The key to bringing a puppy into your home is to think things through well before the big day.
Most people spend months preparing for the arrival of a new baby. They’re just as likely, however, to bring a baby dog home on a whim, without any preparation at all. Small wonder they find themselves playing catch-up for weeks, months, years, or even “getting rid of” the dog as they struggle to recover from the mistakes made in the pup’s formative months. The wise puppy-owner-to-be puts much thought into pre-puppy preparation.
Rules and routines are especially important if there’s more than one human in the house, to encourage consistency, an important element of successful puppy-raising. When your pup joins your family, she’ll experiment with different behaviors to try to figure out how the world works, and how to make good stuff happen – a dog’s main mission in life. The more consistent everyone is, the quicker she’ll figure it all out.
Your rules and routines will reflect your dog-raising and -training philosophies. Here are some issues for your family to discuss and agree on:
Where will your puppy sleep?
Will she be allowed on the furniture?
Where will she be during the day?
What games will she be allowed to play?
Who will feed her; when, and what?
Who will train her and how?
How will you correct her for making mistakes?
For more details and advice on pre-puppy preparation, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Puppy Basics.
Why, oh why, does Consumer Reports even “go there”? I have the utmost respect for the magazine’s reviews of vacuums and DVRs and such, but pet food is beyond their ken. Yet they persist. In “Tame Your Pet Costs” in the August issue, its authors advise readers not to “pay a premium for ‘premium’ dog food.” They put the quotes on premium dog food, to indicate their apparent opinion that there is no such thing. Sigh.
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A quote: “Premium or otherwise, any food you see on supermarket and pet-store shelves that’s labeled ‘complete & balanced,’ ‘total nutrition,’ or ‘100 percent nutritious’ should meet the minimum standards for nutrition set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials. That indicates that it’s adequate for the vast majority of healthy pets.” The short article goes on to indicate that the best buy the authors found was Ol’ Roy at Walmart, “for just 34 cents per pound.”
Can you think of anything nutritious you can buy for 34 cents per pound? No; just sawdust comes to mind. Sprinkle on some fat from a vat of road kill and a vitamin/mineral mix of dubious origin and call it a day!
I just don’t know how anyone could regard a dog (carnivore) food whose ingredients list starts with (as one example) turkey, chicken, and chicken meal as “just as good” as one that starts with corn, “meat and bone meal,” and soybean meal – even if the protein, fat, and vitamin levels in the two foods were equivalent.
“Bargain” prices are always an indication of cheap, low-quality ingredients. I will agree with Consumer Reports, however, that high prices may not necessarily correlate with high-quality ingredients; there certainly are plenty of high-priced foods competing in the “premium” niche whose ingredients don’t necessarily explain the price of the product. So many factors go into pricing that you have to look past the price to the ingredients to determine the quality of a food.
Allow me to rave positively about something else. Recently, two of our favorite behaviorists/authors, Patricia McConnell, PhD, and Karen London, PhD, published a great little book, Love Has No Age Limit: Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home. They wanted to address a little-known problem having to do with dog adoptions: the fact that up to a third of dogs who get adopted in some areas end up being returned to the shelter. The goal of the book is to help guide folks with newly adopted dogs through the first few days, weeks, and months post-adoption – to avoid the most common mistakes that people make, and set up the dog and family for success.
Best of all, to make sure the book is affordable to cash-strapped animal welfare organizations, everyone involved with the book’s production agreed to discount the compensation for their work, so the book could be sold far below a typical retail price. Order it today from Dogwise for just $9.95; dogwise.com or (800) 776-2665.
Banfield Pet Hospital has issued a report analyzing the most common diseases in dogs and cats. The “State of Pet Health 2011 Report” collected data from 2.1 million dogs seen at Banfield’s 770 veterinary hospitals in 2010.
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Some of the more interesting findings included increases in diabetes, dental disease, ear infections, and flea infestations since 2006. Hookworms and whipworms in dogs also increased during that time period.
Incidence of diabetes mellitus in dogs rose 32 percent since 2006, a startling finding. The number of dogs affected, however, is still low, with 17.5 cases per 10,000 dogs seen. Diabetes is associated with being overweight or obese, one of the top five diagnoses in adult dogs in 2010, which might help explain the increase. Diabetes is also more common in small breeds, whose popularity has risen considerably in the last 10 years, with Chihuahuas and Shih Tzus leading the way.
