In the November issue, we ran a news item about a press release we received from a pet food company warning dog owners about “the dangers” of feeding human food to pets. We were highly indignant that a pet food company that describes itself as blending “giddy devotion with sound nutritional principles” would blame human food for causing pet obesity and other health problems. It seemed like a throwback to the sort of messages promulgated for decades by the mainstream, “corporate giant” food makers, who routinely preach against “upsetting” pets’ tummies with table scraps or “unbalancing” their diets by augmenting pets’ meals with human food. And it was especially shocking coming from a new company seeking to compete in the “premium” or “holistic” segment of the market.
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As it turns out, the message actually came from a public relations company hired to represent the food maker – Nulo – and Nulo’s founder and CEO Michael Landa says the message absolutely does not reflect Nulo’s opinions or philosophy. “The Nulo marketing team absolutely did not authorize that particular message and would never have approved the language that the PR representative used; it is simply incorrect and inconsistent with our beliefs,” says Landa. In fact, Landa terminated Nulo’s relationship with the PR firm immediately upon learning about the anti-human-food messages.
“Nulo is not against feeding human food to pets,” says Landa. “Certainly extra calories from excessive table scraps can contribute to weight gain, something we are working tirelessly to combat through education. Also, we believe some commercial pet foods are similar to ‘fast food’ in that they contain byproducts, corn, wheat, soy, sugar, salt, and can be devoid of proper nutrients that dogs and cats deserve… [The PR firm] mixed our messages and positioning into an e-mail that was not only inaccurate, but also unauthorized.”
We’re glad to hear this, and apologize for “taking a tone” against Nulo on the basis of the misguided message. If we reacted too strongly, I’d blame our disappointment on the fact the message seemed to emanate from a new company whose products we were actually looking forward to promoting – products that meet our selection criteria for top-quality, healthy foods. See nulo.com and our upcoming food reviews for more information about the company’s products. – Nancy Kerns
A new study shows that unsupervised children are most at risk for bites, and that the culprits are usually family pets. The study, by Vikram Durairaj, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, also found that if a dog bites once, it is likely to bite again, with the second attack often more brutal than the first.
The study looked at 537 children treated for facial dog bites at The Children’s Hospital on the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus between 2003 and 2008. Durairaj found that 68 percent of bites occurred in children 5 years old or younger with the highest incidence in 3-year-olds. In most cases, the child knew the dog through the family, a friend, or a neighbor. And more than half the time, the dog was provoked when petted too aggressively, startled, or stepped on by the child.
Durairaj found that mixed breeds were responsible for 23 percent of bites followed by Labrador Retrievers at 13.7 percent. Rottweilers launched attacks in 4.9 percent of cases, German Shepherd Dogs 4.4 percent of the time, and Golden Retrievers 3 percent. The study was done in the Denver area where pit bulls are banned.
“What is clear from our data is that virtually any breed of dog can bite,” Dr. Durairaj said. “The tendency of a dog to bite is related to heredity, early experience, later socialization and training, health, and victim behavior.”
He stressed that familiarity with a dog is no guard against attack and if a dog bites once, it will likely bite again with the second attack often more vicious that the first.
Dr. Durairaj, an associate professor of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, presented his study in October 2010 at the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s annual meeting. He said dog bites are especially devastating to children because they are smaller and their faces are within easy reach of the animal’s mouth.
We agree with Dr. Durairaj on this point: Young children should never be left unsupervised around any dog, even for just a moment.
There’s a new dog coming into your life who needs to learn her name. A puppy perhaps? Or maybe an adult rescue “do-over” dog? You might even have a dog who’s been with you for a while, but just doesn’t respond to her name as promptly as you’d like. If you’re eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new canine family member, be sure to put “teaching the name response” on top of your dog to-do list. And if you’re frustrated that your current dog doesn’t appear to know who she is, don’t fret; it’s never too late to teach this very important behavior.
How to Name Your Dog
We humans develop a personal attachment to our own names at a very early age. I am Pat Miller. Your WDJ editor is Nancy Kerns. Even a young child, when he hears his name, registers a “that’s me!” response. Our dogs, probably not so much. Although we can’t know for sure unless and until some day we can actually get inside their heads, it’s likely that a dog just learns to associate the sound of her name with (we hope) “good stuff” in the same way she associates other things (a ball, a leash, the car keys, the clicker) with good stuff.
Looks can be deceiving. When I say “Lucy!” only our Corgi gets excited. If I call “Scooter!” our Pomeranian does the happy dance. Our Scottie comes running if I call “Dubhy!” while we’re doing barn chores, while the rest of our dogs continue about their business. It sure seems that they know who they are! However, the simplest and most likely explanation, is that each of them, over time, has learned that good stuff happens for them when they hear their name sound, but not the other name sounds. That doesn’t mean they grasp the “I am my name” concept that we humans seem to instinctively understand.
Here is the key to teaching your dog to respond to her name: Name = good stuff. It’s almost as simple as that. While teaching your dog that her name means good stuff, you also need to be careful not to send her a mixed message. If you sometimes use her name to yell at her in anger, she’s likely to stop and weigh her options. “Let’s see… I wonder if a good thing will happen this time, or if a bad thing will happen. Hmmmmm.”
If she has to stop and think about it, it’s too slow. You want that unpoisoned, instantaneous, automatic “Yay! Good stuff!” response when she hears her name-sound. So, as you go forward teaching your new dog her name, be sure to keep it always positive. If you must yell at your dog, do it without using her name. If you think your dog’s name is already poisoned, consider giving her a new one, and then teach her that the new name is the best sound in the world.
Choosing a Good Name Can Improve Your Dog’s Training!
As a child, I was enchanted by TS. Eliot’s The Book of Practical Cats, especially his poem, The Naming of Cats. I had the whole thing memorized at one time, and can still recite parts of it, starting with, “The naming of cats is a difficult matter — it’s not just one of your everyday games And you may think I’m as mad as a hatter when I tell you a cat must have three different names.”
Eliot may have thought naming cats was difficult, but I think naming dogs is infinitely harder. The wrong name can be a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom, while the right one can steer a dog onto the road to success. “Killer” and “Stupid” are obviously poor name choices, while “Champ” and “Hero” are clear winners. Dogster.com breaks down dog naming nicely here.
But it’s not always as clear cut as that. The owner who gets a new puppy at Christmas and names her “Noel” or “Snowbird” may realize too late that the unfortunate inclusion of the sound “No” in her dog’s name can create a strong negative name-association rather than the positive one we strive for — especially if it’s an owner who hasn’t fully bought into positive training and uses a strong aversive “No!” reprimand. Check your prospective dog name choices for any negative sounds and toss out any that might have a bad association.
In a multi-dog household, it’s best to avoid redundant name sounds. We made the mistake of naming our Scotty “Dubhy” (pronounced “Duffy”) while Dusty, our aging Pomeranian, was still with us. Although we vowed never to do that again because of the confusion it caused, we currently have a “Missy” and a “Lucy” – close enough that it can also create “mistaken identity” incidents between the two.
