I have been meaning for some time to sing the praises of the independent pet supply store. There is a time and a place for big box stores, dont get me wrong. And Im aware that some of the more responsible chains invest a fair amount in their employees education and professional development. But nothing beats a well-stocked shop run by someone with a passion for dogs.
288
Im lucky: In Northern California, there is a wealth of amazing stores owned and managed by highly educated people. They carry super-premium foods, and can tell you accurately why the foods are better. The lower-cost foods they do carry are the best products available at that price point; they dont carry the lowest-cost, worst-quality foods. They wouldnt dream of it.
The independent store owners I know travel to one or more of the gargantuan pet industry trade shows each year, looking for new and better toys, beds, treats, supplements, training gear, and more. They invest time and money in their education, and that of their employees, so they can make responsible, educated recommendations to dog owners who come into their stores.
Sometimes I go into big-box pet supply stores to look for and buy items that we do not recommend, so I can photograph and caption them: DO NOT BUY. It doesnt happen often, but Im always impressed when an employee at one of these stores looks around furtively and asks, Um, what are you going to do with these? If they do, Im honest and tell them that Im buying them as examples of what dog owners should not buy. Oh good! one such employee told me recently. I was worried for a minute. I would never give a dog those things! Usually, though, the employees dont say anything, or dont know to say something.
The thing is, a good independent store would never carry an item that they felt was not healthy for dogs in the first place. A few months ago, I called one of my favorite indies looking for one of the devices that allows you to lead your dog on a bicycle. The clerk at the store told me that she was sorry, they didnt carry it, but could special order it for me if I wanted . . . but added that she, personally, felt they were unsafe. How was I planning on using it? Was I taking precautions to keep the dog safe? Her interest in my dogs well-being was impressive.
The same week, I traveled to another indie, about 40 miles away, where I had seen that product for sale a month before. When I got there, though, there wasnt one on the shelf. Disappointed, I asked the clerk about it; she called the owner out to the front to ask about it. While waiting, I tried on a baseball hat with the word, Grrr written on it. I was feeling like growling. Im sorry, we sent it back, the owner told me. We havent sold one for a year!
Shoot! I said. I saw one here last month, and made a special trip here to buy it. And I really needed it today. Where did you drive from? he asked. When I told him, he said, Im so sorry! You know what? Take that hat. And call before you come next time and we can tell you if we have whatever it is you need. We want you to come back!
That would never happen in a big box. And thanks for the hat, Bow Wow Meow, of San Carlos, California.
Dogs are a predatory species. While cats think of themselves as predators, dogs often think of cats as prey. Still, many canines and felines live together in happy harmony. If yours don’t, here are some things to do when Fido chases Felix.
1:Separate dog and cat when you’re not there to supervise. You need to protect your cat from injury or possible death, and you want to prevent your dog from practicing the unwanted chasing behavior. Depending on the intensity of the chasing behavior, you may want your cat behind a solid door when you’re away to ensure protection, or baby gates may be enough to give kitty safe zones to use as she chooses. When you are there to supervise, you still need to manage your dog so he doesn’t get reinforced for chasing the cat. Having something run away when you chase it is highly reinforcing to a dog with strong predatory behaviors.
288
2:Counter-condition and desensitize. You can reprogram your dog’s automatic response to chase a small moving creature. Have your dog on a leash when your cat enters the room. The instant your dog notices the cat, start feeding him bits of very high-value treat, such as boiled chicken. As long as the cat is in sight and moving, keep feeding. If kitty leaves the room or jumps up on a high piece of furniture you can stop feeding the bits of chicken to your dog – but keep him leashed!
Eventually your dog’s response to arrival of the cat will be to swivel his head to you with a happy “Where’s my chicken?” look. At some point, it’ll work even off-leash. Note: You may also need to counter-condition your cat to be happier and calmer about the presence of your dog! (For more on counter-conditioning your dog to cats, see “Cats and Dogs Living Together,” WDJ June 2007.)
3:Use a happy recall. If you yell at your dog when he takes off after the cat, the stress and intensity in your voice is likely to increase the intensity of his chasing behavior. If you’ve taught him a solid recall and done some counter-conditioning, your happy recall voice is more likely to succeed in calling him off the chase. If the recall isn’t happening for you, teach an emergency “pause” cue such as “Stop!” or “Wait!” If you teach this as a fun game, with your cue meaning, “Hey, I’ve got chicken!” you can pause your dog long enough for the cat to escape through the baby gate to a safe room.
4:Keep your cat indoors. Indoor living is safer for your cat all the way around, and especially if your dog likes to chase her. Many dogs who live peaceably with their indoor cat friends will still chase moving felines outside. I’m sure mine would. After all, it’s expecting a lot to ask a dog to distinguish between a high-speed squirrel, bunny, or cat. If your cat insists on outdoor exposure, build her a screened-in enclosure, or attach the “Cat Fence-In” containment system (catfencein.com or 888-738-9099) to your fence and let her out in the yard only when your dog is securely contained indoors.
5:Consider rehoming one of them. This is, obviously, a very last resort. Some dogs will never be trustworthy with cats. If you think your dog is really intent on killing your cat and the counter-conditioning doesn’t change his mind, you have two options. Strict management so the two of them never meet (and management always has the risk of failure), or rehoming one of them so they both can live happily ever after in separate homes.
There was once a time when you rarely encountered the word “socialization” in dog circles. Today it’s the new training buzzword; if you haven’t heard it at least three dozen times by the time your dog is a dozen weeks old, you and your puppy must be living in a cave.
A half-century ago, no one talked about canine socialization because they didn’t need to. For the most part dogs wandered freely in their neighborhoods, accompanied kids to the school bus stop, hung out with canine pals all day, and became naturally socialized to their world and the people, dogs, and things they encountered in their daily travels. Sure, they got into occasional scuffles amongst themselves, but they sorted it out. Yes, a kid was bitten every now and then, but it was no big deal. Dogs got hit by cars from time to time, but that was part of life – sad, but one could always find another dog, preferably one who would be smart enough to stay out of the road.
Today a large segment of our pet-owning population is made up of more responsible canine guardians and caretakers. A nationwide paradigm shift has changed our attitudes about our dogs. No longer just “pets,” many of our beloved four-legged family members are kept inside our homes and in safely fenced yards, supervised closely when around children, and only encounter other dogs under controlled conditions – at training class, maybe during a brief on-leash greeting, during scheduled play dates, and perhaps at the dog park. The thought of our beloved dogs running free in the streets gives us heart palpitations, and we grieve terribly whenever we lose one.
On the plus side, this means our dogs live longer, physically healthier lives. On the minus side, it means they no longer benefit from the natural socialization process that occurred when they were allowed to explore their world and figure out how things work on their own. As a result, we’ve spawned a whole new behavior problem: undersocialization.
Raising a Social Dog
Socialization is really classical conditioning – creating an association between two stimuli. Behavioral scientists have identified the period from 4 to 14 weeks as the most important window of time for a puppy’s social development. After the age of 14 weeks that window starts to close, and it closes pretty quickly. If a pup is super-socialized during this important developmental period he’ll most likely believe the world is a safe and happy place. If he’s not well-socialized, he’s likely to be neophobic, which means fearful of new things. This is a common condition in dogs rescued from puppy mills and hoarder situations. It is challenging to own and train a dog who is afraid of everything new he encounters; worse, the neophobic canine is also a strong candidate for developing fear-related aggression. (For more about fearful dogs, see “Reducing Your Dog’s Anxieties,” WDJ April 2007.)
Lack of exposure to new things is one cause of undersocialization; inappropriate exposure is another. If you’re not careful during your socialization efforts you may inadvertently set your pup up to create negative associations with parts of the world around him. In that case you can actually sensitize your pup to the things you’re introducing him to – that is, you can make him afraid of them – the exact opposite outcome of the one you want.
Think of the well-meaning soccer mom who takes the family’s brand-new nine-week old pup to watch her son’s team practice. The entire team suddenly spies the adorable fluffball and charges toward the pup to oogle over him. The terrified puppy screams, pees, and tries to run away when he sees a dozen giant human creatures coming toward him at a dead run. He can’t escape; he’s trapped by the leash, which panics him even more.
Mom sees the pup flailing at the end of the leash and scoops him up in her arms to calm him so the boys can pet him. Now he’s even more trapped! One boy reaches to pat him on the head, and the pup, thinking he may be about to die, as a last resort snaps at the lowering hand that appears poised to grab him. The boy yanks his hand away, and mom smacks the puppy for being “bad.”
How much worse could it get? This puppy now has an extreme fear of children, especially boys, thanks to at least three negative classical associations in rapid succession:
1. Boys/children are scary; they run toward you in large packs.
2. Boys/children are scary; they try to grab your head.
3. Boys/children make bad things happen – when they are nearby, mom becomes violent.
The pup may also have developed negative associations with the collar and leash, wide open fields, being picked up, and mom. In addition, he learned one important operant lesson – snapping is a successful behavioral strategy for making scary hands go away. None of these things are the lessons we want a young pup to learn! And now the puppy is labeled as “not good with children” and a “fear-biter.”
We often talk about how long it can take dogs to generalize operantly conditioned behaviors (if I do “x” I can make “y” happen). In contrast, dogs tend to form classically conditioned associations, especially those that produce strong emotions, very quickly.
The good news is that at nine weeks this pup’s socialization window is still wide open, and if his owner is smart she has time to repair the damage. Unfortunately, most owners don’t realize the importance of taking immediate steps to change a pup’s association if he has a bad experience at a young age.
Socialization is the process of giving a puppy positive associations with the people, places, and things in his world. You need to be sure he’s having a great time, playing fun games, getting good stuff, and protected from scary stuff while you’re teaching him that the world is a safe and happy place.
Socializing Puppies in Their Earliest Days
If you bring your new pup home when he’s 8 weeks old, 4 of his 10 prime socialization weeks are already gone. Since a quarter to a half or more of a pup’s most important socialization time has passed by the time he leaves his mother and moves into his forever home, it’s vitally important that breeders invest time and energy into socializing their litters.
This includes having the pups walk and play on different substrates (grass, gravel, concrete, carpeting, and vinyl); inviting lots of different kinds of people over to play with and handle the pups; exposing them to household objects and sounds (microwave, telephone, television, vacuum cleaner); and making sure the baby dogs have positive associations with all these things.
Sadly, a small minority of breeders do a really good job of it, which contributes significantly to the population of under-socialized dogs in our world. If the breeder of your pup did her part, then your pup is already well-started on his super-socialization program. Now it’s your responsibility to keep it up.
If your pup comes to you from a socially impoverished environment, you’ll already see the signs of neophobia. You have no time to lose, and you may never be able to make up all the ground he’s lost, but you can make him better than he’d be otherwise. Trainers talk about giving pups “100 new (positive) exposures in the first 100 days.” If your pup is already showing signs of timidity or fear, triple that to 300 exposures in 100 days. And get busy!
Puppy Kindergarten Classes
A well-run puppy class is one of the best places to find lots of positive socialization opportunities. Unfortunately, because of their fear of disease transmission, some veterinarians still caution their clients with puppies to keep their young canines safely at home until fully vaccinated, or at the very least until they have received a minimum of two shots, usually by the age of 12 weeks. Twelve weeks leaves only two weeks of critical socialization time – assuming there’s a class starting up immediately after the pup receives his second shot. Not good enough!
We asked longtime positive trainer Gail Fisher of All Dogs Gym & Inn, located in Manchester, New Hampshire, to share her experiences with and thoughts on puppy classes. Here’s her response:
“Regarding the question of puppy socialization versus risk of illness: We have been running puppy classes and play sessions for puppies as young as eight weeks since 1976 (which, incidentally, was before parvo!) In all this time, we have had a total of three puppies in our classes who were diagnosed with parvo (or anything worse than canine cough – a mild upper respiratory infection similar to the common cold).
“The first was a five-month-old Rottweiler (a breed known for having immunological issues – and beyond the age of a typical ‘puppy’ class). The second was a puppy from a breeder that had been in its new home for two weeks and who had received two shots, and the third was a pet shop puppy who had been purchased two days before starting class.
“More importantly, however, is the fact that no other puppies in any of those classes got sick. As soon as we heard from the owners of the sick puppies, we immediately contacted every other puppy owner to tell them to check with their veterinarian for advice on whether to have an additional inoculation. Some did, some didn’t – but no one else got sick.
“So if you’re looking for ‘odds’ – in 33 years, figure (conservatively) 100 puppies a year, more than 3,000 puppies – the odds of a puppy getting sick from a well-run training class is virtually nil (less than 1/100th percent). The risks of illness are, in my opinion, negligible, while on the other hand, the advantages to socialization are unmeasurable.
“I hope this helps in your decision to take your puppy to training class!”
Places NOT to Take Your Puppy
As important as socialization is, it’s equally important to avoid places where there’s a high risk of endangering your baby dog’s health or safety, or giving him a negative association with his world. Here are just a few examples of places you shouldn’t try to socialize your pup:
– Off-leash dog parks, until he is fully vaccinated.
– Any place where he is likely to encounter stray dogs.
– Any place where he is likely to encounter sick dogs.
– Any place where he is likely to encounter aggressive dogs.
– Any place where he is likely to encounter aggressive/rowdy/drunk humans.
– Places where there is an accumulation of feces from unknown dogs.
– Any place he is not welcome.
– Any place where he would have to be left unattended, or in a hot car. (No tying up outside the grocery store!)
– Any place where he will be uncomfortable or frightened (sitting in the full sun while you watch your son’s Little League game, at a July 4th fireworks display, at a motorcycle rally, etc).
– Any place where you won’t be able to devote enough attention to him to ensure his safety, security and well-being.
Genetics and Social Confidence in Dogs
Of course, your dog’s genetics also influence his behavior and social tendencies. Behavior is always a combination of genetics and environment. Nature and nurture. Always.
Genes dictate how easily reinforced a dog is for the things the environment tosses at him during his lifetime. Hence a dog who is genetically programmed to be reinforced by chasing things that move becomes a good herding dog, fox hound, or ratter. The difference is the herding dog is (hopefully) not programmed to be reinforced by killing the things he chases, while the hound and the terrier are.
Pups who are genetically programmed to be reinforced for the consequences of acting behaviorally bold are naturally easier to socialize, even if their first few weeks lacked stimulation, than ones who are genetically programmed to be reinforced for the results of acting timid or fearful. How do you know which behavioral genes your pup has for social behavior? You really don’t.