Heartworm disease is one of the three top health risks for pets in the Southern states, with the highest rate of infection found in Mississippi, where 6.7 percent of dogs tested were found to be infected. Heartworm disease was diagnosed in dogs in all 43 states in which Banfield has hospitals, and the American Heartworm Society reports dogs testing positive in all 50 states. Incidence of heartworm disease was similar in 2010 to 2006.
Dental disease is the most common health issue in dogs, affecting about three-quarters of all dogs over 3 years of age. Many dogs aged 1 to 3 years are affected as well. Dental disease can affect the heart and kidneys, and causes pain that is not readily apparent. There has been a 12.3 percent increase in dental disease in dogs since 2006. While tartar was the most common finding, periodontal disease grade 1 (of 4) made the top 10 list of diagnoses in all dogs, and grades 1 and 2 were both in the top 10 for small dogs. Older dogs have greater risk of developing more severe forms of dental disease. The top breeds most likely to develop periodontal disease include the Toy Poodle, Yorkshire Terrier, Maltese, Pomeranian, and Shetland Sheepdog. The best way to prevent dental disease in dogs is with daily brushing.
Otitis externa (infection or inflammation of the outer ear canal) was the second most common diagnosis in dogs, with a 9.4 percent increase since 2006. In 2010, 15.8 percent of dogs seen in Banfield hospitals were diagnosed with otitis externa. Recurrent ear infections are usually linked to allergies. Breeds that are predisposed to otitis externa include the Basset Hound, Beagle, Bulldog (American and English), Cocker Spaniel (American and English), Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Lhasa Apso, Poodle (all sizes), Pug, Shar-Pei, and English Springer Spaniel.
Incidence of flea infestation increased 16 percent in dogs since 2006. Tick infestations were also more prevalent, with a 6 percent rate of increase over the past five years. In addition, the number of dogs diagnosed with Lyme disease more than doubled since 2006. Fleas increase during spring and summer months before peaking in October, while ticks were most commonly found in May and June. Fleas are most prevalent in Southeastern states and along the West Coast.
Hookworm prevalence in dogs increased 30 percent and whipworms 8 percent over the last five years. Hookworms are most common in Southeastern states, while whipworms are more prevalent in Midwestern and Eastern states. Tapeworms were the most common parasite found in dogs.
Knowing which diseases are most common can help pet owners be proactive in protecting their pets through preventative care, such as keeping dogs lean; toothbrushing; using heartworm, flea, and tick preventatives as needed; and having a veterinary examination at least once a year.
– Mary Straus
For more information:
Banfield Pet Hospital State of Pet Health 2011 Report tinyurl.com/banfield
Here’s a memory that just came up: A blog post from July 2011 – 12 years ago!
I’ve been having a nice dialogue with a reader who objected to my promotion of the word “cue” over “command.” He made some good points – but something Otto did the other day gave me ammunition for one more point in support of why I prefer “cue.”
Copying their mama, the last two of my foster kittens (now MY kittens) have developed a classic behavioral response to Otto (and every dog, to be fair to kind, patient Otto): they puff up, spit, growl, and flatten their ears every time they notice him in the room. Frankly, they are often so occupied with play that sometimes this “noticing” happens when they actually run into his sleeping body, but whatever. I keep praising and rewarding Otto for his calm, gentle behavior around them, and for turning instantly away from them any time he starts looking too interested in joining their chasing games.
The other day, as a reward, I initiated a game with Otto and his current favorite toy: bunny-shaped stuffed animal with a squeaker inside. (It’s from Premier Pet Products, and it’s ingenious; the belly of the bunny contains a rubber cage that enables the squeaker to roll about, making its position unpredictable. Otto LOVES mouthing the bunny in search of the ever-elusive squeaker.) I said, “Where’s your toy?” This is the cue I use to ask Otto to go get a toy. Otto looked thoughtful about this for a moment (as he often does), and then I saw the light bulb go on (as it almost always does) and his expression brightened before he bounded out of my office to go find the bunny. I could see it; it was in the middle of the living room floor. But just as he arrived at the toy, one of the kittens launched from out from under the couch, right onto the bunny (the kittens like it, too).
