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Caring for an Elderly Dog

By
Lisa Rodier
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0
Cathy Maher

Aaron Epstein’s 14-year-old Australian Shepherd-mix, Sam, was losing weight and his appetite wasn’t the same. “I just thought he was getting old because in addition to not eating with the same vigor, he was slowing down a bit, wasn’t able to walk as far, and sleeping a little too much,” Epstein recalls. The once 45-pound dog had shed close to 15 pounds -30 percent of his body weight -before concerned friends could convince a reluctant Epstein to get Sam to the veterinarian for an exam and blood work, both long overdue.

At the clinic, Sam was found to have an enormous mass growing on his spleen. The pressure from the mass made eating physically uncomfortable for Sam. Epstein followed the veterinarian’s recommendation and opted to have Sam’s spleen removed, as well as a number of other small tumors around his pancreas. Sadly, the veterinarian also discovered that the cancer was malignant. Although the prognosis for Sam was limited, he was home a few days later, eating like a horse and acting more like his formerly happy-go-lucky self.

From roughly age seven years on, a dog is considered senior, or geriatric, and it’s important that owners realize that old age is not a disease! If your elderly dog is losing weight, drinking and urinating more than he used to, can’t walk as far as he once did, or is exhibiting other changes in behavior, he’s not “just getting old” -he’s not well! Changes in our elderly dog friends are usually indicators of early chronic disease.

Elderly Dog
Aaron Epstein

Aging is a natural process that is the result of the net effect of negative changes in physiology over time. In a chapter of Geriatrics and Gerontology of the Dog and Cat, William Fortney, DVM, writes, “A common characteristic of aging body systems is progressive and irreversible change. The effects of disease, stress, malnutrition, lack of exercise, genetics, and environment may hasten this change.”

There are common metabolic and physical effects of aging, but these should not be confused with chronic disease. Older dogs can be expected to experience a decreased metabolic rate, decreased immune competence and greater susceptibility to infection, and reduced thermoregulation. In addition, each organ system undergoes changes as dogs age.

Natural physical changes to dogs that occur with age include:

• Digestive system: Gastric mucosa atrophies, hepatocyte (liver cell) numbers decrease.

• Endocrine system: Pancreatic enzyme secretion decreases, hyperplasia of pituitary or adrenal glands.

• Integument: Skin becomes inelastic, footpads hyperkeratinize (get thicker), claws become brittle, muzzle grays.

• Cardiovascular system: Lungs lose elasticity, vital capacity (volume) decreases, cough reflex and expiratory capacity decrease, cardiac output decreases.

• Genitourinary system: Kidney weight decreases, prostate gland enlarges, testes atrophy (intact dogs), prepuce becomes pendulous.

• Musculoskeletal system: percent of body weight represented by fat increases; muscle, bone, and cartilage mass are lost; bones become brittle; bone marrow becomes fatty and hypoplastic.

• Nervous system: number of cells decreases; reduced reaction to stimuli; altered memory; diminished visual acuity, hearing, taste perception, and smell.

Although it is possible that one of these effects might lead to deterioration in body function, each alone is simply a result of the natural aging process. It’s when one or more of these changes progresses that we begin to see chronic disease. If even one of these changes occurs in your dog, it’s worth mentioning to your dog’s veterinarian to confirm whether it’s a normal aging change, or a preliminary sign of disease.

You are Your Dog’s Sole Caretaker

“It’s easy to list the common signs that indicate a potential problem, such as loss of appetite, increased drinking or urination, unusual bumps or discharges, vomiting or diarrhea, constipation, and lethargy/depression,” says holistic veterinarian Susan Wynn, DVM, CVA, CVCH, RH, of Georgia Veterinary Specialists in Atlanta. “But I find that owners frequently miss two of the more common problems. A ‘loss of appetite’ can be total or partial, but if it’s a partial loss, most owners tend to think their dogs have become ‘picky.’ Many people will try to get their ‘picky’ dogs to eat better for months while the disease process that caused the appetite change goes on unabated. This is an important message: If your dog has eaten well all of his life and suddenly becomes picky, this is a danger sign.

“The other thing that many owners miss is weight loss. If you think your dog has inadvertently lost weight, make a veterinary appointment now, because it means something went awry weeks to months ago.”

We need to do our part at home to notice changes in our canine friends. But don’t discount the expertise that your dog’s veterinarian can offer. Even when we don’t suspect a problem, geriatric wellness exams once (or even better, twice a year) are important. Start this practice (if you haven’t already) when your dog is about age seven. Regular senior wellness checks, complete with full blood work and urinalysis, and examination of your dog’s liver and kidney values, can be helpful in catching disease early.

“Because people see their dogs every day, sometimes they don’t see changes in those dogs. Getting a dog in for an exam twice -or even once -a year can uncover problems,” says Nick Berryessa, DVM, DACVIM, who also practices at Georgia Veterinary Specialists in Atlanta. “Put the dog on the scale, for example, and maybe we’ll see that he’s lost 10 pounds since last year. That’s a significant amount, even if it’s a 100-pound dog. If a person lost 10 percent of his body weight without changing his diet or exercise, it would be a red flag.”

What Goes Wrong with Elderly Dogs

The geriatric dog can develop multi-factorial problems; with an exam, you might be able to see why your dog is eating less, for example. Perhaps his teeth hurt and he has arthritis, both issues that should be individually investigated.

Dr. Berryessa outlined a few of the more common diseases that might be found in our geriatric dogs. Please note that each one, however, can be caused by a number of different disease processes.

Osteoarthritis

Leading the pack is osteoarthritis, especially in larger dogs and dogs who are overweight. One of the most important things we can do to ward off joint problems is to keep our dogs on the thin side; doing so has been proven to extend life expectancy. Nevertheless, with age can come signs such as lameness or slowing down that tell us that joint trouble is setting in. Ask your veterinarian to evaluate your dog and feel his joints, looking for pain in the joints, and consider x-rays to definitively pinpoint the problem.

From there, come up with a holistic plan to add the proper supplements, modalities such as massage and acupuncture, and, if necessary, prescription pain medication to give your dog relief. Dr. Wynn’s hierarchy of interventions for dealing with arthritis pain, and problems secondary to arthritis pain, starts with the basics such as glucosamine/chondroitin and fish oil. Then she suggests advancing, step by step, to include a more powerful glucosamine-type supplement (such as Thorne Research’s Arthroplex); massage; acupuncture; chiropractic; anti-inflammatory and analgesic herbs; shockwave, laser, or stem cell therapy; and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) or other prescription pain medications.

Chronic Kidney Disease

The cause of chronic kidney disease is not always known. Over time, the kidneys lose their ability to do their job, which is to eliminate waste from the body. Left unchecked, kidney disease can lead to other problems. One of the first signs of impaired kidney function is increased water intake and output of urine. At the point that the dog becomes unable to concentrate his urine, about two-thirds of his kidney function has already been lost. It’s important to provide a dog with kidney disease with ample fresh water and keep him hydrated. Diet also plays a role in managing this condition.

Urinalysis and blood tests conducted during an annual exam for Cathy Maher’s 14-year-old Lhasa Apso-mix, Dakota, in May 2007 indicated chronic kidney disease. Only a month earlier, Dakota had been diagnosed with mitral regurgitation (chronic mitral valve disease) after experiencing bouts of reverse sneezing, decreased appetite, increased lethargy, and a heart murmur. When the kidney disease was discovered, Dakota had no obvious symptoms other than some periodic decreased appetite and lethargy; these signs would have been easy to attribute to the mitral valve disease, had Cathy and her vet not been paying attention.

Dakota’s veterinarian felt that the chronic kidney disease was the bigger of the two issues for Dakota, and if they were able to get it under control, Dakota could have a quality life for two or three more years. Cathy was disheartened because she knew the condition, although treatable, was not curable. But she and her husband were committed to ensuring that they did everything they could to support Dakota’s quality of life.

They changed Dakota’s food, began fluid administration as needed at the vet, Calcitriol therapy, and a Vetri-Science Renal Essentials supplement in addition to continuing other supplements that he was already taking. With the intervention, careful treatment plan, and what Cathy describes as a fantastic veterinary team, Dakota did go on to live a high quality life for two more years, nearly reaching the 17 year mark.

Hypothyroidism

An underactive thyroid might reveal itself in a dog who has average, or even decreased, appetite, but in spite of that, is gaining weight. Weight gain despite level feeding is often the primary sign of hypothyroidism, but a poor hair coat or loss of energy may also be seen. A full thyroid panel can identify the disorder, and with the proper level of thyroid supplementation and periodic re-testing, your pal should be back on track in no time. Because the thyroid gland regulates metabolism of all body cellular functions, left untreated, hypothyroidism can lead to a significantly decreased quality of life for your pet. In most cases, the untreated condition will progress over months and years to result eventually in end-stage disease.

Diabetes Mellitus

Classic signs of diabetes mellitus include weight loss despite having a good appetite, and increased water intake and urination. In dogs, diabetes is associated with a dysfunction in insulin production. Because the dog cannot utilize the glucose in his bloodstream, it spills over into his urine; the disease is detected via urinalysis.

Dr. Berryessa explains what is going on in the dog, physiologically: “The dog loses weight because insulin is required to drive glucose into the cells. Without insulin, very few of the cells use glucose and as a result, those cells starve. That’s why an undiagnosed diabetic dog eats a lot and still loses weight; he can’t use the breakdown product of carbohydrates, which is glucose. He’s trying to use other things, like fats and other sources of energy, and so he loses protein and fat stores. It’s as if the dog were starving.” Typical treatment is administration of insulin injections and proper diet.

Cushing’s Disease

Another endocrine disease is Cushing’s (hyperadrenocorticism), which is overproduction of the hormone cortisol. Dogs with Cushing’s often experience increased thirst and water intake, increased urination, increased appetite, and lethargy. (Note that these symptoms are similar to those typically seen in a dog who has been subjected to a course of prednisone, a therapeutic corticosteroid).

Cushing’s disease is usually due to a tumor on the adrenal glands or a problem with the pituitary gland. A standard blood test might yield unusual results, but usually special endocrine testing is necessary to diagnose Cushing’s. Without treatment, the dog’s life span might be affected and his quality of life will dramatically worsen. Treatment consists of medication to control the overproduction of cortisol by the adrenal gland or surgery to remove the abnormal adrenal gland. Which treatment is chosen depends on whether the pituitary or adrenal gland is responsible.

Liver Disease

Typically liver disease in dogs is a chronic condition, caused by autoimmune or inflammatory disease. Few dogs will display clinical signs early in the disease process, or they’ll have very non-specific signs: they’re not eating very well, losing weight, slowing down, or (sometimes) will have increased water intake.

The only way to detect liver disease early is through blood tests -making another case for testing once or twice a year -in which elevated liver enzymes are revealed. There are other conditions that can cause an increase in liver enzymes, so further diagnostics such as ultrasound might be necessary for a proper diagnosis.

Cancer

According to Alice Villalobos, DVM, author of Canine and Feline Geriatric Oncology: Honoring the Human-Animal Bond, and a well-known pioneer in the field of cancer care for companion animals, more than half of our senior pets will be diagnosed with cancer. She points out that aging and cancer are closely correlated; as our pets lose their immune ability to fix all the mutations that happen in their bodies every day, they become more susceptible to cancer.

Appetite and weight loss can be caused by cancer. Most of the time, cancer is not detected through blood test results. According to Dr. Berryessa, blood tests won’t always indicate whether an animal has cancer, but are valuable for monitoring the dog’s overall health.

“People think of canine cancer in terms of lymphomas and leukemia in people. Although we see a lot of lymphoma in dogs, I wouldn’t say that a lot of them have cancer cells in their bloodstream. They usually have cancer in lymph nodes or organs, which we wouldn’t have any idea of from just a blood panel. A lot of times we have to look a little harder to find those things.”

Dr. Wynn adds, “When blood work is normal, and the dog clearly has a problem, that’s when we start suspecting cancer.” Detection is typically via palpation and imaging (x-rays, ultrasound) of the chest and abdomen to look for any masses or abnormalities in organs. “The dog might have other symptoms, such as losing weight or maybe drinking or urinating more than normal, or maybe they look distended,” Dr. Berryessa says, “but some of these tumors we might find incidentally. Somebody does an x-ray, for example, and finds a mass. The dog might not even be symptomatic for it.”