It’s useful to see your pup’s parents – at least the mother, if at all possible. If Mom is timid or aggressive there’s a good chance her pups will be, too. The pups’ behavior still can’t be attributed solely to genes; pups can learn fearful or aggressive behavior by watching their mother’s response to humans and other environmental stimuli, a behavioral phenomenon known as social facilitation. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll remember that genes and environment both play a role in behavior – always.
Don’t despair if you adopted your pup from a shelter or rescue group. It’s true that if you never see Mom or Dad, you won’t get any hints about their behavior. So how do you know how much socialization your pup needs to overcome any genetic weakness in temperament? You don’t. But you don’t need to. The answer to the genetic mystery is to super-socialize every single puppy, regardless of what you think you know, or don’t know, about his genetics. If you do that, you’re guaranteed to help your pup be everything he can be, socially speaking.
There’s no such thing as overkill when it comes to properly done socialization. You can’t do too much. Pups who are super-socialized tend to assume that new things they meet later in life are safe and good until proven otherwise. Dogs who are very well-socialized as pups are least likely to develop aggressive behaviors in their lifetimes. Pups who aren’t well-socialized tend to be suspicious and fearful of new things they meet throughout their lives, and are most likely to eventually bite someone. You’d better get out there and get started!
Creating 100 Positive Exposures in 100 Days
by Nancy Kerns
Whole Dog Journal‘s Training Editor Pat Miller has long advocated the concept of engineering 100 positive, novel experiences for a puppy in his first 100 days with his owner. The idea is to consciously, deliberately expose him to all sorts of sights, sounds, smells, and other beings in such a way that he comes away from each experience thinking, “That was cool!”
But given the uncontrollable nature of the real world, it’s no small task to devise these encounters so that they always have a positive outcome. Fire trucks may suddenly appear with sirens wailing. A passing dog may suddenly explode into a fit of barking and barely controlled aggression. And people are unpredictable! You never know when someone will take it upon themselves to do something stupid or scary to your dog, like grab his cheeks and pull him close for what is meant to be an affectionate kiss (but which terrifies your shy puppy).
While it’s clearly impossible to control every aspect of your outings, a certain amount of planning will prevent many overwhelming experiences. Avoid taking your sound-sensitive youngster to neighborhoods that are home to a fire station or hospital. If you see, coming toward you and your pup down the sidewalk, a dog straining at the end of his leash, or appearing to be overly alert, eyes fixed on your puppy, do a snappy about-face. Jog away with your pup with a cheerful, “Yay! Let’s go!” and cross the street as soon as you can.
Most important, though, is to communicate proactively with the people that you allow to approach or pet your dog. You can usually tell when a person might be interested in meeting your dog, and when they don’t care for dogs. If a person makes eye contact with me in a friendly fashion, or is looking at my dog and smiling, I always say, “Hello, how are you?” If it appears that she would like to pet or greet my dog, I try to subtly prevent her from actually touching my dog (by slowing my pace, or stepping slightly between my dog and the person) until I can say, “He’s a little shy; would you mind giving him a treat?” and I hand her a treat. Given that information, most people will move slowly and greet the dog gently.
(Note: Miller recommends that owners not allow strangers to feed treats to a shy dog until the owner has done a ton of counter-conditioning to the sight of strangers. That way, the dog already has a positive emotional response to strangers, and will accept treats from a stranger safely, with minimal stress.)
No matter how well or poorly they follow instructions, though, I always praise my dog and give him a treat or pet him right after the encounter. When I got him at the age of seven months, he was shy with strangers; now his tail starts wagging in anticipation whenever he sees someone coming toward us. The sight of a stranger has become a predictable indicator that praise and a treat are on the way.
Start Close to Home and Branch Out
You’ll find many opportunities in your own neighborhood for 100 new, positive exposures, including the mail delivery person, FedEx driver, kids on bikes, a skateboarding teenager, a passing bus, and an elderly neighbor. Go out of your way to approach people who appear unique (to your pup) in some way: their size (extra large, extra small); skin color; mode of transportation (wheelchair, crutches, skateboard, bicycle); and manner of dress (trench coat, hat, beard, backpack, skirt, shorts, pants).
You’ll also want to get into the habit of taking your pup with you to as many other safe places as possible, where he’ll have more opportunities to enhance his socialization. In a local park, for example, he might have further opportunities to encounter baby strollers, kites, flying Frisbees, and people enjoying picnics. A cafe with tables on the sidewalk might offer a great place for your dog to meet a high volume of people with disparate appearances.
As your pup gains experience and confidence, you can start taking him with you when you run errands at businesses that allow dogs (hardware store, pet supply store, copy shop) or offer walk-up service (bank ATM, post office, or ice cream stand).
Miller suggests that dog owners keep an actual written list of their pup’s socialization exposures, to help ensure that they attain (and, we hope, exceed) the goal of a minimum of one new exposure per day in the first 100 days they spend together. Whole Dog Journal developed a list, too, which you can use to get started. If you put a little effort into it, we’re betting that you’ll get there well before 100 days are up – more likely in half that time!
CREATE A CONFIDENT DOG: OVERVIEW
1. Make a commitment to super-socialize your puppy, and then do it – early. Don’t procrastinate; you don’t have much time!
2. Stay aware of your pup’s body language and help him out of trouble if he looks stressed.
3. Be prepared to take prompt remedial action if your pup has a negative experience during your socialization program.
4. Sign up ASAP for a well-run positive puppy class, where both of you can socialize and have a good time.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She is 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.
Gail Fisher is the owner of All Dogs Gym & Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Woof, yap, scream, yodel, bark, yip. Go, go, go!” Dogs on the sidelines and in crates and exercise pens barking at the top of their lungs. Dogs tugging and growling, tugging and growling. Handlers yelling over the din to their teammates. Handlers recalling their dogs over jumps, H-e-r-e! Event officials blowing whistles and announcing the next race over bullhorns or speaker systems, and start-line lights and passing lights flashing on and off.
Todd Minella
288
Flyball is a cacophony of sights and sounds. It is exhilarating, over the top, adrenalized hyperstimulation. This is not a sport for the introverted, timid, or sound-sensitive dog or handler. The adrenalin level is off the charts and you can hear that from hundreds of yards away.
The first time I experienced flyball was as a spectator at an obedience trial held at a park. Suddenly, shattering the decorum, was an ear-piercing scream followed by rabid barking. Certain that an obedience dog had left the ring and treed a critter, I raced over to watch. No critter. No mayhem. Just flyball. The teams had just set up for their first race and the dogs were ready. I had never seen dogs so keen to get going.
The game There are four hurdles in a row with the flyball box at the end of the 51-foot lane. The jump height for each team is determined by the height of the shortest dog on the team. These dogs are referred to as the “height dog”. Each team tries to attract someone with a fast, short dog so their team has the advantage of low jump heights. That’s why it’s common to see teams with very short dogs as well as larger dogs.
Each team has four dogs. Two teams race at the same time, 20 feet away from each other. Each team lines up their dogs, ready to release them quickly, exactly when the previous dog clears the last jump. Dogs are taught to pass each other very close to gain a time advantage.
Each handler restrains her dog at the start line, careful not to cause a false start by letting go too early. The typical flyball start-line restraint technique is to hold the dogs in front of their hind legs, crouching behind the dogs.
When the dog gets to the flyball box, he is trained to hit the box with his front feet, grab the ejected ball (most dogs just place their mouths over the opening where the ball comes out), push off the box with his rear legs, and race back.
A member of the team stands at the box to load balls (small dogs might need a small tennis ball) and encourage the dogs to get to the box fast (more screaming). The handler of the dog currently racing stands back, beyond the finish line, usually with a long tug toy, and encourages the dog to race back to the handler, quickly, over the finish line (with more screaming!).
History In the late 1960s and early f70s a group of trainers in Southern California created a game that required their dogs to jump over some hurdles and pick out a dumbbell with their handler’s scent. They called it scent hurdling. To reward the dogs for taking the hurdles, someone threw a tennis ball at the end of the straight row of hurdles.
Soon, scent hurdling morphed into flyball. The first flyball tournament, however, didn’t take place until 1983. Soon thereafter, 12 flyballs clubs from Michigan and Ontario, Canada, developed guidelines for the sport, and in 1984 the North American Flyball Association, Inc. (NAFA) was born. The first flyball rule book was written in 1985 by Mike Randall, then executive director of NAFA.
288
In 2002, the United Flyball League International (U-FLI) was founded. NAFA and U-FLI are currently the only two organizations that sanction tournaments. Their rules and philosophies differ somewhat, but all breeds and mixes are welcome.
The popularity of the sport has grown over the years, with tournaments taking place in North America, Europe, Australia, and other countries. The NAFA website claims 700 registered clubs and more than 16,000 registered dogs.
Attributes of a flyball dog Flyball is a strenuous, pressure-cooker game. Dogs are rewarded for intense bursts of activity. Racing down a row of jumps, slamming into the box that holds the ball, turning on a dime, and racing back down the row of jumps to their handlers against a backdrop of another teams’ dogs a mere 20 feet away requires a dog to be incredibly focused, physically resilient to the rigors of training, and insane about the tennis ball.
The repetitive nature of some of the training is physically demanding, and a dog must have the temperament to withstand the performance stressors inherent in the game. These include barking and lunging dogs, screaming people, and intense performance pressure from his handler.
Nikki Myers, CPDT, who in 1995 cofounded Woof Gang, a Southern California flyball team, has been competing and training in the sport for 14 years. Her now 16-year-old Silky Terrier is still ranked as the #1 Silky in NAFA, and her newest Silky, Charm, is currently the fastest Silky in flyball. Her Australian terrier, Maggie, is ranked second for her breed in both U-FLI and NAFA. Myers is familiar with many of the dog sports, competing in agility for 15 years and in earthdog for 10 years, and has been a professional dog trainer for the past 9 years. Myers notes that owners should assess the physical, as well as the behavioral, demands of a sport before deciding whether it is appropriate for their dogs.
Sally Frankel
288
“The physical demands on a flyball dog are quite high. Running-jumping-stopping-turning-running can be hard on a body. Larger dogs need to build the muscle to control their added kinetic energy to be able to stop themselves safely. Extra weight on any size dog can increase the chance of injury. Joints get a lot of punishment, so hip and elbow dysplasia or patella luxation, etc., will affect a dogfs performance. As with any sport, a dog should be cleared by his vet if he hasn’t had a very active life so far. A couch potato at five years of age may have some aches and pains if they suddenly start a new sport,” says Myers.
The variety of mixes and breeds that participate in flyball is a testament to the draw of this sport for a broad cross section of dogs. Everything from Airedales and American Bulldogs to the typical slew of herding breeds and terriers are in evidence. There are Chinese Cresteds, Danish/Swedish Farmdogs, Deerhounds, Irish Red and White Setters, a Plott Hound, and even a Black Mouth Cur listed on U-FLI’s website (see u-fli.com/dogbreedreport.php for the complete report).
If you have a high-energy, outgoing, confident dog who loves to retrieve balls, this might be his sport. If your dog is a bit reserved, the sport could help him build more confidence. However, according to Myers, “Flyball can help a shy dog get some confidence, but if the dog is truly fearful of new places, noises, etc., he should learn flyball only as a backyard activity. The dogs who do best in flyball are those with a very high drive. The perpetual-motion kind of dog that can focus on the task of flyball will do very well.”
Handler attributes In addition to the commitment to training and attending team practices, handlers exert a fair amount of physical effort participating in this sport. In addition to helping set up equipment for practices and lugging all your personal training supplies and dog from your car to the field, flyball can be physically strenuous.
“The physical demands on the handler are varied,” explains Myers. A certain amount of bending and squatting are encountered. After a long weekend of racing, I feel like I’ve done a hundred lunges. My thighs burn and my back aches. Once your dog is really worked up about racing, he also tends to pull hard on the leash around the grounds. (It can be hard to maintain your loose-leash walking criterion!)
“There is also a certain amount of running for the handlers. Think of wind sprints and you’ll get the idea. It really depends on the dog you are running. I run and tug and spend a lot more energy running a Boston Terrier than I do handling a teammate’s Australian Shepherd.”
Equipment and supplies The equipment needed to practice flyball is not extensive, but it can be expensive, due to one specialized item (the flyball box).
Sally Frankel
288
•Hurdles. There are four hurdles, or jumps. These are relatively light-weight, narrow panel jumps. They can be made by handy team members with a Skill saw and white paint or ordered ready-made. Hurdles are pretty inexpensive compared to the box.
•The box. The spring-loaded box that ejects the tennis ball is the major expense for a flyball team. Specifications are set by the sanctioning organization. Many clubs make their own, but the boxes are available for purchase. Plan on spending at least $600 and as much as $1,200.
•Tennis balls and tug toys. Standard-size tennis balls are used in great quantity so it helps to know someone who belongs to a tennis club. Small tennis balls are used for the small dogs and can be purchased from pet stores and online. Lengthy tug toys, usually about 24 to 36 inches long, are used to incite the dog to run back to the handler with the tennis ball. Often, a tennis ball has been woven into the tug toy, as well.
Expenses In addition to the costs of supplies listed above, there are other expenses. If you can find a public class such as the one Myers offers through a city entity, costs are modest and, in most cases, move you quickly toward joining a team where members practice together at no cost.
There are also modest team dues, and members share in the purchase and repair of equipment. Tournament entry fees are split by the team members and vary throughout the country, but average about $90. The cost of travel and lodging is often a flyball handler’s biggest expense. As with many different sports, it is the ancillary costs that mount. These include canopies to protect you and your dog from the elements, treats, toys, crates, blankets, and the list goes on.
Training Myers, a professional trainer with years of experience teaching with positive reinforcement methods, teaches public classes for the city of Garden Grove, California. Those classes serve as a pipeline for new teammates for local flyball teams.
Although many teams are willing to train people and their dogs from the ground up, it helps if you and your dog have a general training history already established. Clicker training, which focuses on encouraging dogs to “offer” behaviors, can accelerate the training process because dogs learn to see training as a problem-solving game.
Myers simplifies the complexities of training flyball by breaking it down into separate behaviors and then “chaining” them together.
“Flyball is one long ‘behavior chain,’” explains Myers. “There are several links in the chain: run, jump, trigger the box, grab the ball, turn, run-jump-run (now with a ball in your mouth). We teach this chain in pieces. Running down the lane of jumps to have fun with Mama is one of the easiest to teach. Triggering the box to retrieve the ball safely and swiftly is the most difficult. Rarely do we need to teach a dog to retrieve a ball, though there are some dogs that need to learn a retrieve before they start with flyball.”
You can do some training at home that will benefit you and your dog whether you choose to join a team or not.