Okay, a dilemma. Otto was asked to do something; he also knows he’s not supposed to chase or harm the kittens. If he “obeyed” my “command” to get the toy, he’d surely get in trouble for being confrontational with the kitten. He had to use some judgment – and I want to develop and nurture that judgment. In the real world, I really don’t want a robot, who follows orders no matter what.
I can only imagine that service dogs are trained similarly. They must do what their owners ask, but sometimes, their owners ask them to do something they know is dangerous, like walk in front of a car that their blind and deaf owner doesn’t know is coming too fast. They have to understand that in some cases, a refusal is the right thing to do. In this case, the word “cue” really is more appropriate than “command.” I’d love to hear from service dog trainers about how they cultivate this trait, without creating a dog who “refuses” when it suits his needs, rather than his handler’s.
In this case, I’m proud that Otto knew to “disobey” me. He quickly stepped back from the spitting kitten, and looked at me, tail wagging, for further instructions. “Yes!” I applauded him, jumping up from my chair and skipping into the kitchen to get him something extra yummy from the fridge. “Good dog!” And when the coast was clear of kittens, he got another reward. “Otto! Where’s your toy?”
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.
For more details and advice on modifying dog aggression, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, The Aggressive Dog.
I share a fence, across the back of my lot, with a family who has three dogs. The dogs are out in the yard about 23 hours a day. They bark a lot, especially when people with dogs walk by their home. Their yard is littered with things the dogs have torn up, like an old mattress that started out on the back porch.
This evening, I let Otto into the backyard to go pee. I heard the usual volley of barking from the back fence as Otto strolled around my yard. I was actually turning to go back in my own house to get a glass of water when I heard an odd noise. I turned just in time to see an entire plank of the back (wooden) fence plunk to the ground in my yard, and the biggest of the three dogs, a black male pit-mix-type, charge into my yard toward Otto.
Well, I went berserk. In stocking feet (and a skirt, no less) I also charged into the yard, running down the back porch steps while yelling and grabbing things to throw at the dog. Initially, he glanced toward me but kept running toward Otto – who, by the way, alarmed by all my yelling and strange behavior, started running away from me. I don’t think he even saw the strange dog until it was right behind him, he was so afraid of my antics. I threw a trash can, a broom, and a pair of shoes, and was also able to turn on a hose and start spraying water toward the dog – just as the two smaller dogs also came through the fence. I kept yelling “GET OUT! NO! GET HOME!” and spraying all the dogs with water. Faced with this unexpected onslaught, the neighbor’s three dogs – thank God – turned and ran back through the fence. I ran behind them, spaying the hose to make them move far enough from the fallen fence plank that I felt confident in bending down to pick it up and jam it back up against the fence.
I then ran inside and grabbed a hammer and nails and ran back outside and nailed the plank back on. Only then did I look for Otto.
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I found Otto quivering in the house . . . and spots of blood on the kitchen floor. I don’t know what happened, it all happened so fast. But he had a nasty laceration on his back leg. Did he get bitten? Or run into something in the yard in his panic to escape from his suddenly insane owner? I have no idea. Just a vet bill, a dog with a shaved butt and a few stitches (staples, actually), and a list of materials for a new fence.
Maybe I overreacted, but I’ve heard enough of the dogs frustrated barking (and then redirecting their frustration onto each other in short but intense-sounding fights) that I wasn’t going to take the chance that Otto get attacked by all three – or that I get attacked while trying to save him. All I know is that I certainly won’t take that fence for granted anymore. Ugh.
Dependency on luring is a common dog training mistake. Luring is using a treat to show your dog what you want him to do. To lure a “down,” for example, hold the treat in front of your dog’s nose while he’s sitting, then lower it a tiny bit toward the floor. As his nose follows the tidbit, “mark” the behavior that you want with the click! of a clicker or a verbal marker, such as the word “Yes!”, and feed him the treat.
Continue gradually moving the treat toward the floor, clicking and treating along the way, until he’s lying down. If at any time he stands up, say “Oops!” and have him sit again, then resume luring the down, moving the treat toward the floor in smaller increments this time.
Luring to teach behaviors is just fine. Forgetting to “fade” (gradually remove) the lure is not. If you don’t fade the lure early in the training process, you and your dog can become dependent on the presence of treats to get the behavior to happen. While I almost always have treats in my pockets or close by, I don’t want to have to rely on treats to get my dog to offer behaviors when I ask for them.
