I said in last month’s article on dehydrated dog food diets that I hadn’t discussed dehydrated diets for quite some time in WDJ, and that I was surprised by the increase in the number of companies that now offer these products. What I didn’t realize at the time was that many of the companies that I am familiar with as makers of frozen raw diets now offer those products in a freeze-dried form. I learned this when, after I finished that last issue, I took a trip and toured a number of manufacturing facilities where raw frozen diets are produced. Turns out, every frozen raw dog food manufacturer I visited also makes freeze-dried diets.
And why not? In almost every case, the formulas that the companies freeze-dry are exactly the same as their raw frozen foods; they just freeze-dry the food instead of freezing it.
Freeze-drying is a simple, but energy-intensive process; it’s costly. But freeze-dried foods have a longer shelf life than their frozen counterparts, are light and compact (making shipping much more affordable than shipping frozen foods). And, oddly, some dogs who don’t like raw diets snap up freeze-dried foods like they are treats.
In fact, that’s exactly how some pet owners utilize these “complete and balanced” diets – as treats, rather than as a sole diet, due to their relatively high price. I have to say, though, after seeing these products made in a variety of facilities, that the manufacturing process of these diets is very close to the process used in making a home-prepared raw diet, with fresh, wholesome, and very lightly processed ingredients – well worth the cost.
The companies and products described in the table (PDF link below) are ones I should have included in last month’s article. I toured the production facilities for three Wisconsin-based companies, and discuss this at greater length.
Correction
Due to an editing error, there was one nonsensical sentence in last month’s article. It should have read, “Dehydration alters the cellular structure of meats, fruits, and vegetables much more than freeze-drying.” The appearance and taste of foods are less affected by freeze-drying than by dehydration, largely because higher temperatures are used to dehydrate foods; they are actually lightly cooked by the heat of drying.
Last week, the dog blogs and all of my dog-owning friends were upset about a column in the New York Times, written by a mother whose then-two-year-old got badly bitten by a dog. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/magazine/the-dog-bit-me.html) In the column, the mother recounts the incident, which happened three years ago. Long story short, the dog involved used to be her dog, but proved to be uncomfortable around kids, so she rehomed him with her father; and then some months later, when visiting her father’s house, the dog bit the child – badly, and in the face.
I didn’t blame anyone for wanting to comment on the column; there were many aggravating things about the author’s tone, her seemingly grudging and incomplete feeling of responsibility for the incident, and her lack of understanding about and for the dog, who was sadly set up to fail.
A few days later, the same author wrote a sort of follow-up piece (http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/what-i-learned-too-late-about-keeping-kids-safe-around-dogs/) that somewhat helpfully showed what had not been clear from the first article: that the author actually learned a few things about keeping kids safe from dogs. However, she didn’t say anything about keeping dogs safe from kids – or keeping at-risk kids and dogs assiduously apart through the use of gates, doors, and crates.
I read a lot of the comments, but I didn’t want to chime in. There was plenty in both articles to criticize, but as the owner of a dog (my beloved Rupert, many years deceased) who had not one but two face bites on his permanent record, I’m here to say that sometimes someone lets the dog out at the worst time, and someone messes with the dog who shouldn’t, and oh my goodness I’m sorry and yes I am going to pay that hospital bill. (In my own defense, it was ultimately my fault each time, never the dog’s. And it happened each time in a moment of inattention – not even a minute, not even a quarter of a minute. A second or two that I’d like to have back forever.)
And dammit, you can’t ever get those seconds back, a horrid fact I was reminded of in the wee hours this very morning.
I was working late. It was hot, so all the doors and windows were open. A cat screamed in the backyard, and all the dogs – big Otto, little Tito, and a foster dog (a Corgi named Ruby) went flying out the back door barking, ready to do battle against the world’s feral cats. I leaped up and hissed myself, “No! Off! Come! Otto!” not wanting to wake any neighbors who hadn’t been woken already. The dogs came streaming back in, full of excitement, tails wagging, eyes shining. I turned to close the door behind them – and there was the second I’d like to have back. As if in slow motion, I saw Tito get jostled, and he stiffened, snarled, and snapped at the foster dog. And just as fast, she snarled and grabbed him by the back of the neck.
Tito screamed. I yelled, “HEY! OFF! NO!” – which didn’t make her stop her attack on Tito, but scared Otto enough to make him dodge out of the fray; I think he was about a second from diving in and attacking Ruby. Yelling didn’t make her stop or let go, though, so in the next second, I grabbed her by the scruff, still yelling, and shook the stuffing out of her. I lifted her off the ground (she’s only 25 pounds) but it still took her a second or two before she loosened her grip on poor Tito and he fell to the ground, still screaming. I carried her, still by the scruff, to the closest room (the bathroom) and threw her in, slamming the door behind her, because Tito was still screaming.
Thank goodness, he doesn’t have a puncture anywhere, but he’s sore and dispirited. He shook the whole time I cleaned him up (he had evacuated his bowels, and anal glands, in the melee) and shrieked and snapped at me a few times as I inspected him closely for damage. Ruby was going in this morning to be spayed, anyway, so I’m going to take him too and see if the vet will give him some pain meds.
I don’t think I missed any danger signs from Ruby, things that would indicate I should have kept the dogs apart. I had seen her stiffen a time or two when Tito growled at her (for example, when they first met, with her on-leash, and she sniffed his butt). But each time, I moved quickly to encourage them both to turn away and step away, and each time, she wagged and stepped away and that was that. I’ve only had her for three days (and am scheduled to have her for only another four or five days before she’s scheduled to go to her adoptive home, where she will be an only dog), but I really don’t think (so far) that I’m missing signs that she’s a scary, dog-aggressive dog.
That said, I certainly did fail to pay perfect attention and manage the situation to minimize any chance of an incident between her and my dogs. I should have walked farther through the door with the jacked-up little pack, and not turned to close the door until they were safely dispersed, not all bunched up at the door. And perhaps I should not have even had 10-pound Tito, known to bristle with that infamous and misplaced Chihuahua self-confidence, hanging out with a foster dog (even just a 25-pound female) with an unknown history so soon.
Anyway, I’m feeling a bit like that hapless New York Times columnist. Hit me! I’m ready (and sorry, Tito).
I’ve had relatively trouble-free dogs for a while. Long enough to forget how bad an owner can feel when one of our pets puts us between a rock and a hard place.
I have a friend who owns three dogs: a senior Chihuahua; a middle-aged probable Lab/Cattle Dog-mix; and 5-year-old Lena, a tall, lanky, who-knows-what-mix. Lena used to be (my dog) Otto’s BFF. They are still friends, but don’t get to see each other a lot, ever since Lena tore her ACL and had surgery . . . and her surgeon advised her owner that Lena’s hips are highly dysplastic and will likely require surgery at some point. Otto and Lena used to love to chase each other at HIGH speeds, and wrestle and play with total abandon; they’d play until they were both covered in spit and panting for breath, then they’d dig a hole in Otto’s sandbox and nap, and then get up, stretch, and start all over again. And then they would both be sleepy for a day or two afterward.
