will think you’re annoyed because he came back. Coming to you should always be rewarded, whatever the circumstance and no matter how long it took him to respond.
• Motivate your dog to come by being excited, running away from him, waving a toy, or having delicious food for him when he gets to you. This will instill the idea that coming back to you is the best thing he can do.
One potential hazard of fostering dogs, when you already own dogs, is that your dogs become stressed or unhappy about the foster dogs, who often need remedial training and lessons in basic good dog manners. Other dogs enjoy having canine company, even if the visitors are ill-mannered. While my dog Otto is currently the latter, I think that when he’s a senior dog, I will have to forego fostering for a time. I suspect that he’s going to be one of those senior dogs who loses his tolerance for young dog antics.
Today, though, I really appreciate his participation in our fostering efforts. If I bring in a well-behaved dog, he gives that dog proper space and respect, allowing him or her to participate in all of our daily activities. However, I’m more likely to bring home a juvenile delinquent who needs some remedial work on self-control; these are the dogs who need the most help to become appealing enough to find an adopter willing to take them home. And when I do bring home one of these impulsive, anxious, over-the-top dogs, Otto helps teach the dog when and where it’s inappropriate to be wild. In the kitchen? Mind your manners and keep all four feet (and your butt) on the floor and you may get a treat; if you act like a chimpanzee, we are all going to get kicked outdoors and NO FOOD.
Otto has never, ever, left a mark on another dog; his bite inhibition is exquisite. But he has a fearsome growl/roar – more like a bear than a dog – and he will unleash it on any teenaged dog who attempts to jump up on him or get right up in his face. I rarely have to say anything when one of my foster dogs is behaving too exuberantly in the house (or as we are on our way to get in the car or even just going out to feed the chickens); if the dog jumps up on me, Otto will take it upon himself to pounce on the rowdy youngster with a fearsome RRRROOOWWFF! (translated as “Knock it OFF! Or else!) and when the young dog hits the dirt, I can step in with a kindly word, petting, or treat as a reinforcement, both for the dog’s deference to Otto and for calming himself.
Recently, due to a number of family events, I’ve been staying in the Bay Area, at the homes of various friends and family members. Otto and Tito (the Chihuahua) have been going with me everywhere. They’ve been to most of these places before, and have been relaxed and polite visitors to my friends’ homes. But Otto had to work hard during our frequent visits to one house: my son’s dad’s house. My ex and his wife have a gorgeous 8-month-old German Short-Haired Pointer, who (surprise, surprise) is also a bit of a nut: relentlessly active, curious, and confident. She flings herself on every visitor and explores every damn thing you might have in your hands.
It took Otto about two seconds to identify her as a Special Problem and take responsibility for teaching her better manners. When her owner came in the back gate and Trixie jumped up in a exuberant (but rude) greeting, Otto pounced (“RRRUUUUUFFF!”). Trixie hit the dirt, displaying appropriate deference to the older dog, but then would bounce back up after a few seconds and jump again. RRUFF! Down. Jump! RRUFF! After five of these corrections, Trixie gave up and just walked into the house ahead of Amy, who laughingly said, “Can Otto stay here for a few months?”
A couple of days later, my son and I took my two dogs, Trixie, and his girlfriend’s elderly Labrador to the beach for an outing. It was Otto’s first experience with an ocean, and he had a wonderful time. He loved the sand, was fascinated with the seagulls, and seemed super curious about the incoming and outgoing waves (and the salty, not-nice taste of the water). He also rode Trixie hard for all of her infractions: not coming when called, not giving us humans (or Tito!) enough space as she ran by, jumping up on us, and sometimes, just existing in the same space/time continuum as him.
A young adult Labrador also got his attention when it ran toward us, blithely ignoring his owner’s calls. Given that the Lab was intact and at least 20 pounds heavier than Otto, I was worried when the Lab got in Otto’s face and Otto immediately gave him the Trixie treatment (RRRUUUFFF!). Fortunately, the Lab also got the message and displayed some deferent behavior (“Okay, boss, whatever, I’m outta here.”) rather than escalating and taking umbrage for what could very easily be taken as Otto’s bad manners – the presumption that all the other dogs should behave as he thinks dogs should.
We left the beach shortly after that encounter but it made me wonder: How much tolerance does Otto have left in him for ill-mannered dogs? Is this behavior getting more pronounced because of all the fostering we do? Should I dial it back to help Otto mellow out and not feel compelled to “train” every rude dog we encounter?
Those of you who foster: What do you think? What do you do to make sure your own dogs are not too put-upon by the dogs you foster?
I have a friend whose dogs are currently being terrorized by a band of aggressive turkeys in her neighborhood. Plus, her yard is not fenced, so the turkeys who wander down the block often take detours through her yard. They are not only large and noisy and numerous, they advance rather than retreat when her dogs approach them — to the point that her dogs no longer want to go outside in their own yard. And quiver when they look out the windows and see the large birds foraging in the shrubbery.
I’m dying to go over there and visit, because chasing turkeys is one of Otto’s E-ticket activities. He likes chasing any small animal when he has permission, but turkeys top the list. He seems to recognize the fruitlessness of chasing things like squirrels, so he doesn’t get too excited about it. But turkeys take to the air with a great loud flapping of wings and slowly, ponderously, as if those big bodies won’t be able to get aloft in time. It’s stimulating and hope-inspiring.