Multi-syllabic names are usually shortened to nicknames, so that’s not a problem: “Footloose and Fancy Free” becomes “Lucy,” and “Bonnie Wee Lass” is just Bonnie. Even nicknames are fine – a dog has no problem with happy associations with many different name-sounds. “Lucy” is also “Lulu”; “Dubhy” is “Doodles”; “Bonnie” can be “Bon-Bons”; and “Scooter” is also quite happy to respond to “Scootie Man.”
Clients often ask me about changing a dog’s name. Of course, many shelter and rescue dogs arrive without names. They may be given temporary names by staff and volunteers, but adopters often choose a different name once they get their dogs home – and dogs do just fine with that. Some people spend hours trying out different names to see if the dog responds to any of them, but that’s not necessary. In fact. if you have reason to suspect your new dog may have any kind of negative association with the name he came with – abuse, neglect, or harsh training methods – you are better off changing it.
Like many dog owners, we like to select names for each of our four-legged family members that have some special significance. We had a cat for 18 years named “Gewurztraminer” because that’s the kind of wine we were drinking when we found him. “Dubhy” means “dark” in Gaelic – appropriate for our Scottish dog. My husband, Paul, wanted to name our current Pomeranian “Harley,” because we have great times together on our motorcycle. “But,” I said, “He’s too little to be a Harley. He’s more the size of a scooter.” So “Scooter” he is.
Teaching Dogs the Name Response
Remember that your dog’s name does not mean come. It simply means “Look at me and wait for further instructions.” It’s important to make this distinction. There will be times when you want your dog’s attention but you don’t necessarily want her to come running to you. If she’s on the other side of the room and you want her to lie down there, you might say, “Lucy,” and when she looks at you, say “Down.” The more you aspire to advanced levels of communication and training with your dog, the more important it is that each cue has a very clear and specific meaning.
In order to train your dog you must be able to capture and retain her attention. Teach your dog to respond to her name by associating it with a click (or a verbal marker such as “Yes!”) and a food reward. At first, when your dog is already looking at you, say her name, click, and offer her a treat. Do this several times to create an association between the sound of her name and the resulting click-and-treat.
Teach her to continue to focus on you by clicking and giving her a reward several times, for time periods that gradually increase in length, as she continues to look at you.
You’ll have the most success with this if you start off with a high-value treat. If I wanted you to look at me instantly when I say “Fribbit,” I might say “Fribbit” and hand you a one hundred dollar bill. That would get your attention! If I give you a one hundred dollar bill every time you hear me say “Fribbit,” you’ll probably become pretty consistent about looking at me for “Fribbit.” In time, even if you don’t get a hundred dollars for every “Fribbit,” you’re still going to look, in hopes that this”Fribbit” might be a winner.
Now think about your response if, instead of a hundred dollar bill, I gave you a penny every time I said “Fribbit.” You probably wouldn’t care much, if at all. You’d quickly get bored with pennies and look for something more rewarding and interesting to do. Find your dog’s equivalent of a one hundred dollar bill. It might be dried liver, cheese, anchovies, bits of canned chicken . . . try a variety of foods to find the one that immediately captures your dog’s rapt attention.
You can also use life rewards for teaching the name response. If your dog is a tennis ball nut, say her name, and when she looks, toss her the ball. Life rewards tend to slow down the repetition process (it usually takes longer to deliver repeated life rewards – you have to get the ball back before you can do it again), but if it’s something your dog really loves you can make up for lost repetition time with the enthusiasm of the response and the faster positive-association time.
When you think the association has been established between your dog’s name and the high-value treat, wait until she glances away, then say her name. (You might have to hide the treats behind your back, stop making eye contact, and wait a while to get her to look away.) If she looks back at you right away when you say her name, click and give her a treat.
If she doesn’t look at you immediately, don’t say her name again; instead, make a “kissy noise” (very technical dog training term) to get her to look at you; then click and treat. If you have to make the kissy noise several times in a row as you repeat the exercise, back up and spend more time creating a stronger association between the name and the click-treat while she’s looking at you, before trying again when she looks away.
Adding Distractions to Name Training
When you’re getting a very prompt and consistent “snap” of your dog’s head back to you at the sound of her name, you’re ready to start adding distractions. Start with small distractions at first; you want to set up your dog to succeed, not flunk the first test. Ask a family member to make a small noise on the other side of the room. When your dog glances in that direction, say her name, and when her head snaps back, click and give her a treat.
If she doesn’t look back at you immediately, use your kissy noise to get her to look. When she looks, click and treat. If you have to “kiss” to get her to look several times in a row, go back to working without distractions again for a while, and/or find a higher-value reinforcer.
When you’re getting a reliable snap-back name response with low-level distractions, gradually increase the amount of environmental interference. First, increase distractions in your own home environment with more sound and/or movement of other family members, including four-legged ones, then up the ante by taking the show on the road. Play the name-response game when you’re taking your dog for a walk around the block, hanging out at your son’s soccer game, and playing at the dog park.
If you lose your dog’s response at any step of the process, back up to your last level of success, spend some more time working at that level, then move forward again, perhaps in smaller steps. Eventually you’ll have a rock-solid name response from your dog that, along with reinforcement for increasing length of attention, will serve you both well as you live and learn together for many years to come.
NAMING YOUR DOG: OVERVIEW
1. Consider carefully and choose wisely if you are naming (or renaming) your dog.
2. Commit to giving your dog a very consistent, very positive association with the name you choose. Name = good stuff. Always.
3. Protect that positive association for the rest of your dog’s life so her name never becomes “poisoned” by you or by anyone else who comes in contact with your dog.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, 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, including her latest: Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First Class Life.
Interest in homemade diets has never been greater, especially since the huge pet food recall of 2007. Last month, I reviewed books that explained how to feed a homemade canine diet based on raw meaty bones (RMBs). This month, I’ll look at books about boneless diets – by far the largest category of books.
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Unfortunately, I found a lot of bad books out there. Many of the recipes provided in the books are nutritionally inadequate! There’s no harm in using them from time to time, or to replace a small portion (up to 25 percent) of a commercial food diet, but anyone who relies on these books to feed their dogs a homemade diet is likely to end up with issues that could range from dry skin to crippling orthopedic conditions.
Calcium, in particular, is often mentioned only in passing or left out of recipes entirely. As just one example of the problems this can cause, I heard from one person who relied on four popular homemade diet books, none of which stressed the importance of added calcium, to create a diet for her puppy. As a result, her pup developed nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, a metabolic disorder caused by lack of calcium that can lead to bone deformities and spontaneous fractures. At one point, her puppy’s bones were so soft that when an X-ray was being taken, the technicians actually bent the leg bone. I’m happy to say that the pup appears to have made a full recovery once she began adding calcium to his diet, but this could have resulted in irreparable damage.