Of course, as she recovered from her surgery, Lena was put on a restricted activity protocol. And her veterinarian advised that she basically not be allowed to fetch balls or play at high speed with her hooligan buddy anymore, to preserve everything: her repaired knee, the other knee (often a dog who tears one will tear the other), and her crappy hips. Her owner has learned how to keep her entertained with food-stuffed toys, low-speed fetch, “puzzle” games (with hidden food), frozen bowls of water with chunks of hot dogs and other treats, etc. But she’s often bored and prone to destroying things when she’s left home (with the other dogs) during the work day. She’s taken books off bookshelves (and chewed them); gotten on top of the washer/dryer to reach things hanging on the wall above them (and chewed them); and chewed untold numbers of shoes, pillows, and other household items – despite having a limitless supply of raw bones, rawhide, pizzles, sticks, balls, etc. (And it’s not just pica eating; she rarely consumes any of it – just chews.)
So she can’t be left inside during the day. Instead, her owner built an elaborate kennel on concrete, with a roof and walls on two sides, and provided a princess-and-the-pea pile of dog beds. Which sufficed until my friend bought a new house, closer to town, and moved.
At the new place, my friend paid for a huge area to be fenced for the dogs, graveled the whole area with pea gravel except for some areas where she put down sand (for digging and more comfortable napping), built a sandbox in a shady corner, provided a wading pool, and filled a former tool shed with dog beds. Lucky dogs, right? Lena doesn’t think so. She’s taken to barking her fool head off all day while my friend is at work. And the new neighbors are complaining.
Never mind the fact that my friend has done everything she can to make both her dogs and her neighbors happy. She’s been working with all her dogs on their recall, so if they see a neighbor and start to bark, she can immediately call them to her and redirect them to another activity. She introduced herself and her dogs to the neighbors when she moved in, and explained that she had been living farther in the country, with no close neighbors in sight, and that the dogs might need some time to adjust. She supplied the closest neighbors – the couple that shares a fence line with the new dog run — with dog treats, and suggested tossing some over the fence if they are out in the yard and the dogs are barking. She gave them her phone number and said, “Don’t hesitate to call.”
They responded with an unsigned nasty note left on her gate the first day she left the dogs in their pen when she went to work.
One neighbor has been friendly and approachable, and offered my friend more detailed information. He said it’s just Lena who is barking. I loaned my friend a noise-activated tape recorder which confirmed that it’s just Lena.
My friend’s options:
Rehome the dog? Not going to happen.
Exercise the dog more? But those hips, those knees!
Leave her inside during the day? God knows what she will destroy.
Tell the neighbors to . . . ? Be not very nice to the neighbors? Not a great way to fit in, and not very safe for the dogs.
Daycare/dog walker? Out of my friend’s price range.
Drop her off at my house daily? I’m not always home . . . and even when I am, there is the matter of keeping a lid on her and Otto. They want to play! Although, she’s here today, and the heat is keeping them relatively quiet so far.
So, my friend is very unhappily looking at shock/bark collars. Until she tries one, she doesn’t know if Lena will be the type of dog who figures it out and accepts it – or one of the dogs who develops an extreme fear or aggressive response to being shocked when she barks at someone or something. But she feels like she has few other acceptable options.
Who gets more excited about traveling to see dog food production facilities? I can’t imagine that anyone gets more excited than me.
Over the next few days, I’m going to see a half-dozen manufacturing facilities that produce raw frozen and/or raw dehydrated canine diets. Some of these are produced in human food manufacturing plants. This gives me a great opportunity to compare their HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) plans with those of the various dog food plants I’ve seen.
I’m also going to visit a plant that provides high pressure pasteurization (HPP) services. While the majority of the company’s business is human foods, a growing number of makers of raw pet food are now using or looking into using HPP on their products – and not because any dogs have been made ill by their products. So, why?
In response to a high number of cases of foodborne illness (in humans), the Food and Drug Administration pressed for changes that would help the agency prevent outbreaks, rather than respond to them. Its efforts led to passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, which (among many other things) reduced the amounts of various contaminants that would be accepted in raw foods, and reduced to zero the amount of certain contaminants (most notably for our purposes, Salmonella) that could be present in “ready to eat” foods. The FSMA also increased inspection resources for testing food.
For example, as I mentioned in the April 2013 issue of WDJ, the amount of raw chicken that can be found to contain Salmonella is now 7.5 percent, reduced in July 2012 from 20 percent. Believe me, the poultry and poultry processing industries are turning themselves inside out to reduce the amount of Salmonella-infected meat they produce, but without additional steps taken to actually kill the bacteria, such as irradiation or HPP, it’s understood that some amount of Salmonella will be present in raw chicken, even in the best supermarkets. It’s considered acceptable to find Salmonella in raw chicken because the FDA expects people to cook it, which in itself constitutes a “kill step,” and take other safe handling precautions, such as washing our hands, cutting boards, and anything else that has been used to prepare or contain raw meat.
In contrast, there is zero tolerance for Salmonella and other potentially harmful bacteria in diets that are “ready to eat” (that are not expected to be cooked) – and it applies to any food that is expected to be brought into a home and handled by humans, even food that’s meant for the dog. This goes for raw meat diets, dehydrated and freeze-dried diets than contain raw meat – and even kibble. THIS is why we’ve been seeing so many recalls of dry dog food for Salmonella – increased “surveillance” (testing) to protect humans from being sickened by Salmonella. Despite how it may appear, it’s not that the companies that make the recalled foods have suddenly gotten sloppy or are using subpar ingredients; Salmonella is in the raw ingredients, just as it’s in some of your supermarket meats, and it’s probably always been present in a certain amount of kibble. It’s just that kibble is now being tested – and tested more frequently.
Making sure they kill Salmonella in the extrusion process (and don’t reinfect it with any other ingredient or “dirty” machinery after extrusion) is the talk of the dry pet food industry today. But the raw food industry is different. This is an industry that believes in the ability of dogs to eat a biologically appropriate diet – the kind dogs have evolved eating – and just handle a certain amount of bacteria. Raw food advocates believe that it’s the very rawness of the food ingredients in these diets that gives dogs the vitality to encounter and vanquish bacteria with impunity – none of the foods’ natural vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants have been damaged by the heat of cooking or other pasteurization.
But companies, especially small companies, can handle only so many recalls, and given the FDA’s new focus on surveillance of “ready to eat” diets, the pressure is on those that make raw food diets to subject their products to some sort of pasteurization process so as not to run afoul of increased testing and potential recalls. After all, as I’ve said, we know that Salmonella is present in the food supply, so expected products that contain raw meat to test negative is setting them up for failure. Unfortunately, this may well mean that every maker of raw diets may end up having to pasteurize their products.
Proponents of HPP say this process is the best alternative to cooking or irradiation. In a nutshell, in HPP, the foods are packaged in plastic and then the packages are immersed in tanks of water and subjected to enormous pressure, which effectively squeezes the bacteria to death. But because the food is compressed into itself, the cell walls supposedly don’t break and the enzymes aren’t released (which would make the food start breaking down. The food is reportedly so sterilized of bacteria, its shelf life is often doubled.
This process is being widely used in the human food industry, especially for meats. Go look at the packaged lunch meats in your supermarket, and check the “best by” dates – they have been extended by weeks (and in some cases, months) by this process.
Super-long way of saying, hey, I’m going to go see the process in action, and I’m excited. I’ll discuss what I saw and learned in the next issue of WDJ.
There are a host of other things you can do to lower general stress in your dogs’ environment.