He gets excited about chasing strange cats out of our yard, too — that’s high up on the “top 10 Otto favorites” list – but he will also stop chasing and return to me on cue, at least 90 percent of the time. It took a LOT of work to install that “stop chasing and return” skill. I used the “Premack Principle” to help build that very useful behavior. (The Premack Principle is when you use a high-probability behavior to reinforce a lower probability one. In this case, it meant allowing him to chase a squirrel — or the neighbor’s cat — out of our yard after he’s seen it and come to me anyway. Of course, I use it only when the animal used for the reward has zero chance of getting caught. For more about Premack, see “Beyond Basic Dog Training,” WDJ April 2004 and “On-Leash Training Blossoms into Off-Leash Reliability,” March 2011.
Marauding turkeys would never be a problem for Otto, but there is another small animal that could ruin his day: skunks. He’s one of the few dogs I know who actually learned a lesson about skunks after being sprayed twice. When he sees or smells a skunk now, he whines and licks his lips and watches the skunk restlessly, but he won’t approach it. I’m thrilled with that. My sister’s Jack Russell Terriers could never be taught to resist, no matter how many times they were sprayed in the face. (Once, famously, when my sister had a sitter watching her dogs and her house, and the dogs had use of a dog door, and they probably had 10 or so hours to try to rub the skunk spray off of themselves, using her bed and sofa and rugs.)
Raccoons are another big threat to dogs (especially small dogs), in every sort of environment – rural, urban, and suburban. Mary Straus’s articles in the July and September issues of WDJ, chronicle some of the problems they can spell for dog owners. My sister’s JRTs saved her Chihuahua from being eaten by a raccoon once (and it was that clueless Chi’s second raccoon attack!).
WDJ’s Training Editor Pat Miller has long complained about one of her dogs, who can’t messing with (and keeps getting torn up during altercations with) groundhogs. I just couldn’t imagine such a thing, until I saw my first groundhog, while in Toronto recently (we don’t have them in California). Dang! Those things get big! And they just sort of SIT there, daring a dog to come at them. They must have some pretty powerful arsenal of teeth or claws or something hidden under all that seeming blubber, to sit and stare back at passersby, like the ones I saw seemed wont to do.
Far be it from us to tell you to put pesticides on your dog. But we’ve never heard of a single nontoxic preparation that was effective at keeping ticks off all dogs. For some dogs, only the potent pesticides seem to keep ticks away. There are, however, some nontoxic products – both commercially produced and homemade formulas – that work to repel ticks well enough to consider using them as part of a comprehensive Lyme disease prevention program.
In 1994, botanist Arthur O. Tucker reviewed the scientific literature on herbs that repel mosquitoes, flies, fleas, ticks, and similar pests. He found that opopanax myrrh (Commiphora erythaea), the myrrh of ancient Egypt, has been shown to repel adults of the African brown ear tick, deer tick, black-footed tick, lone star tick, and American dog tick. Because opopanax myrrh is not widely sold, Tucker speculated that the more readily available common myrrh (C. myrrha) might have similar properties, but herbalists who experiment with live ticks report that of the herbs said to repel them, including myrrh, rosemary, and California laurel, only rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), palmarosa (Cymbagopogon martini motia), which has a similar fragrance, and opopanax myrrh truly repel deer ticks and dog ticks.
CJ Puotinen, author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care and Natural Remedies for Dogs and Cats, describes an all-purpose repellent that will make pets (and people!) less attractive to ticks and other biting insects. She suggests blending 20 drops of rose geranium, palmarosa, or opopanax myrrh essential oil (or any combination) with three drops citronella essential oil (which repels mosquitoes) and enough vodka, neem tincture, or bay rum aftershave to dissolve the essential oils. Start with two tablespoons alcohol or tincture and add more as needed to make the oils dissolve completely. Do not use isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. When there is no longer a thin film of oil on the surface, add one cup water, herbal tea, or aloe vera juice or gel. Apply frequently, avoiding the eyes.
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Many of us have lottery dreams, whether or not we actually buy lottery tickets. I’ve long said that if I won the lottery, I’d fund some sort of free spay/neuter program. Depending on the size of the payout, I’d open free veterinary clinics for people who couldn’t otherwise afford routine care for their pets.
A recent experience at the shelter where I volunteer made me add one more thing to my fantasy philanthropy: Mandatory microchips. If my lottery win was a record-setter, I’d throw millions at trying to pass legislation that would require all dogs and cats to be microchipped, in an effort to identify their origin. Because where are all these animals coming from?
The issue has been on my mind while working with Heather Houlahan on her articles about identifying ethical breeders (which was published in the August issue of WDJ) and ethical shelters and rescues (which appears on page 12 of this issue). It smacked me in the face when, on vacation in Montreal a couple of weeks ago, I visited what turned out to be a pet store (not, as I thought, a pet supply store) and found myself gaping through thick glass at puppies for sale. Both supposedly “purebred” puppies and mixed-breed puppies. Puppymill puppies.
Sorry for getting all italic here; I’m still in shock. Please don’t buy puppies from pet stores! Only a puppymill operator would wholesale puppies to stores. The only puppies that should be available for viewing in stores, ever, are ones who are being offered for adoption by a reputable local shelter or rescue.
How do you know that the shelter or rescue is legitimate, not just a “dented can” discount outlet for local puppymills? Read the article on page 12.
Back to my fantasy of mandatory microchips: These would help identify large-scale puppymills – the ones with the retail puppies – as well as the smaller scale ones with less obvious (but perhaps no less profitable) outlets for their products.
One of the most commonly seen types of dog in my local shelter is the handsome but insanely hyperactive/distractible Labrador. They arrive as both unclaimed strays and as owner-surrendered dogs. They are always about 18 months old; that’s when most unprepared or novice owners hit the wall with these dogs.
