When I began working on this article, I asked the members from the Santa Cruz Dog Training Club (the team I participate with) what they valued about being part of a demo team. Their answers varied, but one universal theme rose from the group as a whole: Being part of the team was an incredible socialization opportunity for all of our dogs.
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One important note: Not all of our dogs are the easygoing sort! Some have had trouble with other dogs, some with new people, and some with new environments. Working together has helped all of them relax and enjoy each other’s company, and it has also helped their social skills in other areas. A big element in this is simply the trust that developed from working with the group (or the “pack” as my teammates call it).
Cathy Leavitt says the best part for her Dutch Shepherd Lacey is socializing with her “pack.” “Seeing her expression when she arrives and sees the same dogs each week and gets to work with them tells it all,” says Leavitt.
Another member echoes her sentiment. “It has been great for Chloe to have a pack,” says Debra Seltzer of her American Eskimo Dog. “She is so much more comfortable around most dogs now out in the world.”
While a big part of the social-skill benefit is simply working around their teammates, the overall structure of the routines can help too. To help further the dogs’ comfort with each other and the bigger world, we have done some of the following:
-Paired dogs who are most comfortable with each other.
-Early on, we kept the same dogs next to each other throughout the routines.
-Gave a little extra space between teams (even a foot or two can make a big difference).
-Kept some very consistent elements in our routines and our movements to help build confidence.
Plus, we celebrate when our dogs anticipated the next part of the routine or did other things that showed their confidence was growing.
As time has gone on, and the dogs have grown more accustomed to working together, even our least confident dogs have blossomed and will now work comfortably with any of the other dogs in the group. In addition, when new dogs come into the group, the “core dogs” seem to show them the ropes and help them relax much more quickly. The confidence-building element of working as a team is evident.
What brings together heelwork, tricks, music, a little high school nostalgia, and takes it all to a whole new level? K9 drill, display, and demonstration teams are not new, but as more of us are looking for different ways to showcase the rewards of positive training to the larger dog community, the concept of drill and demo teams is gathering steam.
Photo courtesy of Karen Hilker.
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The term “drill team” may evoke images of military marching routines (historically, military drill teams did occasionally include dogs), but today’s K9 drill and demo teams take many forms that involve dog/handler pairs. “I define it as a group of dog/handler teams, moving in unison to create a changing picture of shapes and lines, with or without music,” says Doris Herber, a retired dog trainer and behavior consultant who participated for several years in a drill team with her Basenji, Kodi.
Herber, who has had a lifelong love for dogs and a fascination with the roles dogs play in our lives, says K9 drill team has been one of her favorite activities. Herber is a pioneer in the small community of K9 drill teams, helping others learn about and participate in this activity through her articles and creating the K9 drill team Yahoo group.
While a K9 drill team is about moving together in patterns, Herber says drill work is not bound by the rules and restrictions imposed upon many dog-related activities. She describes it as very “open” and says that the process of developing routines lends itself to creativity.
The choreographed patterns of drill routines are often similar to marching band geometric formations, but they can be more akin to a square dance or line dance as well. Handlers may move through the routines with meticulous precision or with a more footloose style. Dogs move alongside their handlers heeling on the left or right side, but may also perform other movements such as pivots, turns, sits, downs, call to front, or return to heel.
These basic actions may be expanded upon with tricks such as dogs backing up, circling handlers, handlers circling dogs, leg weaves, spins – or even theatrics or a little comedy. The great thing about this activity is that it can be anything you and your teammates want it to be.
Participating in a K9 drill and demo team can benefit dogs, handlers, and even the community at large. Drill and demo teams are a great way to:
Showcase the positive. While positive training is not a requirement for a drill or demo team, the routines lend themselves to a positive approach. The demonstrations can be a wonderful way to showcase positive training techniques or bring attention to clubs and training organizations. At demos, people notice and comment on how focused the dogs are, and how even when the members make mistakes (and mistakes will be made!) the dogs look happy. “The connection that develops between handler and dog is amazing,” says Herber, and people take notice.
Build basic skills. The behaviors practiced during drill teamwork – moving together, turns, stops, stays, and more – are applicable in everyday life. Dogs learn to work near other people and dogs and to stay focused in the face of distractions. You will have the opportunity to work around crowds and in various locations. Plus, training with and being responsible to a group provides strong motivation to practice!
Be creative! Coming up with routines, finding music, and working through the kinks can be a very creative process. “The creative exchange of ideas and the problem solving is addictive,” says Herber. Playing with patterns, movements, and putting it all together is as rewarding as participating and showing off during demonstrations.
Build relationships. Working with a group demands that you spend time with your dog. “Drill team work became one of my favorite activities because it involved much one-on-one time with Kodi,” says Herber. “This one-on-one connection is one of the best benefits of the drill team activity.” Participating in a drill and demo team can be a great way to help socialize your dog and help him or her to build successful relationships with others too. The camaraderie of training and working with other like-minded people and their dogs is an added bonus.
