Whole Dog Journal Training Editor Pat Miller wrote an article for the January issue about why and how to teach your dog his or her name (“Say My Name”). She mentioned in the article how important it was to pick a good name for your dog, and shared the story of how she and her husband named a few of their dogs. She also challenged readers to share their dog-naming stories, and promised to award a signed copy of her latest book, Do-Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First Class Life, to the three readers who submitted the best dog-naming stories. (If you haven’t yet submitted your story, send it to WDJEditor@gmail.com or Whole Dog Journal, 1655 Robinson Street, Oroville, CA 95965, before January 31.)
My favorite dog name was one that confused everyone outside my family, but made perfect sense to us. I was the youngest child in my family and the last to leave home – and I took my two big dogs with me. This left our rural family home guarded by two yappy Yorkshire Terriers, and a small mixed-breed dog named Andy (although a boyfriend later dubbed the dog “Bob Newhart,” because his demeanor was just as determinedly milquetoast and comical as the comedian of that name). Feeling a bit lonely and vulnerable, my mom bought a German Shepherd Dog puppy from a friend who bred and trained protection dogs, and she told everyone that the pup was going to be a fierce watchdog. Not long after high school, my oldest sister had dated a beefy and intimidating Harley-riding Samoan man, and my mom named the dog after him. The idea was that the rapidly growing Shepherd would scare people the way my sister’s old boyfriend used to.
My mom’s plan backfired for a few reasons. One was the fact that the breeder, knowing what a marshmallow my mom was, sent her a particularly sweet, “soft” puppy – not a watchdog candidate at all. Also, out of loneliness perhaps, she allowed “the watchdog” to stay indoors most of the time . . . watching soap operas on the sofa with her and all the little dogs. The lanky puppy grew up feeling like a tiny terrier. And with none of the kids living at home, guests were infrequent, and the pup grew up into a shy and un-socialized dog who was more likely to hang behind the over-confident small dogs than to stride forth and guard the gates. This was ironic for our family members and close friends, who remembered the fearsome biker whose name the dog shared. But it was just plain confusing for everyone else. Why would you name a German Shepherd “Collie”? (Well, she didn’t. His name was pronounced like the Lassie type of dog, but it was spelled the Hawaiian way, “Kale.”) Oh well. My mom wouldn’t have known what to do with a guard dog, anyway.
While meals can be prepared individually, you may find it easier to cook up large batches at one time, and then divide the food into meal-sized portions and freeze. Because variety is important over time and not necessary at every meal, you can feed the same foods for a week or two, and then switch to something else when you make the next batch.
It’s best to add most supplements at the time of feeding, rather than mixing them in ahead of time, since many vitamins and other nutrients are affected by freezing or by exposure to light or air. The probiotics found in yogurt and kefir will also not survive the freezing process.
For more information on Home-Prepared Diets for Dogs, purchase any of Whole Dog Journal’s ebooks on the subject:
I don’t know anyone who is a perfect dog owner. I know people who do an amazing job with their dogs from a training and behavior perspective – and who feed their dogs really crummy dog food. And conversely, I have friends who spend a fortune on top-quality food for their dogs – that is, their terribly under-socialized, untrained dogs. It seems like we all have an Achilles heel when it comes to managing our dogs’ emotional, intellectual, and physical health (or our own, for that matter! But that’s another story.).
I’m far from perfect myself. There are weeks when I’m so busy with work that Otto gets very little individual attention or exercise. I feed him high-quality kibble, but keep talking about shifting him to a raw home-prepared diet or at least a commercial frozen raw diet. Sometimes I get impatient or am surprised by some naughty behavior and yell at him – and usually, by saying his name loudly and harshly, just as Pat Miller taught us not to, in “Say My Name,” in the January issue of WDJ.
I can’t hope for perfection, but a well-trained, well-adjusted, confident, fit, healthy dog is my goal. To that end, my canine resolutions for 2011 include switching Otto to a raw diet full-time and competing with him in agility. (This latter will take a lot more time and commitment than just the one class we’ve taken so far.)
Do you have any goals for you and your dog or dogs this year? Any that you’d care to share? They might inspire others to think about and develop some goals for improving their dogs’ lives, too!
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.