There are also a lot of high-profile Lab breeders in this area, who sell a lot of expensive puppies out of and by parents with all sorts of hunting titles. Are most of the high-octane Labs in my local shelter originating from those kennels (and being sold as “pet” dogs to people who have no clue how to manage or train them)? My gut says yes – but not all of these breeders microchip their puppies, and lacking my lottery winnings and my own personal canine DNA laboratory, I can’t prove anything.
I found myself wishing for my mandatory breeder microchip this week, as I worked with one of these big, gorgeous, athletic Labs at the shelter. I spent an hour teaching him that I would approach, reach for, and open the gate between us only if he sat down and stayed sitting down. This basic self-control exercise had him jumping up, panting hard, and barking loudly in frustration. However, to his credit, he really wanted to interact with me, and actually figured out what I wanted him to do very quickly; he just didn’t have enough self-control (yet) to hold that (or any other) position for more than a second.
Goodness, I thought, if only the people who created this dog could be held responsible for helping him learn some basic manners, placing him in an appropriate home, and providing “technical support” to the owners afterward . . . well, for me, it would be like winning the lottery.
Four veterinarians from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, published a study in the June issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, entitled “Evaluation of recipes of home-prepared maintenance diets for dogs.” I don’t think any WDJ readers will be surprised to hear that their findings were not exactly positive.
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The authors have a vested interest in opposition to any homemade diets prepared without the help of a veterinary nutritionist. Disclosed in the study is the fact that three of the authors are part of the veterinary college’s Nutrition Support Services, and one of those is an owner of DVM Consulting, Inc., the company that manufactures Balance IT, a supplement that is used extensively by veterinary nutritionists to balance limited-ingredient homemade diets.
The study analyzed 200 recipes. Of those, 133 were obtained from 2 veterinary textbooks and 9 pet care books (two of which were also written by veterinarians), and the remaining 67 recipes came from 23 different websites. Of all the recipes analyzed, 129 were written by veterinarians, and 71 by nonvets.
Of the nine non-textbooks examined in the study, there was only one that I would recommend, and it was not written by a vet. (Full disclosure: Another of the books has my name on it, but I don’t defend it. The recipes are not mine, but I did write the introductory text, which includes information about supplements that was not part of the recipes and therefore likely not taken into account when they were analyzed.)
The authors of the study are clear about their goals and expectations, stating, “Current recommendations are that home-prepared diets are best evaluated and formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.” They go on to say, “We believed that most of the recipes would not meet requirements for essential nutrients and that recipes written by nonveterinarians would have a higher number of deficiencies than recipes written by veterinarians. We also expected all recipes to require that at least one assumption would be necessary for preparation of the diet and dietary analysis.”
They found what they were looking for. The study says, “Overall, most (190/200 [95%]) recipes resulted in at least one essential nutrient at concentrations that did not meet NRC [National Research Council] or AAFCO [Association of American Feed Control Officials] guidelines, and many (167 [83.5%]) recipes had multiple deficiencies.” They also found that, “Most (184 [92%]) recipes contained vague or incomplete instructions that necessitated one or more assumptions for the ingredients, method of preparation, or supplement-type products.”
WE AGREE . . . TO A POINT There are many nits I could pick with this study, but bottom line, I think the authors have a point.
Most home-prepared dog food recipes (in books and online) are incomplete, many seriously so. Instructions are often so vague that it’s impossible to determine a recipe’s nutrient content. For example, recipes may include “ground beef” without specifying the percentage of fat. Similarly, many recipes use “chicken,” without denoting dark meat or light meat, or whether skin is removed. When grains are used, some recipes do not state whether the amount given is before or after cooking. These factors greatly affect the caloric and nutritional value of the recipes. And of those that tell you to add supplements, many just say, “add a complete and balanced vitamin-mineral supplement,” with no further guidance. Others may tell you to use a specific amount of bone meal, without recognizing that different brands can vary considerably in how much calcium and phosphorus they contain. And, in general, those are some of the better books – at least they’re telling you to add calcium and supplements. Many recipes don’t include either.
DEFICIENT When I analyze home-prepared diet recipes at the request of dog owners, I’m not concerned that the diets meet NRC guidelines exactly, but they should be in the same ballpark. Nutrition is not an exact science. I was suspicious that the study could easily claim that almost no recipe met every single guideline exactly, but if the deficiency is slight, I don’t consider that a concern.
That was not the case for many recipes, however. Not only were a number of nutrients lacking in most recipes, but “Some deficiencies were so severe that nutrient concentrations did not reach 50% of the NRC RA [recommended allowance].”
For example, 61 percent of recipes were low in vitamin D, and 95 percent of those provided less than half the NRC recommended amount. Zinc, copper, choline, and EPA/DHA were also short in more than half the recipes. Of those that were deficient, 55 percent had less than half the RA of zinc, 43 percent had less than half the RA of choline, and 39 percent had less than half the RA of vitamin E. In other words, those recipes were significantly, not just a little, deficient in these nutrients.
That didn’t surprise me, as it matches what I’ve found when I’ve analyzed many homemade diet recipes. Let’s look at the nutrients that were most often not only short, but seriously inadequate, in the recipes that they analyzed, and compare them to NRC recommendations per 1,000 calories for adult dogs, which is the amount NRC assumes is needed for a dog weighing 35 pounds:
For a comprehensive list of nutrients, continue to page 2!