In contrast with the RMB books, the books reviewed here provide recipes rather than just diet guidelines. Most of the food is cooked; only two books suggest using raw meat (and only one requires it). Some recipes are simple, consisting of a few, basic ingredients, while others are indistinguishable from human recipes, with multiple ingredients, seasonings, and preparation steps. All diets include grains, though the percentages of meat, grains, and vegetables varies considerably.
Whichever one you choose, please read the whole book, not just the recipes. All of the books I recommend contain essential information in the text about substitutions, supplements, and more. Using the recipes without reading the rest could lead to critical errors in the overall diet.
Unless a book says specifically that the recipes are approved for puppies or for all life stages, assume that they are meant for adult dogs only. Puppies and pregnant or nursing females have special nutritional requirements; if you want to feed them a homemade diet, you must make sure it will meet their needs.
Except where noted, all of the books listed below are available from Amazon.com and other bookstores. Many are also available from Dogwise (dogwise.com; 800-776-2665).
These reviews are directed at homemade diets only. Many of the books contain additional chapters on such topics as herbs, homeopathy, grooming, and more. My recommendation of a book’s diet does not mean that I endorse anything else that the book may say.
I’m saving the best for last: three books that have analyzed all recipes to ensure that they meet the latest NRC guidelines. Each of these books offers recipes for diets with and without raw meaty bones, so whichever type of diet you want to feed is covered. Two of the books focus on raw, grain-free diets approved for all life stages (cooking is permitted), while the third offers cooked and raw recipes, with and without grains, designed for adult dogs only. This review will be published in an upcoming issue.
Home-prepared pioneer Dr. Pitcairn was an early advocate for homemade diets for dogs, publishing the first edition of Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats way back in 1981.
The latest edition (2005) offers several improvements. The recipes have been revamped; most are moderately higher in both protein and fat and lower in carbs than before. For example, the Doggie Oats recipe increased the amount of meat from two to three pounds and decreased the amount of oats from eight to five cups. The amount of bone meal to add to each recipe has been clarified, as different products vary in how much calcium they contain.
A wide variety of foods are recom-mended, including various meats, liver, eggs, dairy products, grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit, along with garlic, yeast, and flavorings as soy sauce. Some ingredients, such as liver and fish oil, are discussed in the text but are not included in the recipes. Supplements include vegetable oil; bone meal; vitamins A, D, and E; and Healthy Powder (a mixture of yeast, lecithin, kelp, vitamin C, and bone meal).
Pitcairn stresses the need for variety and suggests substitutions for meats and grains in his recipes. Four of the recipes are vegetarian, but they use eggs and dairy products for protein, which is acceptable. While his recipes are higher in carbs than I prefer, with 36 to 61 percent in the regular meals, they have an adequate amount of protein, ranging from 23 to 33 percent. According to Pitcairn, “You may also feed any of the basic cat recipes to dogs,” a good choice if you want to feed meals that are higher in protein and lower in carbs. Special recipes are provided for dogs with kidney disease, allergies, and weight loss; the latter are high in carbohydrates (not ideal).
Despite the high carbs, this is still one of the better homemade diet books around. You can rely on these recipes to provide complete nutrition for your dog.
Another updated classic The 2000 edition of Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog has been completely reorganized, but the diet presented in the book is virtually identical to the original version. A single recipe is provided, split into two meals: a cereal meal that makes up 25 percent and a meat meal that makes up 75 percent of the diet. Cottage cheese is substituted for meat one day a week, and there is a half-day fast (modified cereal meal only) one day each week. The diet is 35 percent protein, 17 to 20 percent fat, and 34 to 39 percent carbs on a dry matter basis.
Much information is unclear in this book, including the amount of bone meal to use, which appears to be too high. The problem is that bone meal can vary greatly in how much calcium it contains. I finally found the brand of bone meal used buried in Appendix 2. I looked it up online and discovered this particular brand has just 720 mg calcium per teaspoon, half the amount found in many products. With no guidance in the text, however, I’m sure many people would get this wrong.
Volhard recommends feeding only beef meat, as she says “testing thousands of dogs through kinesiology for over 20 years has shown me that the majority of dogs prefer beef.” Variations are provided only for dogs who cannot tolerate or will not eat the regular meals. There’s simply no reason to avoid variety, and many reasons not to.
There are other errors and ambiguities in the text, such as the statement that corn oil “contains only a tiny amount of linoleic acid.” You are advised to use blood tests to monitor the diet, but blood tests will not show nutritional deficiencies or excesses unless they are extreme (and often not even then). Many people have had success with this diet, but some dogs don’t like the cereal portion, and the supplements are complicated.
A tad complicated Better Food for Dogs is one of the better books that use human-style recipes, though that says more about the quality of the competition than about this book itself. Recipes average 40 percent protein, 45 percent carbohydrates, and 15 percent fat on a dry matter basis, which is acceptable.
Variety is stressed, with variations for some recipes provided, but I have a number of reservations about the recipes. Neither liver nor heart is included. Canola oil is added but no omega-3 fatty acids. Some recipes are overly complex.
I like the fact that tables are provided showing the average nutritional analysis for each set of recipes compared to NRC minimum requirements. However, they expect you to use these tables to calculate the amount of bone meal and other vitamin and mineral supplements to add.
As with many books co-authored by veterinarians, you are frequently urged to consult with a professional. I find many of these recommendations unnecessary or impractical, such as, “Giving your dog omega-3 fatty acid supplements should only be undertaken with the guidance of your veterinarian.” and “When purchasing [a daily multivitamin-and-mineral supplement intended for humans], use the charts in Chapter 7 and consult with your pharmacist to ensure that you are adding the proper supplementation without reaching toxic levels.”
All in all, I think this is a better book than those whose diets are higher in carbs and omit calcium, but the recipes and supplements may be more complicated than some people want to deal with.
Eat with a friend I first read Carol Boyle’s book, Natural Food Recipes for Healthy Dogs, in 2007, when she participated in the sample cooked diets portion of my series of homemade diet articles (“Reality Cooks,” WDJ July 2007). I liked Boyle’s approach to sharing your own meals with your dogs so much that I began incorporating some of her ideas into the diet I feed my own dogs.
Rereading the book now, I’m still impressed. Boyle has a practical, common sense style that makes home feeding seem simple. She calls it “the scatter-shot theory” of good nutrition, using variety, moderation, and balance over time to ensure that her dogs’ nutritional needs are met. She recommends feeding a diet that is two parts protein to one part carbohydrates by volume, with added servings of sweet potato, dairy, and eggs. She recommends feeding two to three meals a month of liver, and the same for canned fish.
It’s important to read Boyle’s text and not just look at the recipes, which are for individual foods rather than for meals. Boyle gives guidelines as to how to combine these foods into meals to create a complete diet. She also stresses the need to add calcium at the rate of 1,000 mg per pound of meat, and gives instructions on using ground eggshells to supply calcium. Note that some recipes include onions, which Boyle advises be removed before serving to dogs.