A crate is inappropriate for long-term confinement. While some puppies are able to make it through an eight-hour stretch in a crate at night, you should be sleeping nearby and available to take your pup out if he tells you he needs to go.
During the day, a puppy should not be asked to stay in a crate longer than two to four hours at a time; an adult dog no more than six to eight hours. Longer than that and you risk forcing Buddy to eliminate in his crate, which is a very bad thing, since it breaks down his instinctive inhibitions against soiling his den.
For more details and advice on crate training, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Crate Training Made Easy.
When I brought my dog Otto home from the shelter, I knew he was a killer. He had at least one murder on his rap sheet. His cage card said, “Kills chicken.” (It was a typo…I assume he either killed one chicken, or will kill chickens.)
I do know he’s very “birdy.” Though he looks at feral cats with some interest and squirrels with a little more, his eyes light up the brightest when he sees birds on the ground. If you could ask him, he’d probably admit that the highlight of his life with me so far was the day I took him for an off-leash walk in the woods, and he startled a flock of wild turkeys. He chased that flock well out of my sight, with the birds flying above the dirt road that Otto was flying along. He came galloping back to me about three minutes later, looking a little alarmed, with that lost-dog expression, until he saw me. Then he looked as happy as a dog can look, grinning like a kid getting off the wildest, most exciting roller coaster ever. “You wouldn’t believe how much fun I just had!”
So what the heck am I doing getting chickens?
Well, we’ve built a very solid house that they will be locked in at night, with a nice little fenced-in run that they can use during the day. And for the first few months, we’ll be watching our dog closely. My stepson commented, “Well, this will be a test of your training, right?” I responded, “AND a test of our management.” The rules for now are, at night and when no one is home, the chickens have to be locked in their “safe house.” When we are outside and paying attention, they can be in their yard and he can be in his yard. When we go in the house, so does he. I’m more afraid of how well trained my kids and husband are than the dog, really.
We brought the first three hens home today. It’s pouring rain right now, so we’ll put off all the introductions until later, when we can let them in the yard and watch Otto’s response.
I feel pretty confident. Otto has learned a really reliable “off” cue and response, and as long as I have plenty of opportunities to reinforce him for looking away from the chickens on cue, I think he’ll get the idea.
Anyone else with reformed killers in their midst? Any words of advice?
When rewarding your dog, don’t confuse your fun with the dog’s fun. Most dogs love to be petted, but not in every context and not in all ways. Most people like petting their dogs, but some don’t notice that their dogs don’t like being pat-patted on top of the head as reinforcement for coming when called.
Observe your dog carefully; if he backs away from you when you reach to pet him, pay attention! He’s telling you he doesn’t want to be petted – and that if you persist, you are actually punishing the behavior you meant to reward! I’ve seen this scenario repeated literally hundreds (thousands?) of times, when a person calls their dog away from something really tempting – say, for example, another dog who is getting food. The dog leaves a handful of liver, comes back to his owner . . . and the owner happily and enthusiastically pats the dog on the head. The person feels so good and is so happy – “Good dog!” And the dog turns his head away and hates it!
If a dog turns and walks away, that’s invaluable information: he doesn’t like what you did. Even if he just closes his mouth and/or turns his face away, pay attention. That could be your dog telling you, “Um, I really don’t like this.”
Get in the habit of carefully observing your dog’s response to your rewards, but also observe his response to training overall. Does he quickly engage with you any time you initiate a training session? Or does he dodge your gaze and wander off when he hears you call, or sees you gathering your training equipment? If he responds with the latter, you need to rethink your sessions.
For more details and advice on positive training basics, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Positive Training Basics.
“Outside of a dog,” said Groucho Marx, “a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
If you’re looking for best friends of the book variety, here are five that belong on your gift list and on your own bookshelf.
Best known for her academic success despite autism and for unique insights into animal behavior, Temple Grandin considers the emotions of wild and domestic animals the key to their well-being. In her latest book, Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), Grandin concludes that all animals deserve to live free from rage, fear, and panic in surroundings that stimulate seeking and play behaviors. In chapters devoted to dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, wildlife, and zoo animals, she demonstrates how simple, inexpensive changes in their environment can significantly improve the health and happiness of all creatures.
In Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us about All Animals (Scribner, 2009) positive-reinforcement training guru Karen Pryor describes force-free methods so that everyone – even readers who don’t have dogs – can appreciate them. A compelling story teller, she combines simple how-to instructions with stories and explanations that combine scientific research, a variety of animals (including humans), and the many benefits of positive reinforcement.
Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010) carries readers straight into the world the author and her Golden Retriever occupy as they search for missing teens, Alzheimer’s patients, space shuttle debris, and other challenges, all the while improving their communication and efficiency. This book will fascinate anyone interested in the new sport of Nose Work, the old sport of Tracking, the fields of specialized scent detection, and all aspects of Search and Rescue work. But you don’t need a dog to enjoy Scent of the Missing. It’s a great adventure story for all.
In Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know (Scribner 2009), cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz explores the many ways in which dogs perceive their world and relationships, both with other animals and with humans. Like Grandin, Pryor, and Charleson, Horowitz describes dogs in detail without anthropomorphizing them. Until recently any theory that ascribed emotions and intelligence to dogs and other animals was considered unscientific, but these four authors put that obsolete notion to rest while remaining objective. Despite our familiarity with dogs, few of us truly understand our canine companions. Consider Inside of a Dog an eye-opening owner’s manual that reveals previously unknown or under-appreciated aspects of our pets’ minds and bodies.
Paws and Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs by journalist Sharon Sakson (Spiegel & Grau, 2009) is as moving as any book about service dogs, medical detection dogs, military dogs, and therapy dogs can be. Sakson recounts dozens of true stories about these special creatures and she includes practical information that enhances any canine/human connection along with helpful resources.
All of these books are available in paperback and make great stocking-stuffers. Enjoy!
CJ Puotinen is a long-time WDJ contributor, and author of many books on human and canine health. She lives in Montana.
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Denise Mankin, DVM, was on duty late one night in a Des Moines, Iowa, emergency veterinary clinic when Yeller, a Labrador Retriever, was rushed in sporting a fresh wound to his back. Yeller had been shot after escaping from his rural home.
Photo courtesy Hemopet.
After stabilizing Yeller with IV fluids, antibiotics, and pain medications, Mankin opened up the dog’s abdomen to find blood filling his abdominal cavity. A bullet had perforated Yeller’s small intestine in five different locations, and two of the sites were hemorrhaging profusely. Within moments, his blood pressure plummeted. As Mankin worked desperately to tie off the blood supply to his damaged bowel, Yeller went into cardiac arrest. Cardiac drugs restored Yeller’s heart beat, and donor blood, having been warmed for transfusion, was pumped into him.
If your dog were to require an emergency blood transfusion, would your veterinarian have access to blood to save your dog’s life?
Veterinary medicine has become increasingly sophisticated, with trends paralleling those in human medicine – including the increased demand for canine blood and therefore formal blood banking services. Well-equipped private emergency clinics often maintain their own blood banks. Smaller clinics may rely on local blood donor programs or banking services might be provided by university veterinary teaching hospitals. A few commercial and non-profit animal blood banks also have been established.
However, according to world-renowned veterinarian W. Jean Dodds, CEO and founder of Hemopet in Garden Grove, California, “Despite these efforts, most of the country’s needs are not being met. The demand exceeds supply and the individual clinic programs may not be standardized to ensure safety and efficacy. A coordinated national effort is still an essential next step to maximally utilize what is available and set appropriate procedural standards.”
The University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Athens is one of many vet schools that has a canine (and feline) blood donor program. Its program utilizes thoroughly screened donor dogs belonging to veterinary school staff, students, and faculty. Producing close to 400 units of product per year, the UGA blood bank serves only critical care patients who are treated at the university’s small animal hospital; it does not provide blood to outside veterinary clinics. Despite this volume, the UGA blood bank can’t completely meet the demand from the university’s veterinary hospital – blood products expire, sometimes demand is too high – so it, too, will occasionally order from a national canine blood bank.
There are advantages and disadvantages of obtaining blood or blood products from a local donor and blood banks. According to Dr. Dodds, “As long as the local donor is blood type compatible and screened for infectious diseases, this blood – if properly collected and prepared – is just as beneficial as blood obtained from the handful of commercial veterinary blood banks in the country, large veterinary emergency clinics and institutions such as the Animal Medical Center in New York, or veterinary school blood donor programs that serve their clinical teaching hospitals.