Vitamin D is primarily found in fish, so any recipe that does not include fish will be short on vitamin D unless a supplement is added. NRC recommends 136 IUs vitamin D per 1,000 calories. It would take about 1 ounce of oily fish to provide this much vitamin D. Some yogurt is also fortified with vitamin D.
Vitamin E was short in every recipe I’ve analyzed, unless supplements are added. NRC recommends just 7.5 IUs per 1,000 calories. It’s okay to give more, but limit amounts to no more than 2 IUs per pound of body weight daily.
Zinc was at least a little short in most of the recipes I’ve analyzed. Significant amounts of zinc are found in red meat, with lesser amounts in pork and poultry. Turkey has more zinc than chicken, and dark meat poultry has more zinc than light meat. Organ meats, particularly liver and heart, provide substantial amounts of zinc. Egg yolks are also a good source of zinc. Diets that rely primarily on chicken, or that do not include organs, are likely to be significantly short on zinc. NRC recommends 15 mg zinc per 1,000 calories.
Choline, a member of the B vitamin family, is often short in recipes I analyze. Eggs are one of the best sources of choline, with one large egg providing 126 mg. Liver, particularly beef liver, is very high in choline, with almost 100 mg per ounce. Heart and kidney are also high in choline. Diets that do not include eggs and organs will be short on choline. NRC recommends 425 mg choline per 1,000 calories. This nutrient is hard to supplement, as most B-complex vitamins and multivitamins provide little or none. Sources include lecithin granules with 217 mg/Tbsp and brewer’s yeast (not nutritional yeast) with 63 mg/Tbsp choline; however, these sources also add about 50 calories per tablespoon.
Copper is plentiful in beef liver, which has 2.7 mg copper per ounce. Chicken, turkey, and pork liver provide very little, so diets that do not include beef liver are always low in copper. I recommend feeding about 1 ounce of liver (at least half of which is beef liver) per pound of other meat. NRC recommends 1.5 mg copper per 1,000 calories.
EPA and DHA are omega-3 essential fatty acids found in fatty fish and fish oil. If you do not feed fish or supplement with fish oil, the diet you feed will be short on EPA and DHA. NRC recommends just 110 mg EPA and DHA combined per 1,000 calories, but I prefer to give 100 to 150 mg EPA and DHA combined per 10 pounds of body weight daily for healthy dogs, up to twice that much for those with a variety of health problems.
Other common deficiencies include:
Calcium: 35 percent of the recipes analyzed were short on calcium. This was likely due to the multitude of recipes that do not include a calcium supplement. All homemade diets require added calcium, in amounts greater than a multivitamin will provide, unless you feed raw meaty bones that are fully consumed. NRC recommends 1,000 mg calcium per 1,000 calories for adult dogs.
B vitamins: Vitamins B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), and B5 (pantothenate) were short in 14.5, 40.5, and 27 percent of recipes, respectively. Cobalamin (vitamin B12) was also short in many recipes, but since cobalamin deficiency has only been linked to poor absorption due to genetic abnormalities or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, rather than to dietary deficiency, I’m not as concerned about it. Most recipes met the rest of B vitamin needs. Thiamin is found primarily in legumes (beans, lentils), fruits, vegetables, and grains, so diets that omit these foods are likely to be short. Nutritional yeast is very high in both thiamin and riboflavin (brewer’s yeast has quite a bit less). Riboflavin is also found in vegetables, as well as mushrooms, yogurt, and eggs. I was surprised that pantothenate was short in so many recipes, as I almost never see that. Pantothenate is found in the same foods as thiamin, as well as egg yolks and meat, especially liver. NRC recommends 0.6 mg thiamin, 1.3 mg riboflavin, and 4 mg pantothenate per 1,000 calories.
Linoleic acid (omega-6 essential fatty acid): Found primarily in poultry fat and plant oils, so diets that include little poultry, or that use only skinless breast, which has little fat, will be deficient in linoleic acid. NRC recommends 2,800 mg linoleic acid per 1,000 calories. That amount would be provided by ½ tablespoon corn oil, soybean oil, walnut oil, or hempseed oil. It would take 1 tablespoon of canola oil, 1.5 tablespoons of safflower oil, or 2 tablespoons of olive oil to meet NRC recommendations. Six ounces of chicken breast with skin or ground turkey with 8 percent fat, or 12 ounces of dark meat chicken with skin and separable fat removed, will provide this much linoleic acid (based on raw weights).
Selenium: Just over one-third of recipes were found to be short on selenium. Fish, meat, and eggs are good sources of selenium, though the amount of selenium in foods can vary. Most of the recipes I’ve analyzed contained close to the recommended amount of selenium, which is 88 mcg per 1,000 calories.
As an alternative to these food sources, giving the dog a human one-a-day type of multivitamin can help to make up for most deficiencies (not including calcium, essential fatty acids, or choline). You can give the full adult human dose to dogs weighing 40-50 pounds, half the human dose to dogs weighing 20-25 pounds, or one-quarter the human dose to dogs weighing 10-12 pounds. Larger dogs would get proportionately more. This approach won’t work for really small dogs, as the dosage would be too high. Also, iron is often high, and copper low, in these supplements.
For more analysis and final thoughts, continue to page 3!
BALANCE OVER TIME? The study addressed the issue of “balance over time” by analyzing three groups of seven recipes (all from the same source), but found that even if a variety of recipes were used, they were still deficient in most of the nutrients listed above (14 nutrients had inadequate concentrations in at least 50 recipes).