Boyle suggests feeding a percentage of your dog’s body weight daily. She provides little guidance on supplements, advising that you add vitamins C and E, fish oil, and possibly a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement.
Boyle’s book is a good choice for those who enjoy cooking. You may find it even helps you improve your own nutrition!
Fifty recipes My name is on the cover (as a contributor) of The Healthy Dog Cookbook. Isn’t there just the tiniest conflict of interest having me review my own book? Fair point – except it’s not really “my” book.
In 2007, I heard from an editor in England who had been contracted by TFH Publications to produce a homemade diet book for dogs. The editor asked if I would be willing to provide recipes for the book. I declined, as I prefer to give diet guidelines rather than recipes. The editor asked if I would write the introduction, and I agreed, provided that the recipes met my criteria: at least half animal products (meat, eggs, fish, dairy); organ meat (particularly liver) included in small amounts; no vegan recipes; and an appropriate amount of added calcium. To my surprise, they agreed.
In the end, I wrote not only the introduction, but also the information presented with each recipe, which included portion sizes (which I now feel are too high) and the amount of calcium to add. My introduction includes sections on the need to provide calcium, variety, and balance over time; protein, fat, and carbohydrates in the diet; food preparation; amount to feed; and supplements. I was paid a fee for my contributions; I do not receive royalties from its sale. I was not aware that they called me a “canine nutritionist” until after the book was published or I would have asked them to change it.
The recipes in this book use what I consider to be appropriate proportions, include a variety of foods, and aren’t complicated to make. Ingredients include various types of meat and fish, liver, heart, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, pasta, oatmeal, barley, quinoa, brown rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkin, spinach, carrots, green beans, peas, asparagus, beets, tomatoes, peanuts, and fruit, plus herbs (parsley, dill, mint, thyme).
While this is not the book I would create myself, I think it’s better than many of the recipe books available, particularly those that do not include calcium.
Do as she does, not says I found myself intrigued by the diet that Joan Weiskopf, author of Pet Food Nation, feeds her own dogs. In her introduction, she describes breakfast five days a week of chicken liver, heart, and gizzards, sautéed in coconut oil. She adds string beans, zucchini, yogurt, and a fish oil gelcap, plus grains in winter. Two mornings a week, she feeds eggs for breakfast. Lunch consists of a raw chicken neck. Dinner is meat, including fish two days a week, plus seasonal vegetables, and sometimes rice or grains as well. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. Weiskopf’s book is disorganized, with similar but not always consistent information scattered among different chapters. Weiskopf recommends a diet that is 65 percent protein and 35 percent grains, vegetables, and fruits. Recipes are designed for dogs weighing 20 pounds; she gives no other guidance on portion sizes. While she recommends variety, she does not offer any substitutions in her recipes.
Calcium guidelines are jumbled, and only five of the nine breakfast and dinner recipes include calcium. Note that chicken necks are listed as “Dog Snack/Lunch” that she indulges her dogs in only if they are “particularly active (and insistent).” Supplement recommendations are similarly unclear. She includes “⅛ tsp. probiotic liquid” and “1 fish oil capsule” in her Monday-Friday breakfast recipe and “multivitamin/mineral for dogs” in three of her dinner recipes.
Recipes for dogs with kidney disease are overly restricted in protein. All of the recipes for dogs with health issues are high in fat.
Joan Weiskopf is listed as “MS, Veterinary Clinical Nutritionist,” but she is not a veterinarian. While this book is better than some, due to using appropriate ratios of protein and carbohydrates and including proper amounts of calcium, it is disorganized, sometimes contradictory, does not stress variety, and gives very little guidance regarding supplements. This diet won’t harm your dog, but you can do better.
Could have been simpler All of the information in Simple Cooking for Dogs 101 is acceptable, but even more details would have been helpful. Human-style recipes are designed to last a few days to a week. All recipes state how many cups they make, and a table gives portion sizes for dogs in eight weight categories. Calcium is not included in the recipes, but is described in the text with appropriate guidelines. Recommended supplements include Missing Link, garlic, canned pumpkin, fish oil, ground flaxseed meal, yogurt, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and various herbs. Guidance may not be specific enough for a beginner.
Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition topics as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com website. She lives with her Norwich Terrier, Ella, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
1. When doing early crate-training, don’t let your dog out of the crate when he’s whining or barking. Even if you’re certain he really needs to go potty, try to wait for a few moments of silence before opening the door.
2. Use the crate as a rewarding place, not a punishing one! If you use it consistently for “time-outs” rather than “time in with a Kong,” your dog will start to resent and avoid it.
I am a huge fan of crate training for dogs. I think the ability to spend an extended amount of time in an enclosed space quietly and calmly is a valuable life skill for dogs. And it certainly has dozens of benefits for us, too.
1. Dog has safe space where he can’t be bothered by other dogs or household pets or people.
2. Dog has a safe place to enjoy a bone or food-stuffed Kong, without worrying about having it taken away from him.
3. Dog has a comfortable, enclosed place to nap or sleep – somehow reminiscent of the canine’s evolutionary den.
4. In an emergency or in the case of an injury that requires the dog to be kept quiet, the dog can be safely contained, keeping him out of harm’s way in a familiar, comforting environment. This point is really important to me. In California, I’ve lived in areas that suffered week-long floods and fires that burned tens of thousands of acres. I was living in San Francisco when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989, sparking fires that destroyed dozens of homes. I have friends in the Bay Area who had to evacuate their neighborhood after a gas pipeline explosion a few months ago. I haven’t yet needed to evacuate my pets, but I could if I had to – and I wouldn’t have to worry that my dog was traumatized and freaking out because he was put into a crate. I also feel much better knowing that if he’s ever confined to a crate for a hospitalization or recovery from an injury, he’ll be absolutely content and comfortable.
5. If the dog is boarded or has to stay overnight or for an extended stay at a veterinary hospital, he’ll be much less anxious if he’s well habituated to his crate. My friend and trainer Sarah Richardson, of The Canine Connection in Chico, California, puts it this way: “It’s like eating at McDonalds in a foreign country – a familiar place where they can relax and know what to expect.”
Richardson also operates a daycare and boarding facility. She says there is a striking difference between dogs who are crate-trained and those who are not. “Daycare and boarding can be exciting for a dog, but they can also be stressful. Crate-trained dogs always seem grateful for some rest and relaxation in the midst of a stimulating stay here, and they come out of the crate refreshed and ready to play again. The crate has become their cue for relaxation. It’s much more difficult for dogs who aren’t crate-trained to fully relax and sleep well when they are in unfamiliar surroundings.”