“The advantage of the products from an animal blood bank are proven quality, prepared according to generally acceptable veterinary transfusion medicine standards or regulations (California only), and availability. Blood from these blood banks can be stored refrigerated for up to 46 days (packed red blood cells) and frozen for up to 5 years (fresh-frozen plasma).”
Blood Products and Their Uses
There are a number of acute and chronic conditions that call for your dog to be treated with blood or blood products. “Acute conditions include trauma, surgery, acute hemolytic anemia, or bleeding from accidents such as rat poisoning or from an inherited bleeding disease,” says Dr. Dodds.
“Chronic conditions include chronic disease, cancer, chemotherapy reactions, immune-mediated blood cell destruction, recurrent bleeding from an inherited condition, liver failure, bone marrow failure, or kidney failure.”
Blood transfusions don’t come cheap. At UGA, some canine blood components cost $150 to $300 per unit, and up to $500 for whole blood. A dog suffering from an acute crisis can require $1,000 worth of blood products, alone, in one day.
The most commonly used blood components are whole blood, packed red blood cells, fresh and frozen plasma, and cryoprecipitate. One of Dr. Dodds’ missions is to educate the veterinary community about efficiently and safely utilizing this precious resource, including using blood components, rather than whole blood, for transfusions.
Whole blood is collected directly from a donor animal. It can be used immediately or chilled for future transfusion or separation into blood components. Whole blood contains red blood cells, coagulation factors, and some white cells and platelets – but only when used within 24 hours of collection. Whole blood is generally reserved for use in acute cases in which the patient has lost a great volume of blood.
Packed red blood cells (PRBCs) are a concentrated source of red blood cells. This is the preferred source of red blood cells for most medical needs; PRCBs have a longer shelf life than whole blood, avoid the risk of “fluid volume overload” in compromised patients, and pose less risk of adverse immunologic reactions to plasma proteins.
Fresh plasma is essentially blood from which the red blood cells have been removed; it’s sometimes referred to as “platelet-poor plasma.” Fresh frozen plasma is the same thing, only frozen. Platelet-rich plasma is just what it sounds like; platelets (also known as thrombocytes) play a critical role in blood clotting. If a dog has too few platelets, excessive bleeding may occur. Platelet-rich plasma may be given to dogs with platelet dysfunction, or to sustain oncology patients whose platelets have been damaged by chemotherapy. Cryoprecipitate is a plasma concentrate indicated for treatment of severe bleeding (or in anticipation of surgically caused bleeding) caused by deficiences of plasma factor VIII, von Willebrand factor, or fibrinogen.
Your Dog’s Blood Type
Most of us are familiar with the concept of blood “type” – the phrase is going by the way in favor of the phrase blood “group.” In dogs, there are at least 12 different canine blood groups; 6 are fairly common. Blood groups are determined by the presence or absence of different antigens on the surface of the dog’s red blood cells; these are known as Dog Erythrocyte Antigens (DEA) and are identified by numbers, such as 1.1, 1.2, 3, and 4. To make matters even more confusing, a dog can have more than one group; for example, he can be “typed” as DEA 4 and 7, or DEA 1.1, 4, and 7!
As with humans, there is a “universal donor” blood group for dogs: DEA 4. If the emergency is not life-threatening, commercial animal blood products such as packed red blood cells and fresh-frozen plasma can be ordered by your veterinarian for overnight delivery anywhere in North America. These blood products typically come from so-called “universal donor” dogs; true universal donor blood is automatically compatible with the red blood cell type of any recipient dog patient.
Also like humans, dogs can suffer adverse reactions to transfused blood or blood products from dogs with types that are different from their own. Transfusion reactions rarely occur upon the first transfusion – but a transfusion from a dog with a different blood type than the recipient will sensitize the recipient’s immune system to that type. Subsequent transfusions with the same type of blood in the future will cause an adverse transfusion reaction. This is why blood typing for “repeat customers” is very important.
Vet emergency clinics generally keep in-office blood typing equipment on hand, so they can type your dog’s blood before giving him an emergency transfusion, but these kits are less reliable than tests conducted by veterinary laboratories. Having your dog’s blood sent to a lab for typing is highly recommended by many veterinary experts. It’s inexpensive and easy, and having the information ahead of time could be incredibly helpful if your dog had a serious medical emergency or trauma.