Even if you vary ingredients, homemade diets are likely to be lacking if you leave out important food groups such as fish, eggs, or liver, or if you rely too much on one protein source, such as chicken or beef. Some supplements, such as calcium and vitamin E, are always needed when you feed a homemade diet. Others will be needed if you omit any of the following food groups from the diet: red meat, poultry (including some fat), fish, eggs, liver, dairy, vegetables, and fruits.
EXPERTS ONLY? I’ve often said that you don’t need a degree in nutrition to feed your dog a homemade diet; if we can feed ourselves and our children, we should be able to feed our pets as well. That said, dogs have unique nutritional requirements; they need more calcium for their weight than we do, for example. Also, many people get in a rut when feeding a homemade diet, and may feed the same limited recipe for long periods.
I know that it’s possible for dog owners to feed their dogs a complete and balanced home-prepared diet without consulting a veterinary nutritionist, but the authors of this study clearly believe that canine diet formulation is best left to experts. The study concludes, “Formulation of recipes for home-prepared diets requires expert input to minimize the risk of problems, and we recommend that recipes for home-prepared diets for dogs be obtained from or evaluated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists or veterinarians with advanced training in nutrition who are experienced and able to understand and address these concerns.”
While veterinary nutritionists are unlikely to formulate a home-prepared canine diet that is deficient in essential nutrients, they are very likely to formulate a diet that is heavily grain-based, relies on plant-sourced oils for dietary fat, and obtains most of its vitamins and minerals from synthetic, not food-based, sources. In other words, the diets they create are not ideal, either!
I’ve analyzed quite a few diets that were formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists, and nearly every one looked like the following and allowed no substitutions:
A small amount of one type of lean meat, e.g., skinless chicken breast, for protein and amino acids.
A large amount of one type of starchy carbohyhdrate, e.g., white rice, used to provide calories.
Corn or canola oil, providing calories and fat (particularly omega-6 fatty acids).
Balance IT, or a number of other supplements, used to meet most nutritional requirements.
There are several problems with this approach. I believe that higher-protein diets provide many benefits to the body, including the immune system, nervous system, skin, and coat. Diets with more meat and fewer carbs help to build lean muscle rather than being stored as fat. Plant oils are more likely than animal fats to become rancid, contain hydrogenated trans fats, and be genetically modified.
WHOLE FOODS APPROACH Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly update and issue a document called the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” These guidelines make it clear that a human’s nutritional needs should be met primarily through diet rather than supplements. Whole foods offer three main benefits over dietary supplements: greater nutrition from the micronutrients they contain, dietary fiber that can help with digestive disorders, and protective substances, such as antioxidants and phytochemicals. These factors apply to dogs as much as they do to humans.
People who feed their dogs a homemade diet usually want to improve nutrition through the use of fresh foods, rather than feeding highly processed commercial diets that rely on a long list of synthetic nutrients in order to meet nutritional requirements. Recipes from veterinary nutritionists are the homemade equivalent of poor-quality kibble, not the varied, fresh food diet that owners would like to feed their dogs.
Why can’t veterinary nutritionists design recipes that meet most nutritional needs through the use of whole foods, rather than synthetic supplements? Why can’t they accept that most people and dogs prefer variety rather than always feeding exactly the same thing every day? And why do they insist on using skinless chicken breast with added plant oils, rather than feeding dark meat chicken (or breast with skin) that would meet omega-6 fatty acid requirements without having to add plant oils?
As long as veterinary nutritionists think that a diet should consist only of the barest amount of fresh food propped up with synthetic supplements, people are going to continue to turn elsewhere for diet advice for their pets. It’s a shame that so many of the books and online resources that purport to provide that advice fail so miserably. Ideally, nutritionists would learn how to create complete and balanced diets that rely on fresh foods rather than supplements to meet most nutritional needs, and recognize the benefits provided by high-protein, meat-based diets (rather than just meeting minimal protein requirements).
Mary Straus is the owner of DogAware.com. She and her Norwich Terrier, Ella, live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
There’s a good chance you’ve heard the phrase, “Any time you are with your dog you are training.” It’s commonly spoken by dog trainers as a way of reminding clients that their dogs are constantly being reinforced for behaviors – by the owner, by others, and by the environment. Behaviors that are reinforced increase in frequency, durability and strength. It behooves you to pay attention to what’s happening in your dog’s world so you can make sure he doesn’t have the opportunity to be reinforced for behaviors you don’t want, and even more importantly, so you can make sure you reinforce behaviors that you like.
Like the shoemaker’s children who run around barefoot, dog trainers’ dogs sometimes suffer from a paucity of formal training sessions. We are often busy working with other people and their dogs, and too tired to dedicate time to our own at the end of the day. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’re not training. I took a look at a day in my own life recently, as an example of how much training can happen if you just take advantage of reinforcement opportunities with your canine pal throughout the day.
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5:30 am — The alarm goes off early here; time to do barn chores and get ready for the day. Paul heads downstairs first with Dubhy (Scottish Terrier) and Lucy (Cardigan Welsh Corgi). He calls them to follow him and reinforces the “Come” with a treat for each. (We both always have treats in pockets, and if we run out there’s a plastic container with treats on a shelf in every room in the house.)
6:00 am — I’ve finished getting dressed, making the bed, cleaning litterboxes and feeding the cats. My turn to head for the barn with Bonnie (Scorgidoodle) and Scooter (Pomeranian). Bonnie loves her crate and sometimes needs coaxing to come out. We take the opportunity to play “Find it!” – tossing treats on the floor for her to sniff out, and “Touch” – targeting to my hand for a “Yes!” marker and treats. (For more information about target training, see “Right on Target, WDJ February 2006.) While I use a clicker for formal training sessions, a verbal marker is a lot handier for real-life marking and treating.
