We like canned food for dogs. It’s more expensive than dry, but good varieties of canned food are arguably healthier than comparable dry foods, due to the higher inclusion of animal proteins and the higher moisture levels. Both of these things are closer to the dog’s evolutionary diet than dry diets that contain a lot of grain. Some dog owners stopped buying wet dog food following the spring 2007 recalls of foods that contained melamine and/or cyanuric acid. Given the fear and lack of information in the early days of the recall, this made sense. Now, however, we know more about the factors that led to the recalls, and we feel more certain than ever that wet foods offer health benefits to many dogs – and that our recommendations for choosing wet dog foods can help owners identify the safest, healthiest products available. Benefits
Wet foods offer your dog a few advantages over kibble:
• At levels of 70 to 80 percent moisture, canned foods are beneficial to dogs with kidney ailments.
• All that moisture can help a dog who is on a diet feel full faster – as long as you choose low-fat products. (Most wet foods are higher in fat than their kibbled counterparts.) High-moisture foods are also much healthier for dogs with kidney problems.
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• Preservatives are not added to canned or “pouched” foods. Their oxygen-free packaging helps them retain their nutrient value longer – two years or more. Artificial colors and chemical palatants are also rarely used in wet foods.
• High-quality wet foods contain far more animal protein (the dog’s evolutionary diet staple) than dry foods (which contain a high proportion of grains and other non-meat ingredients). More of the amino acids required by dogs are naturally supplied by animal proteins than plant-sourced proteins.
• Many dogs digest high-quality wet foods with fewer problems (such as gas, vomiting, and diarrhea) than dry foods.
• Wet foods with a high meat content are generally highly palatable, which helps when feeding thin, sick, or picky dogs.
Whole Dog Journal’s selection criteria How do we determine whether a wet food is a high-quality product? First, we look at the label. Not the front! Not the pictures, colors, cute names, or pretty logos! We look at the ingredients list for the following:
• We look for foods with whole meat, fish, or poultry as the first ingredient. This means that by weight, there is more of this ingredient than anything else in the food. Wet foods are generally around 78 percent to 82 percent moisture.
There are some good wet foods with water (or broth) first on the list, but since fresh meat is so high in moisture, most top-notch foods list an animal protein (fresh meat) first on the list, and water or broth (required for processing) in the second or third position. The point is to look for products that contain as much meat as possible. There has been a resurgence of popularity of wet foods that contain nothing but meat, water, and a vitamin/mineral supplement; many of these are labelled with a “95% meat” claim. And yes, they are complete, balanced diets. (Remember; dogs have no dietary requirement for carbohydrates!)
• If grains or vegetables are used, we look for the use of whole grains and vegetables, rather than processed fragments. This means we prefer foods that contain “rice” rather than “rice flour, rice bran, brewer’s rice,” etc. Also, if grains are used in a wet product, we sure don’t want to see a lot of them! Even a product with an animal protein first on its ingredients list may contain more grain than meat if it has several grains or grain “fragments” on the label, too.
• We reject foods containing fat or protein not identified by species. “Animal fat” and “meat proteins” are euphemisms for low-quality, low-priced mixed ingredients of uncertain origin.
• We reject any food containing meat by-products or poultry by-products. There is a wide variation in the quality and type of by-products that are available to pet food producers. And there is no way for the average dog owner (or anyone else) to find out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether the by-products used are carefully handled, chilled, and used fresh within a day or two of slaughter (as some companies have told us), or the cheapest, lowest-quality material found on the market.
There is some, but much less variation in the quality of whole-meat products; they are too expensive to be handled carelessly.
• We eliminate any food containing sugar or other sweetener. Again, a food that contains quality meats shouldn’t need additional palatants to entice dogs.
• We eliminate foods containing artificial colors, flavors, or added preservatives. Fortunately, these are rare in wet foods!
Other ingredients Some ominous-sounding chemicals in a dog food turn out to be a source of a particular vitamin or mineral. Generally, all the vitamins and minerals on a good label are grouped together at the end of the ingredients list.
Wet foods sometimes contain some sort of thickener or binder. Various types of “gum” (such as guar gum, from the seed of the guar plant, and carrageenan gum, from seaweed) are common thickeners. Whole grains, potatoes, and sweet potatoes also can be used to thicken wet food. Sometimes a carb fragment serves a dual role as a thickener or binder and a low-cost source of protein; think wheat gluten. Ahem.
What about products that contain a long, long list of vegetables and herbs and nutraceuticals? They make a food sound so appealing! Just keep in mind that the more of all this stuff there is in a food, the less room there is for meat – the main reason to feed a wet food, and the main thing your dog will find delicious.
Other criteria In 2007, we required pet food companies to disclose to us their manufacturers, for publication, in order to have their qualifying dry dog food products appear on our “top foods” lists. This is the first time we’ve asked them to disclose the makers of their wet foods – which was asking a lot, in the aftermath of the wet food recalls of spring 2007.
The last time we asked for this information, a few companies whose products had been on our “top foods” lists for years took exception. Only one was openly hostile! A couple had reasonable explanations for why they made it a policy to not disclose this information. (We discuss these in “Why We Want Disclosure; Why Some Won’t Disclose,” on the next page.) A few others simply did not respond to our requests for information. We suspect that some simply didn’t care enough to be included in our reviews to bother responding.
If you don’t see one of your favorite wet dog foods on our current list of “top wet foods”, don’t assume anything. Look for their toll-free number on the label of your dog’s food; is it there? Or not? Call them up. Did a human answer – or at least call you back within a day? If you reach a human, ask him or her a few questions about the company’s manufacturers, its ingredients, and its quality control program. This interaction (or lack thereof) will tell you a lot about the company’s commitment to quality.