If you’ve ever had a massage, you know how calming touch can be. Dogs aren’t that different from us; you can calm and soothe your dog with physical touch, both through canine massage and TTouch. Combine your calming touch sessions with aromatherapy, by using a therapeutic-quality lavender essential oil in an electric nebulizing diffuser in the room while you massage your dog. Then you can build your dog’s “ahhh” association with the lavender scent to help him be calm in more stressful environments, by putting a few drops of essential oil on a bandana that you tie around his neck or on the bedding in his crate.
It has been a while since we reviewed dehydrated diets – long enough that there have been quite a few additions to the pool of companies who make and sell this type of dog food. It’s increasingly popular, for a lot of reasons.
For one thing, “raw diets” are increasingly popular, too, and most of the products in this category incorporate raw animal proteins in their formulations. People who believe in the superiority of canine diets that include raw meat (often referred to as biologically appropriate or evolutionary diets) can use a dehydrated or freeze-dried food as a convenient replacement for their dogs’ fresh, home-prepared or commercial frozen raw diet.
Whether it’s dehydrated or freeze-dried, raw meat doesn’t seem so, well, raw. Most of us don’t think of beef jerky as raw meat, either, but it actually is. The drying process (and, in jerky, the use of salt and nitrates) “cures” the meat, altering its appearance and texture and concentrating its flavor – and, significantly, halting the biological action (decay) in the food – with less damage to the meat’s natural enzymes or vitamins than cooking temperatures would cause.
If you read the descriptions of each product listed in our Dehydrated and Freeze-Dried Dog Food Review, you will note that some contain “air-dried” or “dehydrated” (same thing) or freeze-dried ingredients. The difference in nutritional content of foods processed in either manner is negligible. However, dehydration alters the cellular structure of meats, fruits, and vegetables much more than dehydrating, more radically altering their appearance and taste than freeze-drying. Rehydrated, freeze-dried ingredients taste remarkably similar to their fresh, moist counterparts. Does this matter to your dog? You’d have to try different products to find out.
To learn more about Dehydrated and Free-Dried Dog food, and every other kind of dog food, subscribe to Whole Dog Journal today. This will give you access to premium subscriber-only content and the full version of this article.
Just a reminder to immediately investigate any time you notice your dog licking any body part more than usual – and of course, any unexplained wound, bleeding, or lump.
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The other day, I took a walk with my two dogs, and a friend and her two dogs (one of whom is Chaco, a Kelpie, one of my former fosters from my local shelter). We hiked on a trail next to the Feather River, which flows through my town. It’s hot here already, and the dogs jumped in the river and drank and swam frequently as we walked. About a mile from the trailhead, I, too, took the opportunity to clamber down an embankment and take a quick swim (the water is like ice). And from the low vantage of the water’s edge, I was able to see something that neither my friend nor I had seen as we had walked along: Chaco was bleeding a bit, in a most private area. Just a bit, and from above, the blood was hidden by her tail; I was able to see it only because she climbed out of the water and up the bank ahead of me; I was below and right behind her! If she had been an intact female, I would have figured she was in heat. But she’s spayed.
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We cajoled Chaco into lying down, and Chris rubbed Chaco’s tummy while I looked for a wound. I couldn’t find a wound but blood was all over her vulva. We immediately turned back for the car, calling a veterinarian as we walked as fast as we could. We were lucky: Chris had gotten off of work early, so it was only about 5 pm, and the vet was open until 6.
Long story short, Chaco had a foxtail in her vagina. Yikes! It was corroded enough that the vet thought it was likely that it had been in the dog for a few days. Chris had last walked her dogs on a trail three days before, so it was likely on that trip (not ours that day) when Chaco picked up one of the nefarious awns. Chris had noticed Chaco licking herself, but not much more than usual. And she hadn’t had any other symptoms – yet.
Foxtails (and many other grasses) have seed heads with barbed tails; the barbs are aligned so that the seed head will attach to anything it touches and “travel” in one direction. Each little piece of the awn – every little thread of tail – can travel in a wound and cause infection everywhere it goes.
Foxtails are most notorious for getting between dogs’ toes, up their noses, and in their ears. But they can embed themselves in any place. The veterinarian we saw said that Chaco’s was the second he had removed this season (so far) from a female dog’s private anatomy, and that he had removed one (so far this season) from a dog’s penis. Dogs with matted or thick coats can get them in any fold of skin or particularly thick bit of hair.
A dog’s skin is its only protection against foxtails, but it is all-too-easily breached. Once the foxtail gets past the skin (whether into an orifice or by stabbing into a thin-skinned spot, like between the toes), the awn can travel all over the body, causing infection, pain, and trauma. Generally, if you notice a dog worrying at himself early enough, a veterinarian can find the point of entry, follow the tract of infection, and remove the awn. But if the wound goes unnoticed and unexplored, the awn may travel far enough and cause enough trauma and infection to necessitate a major exploratory surgery to find and remove it.
At this time of year, when the grasses are turning brown and dry, and the seedheads are starting to blow about, be sure you check your dog carefully for stickers (and ticks!) after walking outside. Stay alert to any signs that your dog is grooming himself more than he usually does. And if he shows any sign of swelling, pain, head-shaking, bleeding, or limping, take him to see your veterinarian right away.
Have you ever felt dismayed over the shrinking access for our canine companions? I know that to a large degree we’ve brought it on ourselves by our collective carelessness about proper public and leash-walking etiquette.
Teaching your dog how to walk politely on a leash is more than just a convenience. When you can walk in public with your dog following your moves, he’s more likely to stay out of trouble.
Teach your dog the difference between walking and heeling. Whether you’re teaching “Heel,” or the less formal “Let’s walk!” the correct position for the part of the leash that stretches from you to the dog is slack, hanging down in a valley. Be sure when your dog is with you that you keep the leash slack. If you keep it tight, he’ll think tension in the leash is normal and correct.
How to exercise yourself at the same time you exercise your dog was the subject of “Fitness Together” in the April 2013 issue of WDJ. But there are many reasons the human half of the equation may not be up for much physical exercise, some permanent and some thankfully temporary. Fear not, there are ways to exercise your dog physically, whether he’s outside at the end of a leash, or inside, playing games that permit him to run around a less-than-active you. Your dog needs exercise; your job is to figure out how to meet that need, even if you can’t join in. A tired dog is a content, well-behaved, relaxed dog, one more likely to choose to snooze while his people are at work.
Incorporating some games of tug into your walk can help tire a dog who needs more miles than you can walk. Practice having your dog drop the toy on cue.
And choosing snoozing over chewing is more apt to let him remain in his home, allowing him to skip that sad trip to the shelter. Maybe those familiar words shelter workers hear – “I just don’t have enough time for him,” “He needs a place in the country, where he can run,” and all their variants – would be less often heard if only he was happily tuckered out, instead of bored to distraction and destruction. It is possible to get him tired, without knocking yourself out.
Suppose for a moment you’re like me: a lifelong dog owner now in your 70s, with a young dog, large or small (I have one of each), who revels in exercise. Maybe you’re younger, but you’ve suffered an injury or required surgery. There are any number of reasons you can’t be as active as you might (or should) like to be. Here are a few ways to keep your exercise at a minimum, and still tire your dog.
Play Tug!
I can walk just fine, but not as far as it would take to truly tire my 6-year-old Bull Terrier, Zee. By incorporating some random games of tug into our walks, I can, however, increase her exercise while my own remains the same. You can, too! Most dogs love to tug!
On walks, we play the game on-leash. In many areas, your dog is legally required to be on-leash. Plus, it is often safer for your dog to be on-leash.