Benefits to an Owner of Crate Training:
1. Peace of mind in an emergency (again, fires, flood, etc.).
2. Peace of mind that a comfortably crated dog can’t destroy one’s house or car.
3. As a testament for all the reasons to train your dog to perform a rock-solid sit, trainer Ian Dunbar often cites a list of things that a dog can’t do when it is sitting, such as jumping up, humping your leg, getting in a fight, etc. The list of things a dog can’t do while crated is even longer, and includes chewing through electrical cords, stealing your socks, getting into the garbage, tormenting the cat, and peeing behind the sofa. Also, I was caring for a friend’s dog once, and left him in my car for a short time while occupied with something else. When I came back, I found that he had chewed through every seat belt in the car. I don’t leave dogs uncrated in my car any more!
4. Crates are a valuable tool for house-training a dog. Few dogs will soil their crates if they can help it. After each stint in a crate, take them directly outdoors to potty. If they don’t go, bring them back inside and pop them right back into the crate. If they do potty, reward them lavishly, and allow them to be free in the house for a while – but only about as much time as it might take for them to need to go potty again. At that point (and it depends on their age, when and how much they eat and drink, and other factors that you will know best), take them back outdoors. If they go potty, reward them again. If they don’t, back into the crate they go.
See “How to Potty Train A Dog” for more information on a potty training program for puppies, or remedial training for adults.
5. A crate and crate-trained dog ensure that you and your dog will be welcome at most friends’ and relatives’ homes. I recently stayed at a friend’s house over the holidays, with my foster dog! She doesn’t have enough training or self-control to abstain from chasing a strange cat, eating the cat’s food, chewing on the furniture, or stealing food off the table, but none of these things happened, because she was happy to spend all of her unsupervised time in their home in her crate. My friend commented, “We’re crate-training our next dog, for sure!”
6. Crates enable me (and others) to foster dogs from the shelter. I can say in all confidence that at least five dogs have found really great homes because I took the time to house and train them, and find just the right family to adopt them. If I didn’t have a safe place to put an untrained dog at night, or even just while I run to the grocery store, I wouldn’t be able to provide this service.
Prepare for Crating
You’ll need a few things to get started on the crate-training project.
First and foremost, you need the right crate. There are three major types that are appropriate for training: plastic (or aluminum) airline-style crates; wire crates (they look like cages); and “furniture” style or “fashion” crates that are disguised to blend in with your decorating motif. Most dog owners choose a utilitarian (and affordable) plastic or wire crate; the aluminum and fashion models cost upwards of $500. (There are also “soft” fabric crates; these are appropriate only for dogs whose crate-training is rock-solid, since a determined or panicked dog can very easily chew or scratch his way through the mesh and escape.)
Each of the two most popular types offer one major benefit. Plastic crates seem to evoke the “den” feeling for the dog; many dogs accept being in a solid-seeming structure more readily than being in an airy cage. Wire cages offer more flexibility in where you can put them; most have at least two doors and some have three. This helps you position the crate in just about any corner or cranny in your home. Dogs will generally accept either type of crate, if you introduce the dog to the crate properly and don’t abuse or overuse crating.
The crate you buy needs to be large enough to permit your dog to comfortably enter, stand, turn around, and sleep in his favorite position. If he can’t get comfortable, the odds of his acceptance of the crate are poor! Measure your dog’s height and length; don’t rely on your memory and estimation of his size when ordering. If you’re in doubt, get the next size up. More room is always better, with the following exception: buying a crate for your medium- to large-breed puppy.
Knowing that your pup is going to stand 26 inches or so at the shoulder, and weigh 80 or more pounds, you select a very large crate. It’s good to plan ahead, right? Yes, but in the here and now, instead of providing a snug little studio apartment, we’ve supplied that puppy with a vast loft, complete with what he may perceive as a backyard bathroom. In other words, if he has just enough space to feel comfortable, he’ll make an effort to “hold it” in order to keep his bed clean. If he has too much real estate, he’ll probably start using some of it for going potty.
Most wire crates can be ordered with a divider panel that allows you to “fence off” some of that extra space while the puppy is little, and gradually expand the room he needs. I’ve never seen a plastic airline crate that offers this feature, although I’ve known owners who actually bought a small crate for the pup, and a larger one when he was older, larger, and already reliably crate-trained.
Next, find a good place for your dog’s crate. It should situated in a place that is neither too hot (next to a heater vent or in direct sun from a window), nor too cold (on a concrete floor in a chilly room or in a breezy, unheated hall). Remember that the dog will be stuck in that one temperature zone; you are depriving him of the ability to get up and move to a more temperate location, so the spot should be pretty comfortable.
Consider, also, your dog’s temperament and the traffic flow in your home. If your dog gets overstimulated by the sight and sounds of your kids’ playing and running with their friends, put the crate somewhere out of the flow of traffic. But if your dog gets a little anxious when he’s left alone, put his crate close to the center of action in your home, so he can be reassured as much as possible by the sounds of someone cooking in the kitchen or the television.
Note that if your dog displays serious anxiety when separated from the family, and hurts himself, destroys the crate, eliminates in the crate, and/or vocalizes nonstop, you’ll need the services of an experienced animal behavior professional to help properly diagnose and treat the behavior. See “Serious Separation Anxiety Calls for a Different Approach,” below.
The next thing you need to do is make sure that the crate is an incredibly cozy and inviting space for your dog. It should be equipped with a thick, comfortable bed or pad – not a thin little towel. The only exception to this would be for dogs who chew, eat, or otherwise destroy their beds; then you might have to experiment to find something that is comfortable but resistant to chewing. My dog is attracted to chewing up foam-filled beds, so I bought two of the thick, fuzzy “EcoNap” mats (not one of the many thin imitations) from West Paw Design. Otto is comfortable and the washable beds are still intact and attractive after two whole years.
The only acceptable reason (from my view) for not providing your dog with a thick bed in his crate? Very young puppies and a few adult dogs sometimes prefer peeing on a soft surface; you might have to eliminate padding for them, which means you have to keep the crate somewhere warm (in cold weather). You also should shorten the time you leave these individuals in a crate so they don’t feel the need to eliminate in their dens.
The last things you need for successful crate-training are a good supply of safe and attractive chew items and/or food-stuffed toys, such as Kongs or one of the stuffable “Busy Buddy” toys from Premier Pet Products.
Don’t Crate Dogs With Severe Anxiety
It’s a dilemma: A dog with severe separation anxiety may destroy their homes in a desperate effort to distract and console themselves when he is in the midst of an attack of separation anxiety. He may eat couch cushions, claw his way through drywall, attempt to crash through windows, and/or urinate and defecate all over the house. Sound like a dog you’d like to put in a crate? Actually, probably not.
Some dogs actually suffer worse symptoms when they are not only left alone, but also, when locked in a crate, are deprived of the things that might make them feel a bit better, like lying on your bed or sofa, or being able to look out the living room window from time to time. Most trainers have heard at least one sad story from a desperate owner whose dog mutilated himself — with bloody paws or even broken teeth — in an all-out panic to escape a crate.
“Crating is completely inappropriate for many, if not most, dogs who have true separation anxiety,” warns WDJ’s Training Editor Pat Miller. “Those with lesser levels of stress behavior about being left alone may be able to tolerate the close confinement of a crate, but for dogs who are truly panicked about being by themselves, crates seem to intensify their anxiety. Crating can worsen the separation anxiety behavior, and the dog can injure himself seriously, or even be killed, in his desperate attempts to escape his prison.”