Johnny Hoskins, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, an expert in geriatrics and gerontology of the dog and cat, warns, “The early detection of cancer in geriatric animals is complicated by the presence of concurrent illnesses that mask early clinical signs of neoplastic disease; signs that could draw immediate attention and concern in a young animal are often accepted in an older animal as a consequence of aging.” That this disease is one that can be masked in our elderly dogs presents another case for twice-yearly veterinary exams.

Treatable vs. Terminal Conditions in Dogs

We might want to blame “old age” for any disease in our senior dogs and look the other way for fear of what lies ahead. But keep in mind that not all conditions that can afflict senior dogs are terminal; with early intervention and proper care, your dog might well have a normal life expectancy. Hypothyroidism, for example, need not ever affect lifespan.

Expected survival from any chronic illness depends on the animal’s general medical status as well as the stage of the primary disease. “It depends on the caregiver’s ability to manage the illness,” says Dr. Wynn. “Chronic kidney disease diagnosed at stage 1 can be managed for three to seven years in my experience, if the owner is really willing to do everything it takes. Osteoarthritis can be managed until death occurs from other causes, but if an owner is unwilling or unable to institute weight loss in an obese animal and administer supplements and drugs, it is conceivable that osteoarthritis could be a cause of euthanasia as pain prevents a pet from functioning.”

Detection vs. Prevention for Common Dog Diseases

For Aaron Epstein, it was hard to see Sam -his companion of 13 years, who’d been with him through thick and thin -grow old. But Sam lived another three months after his surgery, and Epstein felt that Sam lived a good and happy last few months, “eating really good food and being spoiled.” Did Epstein have any regrets? “I am glad that we did the surgery because the vet said that the tumor could have easily burst and that would have been a very bad end for him. In hindsight, I should have taken him to the vet a few months earlier as the tumor was likely causing the lack of appetite.”

Although we continue to do what we can to mitigate the effects of aging through diet, management of our dog’s environment, and a holistic veterinary approach, most of the above conditions cannot be prevented. The structural and metabolic changes associated with age, coupled with genetics and environmental stressors, make it possible that any of our canine companions are susceptible to disease.

That said, if we are assiduous about getting our senior dogs to the vet at least once, and preferably twice a year, we may be able to detect these conditions in their earliest stages. And early detection might be almost as good as prevention.

CARING FOR SENIOR DOGS: OVERVIEW

1. When your dog turns seven years old, consider instituting a schedule of biannual veterinary wellness exams.

2. Pay attention to subtle changes in your dog’s appetite; eating less is not a normal behavior for dogs. They are not good self-regulators! Feed separate meals, rather than free feeding. This will allow you to notice changes in his eating habits more easily, including subtle changes in appetite.

3. Keep your dog lean, offer mental stimulation, and physical exercise, keep stress levels low, and offer lots of “feel good” care.

4. Take your dog to the veterinarian sooner rather than later should you notice any changes in her.

Lisa Rodier lives in Alpharetta, Georgia. She is also a volunteer with the American Bouvier Rescue League.

Problems With Adopting Two Puppies Simultaneously

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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55
Adopting two puppies at once can lead to many issues

ADOPTING DOGS TWO-AT-A-TIME: OVERVIEW

1. Think long and hard about getting two new puppies at the same time. Make sure you’ll be able to give both dogs everything they need.

2. If you do get two puppies, make a firm commitment to spend social time and training time with them separately, to avoid having them super-bond with each other.

3. Consider instead adopting one puppy now and another later, or better yet, one puppy now and an adult dog later.

There’s no denying it: a new puppy is one of the world’s most wonderful things. It’s a cold, hard heart that doesn’t get all mushy over puppy breath, soft pink puppy pads, and the fun of helping a baby dog discover his new world. So, if one new puppy is wonderful, two puppies must be twice as wonderful, right? Well, not usually.

Most training professionals strongly recommend against adopting two pups at the same time. The biggest challenge of adopting two new puppies is their tendency to bond very closely with each other, often to the exclusion of a meaningful relationship with their humans. They can become inseparable. Also, owners often underestimate the time commitment required to properly care for and train two puppies; as a result the pups often end up untrained and undersocialized.

Adopting two puppies at once can lead to troubles socializing them.

Don’t Get Two New Puppies at Once!

I’m the last person on earth to argue against getting a second dog, or even a third; my husband and I have five. However, there are very good reasons to think long and hard about not getting two new puppies at once, whether they are siblings or not.

While the majority of new puppy owners seem to recognize that one puppy is enough of a responsibility for them, a certain number fall prey to one of a few common arguments about why two puppies might be better than one. I can rebut every one of them!

Let’s take a look at the most common reasons that people say they want to adopt two puppies at the same time – and why they shouldn’t be considered.

Two-pup rationale #1: “I want to get two puppies so they will have someone to play with while I’m gone all day at work.”

It’s a good thing to recognize that your pup could use companionship during the day. However, if you think one puppy can get into trouble when you’re not there, just think what kinds of mischief two pups can cook up when left to their own devices. Better solutions might include:

• Adopt your new pup at a time when someone in your family can take a week (or several) off work to stay home and help the puppy adjust gradually to being left alone. A couple of weeks vacation time? Kids home for the summer? Just be sure to use the time wisely, so your pup can learn to happily accept being alone when it’s time to go back to work or school.

• Find a friend, neighbor, or relative who is home much of the time and who is willing to provide daycare for your pup – and experience the joys of having a puppy to play with during the day, without the long-term responsibilities and costs of having a dog for 15-plus years.

• Ask your vet if she has another client with a similar-age puppy, and see if the two of you can mingle your pups at one of your puppy-proofed homes for puppy daycare, and send the second baby dog back home after work. Note the emphasis on “puppy-proofed.” Two pups can still get into a heap of trouble, even if one of them isn’t yours.

Two-pup rationale #2: “I have two children and they each want their own puppy.”

What a sweet idea. Just say no. Since when do the kids get to make the rules? Seriously, most families I know have enough trouble getting their kids to fulfill their promise to feed, walk, and clean up after one family dog. Mom ends up doing most of it anyway. So now Mom gets to do double-puppy-duty? If there’s a compelling reason for them each to have a dog, consider adopting one puppy now, and an adult dog from a shelter or rescue group. Even then, I’d adopt one first and give her at least a month to settle in, if not longer, before adopting the second.

If you must adopt two puppies at the same time for the kids, see the second half of this article.

Two-pup rationale #3: “We want to have two dogs eventually anyway, so we might as well get them at the same time so they can grow up together as best friends.”

Well, that’s what you might well get! When you raise two puppies together they usually do grow up to be inseparable best friends, often to the detriment of the dog-human relationship. Inevitably they spend far more time together than they do individually with you, with a likely result that they become very tightly bonded to each other and you are only secondary in their lives. Many owners of adopted-at-the-same-time puppies ultimately find themselves disappointed in their relationships with their dogs, even when they are committed to keeping them for life.

This super-bonding also causes tremendous stress (and stress-related behavior problems) on those occasions when the dogs do have to be separated – and sooner or later, something will come up that requires them to be separated: one goes to training class and the other doesn’t, you want to walk one but not both, or a health-related problem requires one to be hospitalized or otherwise kept separate.

When adopting two puppies at once it may lead to them being under socialized later in life.

Two-pup rationale #4: “A second puppy will play with the first and keep her occupied when I’m too busy to spend time with her.”

Nice thought, but here’s a heads-up. If you’re too busy to give one puppy the time she needs, you’re definitely too busy for two puppies!

There are great interactive dog toys on the market that can help occupy your pup when you can’t play with her – and don’t think that either another puppy or a pen full of toys can substitute for social time with you. Puppies do take time, and it’s important you give that some serious thought before adding a baby dog to the family. It’s fine to give her playmate-time via arranged play dates with a friend’s healthy and compatible puppy, but don’t think adopting a second pup is an acceptable substitute for your own interaction with your puppy.

Two-pup rationale #5: “If we adopt a second puppy, that’s one fewer that might be euthanized.”

I won’t argue with this, except to say that in many shelters around the country today, puppies aren’t the problem. Of course there are exceptions, but I’d say the majority of shelters in the United States now have no problems placing most if not all the puppies they get. It’s the adult dogs who are most likely to die because of homelessness. If you really want to save a life, adopt a grown-up dog instead of a puppy, or at least adopt your puppy now, and come back for an adult dog in a few months.

Two-pup rationale #6: “The breeder we are buying our puppy from thinks it’s best if we take two.”

If you’re buying from a breeder who encourages you to purchase two puppies at once, run away fast. A truly responsible breeder will, in most cases, refuse to sell two puppies to one home, except on the rare occasion that a prospective buyer can prove she has the skill, knowledge, time, ability, and monetary resources to provide an excellent environment for two pups at once. Someone who tries to push two puppies on a buyer isn’t a very responsible breeder, and isn’t doing her puppies, or the new owner, any favors.

What to Do If You Adopt Two New Puppies

Perhaps you’ve already adopted two new puppies and are ruefully regretting your error. Or maybe you don’t regret it, but you realize you’ve taken on far more of a responsibility than you realized. Perhaps you’re determined to go ahead and do it anyway, despite my advice above. If you do take the bait and find yourself in double trouble, there are things you can do to minimize problems and maximize your success as the owner of a puppy pair:

1. Crate them separately. Your pups are going to have plenty of together time; they don’t need to sleep together too. You can certainly leave them together in their puppy-proofed space when you’re gone all day, but they should be crated separately at night. You can crate them near each other, but this is the perfect time to start habituating them to not always being in close contact with their sibling. (See “Crating Woes,” Whole Dog Journal May 2005.) When they are comfortable in their crates close to each other, you can gradually increase distance between crates until they can be crated out of sight of each other, perhaps even in another room.

You can also do the “separate crating” thing cold turkey. If your children are old enough to be responsible for taking their pups out in the middle of the night, start from day one with a pup crated in each kid’s room.

In any case, the puppies’ separate crates should be in someone’s bedroom. This is vitally important so someone hears them when they wake at night and have to go out. The pups also benefit from the eight hours of close contact with you, even though you’re all sleeping. And by the way, you can bet if one puppy wakes up to go out, the other puppy in her nearby crate will wake up, too.

2. Train them separately. Your training programs will be much more successful if you take the time to work with your pups individually. If you are using clicker training (and I hope you are!), you’ll probably find that it’s confusing and difficult to try to click and reward one pup for doing a desired behavior when the other pup is doing an unwanted behavior. When this happens, both pups think they got clicked, which means you’re reinforcing the unwanted behavior as well as the desired one. Oops! Not to mention that it’s much more difficult to get and keep any semblance of attention from either puppy if the other is present as a distraction.

Two dogs adopted at the same time may look to each other rather than their owner for social cues.

Training time is a perfect opportunity to give your pups a positive association with being separated. One gets to play (train) with you and get attention, clicks, and yummy treats, while the other gets to hang out in her crate in another room, preferably far enough away she can’t hear you clicking, and empty her deliciously stuffed Kong.

If there’s a second trainer in your family, that person can work with the second pup in another room at the same time. Eventually you can each work with them at the same time in the same room, and sometime in the future one person can have fun working with them both at the same time. But that’s down the road somewhere, after they’ve both learned their good manners lessons very well.

3. Play with them separately. It’s common in puppy pairs for one pup to be more assertive than the other, and take the lead in puppy activities. It’s fine to play with them together some of the time, and it’s also important to play with them separately, so the more assertive pup doesn’t always get to make the rules for the other.

For example, if you always play “fetch” with the two together, you’re likely to see that one pup repeatedly gets the toy and brings it back, while the other runs happily along behind. If you watch closely, you may even see the more assertive one do a little body language warning if the other tries to get the toy – a hard stare and stiffened body, perhaps. The less assertive one defers to her sibling by letting go of the toy and looking away. That’s a fine and normal puppy interaction, but it can suppress the “softer” pup’s retrieving behavior. Unless you make the effort to give her positive reinforcement for fetching toys when you play with her alone, you might find it difficult to get her to retrieve later on in her training.

4. Walk and socialize them separately. Just as with your training sessions, you’ll need to walk one pup while leaving the other behind with something wonderful, or while someone else walks the other one in the opposite direction around the block. Walking them together with different handlers doesn’t work; the less confident pup will come to rely on the presence of the more confident one to be brave in the real world. Then, when the more confident one isn’t there, the shyer pup is more likely to be fearful. All the activities you would normally do with one pup, you need to do with each pup individually.