Fans of agility, flyball, and other high-energy sports often use brief sessions of tug as a reward for a good practice or competition run, and so catalogs and pet supply stores that cater to performance sports carry a wide variety of tug toys. There are tug toys for dogs with every type of preference for the part of the toy they grip in their mouths: balls, rope, fleece, leather, rubber, and more.
Sometimes it isn’t convenient to carry a toy for your dog. I’ve added a “toy” to the handle end of my leash, a “regular” solid-color six-foot Mendota leash that attaches to my girl’s collar. My “tug toy extension” is a four-footer with similar colors in a pattern, which I clip to the handle of the six-foot solid-colored leash. So far, every dog I’ve played this game with has been able to perceive the difference between “plain” and “patterned.” Not one has ever mouthed a leash, and yet they’ve been happy to tug on the four-foot patterned extension. It’s easy enough to replace the “tug toy” leash when it becomes frayed and shortened.
My big girl loves this game, and there’s no need to carry a yucky, soggy toy in my pocket. If I’m tired of tugging, I unclip the “toy” part from the “leash” part, stick it in a clean pick-up bag, into my pocket it goes, and the game is over.
Make sure your dog follows the most basic rule of the tug game, however: If he won’t let go on cue, the game ends with an “Oops!” or “Wrong!” As long as he drops the tug toy on cue, he may earn the chance to play again.
Stairball
If you are blessed with a dog who enjoys retrieving, and you live in a place with stairs to other floors, or stairs to your yard, or a deck, you can play stairball!
I took up stairball many years ago, after I had sprained my ankle and could not walk. I had a puppy under a year old at the time, and she needed a lot more exercise than I could give her on crutches.
I learned that the simplest and safest way to play this game is for you to be at the bottom of the stairs, with your dog at your side. You throw the object to be retrieved up the stairs. Your faithful hound races up the stairs to get the toy, and then down again, gleefully dropping the toy at your feet. If your dedicated retriever is never clumsy, you can move to the top of the stairs and throw the object down, but there’s less chance she’ll trip if she’s racing up to get the toy, rather than down.
A variation is throwing the toy from a second story deck to your fenced yard, and having your (well-coordinated adult) dog run down the stairs to search it out. In the course of potty training, my girl learned that the word “yard” meant she should go there. If your dog doesn’t get it right away, employ a helper to call her to the yard, and encourage her find the toy and return it to you for another run.
There’s also a chance for some nose work, in searching for a toy thrown into the yard; if you throw over a deck rail, it will be hard for the dog to see where the toy landed. You can throw into cover, and she’ll have to sniff it out.
Repeat throws until your dog is fully exercised. Some will let you know when they’ve had enough and others will overdo it. You won’t be tired, because you aren’t moving much – you might even be sitting down with a tall drink at your side! So, be sensitive to signs she may be ready for rest, and stop before she’s overheated.
Stairball is good practice for retrieving – informal, but with lots of fun repetitions. The pup I played this game with learned to bring the retrieved object to hand, because if she didn’t, I couldn’t reach it to throw it again, which she badly wanted me to do.
Stairball can be played indoors or in a long hallway. But please note: Hardwood or other slippery floors are not a good venue for these games; a dog in a rush to retrieve on a slick surface can slip and tear an ACL all too easily.
Looneyball
This is an outdoor game, played mostly on a sandy surfaces, since it involves great leaping and pounding, and that can be hard on the joints. Grass is fine when there’s no beach handy.
What a great game for satisfying prey drive! My dogs are never allowed to chase any living thing (well, except another dog, in play); looneyball offers a substitute. “Here’s something you can chase, and you can kill it if you can catch it.”
Equipment is needed, but making it isn’t difficult. Take a broom handle or dowel of a similar diameter, and saw off a section about 30 inches long. Smooth the cut end of the handle part with sandpaper if you have any; if not, you can skip this step. Drill a hole large enough that a shoelace will run freely through it. Run your thong through the hole (a leather shoelace works well) and knot it securely.
A piece of broomstick, a leather shoelace, and an inexpensive “punching ball” is the equipment you need for this game. Photo by Shari Mann.
Now you need a large, heavy-duty balloon on a long rubber band. These balloons, often called “punch balls,” are a made of thicker material than ordinary party balloons, and the necessary rubber band is attached to each one. I get mine from Oriental Trading Company (orientaltrading.com) but they are not hard to find elsewhere. They vary in price, about 50 cents each in quantities of a dozen.
Run the rubber band attached to the uninflated balloon through the thong at the end of the broom handle. Then inflate the punch ball. It is less apt to be popped if it is slightly underinflated. I carry a spare uninflated balloon or two, so if one does get popped, the game need not end.
One caveat: it’s best not to play this game if you can’t readily remove things from your dog’s mouth. Swallowing pieces of punctured balloon is best avoided, though unnaturally colorful stool has been picked up a time or two, and no harm done.
Looneyball is a fine game to practice work on your “out” or “drop” command. Dog won’t let go? The game ends. Dog releases? The game continues. And the human likely gets to practice taking things from the dog’s mouth. That’s good practice: It could save his life some day, if he grabs something that will harm him.
Finally, you’re ready to play. Your dog can be leashed or not, depending on where you play. If a leash is required, at least 10 feet is best. Zee trails her 10-foot leash easily. Six feet is too short to allow room for a high leap or long jump. If you’re playing in your grassy, fenced yard, going leash-free is fine.
You can see the joy on Zebra’s face when she’s playing her favorite game. Photo by Carol Gallagher.Wave the ball around and encourage your dog to get it! Wag it from left to right, high to low. Play matador, whisking it skyward when she leaps for it. Drag it sloooowly in front of her; chances are she’ll stalk it. Allow her to snap at it, making the ball bounce wildly to the end of its tether. When she appears ready to pounce, change its elevation – the sky’s the limit.
Zee would rather play this game than almost any other; it’s pretty hard to distract her from it. She has a blast, and I get to remain relatively stationary. Of course you can play this game with your dog and run all over the place, if you want to. It’s a lot of fun for both parties, played either way.
House training concerns are probably as old as the roots of our relationship with canis familiaris. I suspect prehistoric humans were as unhappy about having those early canids poop and pee in their caves as we are today when we find a pile or puddle in the middle of the living room rug. If you have always had the good fortune to share your home with easy-to-housetrain dogs, it may come as a surprise to you – or even a shock – if your next dog is one of those who doesn’t come with a well-installed “clean den” ethic.
The basics of house training are simple: take your dog outside more often than she has to go, and in between trips, supervise her well so she doesn’t have the opportunity to go where she should not! Sometimes it is that easy. Sometimes it’ isn’t. Despite the simplicity of the basic housetraining formula, there’s much that can go awry.
You can prevent some of the house training missteps by going out with your dog, at least until she is trained. Take her out on-leash to her designated bathroom spot, wait until she has emptied, and then play with her before taking her back inside. This will accomplish some important things:
– Your pup will learn to potty first, so she can then play. If you let her play first and take her in as soon as she goes, she may learn to hold it as long as possible in order to prolong play. If she has to go first to make play happen, she will develop the habit of eliminating as soon as you take her outdoors. This will serve you well throughout her life, especially when you are in a hurry, or during inclement weather. If you go out with her, you will know whether or not she has emptied. If she doesn’t go, especially during the training phase, you’ll know to bring her back in and either re-crate her or at least keep her under direct supervision, until the next bathroom break.