Have fun with your dog! “Kodi seemed to enjoy the drill team work as much as I did,” says Herber. “If I started the music, he would come running from wherever he was, look me in the eye with a ‘Let’s go!’ expression.”
Forming a Team
If your interest is piqued and you think you might like to participate in a K9 drill or demo team, look around in your community or explore local dog training clubs. You may find a local drill team that you can join. But as likely as not, participating in a drill and demo team will mean starting one of your own; there just are not that many out there yet.
Photo by Laura Nicole Johnson.
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To get a team started, look for like-minded people – those who love dog training and who want to put in the time and effort it will take to form and perform with a team. The members of the demo team I belong to are all part of a small local positive reinforcement-based training club. You may also find interested team members in training classes, or through friends or neighbors. A drill or demo team can have as few as 2 or as many as 40 dog and handler pairs, but we’ve found that 8 to 10 pairs works especially well.
Once you’ve found a few others to start a team with, set your team goals. Think about the types of routines you’d like to do. Your team may want to experiment as a group to find where your interests and abilities lie. Are you a formal team who would enjoy clean, crisp marching style routines? Or are you more inclined toward musical freestyle or tricks? Or a combination of both?
Your team will also need a place to practice. We meet at a local park, but you might also find space at a training facility or even through a community center. Figure that you will need a minimum of 40 x 60 feet of space, and for a larger group, you may need a little more.
You can start practicing, even before you have developed a routine. Practice basic skills such as:
–Attention. Your dog will need to be able to work with you and stay focused for the length of your routine.
–Heeling or walking together with pace changes, in straight lines and curved lines (perhaps on both sides).
–Transitions from sit to down to stand.
–Clean stops (usually in a standing position).
–Turns – at minimum a right, left, and about turn, but you may want to include flashier turns as well.
–Stay – especially with you walking purposefully away.
–Return to heel or dog circling the handler.
–Handler circling the dog.
These practices will build your skills for routines, and practicing in your group will also help the dogs get to know and trust each other before you work together on routines.
Expect the usual group dynamics in your drill and demo team – with the humans and dogs. For the humans, think about how you communicate with each other and make decisions, and who will lead your practices. Having some structure in place can help when it comes to group work, but plan to be flexible, too. For example, some team members will be able to learn routines in a few sessions; others may need a little more time and help from their teammates.
Consider the dogs’ group dynamics, too. Some of the dogs may immediately work well as part of the group, while others may see their canine teammates as playmates. Some dogs may be comfortable working near certain dogs, but less comfortable with others. Give the dogs time and space, and gently help them learn to trust each other. Even dogs who get along well with other dogs can be uncertain when it comes to “working” within a group of other dogs.
Developing a Routine
Developing a routine is a many step process and may be done by one or more of the team members, or the group as a whole. You might want to spend some time looking at videos of other teams and their routines for ideas.
Herber says that the most important thing to do when working on a routine is to keep it simple. You might be tempted to add in a lot of fancy tricks, but a simple routine that is well done will show better than a more complicated routine that doesn’t quite hold together. Consider using basic formations and transitions for most of the routine, and then pick just one or two flashier moments as focal points.
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The formations are really the main structure of a routine. They are basically the geometric shapes (like a circle, rectangle, triangle, or diamond) that your team members create. The formations can be made up of single or double lines, crossed lines, arrows, or curved lines. When your team is in a formation, you can move together as a unit, keeping the shape, for example walking in a circle. Or you can remain stationary while having the dogs perform a behavior such as circling the handler or while having the handler perform a behavior such as circling the dogs.
The transitions are what you do to get from one formation to another. These are essential to the flow of the routine. Imagine your team is in a circle formation facing the center, and you want to move into a straight line with everyone facing the audience. You could move by “following the leader” around the circle and into a line, or with half of the team moving in one direction and half in the opposite direction, meeting in the middle. How you put this all together is part of the creative challenge and fun.
When planning a routine, be aware of the skill set and abilities of your handlers and dogs. If your group has varied levels of experience, you will need to consider what all of the team members can reasonably accomplish. Herber says, “We had two greyhounds on our first team. They could not sit well.” They decided to have the greyhounds at each end of the line in a standing position while the other dogs sat. The dogs’ limitations became a design decision!
Build in some flexibility to your routines too. You might end up performing a routine in a smaller space than you expected, or you may have a team member not be able to make a performance because of an illness. “Once we got to a location to perform for a Boy Scout troop and found a large support pole in the middle of the space,” says Herber. “We had to quickly alter our routine to accommodate the pole.”
Your group will also need to decide if you want to use music. Music is not essential, but it can give you a rhythm to work with and it can add polish to a performance. When you choose music, know that it will be something that you will listen to a lot while practicing! Choose something that you and your teammates will enjoy, but that will also be a crowd pleaser. Pick something with a good beat and look for the right tempo for your group. Consider copyright issues too. If you are doing small performances and you are not charging money, you will not likely have an issue, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Once you have thought about the types of patterns, transitions, and movements you’d like to include and you’ve chosen your music, you’re ready to start putting your moves to the music. It can help to listen to the music and walk through different moves to make sure they work together (this might be best done without the dogs!). You may want to diagram your routine (think football diagrams) to help you visualize. Once you get an idea of what you want to do, try it out and adjust as needed.