6:02 am — I cue Bonnie to “Wait” at the top of the stairs so she won’t trip me as I carry Scooter down in my arms. (Scooter’s little Pom legs can’t navigate the stairs.) If Bonnie jumps the gun and starts down the stairs before I tell her to, we practice her “Back!” cue, and she backs up the stairs to the landing. No need to mark and reward Bonnie for the “Wait” – the release is reinforcement enough, and she flies to the back door in happy anticipation of the trip to the barn. (For more about the difference between wait and stay, see “Wait a Bit, Stay a While,” May 2001.)
6:04 am — After donning barn shoes and jacket I ask Bonnie and Scooter to “Wait” at the back door as I go out first – not because I have to be “dominant,” but because a good manners “Wait” behavior at the door prevents door-darting. The release cue invites them to follow. (Myths and misinformation about “dominance” is discussed in “Alpha Schmalpha,” December 2001.)
6:05 am — As we pass my Dodge Caravan I pop open the sliding door and invite Bonnie to hop in. She does so, willingly and eagerly, in happy anticipation of a “Yes” and treat. This is a deposit in the classical conditioning bank; Bonnie doesn’t like riding in cars and used to give the van a wide berth. By frequently inviting her to hop in, get a treat and not go for a ride, I’m helping her have a more positive association with cars and car rides.
6:07 am — I practice several recalls for high value treats with both Bonnie and Scooter on the way to the barn. Both dogs came to us from the shelter with tendencies to wander, or even dash off, when given outside freedom. I used to carry Scooter to the barn and walk Bonnie on a leash. Our daily recall practice has brought us to the point where they can reliably traverse the short distance to the barn under their own power, and Bonnie can hike off-leash with us around our 80-acre farm. (Scooter prefers not to go on hikes, thank you very much.)
6:15- 7:45 am — Lots of chances to reinforce a variety of behaviors for all four dogs as we feed, clean stalls, and move horses outside. An occasional “Wait” reminds them that they aren’t allowed to duck into the stalls and breakfast on fresh horse poo, or wander beneath horse hooves. Dubhy gets a treat for offering to perch on the mounting block – his “station” where we can send him if he gets underfoot during barn aisle sweeping. Bonnie might get reinforced for some lovely off-leash heeling down the barn aisle as she trots at my left side and gazes at my face.
We also play “Find it!” or “Down/Stay” to keep the dogs safely occupied as we lead horses out to their pastures, and “Wait” at barn gates so they don’t follow us outside. Dubhy also gets his daily wheelbarrow ride – “Dubhy, Up!” invites him to hop in, and he smiles all the way to the other end of the barn, where an “Unload!” prompts him to hop out onto a bench. The other three sit at my feet and I deliver treats all around.
8:00 am — Time for canine breakfast. All four gather in the kitchen as I prepare their bowls. I toss bits of cheese for Lucy to catch as I carry Scooter’s bowl to the laundry room, where he can eat without worry about harassment from the bigger dogs. The cheese reinforces Lucy for not barking as she waits for her own bowl. Lucy has some impulse control issues and a low tolerance for frustration. She sits on her mat while I deliver Dubhy and Bonnie’s meals to their mats on the opposite side of the kitchen.
Lucy deftly catches a cheese cube tossed from across the room – reinforcement for staying at her own spot until I come back to deliver her bowl. Each dog sits and waits until I place the bowl on the floor and release them to eat; that’s a super-reinforcement! (For more about using feeding time as a great opportunity to train behaviors such as “Off,”, “Wait,” and self-control, see “The Bowl Game,” July 2005.)
Continue to page 2 for the rest of the day!
9:00 am – 12:00 pm — This is mostly quiet time, with all four dogs napping as I work at my desk, but there are still opportunities, such as:
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Barney-the-cat wanders into my office to hang out on my desk for a while, then hops down to carry on with his inscrutable cat business. There was a time when Lucy would chase him, but not any more. The sight of Barney jumping off my desk now means delivery of a high value treat; Lucy has been classically conditioned to look to me rather than chase the cat. To maintain that strong association, I still deliver the treat for every feline dismount. These days when Barney hops off my desk Lucy doesn’t even move, other than to glance at me in anticipation of a treat.
Scooter, little dude that he is, doesn’t give very big signals to tell us he has to go out, and has been known to lift his leg in the house. Lucy, herding dog that she is, is much more aware of his communications than I am, and will loudly inform me that Scooter is quietly saying he has to go out. Everyone gets reinforced for that one with a real-life reward – a trip to the fenced backyard – and a “Yes!” and treat for prompt responses to the “Go pee” cue. (See “Pee on Cue,” February 2007.)
While we’re out, I might play fetch with Lucy, and cue her to “Sit,” “Down,” “Back,” and “Give” – reinforcing each of those behaviors with another toss of her favorite fetch toy.
While she’s dashing off to retrieve, I sneak in a little practice of some of Dubhy’s tricks – “Sit up,” “Salute,” “Crawl,” “Roll Over,” and “Say Your Prayers.”
If Dubhy has wandered behind the corner of the garage, I seize the opportunity to call him back using his emergency whistle recall. We use a (very loud) Storm Whistle for this, both to overcome his mild hearing impairment, and to sharpen his sometimes-reluctant response to the recall. Dubhy is the only one of our four dogs who will often choose to stay out in the yard rather than come back in with the rest of the family.