– Consistently taking her directly to her designated bathroom spot will not only encourage her to go right away, but also teach her where to go, which facilitates future clean-up and decreases accidental step-in-poo incidents.
– By teaching her to go to the bathroom on-leash early in your relationship together, you may prevent the challenge of the dog who will go to the bathroom only when off-leash.
What’s the Frequency?
Assuming (for now) that your dog or pup has no medical or behavioral problems, how often does she have to go out? One oft-quoted rule of thumb for puppies is that they can generally hold it for up to one hour longer than their age in months. So a two-month-old pup could/should be able to refrain from eliminating for up to three hours, a three-month-old pup up to four hours, and so on. Unless she just ate, drank water, played, or woke up from a nap, in which case she’s likely to have to go any minute. And since pups are almost always eating, drinking, playing, or sleeping, they are almost always ready to “go.”
So the “one-hour-longer” guideline really applies only to enforced inactivity, such as when a pup is crated overnight or while her owner is at work. A better rule for young puppies is “every hour on the hour, and anytime they have just eaten, drunk, played, or awakened from a nap.”
Most adult dogs, once trained, are capable of routinely holding it for six to eight hours. While some dogs can go as long as 10 hours or more between bathroom breaks, they really shouldn’t have to. Professional petsitters are a good option for midday breaks if you don’t have a neighbor, friend, or family member you can trust to provide a potty opportunity.
Most humans sleep longer than four to five hours overnight, so clearly you can expect at least one oh-dark-hundred wake-up call per night during the first few weeks of your pup’s new life with you. Make sure your baby dog is crated near enough to you that you can hear her when she wakes up and cries to go out – and make sure you do get up and take her out – or you risk one of the behavioral problems discussed below.
Nighttime bathroom trips should be all business. On leash, go out, eliminate, come back in, and go to bed. If you include play or cuddling, you may teach your pup to wake you up for wee-hour fun even when she no longer has to empty her bowels and bladder overnight.
The good news is that many pups beat the rule and can sleep through the night by the time they are four months old – in part because they are not eating, drinking, playing, or waking up. You may get that longed-for night of uninterrupted sleep sooner than you think!
Getting Through the Early Days
These days, a majority of dog owners work outside the home for a full eight hours plus commute. If you are a stay-at-home mom or dad, work from a home office, or have other housemates who work different shifts and can share puppy training duty, you can skip this next part. If your pup must be left alone for long hours, read on. There aren’t many (any?) young pups who can go 6 to 10 hours without eliminating – nor should they have to. If you adopt a puppy and work outside the home you have several options:
– Take her to work with you. You can only do this, of course, if you have a workplace that allows it, and a workload that can accommodate a puppy’s needs.
– Hire a petsitter to come in as many times as needed during the day to make sure all your pup’s waste ends up outdoors where it belongs. For a young pup, this is at least two, perhaps three visits during a workday. Depending on where you live, this could cost anywhere from $15 to $40 per visit.
– Leave her with someone responsible that you trust to look after her, take her out often, supervise her activities, and reinforce the positive dog-human relationship that you are building with her. (Doggy daycare is not an appropriate place for a young puppy unless they have a completely separate puppies-only group and monitor the interactions very closely to ensure that all puppies are having a happy time.)
– Leave her at home indoors in an exercise pen large enough for her to have a designated potty corner and still keep the rest of her bedroom clean. (Lay a tarp on the floor, cover it with newspapers, and put your puppy pen on top.) Note: You should be aware that this option may make it more challenging to eventually convince her to only eliminate out-of-doors.
– Set up a very secure, weather-proof outdoor kennel area where she can stay during the day. (This is my least favorite option. I don’t believe dogs should be outdoors all day when their owners aren’t home, you risk annoying neighbors with her barking – and possible retribution such as theft or poisoning – and your dog still lacks the opportunity to learn not to soil her living area.)
If you are able to take your dog out more often than she has to go, your training efforts should pay off in a reasonable time with clean carpets, uninterrupted sleep, and a dog who knows her bathroom is outside. If you are unable to do the above, you need to seriously rethink your dog/puppy-owning plan.
A Canine Litter Box
As a suburban or rural dweller for most of my life, I’ve always had the luxury of a backyard for my dogs. City dwellers often must alter house-training procedures to accommodate urban living. If you live on the 23rd floor of an apartment, there’s no way you’ll get your pup down the elevator and out the door before she has to empty her bladder.
If this describes your living situation, consider a litter box for your dog. You can use real sod, fake grass (Astro-turf), or even litter box material made for dogs. If you have a balcony, you can put your canine litter box there, and housetrain just as you would if you were taking your dog outside. Absent a balcony, set your litter box up in the chosen room of your apartment and housetrain there just as you would in a backyard. (If you have a male dog, you can put a secure post in your potty-box upon which he can lift his leg and still keep the urine within the confines of the box. Install a splash shield behind the post if necessary.)
Signals
A “gotta go” signal can facilitate housetraining. When your dog knows she can tell you she has to go out, there is less responsibility on you to make sure you take her out more often than she has to go; she will let you know when it’s time. Here are two methods for teaching your dog to communicate her bathroom needs to you.
Get Happy
This is my preferred method. It’s simple, and dogs learn it almost by osmosis. Every time I take my dog out for a bathroom break I get excited and say, “Want to go out?!” She gets excited and dances around in response to my excitement, and in fairly short order will offer the bathroom dance when she needs to go out. If you want your dog to bark to tell you she needs out, increase the excitement level until she barks, then take her out. I like this method because my dog will come and find me in order to deliver the signal.
Ring a Bell
Some owners like to teach their dogs to ring a bell hung on the doorknob when they need to go out. To do this, teach your dog to ring a bell on a string by either nose or paw targeting, then hang the bell on the preferred doorknob and ask your dog to ring it every time you take her out for a potty break. One downside to this method, especially if you live in a large house, is that you need to be close enough to the potty door to hear the bell when it rings. If your house is too large for this and you want to use this method, you will need to install an electronic bell or buzzer and have speakers installed throughout the house.
Complications
Of course, if housetraining were always as simple as it sounds, we wouldn’t need articles written about it. There are a number of things that can go wrong, even if you do all the things described above. Such as:
Medical Issues
Anything that upsets your dog’s normal patterns of elimination can complicate house training. These might include urinary tract infections, gastrointestinal upset or illness that causes diarrhea, mobility issues that make it difficult for your dog to get outside quickly, dietary or schedule changes, and consumption of some medications (such as prednisone) that cause increased water intake and subsequent increase in urinary output. Any time there is an unexplained house-training lapse in an adult otherwise house-trained dog, consider and explore whether there may be a medical issue.
Stress
Anxiety or stress can create an increased need for elimination. Dogs who suffer from separation or isolation stress often urinate and/or defecate during a stress episode. While owners sometimes perceive this dog as being “spiteful,” he is not. He can’t help it. He’s stressed.
Prior History
Some dogs have a prior history of house- or crate-soiling. The worst of these are dogs from puppy mill or hoarder environments, where dogs live for months (or years) in tiny cages and have had no choice but to eliminate where they live. Their inhibitions against soiling their own living quarters are damaged, and it can be very challenging to repair. It sometimes requires a very strong commitment to help these dogs learn new, appropriate bathroom habits.
Submissive and/or Excitement Urination
“Submissive urination” is a social signal. The dog who offers this behavior usually has an appeasing personality, and pees when she is approached, spoken to, or perhaps patted on the head, as her way of saying, “I am not challenging you.”