For more details and advice on positive training, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Positive Training Basics.
A crate, or, in other words, short-term close confinement, can be used to help dogs teach themselves two very important skills. The first is eliminating only when and where it is appropriate. The second skill is keeping out of trouble – behaving appropriately in the house. Without these two skills, a dog doesn’t have much of a chance in this world.
To get your dog to go into the crate, start with the crate door open, and toss some irresistibly yummy treats inside. If he is hesitant to go in after them, toss the treats close enough to the doorway that he can stand outside and just poke his nose in the crate to eat them. If you are training with a clicker or other reward marker, each time he eats a treat, Click! the clicker (or say “Yes!” if you are using a verbal marker).
On Friday night, I picked up my brother’s dog, Hannah, from his house (about an hour away). Keith, his wife, and their darling almost-two-year-old daughter went out of town for the weekend, and Hannah came to stay at our house.
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It struck me at some point during the weekend how much taking care of a relative’s dog is similar to taking care of a niece or nephew. You love the dog, because she’s “family” – after all, you said you would take her if anything ever happened to her! But you can’t help but notice differences in how she was “raised” – differences that you can’t quite help but feel slightly judgmental about. When Hannah jumps on the couch without “asking,” pants in my ear and whines and is generally just obnoxious (anxious) in the car, and sneaks the cat’s food every time I forget to put it back up onto the counter, I find myself thinking, “She’s a nice dog but sheesh! I sure love my Otto.”
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It’s hard to remember to also give Hannah a ton of credit for paying no attention to my chickens or ancient cat, not climbing in my raised vegetable bins, not counter-surfing, not chewing anything in the house, and for getting along so nicely with Otto (whom, I can tell, she really is not very fond of). Here she is, dropped into a new household without her family for a long weekend, and she’s being a good sport and not crying herself to sleep at night. She’s actually a very nice dog, indeed. Even if her table manners aren’t up to my standards.
Have you ever cared for a relative’s dog? How did it go?
I doubt that WDJ readers need to be reminded to leave their dogs home, rather than allowing them to accompany them on driving errands or shopping trips, at this time of year. When it’s hot, leaving a dog in a car –even with all the windows fully down – can heat a dog to the point of heatstroke or even death within a shockingly short amount of time.
Dogs are much more susceptible to heat-related illness than adult humans; due to their smaller body mass, their internal temperatures rise much faster than ours do.
Fifteen minutes in a hot car is enough to cause a dog to suffer from heat stroke. This can be fatal, or cause permanent brain damage. Signs of developing heat stroke include:
excessive panting or difficulty breathing
drooling
mild weakness
seizures
bloody diarrhea or vomiting
stupor and collapse
And yet, I see dogs parked in cars all the time! Perhaps the owner parked in the shade, and left the windows down a bit. It doesn’t matter! It’s too hot for this!
My sister, a chef, was catering an event recently when she and other members of the serving staff heard a car horn blaring in the parking lot. She joked, “It’s probably that poor dog that someone brought and left in the car; it’s probably honking the horn to save its life.” Someone was sent to go investigate, and guess what? It WAS the little dog in the car, standing with his front feet on the steering wheel in an effort to reach the cooler air coming in the cracked open window on the driver’s door. An announcement was made, and the abashed owner summoned. My sister said the entire staff gave the person hard looks. I might have been tempted to flatten the guy’s tires or worse.
Dogs inside cars are not the only ones who suffer in the heat. Dogs who ride in the backs of trucks are at extreme risk of heat-related illness, too. Truck beds – whether they are lined or not – get hot enough to fry an egg in the sun, so why would you make your dog stand or sit on such a surface? Plus, the hot air quickly can quickly dehydrate a dog, whose main tool for regulating his body temperature is panting. Once the dog gets dehydrated, he can’t keep himself cool, and heat stroke can follow rapidly.
If you see any of these symptoms in a dog who has been exposed to excessive heat, get help from a veterinarian immediately.
A better solution? Leave your dogs home on hot days. As much as they may enjoy taking a ride with you in the car or truck, be a responsible pet owner and make them stay home.