•Toy motivation. Tugging is a great motivator and helps focus your dog on you. If your dog is not toy-motivated, play games that get your dog chasing you for fun and reinforcement. Get a long tug toy and drag it along the ground and encourage your dog to “get it, get it, get it,” and make a big fuss over him when he expresses any interest in it. Gradually, reward only more and more interest in the toy until he is biting at it and then holding on to it.
Sally Frankel
288
•Restrained recalls. Flyball dogs must come when called in the face of huge distractions (the park, other dogs, high levels of arousal of other dogs and people, etc.). A speedy return to the handler over the finish line is essentially a recall. Start with one person holding your dog back while you run away, waving a toy. The person restraining your dog delays your dog’s release just a second or two at a time, waiting to feel the dog pulling to get away.
According to Myers, “When you can get your dog to stop barking at a squirrel in the backyard and run to you for a toy or play, you’ve a long way in ensuring a solid recall during competition.”
•Jumping. If you have space in your backyard, a line of jumps is a simple, inexpensive training tool. Encourage your dog to take the first jump and throw your toy ahead. Once your dog is confident and fast with one jump, add another one. Gradually, add others until you have four in a row.
Practicing at home is important, but flyball is essentially a team sport. If you are a loner and do not enjoy group dynamics, this may not be the best sport for you. Some teams practice an hour or two once a week, while others get together three to four times a week.
Myers notes, “Most of the competitors in flyball are members of a team. When a club enters its team in a particular tournament, the members train together and learn to compete together. When a change has to be made at the last minute, it can do anything from simply change the lineup to causing the team to drop from the competition.
”With the addition of the United Flyball League, however, the opportunity has increased for single dogs or just pairs of dogs to race.”
Levels of competition Flyball dogs earn individual points in each tournament based on their dog’s racing times. Remember, each dog travels 51 feet over four hurdles, hits the box, grabs the ball, and races back over the hurdles across the finish line. This is considered one “heat” of a race, and there can be four to five races in a day. Since a race is made up of three to five heats, your dog may run that 102-foot lane 20 times or more in a day. Now you see why high-energy dogs do well in this sport.
NAFA and U-FLI award different points in their respective systems for each heat. For example, U-FLI awards 30 points to dogs who run that distance under 20 seconds, 25 points for under 25 seconds, 15 points for under 30, and 10 points for under 35. Your dog gets an additional 5 points if your team wins the tournament race. A dog running on a well-trained, consistent team could earn 75-125 points for each race. Multiply that times the number of races in a day and your dog can rack up quite a few points toward titles in a single tournament.
U-FLI titles are awarded based on your dog’s cumulative points. “Top flight” requires 100 points, “top flight executive” requires 2,500 points, and so on until the top U-FLI title of “top flight extreme” with 54,500 points.
Wondering how fast is fast? The NAFA record is 15.22 seconds and was set in 2005 by Spring Loaded, a team with members from Illinois, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada. The U-FLI record of 15.023 seconds was attained by Touch n Go, a team from Las Vegas, Nevada. This means that each dog ran the 102-foot distance in under four seconds. Wow!
Sally Frankel
288
Teams compete in “divisions”, which are established to ensure that teams compete against other teams of similar abilities. NAFA and U-FLI each have their rule books on their respective websites.
How to get started If you want to compete, make sure you can commit to this team endeavor. Myers recommends, “Look for a local team that teaches. Start asking questions and going to tournaments. Teams want to see that you are interested in the commitment and not just out for the summer.”
If you want to try it out before committing, look for those public classes (which can be few and far between) and for a willing and qualified instructor. Myers has taught people who knew they wanted to compete, as well as those who were just looking for something to entertain their dogs.
”I had one couple who brought their two dogs. The dogs were not all that crazy about tennis balls, but they loved their stuffy toys. We ended up with the stuffy toy at the box instead of the balls. Both dogs learned to come down the lane, get the stuffed toy, and return over all four jumps. That couple really enjoyed their dogs’ version of flyball!”
”Another couple started out in the public class, and then started practicing with Woof Gang. Their shepherd-mix has been competing for a year now. Since then, they rescued another shepherd-mix and taught him to play as well. They recently bought an RV to take to tournaments, and both dogs will be competing together on teams very soon.”
Is this sport for you? Since flyball is a team sport, whether this sport is for you or not may depend upon where you live. Some areas of the country have no teams and no competitions, while others have many. If this sport appeals to you, go to the websites listed in this article and see if there is a team near you. Contact them and find out when they practice and ask to come and watch. How do they treat the dogs? Are they positive with each other as well as with their dogs? How well do they support new people?
If you have a family that might want to get involved, check out U-FLI. They have a program specifically designed to encourage and support families with children. Find a team that competes in U-FLI and then check out how well that team emulates U-FLI’s philosophy.
Each team is a culture unto itself. Some are inviting of new people and others are not. Some are extremely competitive and put a lot of pressure on members to attend multiple practices and compete at every opportunity while others are happy to build the skills of all members and invite everyone to practice and compete regardless of skill level.
Because flyball is a team sport, the human dynamics of a particular team are critical in deciding which team to join. Many flyball handlers consider their flyball team like a second family. Unlike with your biological family, you have some choice in choosing this one.
As usual, have fun, train positively, and revel in the relationship with your dog, not the ribbons on the wall.
Terry Long, CPDT, is a writer, agility instructor, and behavior counselor in Long Beach, California. She is addicted to agility and animal behavior.
Last month I mentioned how our daily off practice paid off when Otto first noticed my friend Leonoras goats. Otto is fascinated by these animals, which puff up like cats, rear up like horses, and make very weird, scary direct eye contact very undoglike. As riveted as he was by the goats, every time I said, Otto, off! he immediately turned away from the goats and looked at me. Of course, I delivered a bit of hot dog his favorite treat right to his lips, each time he so much as glanced at or stepped toward me. It was a calm, drama-free event; no goats or dogs were harmed in the making of that particular scene.
288
It was a great testimonial for the effectiveness of positive training in general, and specifically for an all-positive method of training a dog to exert self-control. I wasnt yelling at Otto, scaring him (and any other creature around), or threatening his general well-being if he made the wrong move. It wasnt fear of punishment or fear of me or some sort of amorphous respect that he had for me, or his recognition of my leadership that led him to resist his desire to chase or otherwise engage the goats. It was simply another step along a deliberately built, assiduously practiced, behavior modification program. How did you teach him that? Leonora wondered.
She was particularly curious because she worries every spring and summer about her dogs getting bitten by rattlesnakes (they are very common in this part of Northern California) and the only methods of so-called snake-proofing that she had been able to find involved shock collars which, fortunately, she hadnt liked the idea of, without really knowing why. I hastened to assure her that shock collars and every other type of punishing aversive were not only unnecessary, but also potentially damaging to her relationship with her dogs. And that the positive approach had many more daily applications than snake-proofing.
I tried to explain how it was an extension of a basic Dont touch! exercise, but the more that Ive thought about it, the more I realize that it is also emblematic of the relationship-building power of positive training in general.
Choices First, as a dog owner, you have to realize that a dog is a dog; he possesses natural desires genetically programmed, most-likely responses to many types of stimuli. You are not trying to teach him about right and wrong nor about obeying you. You are simply trying to modify his natural responses to make them more convenient to you. Positive training not only accomplishes this goal, but also has the side effect of giving the dog a strong desire to do the things youd like him to do, increasing the odds that hell change his behavior in just the way you would like him to. Think of it as team-building!
In a thoughtful positive training program which is what I strive to employ with Otto the goal is to teach the dog some basic, all-purpose responses that can be applied in progressively more and more challenging environments, with tiny successes at each level leading to a greater likelihood of success at each and every level of difficulty.
Using the procedure described in detail by Pat Miller in Request For Leave (WDJ August 2008), I started teaching Otto the Off! or Dont touch! exercise by putting a delicious treat in my closed fist, and holding the fist right under Ottos nose. He could smell the treat, and licked and nosed my hand to try and get it. The moment he looked away or moved away from my hand (and the treat), Id mark the moment by saying Yes! (Miller uses the click! of a clicker) and give him a treat from my other hand.
Otto quickly learned that the only way to get a treat was to ignore the one right in front of him. As soon as it was clear he got the concept of the exercise, I added a verbal cue: Off! (Some people prefer Leave it! or Dont touch!) The next step was to open my hand so he could see the treat in addition to smelling it quickly closing my hand on the treat if it seemed like he was about to grab it. Id also place a treat on the ground and say, Off! If he tried to get it, I could slide one of my feet over the treat to keep him from getting it. And the moment he looked away from the treat, Id give him a different treat.
288
Such a simple exercise with such powerful applications. In learning this exercise, a dog learns to resist his first instinct (grab the treat) and delay his gratification not a particularly dog-like thing to do! He also learns that you are highly likely to deliver a more delicious treat, or more of them, if he resists his urge to take the seemingly more accessible one.
Im fascinated by the fact that, when denied access to the easy treat, most dogs will naturally look at their handlers face, looking for a clue as to when their reward will come. This glance grows into a gaze, and, when its frequently reinforced with meaningful rewards, the gaze itself becomes a default behavior for the dog that precludes him from doing things you dont want him to do, such as see (and then chase) a squirrel, or see (and engage with) another dog.
Otto and I practice Off every day we are together. We practice in highly controlled conditions, such as feeding time, when I dont put his bowl of food on the floor until he offers a sit and looks at me, and then holds that sit (and gaze) until I put the bowl down and release him to eat. A few times a day, I formally practice and reinforce the puppy kindergarten-level Off! exercise, with a treat in my hand,. But I also try to train informally throughout the day. For example, when making myself a sandwich for lunch, I might accidentally drop a piece of roast beef and say Off! as hes reaching for it. Im careful to position myself to be able to quickly block his access to it with my foot or leg, so he doesnt get reinforced for diving for the food anyway. (He does ultimately get that piece of beef, and more, when he looks away from the fallen piece.)
I say Off! when he hears someone walking down the sidewalk in front of our house, and instead of barking, he looks at me. If I dont have a treat in my pocket, I make sure to raise him and take the time to give him a few moments of scratching his favorite itchy places. I say Off! when he looks at the cat as she scratches her favorite scratching post in the backyard; Otto and I both know that she often follows up a scratching session with a wild-kitty dash across the yard, so the Off in this case is a proactive preventative.
I also practice the Off exercise when we play fetch and tug, and when Otto comes to nudge my elbow as Im working at the computer. I might tell him Off when we are greeting someone on the street, if it seems to me that his proximity is making someone nervous. And I use it a lot on our walks and bike rides. When I see him see something like a feral cat, a squirrel on a wire, a robin hopping along the ground, or an aroused-looking dog running along a fence, I say Off and reward, reward, reward him when he looks away from the thing and looks back at me.
288
Rewards Does that mean Im always wearing a bait bag full of treats? In our first year together, yes, I always wore a bag full of delicious treats when I took Otto out for a walk or bike ride, or brought him to a friends house. Were celebrating our first anniversary together at the end of this year. The bait bag is staying at least a while longer, because if I wasnt a reliable supplier of rewards that are more valuable to him than whatever else it is that he wants, Im sure hed eventually do the math and realize that chasing the squirrels or whatever was far more rewarding than my praise alone. When he resists something thats high on his personal fun scale, I try to reward him accordingly, with a jackpot of treats and perhaps a quick game of tug of war with the leash. At home, in the yard, praise and petting rank high on the Otto satisfaction scale. Out in the world, they arent worth as much. Its like taking dollars to Europe!
I also try to mix it up. Sometimes he wins a piece of hot dog; sometimes I reach past the hot dog to a piece of cheese. Sometimes there are sardines in the bag wow! Sometimes he gets one piece; every so often Ill dump the entire contents of the bait bag onto the ground! Hes won the lottery! I think of it like that TV show, Lets Make a Deal. If someone always knew what was behind Door Number One, it would take the fun out of choosing that option.
This sounds like a lot of work. Added up over our first year together, it is, and yet the daily average is probably less than 10 minutes a day. Weve had days where I trained, off and on, for hours. And other days when Ive maybe asked him to do one simple thing all day.
But Im happy to do the work. I enjoy working with him and seeing his enjoyment at working with me. I love watching his face as he tries to puzzle out what Ive asked and what he has to do to win a reward of food, petting or just my momentary attention. And Im happy to do the work because Im highly motivated to help him become a dog that I can take anywhere with ease and comfort, secure in the knowledge that he wont cause problems for anyone. I plan on having this dog for decade and more, and I consider the time I spend training now to be an investment in our future together.
Nancy Kerns is Editor of WDJ. She adopted Otto on June 13, 2008.
The sequencing of the canine genome, accomplished as a public research project in 2004, opened the floodgates to endless possibilities for canine genetic testing. The holy grail for many scientists engaged in this work is the understanding of, and ultimately, the elimination of inherited canine diseases. For many dog owners, though, the most exciting outcome of this serious work is the possibility that they can learn exactly what breeds their mutts are made of.
Though there are already several commercial companies offering products that purport to be able to do just that, our assessment of the breed identification tests is that the results may be just as mixed as the dogs they seek to explain. The test results may be nearly as varied, interesting, and enjoyable as our mixed-breed friends, but it seems that, at least right now, they may not be able to absolutely satisfy the question of your mutt’s parentage. The tests are getting better every day, though! And as the understanding of DNA, the size of the sample databases, and the power of computers grow, it’s likely that the tests will, at some point, truly live up to the marketing hype currently being used to sell them.
Dog Breed Tests: A History
The first mixed-breed DNA test was born in the laboratory of Elaine A. Ostrander, Ph.D., and Leonid Krugylak, Ph.D., when they were with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Drs. Ostrander and Krugylak were looking for genetic commonalities among purebred dogs recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC). One goal was to discover the genes responsible for diseases common to both dogs and humans, including several types of cancer. They were also studying the relatedness of about 100 of the AKC-recognized breeds; this led to the discovery that the genetic variation between dog breeds is much greater than the variation within breeds. For comparison, genetic variation between human populations is about 5.4 percent; in dogs, they discovered, between-breed variation is estimated at 27.5 percent.
In 2005, Ostrander and Krugylak signed a commercialization agreement with Mars Veterinary™, a newly created division of the mighty Mars, Incorporated (yes, think candy, gum, pet food, and other foodstuffs), licensing the technology they developed for use in breed identification.