In contrast, “excitement urination” is more likely a function of a weak bladder sphincter – a dog who gets so excited she just “pees her pants.” You can talk to your vet about this one, but a good remedy for both of these is to 1) not punish for the behavior, as they are both beyond the dog’s deliberate control; and 2) take the dog out to empty her bladder before greeting her (or allowing others to greet her), and/or greeting her outdoors so the pee ends up where it belongs.
Don’t Skimp on This
There really is no excuse for failing to house-train your dog. Dogs who soil their homes are likely to lose them. The “moving, can’t keep” reason for giving up a dog to a shelter or rescue is often a screen for, “Moving, don’t want the carpets in our new home soiled the way the old ones were.” If you want your dog to go with you on all your future moves, make sure she always knows where the bathrooms are, and how to “hold it” until she gets there.
Midge, the Pet Store Puppy
Midge was a pet store puppy who, unfortunately, languished in her sales cage until the age of five months, when the Parker family took pity on her and purchased her. They knew the risks of buying a pup from a pet store, but they couldn’t bear to watch the adorable Midge growing up in a cage.
When they made an appointment to come see me for a private consult, it was for other behavioral issues – primarily the fear-related behaviors that resulted from a now two-year-old Midge’s lack of socialization in the puppy mill where she was born, and the pet store where she had grown up. They noted her house-soiling issues in the behavior intake form I asked them to complete, but were less concerned about that than the fear-based behavior that was escalating into biting. Recognizing that house soiling also put her at risk for losing her forever home, I convinced the Parkers that we needed to address both issues.
Reverse Crate Training
You can’t use a crate in the normal way to house train a dog who has learned to soil her bed. Normally, a dog – even a puppy – will try very hard not to soil the crate, so you confine them to prevent them from eliminating. Not so with Midge – in her mind she was supposed to eliminate in her crate. So we did the opposite: the Parkers started putting Midge in her crate only when they knew she had eliminated recently. At first they crated her for a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes, and then gave her supervised house freedom until her next bathroom break. Then she was back in the crate for a short spell. Gradually they lengthened her time in the crate, always removing her before she felt the need to eliminate, so she wouldn’t be tempted. If they had to leave her alone they left her in the bathroom, where she had a “legal” potty corner. The goal was to rebuild her natural inhibitions against soiling her bed.
I initially saw Midge some six months ago. It’s taking some time to resove her fear issues, but she’s made very happy progress in housetraining. She is now able to be crated for up to four hours during the day while her humans are away, and is immediately taken to eliminate outside when family or the pet sitter arrives at the home. She can be crated overnight in the Parker’s bedroom without a halftime potty break. She has been accident-free for the past four months, and is no longer supervised closely when loose in the house with her owners at home. The Parkers are delighted with her new house-training skills, and continue to work diligently to modify her fearfulness.
Teach Your Dog to Ring a Bell!
Some owners like to teach their dog to ring a bell as their bathroom signal. You can do this by teaching your dog to target her nose or paw to a bell suspended on a string from the doorknob, or to a button that causes a buzzer to go off.
Nose:
This one is usually pretty easy, since dogs are likely to sniff a novel object that we present to them. Hold the bell in your hand and offer it to your dog. When she sniffs it (or sniffs near it) click your clicker (or use a verbal marker such as the word “Yes!”) and feed her a treat. Repeat until she is eagerly nudging the bell with her nose in order to get you to mark-and-treat. Add your “Want to go out?” cue just before you offer the bell for her to nudge. Now lower the bell an inch on its string, and click and treat for nudging. As you let the string get longer and longer, start only clicking nudges that are hard enough to make the bell jingle.
When she’ll consistently make it jingle at full string length, hang it on the doorknob and continue the lessons. When she can easily jingle the hanging bell on cue, start cueing it right before you take her out to potty. Gradually increase the distance you are from the door when you give the cue, and before long she’ll be offering the behavior on her own when she needs to go out.
Paw:
If your dog already knows a cue for “Shake hands,” ask her to “Shake” while holding the bell in the palm of your hand. After a few of these, precede the “Shake” cue with your new “potty bell” cue, whatever you want that to be. In short order, she will tap the bell in your hand with her paw on the bathroom cue, and you can drop the “Shake” cue, reserving that for when you really want her to shake. Gradually lengthen the string and follow the directions above to teach her to paw the bell as her bathroom cue to you.
If your dog doesn’t already know a cue for “Shake hands,” you can prompt her to paw at your hand by holding a treat in your closed fist (click and treat!) until she offers the behavior easily, then transfer it to the bathroom bell. Or you can shape the behavior by clicking her for any paw movement at first, gradually clicking only for paw movements that come closer to ringing the bell, and eventually only for those that ring the bell.
Squeak:
Dogs who enjoy playing with squeaky toys may take to this alternative to bells. Use the shaping process described above to cue your dog to grab and squeak the toy, and then move the game to the door to your yard. With a zip-tie or string, fasten the squeaky toy to the door handle, at a height where it’s easy for your dog to reach and mouth it, but not low enough to make it easy to chew.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, CDBC, 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.
I don’t know where I picked it up, but it elicits a chuckle each time I repeat it to someone new. “God made dogs,” the joke goes, “and the Devil made dog clubs.”
If you are involved in dogs outside the four walls of your home – competing in performance events like agility or obedience, helping out with a rescue group, going to your local dog park – then, inescapably, you are involved with dog people. And no matter what the context, or how altruistic the goal, any time more than two people gather in the name of something they are passionate about, there are politics – and drama, mama.
It’s fitting (and not a little ironic) that dogs evolved to be our companions around the prehistoric garbage dump, because dealing with our unwanted baggage has become an inevitable part of the relationship.
All this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t band together to celebrate the species that is such an important part of our lives – how unrewarding would that be? But the more you get involved in the “dog world” – whether it’s your local obedience class or doing a star turn on the green carpet at Westminster – at some point you’ll likely find yourself grappling with a variety of emotions and dilemmas, and they are hardly ever brought on by the dogs themselves. Personality conflicts, head games, territorial imperatives, competitiveness so overt it would make even the steeliest soccer mom cringe – these are part and parcel of being “doggie” in this day and age.
Because the best defense is a good offense, here are some things to keep in mind if your goal is to have a balanced, healthy relationship not just with your dogs, but with the people who share your passion for them.
Don’t be judgmental. Like any culture, our doggie version has societal norms that are “supposed” to be observed, as well as its share of taboos. We judge people based on all kinds of things – where they acquired their dog, what kind of dog it is, whether they spay or neuter, where their dog sleeps at night, what training systems they use, even what kind of food they feed.
Take that last one for a minute. I may think feeding raw is the healthiest option for my dog, and that’s okay. But it’s not okay if that leads me to conclude that anyone who feeds kibble is uneducated or uncaring about her dog’s welfare. Enthusiasm over hard-won discoveries about your dog is nothing but natural, but avoid becoming a proselytizer who can’t see the benefit in other people’s choices. Accept that you know what works for you and your dog, but don’t make other people feel bad about making different choices. Who knows? Maybe your friend can’t feed raw because she has an immunocompromised child, or she flat out can’t afford it. You don’t want to be the oblivious Boy Scout who is helping the little old lady cross the street … with her hitting him over the head with her umbrella all the while, because that’s not the way she was heading.