And if you see a dog locked in a hot car (or tied in the back of a truck in the hot sun), call the local police department. In most communities, the police (or good Samaritans) may break a car window to free a dog if the dog’s life appears to be in danger.
A special, perfect food for every dog? That’s what the pet food industry would like you to believe; that’s the direction taken by most of the large pet food makers – foods for tall dogs, small dogs, fat dogs, old dogs . . . you get the picture. The tactic must work, because all the biggest companies do it, and they wouldn’t make so many foods if they weren’t selling well.
Dog owners should be aware, though, that there are actually only two types of products that provide legally defined “complete and balanced nutrition” for dogs. These are “adult maintenance” products formulated for adult dogs, and “growth and reproduction” (also known as “all life stages”) products formulated to meet the increased nutritional requirements of pregnant and nursing females and puppies.
As we explained in “Special Education” (in the May 2011 issue), only these two sets of “nutrient profiles” have been established as the basis for regulation of dog food in the U.S. There are no other dog food descriptions with legal mandates for certain nutrient levels.
We’ll say it another way: There are no legal nutritional guidelines or standards for foods that are identified by their makers as intended for senior dogs, weight loss, toy breeds, indoor dogs, Chihuahuas, or joint health. If they have a “complete and balanced” statement on the label, they meet the requirements for either adult dog maintenance or “growth and reproduction.”
Most of the giant pet food companies continually conduct research and tinker with their formulas, looking for anything that “performs” better in the dog. They want to be free to innovate and incorporate anything that gives their products a market advantage, including trendy food ingredients and higher (or lower) than average amounts of certain nutrients. No one in the industry wants another set of nutritional standards they’d have to meet for a certain type of food.
Devil Is In The Details
Now that you understand that there are absolutely no regulations or standards that ensure that a “senior” dog food has anything unique to offer senior dogs, or that a food for “indoor” dogs is in any way different from foods for outdoor dogs, you’re ready to look at these sorts of products with a justifiably cynical eye.
If you’re considering one of these specialized foods, try to determine what, exactly, are the features that are supposed to be unique to that product and so allegedly perfect for dogs like yours. In many cases, the differences in formulation between the “special” food and the plain old adult variety are negligible – but you won’t necessarily be able to ascertain that from the description of the product on the front of the bag, the company website, or the product’s literature.
As always, your best clues for a reasonable analysis of a dog food are found on its list of ingredients and guaranteed analysis (GA). By law, only the minimum amounts of protein and fat and the maximum amounts of fiber and moisture in the food are required to appear on the GA. However, when it comes to specialized foods (with attendant claims of special benefits) the makers should, in our opinion, include those nutrients on the GA.
For example, “joint health” foods generally contain glycosaminoglycan (GAG) supplements, such as glucosamine and/or chondroitin). If we were paying a premium for a product that contained a GAG supplement in a supposedly therapeutic or beneficial dose, we’d want to see the type of supplement used, and in what amount, guaranteed by its inclusion on the GA. (The GA is subject to testing and enforcement by state feed control officials.) And we’d be fairly suspect of a “joint health” product that did not have its “joint health” ingredients quantified on the GA. (We’ll discuss GAGs more in just a minute.)
The next thing we’d do is compare the ingredients list and GA of the “special” food with a regular, adult version of the food from the same company. If there are only minor differences between the ingredients of the two foods (say, the fifth and sixth ingredients are reversed), or only a small difference in the amount of fat or protein, you’re probably paying for marketing, not a genuinely novel food for your special dog.
Some pet food makers are fiddling with the physical form of the food to customize it for certain dogs. “Large bites” and “small bites” have been around for ages, but today some companies are going farther. For example, Royal Canin has a food intended for Golden Retrievers, with a kibble shape the company describes as “specifically designed to prevent gulping, help your dog to feel fuller more quickly, and reduce the amount of calories consumed.” Hmmm . . . if they say so . . .
GAGs for Joint Health
“Joint health” or “mobility” foods are now among the most popular types of “special” dog foods on the market. The ingredients that usually support that claim, as mentioned a moment ago, are glycosaminoglycan (GAG) supplements, although manufacturers will sometimes list other ingredients as contributing to joint health.
Glucosamine is usually derived from the shells of shellfish; the chondroitin used in dog food is usually sourced from poultry cartilage.