Practice, Practice . . .
For a polished routine, you will need more practice than you might imagine. You (the human partners) will need to learn your part – where you need to be and when; it’s very much like learning a series of dance steps. Then you’ll need to learn to do it in coordination with your teammates. Spacing, timing, and straight lines will make all the difference in how your routine looks to an audience. It is a great idea to practice this without your dogs first; your learning mistakes could cause confusion for your dogs.
While you’re learning your part, practice individual elements with the dogs, such as moving together in a straight line or a circle. Even a simple routine can be much harder for the dogs than it may seem, so laying a good foundation can really help keep it fun for them.
Once you and the dogs have got your parts down, and your team is working well together, take your practice to new locations. Don’t be surprised if your dogs work differently on grass than they do on pavement, and moving from outdoors to indoors can be a whole new experience. All of you may have a harder time when there is another activity going on right next to where you are practicing or performing, too. At a recent performance, the announcer in the ring next to ours was so loud, that we (the people) had a really hard time with our timing and cuing off of the music. In addition, dogs running lure coursing across the field from our ring gave our dogs an extra distraction. You never know what challenges you might run into, so practicing around all kinds of distractions will help.
The Show on the Road
When you and your teammates are comfortable with your routine, look for places to perform. “Our nameless K9 drill team did performances for training classes, nursing homes, school groups, Boy Scouts, and anyone who would watch,” says Herber. Local dog events, shelter fundraisers, and other community activities are also good venues.
For some members, the performance will be the highlight. It can be fun to show off your dog and entertain a crowd. For others, the actual performance might be a little nerve-wracking. But the payoff at the end can be worth it.
“When everything falls into place and someone comes up to you afterward and says, ‘You gave me goose-bumps and brought tears to my eyes,’ it makes it all worthwhile,” says Herber.
Mardi Richmond is a writer, trainer and a member of the Santa Cruz Dog Training Club’s un-named heelwork and drill demo team. Being part of the demo team is by far her dog Chance’s favorite activity!
This past week, I’ve been working around the clock to get the July issue done. In the process Otto has been seriously neglected in the areas of exercise and focused attention. I skipped our Thursday night agility class. I took him for only one short walk, from our home to my office (about two blocks!) and back. (This only made matters worse, because I didn’t let him stay with me at the office for long; he’s so obsessed with wanting to kitten-watch that he whines and paces when I close the door between him and the foster kittens. So instead of it being a “treat” to come with me to the office, it was nearly a punishment, it was so fraught with frustration for him.)
My husband works at home, and Otto does enjoy hanging out with him while I’m working at our “away” home office. He also tosses treats to Otto every time he makes any sort of food for himself, which Otto thoroughly enjoys. So he’s not being completely neglected; like I said, he’s just not getting as much training and hard exercise as usual.
He’ll be four years old this year, so the lack of exercise no longer results in all the chewing- and digging-related puppy/adolescent naughty behaviors that it used to, thank goodness.
It has, however, resulted in a big upswing in boredom-related alarm barking, especially at night. When he’s well-exercised, it takes something out of the ordinary, such as the frightful YOWL of a feral cat fight down the block, to spur him into an episode of nighttime barking. This week, however, he’s been set to hair-trigger. I know this because I automatically roll out of bed for every fit of barking that persists more than a couple seconds. I go to the screen door and look out to see what he’s barking at, in case it’s something justifiable – teenagers checking for unlocked cars on the street or the like. Then I say, “Otto, please! I really need to sleep! Pleeeese be quiet!”
(Don’t say, “Why don’t you keep him in the house at night?” We live in an area that is hot and dry – and we don’t have air-conditioning. At night we open all the windows and doors that have screens, and use fans to push the hot air out of the house and draw cooler air inside. With all those windows and doors open, Otto can hear everything going on outside, and believe me, if his big booming bark can wake me up instantly when he’s outside, it practically propels me onto the ceiling when he does it indoors. Plus, he likes being out at night, especially in the summer. He doesn’t tolerate the heat during the day very well, sleeping through most of it in his shady, damp sandbox. He stays awake and busy most of the night – chewing, patrolling, pacing, and playing with his toys. He can’t do those things indoors at night without getting yelled at by sleep-deprived humans.)
I can’t blame Otto for his outbursts; it’s totally my fault. But sometimes our other responsibilities take precedence over our dogs’ best interests. And I’ll do my best to make it up to him this week with long off-leash trail walks, some swimming (well, he wades) in the river, and maybe a mountain bike ride. In the meantime, for just one more night, Otto? Pleeeease let me get a little more sleep?