Signing up for puppy training class? Set aside two nights, not one, and take them to separate classes. Going to the groomer? It’s two trips, not one. Time for that next set of puppy shots? Make two appointments, not one. Oh okay, I’ll give you a break – it doesn’t have to be every time, but they should go somewhere by themselves at least as often as they go together.

So, are you getting the idea of the “separate but equal” program? Everything you would do with one puppy you need to do with each puppy separately. This is to be sure they’re both getting the attention, training, and socialization experiences they need, without the interference of the other pup, and so they’re not dependent on the presence of other pup. Of course you can also do things with them together, but you must be sure they are completely relaxed and comfortable about being apart.

For super-bonded dogs, separation becomes a world-class crisis, fraught with life-threatening behaviors such as anorexia (refusal to eat in the other’s absence), separation anxiety (barking, destructive behavior, relentless pacing, and howling), and other stress-related behaviors, including aggression.

Inevitably, at some time in their lives super-bonded dogs will have to be separated. One will get sick, or need surgery, when the other doesn’t. Most of the time, one will die before the other. I know of cases where the surviving dog of a super-bonded pair has had to be euthanized after the partner died, as he was too stressed by himself to be able to function. This is not a situation any loving dog owner wants to face.

Other Factors Involved in Adopting Two Puppies

Behavioral considerations are the reason that most trainers recommend against adopting two puppies at once. But there are other reasons that have nothing to do with the dogs’ behavior.

1. Cost. Not surprisingly, it costs twice as much for routine feeding and care for two puppies as it does for one. But don’t forget the catastrophic care costs! If one pup contracts a deadly disease such as parvovirus, you’re on your way to the emergency clinic with two pups, not one. Sure, if one gets injured the other’s not likely to have sympathy injuries, but with two pups the chances of one getting injured in some manner double.

2. Clean up. Let’s not forget puppy pee and poo. One pup produces more than enough waste for any sane human to deal with, and with two pups you naturally double the production.

If that isn’t enough, consider this: You leave your pups in an exercise pen when you’re not home. One pup is likely to learn to eliminate in a corner of the pen reasonably quickly, and will hopefully avoid tromping through it. Two puppies may select two different corners of the pen as designated bathroom spots, which doubles the chances of poop tromping. On top of that, if the two pups get to wrestling, as pups do, there’s a much greater likelihood of them rolling around in poo than there is if one pup is playing by herself.

Picture yourself coming home from a long, hard day at work, tired, looking forward to a little loving puppy cuddling, to find a pair of poo-covered pups in a pen plastered with the stuff from one side to the other. I’m just sayin’. . .

3. Housetraining. Of course, when you’re home, the puppies come out of the pen to be with you. We normally recommend the umbilical cord approach to housetraining: at first keeping your pup on a leash or tether, or with you, under your eagle eye, all the time, and going out to the designated potty spot every hour on the hour.

Now you’re tied to two puppies who want to wrestle with each other under your feet – or one’s tied to you and one to another family member. As the pups mature you lengthen the time between potty breaks and start relaxing supervision, when the pups demonstrate their ability to “hold it.”

Oops! There’s a puddle. Which pup did it? Oh look, there’s a wee puppy pile of poo under the dining room table. Oh no! I see teeth marks on the corner of the antique loveseat! If you have one puppy and you’re having a persistent problem, you clearly know who needs more supervision, or a quick trip to the vet to rule out a possible medical issue. With two pups, you have to increase management and supervision on both of them, and may never know for sure which one is having accidents. Or maybe it’s both!

4. Gender. Some people say if you’re going to have two puppies, get a boy and a girl. Others say get two boys. Some might specifically warn against getting two girls, stating that two female adult dogs in the same family will fight. Others will tell you they’ve had two girl dogs at the same time, no problem.

Here’s my take: Plenty of same-sex puppy pairs get along just fine throughout their lives. Plenty of mixed-sex pairs do the same. There are same sex pairs that end up with conflicts, and there are mixed-sex pairs that end up fighting with each other (despite super-bonding). It does seem to be true (and there are some studies that indicate) that intra-pack conflicts involving two females tend to be more intense than intra-pack issues between two males, or opposite sex pairs. That doesn’t mean there will be conflict if you adopt two girl puppies, only that if there is, it may be more difficult to resolve than differences of opinions between two boys, or a boy and a girl.

Think About It

Is the extra fun of having two puppies at one time worth all the extra time, energy, cost, and headaches? I’m warning you not to do it. I’m recommending you adopt one now, and another in six months to a year, when the first has bonded with you, and at least completed her basic good manners training.

But if you decide to do it anyway, and are ready to do all it takes to make it work, then you have my sincere blessings and best wishes. But please, be honest and realistic about whether you and your other human family members really have the resources and commitment to give both pups what they need to ensure their lifelong loving home with you. Go find your two wonderful puppies and have an absolutely great life with them.

Dog Carting and Draft Training

By
Terry Long
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2

What do you envision when someone says “draft work“? What probably comes to mind are horses, mules, oxen, and other large “beasts of burden.” Think again. Since the 18th and 19th centuries, dogs have assisted humans by hauling wagons and carts across fields and through towns. Dogs have delivered milk and mail, hauled the day’s catch of fish from boat to town, and even hauled lumber in lumber camps.

This heritage forms the basis upon which the sport of carting was built by a variety of breed clubs. Between the 1970s and 1990s interest in the sport grew; the St. Bernard folks offered their first competition in 1988, and Bernese Mountain Dog fans added theirs in 1991.

Dog Carting and Draft Training

Photo by Jurgen Vogt

288

The natural inclination of dogs to pull has been literally harnessed by a variety of people through the years. Put backward pressure on a leash and collar, and most dogs will pull forward. Take that “opposition reflex” and a nice, padded harness, and you can see where this is going. Forward, of course!

Sledding. Weight pulling. Sulky driving. Skijoring. Carting. Some of these activities are still used to help humans with important tasks. Sled dogs have delivered critical medicines in the dead of winter. Service dogs pull wheelchairs. And some dogs show off their carting skills during public demonstrations and therapy dog visits. This sport has a very practical aspect to it. If you are creative, I’m sure there are tasks around home that you can find for your carting dog.

In this article, we will focus on “carting,” which involves a dog pulling a cart (a two-wheeled vehicle) or a wagon (a four-wheeled vehicle) with a person walking alongside.

Training
If this sport piques your interest, look at your dog. Is she a large or giant breed who has the size and strength to pull a wagon loaded with 50 to 100 percent of her body weight? Or is she a Pomeranian who has the smarts to learn something new that will be fun to show off to friends and residents at nursing homes? Or does the pure utility of the sport attract you?

Samantha Fogg, a professional dog trainer from Georgia, describes her interest in dog-related activities as “tending toward the practical rather than the competitive.” Fogg, disabled for 15 years, trained two of her service-dog Leonbergers, Fergus (now 12 years old) and Milo (now 8), to pull her wheelchair.

“My interest in carting stemmed from my interest in wheelchair pulling,” she says. “When I started doing wheelchair-pulling training, there was not a ton of information available on wheelchair pulling, but there was a significant amount available on carting. There are some major differences between wheelchair pulling and carting, but there are also a lot of similarities. Wheelchair pulling and carting differ fundamentally in that wheelchair-pulling dogs most often pull from the side, where carting dogs pull from the front. Pulling from the side is much more physically demanding, and thus the dog needs better structure.”

The training for these tasks is similar whether you expect your dog to pull a lot of weight or none. Although there are many opinions about training for this sport (what’s new?), here’s a broad overview of the progression of training.

• Harness acclimation: Get your dog used to wearing the harness. This might take a fair amount of time, depending on how your dog reacts to the sight and feel of a drafting harness. They are quite different from standard dog harnesses.

• Verbal cues: Your dog will need to respond to verbal cues to go forward, speed up, slow down, turn right, turn left, back up, and stop. Teach these before you ever attach your dog to a cart. Train these cues on-leash, then off-leash, and eventually, with a barrier between you and your dog so that you can simulate being a couple of feet away from your dog (out of the way of the cart). For example, you and your dog could walk on opposite sides of a short retaining wall, or with a row of buckets between you.

• Traces: These are two straps that run from the dog’s harness to the wagon. You can simulate traces by attaching two leashes to your dog’s harness (or even to his regular collar). Walk alongside your dog while a friend follows behind holding the traces (as if she was holding the train of a long bridal dress).

Gradually, your friend can exert slight pressure on the traces while you reward your dog for moving forward. When your dog is comfortable with that, attach something light to each trace, such as a small water bottle or a plastic milk jug with a bit of sand in it. For safety, have your friend follow along to pick up the traces should your dog become frightened of something dragging behind him. Gradually, your dog will become more and more confident pulling weighted objects behind him.

• Cart or wagon: There are many ways to train your dog to get in position and pull the cart, including shaping with a clicker or luring your dog into position. Dogs who love this sport are known to run over to their carts and back into position, waiting to be hitched up! When you’re ready to hook your dog to the cart for the first time, ask a friend to help, for safety. Should something scare your dog, you’ll appreciate an extra set of hands to control the cart. While you walk alongside your dog cueing slow, faster, stop, etc., your friend walks alongside or behind the cart, ready to help when needed.

Dog Carting and Draft Training

2005

288

Georgia resident Lisa Rodier started carting training with Axel (her Bouvier) in 1999, when he was three years old. Axel had already received a fair amount of training before Rodier tried teaching him to pull a cart. Axel had his CGC and was a registered therapy dog in Atlanta-based Happy Tails Pet Therapy, and they had dabbled in agility as well.

There are several exercises that people find challenging to train, says Rodier. “The most difficult include training a straight ‘eback,’ especially with the cart; negotiating the narrows (in which the dog must pull the cart through a narrow path); pace changes (fast/slow); and, in general, having the dog able to know and respond to cues in a distracting environment. An out-of-control dog with a cart can be dangerous to himself and others.”

Carting training is best accomplished using positive reinforcement techniques. Rodier says that her dog, Axel, reflects the power of positive training in his working attitude: “It’s important to keep it fun and positive. This shows in the dog’s attitude and willingness to work. Watching a dog who enjoys carting can bring tears to my eyes! But it’s very painful to watch a dog who has his head down, is confused and not enjoying himself, while his handler is tense, gesturing wildly, has unclear cues, and gets frustrated. If the dog doesn’t enjoy it, don’t do it!

“Clicker training can allow you to get really creative in teaching skills to use while carting. Standing for hitching is scored in most tests. People often put their dog on a stand-stay and then maneuver the cart around and behind the dog. I taught Axel to ‘ego in’ between the shafts of his cart, turn around, and stand for hitching. Axel’s ‘ego in’ behavior was a show-stopper, because he loved doing it and thought it was fun.”

Team attributes
Your dog should be physically fit and enjoy working. On the human end of the leash is usually someone who enjoys the non-conventional nature of this sport, has a working dog whose heritage involved carting, or someone who simply enjoys the utilitarian nature of the sport.

Equipment
You will need a harness and a cart or wagon in addition to the standard training tools such as treats and a clicker.

There are three types of harnesses:

• Parade harness: This harness has a padded strap across the shoulders that also encircles the chest and another padded strap that crosses the front of the dog’s chest.

• Draft harness: This model has a padded circle, or collar that goes around the dog’s neck, which allows free motion of the shoulders and legs. A belly strap connects to the shaft of the wagon or cart, while the collar is what attaches to the “traces” that run to the wagon.

• Siwash harness: Similar in look to a sled dog harness, this harness has a series of straps on the dog’s back. There is a padded chest strap that runs along the breastbone and through the front legs.

Select a harness that is comfortable for your dog and, most importantly, does not restrict the free motion of his shoulders and legs. There are many knowledgeable people who can help you choose the best one for your dog and your purpose.

There are an infinite variety of carts and wagons depending upon personal preference, desire to compete, and/or practical use. The most common are carts or wagons with slatted wood sides.

Expenses
The most expensive part of this sport is the initial investment in a well-made harness ($60 to $300 or more) and your cart or wagon (starting at around $350 and going up and up and up). Some people make their own carts for as little as $100, and many people will let newcomers to the sport borrow a cart until they get their own.

Gas and lodging will probably be your next biggest expense. Competition fees run about $25 per entry.

Most people practice with other people they have met through local or regional breed clubs. Formal classes are very rare so this is not something you have to budget for!

Levels of competition
Each organization that sponsors a competition has its own rules, including whether they allow mixed-breed dogs. For example, the New England Drafting & Driving Club (NEDDC) opens its competition to any dog.