“It is always medically sound to know the blood type of the donor blood, and if not from a universal donor, the blood type of the recipient patient should also be known,” says Dr. Dodds. “Even if an emergency transfusion was given between two dogs of unknown type, the donor and recipient can always be blood typed after the fact for future reference.”
“Crossmatching” is another laboratory tool that can determine serologic compatibility (or incompatibility) between a donor and recipient. In a crossmatch, donor red cells are mixed with plasma from the recipient. If antibodies exist in the recipient plasma to antigens on the red cells of the donor, transfusion reactions can occur. Previously transfused dogs should be crossmatched prior to subsequent transfusions, even if the transfusion is from the previous donor.
Donor Dogs — Do You Have What It Takes?
Commercial animal blood banks in California are closed colonies of dogs (or cats) and are regulated by law through the State Department of Food & Agriculture. These blood banks are licensed and inspected annually by the state.
In the state of California, commercial sale of volunteer donor blood from privately owned pets is not permitted.
W. Jean Dodds, DVM, established the first private 501(c)(3) non-profit animal blood bank, Hemopet, in July l99l. Dr. Dodds’ goal was to do for animals what the American Red Cross did for humans: develop a national blood bank and education network. Today, Hemopet services more than 2,000 veterinary clinics in the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong.
Hemopet’s licensed facility houses a colony of healthy, canine donors – all Greyhounds rescued from the racing industry – of universal blood type (DEA 4). Commercial animal blood banks in California are regulated by law through the State Department of Food & Agriculture. Hemopet’s Greyhounds are maintained in an outstanding environment, screened for an inclusive list of pathogens, current on all vaccinations, and neutered. They also have access to on-site 24 hour-a-day veterinary care. About 200 donors live in Hemopet’s new, large facility, and are part of a novel rescue-donor-adoption program, Pet Life-Line.
You should ask your veterinarian or call your local veterinary emergency hospital to see if they have a volunteer donor program. Your dog could be a volunteer blood donor if he or she is at least 50 pounds, of stable temperament, a young healthy adult, and, if female, preferably spayed (to avoid heat cycle influences). To qualify as a donor, a complete health exam is performed along with lab testing for CBC, serum chemistry, bleeding disease screening (e.g., for Von Willebrand disease), heartworm check, and screening for more common infectious diseases transmitted by blood.
Registered veterinary technician Anna Santos has been with the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, Small Animal Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Athens for 13 years. She cares for thousands of critical care patients yearly at the hospital, and heads its donor and transfusion program. She explains that canine blood donation is not a big deal for the dog — although the right temperament helps! The time from when a needle is placed (to draw blood) until it is removed is only about eight minutes. Santos describes it as very similar to the experience of donating blood at the Red Cross, all the way down to the “cookies” provided to patients post-donation! Each appointment takes less than a half hour, but the donor dog’s caregiver must be willing to make a significant commitment to the program: UGA requires that the dog come in every two months to donate over a period of one year. This is not an uncommon requirement made by canine blood banks.
The Gift of Life
After two hours in surgery, and an additional four hours on a ventilator, Yeller (the Labrador who’d been shot) made a full recovery. The combination of expert veterinary care and donor blood saved his life. Dr. Mankin says she has never lost a patient due to lack of blood availability; her clinic has always had blood on hand or had a donor dog nearby for blood collection if their stock was depleted. How many lives has she helped save with donor blood? “Wow, there are soooo many stories!”
CANINE BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS: OVERVIEW
1. Talk with your vet about having your dog’s blood typed. Keep a permanent record of the results in a safe place.
2. Find out in advance if blood would be readily available — and from where — for your dog should she require an emergency transfusion.
3. If your dog is young and healthy, consider signing her up to be a blood donor. Understand that she will be thoroughly screened for temperament and health, and that you’ll be signing up for a significant, but worthwhile, commitment. Your dog might save another’s life!
Lisa Rodier is a frequent contributor to WDJ. She lives in Alpharetta, GA, with her husband and a senior Bouvier.