Mars Veterinary wasn’t alone in the race to market a breed identification product. Scientists at MMI Genomics Inc. (MMIG) were also studying canine DNA. In fact, MMIG provided identity and parentage verification services for the AKC, United Kennel Club (UKC), Professional Kennel Club (PKC), and a number of other canine registries and breed clubs. MMIG was originally a division of Celera, and led the private effort to sequence the canine genome. It was also the first to commercially market a breed identification test, in March 2007. MMIG called its product the Canine Heritage™ Breed Test. When it made its commercial debut, the test was potentially able to identify only 38 breeds; the test (“XL”) was upgraded in mid-2008 to identify more than 100 breeds.
Mars Veterinary brought its test to market just a few months later, in September 2007, as the Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel™ MX test.
How Do Dog DNA Tests Work?
Each company promotes its tests by saying they are a good way for the mixed breed dog owner to learn whether his or her dog might be susceptible to a particular genetically linked disease if the dog has breeds known to inherit certain conditions. They also say that the tests help with training, by giving the owner insight into the dog’s behavior; the reason why the dog acts the way he does might be explained by his background. At the end of the day, however, company representatives admit that the majority of their customers buy the tests simply out of curiosity and because it’s fun to do.
The DNA tests we looked at draw their databases from the more than 160 breeds recognized by the AKC, and address only those breeds found in North America. Worldwide, it is estimated that there are more than 300 breeds of dogs.
The tests use genetic tools referred to as “markers” to define the concept of a dog breed. A genetic marker is a position in the genome where there is variability in the sequence that is inherited, following the rules of classical genetics. Two common kinds of markers are microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
Each company independently developed a set of markers that define the breeds in their databases and utilizes sophisticated computer algorithms to match a given mixed-breed dog’s DNA to that in its database to come up with the best breed match(es) for him. The analysis determines how closely, and to what extent, the mixed breed dog’s genetic patterns match those of purebreds.
There are two very significant players in the U.S. market (MMIG and Mars Veterinary) and a few that are trying to carve out a larger role. EDP BioTech Corp. is very new; a fourth company, DNA Diagnostics Center Veterinary, subcontracts its work to EDP BioTech Corp. There is at least one test (Viaguard DNAffirm™) offered by a Canadian company, Accu-Metrics Ltd., which we did not explore.
Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel™
The Wisdom Panel MX was the only mixed-breed DNA test to require a blood sample. Initially available only through veterinarians, the test is now available online directly from Mars Veterinary, as well as from veterinarians and select pet supply retailers. It has a suggested retail of $125, which includes free shipping if ordered direct from Mars Veterinary. Nevertheless, a trip to your dog’s veterinarian is still necessitated for a blood draw, which means an extra cost for the vet office visit and procedure, and possible stress to your dog if he doesn’t love the vet office.
The AKC recognizes 161 breeds; the Mars Veterinary database includes 153 AKC breeds in its database, plus four breeds awaiting recognition from AKC, for a total of 157 breeds. To develop its database, Wisdom Panel typed more than 13,000 dogs during test development, completing more than 19 million genetic marker analyses. Mars Veterinary’s database is the largest of any of the three companies we examined, but its test is also the most expensive.
After extracting DNA from the blood sample, single SNPs – or slight variations in DNA makeup – are identified. The test exams 321 points or markers where variations are found, looking to form breed-specific patterns. A proprietary algorithm is then run on the data.
Angela Hughes, DVM, a veterinary geneticist and consultant for Mars Veterinary, explains it by saying the computer then “says” as it looks at the DNA of a particular dog, “If I have to make her one thing, what would be the best match? If two, what would she match, then three, then so on, up to eight. The result is then a statistical score to each ‘tree’ the program builds as to how that dog best matches.” Eight is the magic number as Mars Veterinary’s confidence level is to go back three generations (eight great-grandparents).
The company claims that the test determines breed composition with 90 percent accuracy, defining that as validation testing that has resulted in an average accuracy of 90 percent in first generation cross-bred dogs of known parentage (our emphasis).
As with the competing Canine Heritage test, the Wisdom Panel results are reported in three categories, only Mars Veterinary calls them Significant, Intermediate, and Minor breeds, roughly translating to parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent. For a breed to be listed as Significant, at least 50 percent of the dog’s DNA must have come from that breed (i.e., one of the parents was a purebred or possibly both grandparents were of the same breed); Intermediate, at least 25 percent; and Minor, at least 12.5 percent.
Mars Veterinary expects that if your dog shows a Significant breed, that he will likely display some physical and behavior traits from that breed, unless some of the genes are recessive. For Intermediate, you “may” see some physical and behavior traits of that breed in your dog, and for Minor, it is unlikely that the breed’s physical traits are visually represented in the dog unless some of the genes are dominant.
The company quotes a two to three-week turnaround on test results; test status can be tracked online – and results, when ready, will be mailed to the client but are available online sooner. The only contact information for the company that is offered on the website is an e-mail address; as unhelpful as that is, the website itself offers tons of information.
When we did find a phone number to reach the company, the representative who answered was moderately helpful, although he was more prepared to deal with someone calling to discuss their dog’s test results than with someone looking for in-depth information about the company and its products.
The latest entrant into the market is the DNA Breed ID Test offered by BioPet Vet Lab, a division of EDP Biotech Corp. BioPet Vet Lab itself was created in late 2007; its canine DNA test was launched in early 2008 through online resellers. In addition to the breed ID test, BioPet also offers DNA proof-of-parentage testing, DNA pet ID, and the very interesting PooPrints™ program (“match the mess through DNA”).
The company’s goal is to offer a sound, affordable test. It hopes to accomplish this by limiting the number of breeds in its database to 63 – which the company claims represents “about 93 percent of the dog DNA that is in the U.S. according to historical trends in breed popularity” – and pricing the test at $60. Adding additional breeds requires adding more markers, which increases cost; BioPet suggests that it will most likely top out its database at 65 to 70 breeds. This test, too, uses a cheek swab to collect a dog’s DNA.
The company sells its tests through PetSmart, Pet Supermarket, other retailers, and online retailers. Turnaround for results is roughly two weeks, and it does not appear that the company has online tracking capability for test status. They will re-run a test upon request, acknowledging the possibility of human error, but company spokesperson Meg Retinger reported that even in the ones they’ve rerun, they have never seen a test result that was completely different on the second run. The BioPet website has a moderate amount of information, and the company spokesperson was helpful.
Happy Consumers of Mixed-Breed Dog DNA Tests
Ruby, named for her short red coat, was brought home to Rosalie and Leonard Sanchez of Riverside, California, by their 15-year-old grandson, who got her from a lady giving pups away from the back of a pickup truck. The lady told their grandson that the puppy was a St. Bernard mix. Rosalie quickly dismissed his words, figuring that he made up that piece of the story, because Ruby looked nothing like a St. Bernard.
Early this year, she learned about the Canine Heritage test, and was curious to know more about Ruby’s background. She and her husband guessed Ruby was part Boxer. Their veterinarian concurred, because of Ruby’s large paws; his guess was Boxer/Great Dane or Boxer/Mastiff.
When the results came back, Rosalie was floored; her grandson was correct after all! The test showed Boxer and St. Bernard. Although she still can’t get over how Ruby does not resemble a St. Bernard, Rosalie says, “A mixed breed dog is like a box of chocolates. You never know what’s on the inside.”
Dan McCarthy’s girlfriend found Flora lying next to a bus stop, emaciated and covered in fleas. Their veterinarian thought Flora was a Labrador and Springer Spaniel mix, yet she was on the small size, weighing 30 pounds at age two. Other people guessed Border Collie and Jack Russell Terrier.
Dan, a resident of Hollywood, California, wanted to know as much about Flora as he could. “I want to know who her mother and father were, where they are now, and show them Flora has grown up to be a great dog with a great life,” he says. Last summer he ordered the Canine Heritage test. The results showed that Flora’s parents were probably not purebreds — nothing listed in Primary category, just as Dan had suspected. The Secondary level, though, reported German Shepherd and Cocker Spaniel. Dan was amazed. “The Spaniel explains why she is so small, and the Shepherd explains why she is so smart!”
Kitty Cannon of Crystal Beach, Florida, and her husband had always played a guessing game about their dog’s breed makeup. When they learned about DNA testing in 2008, Kitty thought, “Why not? Since we can’t afford to have Fox cloned, maybe by knowing his breeds we can in the future look for another great dog with his traits.” They guessed Fox was part Collie or Sheltie. When their Canine Heritage results came back, they were surprised to get Bernese Mountain Dog in the Secondary category, and Chow Chow “In the Mix.” Only a higher being would know for sure whether the results are accurate, says Kitty, “but we do notice some similarities as to where he got his fur color, ear shape, and jowl line. We know they broke the mold with him and there will never be another.”
Evelyn Orenbuch, a veterinarian from Philadelphia, ordered the Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel MX for her rescue dog, Pia. “I wanted to know if Pia’s behavior had anything to do with the breeds I thought she had in her. We guessed Border Collie, Whippet, and…?” The results matched at only the lowest levels, revealing German Shepherd and a couple of other breeds. Dr. Orenbuch was somewhat disappointed, as she had hoped to have more information about Pia’s origin. Nonetheless, she says she would recommend the test to clients. “Knowing what breeds are in your dog helps you to understand his emotional and physical aspects. It may not change what you do with your dog or how you treat him, but it may help you to understand him.”
Breed Testing Criticism and Limitations
The Wisdom Panel (Mars Veterinary product) has been criticized because it requires a trip to a veterinarian and a blood draw. This increases the cost of testing, and could stress vet-averse dogs. Critics also suggest that blood samples can be damaged in transit to the lab.
Mars Veterinary defends its decision to use blood by explaining that DNA from a blood sample is the “gold standard” as the quality and quantity of DNA derived is better than from a buccal (cheek) swab. Mars Veterinary’s Dr. Hughes says that the DNA in blood is actually very hardy, and, in fact, the lab has to raise the temperature of the DNA to near boiling repeatedly during the SNP analyses. The company also uses specially designed plastic tubes to protect the blood tube in transit.
Cheek swab tests receive their own criticism. Buccal swabs have a higher failure rate due to variation in owner sampling, such as not collecting enough cells. Also, because of bacteria in dogs’ mouths, there is a potential for bacterial growth if the samples aren’t handled correctly.
Then there are criticisms from consumers. One recurrent theme of unhappy clients is that results of a DNA test failed to find a preponderance of any particular breed in their “very mixed mixed-breed” dogs. (See sections below.)
Another has to do with the fact that some dogs don’t look anything like the breeds that their tests detected. It’s difficult to feel good about a result that doesn’t confirm or explain anything about the dog’s physical appearance or behavior – and the companies’ explanations for this phenomenon may be unsatisfying.
The Wisdom Panel website says, “Many parts of the canine genome are likely to be unobservable or hidden with regard to trait determination. This can happen for any number of trait-determining genes. Simply put, a mixed-breed dog could be a mix of three or four breeds but have few traits evident from one or more of these breeds.”
MMIG’s explains: “Canine Heritage Breed Test only works for the breeds that have been validated. If your pet’s breed composition contains non-validated breed(s) the test may identify breed(s) earlier in your dog’s ancestry. This may cause identification of apparent unlikely breeds for your pet’s composition.” How valid are the results?
To get some perspective from an independent expert on canine DNA, we interviewed Beth Wictum, director of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Wictum has been with the university for 30 years. She has participated in and witnessed the evolution of the science that makes it possible to identify an animal through the study of its tissue; during her tenure, “state of the art” has gone from blood typing to sequencing the genome.
Asked to comment on mixed-breed ID tests, Wictum emphasized that the tests are only as good as each company’s database; that is, if a breed is not represented in a company’s database, then the test will identify the next closest match. She explains by saying that purebred dogs, especially registered purebreds, have been intensively managed and have a limited genetic pool.
“Most breeds have been created through intense selection over the last few hundred years, so there has not been enough time for them to diverge through mutations,” she says. The differences between breeds lie in the selective breeding by breeders for morphology (structure) or behavior. Therefore, the ideal breed test would be one that looks at those traits that characterize each breed and makes them unique.
“The field of canine genetics is still young; the dog genome was only sequenced about five years ago,” she says. “We are just starting to identify the genes responsible for various traits.”
Like many scientists in this field, Wictum is excited about the potential for identifying the genetic basis for various diseases. She says the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis and the Bannasch Laboratory (also at UC Davis) “are identifying the genetic basis of various diseases, which can then be offered as tests to the public. If you know what diseases may occur, you will be able to have your pet tested to see if he carries the mutation.”
Her advice concerning the mixed-breed DNA tests? “While these tests may indicate breeds that contributed to your pet’s genetic makeup, you must realize that they aren’t 100 percent accurate – and I don’t think they claim to be. If you have the money to spend and want to do it just for fun, then absolutely go ahead and do it.”
Some Owners Say Breed Testing is Not Worth It
Laura Pescador of Denver, Colorado, ordered the Canine Heritage test for Misha, her “60-pound, black and tan, square-nosed, short-haired, big-eared, deep-chested, bi-eyed mystery mix” in May 2008. Laura felt the breed combination she was told when she adopted Misha was unlikely (Australian Shepherd/Labrador Retriever); she was also hoping to receive a piece of paper that said that Misha was not a pit bull-mix, “Not because I don’t like them but because of my city’s breed-specific legislation.” Laura was disappointed to receive an “apology letter” with results stating that the test was inconclusive! On her certificate, next to “Primary” was written “Untested Breed,” while the other two categories were blank.
Scamper, Monty, and Rainey are three mixed breed dogs belonging to veterinarian J.C. Burcham, of Olathe, Kansas. In early 2008, she submitted blood samples for each dog to the Wisdom Panel test. Dr. Burcham was pretty sure that Monty was “several generations of mutts breeding to mutts” and had few expectations for his results. She calls Scamper a Jack Russell/Basenji/Beagle mix, so was expecting to see something like that, or even some terrier breed. Rainey was found as a puppy in rural Virginia, starving to death with two littermates, all three of whom looked like Border Collies.
When the results came in, Dr. Burcham was disappointed. “I felt like it was a complete waste of money! Rainey is clearly part Border Collie, and that was about the only reliable result I saw. Two of my three dogs were found to be “too complex” to identify. I could have told you that! That’s why I paid for the test.” Rainey’s results showed “some” Border Collie; however, she showed distant traces of Briard, Cairn Terrier, Great Dane, and Keeshond. Monty’s test revealed distant traces of Alaskan Malamute, Beagle, Bearded Collie, Chow Chow, and Smooth Fox Terrier, while Scamper’s showed trace amounts of Briard, Curly-Coated Retriever, and Shetland Sheepdog.
Dr. Burcham’s primary disappointment was seeing Briard in two of her dogs, which was unlikely, in her opinion. She was also annoyed that Scamper and Monty were dubbed “extremely complex mixed breed dogs.” With just 10-15 percent of mixed breed dogs falling into that category (according to Mars Veterinary), how could she have two of them?