Late last week I read a news story about a dog who was lost for more than six months – and then found on the streets of Salinas, California, more than 1,200 miles from his home in Boulder, Colorado. He never would have been identified and returned to his owner if not for his identification microchip. It’s the kind of story that warms the heart of every shelter worker and volunteer, and highlights the value of the tiny implanted chips.
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But one fact in the story was alarming: When the shelter staff scanned the seven-year-old dog, found the microchip, and looked up the chip’s registration information, they found several phone numbers for the dog’s owner – none of which were working numbers for that person. Folks, you have to make sure that any phone number you use for registering your dog’s microchip is current!
Fortunately, the shelter then sent a certified letter to the address they found on file for the owner. Nine days later, the owner received and opened the letter, and joyfully called the shelter to identify and claim her dog. It was a close call, because the shelter’s policy was to wait 10 days after sending such a letter before making the dog available for adoption. A day longer, and the dog could have been living in someone else’s home, instead of flying back to Colorado on a flight donated by Frontier Airlines – hey, kudos to you, Frontier!
If you’re certain that your phone number has not changed since you registered your dog’s microchip, good on you! If, however, you are not sure how or where your dog’s microchip is registered, or can’t remember whether you have changed your number since you adopted your dog (or had a microchip implanted in your dog), take the following steps:
If you know where your dog was originally implanted with a microchip (shelter or vet clinic), contact them and ask about the registry for the chips they use. Follow up with the registry.
Or, call your vet and/or local shelter, and ask if they have a scanner you can use to scan your dog’s microchip. My veterinarian has a scanner in the lobby, enabling clients to scan their own dogs and confirm the registration number. Ask the vet or shelter staff for help in identifying the maker of the chip, and tracking down its registration. Then follow up with the registry.
For more information about microchip registration, and the best way to make sure your dog’s chip can lead as directly as possible to you, see the following article from WDJ’s November 2009 issue: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/health/canine-health-news-and-current-events-november-2009/
So, for years, I’ve been hearing about the “FURminator,” some sort of super-powered dog brush. I just couldn’t imagine there was all that much to it – and it was wildly expensive. FIFTY dollars for a dog brush? Or, as the company’s literature refers to it, a “de-Shedding Tool,” complete with that completely random capitalization. This year, though, I finally got desperate enough to shell out the money, in hopes of getting a handle on the copious amounts of hair that my darling dog Otto is shedding.
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Shock and awe. I *love* the FURminator. It’s an amazing tool. It really does perform as advertised; it pulls all the loose hair off the dog — or cat! It worked great on my old cat Shadow’s super-fine coat, too!
A week ago, I spent a night at a friend’s house. My friend is the owner of Carly, a now-elderly dog who was once a frequent model for WDJ. Carly’s coat has gotten thicker and thicker over the years, and her shedding is now practically year-round. I mentioned the FURminator to Carly’s owner. “I know it’s expensive; buy one anyway. You’ll love it.”
I got the report this weekend. Maureen said, “I can’t believe how much hair I got off of Carly in the first session with the FURminator. I just keep thinking how much of my time and space in my vacuum bags this is going to save me.”
Have you tried the FURminator? Did it live up to your expectations?
So, I’m fostering a cat and her five kittens. Poor Juno (I just named her, a teenaged mom) was abandoned by some former neighbors, who moved away about two months ago. I hadn’t known they didn’t take her with them when they moved out of the apartment building that’s two doors down from my home; I hadn’t seen her since they moved.
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But Otto found her — and her five new kittens – in the ivy that grows on the fence between our house and the empty (foreclosed) house next door. Oh, the economy. Otto’s favorite job is chasing stray (feral or wandering) cats out of our yard, and since the house next door was foreclosed, his duties have expanded to include periodic sweeps of that yard, too.
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I didn’t think of this for fun; the vacuum created by the lack of a present homeowner led to nightly cat fights and cat sex scenes that had Otto waking us up several times a night – when the cat noises themselves didn’t wake us already. Otto loves the job, racing into the yard with his big bear-like roar, sending cats flying over fences at top speed. He comes back an inch taller every time.
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He doesn’t chase our cat, Shadow, an ancient, bony, whiny cat who stays in our house and yard. In fact, while he doesn’t seem to like her one bit – I never see him regard her with anything like affection — he tolerates her daily intrusions in his life.
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She sometimes sleeps in his crate on the back porch, she sometimes eats his food, she walks over when he’s napping on the deck and lies down right next to his tummy . . . In each case, he acts like she has cooties, and carefully extracts himself. But he never, never chases or snaps at her.
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Otto’s self-control with Shadow is one of the reasons I thought (correctly) that it would turn out just fine if I got some chickens, even though Otto came from the shelter three years ago with a chicken “murder” on his rap sheet. I brought home three hens, and five months later I still have three hens. He licks his lips a lot when they are close to him, but they can walk underneath him without harm, even if the tension does make him pant a little.