A friend sent me a long email message recently about some problems he was having with his dog. He and his partner adopted the little dog from a shelter some months ago. Not long after, the dog bit my friend’s mother when she tried to take a stolen Kleenex away from the dog; I got a long email about that incident, too!
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I wasn’t that concerned about the first incident that my friend wrote to me about, but I’m worried now. The dog has gotten increasingly aggressive in certain situations (on-leash in busy environments), and has threatened to bite a number of different people. (To be more specific, he has actually bitten their clothing or something they were carrying. I used the word “threaten” because a dog who can grab a sleeve or hem or rip a hole in a bag that someone is carrying is certainly capable of biting that person, and yet he has chosen not to. Yet.)
I counseled my friend to engage the services of an experienced and highly recommended positive trainer, and he did so. The first few sessions went well in some ways; the dog quickly learned a number of desirable behaviors, and seems to enjoy training. But the aggressive behavior has escalated.
I asked a lot of questions about the training sessions. At some point, my friend told me that the dog also stayed with the trainer for a several-day board-and-train visit. And when I asked whether anything else had changed with the dog, he said he and his partner both think that the dog got worse after boarding. They didn’t blame the trainer; they thought the dog was “mad” at them for leaving.
I don’t think dogs are sophisticated enough to act out for weeks to punish their owners for having a nice vacation without them. The more information we exchanged, the more clear it seemed to me that the trainer – by every account a dedicated, well-educated, well-regarded, positive trainer – was not only failing to improve matters with this dog, his training tactics were getting progressively more punitive. And the dog’s behavior was getting progressively worse.
No trainer can succeed in every case. Some have a special affinity for some types of dogs or enjoy teaching only certain types of classes. I think that this trainer has been pushed past his area of expertise. I strongly advised my friend to put an end to these sessions, and start looking for a new trainer.
My friend was reluctant; he liked the trainer and didn’t want to be disloyal or hurt the trainer’s feelings. That set me back on my heels. What about hurting the dog? He’s not only failed to improve, he’s gotten worse. He’s the one my friend needs to be loyal to. And so should the trainer. He should be the first to admit that this dog is pushing him out of his comfort zone, and that another trainer might have a different approach that would be more effective.
Your dog grabs your stuff and runs away either because she knows you’re going to take it from her and she doesn’t want you to, or she’s inviting you to join in her a fun game of “Catch me if you can.” In either case, chasing after her is usually the least effective way to get your stuff back. Besides the obvious “management, to prevent her access to your stuff,” and “exercise (mental and physical) to keep her happily otherwise occupied,” here are five suggestions that will maximize your chances of getting your precious thing(s) back quickly, relatively unscathed.
When your dog steals something, try these tricks:
1. Run the other way
Really. Chasing after your dog almost guarantees she will run away. If her motivation for stuff-grabbing is to get you to play, she may be just as happy to chase you. Let her chase you into a reasonably small space, close the door, and then employ Suggestion #3, 4, or 5 to convince her to give you your stuff back. (If her motivation is to get and keep stuff rather than get you to chase after her to play, this one probably won’t work. Go on to Suggestion #2.)
2. Quietly follow your dog
If your dog wants to keep your stuff rather than play with you, any noise and fury on your part will cement her intentions and make it infinitely harder to get the thing away from her. You risk triggering aggression in a dog who already guards, or teaching it to one who doesn’t yet. Be calm and cheerful. I know; it’s hard to be calm and cheerful when your dog has your valuable heirloom keepsake. Do it anyway. When the opportunity presents itself, engage in Suggestion #3 or 5, but carefully. Suggestion #4 may work, but is less successful when your dog’s motivation is keeping rather than playing. Because the dog in this scenario is likely to be guardy, any pressure on your part may cause her to hold onto the item more intensely, or even bite you. Don’t corner or trap her; that could increase the risk of aggression. If she takes the item into her crate, do not reach in to get it until you have successfully negotiated her out of her crate.
3. Trade for treats
Now that she’s not running away, your best chance at getting your thing back unshredded is to have your dog give it up willingly. If you try to grab it you’re likely to end up in a game of tug, and your stuff will suffer. To trade, simply convince your dog to drop your thing in exchange for something irresistible. Every room in my house has a container full of “something wonderfuls” just in case I need them. My favorites (and my dogs’) is Canz “Real Meat Treats.” I get them from dogcatsupply.com. They are top quality ingredients, moist and meaty, and need not be refrigerated.