I shared Dr. Burcham’s disappointment with Dr. Hughes, the Mars Veterinary consultant, and she offered to not just look at, but also to rerun the three tests. In the year since Dr. Burcham submitted the samples, 23 additional breeds have been added to the Mars Veterinary database, and its algorithms have been modified. The company had found that the program was breaking down dogs into a lot of small pieces, “losing the forest through the trees,” resulting in some false positives. Results now are typically a smaller number of breeds and potentially in larger “amounts.”
When Rainey’s test was run again, Briard and Cairn Terrier did not appear; they had most likely been false positives. Border Collie bumped up to the Significant (parent) level, and Great Dane and Keeshound showed up at the Intermediate (grandparent) level. Monty’s results showed Beagle and Chow moving to the Intermediate (grandparent) level; the other breeds still were evident but could not be called with confidence, so they were likely false positives in the first test.
Scamper’s new results still revealed a “very mixed dog.” Curly-Coated Retriever moved to the Intermediate (grandparent) level, and Golden Retriever showed up at the Minor level. Briard and Sheltie were potentially part of her distant history or false positives. Also detected were Anatolian Shepherd and Australian Cattle Dog, which Dr. Hughes felt were more likely than Briard and Sheltie.
Nancy Kerns Weighs In
Of course when author Lisa Rodier proposed the idea of writing an article about the mixed-breed identification tests, [ wanted to have my mixed-breed dog, Otto, tested – you know, just for journalism’s sake! But which test should we order, from which company? We quickly decided to order the most extensive product from each of the two industry leading companies and compare the results.
Otto had a vet appointment coming up, which I used as an opportunity to have his blood drawn for the Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel. We followed the normal protocol: I paid the vet for the blood draw and the test; his staff sent the sample to the lab, and gave me a test ID number so I could check on the progress of the test using the Wisdom Panel website.
The following day, I brought Otto with me to PETCO to buy a test kit for MMIG’s Canine Heritage “XL” test (this company has since been bought by Wisdom Panel). PETCO’s grooming department staffhave been trained by MMIG to collect cheek swabs. Following the trip to the vet the previous day, Otto was nervous, so I collected the cheek swab myself (but asked a PETCO staff member to pose with the sample and its mailing envelope, you know, for science).
DNA Test Suspense
Waiting for results was excruciating 7 especially since Canine Heritage sent me an e-mail the day after I mailed the cheek swab, confirming its receipt in its Davis, California laboratory (I live about 70 miles from Davis). This gave me the idea that I might receive results soon – but it took a full seven weeks to receive them in the mail! (MMIG says results should arrive in six to eight weeks; it was just the anticipation that made this wait seem interminable. Plus the fact that you can’t get the results online.) I checked the website for the Wisdom Panel results every day. Just three weeks after Otto had his blood drawn, I saw that the results were complete, and I could download the Adobe Acrobat file that contained them.
So? What is Breed is Otto?
The Wisdom Panel results said, “The analysis revealed that Otto is a fairly mixed dog and we have not found evidence of a purebred parent or grandparent.” (I think I knew that!) There were no results at the “Significant” or “Intermediate” level. However, at the “Minor” level, these four breeds appeared: German Shepherd Dog, *Basenji, *Chow Chow, and *Border Collie. The asterisks indicated “Minor amount detected at low confidence. These results are not included in accuracy calculations.” (Me: “Basenji?!”)
The Canine Heritage results showed nothing in the “Primary” category, Chow Chow in the “Secondary” category, and Poodle and Border Collie “In the Mix.” (Me: “POODLE?!”)
My Expectations
I would have guessed that Otto had some German Shepherd Dog in him, and I was even expecting some Chow Chow. He definitely has a GSD-sort of tail and his ears are very Chow. When he’s soaking wet and his hair is slicked down, his body shape looks a little like a Golden Retriever. And I was certain there had to be some terrier breed in him. How else do you explain that fuzz-face?
The shelter that I adopted him from guessed he was Airedale and Border Terrier. (I give them a break; he was only about five months and little when they got him.) Though this breed does not appear in either the Canine Heritage or Wisdom Panel database, author Lisa Rodier was rooting for a Picardy Shepherd (Berger Picard) result; she thinks he’s a ringer for the Winn-Dixie dog. Nobody guessed Border Collie, Poodle, or Basenji.
Why Didn’t the DNA Tests Work?
How can the two companies have such different results for Otto?
We asked Theresa Brady, spokeswoman for MMIG, to address this question. She replied, “Each company developed its test independently, so there are a number of factors that can result in different breeds recognized in a particular dog. During the research phase, each company must identify a set of DNA markers that characterize differences from breed to breed. Then these markers must be characterized in a set of dogs representing the pure breeds.
“Not only are these markers different across companies, but the number and source of the purebred dogs are different. No company can test every purebred dog representing a breed, and every company will have developed software that is used to compare these genetic markers across breeds.
“Some breeds, however, are closely related because they were developed from the crossing of older, more established breeds. For example, Boston Terriers were developed from the crossing of the English Bulldog and English White Terrier. So, depending on the software program, the markers established for the purebreds and the population of breeds in each company’s database, the same dog may test ‘Boston Terrier’ with one company and ‘English Bulldog’ with another.
“Some breeds are related because they arose from a common lineage, such as many of those breeds developed from Asia. Early on, we (MMIG) recognized that the Chow Chow, the Akita, the Siberian Husky, the Chinese Shar-Pei, and even the Shih-Tzu can cluster together as one general breed type so we developed an enhanced program and analysis procedure to split these apart. Thus it is not surprising that the companies may report slightly different results, especially for the breeds that have just a small representation in the mixed breed pet.”
Addressing any results that appear in the “Secondary” section of a report (where they detected Chow Chow in Otto), the MMIG (Canine Heritage) results packet says, “This category reports breeds that might be easily recognizable within your dog. While these breeds may or may not have a strong influence on your pet, each breed listed makes up less than the majority of your dog’s DNA.”
Addressing results that appear in the “In the Mix” section of a report (where they detected Poodle and Border Collie in Otto), the Canine Heritage packet says, “This final category identifies breeds that have the least amount of influence on your pet’s composition. They still appear, at low and measurable amounts, in your pet’s DNA. If your pet’s results only identify breeds in this category, it is possible your pet is composed of so many breeds only small influences from each breed can be detected.”
The Mars Veterinary (Wisdom Panel) results packet explains, “Because of the complexity of genetics and the passing on of dominant and recessive genes from generation to generation, every trait from the breeds we found may not always be visually apparent. It is important to spend time closely observing Otto’s appearance and personality. Think about which of Otto’s traits may reflect a combination of the breeds detected, and which seem to reflect just one of the individual breeds.”
Our Opinion on Breed Testing
I have to say that I found the whole exercise very interesting, but not necessarily worth the cost. Given that the results for my very mixed-breed dog were so weak, the idea that they might help me anticipate certain health or behavior problems linked to the breeds found is not very compelling. But I doubt that’s why most people order the tests; I think most of us are just curious.
Having spent so much time examining and admiring the technological achievements that went into the development of these DNA tests, Lisa Rodier was afraid I would pooh-pooh the science behind these tests because I was so skeptical of the breeds detected in Otto’s lineage. It’s not that; I trust the science. I believe there are traces of these breeds (and many others) in Otto. It’s just that I already knew he was a very mixed dog, just from a (free!) look at him. And if he wasn’t such a mixed bag – if he looked a lot like one particular breed, I’d probably be satisfied with the idea that he was mostly that breed; I wouldn’t spend $100-plus to confirm it.
That said, I must admit I will be interested to see how the results might change in a few years, after these companies put thousands and thousands more dogs into their databases. Which breeds will “fall off” of Otto’s results as meaningless “background noise”? Will the Picardy Shepherd be added? It could still develop that Otto is a limp-eared Picardy who fell out of a French tourist’s car somewhere in the Northern California wine country…We’ll check back with these companies in a few years, and let you know.
– Nancy Kerns
Dog DNA Testing FAQs
Canine mixed breed tests seem to be a very emotional topic. Those who have used the tests and have gotten the results they expected tend to be proponents, while those who received weak results or results that didn’t seem to square with the dog’s appearance tend to regret the purchase. But does that mean the tests don’t work? Here’s a stab at trying to explain some of what might be going on.
Breed results are reported in levels; Why is my dog only getting “minor” or “trace” breeds and no strong hits?
Dr. Hughes explained that most likely the dog’s parents and grandparents were themselves mixed breed, and a portion of the dog’s ancestry can be mixed beyond three generations which, for Mars Veterinary, is the extent of the company’s confidence. There is also the possibility that a breed is not covered in the database (for example, none of the tests’ databases include Rat Terrier) so the test will look for the most closely related breed.
My dog looks like X, but the test says she’s Y…
Dr. Hughes explains that we want to associate a particular trait with one breed, but in actuality, it could be coming from a number of breeds. And when we move across breeds, combinations of genes can create very unusual outcomes.
One way she looks at the issue is first looking at a dog’s traits, defining what genes are necessary to get those traits, and then asking whether we can get those genes in a particular breed? For example, the merle color pattern, very common in Australian Shepherds, comes from a single gene, and a dog need only have one copy of that gene to exhibit that color pattern, And guess what? Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, and Great Danes can all provide that gene.
Black and tan coats are commonly associated with Rottweilers and Dobermans. But Chihuahuas, Cocker Spaniels, Dachshunds, and Poodles all carry this gene mutation. But in this case, it is recessive, so two copies must come together for
us to actually see that color pattern.
Meg Retinger of BioPet also points out that in some very mixed dogs, you might only see very subtle traits, such as the shape of the ear or the eyes. Her son’s dog tested as showing Beagle, yet she looks very much like a Labrador. When she howls, however, she sounds like pure Beagle!
My dog is a Labradoodle (Labrador Retriever-Poodle cross), so why doesn’t the test say she’s a 50/50 mix?
We let Theresa Brady of MMIG address this, as she herself owns a Labradoodle. When she tested her dog using the Canine Heritage test, the results showed that Poodle was a Secondary breed, with Labrador Retriever “In the Mix.”
She explains, “You should know that my dog came from a breeder who claimed that the dog was seventh generation Labradoodle, which means that neither of her parents was a purebred (purebred Poodle or Retriever) and neither of their parents were purebred and so on. It makes sense, then, that she had nothing show up in Primary.” When I asked why the Poodle was Secondary, but not the Retriever, her guess was that the breeder probably crossed back more Poodle, looking for a more hypoallergenic coat. Dr. Hughes adds, “When breeding Labradoodle to Labradoodle, the “amount’ of Lab or Poodle genes passed down is random chance (think of a Pachinko machine). Testing the dog’s littermates may show very different proportions of each of these breeds. That being said, some ‘Labradoodle’ breeders are back-crossing Labradoodles to Poodles to change the size or coat of the dogs. I have seen some really strange looking Labradoodles!”
How can dog DNA tests get better?
Increasing the size of the database, increasing the number of markers, and overall innovations in technology will see the tests become better tools. Also, as research continues on canine genetics, a better understanding of genes and how they relate to various breed traits will play a role in making a better test.
Lisa Rodier lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband and two Bouviers.
Spring is here and so is shedding season! Suddenly, every carpet in the house is woven with dog hair. Otto has what can be best described as a “combination coat” (I just made that up). Much of his outer coat is made up of long, stiff, straight hair – resembling that from a German Shepherd, or maybe a Labrador – that seems to wriggle into the carpet pattern itself. My vacuum is helpless in the face of this hair. Admittedly, it’s not a great vacuum, so cleaning the few carpets we have has turned into aerobic exercise.
Otto was not delighted with being brushed and having his hair pulled out, but he did like the attention, affection, and treats; overall the experience was a wash!
Quite some time ago, Black & Decker sent me a new DustBuster (handheld power vacuum) to try. This one is the “Retriever Pet Series Cyclonic Action,” and it plugs in; it’s powerful, unlike wimpy cordless models I’ve owned in my past. Used with its “turbo brush” (spinning rubber bristles) attachment, it’s fantastic at getting pet hair off our couch. But with an approximately three-inch intake, it’s not useful for cleaning entire carpets.
My sister Pam has been telling me I absolutely have to get the same vacuum she recently bought: A Dyson “Animal.” She has three small white dogs and swears that she had enough hair to make another, larger dog out of the stuff that the new vacuum cleaned up on its inaugural tour through her house. “I had forgotten what a dark color my couches actually were!” she reported, incredulous. “And my rugs are beautiful!”
Otto also has a softer, shorter coat underneath, which is coming out by the literal handful – although, curiously, this is not the hair we find so much of in the house. This hair mostly comes out through petting. You can’t pet him right now without inadvertently collecting a pile of loose hair at the end of your handstroke.
The other day, I used a “grooming rake” – a tool with short metal teeth – to loosen and pull out some of this thick undercoat, and quickly amassed a big pile of hair on the lawn. But the tool didn’t remove any of that long, wiry hair on the top of his coat, and it’s shedding, too. I started pulling this long hair – gently! – and found it came out pretty easily. I know that this is an actual grooming technique; I have a good friend who has a German Wire-Haired Pointer, and she’s paid good money to have him professionally “hand-stripped” (as opposed to clipped with clippers). Between the raking and pulling, Otto looks much more sleek.
Trip to the vet One of the reasons I wanted to clean Otto up was for a trip to the vet’s office. I took him in for a few reasons.
The first is exciting. Lisa Rodier, a regular contributor to WDJ (and who interviewed trainer Victoria Stilwell for the article on page 4 of this issue), is working on an article for us about the new DNA tests that are supposed to be able to determine the genetic contributors to any mixed breed dog. There are two leading companies offering this service; the Canine Heritage Breed Test analyzes some of the dog’s cheek cells (which you collect with a special swab that the company provides in its test kit). The Wisdom Panel Mixed Breed Analysis requires a sample of blood, drawn by a participating veterinarian. For purposes of the article, Lisa and I decided to have both tests done on the same dog, so we could compare the results. And Otto got to be our test subject! (We don’t have the results yet, but will share them with you in an article in the June or July issue.)
The goats didn’t like the looks or behavior of the new dog. They reared and stomped their feet at Otto.
I haven’t taken Otto to any veterinarian since I adopted him last June. In another month, he’d be due for two bits of routine veterinary business, so I combined a trip for the blood draw for the DNA test with a heartworm test and a rabies vaccine.
Heartworm Where I live, heartworm infections in dogs are common. I’ve lived in parts of California where I made a calculated decision to forego heartworm preventative medication for my dogs, based on the incredibly low prevalence of the disease in those areas.