We’re all not in the same place on this journey, and how boring would it be if we were? Remember how clueless you were when you got your first dog? You may have even embraced certain ideas or beliefs that today you find reprehensible. Does that make you a bad or unworthy person, then or today?
It is a slippery slope: Often, the more we know about our corner of the dog world, the lower our tolerance level. For example, when they encounter those who use punishment as part of their training repertoire, there are some “purely positive” trainers who react in a way that can only be termed aversive. There’s a delicious irony there, don’t you think? Better to follow their own training advice: Reward the behaviors you like, and ignore those you don’t.
Years ago I followed a bully breed rescuer for a story I was writing. He basically drove around a gritty neighborhood, cajoling street toughs to give up their fighting and breeding dogs. I asked him, probably with more than a tinge of righteousness, how he screened his homes – his placement process seemed a little, well, slipshod to me.
“It doesn’t have to be a perfect home,” he told me, as we cruised past a pittie living in a sawed-off oil drum. “It just has to be better than what the dog has today.”
It was an imperfect solution for an imperfect world, but it was better than nothing. Especially if you were the dog.
Don’t cut yourself on the competitive edge. Dogs are such willing partners with us, it’s no wonder that the list of formal activities that we can do with them seems to grow longer every day. Obedience, agility, tracking, flyball, rally, nosework, dock diving, doggie dancing – and those are just some of the “every dog” ones, let alone specialized competitions such as lure-coursing, herding, or field trials.
But if you’re not careful, winning can turn you into the equivalent of a coin-stuffer parked in front of a casino slot machine: The wins are so addictive, they impart such a high, that soon you need more and more to maintain that same level of euphoria.
The problem, of course, is that you can’t hit a homer every time you’re at bat – or in front of the agility start line, or waiting at the white-fence entrance to the show ring. Kids in Little League are taught this, but many of us seem to have forgotten it. If leaving an event with the biggest and best ribbon is your only goal, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. In “sports” we compare ourselves to the competition, but in “sportsmanship,” we take our performance out of that context. Sportsmanship is defined as “an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake” – without assigning blame, or reacting with negativity or pettiness.
Whenever I find myself heading into a weekend of dog shows, I never make winning my only goal. I aspire to it, of course, but there’s nothing more self-defeating than setting a goal that needs to be legitimized from outside. Instead, I make myself the arbiter of my own success, and thus I have complete control over it. I might tell myself, “This weekend, my goal is to have one conversation with someone that leaves me richer in knowledge than when I arrived.” Or: “My goal is to show my dog to her best advantage, with a palpable sense of enthusiasm and pride, so that everyone at ringside can see her quality and value.” Or, better yet: “I am going to have fun with my dog.”
It’s easier said than done, but it comes quicker the more you practice.
Like dogs, we dog people tend to arrange ourselves in a hierarchy. And it’s fine to have a group of like-minded dog friends that you hang out with, who are your support system and with whom you have shared interests. After all, most humans like to categorize and order our world – the narrower the pigeonhole, the more comfortable the fit. To that end, terrier people like to hang with terrier people, high-octane agility folk gravitate toward fellow competitors with high-speedsters, rescue folk seek out kindred spirits who know the challenges of the path they have chosen.
But sometimes these different “camps” can be as limiting as high school cliques. It’s a good idea to cast your net as wide as possible, because you never know what you’ll learn next, or who will teach it to you. For example, you probably couldn’t come up with two more opposite groups than purebred dog breeders and mixed-breed animal rescuers, but just imagine what the two could learn from each other if there were open, meaningful, non-confrontational dialogue.
Of course, there are always head cases. There’s one in every crowd, and oftentimes there are two or three. It’s no surprise that some dog people bring their own emotional baggage and unresolved issues with them. And when they do, wherever they are – the dog run, the training class, the rally ring – becomes their personal stage.
The “games people play” are endless – you’d do well to pick up a copy of the classic Eric Berne book of the same title to get a sense of how pervasive and sophisticated they can be. But you don’t need a degree in transactional analysis to navigate them. Instead, just take a cue from the dogs: Approach non-confrontationally, throw lots of calming signals, and avoid getting sucked into the drama.
Don’t live through your dog. Your self-worth shouldn’t be tied to what your dog does, or what other people think about it. If your dog flipped out at the training class, or spent the afternoon being a serial-humper at the dog park, or got the zoomies during the off-leash heel at an obedience competition, that doesn’t make you a bad dog person, any more than it makes your dog a bad dog.
Dogs, like people, are not static creatures. They change and grow and evolve just like we do. Whatever your puppy is like at six months is sure to be very different from what he is at six years – or even at one year, for that matter. Don’t take the ups and downs to heart, because they are ephemeral and don’t matter in the long run. What matters are the memories that you make and the connections you foster.
In some of the highest levels of competition, or in intensely competitive social interactions, people do tend to make value judgments about the dogs around them. But these judgments are based on what is prized in that context. Your dog’s inherent value is not determined by how fast he can hurtle through an agility tunnel, or how gorgeous his turn of shoulder or head planes are, or how neat a sit he can execute, or how many people ogle him at the dog run, though those are understandable sources of pride. He is valuable because he is yours.
Whenever you are involved in an activity that takes a lot of emotional, mental, and physical effort – whether it’s rehabilitating a near-feral, neglected Yorkie out of a hoarder’s house, or readying your pit-mix for an advanced obedience title – it can be easy to lose perspective on what’s important. And in the end, what matters most is the relationship between you and your dog.
“Dogs aren’t our whole life, but they make our lives whole,” Roger Caras famously said. Because they offer such unconditional love, and because we can control and, yes, manipulate them so effortlessly, dogs can become an appealing substitute for human company.
I know plenty of dog people who have missed monumental family occasions because they had “dog stuff” to do. Again, I don’t judge, so maybe that was the right decision for them. But we can become so immersed in our dog life that sometimes we forget to put it in the proper perspective. Your dog doesn’t care if she is running through the weave poles in the backyard or at the highest-profile trial of the year. She just knows that she is running with you, and that is all that matters.
The activities that you and your dog share with the larger dog community can be fun, fulfilling, and rewarding. But they shouldn’t be the only things that provide those adjectives for you. Make sure yours is a balanced life. Cook dinner for friends, dig in your garden, take in a concert, dance in the rain.
Above all, recognize when you need a break. Taking time away to recharge might be just what you need to get a clear perspective on things. Clubs, events, rescue, and competition will be there when you get back. But the most important ingredient, the one thing that got you involved in all this to begin with – your dog – will still be at your side. Come to think of it, he never left.
Denise Flaim of Revodana Ridgebacks in Long Island, New York, shares her home with three Ridgebacks, three 9-year-old children, and a very patient husband.
Most of us find the habit of eating feces to be the most disgusting thing that a dog can do. The clinical name for this behavior is coprophagy (pronounced kä – prä – fey – je), from the Greek words copro, which means feces, and phagy, which means eat.
The habit is not just revolting to us humans, it’s also potentially harmful to the dog’s health – although it’s less dangerous if the dog eats only his own feces and is parasite-free. A dog can become infected with internal parasites (worms) by eating feces from a dog who is already infected. The highly infectious parvovirus is also shed in feces, posing a risk to a coprophagic dog.
There are many theories to explain why some dogs do this, and at least as many suggested remedies. They range from the somewhat scientific to the hopeful. A multitude of remedies can be found through veterinarians, dog trainers, and local pet supply stores. Available literature and anecdotal reports suggest many things work for various dogs, and some dogs don’t respond completely despite the best efforts of their caregivers.