Titles and classes also vary among organizations. The Bernese Mountain Dog Club, for example, has a Novice Draft Dog (NDD) title in which all exercises are performed on-leash and, in addition to other basic control exercises, the dog is required to perform a half-mile freight haul of 20 pounds. The next level up, Draft Dog (DD), is off-leash and, in addition to the other control exercises, performs a half-mile freight haul of its own weight rounded down to the nearest 10 pounds.

There is also a class for two dogs to pull a wagon. This is called Brace Novice Draft Dog (BNDD), and is on-leash. The half-mile freight haul exercise requires a 40-pound load. The Brace Draft Dog (BDD) title is off-leash and the load is based on the combined weight of the dogs.

Beyond these classes, there are additional, higher-level titles.

How to get started
Contact one of the breed or working dog clubs near you and find out where people practice. Go and watch without your dog. Talk to the people about how you might get started.

Check out the books and DVDs listed in “Snapshot of the Sport: Carting” (page 19) to learn about the nuances of carting and how to train for it. Someone will be more likely to mentor you if you’ve done some homework and know some of the equipment and training challenges.

Fogg did a lot of independent homework when she got started. “I had a solid foundation in clicker training, went to a Judi Adler seminar at the Leonberger Club of America National Specialty, read everything I could get my hands on, asked questions of people I knew on-line, and worked with my training partner to teach this. I think that it would have been a lot easier to have started with someone experienced and to have done classes, but if you can’t get to classes in your area, don’t rule out carting!”

Some of the breed clubs will also know about, or sponsor, workshops in your area or you might need to travel to attend one. Workshops can provide a wealth of information because you will be able to see a variety of people and dogs working and be able to talk to people at all levels of the sport.

Carting is a sport with many practical applications. If you think your big dog needs a job, check out this sport! If you would like to perform demonstrations for public audiences, this sport will delight them. And if you need a help around the house, carting is definitely the ticket!

Terry Long, CPDT, is a writer, agility instructor, and behavior counselor in Long Beach, CA. She lives with four dogs and a cat and is addicted to agility and animal behavior. See “Resources,” page 24, for contact information.

Download the Full December 2009 Issue PDF

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Do What You Can

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

Though I said that I’d share a story, in this issue, about a raid on a so-called “rescue” organization that was hoarding and neglecting dogs, I am not yet free to discuss it. The moment I can, I will, and I’ll explain then why I couldn’t talk about it now. For now, I’d just like to say that I wish I could award medals for bravery and compassion to the dedicated people I know who work in animal protection. The pay is low, the hours are long, the thanks are few, and the things they see on a daily basis are deeply disturbing.

Nancy Kerns

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Because I mightily appreciate the work that animal protection workers do, I try to give back, in a way that I can handle, without losing all faith in humanity or getting depressed about all the homeless pets in the world. I donate money to my local shelter whenever I can afford it. I don’t make donations to far-off programs; I feel better about donating to a program I can monitor with my own eyes.

I also give my shelter all the stuff left over from our reviews – food, treats, beds, leashes, collars, toys, and books. I take pictures of the animals and put together the shelter’s occasional newsletter (which has a not-so-secret fundraising agenda). When the director asked if I’d serve on the shelter’s board, I accepted. I walk dogs, and I reinforce sitting and other calm behaviors in all the dogs whose cages I walk by.

Whenever I tell people that I volunteer at my shelter, though, they always say the same thing: “How do you not come home with a dog every time you go there?”

Of course, I’ve adopted one dog from my local shelter, my darling Otto. And I’ve fostered one very sick puppy, and spent a small fortune nursing him back to health. But I’m trying to resist bringing more dogs home; I love the relationship I have with my singleton dog.

Instead, to my friends’ dismay, I’ve turned into a dog pusher. I tell everyone I know about certain dogs I’ve worked with at the shelter. I’ve put out the word that anyone I know who is looking for any type of dog should tell me; I’ll find them a perfect match: young, adult, or senior; short-haired or fluffy; small or large; indoor or outdoor; pure-bred or adorably mixed. Sadly, every type of dog comes through my local shelter at some point. But I’m happy to bathe, house, provide some initial training, and transport the dog to their living room, if they want!

I don’t know how long I can maintain my overzealous adoption efforts; already certain friends who used to be happy dog owners – but who are currently dogless – are starting to become wary about answering the phone when they see my number pop up on the caller I.D. (Sorry, Beth and Bill!)

Currently, my shelter (and probably yours, too) is participating in Iams’ annual “Home for the Holidays” campaign, with lowered adoption fees for every pet. Tell your friends! And consider going down to the shelter, just to take a look.

Training Your Dog Not to Jump Up

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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0

There’s a common misconception that dogs jump on people to establish dominance. Balderdash! Dogs jump on people because there’s something about jumping that is reinforcing for the dog – usually the human attention that results from the jumping. If you want your dog to stop jumping on people, you have to be sure he doesn’t get reinforced for it. Here are five things to do when your dog jumps on people:

1. Interrupt. Minimize the reinforcement your dog gets from jumping on someone by cheerfully removing him from the situation as soon as possible. To that end, you may want to leave a “tab” attached to your dog’s collar when he’s around people – a short (4 to 6 inch) leash that makes it easy for you to lead him away. These are available from Premier Pet Products (premier.com; 800-933-5595); or just cut off an old leash. Don’t leave the tab on your dog when he’s alone; he could get it caught on something.

Training Your Dog Not to Jump Up

2. Manage. When you know your dog is likely to have trouble controlling himself, put his leash on before he can jump on someone. When you see the jumping-up gleam in his eye, restrain him to prevent the reinforcement he gets from the initial contact. Other useful management tools to prevent reinforcement include strategically located tethers, baby gates, doors, exercise pens, and crates.

3. Educate. Tell friends, family and even temporary acquaintances what you want them to do if your dog starts to jump up. Insist they not reinforce jumping up behavior – even those friends who claim they don’t mind! Educational options include telling them to:

• Greet your dog before he jumps, perhaps even kneeling to greet a small dog.

• Turn and step away from your dog until he sits, or at least has four feet on the floor, then turn back to greet the dog.

• Ask your dog to sit and reinforce by petting him if/when he does.

• Back away from your dog (if you have your dog on leash) and wait for him to sit before greeting or petting him. If he jumps up while you are petting him, simply stop the petting and take a step backward. Resume petting only if he sits.

• Toss a toy conveniently provided by you to redirect the dog’s behavior before the jump happens.

• Walk away from your dog through a gate or door and close it behind them to keep the dog on the other side.

4. Train. Of course you need to practice polite greetings in the absence of the exciting stimulus of guests and strangers by reinforcing your dog’s appropriate greeting with you and other family members. (See “Keeping Four on the Floor,” Whole Dog Journal May 2008). Be sure to take advantage of the presence of guests and strangers to reinforce your dog’s polite greeting behaviors while you’re managing with leashes and tethers.

5. Apologize/take responsibility. It’s your job to prevent your dog from jumping on people, even when they say they don’t mind. If your management efforts fail and your dog does jump up, apologize.

If in the process of jumping up he puts muddy pawprints on a business suit, snags a pair of nylons, knocks down a small child, or otherwise does some kind of property damage – even if the damage is minor – be responsible and make amends: pay for the cleaning bill, purchase a new pair of nylons, buy the child an ice cream cone, or do whatever you need to do to repair the damage. Then redouble your training and management efforts.

Canine Health News and Current Events December 2009

By
Mary Straus
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0

Warning: Paintballs are Toxic to Dogs

Ingesting paintballs can lead to seizures and even death.

My dog Ella and I spent an anxious night at the emergency clinic recently, after she found and ate paintballs while on our walk. She was off-lead at the time, so when I realized what she was doing, I had no way of knowing how many she had eaten. In fact, I did not immediately recognize the colorful, marble-sized gelatinous balls, and thought they were some kind of candy. It was only a few hours later, when she threw up bright turquoise, that I became concerned and investigated further.

Canine Health News

Paintballs ingredients can include polyethylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, glycerol, and sorbitol, all osmotic laxatives, which can lead to hypernatremia (“salt poisoning”) when ingested in sufficient quantity. These ingredients also taste sweet, which is why dogs find paintballs so attractive.

Signs of paintball toxicity are usually neurological, a result of the movement of water out of the brain, leading to hemorrhage. The most common signs include vomiting, ataxia (loss of coordination), and diarrhea. These can occur as early as 30 minutes after ingestion, but more commonly show up within two to four hours. Other signs may include tremors, rapid heart rate, weakness, hyperactivity, fever, blindness, and seizures. Blood tests may show elevated sodium and chloride, low potassium, and metabolic acidosis.

The number of paintballs needed to cause clinical signs is unknown. In one case, a 90-pound Labrador Retriever showed signs after ingesting 15 paintballs. As few as 5 to 10 paintballs may cause signs in dogs weighing around 65 pounds.

Vomiting should be induced if it has been less than an hour since the paintballs were ingested (activated charcoal is not recommended). If the number of paintballs the dog ate is either unknown or relatively high for the dog’s size, or if any clinical signs are seen, it’s best to get the dog to a vet right away for testing and treatment. There, IV fluids are given to help dilute and flush out the toxins, and electrolytes and acid-base balance are monitored every two to four hours. Additional treatment may include drugs to control seizures and vomiting; warm-water enemas to help move the paintballs through the digestive tract more quickly (especially for dogs with elevated sodium levels); and therapy as needed for low potassium, high fever, or acidosis. While the ingestion of paintballs can be fatal, most dogs recover within 24 hours with proper care.

Because I was unsure how many paintballs Ella had ingested, and because of her small size (11 pounds), both my own vet and the Pet Poison Helpline I called recommended taking her to the emergency clinic right away and keeping her on fluids for 24 hours. Luckily, her electrolytes were never more than mildly out of range, and she had no further symptoms. Her bright green stool the next day showed evidence of only one paintball, but I don’t regret the precautions I took, which I’m sure helped her recovery and gave me peace of mind.

– Mary Straus

For more information: Paintball Toxicosis in Dogs www2.aspca.org/site/DocServer/ toxbrief1203.pdf?docID=1521

Veterinarians Join War on Cruelty

Univ. of Florida offers veterinary forensic science course

The field of veterinary forensics is growing. In 2008, the International Veterinary Forensic Science Association was founded; it will hold its third annual conference on veterinary forensics in Orlando, Florida, in May 2010. However, as yet, veterinary colleges provide little training in animal cruelty investigations for veterinary students. It’s tragic when testimony from a veterinarian can make the difference between a conviction or an acquittal in a cruelty case, and there are no qualified vets available to testify. Fortunately, educational resources for this area of expertise are about to get a boost.

The University of Florida has announced that in spring, under the guidance of Melinda Merck, DVM, senior director of veterinary forensics at the ASPCA, it will launch the nation’s first formal veterinary forensic science program. Dr. Merck assisted with the investigation into Michael Vick’s dogfighting activities, and her expertise helped put the NFL quarterback in prison. She is helping develop the University’s certificate program, which is part of its online master’s degree program in forensic science. The course will help veterinarians learn to recognize crimes against animals, and give them the tools to respond appropriately.

Approximately a dozen states mandate veterinarians to report suspicions of animal cruelty. Merck believes that even in those states where vets are not mandated reporters, they have a moral imperative to report.

According to Dr. Randall Lockwood, Ph.D., senior vice president of anti-cruelty field services at the ASPCA, a number of surveys indicate that every veterinarian will confront animal cruelty at some point in his/her career.

– Pat Miller

For more information: vetmed.ufl.edu/

FDA Issues Alert for Vetsulin

Owners need to check their diabetic dogs’ medication

On November 2, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and Intervet/Schering Plough Animal Health began alerting veterinarians and pet owners to problems found with Vetsulin, a prescription insulin product used to treat diabetic pets.

Stability issues have led to variation in the amount of insulin contained in the product. Specifically, there may be too much crystalline insulin, which is the longer-acting component, and too little of the amorphous, short-acting insulin. This can lead to a delay in the insulin beginning to work, a delay in peak effect, or the insulin working longer than expected. The result may be either hypoglycemia or hyperglycermia.

Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is a medical emergency: if not corrected, it can be fatal. Symptoms of hypoglycemia can include disorientation, ataxia (loss of coordination or balance), weakness, lethargy, and seizures. If you suspect your dog is suffering from hypoglycemia, rub Karo syrup or honey on your dog’s gums or under the tongue and contact your veterinarian immediately.