Oroville, in contrast, seems to offer an ideal climate to mosquitoes – the vital carriers of several life stages of the heartworm. There also seems to be an ample reservoir of the infection in our local wildlife – and perhaps the unprotected dogs of the area, too. Employees of the animal shelter in our town can attest that most dogs who are kept outdoors and who aren’t routinely given heartworm preventatives will contract a lethal infection of the parasites.
As we reported in articles such as “Parasites Within Parasites” (August 2006); “Heartworm: Don’t Take It Lightly” (March 2006); and “Reflections on Heartworm” (August 2002); there are holistic vets and some dog owners who feel that the potential dangers of heartworm preventive medications outweigh the health risks to the dog. Instead, these individuals focus on a two-pronged approach to preventing heartworm disease.
Otto is inextricably drawn to the more defensive goat. Her assertive behavior intrigued him. At this point, he’s more curious than scared.
The first goal is to boost the dog’s immune system – often through biologically appropriate raw diets, and herbal and other supplements. The idea is to increase the ability of the dog’s immune system to detect and kill any larval forms of the heartworm that they are infected with (through the bite of a carrier mosquito).
It’s not as farfetched as it might sound. Researchers are aware that some dogs are somehow able to live long, symptom-free lives despite light infections with adult heartworms. And other dogs seem to be able to resist the infections so well that larval heartworms never survive to maturity; they test heartworm-free in spite of regular exposure to infected mosquitoes.
Other owners take a different (or a complementary) tack: they focus on protecting their dogs from mosquitoes, often with nontoxic mosquito repellents made of strong essential oils.
While I respect dog owners who are able to succeed at these efforts, I’m not brave enough to seek out alternatives to conventional heartworm preventatives; nor am I particularly worried about medication’s side effects. In contrast, I’m scared to death of heartworm infections. I’ve seen dogs with severe heartworms infections, and it’s not pretty. I’ve also seen dogs go through treatment for an infection, and that’s nerve-wracking as well. Immediately following treatment, the dog requires total cage-rest while the dead worms are shed from his circulatory tract into his lungs; complications are common. Treated dogs sometimes need steroids, antibiotics, fluids, and aggressive nursing care to pull through.
The feeling was mutual. Otto repeatedly rushed the fence barking. He seems more scared than predatory, though.
I do administer heartworm preventative to Otto on a slightly longer schedule than is recommended by the manufacturer (as described in detail in the March 2006 article mentioned earlier). I give the medication to Otto every 40 to 45 days.
Most veterinarians require a negative heartworm test each year, before they will renew a dog’s prescription for preventative; that’s one of the reasons I took Otto to the vet. Happily, his test was negative, as I hope it always will be.
Rabies vaccines Otto received a one-year rabies vaccine in the shelter from which I adopted him, not quite a year ago. Given that he was brought into the shelter as a stray of approximately six months of age, he may or may not have received other rabies vaccines before that.
Administration of the rabies vaccine is a matter of state law. To protect the health of the (human) population from this fatal disease, public health officials in each state enforce laws that decide whether dogs must receive a vaccination against rabies annually, or every three years. California is a three-year state.
He turned away from the goats and toward me each time I said “Off!” Our daily “off” practice is paying, um, off.
The rabies vaccine causes the greatest number of adverse reactions of the most common vaccines that dogs are given. As a result, owners of chronically ill dogs, or those who have had previous vaccine reactions, might want to consider applying for a rabies waiver. However, Otto is a young, healthy dog, and we live in an area where skunks, bats, raccoons, and other wildlife carriers of rabies are common. Unvaccinated feral cats, too, are quite common in this area. Skunks and feral cats were both living under our house before we moved in, and Otto patrols our property nightly to prevent intrusions by these potential carriers of disease. I felt fine about arranging for a three-year rabies vaccine.
Big surprise Since this was only Otto’s second trip to a veterinarian (and I brought him to a different clinic than the one I brought him to after I adopted him), I came equipped with a bait bag and a lot of Otto’s favorite treats: cut-up hot dogs. I gave him lots of treats for sits, downs, and stands, keeping him distracted from the mewing cat in a carrier across the waiting room.
My friend doled out crackers for all the dogs and goats. Otto was polite, but after hot dogs, the crackers were not yummy enough to hold his interest.
When the cat and her family were called into the exam room, I took Otto over to the scale in the waiting room, and although it took a lot of treats to get him to step on it, I was finally able to see Otto’s current weight. It was a big surprise! When I adopted him last June, Otto weighed 44 pounds, and it has not seemed to me that he’s grown very much. He lost a little puppy flab, and he’s put on more muscle, but he doesn’t seem significantly bigger than when I got him. In fact, he’s 20 pounds heavier!
This wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that I’ve been giving him heartworm preventative for dogs that weigh from 25 to 50 pounds; he should have been receiving a higher dose. I bought a new supply of the larger dose.
I adjust the amount of dry dog food that I feed Otto based on the amount of exercise he is getting and on how his weight looks. I give him a little less on the days when we don’t manage to go out for a long walk or hard run, and give him a bit more on the days when he burns more calories. And when he looks a little heavy, I reduce his portions a bit more. This is pretty unscientific, but the vet who examined him agreed that his weight looks good; he is healthy.
Getting his goat Otto’s weight gain was my surprise of the month. Meeting a pair of goats was his!
We’ve passed horses on walks before, and his response to them was decidedly ho-hum. So I really didn’t expect Otto’s agitated reaction to the goats.
I recently started going for mountain bike rides with a new friend, Leonora. We’ve met on the trails near my house before, and one recent Saturday, Leonora proposed a ride from her house, which is located about a dozen miles out of town, and higher up in the foothills than the town of Oroville. She also invited me to bring Otto, so he could play with her dogs; they could all hang out together in her quarter-acre, fenced dog run while we went riding. Otto gets along especially well with three-year-old Matilda. He’s slightly less crazy about Leonora’s newest dog, a five-month-old mixed-breed pup named Lena, and he pretty much ignores tiny S’mores, a Chihuahua.
The behavior of the goats, as much as Otto’s continued interest in them, tells me that he should be watched carefully around them for some time to come.
When we got to Leonora’s house, Otto was so glad to see the dogs that he failed to notice the goats for probably the first hour that we were there. Suddenly I heard a loud, “Wooo, woo woo woo!” Recognizing Otto’s “watchdog” bark, I ran around the corner of Leonora’s house to see two very agitated goats and one very aroused Otto facing each other across a wire mesh fence. All three animals had all the hair on their backs standing straight up; I didn’t know goats did that, too!
The goats are familiar with Leonora’s dogs; they even play and are affectionate with gentle Matilda. But they took an immediate exception to Otto; there was something about him that just looked like trouble to them.
One thing that I have learned is that you never know when an opportunity to teach your dog something new will arise, so it’s best to always carry treats. I had the benefit of a bait bag full of cut-up hot dogs, so in a clear voice, I said “Otto! Off!” And because we practice this exercise practically every day, he immediately looked away from the goats and started trotting toward me for the reward he knew was forthcoming. Jackpot! What a good dog. I gave him a steady stream of hot dog bits and praise, and then we headed back to the goat pen to work a little more.
The goats were still on red alert, so Leonora headed into the pen with Matilda, to pet and calm them. If it seemed that Otto might try to attack the goats, I would have put him on-leash, but given that he responded so well to my “off” cue, I felt I would be able to control him well enough to avoid real trouble.
I was so proud of him. I allowed him to approach the fence to get a closer look, and I said “Off!” if he barked or rushed at the goats. Each time I said “Off!” he turned to me for a treat, and even seemed to put his fur down and forget about the strange hoofed animals for a few seconds.
After a few minutes, Leonora came out of the pen and started handing out crackers to all the animals, canine and caprine (the latter means goats; I just learned that). The goats calmed down, and all the dogs sat politely for their crackers. After a few treats, Otto apparently decided that crackers weren’t that great, and he broke ranks to approach the fence again. However, as before, he turned away the moment I said “Off!” and looked to me for some more hot dogs. I decided to end the day’s lesson on that note, and took him back up to the house. The goats still didn’t trust him, and I wouldn’t at this point, either. But I think we made good progress for his first “getting along with livestock” lesson.
To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid subscriber. Sign in
If you are logged in but cannot access this content, a) your subscription may have expired; b) you may have duplicate accounts (emails) in our system. Please check your account status hereorcontact customer service.
Immediate access to this article and 20+ years of archives.
Recommendations for the best dog food for your dog.
Dry food, homemade diets and recipes, dehydrated and raw options, canned food and more.
Brands, formulations and ingredients all searchable in an easy-to-use, searchable database.
Plus, you’ll receive training and care guidance to keep your dog healthy and happy. You’ll feed with less stress…train with greater success…and know you are giving your dog the care he deserves.
Subscribenow and save 72%! Its like getting 8 issues free!
I wish they would stick to reviewing cars and vacuum cleaners and stay away from dogs. That was my first response to the short articles about pet food that appeared in the March 2009 issue of Consumer Reports. People keep asking me about the articles – maybe because WDJ has been described as the Consumer Reports of the dog world? That used to make me happy, but now, I don’t know.
288
In case you missed it, here are the highlights of that magazine’s coverage:
•Expensive dog food is not necessarily better than cheap dog food.
•Homemade diets are more likely to make your dog sick than inexpensive dog food.
•Buying foods that contain certain ingredients is less important than “overall nutrient profile.”
Who came up with these pearls of wisdom? They weren’t named; they were only described as eight experts in animal nutrition from seven top veterinary schools. Well, that’s part of the problem right there. The giants of the pet food industry make huge investments in the education of veterinary nutritionists; Consumer Reports, to its credit, did note that seven of the eight experts have received some funding from the pet food industry. It’s no wonder that the best advice these experts can offer sounds as if it was written by industry itself. What I want to know is, who was that eighth expert? Would he or she like to write for WDJ?
For what it’s worth, this is how I interpreted the article’s main points:
•For the past decade, sales of dog foods that are considered “premium” (expensive ingredients, high-priced) have been growing faster than the sales of cheap foods. The makers of cheap foods spend a lot of money on feeding trials that prove that dogs can survive just fine on cheap food; they see no reason for people to be buying more and more expensive food.
•Homemade diets take far too long to explain. People are not smart enough to feed themselves properly, much less dogs. Owners should leave thinking to the experts.
•Don’t look at the ingredients list! It could burn your eyes! Instead, look at the column of numbers under “Guaranteed Analysis.” See? It all adds up to 100 percent. So stop worrying!
Note: I mention two different brands of vacuum in the article on page 20. Don’t be influenced by this! Consumer Reports is still absolutely the best place to find reliable, independent information about vacuums. And cars, too, I hear.
For almost any challenging dog event there are at least five relatively easy things you can do to defuse the crisis and reduce the likelihood of a return engagement of the unwanted behavior. “Action Plan” is a new column that will offer five simple solutions for one common undesirable dog behavior. Feel free to suggest your favorites!
Here are five things to do about the dog who chews up your shoes:
1. Breathe
Even if your dog still has your $600 pair of leather Gladiator sandals in his mouth, take three deep breaths to calm yourself. Then grab a high-value treat out of the plastic container of treats that you keep handy in every room of the house – you do, right? – and quietly trade him for the shoe. Tell him he’s a good boy when he gives up the sandal for the treat, and absolutely resist the urge to punish him! You’ll get your shoe back faster, with less damage, if you cheerfully trade for it rather than chasing him around. If you punish him, it’ll be that much harder to get the next shoe back. (See “Thanks for Sharing,” Whole Dog Journal September 2001.)
2. “Dog-Proof”
…the house for items you really don’t want him to chew. Put your shoes in a closet and close the door. It really can be that simple. Often, management is the answer, rather than training.
3. Restrict
Limit your dog to smaller, more dog-proofable areas if you can’t dog-proof the whole house: Prevent your dog’s access to any areas where tempting, chewable footwear might be left lying about. Use baby gates, tethers, doors, and leashes to restrict his activities to dog-proofed areas or, if necessary, to the “right under your nose” zone. (See “Upper Level Management,” October 2001.)
4. Get Him Some Appropriate Chew Things
“Appropriate” means things that are safe, reasonably healthful, and that he likes. If he doesn’t chew what you’ve already bought him, keep searching until you find things he does chew. Not every dog loves hard plastic ersatz bones. Remember that leather shoes are just treated animal hide – not so very different from a cow ear or any of the other animal-parts chewies now on the market. A Pizzle makes a fine alternative to shoe leather. Stuffed Kongs are high on the “appropriate chew things” list. You can create stuffing recipes to tempt all but the most finicky of chewers.
If you have a dedicated chewer get him a black Kong – they are the toughest. Thick raw carrots can also make great chew toys.
5. Increase His Exercise
That’s mental exercise, by the way, as well as physical exercise. Unless you’re walking a marathon, remember that an on-leash walk is a mere exercise hors d’oeurve for a dog. A walk is a nice social outing, but exercise means when you get done he plops to the floor, stretches out on his side, happily panting, for a long nap.
So, it’s a rousing game of fetch, with you standing on top of the hill and tossing the ball down to the bottom. It’s an invigorating round of tug, or an off-leash hike in the hills with your dog running circles around you. Mental exercise is positive training that encourages your dog to think. My personal favorite for mental exercise is shaping. (See “The Shape of Things to Come,” March 2006; and “A Puzzling Activity,” June 2008.)
Entering its sixth season, the Animal Planet TV channels Its Me or the Dog takes dog trainer Victoria Stilwell into the homes of frustrated couples and families to help them troubleshoot issues with their problem pooches. Broadcast in 21 countries, the show was based for its first four seasons in Stilwells native United Kingdom, while the past two seasons have seen the show move to U.S. soil, taping in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
photo courtesy Victoria stilwell
288
Stilwell is also author of Its Me or the Dog: How to Have the Perfect Pet (Hyperion Books, 2007) and Fat Dog Slim: How to Have a Healthy, Happy Pet (Collins, 2007). Stilwells mission is to bring her positive training message to the masses. We had time to sit down with her in Atlanta, in between West Coast swings, to talk about her work.
Whole Dog Journal: How did you come to positive training?
I remember when I was first starting to learn and I was walking dogs and teaching them to heel. The way that we used to teach them to heel was to give them a leash jerk, and then the dog would stay by your side for a little bit. But then I thought, Wait a second. What does this word heel mean to a dog? It means, I say the word heel, and then it means leash jerk! The dogs not learning to walk close to me because he wants to, hes learning to walk close to me because he fears whats going to happen to him if he doesnt. I have to say this was a long, long, time ago. I thought, This is bizarre, this is stupid; surely theres a smarter way.