(For more information about Storm whistles, see stormwhistles.com or call 314-436-3332. For more about building and maintaining a good recall, see “Rocket Recalls,” September 2012.)
On the way back inside, I pause for a moment to cue Bonnie to do a few swipes with her front paws on the canine emery board in the sunroom – encouraging her to file her own nails since she hates nail trimming. “Yes” and treat! Then I cue her to back up onto the board and wag her tail hard – the best technique we’ve found so far to file her back nails. More treats. (For more about how to teach a dog who really hates having her nails trimmed to enjoy having her nails trimmed, see “Positive Pedi-Pedis,” August 2012.)
12:00 – 5:00 pm — I usually work through lunch, writing or preparing for an afternoon client. Bonnie and Lucy hope for a dog-reactive dog client, since I use the two of them as my “neutral dogs” and they both love the assignment. Bonnie gets first dibs, since she’s the softer of the two, and most likely to help the client dog succeed with a counter-conditioning protocol. This is a great chance to work on heeling and focus, since I want my neutral dogs to be well controlled and not making eye contact with the client dog. We practice about turns, backing up, left and right turns, and Rally moves: moving downs, stays, finishes, 180s and 360s, as well as basic heeling and other tricks. When the client dog is ready to work with a second dog, Lucy goes through the same routines.
Alternatively, if there’s no client on the schedule, we might just go for a hike in the woods – a favorite activity for all of us except Scooter, who chooses to stay home.
Now we get to practice serious recalls – easy for Lucy, who has that herding dog propensity for staying close to her human, but it’s more difficult for Dubhy and Bonnie, who both have independent terrier attitudes. Bonnie ranges far enough to make me a little nervous, but since we started practicing recalls on the way to the barn a few years ago, she has become very reliable about returning when I call.
Dubhy hikes on a long line and wears a GPS tag. His adolescent months spent as a stray in the wilds of Chattanooga combined with his terrier independence make a reliable recall a real challenge for him.
The long line is probably not absolutely necessary. I know he will come most of the time; I just don’t want to take the chance that this time might be the exception. We practice recalls on the long line anyway, for that day that he does somehow slip away. It has happened a few times in the nine years we’ve been on the farm, and most of the time we’ve retrieved him pretty quickly. A recent exception when he was missing for a couple of hours (probably with his head down a groundhog hole in the woods) prompted the purchase of a GPS Tagg Pet Tracker.
Late in the afternoon, we do more barn chores, but the dogs usually stay inside for this feeding. We board horses, and often the boarders are out and about, and students are arriving for dog training classes. I cue Lucy to go to her office (which is my office) and Bonnie volunteers to go in her crate. Both get reinforced for complying – Lucy with a few tossed treats, and Bonnie with her favorite crate-chew: an orange! I do a little counter-conditioning for Scooter’s “I will bark and chase you out the door” behavior, by tossing a handful of treats on the floor as I leave.
8:00 pm — After the dogs’ dinner, which looks very much like their breakfast routine, it’s family time in the living room, and more reinforcement opportunities. Bonnie asks to get on the sofa by sitting at my feet and gazing beseechingly into my eyes. Permission to jump up is all the reinforcement she needs for that polite “Say Please” behavior.
Lucy also enjoys sofa time, so an occasional “Off” for one gets a treat reinforcement so the other can snuggle at my side for a while. Cameo appearances by Barney (the cat) provide more counter-conditioning moments to maintain the association in Lucy’s mind that “cats make treats happen!”
Dubhy pretty much keeps to himself in the evening, but a soft “Wuff” in the hallway for this hard-to-housetrain Scottie gets a well-deserved “outside” reinforcement, as does another announcement from Lucy that Scooter needs to go out.
11:00 pm — Last call for potty trips before bed. Everyone gets a treat for going out, and for coming back in when called.
The gang troops upstairs. Lucy and Bonnie get treats for speeding into their crates, Dubhy gets a couple of them for hopping into his bed (an antique wooden box with blankets for bedding), and Scooter gets treats on the bed and his two stuffed toys (“differential reinforcement of an incompatible behavior,” so he licks his toys instead of our pillows).
11:15 – 11:30 pm — Finally, we have a little end-of-day counter-conditioning/grooming time for Scooter. He has a very lush coat, with a dense undercoat that tangles incredibly easily, and needs brushing almost daily. Because it tangles so easily, grooming always involves some pulling, which is understandably aversive to him. To keep him happy about the brushing, he gets treats from one hand while I comb with the other.
Paul comes upstairs 15 to 30 minutes after I do, and I feed treats to Scooter to counter-condition/forestall his ferocious “burglar alert” barking.
NO TRAINING-TRAINING So there you have it. For a day when I didn’t do any real “planned” training sessions, we have done a heck of a lot of reinforcement for desirable behaviors! (See “the Training Tally,” below, for the astonishing total.) In fact, I’m exhausted just writing about it.
If you don’t work at home, you will have fewer hours in the day with your dog, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t take just as many opportunities to incorporate training into your daily routine. Ask her for some “Sit-Stays” and “Down-Stays” while you wait for your coffee to brew, interspersed with short sessions of Tug o’War. Invite your dog to accompany you to the laundry room, and ask her for different behaviors (Sit, Down, Stand, Shake Hands) as you sort or fold the clothes (and reward her for these behaviors!). Initiate a quick game of fetch from time to time while you help the kids with homework or cook dinner, asking her to sit politely each time before you toss the ball.