Hyperglycemia is less of a concern, at least in the short term. It produces the same symptoms as are seen in diabetic dogs before beginning treatment, such as excess drinking and urination, increased appetite, and lethargy.

If you use Vetsulin to treat your diabetic pet, please contact your veterinarian right away about switching to a different product until these issues are resolved.

If your dog develops problems that your veterinarian believes could be linked to Vetsulin, they should be reported to the FDA and to Intervet/Shering-Plough Animal Health, the company that makes Vetsulin.

– Mary Straus

For more information: www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/News Events/CVMUpdates/ucm188752.htm

Intervet/Shering-Plough Animal Health, 800-224-5318, vetsulin.com

Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) Can Improve Behavior

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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0
On the last day of CAT Camp, the “campers” and “neutral dogs” mix quite nicely – success!

CONSTRUCTIONAL AGGRESSION TREATMENT OVERVIEW

What you can do…

– Read and watch videos about the CAT procedure and counter-conditioning to determine which approach is more appropriate for you and your dog.

– Talk to other dog owners and trainers (in person and online) to expand your knowledge base about the procedures.

– Look for a behavior professional experienced with the procedure to help you with it.

Aggressive behavior in their beloved companions is an incredibly challenging and upsetting problem for most dog owners to deal with. The problem is painfully public -and the public is equally free with accusations and advice for the hapless owner of a reactive dog. Many training “solutions” that people try are inhumane, ineffective, or both. Some owners respond by sequestering their dogs to their home “quarters” -sometimes for life.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
Many reactive dogs have learned that fearsome behavior succeeds in driving others away. CAT teaches them to use calm behavior to achieve the same goal. ©Noah Stone

In early 2008, I was excited to learn about a very new behavior modification approach for dealing with aggressive behavior in dogs. I described the technique, known as Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT), in Whole Dog Journal’s May 2008 issue. “Modifying Aggressive Dog Behavior” explained the CAT program, and described my first experience (and positive results) using the technique. The subject was Juni, an eight-year-old Pit Bull-mix belonging to my friend and colleague, Jolanta Benal.

CAT was developed and tested by graduate student Kellie Snider for her master’s thesis, under the direction of Dr. Jose Rosales-Ruiz at the University of North Texas. The pair made quite a splash when they introduced CAT to the dog-training world, since CAT utilizes operant conditioning (negative reinforcement) to modify the subject’s behavior, rather than the more commonly used classical conditioning. (In classical conditioning, a positive stimulus is paired with an aversive one to deliberately improve the dog’s association with, and response to, the negative stimulus).

Since then I’ve had the opportunity to use CAT a number of times, with varying degrees of success. I’ve also participated in the ongoing behavior and training industry discussion about the technique. To say it’s a controversial approach to behavior modification is an understatement. But I still think it’s a valuable tool for use in some behavior cases.

The Principles of Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is a basic element of the science of behavior and learning. It says that all living things repeat behaviors that are rewarding to them, and avoid behaviors that make bad things happen. The four principles of Operant conditioning are:

1. Positive reinforcement (written in behavioral shorthand as “R+”): The dog’s behavior makes a good thing happen, so the behavior increases. He sits, and you give him a treat. He likes getting treats, so he sits more.

2. Positive punishment (P+): The dog’s behavior makes a bad thing happen, so the behavior decreases. He jumps up and you knee him in the chest (not recommended!) He doesn’t like a knee in the chest, so he jumps up less.

3. Negative punishment (P-): The dog’s behavior makes a good thing go away, so the behavior decreases. When he jumps up to grab the ball from your hand you hide the ball behind your back. He doesn’t want the ball to go away, so he jumps up less. (Negative punishment works best if you follow it with positive reinforcement for the behavior you want instead. When he sits you throw the ball [R+] so he sits more and jumps up less.)

4. Negative reinforcement (R-): The dog’s behavior makes a bad thing go away. Your puppy struggles when restrained, so you hold him until he becomes calm, and then let him go. Calm behavior makes restraint go away. He doesn’t want to be restrained, so he learns to be calm in order to make restraint go away (not recommended).

Because training methods that involve intimidation, coercion, and physical force can cause undesirable side effects, including fear and aggression, positive trainers use primarily positive reinforcement and secondarily negative punishment; they generally avoid the use of negative reinforcement, and especially avoid positive punishment. 0n those occasions where negative reinforcement may seem appropriate, it should be applied as gently as possible, avoiding a strong response from the dog. In the case of CAT, “gently” means presenting the aversive stimulus at sub-threshold intensity (otten this is “distance”) and being careful to increase intensity (decrease distance) only as the subject dog is can handle it.

CAT Controversy

The CAT approach is controversial among positive trainers for several reasons. The foremost is that the technique utilizes negative reinforcement.

To use negative reinforcement, something that is aversive to the dog is applied, and not withdrawn until the moment the dog changes his behavior in the desired way. For example, a dog pulls on the leash; this is a behavior the handler wants to stop. The handler increases the tightness of the leash, in a way that is uncomfortable for the dog; the tight leash is aversive. The dog moves back toward the handler (displays the behavior the handler wants), and the and the leash slackens, relieving the pressure and the dog’s discomfort.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
On the last day of the CAT workshop, Bliss calmly accepts treats from strangers at the mall. Tension is still evident in her face, though, and her cocked-back ears.

Positive trainers try to avoid the deliberate use of aversives, for many reasons. To name just a few, the application of aversives can make many dogs “shut down” or lose interest in working with their handlers. They can increase a dog’s anxiety and fear. They can damage the relationship between the dog and his handler. In fact, in the past, I have been one of the louder voices in opposition to the use of negative reinforcement in “dog-friendly” training programs.

However, there are some sound reasons for using a certain type of negative reinforcement in a CAT program. Here’s how negative reinforcement works in the CAT procedure:

Most dogs who display aggressive behavior toward other dogs are trying to scare the dogs away; they are threatened or stressed by other dogs. In most cases, the behavior works; growling, barking, lunging, and snapping often makes the other dog leave -or at least, makes the owners depart with their dogs! From the “aggressive” dog’s point of view, the aggressive behaviors (growling, barking, lunging, snapping) have been reinforced: they worked, and the other dogs went away. And because behaviors that are reinforced get stronger, the dog is more likely to growl or snap at the next dog, and the next, etc.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
Bliss is quite comfortable walking when surrounded by humans, as long as they don’t reach to pet her. If they did, she would likely snap at them.

In a CAT procedure for a dog-aggressive dog, the presence of the “other” dog is considered the aversive. The “subject dog” is deliberately exposed to another dog (the aversive is applied) in carefully controlled, low-intensity conditions, until the subject dog offers the desired behavior: some small decrease in his level of stress or tension. Then the aversive (other dog) is immediately whisked away. The idea is that the subject dog will realize that he can reliably make the aversive “other dog” leave if he exhibits calm behavior; each time he does this, he is rewarded -reinforced -by the quick exit of the other dog. His calm behavior around other dogs increases.

Most positive trainers (including myself) are opposed to the use of aversives, which by definition inflict pain, discomfort, fear, and anxiety on the dog. In CAT, however, you present the subject dog with an aversive stimulus that he is often exposed to anyway. For anyone who lives in a populated neighborhood and wants to take their dog out of the house, other dogs are not avoidable. Consider the dog-reactive dog who sees numerous other dogs daily on his walks around the block, or even from his own backyard, as dogs and their humans pass by on the sidewalk. People who walk their dogs in urban neighborhoods where dogs are popular may encounter more than 100 dogs each week.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
Even at a distance of 50 feet, Harley (farthest dog) turns his back on Lucy and prepares to lie down. His “shutting down” response should not be confused with “calm behavior.”

Some positive trainers argue that counter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) are less-stressful tools that can be used to change how a dog-aggressive dog feels about other dogs -and it’s true, these are great tools that help many dogs. In a CC&D program, you present the aversive stimulus (another dog) while rapid-fire feeding high-value treats to the subject dog in an effort to change her association with the other dog. The idea is that she learns to associate the presence of other dogs with good things happening; she starts to feel better about other dogs. Eventually, one hopes, her behavior will improve as well.

CAT takes a different tack. The goal with CAT is to help the dog learn that a new behavior now works to make the neutral dog go away. In both methods, you present the aversive stimulus to the subject (reactive) dog, and in both methods, ideally, you present the stimulus sub-threshold -meaning the “other” dog is presented closely enough to the subject dog for him to notice the other dog, but far enough away so that he doesn’t respond with the reactive (growling, barking, lunging) behaviors. The “sub-threshold” presentation is an important part that sometimes gets missed in both CAT and counter-conditioning.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
Progress! At a distance of about 12 feet, Harley looks at Lucy. His raised tail and intense expression indicate some tension, but at least he’s looking and engaged, rather than shut down!

I may have fueled some of the opposition to CAT with my description of my first use of the CAT procedure with Juni in the May 2008 issue, and my subsequent release of the video footage of our sessions with him.

As I said, the goal in both a CC&D program and CAT is to present the aversive stimulus at a sub-threshold level, where the subject dog notices and shows some signs of stress, but isn’t barking and lunging or demonstrating other over-threshold (extreme) behaviors. But with Juni there was no sub-threshold; if he saw another dog at any distance, he barked and lunged.

Jolanta had done years of counter-conditioning with Juni, and was able to manage his behavior by feeding him in the presence of other dogs, but had reached an impasse in terms of actually modifying his reactivity. After watching Juni’s video, CAT co-developer Kellie Snider commented that Juni was one of the most difficult cases she had seen. We did get a lot of extreme behavior, and it made us all uncomfortable. And it should not be considered as representative of how CAT should look.

And yet, it worked. Jolanta reports that Juni’s behavior has continued to improve, and the quality of their lives together is greatly enhanced as a result of their CAT experience. Nevertheless, ideally, in a CAT program, the dog is not pressured by the aversive stimulus (other dogs) to the point that he erupts with over-threshold behaviors.

Other Critiques of CAT

Some CAT opponents argue that CAT is flooding, a behavior modification technique generally regarded as inhumane. Flooding is performed by introducing an aversive stimulus at full intensity and maintaining it until the subject achieves learned helplessness -he simply shuts down and gives up. That’s not what happens in CAT.

While a subject dog may try shutting down as a behavioral strategy, when CAT is properly carried out, the “shutting down” behavior is recognized as such by the handlers and isn’t reinforced. Signs of shutting down include lying down, consistently looking away from the neutral dog, and stopping all behavior. Reinforcement in the case of a dog-reactive dog comes when the neutral dog goes away.

When the subject dog tries shutting down, the handler of the neutral dog remains in place -still sub-threshold. The neutral dog is moved away only when the subject dog offers a small piece of a calm behavior that isn’t shutting down, such as opening his mouth, blinking, or glancing toward the neutral dog. “Look, dog,” the procedure says, “you can make the neutral dog go away by offering a new behavior. You don’t have to shut down; you are not helpless here.”

Others suggest that CAT, when it succeeds, is merely habituation -the subject dog gets used to the presence of the sub-threshold presentation of the neutral dog and stops reacting. There’s nothing wrong with habituation, and it probably does play at least a partial role as the subject dog comes to realize the neutral dog is not a threat. However, mere habituation doesn’t explain the remarkable switchover that occurs in some CAT procedures, when the subject dog begins demonstrating clear affiliative behavior (“Come closer, I’d like to get to know you!”) and is able to interact in a friendly manner with multiple dogs in fairly rapid succession, without habituating to each one.

Additional arguments against CAT include the high cost, the considerable block of time required for the initial procedure and follow-up training, and the difficulty owners may have in generalizing their dogs’ new behavior when they no longer have their CAT coach working with them. I acknowledge the reality of these concerns.

For private CAT sessions, I schedule three hours a day, three days in a row. I certainly don’t have clients flocking to my training center eager to pay the fee for nine hours of my time. For the relatively small pool of clients I have done CAT with, even many of the ones who have had great success have found it very challenging to generalize the behavior with their dogs back at home.

While Snider strongly recommends doing the procedure in the dogs’ own environment to avoid some of the generalization challenges, many of my clients travel long distances and stay here for the three days, and it’s not financially feasible for them to transport me to their homes and pay for three full days of my time. So we do it at the training center, and help clients identify ways to practice when they get home.

CAT Is All About Manipulating Reinforcers

The key to a successful CAT procedure is being able to identify, and manipulate, whatever it is that’s reinforcing the dog’s unwanted behavior, in order to be able to reinforce a different, more desirable behavior. It’s clearly reinforcing to fearful dogs to have the scary thing -dog, human, or whatever -go away. But that’s not always the case. If a CAT procedure isn’t working, you may have to re-evaluate your assumption of how the dog is being reinforced, and alter the procedure accordingly.