A dog whose symptoms of separation distress are this severe will require some professional help, perhaps in the form of anxiety-reducing medication and the help of an experienced veterinary behaviorist.
Start the crate-training program by giving your dog some really over-the-top, delicious treats in the crate. Or, if he won’t go in, feed him the treats at the crate’s entrance. Slowly lure him into the crate with these treats, reinforcing each approach with praise – but don’t close the door! In his first dozen or so experiences with the crate, he should be free to enter and exit at will. If you slam the door on him before he even knows what it’s all about, he’ll be double-wary of approaching again. There is no hurry.
As soon as your dog is enthusiastically entering the crate in anticipation of goodies, ask him for a sit or down before you give him the treat. After a few repetitions of this, ask for a sit or down, swing the door closed for a few seconds, and then open it and pop that treat into his mouth. Good dog!
Your goal is to reward him for increasingly longer stays in the crate, but don’t increase the length of every visit to the crate. Keep the duration unpredictable, and the rewards variable.
At this point – but in a whole new session, not when he’s already stuffed with treats – prepare a really special food-stuffed Kong or other toy. Layer it with several yummy, stinky foods, such as anchovies, cream cheese, and bacon. Show this wonderful concoction to your dog, and then make a show of carrying it to the crate. Place it in the crate, far enough inside that your dog can’t snatch it and run out.
If your dog enters in a relaxed manner and picks up the toy and starts chewing, go ahead and close the crate door. Stay close, though; it’s too soon to leave him all alone in there, even if he’s absorbed by the food in the toy at the moment.
If he doesn’t go right in, close the door to the crate, locking him out of the crate and preventing him from eating the delicious food that you stuffed into the toy. In the best case scenario, he walks around the crate, trying to figure out how he can get in and get that treat. If he goes in the next time you open the door (and pick up the toy, and maybe even let him to lick it before putting it back in the crate), great. Close the door and proceed as above. If he still doesn’t go in, go back to the high-value treats and the shorter trips in and out of the crate. At no time should you forcibly drag, pull, or push your dog into the crate.
Depending on your dog’s comfort in the crate, have him go in the crate to enjoy a special treat (such as a big meaty bone, his favorite bully stick, or a food-stuffed toy) for increasingly longer sessions, several times a day. At first, stay close by while he’s locked in. Enter and exit the room, but gradually increase the amount of time that he’s in the crate in a room alone. Build the sessions to the point where you can actually leave your home for short, and then longer errands. As long as he seems happy to enter the crate and comfortable once in there, keep building on these sessions. If he’s reluctant to enter, or gets so preoccupied by his captivity that he starts whining or pawing at the gate, keep the sessions shorter, the treats high-value, and stay closer.
Here’s an important point: When you let your dog out of the crate, don’t make a big deal out of it. If you treat him like the three-month survivor of a raft at sea, he’s going to look forward to getting out of the crate so he can be the star of that particular newsreel. Instead, don’t make eye contact as you approach the crate, casually open the door, and ignore him for a few minutes when he comes out. You might even find that he doesn’t come out; that means you are really on the right track with the whole “comfortable in the crate” project.
What about the dog who barks, whines, or paws at the door during his longer sessions in the crate? You have to use your best judgment. Does he seem completely panicked or just a bit upset? Does he have to go potty immediately, or not at all? If you ascertain that he’s putting on a big act – he’s not panicked, just not happy, and he doesn’t have to go potty – then you will have to steel yourself for listening to a bit of fussing (or even some unpleasant barking). If you let him out in the middle of a frustrated tantrum, you will have just reinforced tantrums, and the next one may well be louder and longer.
Instead, lurk close by so that you can leap to release your dog when his whining or barking stopped for a few moments. Try your hardest to reinforce him for longer and longer periods of silence.
Crate Safety Considerations
I don’t want to scare you away from crating. But if you are going to employ this valuable management tool, you need to do so in a responsible manner. Take steps to avoid whatever hazards that crating may present to your dog.
Use an ID tag pouch, or an alternative to conventional, dangling ID tags — but don‘t forego identification.
lf I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have been skeptical that it could even happen, but my most recent foster dog caught her lD tag in the slats of a plastic crate. It’s a testament to her acceptance of the crate that she neither panicked, fought, nor even whined. I opened the crate the other evening and realized she was sitting with an odd, hunched posture. I thought, “Uh oh,” but I was thinking about bloat. l patted my leg to encourage her to come out of the crate. She wriggled, but maintained her odd posture. I got down on my knees to take a closer look — and that’s when I saw that her ID tag was stuck, wedged in one of the crate vents; she was being tightly held there against the wall. I’m a huge advocate of having ID on a dog at all times, but now I feel that it’s best if the dog wears a breakaway collar, or that some sort of alternative to a dangling tag is used.
Maintain safe temperatures for your dog.
It’s your job to make sure that your dog doesn’t roast or freeze in his crate, because there is precious little he will be able to do to help himself get cooler or warmer when he’s locked into a small space.
Provide water.
There are only a few reasons to withhold water from a dog in a crate – and no valid reason to keep him
without water for more than a couple of hours. Often, people who are trying to housetrain a puppy don’t want the pup to be able to “tank up” and later urinate in their crates. It’s safer to set your alarm to let the puppy go outside and pee once in the middle of the night than to prevent him from drinking for eight or more hours in one stretch — especially in hot weather.
If you’re concerned about the water spilling and making a mess, try one of those hamster-style water bottles that dogs have to lick to get a drink (available at pet supply stores) — or better yet, give the non-spilling Buddy Bowl a try. Your dog can flip this bowl completely upside down and still the water won’t pour out. The Buddy Bowl is widely available at pet supply stores and Internet sites.
One last point: Don’t overcrate your dog. Crates are a great tool, but they can be overused. When you walk toward the crate and your dog suddenly runs the other way, you need to increase the fun of crating, and decrease the time he spends in it. Also, keep in mind that puppies can’t “hold it” for all that long. A rule of thumb for pups during the day for up to one hour longer than they are months old. (A three-month old puppy should be able to hold it for four hours.)
I said at the beginning of this article that the ability to calmly spend time in a crate is a valuable life skill. And yet, in an average month, my own dog doesn’t spend much time (if any) in a closed crate. Why? Because he spends so much time in his open, well-padded crate that I rarely need to close its door!
The chart at the bottom of the page is an addendum to the list of manufacturers of WDJ’s approved raw frozen raw diets for dogs that was published in our November issue.
TIMELY
I noticed that the next issue will have an article on canine blood banks. How timely for me. My dog was diagnosed in the middle of September with immune mediated bone marrow suppression, brought on by Phenobarbital use. He had been on Phenobarbital for only six months, to control his psychomotor epilepsy. He has had five blood transfusions to date, every one of them at enormous financial and emotional expense.