And of course, always be alert for opportunities to “catch her doing something right.” Offer her a reinforcing bit of attention, praise, petting, play, or food. Maintaining good behaviors is every bit as important as building new ones.
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 dog trainers. Pat is also author of many books on positive training.
As I described in WDJ’s July issue, on the night of June 1st, my dog Ella, an 11-pound Norwich Terrier, was attacked by a raccoon in my backyard. Fortunately, I was able to fight off the raccoon myself, and Ella escaped with only puncture wounds, which healed quickly after being treated at the emergency vet. Emotionally, however, she was a wreck, terrified to go into the backyard, and showing signs of anxiety in the evenings when she saw or heard anything outside.
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I started her on anti-anxiety medications to help her cope with the aftermath of the attack, and to prevent her anxiety from escalating.
I wasn’t exactly calm myself. The seeming randomness of the attack, and nightly sightings of the attacker in my backyard afterward, made me as jumpy as Ella. I changed the location of Ella’s last potty trip before bed to the front yard, and each evening, when it was time, I’d creep out the door, broom in one hand and airhorn in the other, peering around corners and under bushes, before signaling to Ella that it was safe for her to come out to pee. By the time we got back in the house, my heart would be pounding.
On one such night, I spent a few minutes talking to my next-door neighbor while we were outside. When I went back into the house, I saw a package of cookies torn open on the floor. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the raccoon had come in through the front door, which was left open while we were outside, and might even now be in my house! I quickly locked Ella in the bathroom (the only room in the house that I could be certain did not harbor a raccoon), then grabbed my broom and airhorn, before it dawned on me that the culprit had to be my neighbor’s dog, who has a known sweet tooth and is quite comfortable going into my house. I had a good laugh at myself over that one, but it shows how on edge I was.
On three separate evenings, as I peered out my kitchen window looking for the raccoon, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw movement along the deck, only to realize it was Ella’s reflection, as she followed me into the kitchen. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after the first time, but my stress hormones were overriding logic.
In the meantime, I was doing everything I could to encourage the raccoon to leave. On the advice of the experts I consulted, I played the radio loudly all day. I kept the raccoon’s “latrine” cleaned up and poured more bleach and Pinesol any time she used it. The vector control agent I had contacted originally came back out to spray the area around my deck with a product called Eviction Fluid, which is male (boar) raccoon urine, to drive the female away.
Several days began to go by without my seeing the raccoon, but each time I thought she was gone, I’d see her again. During one of these interludes, I contacted a wildlife control company to come out and see about sealing off access to the space beneath the deck. The night before the appointment, however, I saw the raccoon in my yard again, and the next morning, I heard thumping coming from under the deck.
The people from the company I called looked under the deck (which is just a few inches off the ground) and were able to verify, for the first time, that the raccoon was living under there, and that she had at least two babies with her. That was actually reassuring to me; at least now I knew for sure what had caused the attack. What had seemed like a gratuitous, unprovoked act of aggression on her part now made sense, once I realized that we had been standing between her and her babies when Ella started barking. It also made me less anxious about another attack happening in a different location, such as in the front yard. The experts I talked to said that the type of aggression we experienced was rare, except in the case of a mother defending her young.
WAITING HER OUT After two weeks, I was discouraged and depressed about the situation, especially after reading that it can take nine weeks before baby raccoons are ready to start following their mother out of the den. That could be almost the whole summer! I didn’t think that either Ella or I could live with the anxiety for that long.
The vector control agent I originally contacted had told me that my only option would be to kill the raccoon if she was trapped, which I was unwilling to do, but the wildlife company offered an alternative: They would set a trap for the mother raccoon. I would watch the trap and notify them as soon as she was caught. They would immediately come out and dig under my deck to get the babies, seal off the deck, and release the mother raccoon and her babies together at the creek near my house (which is within the 100-yard limit for relocating them, so it’s legal, and also safe for the raccoon, since she would be in a familiar environment). She would then move her babies to another den, which (I was told) mother raccoons always prepare in advance.
The wildlife people left a trap in my yard baited with a can of sardines. As it turns out, we never caught anything – I thought at least we’d get one of the neighborhood cats, who treat my yard as their own, but nothing happened. I also did not see or hear the raccoon from that day forward.
A week later, the company came back and verified that the raccoon and her babies were gone. Having people peering at her in her den, followed by my cutting back the shrubbery around the deck in preparation for them sealing it off, coupled with all the things I had been doing to encourage her to move, must have finally convinced her that my yard wasn’t such a nice place after all.
The wildlife company quickly sealed the gap between the deck and the ground, using heavy-duty wire mesh bolted to the deck and embedded in a concrete-filled trench, to make sure that no creature would be able to move back in. It was expensive, but at this point, I did not want to take any chances. The peace of mind knowing that nothing can get under my deck again was worth it.
END OF STORY Ella recovered surprisingly quickly once the deck was sealed off. Now I realize that – of course! – she must have known the raccoon was living under the deck long before I did. Once her nose and ears told her it was gone, she began venturing into the backyard again, very cautiously at first, but gaining confidence every day. Three weeks after the deck was sealed, she was behaving almost normally, and I was able to wean her off the anxiety medications. Ella no longer goes out alone, however; I always go outside with her now.
What a relief it is, knowing that I no longer have a raccoon living in my backyard! I can barbecue again, without feeling like I have to carry a weapon with me each time I go out to check the grill. Both Ella and I are more watchful (and a little jumpier) than we were before this happened, but six weeks after the attack, life is pretty much back to normal.
Mary Straus is the owner of DogAware.com. She and her Norwich Terrier, Ella, live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