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So now his self-control abilities are being tested with kittens, and I’m happy to report that this dog is a prince. I have the teenaged mom and the five kittens in a big crate on the back porch of our new house/office (didn’t want to stress Shadow with all this) and Otto visits every day. I keep him away from the mom, who is not quite ready to accept the dog who so recently chased her. But when she takes a stroll around the yard, I let him visit the babies. He’s fascinated with the now-four-week-old kittens, and they are fascinated with him: his tail, his fur, his big nose. I just love this dog.
The primary function of the dog’s hair is as a protective and insulating coating.
But if the eyes are the gateway or the window to the soul, the skin and hair are both gateway and window to the embodiment of an animal’s inner health and well-being. Shiny hair, that is, a hair coat that exudes a healthy and lustrous sheen, is an indicator of overall health of the animal. In contrast, a dull coat that lacks luster is an indicator that the animal isn’t as healthy as she could be.
A dog’s coat color is determined by his genes. That said, a variety of environmental factors can somewhat alter the color of his hair. Specific nutrients may be involved in hair color. Cystine, methionine, arginine, tyrosine, and phenylalanine deficiencies are reported to induce hair discoloration. Protein malnutrition induces disturbances in hair growth and quality.
A 2004 study by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences reported that trace-element deficiencies or imbalances also affect hair quality. Suboptimal zinc levels, it said, induce graying of hair, and copper deficiency causes fading of brown- or black-pigmented hair. Other trace elements such as iron and iodine can also affect hair color, as well as vitamins A, B-2, and B-6, pantothenic, folic, and nicotinic acids, and biotin.
Too much exposure to sunlight can make the hair brittle and cause a black coat to redden or turn brown. After a dog has been clipped, the color of its hair is noticeably lighter, and scars often leave a mark of hair that remains white throughout the rest of the dog’s life.
In aged dogs, hair color tends to fade. As a dog ages, his hair turns gray, especially on the head, beginning with the muzzle.
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There were two points that Pat Miller, Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor, made in her article, “Park It” (on page 6), that resonate so much that I have to repeat them. The first is that at least half the problems seen at dog parks stem from inappropriate human behavior.
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Bringing a baby or toddler (or even grade school-aged kids) into a dog park is the inappropriate human behavior I most deplore. When our kids were about 8 years old, a friend took my son, his twin boys, and their dog to the dog park – and then left them all there together while he drove someplace to get coffee. When he got back to the park, he was alarmed to see an ambulance in the dog park parking lot . . . and then horrified to see that the EMTs were gathered around one of his sons, while the other two boys stood by with frightened expressions. It turns out that the boys were playing (and probably completely absorbed in their own world) when one of them got flattened – knocked to the ground, hard – by a dog who was running by with a pack of big, boisterous dogs. Mike was okay, but he had the wind knocked out of him (and he has asthma anyway), so when it appeared that he couldn’t breathe, and the nearby dog owners learned that the boys were there without a parent, someone called 911.
I didn’t feel like I had to call my friend onto the carpet (and I’m sure his wife did an adequate job of that!). But I’ve thought about that incident many times. What if it had been my son who had been flattened?! What if one of the boys had been bitten – or mauled? I have to force my mind not to race down that highway of bad thoughts.
It’s one of the reasons that I no longer just cluck and shake my head when I see someone with a small child in a dog park. Clearly, they haven’t fully considered the bad things that can happen to even an older, sturdy, dog-savvy kid when a bunch of dogs are whipping around at top speed. “Please, oh please take the baby out of here,” I’ve begged some parents, probably with tears in my eyes. They most likely think I’m nuts – but I’ve seen it with my own eyes: a small child who gets knocked down and starts to scream is like a magnet for some dogs. It gives me shivers.
It’s not just kids, though, who are at risk in dog parks. Senior citizens, people using canes or walkers, old or rickety dogs, young puppies, and small dogs in a park with a lot of big dogs are also quite vulnerable. In the blink of an eye, they can be brutalized – by accident! – by a flying pack, or in the heat of the moment by an aroused or defensive dog.
Another one of Pat’s brilliant points: That dogs are not any different from humans in that it’s actually a rare individual who is willing to play and interact with every other individual they come into contact with. And yet many of us expect our dogs to do just that when they get to the dog park. Fascinating.
Check out Pat’s advice for structuring your dog’s experiences in such a way that he doesn’t have to defend himself – and can’t help but enjoy himself – at the park.
Pfizer has announced plans to discontinue manufacture and sale of its flea and tick control product, ProMeris. Orders will continue to be filled until September 20, 2011.
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ProMeris was introduced in the fall of 2007, and touted as the first topical product to use metaflumizone. Pfizer gained control of ProMeris when it acquired Wyeth/Fort Dodge Animal Health in 2009. Pfizer is also the maker of Revolution, used to control fleas and one species of ticks, along with heartworm, ear mites, and sarcoptic mange.