At times we have had to access the blood bank in Winnipeg, Manitoba; I am in Ontario. While at a referral hospital in Toronto (he was having a bone marrow biopsy), I asked if I could buy some PRBCs. I could not unless he was admitted to the hospital. This was repeated across the board, teaching hospitals, emergency clinics, etc. My plan was to take the blood back to my primary veterinarian. At that point he had had three transfusions. His PCV at the referral hospital was a dismal 14, and I was sent home with no hope of getting blood. We did manage to track a bag down in the next few days; it was not his type, but we had to use it.
I have been forced to illegally bring blood over the border. I am very distressed at the lack of co-operation and availability of blood products out there, not to mention the expense. I do realize that it cost a lot to produce and process. I am lucky as I can do most of the work myself, but I really feel for lay people, who do not have that training. I know the odds are against my dog making it, but I want to try everything that I can for him. Deb Stanton, RVT, and Gourd the Dog Via email
The blood bank article appears on the following pages. My best to you and Gourd.
LOVING WDJ
I love you, and I wonder if you even know how rare a publication like WDJ is. On the same day that I got my WDJ, I also got a professional “journal” issue reviewing medical research. Without exception, every article in that magazine was research sponsored by a company that made the product being evaluated. And, surprise! All the research showed wonderful results using their products! I am awestruck every time I read a review in WDJ and it is actual, objective information, not an infomercial.
One comment on “The Right Stuff” toy recommendations (December 2010).Various companies now make some beautiful, lifelike, stuffed animal squeaky toys – realistic squirrels, ducks, skunks. What exactly are they thinking, making lifelike skunk toys?! I don’t want my dog thinking skunks are fun to bite and shake around! Those are high on my list of really, bad ideas.
Keep up the wonderful work. Could I get you to review a few medical therapeutic items for me that I can’t find any objective information on? Linda Palter Via email
I thought Christmas was a good time to let you know how much I love the WDJ and all of its timely articles. Some in particular have been extremely helpful, like the extensive dissertation on pancreatitis (WDJ November and December 2008 and January 2009), of which my GSD suffers intermittently, and the one about changed protocols for immunizations. My vet is very approachable and open to a collaborative relationship, especially after working with me in-depth with problems with prior GSDs. I showed her the article on a reduced vaccination schedule (“Annual Vet (Not Vaccine) Visits,” August 2010) and asked her opinion. She was receptive, and so we only had the state-mandated rabies plus one other for a disease prevalent around here, and skipped the others. She said she does the same for her dogs.
And oh that Otto! I feel very disappointed if there isn’t something about him in each issue, he is so darn cute, and I like that you openly and honestly share your experiences with him. I cannot omit how your publication has educated me on dog food! That has been huge. Carole Shafer and Suzi, the scamp GSD SW Michigan
ANOTHER VIEW
I really enjoy everything about Whole Dog Journal except the Editor-In-Chief’s column. I, along with most of my friends, were horrified when Nancy Kerns got her new dog and shared with everyone that the poor critter would be living outside because the dog and the husband preferred it. I was sickened by her negative article about fostering. And now I’m embarrassed to buy subscriptions to WDJ for holiday gifts as the editor’s note about being a celebrity and taking bribes. Maybe it’s time to consider a new editor.
I’m glad you like the Dyson and hope you donate it to a shelter when you are finished with your “review.” I find it doesn’t have good suction about half the time I use it; it’s way too heavy and the hose gets clogged with the least little bit of dog hair. But maybe if the tester actually had long haired animals that lived inside . . . Pat Johnson Via email
Just for the record: Otto sleeps inside any time he wishes to. It’s up to him. In the winter, he’s indoors about three-quarters of the time.
‘Twas a few weeks before Christmas, and all through the house,
The Miller family was heading for bed, including the spouse.
I carried Scooter upstairs with care,
Because his tiny Pom legs can’t carry him there.
I returned downstairs for the rest of the crew,
Knowing they wanted to go to bed too.
When up in the bedroom there arose such a clatter,
I sprang up the stairs to see what was the matter…
Okay, my feeble poetry breaks down here – I’ll have to continue in prose. The “clatter” was husband Paul, hammering on a wooden box we were turning into a bed for Dubhy, our Scottie – followed by a yelp from sound-sensitive Scooter as he was startled into flying off the bed. I scooped him up and carried him downstairs so Paul could finish without further Pomeranian trauma. As I sat on the bottom step, waiting, I moved one of the stress-panting little dog’s hind legs and he yelped again. My heart sank. This wasn’t just fear, this was pain.
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When the hammering stopped I carried Scooter back upstairs and set him on the floor. He was on three legs, his right hind leg held far off the ground. My heart sank further as “ACL” leapt into my brain. We’ve been through two TPLOs (Tibial Plateau-Leveling Osteotomies) in past years for torn anterior cruciate ligaments with other dogs, and I knew the cost for surgery runs several thousand dollars, not to mention the extensive follow-up care.
Scooter’s eyes were wide and he was panting heavily. We knew he was in significant pain. We discussed the emergency clinic but his leg didn’t feel broken, so we settled on a dose of Rimadyl and a trip to our regular vet first thing in the morning.
Following a restless, sleepless night for Scooter and me, Dr. Doering suggested two days of pain meds and muscle relaxant. If he was no better, then radiographs. Three days later we were back for x-rays. I reluctantly left Scooter with the tech, and went home to wait for the phone call.
“It’s not his ACL,” the vet’s informed me on the phone a few hours later, “It’s a luxated patella. We’ll refer you to an orthopedic surgeon in Frederick”
I had a brief chat with her when I arrived at the clinic to pick up my little dog. Cost of surgery, she said, probably $1500 to $2000. In answer to my hopeful question, she replied that luxated patellas rarely resolve themselves, and if it hadn’t done so by now…
She left. The tech brought Scooter out and set him on the floor… and… miracle of miracles – he walked on all four legs – as if nothing had ever happened! Tears in my eyes, I stared in amazement. Somehow her manipulations while he was sedated must have popped his knee joint back into place. I sent the tech back to tell the vet, who said to keep him on pain meds and restricted activity for a week, and if it holds – you’re just lucky.
It’s been two weeks now, and he’s bouncing around as if nothing ever happened. I’m still beating myself up for putting Scooter on the bed, knowing Paul was going to hammer Dubhy’s bed box. I should have known better. Paul says he should have known better. But, I remind myself, stuff happens. No matter how much we try to wrap them in cotton wool and keep them safe, bad stuff still happens to good owners – and their dogs – from time to time.
We’re lucky. Scooter seems to have fully recovered with minimal intervention. Sometimes when bad things happen to good dog owners the outcome is much worse. And we always blame ourselves.