Some of the easiest CAT procedures I’ve done have involved dogs who were reactive because they wanted to be social with the approaching dog, and their frustration with being denied that pleasure turned into barking and lunging on-leash behavior. With those dogs, we do a “reverse” CAT procedure. They are reinforced when the neutral dog comes closer, because they desperately want to greet the other dog. In that case, calm behavior makes the neutral dog-and-handler come closer, while reactive behavior makes the neutral dog leave.

CAT Camp

My most recent CAT encounter was a four-day workshop held in early October 2009, at my Peaceable Paws training center in Fairplay, Maryland. The group turned out to be a perfect microcosm of my experiences with CAT in the past 18 months.

I had three dog/human teams registered for the workshop, and four auditors, as follows:

  • Melanie and Adam Kornides, of Alexandria, Virginia, with their Beagle, Charlie. The Kornides had worked with Charlie at All About Dogs in Woodbridge, Virginia, doing counter-conditioning and desensitization in a Reactive Rover-style class for Charlie’s dog-dog reactive behavior. They felt they were stuck in their modification program; Charlie would still bark and lunge at most dogs in his neighborhood when he first spotted them. They were looking for a new approach.
  • Katie Ervin of Hagerstown, Maryland, with her four-year-old Dobie/Hound mix, Harley. Katie is a Peaceable Paws trainer and owner of 4-Legged Friends pet-care service. Katie had done a great deal of counter-conditioning with Harley for his dog reactivity, and while she excelled at managing Harley’s behavior in the presence of other dogs (he has several rally titles), he could still be explosive if dogs got too close.
  • Pam Courtleigh of Rockport, Massachusetts, with Bliss, a Chow-mix street-dog from Puerto Rico. When Bliss was found and rescued as a four-month-old pup, she had a deep laceration running the length of her back. Bliss was reactive to humans, not other dogs. Given the abuse she probably suffered as a street puppy, her mistrust of strangers wasn’t surprising. Pam had done an excellent job of helping Bliss learn to tolerate people, but the strikingly beautiful black dog was still uncomfortable and would sometimes snap if someone she didn’t know well reached over her head to pet her. Pam was worried her dog might one day bite someone.

My auditor/helpers were Judy Archer-Dick, of Spencerville, Indiana; Anne Gouiller-Moore, of Blackburg, Virginia; Connie Snavely, of Madison Heights, Virginia; and Silke Wittig, of Orangeville, Pennsylvania. All are trainers in their own right, eager to increase their education and experience with the CAT procedure.

Like others who have used, observed, or heard about the procedure, they had many questions and comments, and wanted more experience with CAT to help them sort through the controversial issues for themselves. Their observations added value for the working participants -multiple eyes, brains, and mouths can see, process, and share more information, and contribute to the sometimes-lively discussions. We also made good use of our auditors by drafting them as neutral dog handlers and photographers during the procedures. It was a highly educational experience for all.

Each CAT dog worked for one three-hour session for each of the four days, with a 15-minute break for canines and humans after about 45 minutes of work. Given the finite number of hours in a day, we worked two dogs simultaneously in one time slot each day (in separate locations), and one dog alone. Auditors chose which dog(s) they wanted to observe.

  • Bliss: This medium-sized black dog first showed signs of discomfort at my approach when I was about six feet away. We started our work there, retreating when she showed some sign of relaxing, waiting for a 15-second recovery period, and then returning. Although she seemed to quickly accept my presence, I wasn’t sure she found my departure particularly reinforcing, and the auditors reported the same observation. Her affect was very flat -a common persona for Chows -and we all sensed we’d wait for a long time, if ever, to see affiliative behavior from Bliss in a CAT procedure.

We decided to experiment with a squeaky toy, which Bliss liked. I began squeaking it once and tossing it to her as I left, to make my departure more reinforcing to her. In essence, we were adding a positive association with my presence, and positively reinforcing my departure by providing something she liked. We were no longer doing CAT, but in very short order Bliss decided she liked me. When I sat in a nearby chair she came and rested her head on my knee. This, according to owner Judy, was her sign that she had accepted me, and indeed, from that day forward, I was her friend and could pet her anywhere without caution, including over her head.

If Bliss was that easy with positive reinforcement, it made little sense to me to painstakingly pursue the CAT procedure. Her owner agreed, as did the rest of the group, and for the remaining days of the workshop we gave Bliss positive associations with humans, and positively reinforced her for appropriate human-related behaviors. She quickly befriended the other workshop attendees, and on Day 4 accepted treats from several strangers at a nearby shopping mall. Judy also did counter-conditioning with her at the mall as shoppers who showed no interest in the dogs passed by.

In a follow-up report shortly after the workshop, Judy assured us that Bliss was doing well back at home with her ongoing counter-conditioning and positive reinforcement work.

  • Harley: Like Juni, Harley had years of counter-conditioning and desensitization work under his collar. He had selected avoidance behavior as his primary line of defense in the presence of other dogs; if they got too close, he looked away. This behavior had been reinforced by Katie’s high rate of treat reinforcement as she passed by other dogs in close quarters at training classes, Rally trials, and other doggie events. Harley became reactive only if dogs invaded the space a foot around him. Katie was hoping to extinguish even that reactivity with the CAT procedure.

This was a challenge. Misreading his avoidance behavior for calmness, we approached to a distance of 20 feet with my Cardigan Corgi, Lucy, and waited for a sign. Nothing. Harley looked anywhere but at Lucy, but didn’t appear unduly stressed. We worked our way closer, still without any behavior that felt like progress. Finally Harley started lying down, a sure sign of shut-down. Katie tried to jolly him up in between sessions, but he would quickly lie down again, and it was clear we were making no headway. Time to regroup.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
We reinforce Charlie the Beagle’s calm, relaxed behavior – ears forward and relaxed, tail low – by taking Scooter away.

Putting our heads together, we realized that Harley did glance at Lucy when she was at the opposite end of the 80-foot room. We need to work with Lucy farther away, not closer. Just because he wasn’t exploding didn’t mean Harley wasn’t over-threshold. Avoidance was his “extreme” over threshold behavior. “Duh,” we said as we collectively slapped our foreheads at this epiphany.

We started over with Harley on Day 2, with Lucy 80 feet away, reinforcing him by increasing distance when he looked at her. We were able to reduce the distance fairly quickly initially, to about 40 feet, and then more slowly, to about 20 feet. We started seeing more active interest from Harley as Lucy approached, and tail wags as she departed. It was working!

Katie still had to do a lot of jollying in between approaches to keep Harley engaged, but he wasn’t trying nearly as often to lie down. Harley continued to make slow progress over the final two days of the workshop, but he never showed strong affiliative behavior to any of the neutral dogs. Katie reports that she hasn’t had much opportunity to practice CAT with him since the workshop; she continues to manage his behavior with treats when near other dogs.

  • Charlie: This little Beagle was the star of the CAT workshop, and a textbook subject. It was as if he had read the research paper. On Day 1, my associate, Shirley Greenlief, did approaches with Bonnie -my very friendly, 35-pound Scottie/Corgi/Poodle. They quickly reduced distance and ended the day about 10 feet apart. By Day 2, Charlie was doing parallel walking with Bonnie, and on Day 3 he interacted with Bonnie and Missy, my bouncy Australian Shepherd.

When we tried doing approaches with Bliss, we discovered that Charlie was more uneasy with her. Perhaps it was her more serious demeanor, her sharply-pricked upright ears, the tail that curled over her back, or a combination of these, but Charlie was clearly tense with her, and we were able to approach within only about 20 feet.

Constructional Aggression Treatment
The CAT protocol worked very well with Charlie. After he gained learned that he could “make” Scooter leave by demonstrating calm behavior, he began to seek out friendly interaction with the Pomeranian!

On Day 4, at the mall, Charlie delighted us all, interacting easily with the dogs he had met previously at the training center. He was still tense about approaches from Bliss, as well as from Myah, Shirley’s Siberian Husky, who, while demonstrably more relaxed and friendly than Bliss, also had sharply pricked ears and a curled-over-the-back tail. Charlie immediately accepted Lucy, whom he hadn’t previously met; she has sharp-pricked ears and a curled tail, but is half the size of Bliss and Myah. By the close of the final session, he was able to relax on the grass with all six dogs (Bonnie, Scooter, Missy, Lucy, Bliss, and Myah, and didn’t react to a couple of random dogs whose owners were walking them at the mall. Success!

Charlie’s owners have continued to work with CAT in their Washington, DC, neighborhood, under the guidance of CAT-experienced trainer Penelope Brown, owner of Phi Beta K9 School for Dogs, who has assisted me with several CAT procedures, including Juni’s. They report continued progress and success with Charlie’s CAT program at home.

When to Use CAT

Like much of what we do with our dogs, CAT is useful in some cases, but not others. It’s a useful tool to have and consider when appropriate, but I’d never say it should be used with every dog who has aggressive or fearful behaviors.

I’m often asked how I decide when to do counter-conditioning with a client and when to choose CAT. While Kellie Snider suggests that CAT works better if you haven’t tried other modification approaches first, I tend to use it with dogs for whom counter-conditioning hasn’t modified their dog’s behavior as much as they’d hoped. I freely admit I’m still heavily biased toward counter-conditioning, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve done maybe as many as a dozen CAT procedures in the last 18 months, while I do counter-conditioning programs with several new clients each week. I almost always try counter-conditioning first, and if we don’t see the improvement we hoped for, perhaps suggest CAT as an alternative somewhere down the road.

I think CAT is a helpful technique for dealing with some issues, but an especially valuable procedure for introducing a reactive dog to one specific dog. If your dog is reactive toward other dogs and you want to bring home a new canine family member, CAT can facilitate the introduction and new living arrangement. No worries about generalization -your dog only has to come to like the one new dog you’re bringing home.

In fact, when we adopted our new Pomeranian, Scooter, last spring, I was going to use CAT to introduce him to Dubhy, our dog-reactive Scottie. But Dubhy took one look at Scooter, got all soft and mushy, and welcomed Scooter into the Miller family with open paws. Dubhy had lived with a Pomeranian previously and the two had been good friends. I think Dubhy remembered.

Pat Miller, CPDT, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of The Power of Positive Dog Training; Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog; Positive Perspectives II: Know Your Dog, Train Your Dog; and Play with Your Dog.

Finding Your Dog a Playmate

By
Nancy Kerns
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[Updated December 3, 2018]

Otto is such a lucky dog: he’s found a best friend. Lena is about the same age as Otto, about his size, and she loves to play all of his favorite games, including “Chase me,” “Let’s bury stuff in the sandbox,” and “I’m going to chew your head off; no, wait, you can chew my head off!”

And I am such a lucky dog owner; Lena belongs to a friend who lives close enough that we can schedule regular playdates for our youngsters, so they can run themselves ragged. Otto doesn’t dig up the vegetables the night after Lena comes over, and he doesn’t bark. After a few hours with Lena, he sleeps so soundly he snores.

OTTO and lena best dog friends

Lena’s owner, too, benefits from the playdates. Lena is the teenager in her pack; she shares her home with an arthritic Chihuahua and a prematurely mature four-year-old dog. About 50 times a day, Lena is told to “Knock it off!” – by her owner, the older dogs, and the family cats. She chews, steals, paces, whines, wags, nudges, and nibbles; she’s a restless agitator for more exercise, more interaction, more fun! Except after a playdate with Otto; then and only then does her family get any rest.

OTTO and lena best dog friends

The dynamic duo have to be supervised; they play rough, and sometimes something that sounds like a dog fight breaks out for a few seconds. We don’t interfere in these normal, appropriate canine interactions; it’s how they learn to respect each other’s boundaries, and modulate the pressure of their bites. But we check in, and if the playmates seem particularly frazzled, invite them inside for some quiet time. After a power nap, they’re ready to play again, disputes forgotten.

Finding friends for your dog is worth all the work of cultivating relationships with other owners. Dogs are pack animals; they need a social life with their own species for emotional and behavioral health.

Here are some more ideas for finding the perfect canine playmate for your dog!

OTTO and lena best dog friends

FINDING A PLAYMATE FOR YOUR DOG: OVERVIEW

1. Facilitate a healthy social life for your dog.

2. Cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with folks whose dogs get along well with yours; trade dog-sitting?