While no specific reasons were given, it’s likely that Pfizer’s decision was influenced by the March publication of a study in the journal Veterinary Dermatology that was done at North Carolina State University. The study concluded that ProMeris “has the potential of triggering a variant of PF” (pemphigus foliaceus, an autoimmune disorder of the skin that will be discussed in an upcoming article on nose and footpad disorders). Lesions begin at the site of application, sometimes months after the initial application, and may later spread to other areas of the body. Immunosuppressive drugs are sometimes required for treatment. While most dogs achieve complete remission, lesions may recur in a few cases even without the further application of ProMeris. Labrador Retrievers and other large-breed dogs appear to have an increased risk for this adverse reaction. It’s important for vets to be aware of these findings, to avoid misdiagnosis.
Amitraz, one of the active ingredients in ProMeris, is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). Other products that contain amitraz include Preventic collars and Mitaban. Products containing amitraz should never be used together.
Amitraz can be dangerous when combined with antidepressants, such as Prozac (fluoxetine), or with other MAOI inhibitors, such as Anipryl (l-deprenyl, selegiline). DL-Phenylalanine (DLPA), used to treat chronic pain in dogs, should also be avoided when using MAOIs, such as amitraz. Cats are at risk if they come into contact with topical products, and even owners who are taking MAOIs themselves may run into problems using these products on their dogs.
ProMeris had recently been approved for treatment of generalized demodicosis, also called demodectic mange or demodex (treatment is not needed for the localized form). Other treatments for generalized demodex include giving high doses of ivermectin (the active ingredient in Heartgard) daily or every other day for long periods, and weekly or biweekly dips with potentially toxic Mitaban. In comparison, ProMeris is far more convenient, requiring only topical application every two to four weeks, and many veterinarians are sorry to see it go for that reason. Owners of dogs who reacted badly to the drug, however, may be wondering why it’s not being pulled off the market immediately.
Purchasing veterinary medications such as heartworm preventatives online can offer significant cost savings, but how can you be sure that you’re buying the real thing and not counterfeit products from China, which can be impossible to tell apart?
I recently read about a dog who tested positive for heartworms despite being given monthly preventative medications. The reason may be that the heartworm preventative the owner purchased online was not what it claimed to be.
The Veterinary Information Network (VIN) looked into Nuheart, a generic form of ivermectin that claims to be comparable to Heartgard. It is sold over the counter in Australia, where no prescription is required. VIN reported that one online pet pharmacy marketing Nuheart in the U.S. lists a street address in Washington state that belongs to Mail Boxes Plus. That same address is linked to a number of other online pharmacies whose websites are registered to entities that share an address in the South Pacific Cook Islands. None of those companies responded to VIN’s attempts to contact them by phone or email.
This is just one example of a widespread problem with drugs being sold on the Internet that may be counterfeit, adulterated, or expired. Warnings abound regarding the dangers of buying medications online. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that it “has found companies that sell unapproved pet drugs and counterfeit pet products, make fraudulent claims, dispense prescription drugs without requiring a prescription, and sell expired drugs.”
So how can you be sure that “what you see is what you get”? One solution is to look for the Veterinary-Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (Vet-VIPPS) seal of approval from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).
When Vet-VIPPS was first announced in 2009, it sounded like a great idea. Unfortunately, no veterinary pharmacies were approved at that time, but the situation has improved. A quick search yielded 11 verified online veterinary pharmacy sites. I was pleased to see four sites I’ve recommended on the list: 1-800-PetMeds, Drs. Foster & Smith, PetCareRx, and National Pet Pharmacy.
Note that these pharmacies will not offer to sell you prescription medications without a prescription. Administering medication without the help of a veterinarian is not a smart way to save money. Mistakes can range from giving the wrong dosage to using the wrong medication entirely, or giving dangerous combinations of drugs. Some inappropriate medications are only ineffective; others could be dangerous or even fatal.
The FDA has the following suggestions for protecting yourself when purchasing pet medications online, using the acronym AWARE:
-Ask your veterinarian if she knows anything about the site you plan to use.
-Watch for red flags, such as not requiring a prescription, not listing an address and phone number, or not having a pharmacist available to answer questions.
-Always check for site accreditation, such as from Vet-VIPPS.
-Report problems and suspicious online pharmacies. They suggest reporting any problems first to the manufacturer, and then to the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (see www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth or call 1-888-FDA-VETS).
-Educate yourself about online pharmacies.
Use common sense when purchasing medications online; if a deal seems too good, you’re likely not getting the real thing.
Another consideration when buying medications online is that the manufacturer’s warranty may be invalidated by an online purchase. Manufacturers of heartworm preventatives in particular guarantee products only when purchased from a veterinarian; not even a VIPPS-accredited pharmacy will do.
Fortunately, some online pharmacies offer their own guarantees. For example, 1-800-PetMeds claims that its guarantee is even better than the manufacturer’s: it will cover the cost of treatment if your dog becomes infected while taking heartworm product purchased from its site as long as the drug has been used for nine consecutive months prior to diagnosis (see 1800petmeds.com/guarantee.jsp). Drs. Foster & Smith also offers its own guarantee for all heartworm preventatives it sells (drsfostersmith.com/general.cfm?gid=569).