GAG supplements are often described as the building blocks of cartilage and joint fluid, and When given independently of the diet, the typical recommended therapeutic dose is about 500 mg glucosamine and 400 mg chondroitin per 25 pounds of the dog’s body weight per day. Dogs often require a therapeutic dose daily for as long as six to eight weeks before any improvement in mobility or a decrease in osteoarthritic pain is seen. If no improvement is seen after 12 weeks of a therapeutic dose of the supplement has been given to the dog daily, it probably will not help the dog to continue its use. We’ve heard
When GAG supplements first began appearing in dog foods, the amounts used were very low – too low, in our opinion, to provide any real benefit to the dog (though maybe their presence on the label made the owner feel better). Today, they are present in widely varying amounts in canine “joint care” products (and some senior foods).
To illustrate this point, in the table above, we’ve listed the amounts of glucosamine and chondroitin in eight joint health or senior dog foods. Notice how the amount of the supplements included in the foods doesn’t necessarily correspond with the implied level of commitment to the special purpose of the food? Innova and Wellness both offer regular old senior foods with fairly high amounts of the GAG supplements – and with very low-key descriptions of their GAG content. Contrast these with Iams’ Veterinary Formula Joint/Canine food; in our opinion, the serious name and serious description of the GAGs’ purpose in the product don’t match the amounts included. In fact, Iams’ “veterinary” product contains not much more of the supplements than one of its adult foods.
We included the Purina ONE SmartBlend food just so that you could wonder along with us: How on earth does one translate parts per million into a standard dosage of milligrams per kilogram?
The levels of glucosamine and chondroitin seem to be a major factor in how Royal Canin individualizes its many products.
Probiotics & Prebiotics
Probiotic organisms are living beings that support the resident microflora of your dog’s gut. Many of the ones used to supplement canine (and human) diets are beneficial species of bacteria, including Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Probiotics are credited with enhancing digestion and absorption of nutrients, supporting detoxification and elimination processes, and helping to boost the dog’s immune system.
For greatest benefit, probiotics need to be delivered to the dog:
–in high amounts
–in live, active form
–in a variety of species (not just one).
Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that selectively stimulate the growth of the beneficial bacterial species in the colon, such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli.
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It’s become fairly common to see some sort of prebiotic in top-quality “natural/holistic” foods. Most common are fructooligosaccharides (FOS) – plant sugars that occur in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and cereals. They are produced commercially by partial hydrolysis of chicory inulin (an oligosaccharide found in chicory root), or from sucrose (sugar) using an enzymatic process. Only very small amounts of prebiotics are needed for a beneficial affect on the dog’s digestion. (Doses that are too high can cause gassiness.)
The amount or dosage of probiotics used is usually expressed in millions or billions of “colony forming units” or “CFUs.” For example, the label of the Innova Adult Large Bites food says it contains 90,000,000 CFU/lb “total microorganisms.” (The species of the beneficial bacteria used are not divulged.)
Prebiotics are stable substances; living, active probiotics are not. Heat kills them, rendering them inactive (that’s why they appear only in dry dog foods, not canned; the high heat of the canning process would kill them and render them useless). Most dog food companies that include beneficial bacteria in their products say that the probiotics are added to the food after it has cooked and cooled; and some say that live cultures were used in the food. However, none that we are aware of claim that the bacteria is still alive and active by the time it’s consumed by the dog.
Innova, for example, claims, “Innova products include live, active bacteria called probiotics . . .” We have no doubt the bacteria were alive when included in the food; probiotics are generally applied in the final step of food production. After the kibble has been cooked, cooled, and coated with a fat source, it’s dusted with the probiotic powder. But we doubt that the bacteria can survive the oxidative activity of the food as it ages and the temperatures that dry food is often subjected to.
Again, if we really wanted our dog to enjoy the benefits of a probiotic supplement, we’d look for a good supplement and administer it separately from our dog’s regular diet.
Herbs, Berries, and Fruits, Oh My
It’s gotten very popular in recent years for dog food makers to include a long list of whole, healthy foods on their products’ lists of ingredients. Please understand that while it makes a food sound delicious, the actual amount of the ingredients that appear 10th or 15th or 25th on a list of ingredients that ends up in your dog’s tummy is very low; we’d characterize it as so low as to be negligible.