3. Observe the dogs’ play and impose occasional time-outs.

OTTO and lena best dog friends

Managing Your Dog’s Stress – A Holistic Approach

By
Paul McCutcheon and Susan Weinstein
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As your pet’s human companion, you want to do the best you can for him or her, as do the clients who come to my clinic. In my opinion, a holistic approach will give you new tools to ensure that your pet stays as happy and well as possible. I would like all animal caretakers to learn a new perspective on health and healing – one that respects the best that natural health care and mainstream medicine have to offer, yet goes beyond the limitations of both. This new way of thinking will take you beyond fixing immediate problems and will give you a fresh and comprehensive take on prevention.

Managing Your Dogs Stress

Photo by Jeanette Johnstone

The holistic way of thinking also involves seeing your role and your veterinarian’s role in a different way. Because you are the person closest to your dog, you are in the best position to influence her well-being. You have the primary responsibility for making decisions that affect her quality of life. In my view, a veterinarian is a coach who provides expert opinions, perspectives, and advice about how to support your pet’s wellness. At times, he may point you toward further resources and even toward other types of health care professionals to help you do that.

The holistic way of thinking that is so important to your pet’s wellness begins with the way we look at health.

Holistic health care: more than a set of treatments

Mainstream medicine has significantly influenced how people in the West think about health and healing. But since the 1970s, natural health care methods have steadily gained acceptance as effective, safe, and life-affirming ways to support the wellness of both humans and pets. These natural approaches are often referred to as holistic. In fact, the word holistic has picked up so much cultural momentum that it’s used to sell products and services ranging from pet foods, shampoos, and beds to Sophie’s weekly swim at the neighborhood dog spa. This encouraging sign shows that people want to do the best they can for their pets and the environment. But do all the claims that these products and services are holistic bear out?

For example, even the best foodstuffs can’t be holistic (let alone natural) if most of the life has been cooked, dried, sanitized, and packaged out of them. Neither can a so-called herbal pet shampoo or grooming aid be completely wholesome and safe if it also contains industrial chemicals known to be harmful for a pet. When it comes to health care, many people believe that a practice is holistic if it uses homeopathy, acupuncture, nutraceuticals, chiropractic, massage, or other natural therapies. But my clinical experience has taught me that no therapeutic remedy, supplement, or system is holistic in itself. The holistic way cannot be defined by its remedies alone. In fact, any therapy can serve either the goals of the holistic way or those of mainstream medicine. And those goals are very different.

What is the new holistic way?

Based on more than four decades of veterinary practice, I want to take holistic health care into new territory. This is why I call my approach the new holistic way. I don’t claim that all the ideas in this book are new. You will find many of them familiar if you already use modalities that are not part of mainstream medicine. Others have worked hard to promote these approaches, and I acknowledge that I am building on their excellent work. However, in my view many of these methods and concepts remain locked in and shaped by the historical contexts out of which they arose, as does mainstream medicine itself. Although they undoubtedly served well their original times, places, and cultures, today they are thrown together in a new context. As many different approaches to health care intermingle in this context, including traditional, indigenous, energy based, and recent developments in Western science, I see a synergy emerging.

To unleash this synergy, I offer a way of thinking that links the many different approaches to health care with our growing knowledge of how stress affects well-being. This is why I emphasized earlier that the new holistic way is not defined by its remedies alone. Instead, it guides us in choosing and applying whatever therapies or combination of therapies will work to address the health challenges that dogs and cats experience in contemporary life.

This new way of thinking is based on the premise that every expression of health – from wellness to unwellness to illness – emerges from the interaction of two factors. The first factor is the living terrain, which is the body itself, and the second is stress. I am convinced that better pet care will result when pet lovers and veterinarians understand that stress is the underlying cause of every form of health problem a dog or a cat can have.

In modern life, stress challenges the living terrain in infinite ways. Stress and the living terrain take part in a dynamic, never-ending dance from which all health outcomes flow.

By focusing on the relationship between a dog’s stress and the living terrain, the new holistic way strives to achieve the following goals:

1. Support the health of the living terrain.

2. Free up blocked energy.

3. Consider the whole individual.

4. Look for the hidden stress factor that’s causing the problem.

The living terrain: the foundation of wellness

When a client brings a pet into my clinic, my aim is to help that animal thrive the way she is meant to. Nothing delights me more than seeing a dog become radiant with enthusiasm for life, with shining eyes, glistening fur, a great appetite, and legs that move effortlessly with synchronicity and grace. My satisfaction as a veterinarian comes from helping my patients go from whatever condition they started with toward the highest degree of wellness they can attain.

The new holistic way begins and ends with supporting the condition of our pets’ bodies – the living terrain.

In holistic thinking, wellness springs from the living terrain. Densely packed and highly complex, the living terrain consists of tissues that are made up of billions of living cells. The cells organize together to form organs, hormones, the nervous system – every part of the body – and from these, all the body’s functions arise. Zooming in even closer for a moment, we can see that every cell is made up of molecules. Molecules are tiny bundles of energy – and energy is a superstar in the holistic view of life. We’ll come back to the great importance of energy in a moment.

The living terrain is dynamic and alive. That’s why I call it the living terrain. It has an integrity – an intelligence, we might say – of its own. It reaches for life just as a flower or tree reaches toward the sun. It constantly affects the environment of which it is a part, and the environment affects it in turn. All of us as individuals – whether canine, feline, or human – express ourselves through, and are one with, our own living terrain.

In a marvelously orchestrated and brilliant way, all aspects of a dog or cat’s living terrain – his molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and systems – communicate and cooperate with each other to allow him to express himself according to his nature as a living being. We refer to this communication and cooperation between all aspects of the living terrain as synergy. To support the health of the living terrain, the new holistic way focuses on all of these dimensions: the molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and systems; the synergistic communication among them; and the energy that manifests and powers them.

Nourishing and supporting our pets’ living terrains appropriately in everyday life is the single most important thing we can do for their wellness. Festus and Samson’s health needs don’t end the moment they leave my clinic. The new holistic way’s number one priority is to keep the living terrain, including the immune system, as well as possible all the time. If Festus and Samson are bursting with wellness when they walk out the door to go home, they won’t sustain that condition unless their people look after them in ways that allow their immune systems to remain strong. I consider it part of my job as a veterinarian to coach my clients about how to do that.

The vital importance of free-flowing energy

The health of the immune system, like that of the rest of the living terrain, depends upon how well living energy flows through it. In the new holistic way, all paths lead back to the fundamental importance of energy.

I first became aware of the role of energy flow to the living terrain’s remarkable power to heal itself when I tried to help a German Shepherd Dog who had a bad leg wound that would not mend. Before I saw him, the dog had been taken to other clinics and been put through the gamut of mainstream therapies, including many different antibiotics. One dedicated vet even tried to surgically reestablish normal tissue in the area, after which the wound partially healed, but then it broke down and reopened again. When I saw it, it had formed a weeping, seeping, fistulous tract. There was no foreign object in it, no infection, no known reason why it wouldn’t heal. But it would not.

Because I wanted to try stimulating the body’s own ability to heal rather than using methods that acted directly upon the wound, I gave the Shepherd an arbitrary dose of homeopathic Silicea tissue salts. Over a short period of time the wound healed up completely. I was thrilled to see a safe, subtle, natural substance such as this work so effectively.

Managing Your Dogs Stress

I realized that the wound had not healed previously because the dog had an energy block that affected the area. Neither antibiotics nor surgery had done the trick; the fistula did not resolve until we used a therapy that removed the block on the subtle energy field. If we hadn’t moved out the block, the healing would not have happened. Somehow, the homeopathic tissue salt enabled the healing process by releasing the block so that energy was able to flow freely again.

Everything is made of energy, and energy powers everything. Nearly every ancient or traditional healing system has recognized this. Each tradition has its own understanding of where energy comes from and what it means. Whether they use the words chakras, chi, life force, spirit, or electrons, people are talking about energy. Whatever we may call it, free-flowing energy and the crucial role it plays are front and center in the new holistic approach to health care.

Looking through the lens of our Western mind-set, we have been slow to accept energy as a factor in health care. We think that if we can’t see it, it isn’t really there. Yet we accept other powerful forces that we can’t see. For example, when was the last time you saw the wind? But we see and feel its tremendous effects as it bends trees, flaps the laundry on the line, pushes clouds around, or buffets the cars we ride in. It’s the same with gravity. We don’t see it, but we feel it and know it’s really there. It’s the reason we have to be careful climbing stairs and must hold pets or babies securely in our arms. As we age, we experience its effect on our bodies. Like the wind and gravity, the energy that moves us and forms our bodies really exists. We can’t address our health needs if we ignore it or fail to acknowledge it.

Nothing happens without energy. The appliances that make a modern home comfortable depend upon its free and proper flow. When too little electricity flows, appliances slow down and grind to a halt. If too much electricity surges through them or flows in the wrong way, they short-circuit and malfunction or burn out altogether.

Like the electricity that flows through a house, the energy that flows through living beings keeps vital systems functioning at their best. An animal’s health and well-being depend upon her life energy being able to flow as it’s meant to. When her energy doesn’t move well, physical problems begin to develop at the cellular level and interfere with the functions of tissues, organs, glands, and other crucial aspects of the body – as happened with the German Shepherd whose wound would not heal. This is why holistic health care focuses on freeing up any blocked energy within a pet’s living terrain.

In dogs, cats, and people, energy expresses itself not only physically but also emotionally and mentally. (The mental aspect is especially developed in humans.) Emotional and mental states affect the living terrain of our bodies, and the terrain, in turn, influences how we feel and think. Again, we see the wonderful synergy that manifests in each living being. When energy flows as it’s meant to, our pets experience the balance of homeostasis. They feel the pleasure of life and the joy of good health. But when something blocks the physical or emotional energy that should flow through their living terrain, their wellness deteriorates. Then, signs and symptoms show up to tell us something is wrong.

But signs and symptoms manifest differently in every individual dog, cat, or human. This brings us to the next goal of the holistic way.

Taking individuality into account

Because signs and symptoms present themselves differently in every­one, the holistic way regards each patient as an individual who has a unique response to stressors that may challenge her living terrain.

Sometimes two individuals will have the same illness and will display it in different ways. Other times, they will have different illnesses but show exactly the same symptoms. I had a chance to see this for myself when two dogs, both previously diagnosed with Cushing’s disease, were brought to my clinic within a few weeks of each other.

The first case was that of a Wire Fox Terrier called Casey who had typical signs of Cushing’s and lab results that backed up the diagnosis. Cushing’s disease involves overactivity of the adrenal gland and is often associated with a brain tumor affecting the pituitary gland. It typically reveals itself through excessive eating, drinking, fluid retention, and urination, and the patient becomes weak and lethargic. Because veterinarians don’t yet know how to cure it, we try to control the condition and make the patient more comfortable for the time she has left. This is usually done using invasive pharmaceutical drugs that can have severe side effects.

Casey’s people brought him to me because they’d been told that he had to be put on a drug that would have damaged his adrenal glands, and they didn’t want to go that route. But there is another drug, used for treating Parkinson’s disease in people, that will sometimes control Cushing’s cases. I was hopeful it would work for Casey so we could avoid the other options. To the relief of my clients and me, it did work. With the help of the less risky pharmaceutical we were able to keep Casey going for a couple more years until he passed away.

The second case involved Rosie, an Airedale who had the same symptoms as Casey. Even the lab reports of the two dogs matched. Rosie’s people were aware of the standard Cushing’s drugs and didn’t want to risk her suffering their side effects, so before they agreed to use them they came to me, hoping for an alternative.

My first inclination was to approach Rosie’s case the same way I had approached Casey’s case. But as her people and I discussed her history, important information emerged. This dog was living under tremendous emotional stress. Josie and Rob were working out a marital separation, and they shared custody of Rosie by shifting her back and forth between them.

As we talked, we realized that her symptoms became much worse when she stayed with Rob and eased off when she stayed with Josie. Something didn’t add up – a dog would not have classic Cushing’s disease in one environment but not in another. So, given Rosie’s circumstances, I decided to try a different tack: we could experiment to see whether we could improve the dog’s condition by reducing her environmental stress. At the same time, we would aid her living terrain with gentle, supportive remedies.

Josie and Rob agreed to try letting Rosie stay full time with Josie. I supplied them with raw adrenal supplements combined with appropriate herbs, as well as homeopathic and flower remedies. Once all these changes were in place, Rosie’s symptoms completely disappeared.