Accidents happen. That’s why they’re called accidents. All our dogs ask of us is that we use reasonable care to protect them, and we learn from our mistakes. We are, after all, only human. If something bad happens to your dog, be gentle with yourself. Forgive yourself. Your dog forgives you. I’ve almost succeeded in forgiving myself for Scooter’s bed leap, and I know he’s forgiven us. His amazing recovery is our Christmas miracle. My holiday wish for you is that any and all of the “bad things” that might ever happen to you as a good dog owner end just as happily.
Many dogs who behave aggressively toward other dogs do so as a result of learning that their barking, growling fit results in the other dog going away. Because that behavior has been successful in the past, it’s been reinforced, and the behavior has continued or increased.
In contrast, in a CAT (Constructional Aggression Treatment) procedure, the subject dog is presented with a different reinforcement scenario. The behavior that worked so well before – barking and lunging – no longer works. Instead of making the other dog go away, it actually makes her stay close or come back! A new behavior – acting calm – now makes the “bad approaching dog” go away. So, in theory, the subject dog learns to offer calm, relaxed behaviors to make the other dog go away.
Eventually the subject dog becomes calm and relaxed because he no longer needs to act aggressively to make the other dog go away. Lo and behold, once the subject dog becomes calm and relaxed about the other dog approaching, he actually gets happy about having the other dog approach; the change in his emotional response follows the change in his behavioral response.
Back in 1998, we were a happy one dog family, made complete by the light of my life dog, Axel, a grand Bouvier des Flandres. So why did I have to mention in passing to his groomer, a woman active in Bouvier rescue, that maybe we’d like to add another?
It wasn’t long before we got a call about Jolie, a sweet, pushy, two-year-old rescue Bouvier, ready for home number three. How could we say no? Axel, at the time, was two-and-a-half years old.
Could I not do the math? I really don’t recollect the notion ever popped into my head that these two dogs were virtually the same age. While that was fabulous at the time and for many years, my mind didn’t travel 10+ years into the future when not only would I be dealing with living with two large breed senior dogs, I would possibly be dealing with losing two senior dogs, not too far apart.
Axel made it to his 14th birthday and beyond this year, only to succumb to a swiftly moving hemangiosarcoma in July. Jolie is still with us, and hit the 14 mark in November. She’s hobbly due to arthritic knees, courtesy of double partial cruciate tears, and continues to receive the melanoma vaccine after a diagnosis a year and a half ago, but otherwise, is fairly vibrant.
Time is healing the intense pain we experienced after losing Axel, but when Jolie went through a horrific bout of vestibular syndrome in late September, I sobbed to a friend, “I’m not ready.”
I know that we can lose our dogs at any time, and there was always the chance that one would leave us far before the other. While we don’t regret bringing Jolie into our world, I doubt I will ever again have two dogs, particularly of the same size and breed, so close to each other in age.
Do you think about this issue when you add a dog to your family? Do you purposely “diversify your portfolio” with dogs of differing ages? Or do you graciously open your heart and your home to whoever comes your way, regardless of age?
Traveling over the holiday weekend, I spent a night at a friend’s house. I brought my foster dog (and her crate); she isn’t civilized enough yet to be entrusted to the only part-time supervision of my regular pet sitter. I woke up earlier than anyone else in the household, and took the foster dog for a walk. Several times along our walk, she stopped suddenly to scratch. I thought, “That’s weird. I wonder if she ate something that she’s allergic to?”
Have you heard the expression, “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras”? Fleas did NOT occur to me, although it should have been the very first think I thought of as an explanation to this little foster dog’s sudden need to scratch herself silly. But it’s been years since I’ve had a dog with fleas! Literally, more than four years! They just haven’t presented themselves where I live now. In the Bay Area (where I was visiting over the weekend), though, they are common. I just forgot, somehow. But it all came back to me in a rush when the foster dog rolled over for a tummy rub and I saw several of the hated bloodsuckers scurry across her belly.
I worry about using the topical flea and tick treatments. I hate the idea of applying a deadly pesticide to a dog’s skin – a substance so toxic that it can kill fleas for a month. And yet, the bites of fleas and ticks are awful. The itching caused by a flea bite can cause a dog to literally tear her skin open and infections can set in. Tick bites can transit all sorts of deadly tick-borne diseases. Faced with a potential threat of a reaction to a pesticide and the here-and-now presence of fleas, I drove straight to a pet supply store for a topical flea treatment. I didn’t want to give a living flea population a ride home, or anywhere else.
I think these topical treatments can be overused, and I know that they can cause deadly reactions in some sensitive dogs. I am concerned about the fact that much of the substance that we drip onto our dogs’ skin needs not be identified by the makers of the pesticide; Federal law permits the maker to hide the so-called “inert” ingredients in the preparations, even though they may themselves be quite toxic. (For more about this, see “Are Spot-On Flea Killers Safe?” WDJ February 2002 and “Eliminate Fleas Without Poisons,” March 2002.) And yet, in certain situations, such as an acute exposure to fleas – and one that I hope won’t recur – the substances can be a fast, effective solution, one that puts an almost-immediate end to the torture of flea bites. I wouldn’t put them on a dog every month, and I wouldn’t put them on every dog I own, but they do have a place, at least in my dog-care kit.
How about you? Have you experienced trouble with spot-ons? Or do you rely on them for flea- and tick-preventives?
Old-fashioned training methods can work. Decades of well-behaved dogs and the owners who loved them can attest to that. So why should they bother to cross over to the positive side? The short answer is that positive training works, it’s fun, and it does not have the potential to cause stress and physical injury to our dogs through the application of force, pain, and intimidation. It takes the blame away from the dog and puts the responsibility for success where it belongs on human shoulders. In the old days, if a dog didn’t respond well to coercion we claimed there was something wrong with the dog, and continued to increase the level of force until he finally submitted. If he didn’t submit he was often labeled defective and discarded for a more compliant model. With the positive paradigm, it’s our role as the supposedly more intelligent species to understand our dogs and find a way that works for them rather than forcing them into a one-size-fits-all mold. The longer answer is that it encourages an entire cultural mindset to move away from aggression and force as a way to achieve goals. The majority of dog owners and trainers who have fun (and success) using positive methods with their dogs come to realize that it works with all creatures, including the human species. They feel better about training and find themselves less likely to get angry with their dogs, understanding that behavior is simply behavior, not some maliciously deliberate attempt on the dog’s part to challenge their authority. For more details and advice on positive training, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Positive Training Basics.
Preparing your dog’s meals yourself is not as easy as simply opening a can or pouring kibble out of a bag. However, once you’ve done the initial work of devising the diet and finding sources for the products you will feed, it isn’t terribly time-consuming. The actual preparation is fairly simple; the hardest part is buying products in bulk and then splitting them up into meal-sized portions for feeding. But the rewards can make it all worthwhile.
Most people who switch their dogs to a raw diet notice improvements even in dogs who seemed to be perfectly healthy before. Feeding a homemade diet may cost a little more, but many people report a decline in vet bills. Best of all is watching the enjoyment our dogs get from their meals, and taking pride in knowing we are doing the best we can for our dogs.
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.