The real purpose of many of these ingredients on a pet food label is to whet your appetite. Pet food industry publications sometimes describe this as “humanization” of the pet food. If you want your dog to experience the benefits of carrots, apples, blueberries, garlic powder, green tea extract, spinach, cottage cheese, and other terrific foods that generally appear low on lists of ingredients, feed them whole and fresh as a healthy adjunct to your dog’s commerical diet.
We’ll discuss veterinary “prescription diets” in an upcoming issue.
The lawsuit filed by Kari Blaho-Owens, PhD, against Merial, her former employer, contains a number of serious allegations regarding Heartgard’s decreased efficacy and Merial’s knowledge of the problem.
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Merial denies the allegations, and has released the following statement regarding the lawsuit:
“Merial is aware of the lawsuit filed against the company by former employee, Kari Blaho-Owens. As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on the details of pending litigation or on employee-related issues. However, Merial believes we have acted appropriately and responsibly in all matters related to the allegations. Merial will vigorously defend the case and will assert strong defenses to the claims made. An earlier complaint filed by this former employee has already been dismissed by the United States Department of Labor.
“Merial stands by the effectiveness of our products. We are confident that the Heartgard® (ivermectin) brands are highly effective when used in accordance with their FDA-approved labels. Moreover, Merial strictly adheres to all regulations relating to the reporting of adverse events involving any Merial product.”
We may never know whether all the details alleged in the suit are true. It might take years in court – or it might be settled out of court. But the suit makes for fascinating reading. Here are some of the key points in the suit (to read the entire complaint, see tinyurl.com/44c6c44):
– In November 2004, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine sent Merial a letter, stating “there were numerous reports of ineffectiveness for heartworm prevention despite ‘Heartgard Plus’ being used according to the label directions.” In August 2005, FDA requested that Merial stop claiming 100% effectiveness for Heartgard Plus in preventing heartworm infestation.
– In 2005, Merial conducted an internal investigation regarding the increase in the number of reported cases of the lack of efficacy of Heartgard.
– When she reviewed the results of the 2005 investigation, Dr. Blaho-Owens asserts that “Merial had been aware of serious lack of efficacy adverse events reported regarding ‘Heartgard Plus’ since as early as 2002.”
– Merial claimed that its investigation showed that the increase in lack of effectiveness claims was the direct result of increases in sales, lack of owner compliance, and other factors – not a failure of the active ingredients in Heartgard products. Dr. Blaho-Owens claims she found numerous problems with the review, including “using ‘cherry-picked’ data, so as the persons evaluating the data would be led to support the conclusion sought by Merial.”
– In 2007, Dr. Blaho-Owens conducted further investigation in an effort to determine why “global monthly reports and the quarterly pharmacovigilance meetings demonstrated an obvious trend toward the increase in lack of effectiveness reports.” She was unable to find any reasonable explanation other than loss of efficacy of the Heartgard products.
– In 2008, Dr. Blaho-Owens’ supervisor “instructed her to stop her investigation.” One of the reasons given was that Merial had conducted a laboratory study showing “that heartworms had developed resistance to the ‘Heartgard Plus’ active ingredients, ivermectin and/or pyrantel; and that Merial was actively working to reformulate ‘Heartgard Plus’ to make it more effective by adding additional drugs to the combination product.”
– In September 2009, Dr. Blaho-Owens was notified that Merial was named in a class-action lawsuit regarding ‘Heartgard.’
– Dr. Blaho-Owens claims that on September 11, 2009, she was instructed to destroy a document that was likely relevant to the pending class-action lawsuit. Dr. Blaho-Owens also claims she was instructed to stop generating any new analysis of data regarding Heartgard despite her ongoing concerns relating to the lack of efficacy of Heartgard.
– Dr. Blaho-Owens says she reported her concerns to Merial’s legal counsel. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Blaho-Owens says she learned that the Heartgard class-action suit concerned Merial’s refusal to change its labeling as per FDA order.
– In conclusion, Dr. Blaho-Owens’ suit alleges that “Merial fraudulently promoted and sold ‘Heartgard’ as 100% effective despite its knowledge since at least 2002, that ‘Heartgard’ products were substantially less than 100% effective, in violation of FDA regulations.” The suit says, “Merial knew about the LOE (lack of efficacy) problem since at least 2002.”