I was delighted that we were able to solve such a challenging problem by modifying the environment instead of using powerful drugs. And it was evident that although Rosie’s symptoms mimicked Casey’s, she didn’t have Cushing’s at all. Instead, her adrenal glands were under stress induced by an emotional situation. If I’d looked solely at the similar signs and symptoms of the two cases, I would have treated them the same way and unnecessarily subjected Rosie to invasive drugs. The individual characteristics of these two dogs and their underlying circumstances made all the difference in the world.

When a pet’s health deteriorates, the new holistic way guides us to focus on the aspects of her specific case. We consider her genetic background; her physical, environmental, social, and emotional history and present circumstances; and her particular signs or symptoms. Such information provides clues about the underlying cause of the patient’s stress, as it did with Rosie. It also helps us gauge how her immune system has responded to the problem.

Managing a Dog’s Stress

I am convinced that better pet care will result when pet lovers and veterinarians understand that stress is the underlying cause of every form of health problem a dog or a cat can have.

In modern life, stress challenges the living terrain in infinite ways. Stress and the living terrain take part in a dynamic, never-ending dance from which all health outcomes flow.

Acute stress is immediate and intense. It can be caused by an accident, a sudden infection, or a powerful toxin. Although it’s usually short-lived, if it’s too much for our pets to handle, it can have very serious consequences. But if a pet is healthy, she will overcome most acute stressors. You can help your pet by preventing acute stress in whatever ways you are able and by supporting her living terrain so that if a challenge confronts her, she can successfully hold her own.

Chronic stress, on the other hand, can be a real drag on wellness. Often, when a dog or cat with a serious illness such as cancer is brought to my clinic, I will discover that she has been suffering from chronic stress due to a long-standing cause that had been neither identified nor addressed.

Once a stressor is recognized and modified and the living terrain given support, a pet will improve either emotionally or physically or both, and at least some future problems will be prevented. But because of the toll chronic stress takes on the living terrain, many of these pets will need ongoing support to maintain their best level of wellness. It’s worth the effort – it’s wonderful to see a pet who has suffered from chronic stress become both happier and healthier.

Because it is prolonged and persistent, chronic stress can wear down a pet over time. Its effects manifest differently in each individual. One animal may show it through a behavioral issue; another, through a gastrointestinal disturbance; and a third, through unexplained weight loss. It may also produce problems with organs or glands, such as heart disease or diabetes. Chronic stress tends to need ongoing support, but the right approach will ease, and sometimes even resolve, the health care issues it may cause.

Chronic stress can also compromise a pet’s health indirectly. For example, she may become more susceptible to infections, and eventually to degenerative conditions such as cancer or allergies. These conditions often vary in intensity. For instance, allergies tend to come and go depending on the season or the availability of irritants; arthritis is affected by damp weather or too much or too little exercise, and cancerous growths don’t always grow at a steady rate and sometimes actually get smaller. Although appropriate health care will improve most of these problems, they can be very challenging to address. All of them depend on the strength of the other major factor that plays a starring role in maintaining our pets’ health: the immune system.

Overall, both the stress response system and the immune system depend on an abundant supply of energy, which, in turn, they burn up as they carry out their functions in keeping our pets alive. Each system does best if the body’s living terrain is in good shape to begin with, and they don’t do so well if it isn’t. Negative stress, whether chronic or acute, makes both the stress response system and the immune system less effective in protecting our dogs and cats. On the other hand, recent research has shown that reducing negative stress has the effect of boosting the immune response. In sum, reducing stress not only eliminates the cause of a dog or cat’s unwellness or illness, but also, through boosting the immune system, it improves her state of wellness.

Whether stress is physical, emotional, or mental in origin, it affects every aspect of our pets’ health. We’ve seen that positive stress boosts the immune system and general wellness, while negative stress depletes energy, damages tissues, and pushes the body until it is unable to eliminate cellular by-products that can damage it. Too much negative stress can make a cat or dog vulnerable to viruses, bacteria, toxins, or parasites; weaken organs and vital systems; or turn her body against itself through autoimmune disease or cancer. Stress can cause an almost infinite range of trouble for a pet and only a health care perspective that’s broad, inclusive, and flexible can address the possibilities. By taking a holistic approach and learning how to manage our pets’ stress, we can make an enormous difference to their well-being and happiness.

The health care of the future

Clearly, whether we support our pets’ health care holistically depends not so much on which modalities we choose – or whether we buy natural products, for that matter – but on why and how we use them and what we hope to achieve with them. And while both natural and mainstream medical tools have a place in holistic practice, the mainstream way of thinking about health leads to a very limited approach to health care. By thinking holistically, we can assess situations more broadly, choose tools more wisely, and have greater success in restoring homeostasis. In my experience, only the holistic way can fully support an animal’s optimal wellness.

Knowing the difference between the mainstream approach and the new holistic way provides you with a valuable tool for making crucial decisions about the care of your dog.

Download the Full November 2009 Issue PDF

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Nancy Kerns
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Canine Health News and Current Events November 2009

By
Nancy Kerns
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Microchip Registration Locator Tools Launched

New databases aspire to make it easier to track down microchip registration

There are currently seven different pet identification microchip registries in the U.S., making it difficult to track down a found pet’s owner even when a scan finds a microchip number. Adding to the confusion, the chip’s manufacturer may not be the company that registered the chip. For example, I had a dog whose microchip was made by HomeAgain but registered with AKC Companion Animal Recovery (CAR). All the registries that exist in the U.S. will register their competitor’s chips as well as their own, but most charge a fee for doing so.

Two companies have emerged with Internet-based products that make it easier for rescuers to quickly locate the owner of a dog with an implanted identification microchip: the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) launched its PetMicrochipLookup.org, and Chloe Standard introduced ChecktheChip.com. Each built a website with a searchable database of microchip numbers, and attempts to return information about where a microchip is (or is most likely to be) registered.

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The AAHA’s Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool relies on collaboration with microchip manufacturers and distributors, and so far supports only four of the main registries: AKC CAR (Companion Animal Recovery), HomeAgain, PetLink, and resQ. Three other registries – Banfield, AVID, and 24PetWatch – are not currently supported, but AAHA hopes to expand its coverage in the future.

When you enter a microchip number into the AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool, it tells you where that microchip has been registered, the registration date (which may not be accurate at this time), the registry’s phone number, and a link to the registry’s website. If a microchip number is not found in any of the supported registries, it gives you contact information for the most likely manufacturer and registries – including ones not supported by the database.

Chloe Standard, a private start-up company in Mountain View, California, launched its website, ChecktheChip.com, in August. The company hopes to finance its operation with advertising.

According to a representative for Chloe Standard, the company asked various microchip registries for lists of their database numbers (minus owner information), but, the company says, the registries have been slow to respond. This means that in many cases Chloe Standard can identify only the chip’s distributor. When you enter a microchip number that is recognized, you are given the name of the registry, its phone number, and a link to the company’s website. In cases where a number is not recognized, ChecktheChip provides contact information for six registries: AKC CAR, HomeAgain, PetLink (which is misidentified on the site as ResQ), 24PetWatch, AVID, and Banfield.

To be certain that your dog’s identification microchip is properly registered to you, and your contact information is current, enter his microchip number into both search tools. If the registration is found, you should check with the registries to confirm that the contact information they have is up to date. AAHA suggests that you contact the registry directly if your registration is not found in its database.

Our tests indicate . . .
I entered several identification microchip numbers in both ChecktheChip.com and PetMicrochipLookup.org, with mixed results.

When I entered the number of a microchip that was issued in 1995 and enrolled in two registries, AAHA’s website correctly identified both registries. ChecktheChip.com did not recognize the chip number. When I entered an AVID microchip number that had never been registered, AAHA’s site was able only to identify the chip as an AVID product and gave me AVID’s phone number. ChecktheChip returned AVID’s contact information, implying that the chip had been registered there – a confusing result.

I tested four HomeAgain chip numbers, only one of which had been registered. AAHA correctly identified the registered chip and returned a phone number for that registry; for the other three chips, it gave me the contact information of three likely registries (HomeAgain, AKC CAR, and PetNet in Canada) and the chip’s manufacturer, Digital Angel. ChecktheChip returned only HomeAgain’s contact information for all four.

Both databases are still in an early stage of development, but as of this writing, AAHA’s Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool appears to be the more useful.

– Mary Straus

For more information:
AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool: PetMicrochipLookup.org

Chloe Standard
ChecktheChip.com

Variety Is Important for Nutritional Completeness

Renowned nutritionist deplores reliance on single-recipe diets

Marion Nestle is the award-winning author of Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, the story of the massive pet food recall in 2007, and the upcoming Feed Your Pet Right: The Authoritative Guide to Feeding Your Dog and Cat, due out in May 2010. A renowned professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, Nestle’s interest in nutrition extends to both people and pets.

In her “Pet Food Politics” blog, Nestle recently wrote about the limitations of nutrition analyses and databases as aids for creating healthy diets for people. I was surprised by how closely her words echoed my own feelings in relation to the drawbacks of relying on a single recipe developed with a spreadsheet to feed a dog.

Referring to the databases used to create these recipes, Nestle says, “If you give it even a moment’s thought, you realize that the nutrient contents have to vary with growing location, soil conditions, climate, transportation, and storage, so the amounts given in the database can only be approximations of what you are actually eating [our emphasis]. The data aren’t meaningless, but they don’t mean nearly as much as people think they do.”

Exactly. Too many recipes created with spreadsheets, including those from veterinary nutritionists, provide only minimal amounts of important nutrients. If the foods used to create these recipes don’t match up to the numbers in the database, the recipes are likely to be lacking in some areas. Feeding the same recipe and nothing else for long periods of time may lead to nutritional deficiencies.

The same problem can occur when you feed one commercial food exclusively. Foods that state they are formulated to contain “complete and balanced” nutrition for dogs may not actually do so for a number of reasons. These include how the food is stored; changes in the ingredient sources; and whether laboratory analysis of the food itself was conducted to confirm its nutrient content (as opposed to tests of a similar food from its maker, or a feeding trial to determine its nutritional adequacy).

I recommend choosing at least two or three different brands, using different protein sources, and rotating among them. If one food is deficient in some areas, the odds are that the next food will make up for it, especially if it’s made by a different company – though that food may be deficient in other areas.

Spreadsheets have their place, especially when you need to control specific nutrients due to health problems. A spreadsheet can help you determine how to limit phosphorus in diets for dogs with kidney disease, for example. Even then, it’s safer to use multiple recipes that include different ingredients rather than always feeding the same recipe.

Nestle goes on to say, “We know from studies using experimental animals that it is extremely difficult to induce nutrient deficiencies in animals that are fed a variety of foods providing sufficient calories. The best way to avoid nutrient deficiencies is to eat a variety of minimally processed foods. If you do that, you don’t have to worry about specific nutrients.”

Rather than relying on a single recipe created with a spreadsheet to ensure that your dog’s nutritional needs are met, feed a wide variety of fresh foods in appropriate proportions; that’s the best way to create a healthy diet for your dog, as well as for your family. – Mary Straus

For more information:
foodpolitics.com, by Marion Nestle

New Pennsylvania Law Bans Five Home Surgeries

Law targets puppy mill operators and dog fighters; vets may still perform procedures

Late August headlines that blared about Governor Ed Rendell signing a bill “banning” ear-cropping, debarking, tail-docking, performing C-sections, and removing dewclaws were a little misleading, as the new law only applies to surgeries that are performed by non-veterinarians.

Rendell was quoted as saying, “House Bill 39, which clearly defines the painful and inhumane procedures on dogs that constitute animal cruelty, takes the next important step for Pennsylvania in protecting dogs,” said Rendell. “Until now, these cruel practices could be carried out by dog owners without proper training and without supervision by a licensed vet, which could lead to long-term injury, pain and, in some cases, death to these defenseless animals.”

Canine Health News

Photo courtesy HCPHES

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An owner who has these surgeries performed legally must now keep a record of the surgery, including the vet who performed it, as well as the location and date where the surgery was performed. Any person in possession of a dog upon whom any of the listed surgeries have been performed is in violation of the new law (not just the person who performed the surgery) unless they have a certificate from the veterinarian who performed the procedure, or a certificate from their county treasurer (at a cost of $1) showing that the procedure was done before the law became effective. Violation of the law is a summary offense, punishable by a fine of up to $300 and/or 90 days (maximum) in jail.

The new law further protects dogs by making it a third degree felony to steal or acquire in any manner an animal for the purpose of fighting. – Pat Miller

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