Even though there are no definitive answers for this seemingly eternal question, don’t despair. Keep reading and make as many of the changes suggested below as you reasonably can, and you may find one or more that work for you and your poop-eating dog.
Unproven Theories
There are any number of theories that propose reasons for dogs to engage in coprophagy, including the following:
Disease – Pancreatic insufficiency is one health condition linked to coprophagy, as is severe malnutrition caused by parasitic infestation.
Stress – Coprophagy is a behavior that is much more prevalent in shelter dogs (and former shelter dogs) than in the general population and is therefore thought to be related to anxiety and stress. For some dogs, removing sources of stress can help reduce this behavior. On the other hand, it may be that more dogs are surrendered to shelters because their humans can’t tolerate feces-eating.
Fear of Punishment – One theory suggests that dogs punished for defecating inappropriately may begin eating the evidence, in order to avoid owner disapproval.
Momma did it, too – Mother dogs eat their young puppies’ feces in order to keep the puppies (and the puppies’ environment) clean and healthy. Some very young puppies may join her in coprophagy (although many grow out of the habit if the feces-eating was motivated solely by a desire to keep the environment clean).
Some dog professionals have developed theories that place the blame for the habit on the dogs’ owners. They may propose:
A big fuss – If the owner makes a huge deal out of the behavior (and it’s hard not to!) the possibility exists that poop takes on special importance to the dog. A dog may interpret the owner’s response as interest in, or competition for, this high-value item. A simpler explanation may be that poop eating becomes an attention-getting behavior.
Valuable item – Some trainers and behaviorists believe that it’s possible to turn poop eating into a resource-guarding behavior, for the above reason (the owner’s interest in the feces). This would likely be the case if your dog growls at you over attempts to interrupt feces eating. If this is your situation, it is likely that the assistance of a qualified trainer is in order to help you address this behavior.
Prevention Strategies
Whatever the cause of your dog’s coprophagy, a solid plan for prevention through management and training is necessary. If he shows any interest in eating poop, do not delay addressing this behavior. Careful management combined with training incompatible behaviors and a bit of counter-conditioning will be invaluable.
Some possible strategies include:
Praising your dog as he poops. As soon as he’s done, offer him some treats, so quickly that he doesn’t even think about his deposit. (You must use food rewards that your dog likes more than poop!)
Managing your dog with a leash: moving him away from the feces as soon as he’s done and feeding high-value, super yummy treats as you pick up the pile and move on. This can be accomplished by tossing a handful of treats on the ground (away from the poop), so you can pick up the feces without your pup trying to nose in. Remember to praise your pup all the while for eating the treats and ignoring the poop.
Classically conditioning your dog to associate feces with good stuff from you. The second you notice that he has zeroed in on a pile of poop, stick a yummy treat in front of his nose; if you are consistent and use high-value treats, soon your dog will look at you for a treat whenever he notices poop. Be ready to reinforce this behavior at any time!
If you already have a clicker-trained dog, using operant conditioning. Click or verbally mark your dog for noticing feces and immediately treat. You can do this with deliberate set-ups or during any walk when a pile of poop is spotted.
Teaching your feces-loving dog “leave-it” is a must. Always reward him handsomely for “leaving” feces. Trained to great fluency, a behavior like “Leave it,” will give you great control over your dog in this and many other situations.
Training an incompatible behavior. For example, teach your dog to sit and look at you for a series of treats immediately after pooping; he cannot do this and eat poop at the same time!
Conditioning your dog to love wearing a muzzle. This will be of some help, though a determined dog may still dive for feces unless you use some of the other strategies suggested here.
Using a substance with an unpleasant taste to make coprophagy aversive. This will only work for dogs who eat other dogs’ feces, so that it can be tainted in advance without the dog seeing it done. Otherwise the dog may learn to avoid only the feces that he has seen being sprinkled with icky stuff.
Managing your dog during elimination even in your yard. All pooping must be supervised with your dog on leash. The behaviors that dogs practice and enjoy increase; ones they never get a chance to engage in decrease and eventually extinguish. Don’t give your dog the opportunity to practice feces-eating. Ever!
Keeping the yard completely free of feces. Very scrupulous management will stop the dog from practicing the habit.
Never using punishment when trying to fix this problem. Punishment is highly unlikely to work and could, for reasons stated earlier, easily make the problem worse.
Dietary Approach
Some animal care professionals believe that coprophagy may be related to dietary deficiencies. Improving (or just changing) the dog’s diet might address any nutritional deficits that could possibly contribute to this behavior.
– Switch to a higher-quality commerical food with higher protein and fat content, and lower carbohydrates.
Feed high-quality raw or a home-cooked diet.
– Add nutritional yeast (also called brewer’s yeast) to your dog’s daily meals to supply necessary B vitamins and thiamine).
– Add a commercial product to the dog’s food that gives the dog’s feces an unpleasant taste. This is worth trying if the dog only eats his own feces. These products can be found on-line or at local pet supply stores.
– Add digestive enzymes, on the theory that undigested matter in poop attracts the dog to eat it. This will be helpful only if the dog eats his own feces. Digestive enzymes can be found in health food stores and pet supply stores.
– When feces-eating questions show up on training and dog owner groups on the Internet, supplements like pineapple, papaya, and MSG are often mentioned as possible remedies. Based on my reading on the dog lists, few people actually report success with using these.
Lifestyle Changes
If your dog’s feces-eating is caused by stress, you can make lifestyle changes to reduce the likelihood of coprophagy.
– Schedule sufficient and appropriate exercise and play for your dog every day; a tired dog is a better-behaved dog. Make sure the activities you choose are age- and health-appropriate, and leave your pup tired and relaxed. An on-leash walk, even a long one, may not the kind of tiring aerobic exercise that will help. Your dog needs a real romp, such as playing with other dogs at the dog park, an extended game of fetch, jogging or romping in the woods with you, or swimming in a pond or pool.
– Schedule an in-depth health exam to rule out pancreatic insufficiency or malnutrition (especially in a recently rescued dog).
– Dogs need to use their brains and their bodies in fun and challenging ways to stay emotionally healthy. If your dog doesn’t know basic good manners behaviors, teach these. In particular, focus on teaching your dog calm behaviors that promote self-control, such as:
– Sit to “Say please”
– Leave it or Off
– Drop it
– Down/stay
Be sure to provide your dog with lots of interesting (to the dog!) chew toys, puzzles, and food-dispensing toys.
If none of the activities listed above work for your dog or your lifestyle, there are some excellent books available with ideas for fun ways to play with your dog, both indoors and out. Some of them include training simple tricks, and none require expensive equipment. See the box above for three excellent books on how to encourage and structure play with dogs. If you think your dog doesn’t know how to play, these books are definitely for you!
Try Everything
Despite the revulsion we bipeds experience at the thought of feces eating, coprophagy is not uncommon in dogs. The good news is that for most dogs it is a modifiable behavior. As with all canine behavior problems, implementing a careful and well crafted treatment plan will likely lead to diminishing or even ending this behavior. Consistency and a long-term approach applied with patience and planning will win the day.
Viviane Arzoumanian, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA, PMCT2, CBATI, trains dogs professionally and for various rescue organizations. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Years ago, I had high hopes for participating in dock diving sport with my now-9-year-old dog, Woody. But it turned out that my high-jumping, strong-swimming dog absolutely hates getting water in his ears!