I learned from a behaviorist who was very mixed using traditional and positive training and then I met some more positive reinforcement trainers in the U.K. and I said Thats it! Thats it! That feels much more comfortable, that makes sense, to build a relationship thats based on cooperation, not dominance. Much better!
Describe your training philosophy.
I believe the best kind of leaders lead without force. In the beginning when I first started learning, I learned sort of a mixture. I never felt comfortable using that kind of approach (traditional methods); this was about 15 years ago when I first got into training. I realized the dogs actually responded much, much better when you used positive reinforcement. You reward a behavior you like, and theres a chance of that behavior being repeated. Its as simple as that!
I didnt like jerking a dog on a leash, and I didnt like yelling. I used to use quite loud sounds sound aversion that I dont use now. I learned different methods from different people, and took the stuff I liked. The discipline now that I like to use is guidance. Its constructive discipline, not destructive. I would say Im not violently positive [laughs] because I do believe that there has to be discipline; I do believe at certain times you have to say no to your dog. The discipline that I use now is a vocal sound as an interrupter of behavior, a time-out (removal), or ignoring the behavior.
Who are your mentors or from whom do you take inspiration?
Dr. Ian Dunbar. Patricia McConnell big time; I just love her books, shes Gods gift to training. Suzanne Clothier I think shes a real pioneer, shes intense, she has a mind that puts all of our minds to shame. Shes an incredible person. If anybody should pick out the Obama family puppy, she should. Jean Donaldson. Ive learned a lot from her. Ive also got some fabulous trainer friends here [in Atlanta], wonderful people. And thats what I love as well. I would say for any trainers, try and get with other trainers because its so wonderful to be able to talk through ideas.
For example, one dog on my program, a Boxer, who was on the first program we filmed here in the U.S., I had three days with this dog, which was not long enough. He was very dog-aggressive, very insecure, very unconfident. By the end of the program, we could only get him to a certain point, so were still working with him. Unfortunately, after filming, he blew out two knees, so he was in a crate for six months, basically. So were back working with him again now, and my trainer friends, we all do it together. We go and its two hours of absolutely inspiring, stimulating, exciting work; I love it. I love when we train together.
And the trainers I hang out with, we are open to seeing other things. We might not agree with them, but we are open to seeing. There are a couple of incredibly good trainers I know who work with very difficult dogs, and they use remote [collars]. I was open to going and seeing this method. Now, whether you agree with it or disagree with it I dont really like it but Im open to seeing it. And I think thats the mark of a good trainer; you must know what else is out there in order to be able to form your own opinion.
Do you see a general trend toward positive or more traditional (compulsion-based) methods?
In England, theres much more positive reinforcement. There are still some traditional and compulsion trainers there, but I think theyre much further ahead in England when it comes to training dogs. Whereas here in the United States, Im absolutely shocked at the amount of traditional/compulsion trainers still training this way, who truly believe and validate what theyre doing. My dogs well behaved [due to compulsion-based methods]. Im going to get my dog to do what I want it to; Im going to make my dog well behaved.
I see it in trainers who have been training for many, many years who do not want to change their ways, but also I have to say . . . some TV programs that are now very popular have set dog training back 40 years. No TV program is perfect. Surely theres stuff with mine that maybe I would change. For example, we didnt show more process, so it seems like a quick fix.
But, on the whole, the positive reinforcement message is getting out. There are two camps; there is a battle going on and I will fight it. Any person who trains in the dominance style of traditional training does not have my vote. Its the idea that if your animal misbehaves you discipline it, you dominate it, you make it submissive toward you so that it doesnt misbehave anymore. But theres no emphasis on relationship.
Why not use aversives, especially when they work?
They work to a point. Quick fixes very quickly come unstuck, thats my motto. I would rather my dog follows me and does stuff for me because she wants to, rather than because shes made to. And unfortunately, there are people who dont care. As long as their dog behaves, they dont care [what method they use]. But I care and I think that we, who domesticated these animals, wed better do our utmost to make their lives as rewarding as we can because we brought them into our homes. Theyre living, breathing, essential beings, and they need our support to live in our domestic world.
How do you feel about taking on the challenge of re-training the worlds dog owners not to use force and violence?
I feel very honored by the challenge. Im by no means the best trainer in the world, Ive never claimed to be. I just had an idea for a TV program; I wanted to take my positive reinforcement message out to the masses and it worked. I feel very honored, but Im a bit of a fighter. And people who know me know that Im a fighter, and Im going to win this battle.
How do you educate people about positive training? What do they want to hold on to about traditional training?
I tell them, first of all, if you are learning, when you went to school, what kind of schooling would you have preferred to receive? Would you prefer to learn by getting gold stars for working really well, or would you prefer to learn by being punished if you werent? In nursery school, I remember getting a ruler on my hand! I was three years old, and I remember that. And I hated it, and I hated the teachers, and I couldnt wait to leave and I would cry and pretend I was sick to my Mom so I didnt have to go. Then I went to a new school, and it was reward-based, with wonderful teachers, and I wanted to go to school, I wanted to learn, and I learned much more! Thats the kind of education that I wanted to receive. And its your responsibility to give your dog a good canine education.
But lets get down to the very crux of the problem: people dont have time. So if the shock works on their dog, thats bloody well going to do it. They dont have time.
Many people say, Give me something that works quickly. Which is why the CM (Cesar Millan) program . . . its edited beautifully to make it look so wonderful, but its interesting because some of the cases on there that are labeled successes, are so not successful to a trainers eye; were howling at the television. This dog is freaked out, yet its labeled a success, and thats what people are watching, thats what people are thinking. And unfortunately, people do not have time to read, they dont want to be educated, its a fast society; get my dog to behave and thats enough. And thats what were battling.
That begs the question of why, in our time-crunched society, are people getting dogs?
Companionship. [But sometimes] its a pleasure for when they want it, and obviously, a lot of it is a fashion statement. I always say to people when they want to get a dog: What do you think you can offer the dog? If a dog was going to choose to come into your home, what experiences do you think it would have? How do you think its going to feel, living with you? Tell me about you? Do you shout a lot? Do you sleep a lot? Tell me about you. And then see what kind of dog might be able to live with you. And if you think you dont have time, and youve got five kids well, dont do it.
How do you feel about trying to educate people about the science of behavior modification versus what people think of as training making the dog just do something, as quickly as possible?
I ask them, what kind of leader do you want to be? Do you want your dog to look up to you and do things because he wants to, or do things because he fears you? You choose. If you want the former, Ill work with you. If you want the latter, Im not your person and Ill caution you against it. Do you want to have a relationship built on cooperation, or one built on domination? You can go down the other route, its your prerogative, but I feel sorry for your dog. And I feel sorry ultimately for you because I think youre going to encounter a lot of problems with your dog in the future.
Are people able to get their brains around what you are saying?
They really are. I can be pretty blunt, but Im also compassionate.
Those of us who use positive training can get frustrated when we see someone using aversives. How do we convince someone that there is another way?
Inc.
288
If you fight fire with fire, youll get burned. The person will get irritated.
I try to explain, Hey, theres a different way, and its exciting! I was on a beach in Florida, and a guy was walking his Golden Retriever and it was lunging at other dogs, and he would slam it down, put it in an alpha roll and stand over it, then hed get up, walk, and then another dog would go past, and the dog would lunge, and he would slam it on the ground. My husband said to me, Oh no, please, dont go over there.
But its like stopping a raging bull. I said, Im not going to go over there and slam him. Im going to go over, introduce myself, say who I am, and tell him theres a better way. And I worked with him for a half an hour, and we had the dog not lunging at other dogs that were walking past. And the owner said, Oh my gosh! Thats amazing! Its not amazing, but for people who havent seen it before, it is.
What about when people object to training with food?
Oh, Im bribing my dog. No youre not, youre giving incentives! I say, look, you dont have to use food! Find out what your dogs most powerful motivators are: food, toys, play, praise, or something else? Lets find out. Many people think positive reinforcement trainers only use food, but we dont. I reinforce everything all the time, but Ill do it with praise, and the next time with food, then the next time with praise, then Ill pet the dog; I vary it. But I believe that we need to give feedback.Your expectation is there will always continue to be rewards of some sort?
Yes! Mark it, as you like to be marked, Oh, you look nice today, or That was a really good job! Mark it, it makes them feel good. Lets make our dogs feel good about what they are doing!
Ive heard you say that people who train dogs need to love not only dogs, but people.
Absolutely, and I do love people, and I think that is the most important thing. Because if you do not have the ability to change the persons mind, to encourage the person to change, to encourage the person to train her dog, and to carry on training, youve failed. Show them that they can get results the other way and then people have an Oh my gosh moment: I couldnt believe that my dog would do this! and the dogs looking much happier. And the relationship begins to grow.
So do you come at it with the approach of dealing with the people, first?You bet. Always. It surprises me how many trainers out there are not people people. I dont think you can be a good trainer without being a people person. What Ive found thats so important when I go into a home, I get the person to talk to me. I dont just go in even though it seems that way in the program. We have a day, and Im looking, Im observing all day and then I get the person to talk. Im listening, listening, listening, and get the real story. You find so many clues from what people have to say. Finally, theyve got someone whos listening to them.
Sometimes people cry, sometimes they get very angry. And then I always tell people, You know what? You can trust me. Ive got your back. Ive got your dogs back. Even though this is a TV program, Im going to do everything in my power to make sure youre in a better place when I leave. And that immediately puts people at ease. Theyre pretty shocked that, after the program, Youre going to keep in contact with me? Yeah, youre a client! We dont just go away.
What are the most common mistakes you see people making when they do use positive training techniques?
You can teach obedience training very quickly with positive training. But when youre trying to change a behavior, thats what people dont understand; they want quick results. Traditional training methods suppress the behavior; thats what theyre designed to do. They dont change the way the dog feels. Whereas positive training changes the way a dog feels inside. For anybody, human or dog, making that emotional change can sometimes take time.
I put it in human terms. I say, look, if somebody is suffering from anxiety, and theyre going to a psychiatrist, do they go for one session? No they dont, they go for many. And even at the end of that, they might not be 100 percent. But theyll have coping mechanisms, and they begin to feel different. And some will do a complete turnaround, others might just do three-quarters. Im not equating dogs to humans, obviously, but you sometimes have to use a human example, otherwise sometimes people dont get it!
But when I explain that a dogs brain is similarly wired to a humans in terms of emotion, they go, Oh, yeah, it does take a long time to change emotion in humans, so I guess it can take a long time to change emotion in dogs if the dogs brain is like a humans. Thats fascinating, I didnt know that! Understanding that positive training takes time, but ultimately, youre going to have a dog who feels better! Your dog is happier, and your life is made easier. Its a win-win situation for everybody.
What do you think about the behavior problems we see today? Do you think we have so many more canine behavior problems than in the old days?
I think there have always been a lot of behavior problems, but dogs had been working. That was what a dog was for. And now, dogs are living with the pressures of our weird domestic society. They cant pee and poop in the house; they have to do it outside. And they cant bark, and they cant tell another dog to go away, cause theyll get told not to, even though theyre scared. And theyre having to meet other dogs every day, even though they might not be sociable, and then youve got kids and other people . . . its a lot of pressure! No wonder!
Plus, the ridiculous industry of puppy mills, which is just breeding dogs with no attention to temperament. Its a money machine, so were getting messed-up dogs out there with anxieties and medical issues.
Thats where America is so backward. Im sorry! Get with the program! Regulate these puppy mills, shut them down! If you want a puppy industry, regulate it. I dont believe there should be an industry at all, but if theres going to be one, get with the program, get smart. Same in Britain. Even though theyre not allowed to sell pets in pet stores anymore, you can still get puppies online.
What is the most common behavior problem you encounter today?
A lot more anxieties, a lot more separation anxiety. A sense of abandonment. There are a lot of reactive dogs out there. Temperament-wise, we are seeing a lot more dogs with aggression issues because of the way theyre bred. Thats very worrying. Also, were seeing a lot of aggressive dogs from people who have trained in the traditional style. I dont care what you label aggression protection, whatever I believe aggression comes from an underlying insecurity. A confident dog doesnt feel the need to aggress. It comes from an underlying insecurity.
What are some of the most rewarding or difficult cases youve worked on?
Junie B, a very aggressive little Poodle [U.S. season one]. Junie B hated boys, hated men, loved the girls. Now Junie B hangs out with the little boy in the family and his friends, shes letting the husband take her for walks, shell voluntarily jump up into his lap and go to sleep. Its so beautiful.
Also, two pit bulls I worked with, belonging to a guy named Victor [U.S. season two]. One was dog-aggressive. Victor was so overwhelmed, very emotional, and now the change has been incredible. Both of these were people who really worked. They were passionate about their dogs and worked at it. And that feels so good.
Both families, they didnt relish being on TV. Its funny, because a lot of people say, Oh its because they want to be on TV, but a lot of the families dont. They see it as an opportunity. Were going to air our dirty linen and were going to do it because our dogs are worth it.
We had a neglected pit bull-mix, out of control. On the day of observation, I went in there, and I said I dont believe you should have this dog, you should not keep this dog. This dog is not going to be successful in your home. Lets work to get it to a point where hes adoptable and re-home him. For those people, I knew that I had to get the dog out of there. Whether its a TV program or not, I will not allow a dog to continue in an abusive or a neglectful situation. I think sometimes that there are people who get dogs, and its the wrong thing. As long as they can work hard to re-home, think whats better for the dog.
You speak a lot about rescue; why is this important to you?
I started in rescue; I was a volunteer, Ive volunteered all my life in rescue. I remember when I was a volunteer dog walker at a shelter however many years ago that was, Im getting so old! There was this little black dog, terrified of people, and then this child came along and she started petting this dog. And I was saying Stop! and this dog just loved her. And I went, Oh my gosh, youre terrified of adults, but not children! That was when I realized that I loved this. So Ive done rescue now for 15-16 years. I liked to see how dogs developed and how from a horrendous abandonment situation they would then go to a new home.
I wish we didnt have to have rescue shelters but we always will. Helping is something valuable you can do for your community. You can do so many things you can donate things, you can donate money, or you can bring in blankets, toys. You can take dogs for a walk, or you can just go and hang out with a dog. We get our volunteers at PAWS Atlanta (a private shelter in Atlanta) to take the dogs out and just hang out. The dogs learn to be calm when they need to. I do rescue work when I can, which is not that much these days, at PAWS Atlanta, and I work with three other volunteer trainers there.