Many pets need to take drugs that have been compounded, where the drug’s dosage, form, or flavor are manipulated to make them work for animals. Compounding pharmacies produce drugs in dosages suitable for small dogs, in flavors that pets are willing to eagerly eat, and in forms such as transdermal, where the drug is applied to the skin rather than given orally. Compounding pharmacies can also be a source for drugs that have been discontinued. Because of their specialized nature, compounded drugs don’t go through an FDA drug-approval process, and so are not formally tested for safety or efficacy.
Compounded drugs can be life-savers for some pets, but they can be ineffective if poor quality ingredients are used and deadly when mistakes are made. Twenty-one polo horses died in 2009 after being injected with a vitamin compound that included a toxic amount of selenium due to an error by the compounding pharmacy that made it.
The NABP doesn’t list any compounding pharmacies, although Choice Compounding Pharmacy (choicecompoundingpharmacy.com) was recently granted approval. In addition, there’s a separate organization, the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board (PCAB), that focuses on this area of specialization. The PCAB was created in 2004 in an attempt by the pharmacy industry to police itself and raise the quality of compounded drugs. Go to its website at pcab.info to search for accredited compounding pharmacies by state.
Not every pharmacy without approval from VIPPS or PCAB sells counterfeit or dangerous products. The approval process is costly and takes time; not all pharmacies can afford it. In the absence of reliable information, however, these accreditations offer peace of mind when buying veterinary medications for your dog from someone other than your veterinarian.
– Mary Straus
For more information:
-To find a Vet-VIPPS online pharmacy, see: nabp.net/programs/accreditation/vet-vipps/
A new 20-year retrospective study from the University of Georgia examined causes of death in dogs between 1984 and 2004. Researchers looked at records of 74,566 dogs from the Veterinary Medical Database, which includes data from 27 veterinary teaching hospitals. These results may be biased toward more severe, complicated, or unusual causes than the general dog population, but are fascinating nonetheless.
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The study grouped deaths by organ system and by disease category (“pathophysiological process”), and analyzed results based on age, breed, and average breed size. Eighty-two breeds with at least 100 representatives were included in breed-based analyses; mixed-breed dogs were considered as one group.
Only conditions that led to death were considered; if a dog had multiple conditions, only one was deemed the cause of death.
Disease Categories
The study found that cancer was by far the most common disease category cause of death in adult dogs; cancer was the leading cause of death in all but 11 breeds! Almost a third of all adult dogs were found to have died of cancer. Cancer was designated the cause of death almost three times as often as the next most common category of deaths (trauma).
Interestingly, the frequency of cancer deaths begins to taper after age 10. Cancer occurred less frequently in small breeds, with the exception of the Boston Terrier and Cairn Terrier (30 and 32 percent respectively of deaths in those breeds were from cancer).
The Miniature Pinscher had the lowest rate of cancer at 3.6 percent. Other breeds with low percentages of death from cancer include Miniature Dachshund (6.0), Chihuahua (7.5), Pekingese (7.9), Pomeranian (7.9), Dachshund (8.9), and Maltese (9.2).
The most common causes of death for puppies (dogs less than one year of age) by disease category are very different than for adult dogs. Puppies were overwhelmingly most likely to die of infection, trauma, or congenital disease. About 60 percent of all puppies died from something in these three disease categories.
Organ Systems
When looking at deaths classified by organ system, the gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems were most commonly involved in the deaths of puppies.
In adult dogs, no single organ system was responsible for a dramatic majority of deaths; seven different organ systems had similar results, ranging from about 8 to 12 percent of adult dog deaths. The leaders (if we can call them that) were the nervous system (neurologic), musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal systems, followed by the urogenital, hematopoietic, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems.
Older dogs are increasingly likely to die from something involving the cardiovascular system, as well as endocrine, neurologic, and urogenital systems. The frequency of gastrointestinal-related deaths remained fairly constant throughout adulthood, while hematopoietic and musculoskeletal deaths declined with age.
Small-breed dogs were more likely to die from neurologic, endocrine, and urogenital causes. The larger the dog, the more likely they were to die of musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal causes.
Some Surprises
Some of the breed differences found were surprising. A higher incidence of cancer in Bernese Mountain Dogs, Golden Retrievers, Scottish Terriers, and Boxers is well-known, but the 47 percent death rate from cancer among Bouvier de Flandres was unexpected.
Cardiovascular disease is well known in toy breeds, such as Chihuahuas and Maltese, because of their high incidence of mitral valve disease, but researchers were surprised to find that the rate was almost as high in Fox Terriers. It’s unknown if that’s because Fox Terriers are more prone to heart disease than previously realized, or if they’re simply more protected from other diseases.
A high proportion of deaths from respiratory disease was expected in Bulldogs due to their brachycephalic airways, but finding that respiratory disease accounted for the highest percentage of deaths in the Afghan Hound and Vizla was unexpected.