If your dog won’t trade for a treat in your hand, drop some treats on the ground. When your things are safely back in your own possession, vow to train your dog to give up objects happily on cue.
4. Throw a toy for your dog fetch
If your dog is more into tennis balls or plush toys than treats, engage her in play with her toy to get her to let go of yours. Keep at least one very favorite toy on a shelf in every room. The sound of her squeaky toy, or the mere sight of her beloved ball or tug rope, is usually enough for a toy-fanatic to drop your possession so she can go after hers. After all, she just wanted to play in the first place. Be sure to play for a while, so she doesn’t get wise to your scheme.
5. Use diversion tactics
What else does your dog love to do? Go for a walk? Ride in the car? Eat dinner? Get the squirrel? If you have stock phrases you use with your dog that will trigger an immediate, wildly enthusiastic response, try one of those (you have to sound genuine!) to see if you can get her brain to switch gears. At the sound of an excited “Get in the car!” she may well drop your thing and head for the door. Of course, then you are obligated to take her for a ride. If you lie to your dog, sooner or later your karma will come back to bite you!
Pat Miller, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is WDJ’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of several books on positive training.
A few months ago, I wrote about the British Kennel Club’s registration of two special Dalmatians over the objections of the breed clubs there (WDJ June 2010). These two dogs were the result of a breeding project begun in 1973, in which a single outcross to a Pointer was made in order to reintroduce the normal gene for uric acid back into the Dalmatian bloodline.
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Fourteen generations later, more than 99.98 percent of the offspring’s genes are identical to those of a purebred Dalmatian. The one critical exception is that, unlike every other dog registered by both the British and American Kennel Clubs, these dogs are no longer at risk of forming urate bladder stones, a painful and potentially deadly condition caused by a genetic mutation carried by all Dalmatians.
Since that article was written, there have been some new developments. First, an update on what has been happening in Britain: Fiona (Fiacre First and Foremost), the first low uric acid (LUA) Dalmatian registered with the Kennel Club, has been winning at shows. While naysayers claimed her first win was “fixed,” Fiona’s group win the following week proved that these dogs are indistinguishable from other Dalmatians, and worthy of inclusion in breeding programs.
Meanwhile, back here in the States, theAmerican Kennel Club (AKC) Health & Welfare Advisory Committee submitted a report with the following recommendation:
“Because the introduction of the low uric acid dogs into the AKC registry gives Dalmatian breeders a scientifically sound method of voluntarily reducing the incidence of the condition, this committee strongly recommends some controlled program of acceptance of these dogs. Where the strict health and welfare of the breed is the over-riding concern, no other argument can be made.”
Despite these findings from its own committee, the AKC board voted in November to defer a decision until after June 2011, when a vote of the Dalmatian Club of America’s membership would be held. Since the breed clubs in both Britain and the U.S. have remained staunchly opposed to registration of LUA dogs, it seems unlikely that this vote will show them putting the welfare of their breed above their concerns of genetic purity. While AKC says it will “consider this vote, along with other factors in reaching its final decision,” don’t hold your breath in hopes that they will do the right thing.
In the meantime, another dog has paid the ultimate price for the breeders’ shortsightedness. Armstrong, a seven-year-old Dalmatian who worked as a therapy dog at the children’s cancer unit at the Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, was put to sleep due to uncontrollable urate stones.
Armstrong had previously undergone multiple surgeries to remove stones, followed by a urethrostomy, where the dog’s urethra is rerouted away from the penis to a new, surgically created opening. Even after such a drastic measure, Armstrong continued to form stones, requiring two more surgeries just five months apart.
His owner, Shelley Gallagher of Sandy, Utah, had been feeding Armstrong a low-purine diet, giving him extra fluids to help dilute his urine, letting him out to urinate every few hours (including every night at 2 am), and obsessively monitoring him – all, ultimately, to no avail.
If you’d like to let the Dalmatian Club of America know how you feel about this, email its president, Meg Hennessey, at president@thedca.org. For those interested in LUA Dalmatians, they are currently registered in the U.S. only with the United Kennel Club (UKC). – Mary Straus
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.