In addition to rescue, Im passionate about getting puppy mills closed down or regulated. Im going to be marching in Pennsylvania demonstrating against the puppy mills up there for Puppy Mill Awareness Day in September.
Im also setting up a foundation, which Im very excited about. Its Victoria Stilwells Think Dog Foundation. Were going to support smaller shelters, and also help children with disabilities with assistance dogs. The foundation is going to help give out money to those various groups, and we expect to launch it in early summer 2009.
Lisa Rodier lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband and two Bouviers.
The product on the left is an example of low-quality chews: Thin (too easy to chew), and filled with small pieces that can be easily chewed off and consumed. We are aware of a SINGLE manufacturer who makes rawhide we would recommend: Wholesome Hide, who makes the chew seen on the right out of a THICK, single hide. It takes most dogs days and days to reduce this roll to a size that can be swallowed and should be taken away.
RAWHIDE CHEW SAFETY OVERVIEW
Actively supervise your dog when he’s chewing a chew. To reduce the risk of choking or bowel obstructions, take it away from him if it starts shredding pieces that you wouldn’t want him to swallow whole, or when he gets close to the end.
Look for chews that are made from a single, thick sheet of rawhide.
Don’t buy chews that smell putrid, or that have no odor at all.
Avoid rawhide products that are unnaturally white; extreme whiteness indicates extensive chemical treatment.
There are an infinite number of things in pet supply stores that are intended for our dogs’ chewing pleasure. I wouldn’t buy a great many of them for any dog of mine. Why? Because many are too hard, inviting broken teeth. Some are splintery, risking perforated intestines and other internal injuries.
I wouldn’t eat plastic for any number of reasons, and I don’t allow my dog to chew up and swallow bits of plastic-based chew toys, either. Animal-based chews seem more natural, but some (especially things like pigs’ ears) are dried to a level of brittleness that seems to invite internal injuries when the shards are crunched into small pieces and swallowed. It hurts my throat just thinking about it!
Be aware that the vast majority of rawhide products on the market are very low quality and present an array of dangers to your dog. There isn’t a single product in most stores we would buy for our dogs.
Chews made from dried tendons offer what I consider to be the ideal chewy consistency, but can’t be found in a large enough size to ensure that my large dog will be forced to chew them slowly, rather than swallow chunks that he could choke on. Dried “pizzles” (made from beef and other animal penises) also offer an ideal consistency, but I admit that I find them (and certain other chewy but identifiable anatomical parts, like pig snouts) too gross to handle.
That leaves me looking at the rawhide chews. Rawhide is made from dried animal skin, so it is stiff, but quickly softens under the influence of a dog’s saliva and the mechanical action of the dog’s jaws: no sharp shards! Purchased in the right form, it takes a lot of work for the dog to chew off little bits, so it presents a lower risk of choking or digestive problems than many other chews. It’s generally not smelly, messy, or overtly disgusting to touch or look upon, even though it’s an animal product. And because it’s an animal product, most dogs are immediately drawn to it and enjoy chewing it.
As attractive as rawhide is as a canine chew item, it’s not uniformly safe or wholesome. Rawhide comes in many forms, and not all of them are appropriate for your dog. Here’s how to identify the best rawhide chews. Please note that top-quality chews may not be available in every pet supply store you happen to visit; you may have to shop around or order online from reputable businesses to find reliably safe, good products.
What is Rawhide?
Most people are surprised to learn that rawhide is a by-product of the leather industry -not the beef industry. It might seem logical that, in a beef-producing and beef-eating country like the United States, we’d be practically rolling in rawhide for dogs; in fact, there is currently a glut of beef hides produced here. But U.S.-produced rawhide is in very short supply. How can this be?
As I said before rawhide is a by-product of the leather industry; its production starts in a tannery -and tanneries are rare in the United States today. One rawhide company representative I interviewed estimated that there are about 30 in the whole country; Mexico, in comparison, may have in excess of 3,000.
Tanneries use an enormous amount of water -and thereby create an enormous amount of waste water -to process beef hides. The cost of all that water, in addition to environmental laws, neighbor complaints, and the relatively higher cost of a relatively unpleasant business have all contributed to today’s shortage of tanneries in this country. According to Cattle Network, an information resource for the cattle industry, the U.S. exports more than $1 billion worth of hides annually to China alone; we are China’s largest source of hides from cattle, sheep, and pigs. Hides from American cattle fetch top dollar; the breeds of cattle here and our seasonally cool climate combine to produce a thick, consistent hide that, in turn, produces top-quality leather.
You can easily see that these chews are made of tiny chunks of rawhide that have been glued together and dyed. It should be obvious that these will be easily chewed and consumed – that’s NOT what we want when we give our dogs a chew. Don’t buy products like this.
Cattle hides are shipped from slaughterhouses to tanneries for processing. Like any perishable meat product, the hides should be handled in a manner that prevents or minimizes decay. Hides that will be processed quickly, in this country, are generally iced and delivered to the tannery within no more than a few days. The vast majority of hides, however, go directly from the kill floor into a brine-filled trough; the highly concentrated salt solution arrests any protein-destroying organisms. The hides “cure” in the brine bath for about 12 to 18 hours before they are packed and shipped for export.
Of course, exportation takes time -and though the brining process helps slow decay, it can’t prevent it forever. Hides sent to China are typically trucked to ports on the West Coast, where they are packed into containers and loaded onto ships. It may take weeks or months for the hides to reach the tanneries in China and continue the process that turns them into chews for our dogs.
Once at the tannery, the hides are soaked, treated with lime (which helps strip the fat from the hide), de-haired (through physical and a chemical process), and then de-limed (accomplished by numerous water rinses). They are then treated with chemicals that help “puff” the hide, making it easier to split into layers. (“Full-grain” leather is made from unsplit hides.)
The outer layer of the hide is further processed into leather goods -car seats, clothing, and so on. The inner layer is the source of rawhide (and collagen, which is made into gelatin, cosmetics, and glue, among other things). Very thick hides may be split into three or more layers (hence the global popularity of thick American cattle hides).
Rawhide: The Inner Layer
Finally, we’ll talk about what happens at the rawhide dog chew manufacturing facility. In simple terms, the rawhide is washed; sanitized; formed, cut, rolled, and/or shredded and pressed into its final shapes; dried; packaged; and shipped for sale. But the actual simplicity of the process depends on freshness and quality of the rawhide.
Truly fresh hides -those that have been iced and refrigerated and delivered to the rawhide manufacturer within a few days of the source animal’s slaughter -require far less processing with chemicals than aged (and preserved) hides. “Sanitizing” in this case generally means some time in a bath of hydrogen peroxide. Exported hides require more extensive interventions.
Even though the brining process inhibits decay, it doesn’t arrest it altogether, and most exported rawhides are literally black with rot by the time they arrive at the rawhide processor. That means, at a minimum, they have to be bleached to improve their appearance and aroma; if the decay is advanced, they may also be treated with other chemicals and even painted with a coating of titanium oxide to make them appear white and pretty on the pet store shelves.
The global recession has slowed the demand for leather luxury goods; even the formerly strong market for leather for car seats has diminished as car sales have dropped to record lows worldwide. As a result, tanneries are buying fewer hides and producing less leather -which means they have less rawhide to sell to the makers of rawhide dog chews. It’s a bit ironic that these manufacturers are now scrambling to secure rawhide, even as containers of cattle hides have begun to accumulate all over the globe.
More examples of low-quality, thin rolls filled with small chunks of dyed rawhide. Avoid these products!
“Made in the USA”
The freshness factor alone is a good reason to try to buy American-made rawhide chews for your dog. But it’s also true that it’s less likely that illegal or toxic chemicals are used in the products’ manufacturing if the products are made in the United States. Lead, arsenic, mercury, chromium salts, formaldehyde, and other toxic chemicals have been detected in low-quality hides.
Read that label carefully, by the way. The pet product manufacturers are aware that many pet owners see “Made in China” or other indications of foreign manufacture as a red flag, and they are ingenious at finding ways to make their products look as if they were domestically produced. I’ve seen products with American flags on the label that were made overseas. Even the phrases like “made in America” or “made from American beef” are abused; sometimes, the fine print will reveal that what’s meant is Mexico, or South or Central America. There is a difference!
Some companies have made a case for the use of South American (especially Brazilian) beef hides. They say that cattle there are raised on grass, with fewer hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics, resulting in a healthier, more natural rawhide. Their competitors in the U.S. counter that cattle raised in warm, equatorial climates are thinner-skinned -resulting in thinner, less chewy chews -and that foreign manufacturing can be dicey. Both arguments have some merit, which is why I don’t use country of origin as my sole (or even the most important) selection criterion when shopping for dog chews.
We know of only one source for rawhide than we can recommend: Wholesome Hide in Illinois. When Otto was young and an unrelenting chewer (this photo was taken in 2008), these were the only chews that would keep him engaged for long. (Post-adolescence, he hasn’t needed these chews.)
Instead, I look at the thickness of the hide itself (thicker is better, because it will take longer for a dog to chew) and its color. Extremely white hides are unnatural; they have to be bleached and/or painted to appear so white. Natural or lightly bleached rawhides are a light tan, like a manila folder. These less-processed hides retain more of the natural flavor and aroma of the hide. “Basted,” smoked, and decoratively tinted products might be any color (or odor) underneath the coating of (often artificial) dyes and flavors, and so I avoid them.
Speaking of odor: It stands to reason that the dried skin of an animal would naturally present some aroma. However, a rawhide chew really shouldn’t smell rotten or putrid; such an odor could indicate a high bacterial load. On the other hand, neither should a rawhide chew be completely odor-free! This would indicate that the product had been subject to extreme bleaching and chemical treatment.
More Selection Criteria: Form and Function
I admit that I have a strong bias about the form of the rawhide chews I buy for my dog, Otto. I want a chew that will take as much time as possible to chew up, provide a lot of exercise for his jaws, help clean his teeth, make it difficult to ingest a lot of rawhide in any one chewing session, and present the lowest possible risk of choking. These criteria eliminate very many of the rawhide products on the market, which seems silly to me; every rawhide chew should meet these requirements.
So, to start, I won’t buy any rawhide products that have small or intricate pieces. I examine “knotted” products carefully; the best ones are made from a single sheet of rolled and knotted rawhide, whereas inferior products are made with separate, smaller pieces of rawhide forming the knots on the end of a rawhide “roll.” After just a few minutes of chewing, the knots loosen and separate from the roll; these small pieces can be swallowed whole, presenting a serious choking hazard.
Neither do I buy products that are made of shredded and pressed-together tiny bits of rawhide. The makers of good-quality rawhide chews say they use natural (and beneficial) collagen as a binder for these products. But since ingredients panels are not required for these products -which, despite the fact that dogs ingest them, are not considered a food item by the Food & Drug Administration -there is no sure way to know what binding agent has been used as the product’s “glue.”
The rawhide products that seem to best fit my selection criteria are the “rolled” products, made from a square of rawhide that’s been rolled up like a newspaper and dried. As the owner of a big dog, I look for the longest rolls I can find, so they last as long as possible before they are chewed to a length that my dog could possibly swallow. Then I take them away. Owners of smaller dogs could probably start with shorter rolls, but what’s the point? The longer the roll, the longer it will last.
The first thing I look at when buying a rawhide roll is the end of the roll. That’s the only way to see whether it has been made from a single, long sheet of rawhide -or whether a smaller sheet has been wrapped around a lot of bits and fragments of rawhide. As with the knots that are separate from the roll on some knotted products, these bits will be quickly released from their rawhide sheath as the dog starts to chew. And what do dogs do with small chunks of edible matter? Most dogs swallow any chunk of rawhide they can chew free, whether it is soft and safe or sharp and dangerous.
Until recently, I would dig through every bin, and examine every package of rawhide rolls until I found some that appeared to be made from just a couple of large sheets of rawhide each. Then I discovered a company that makes each of its rolls from a single long, thick piece of rawhide. I’ve never seen rawhide rolls as nice as those made by Wholesome Hide.
Quality Rawhides are Worth the Expense
I’ve also never seen any other rawhide chews that are as expensive as these chews! Good quality rawhide rolls usually sell in stores for about $6-7 for a three-pack; a single roll of the largest size that Wholesome Hide sells for that much in some stores! (Prices are generally lower online and in bulk.)
However, the Wholesome Hide rolls last much longer than most rawhide chews; it takes Otto up to a week (chewing for an hour a day or so) to chew one down to the point that I take it away for safety reasons. As expensive as these rolls are, however, I’ve found that they are less expensive than leather work boots, redwood decking, and garden hoses! It behooves me to make sure that my dog has a variety of safe chew items available to him at all times, and rawhide has provided one of the most reliably time-consuming, trouble-free chews he enjoys. Don’t get me wrong; I wouldn’t want rawhide, no matter the quality, to be a staple of any dog’s daily diet. But using top-quality rawhide as one of his regular jaw-exercisers keeps him happily occupied.
Wholesome Hide makes its rawhide chews in Chicago, from beef cows raised here in the United States. They are sold in select pet supply stores around the country, and available from the below Internet retailer:
There may be – there must be! – other companies…in the United States that make natural rawhide chews that meet all of our selection criteria. If you find products that meet this description, and that are not mentioned here, will you let us know?
Always Supervise Chew Time
Rawhide chews — of even the finest quality — may not be safe for every dog. Rawhide
(and most other chews) are not appropriate or safe for dogs who have an overly
aggressive chewing style, who tend to swallow large chunks instead of gnawing them smaller and smaller, and those who tend to “guard and gulp” their toys or chews to prevent anyone from taking them. Many vets have seen at least one dog with a big piece of rawhide stuck in its mouth or esophagus, or causing an upper airway obstruction or gastrointestinal distress.
We recommend buying oversized rawhide chews for every dog. The chew should be too big to fit entirely in the dog’s mouth. As soon as it’s been chewed to a size that the dog could swallow, it should be taken away.
Even dogs with a safe chewing style can experience stomach upset from ingesting rawhide. Some only have problems when they eat too much; others seem to react to chews of certain origin (indicating a response to the chemicals used in the manufacturing process, perhaps).
If your dog has experienced more than one problem from chewing or eating a QUALITY rawhide product, and you’ve already increased your supervision and the quality of the chews you buy, you should choose a non-rawhide chewing alternative. Rather than giving super-aggressive chewers harder things to destroy, we’d switch to non-destructible toys stuffed with food and things like the Lickimat, that engage the dog over time (but without chewing)
Years ago, I had high hopes for participating in dock diving sport with my now-9-year-old dog, Woody. But it turned out that my high-jumping, strong-swimming dog absolutely hates getting water in his ears!