Examples of Organ System Problems
The study did not provide details about which diseases are included in each category (my mind boggles at the details left out of published studies), but following are some examples of conditions that are likely to be classifed in each organ system:
–Gastrointestinal – Gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV, or bloat) is likely the most common gastrointestinal cause of death; other causes would include pancreatitis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), intestinal obstruction, perianal fistula, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), lymphangiectasia and other forms of protein-losing enteropathy, and cancer.
–Neurologic – Diseases of the brain and spinal cord, such as intervertebral disc disease (IDD or IVDD) that can cause paralysis; strokes; seizure disorders; degenerative myelopathy; myasthenia gravis; encephalitis; laryngeal paralysis; wobbler syndrome; syringomyelia (common in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels); and tumors of the brain and spinal cord.
This category likely includes cognitive disorders as well, such as canine cognitive disorder (CCD) or cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS), similar to Alzheimer’s in people. Diseases that cause paralysis, such as tick paralysis, polyradiculoneuritis (coonhound paralysis), and botulism would likely be included in this category.
–Musculoskeletal – Joint problems such as hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and arthritis. Bone cancer would also fall into this category. Trauma is often linked to the musculoskeletal system as well.
–Urogenital – Kidney disease, urinary stones, pyometra (infection of the uterus), and prostate disease. Stones are undoubtedly the major contributor to the Dalmatian’s 16 percent of deaths in this category, and probably a big part of the high rates in Lhasa Apsos, Shih Tzu, and Miniature Schnauzers as well.
–Respiratory – Brachycephalic airway, collapsed trachea, and pulmonary fibrosis. The Afghan Hound is prone to lung lobe torsion, which may account for their high rate of death in this category. Laryngeal paralysis is not uncommon in Vizslas; perhaps that disease was considered respiratory rather than neurologic by the study.
–Hematopoietic – Relating to blood. Causes might include thrombocytopenia (low platelets), autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). This category could also include blood-related cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and hemangiosarcoma.
–Endocrine – Cushing’s disease and diabetes mellitus are the most common endocrine disorders in dogs. Addison’s disease would also fall into this category.
Examples of Disease Processes
Examples of conditions that were likely to be classified into the different disease process categories:
–Trauma – Injury, such as being hit by a car, or being accidentally dropped or stepped on, especially in the case of toy-breed puppies.
–Infectious – Viral disease, such as parvovirus and distemper; bacterial infections, such as leptospirosis and most tick diseases; fungal infections, such as blastomycosis and histoplasmosis; and protozoal disease, such as babesiosis and leishmaniasis.
–Congenital – A condition present at birth, which may be genetic or caused by something that happened in the womb or during birth. Examples include liver shunts, common in the Yorkshire Terrier and Maltese as well as other toy breeds; and heart defects, common in the Newfoundland and Bulldog, among others.
–Degenerative – Diseases such as degenerative disc disease, hip dysplasia, and other forms of joint disease fall into this category. There are also degenerative diseases of the eyes, heart, and other organs.
–Inflammatory – IBD, pancreatitis, masticatory muscle myositis, and granulomatous meningoencepha-lomyelitis (GME) are inflammatory diseases.
–Metabolic – Anything that affects the organs, including kidney and liver disease. Endocrine diseases would be considered metabolic, along with diabetes insipidus and urinary stones.
–Toxic – Poisoning, such as by ingesting rat poison, toxic mushrooms, or antifreeze.
–Vascular – Stroke (cerebral vascular accident) is the most obvious. Other possibilities include acquired liver shunts and fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE).
Prevention Strategy
You can use this information to help your dog stay healthy.
First and foremost, keep your dog lean! Overweight dogs are more likely to develop musculoskeletal problems, disc disease, diabetes, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer.
Proper vaccination of puppies protects them from most infectious diseases, though frequent revaccination for viral diseases is unnecessary in adult dogs. Spayed females cannot get pyometra (uterine infection) and neutered males are less likely to develop prostate disease.
Letting dogs off lead only in protected areas helps prevent deaths due to trauma.
Gastropexy (surgery to tack the stomach to the side of the body wall) to prevent torsion and reduce the risk of fatality from bloat can be performed proactively for commonly affected breeds or dogs with close relatives who have bloated, or during bloat surgery.
Even “doggie dementia” can be helped with appropriate supplements and medications (see “Old and Confused,” December 2008). EPA, DHA, antioxidants, and mitochondrial cofactors have been shown to improve the performance of older dogs on various cognitive tasks in as little as two to eight weeks.
Recently it’s been suggested that the high rate of cancer in Golden Retrievers can be partly traced to a single “popular sire” who sired over 1,000 puppies and later died of hemangiosarcoma. Because this dog and his progeny were used so extensively, the genes predisposing Golden Retrievers to hemangiosarcoma are now so widespread that it is difficult to breed around them. Breeders can help ensure genetic variation and avoid such outcomes by not over-breeding to a single dog or line of dogs.
The hope is that, armed with this new knowledge, veterinarians and owners can be proactive in watching for these diseases, taking preventative measures and beginning treatment early. The information from this study can also help direct breed-specific research on genetic causes and preventative measures for specific diseases.
Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition topics as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com website.
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