Our list of “top foods” The attcched PDF entitled “WDJ’s top wet foods of 2009” is our official list for 2009. These are all products that have met our selection criteria and answered our query about their manufacturers. There are certainly more products that both meet our criteria, as described above, and whose makers are willing to answer questions about their manufacturers. Rest assured that any food that you find that meets our selection criteria is just as good as any of the foods on our list.
What if it doesn’t meet our selection criteria? It’s up to you. If you have been feeding it to your dog, and she looks and feels like a million bucks, we’d be the last ones to tell you to switch. If she has allergies, chronic diarrhea, recurrent ear infections, or a poor coat, we’d recommend that you check out something from our list. An improvement in the quality of his food could (and probably will) work wonders.
We’ve listed the foods alphabetically, by the name of their manufacturer. If you are looking for California Natural or Evo, then, you have to look under Natura Pet Products, their maker. Some companies (like Natura) make several lines of food. We’ve listed each line and each variety that we found that meets our selection criteria. We’ve also highlighted one variety from each company as a representative product, to show what sort of ingredients and macro-nutrient levels (protein, fat, fiber, and moisture) are typically found in that maker’s foods. Be aware that some companies offer dozens of different products with varying nutrient levels and ingredients. Check the company’s website or call its toll-free phone number to get information about its other varieties.
Some companies also offer foods that are not “complete and balanced,” but are intended for “supplemental or intermittent use” only. We’ve listed some of these products, too, but only for use as described – not as a sole source of your dog’s food.
Rather than try to list all the ingredients in each food we highlight, we’ve listed the first six ingredients. Why six? No specific reason, other than that six ingredients gets you through the major contributors to the food, and gives you a good idea of what it mostly consists.
Remember, quality comes with a price. These foods may be expensive and can be difficult to find, depending on your location. Contact the company and ask about purchasing options. Some companies sell directly to consumers, or recommend mail-order outlets that will ship products.
Using the selection criteria we have outlined above, go analyze the food you are currently feeding your dog. If it doesn’t measure up, we encourage you to choose a new food based on quality, as well as what works best for you and your dog in terms of types of ingredients, levels of protein and fat, local availability, and price.
There are many health conditions in dogs that are best controlled with a low-fat diet, especially hyperlipidemia (high levels of triglycerides in the blood, even after fasting for at least 12 hours), which can lead to pancreatitis. Other conditions that may respond favorably to a low-fat diet include chronic pancreatitis, EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency), IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), and lymphangiectasia. In some cases, owners may choose to reduce dietary fat as a preventive measure for dogs who may be predisposed to pancreatitis, including those with diabetes or Cushing’s disease, or who are given anti-seizure drugs.
In “Healthy Low-Fat Diets” (December 2008), we described how to calculate the amount of fat in various foods, and offered guidelines for preparing a homemade low-fat diet. This month, owners who feed their dogs home-prepared low-fat meals will share their diet plans with us.
Low-Fat Dog Food Recipes
Steve Brown is the creator of See Spot Live Longer Homemade Dinner Mixes, and co-author of See Spot Live Longer. (Brown was also the creator of Steve’s Real Food for Dogs, though he is no longer associated with the company.) Brown gave me a sneak preview of his upcoming book, The ABC Way to Healthier and Happier Dogs. This fascinating book focuses on the various forms of fats and how a proper balance between them is needed
for optimal health.
Brown’s book includes information for both veterinarians and dog owners. He offers guidelines on what he calls an “ABC Day” for those who feed commercial foods to give their dogs just one day a week to improve the balance of fats in the diet. He also gives detailed instructions for how to balance the fats in various homemade recipes, both cooked and raw.
For example, meat from poultry is high in linoleic acid (an essential omega-6 fatty acid), while meat from ruminants, such as beef, lamb, and venison, is high in saturated fats and low in linoleic acid. Too much or too little linoleic acid can lead to skin problems that may be diagnosed as a food allergy, but are really caused by fat imbalance. Rotating poultry and ruminant meals daily or weekly helps to balance the fats. If only one type of meat is fed due to food allergies or intolerance, or if variety is limited because of cost or difficulty accessing other types of meat, it’s more important to balance the fats by adding other ingredients.
I asked Brown if he could modify his balanced fat guidelines for dogs who need a low-fat diet, and he responded with four recipes, all of which meet or exceed AAFCO recommendations for adult dog maintenance (puppies and females that are pregnant or nursing have different requirements).
“These recipes start with very lean meats, and then we add specific fats to ensure an excellent fat balance,” says Brown. “Domesticated feed animals do not have a healthy balance of fats, unlike wild prey animals.”
You may be surprised to see salt in some of the recipes, but iodized salt supplies iodine that is sparse and unreliable in most foods. Kelp is another good source of iodine, though the amount it contains can vary considerably.
Recipe #1: Chicken (no bones)
14 oz chicken thighs, skin and separable fat removed
1 lb sweet potato, baked in skin
1/2 lb broccoli stalks
2 oz chicken liver
1 oz chicken heart (or use 3 oz of liver and no heart)
1 level tsp eggshell powder
1/4 tsp iodized salt
40 to 120 IUs (2 to 6 drops) vitamin E
This recipe yields 1,007 kcal (31 kcal/oz) and has 22 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal. Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio is 7: 1.
Recipe #2: Beef
12 oz ground beef, 95% lean
12 oz white rice, cooked
6 oz red leaf lettuce
1 oz beef liver
1 oz beef heart
1.5 tsp bone meal
3/4 tsp hemp oil (or substitute 3/4 tsp walnut oil or 1.5 tsp canola oil)
1/4 tsp cod liver oil
1/4 tsp kelp
20 to 100 IUs (l to 5 drops) vitamin E
This recipe yields 1,015 kcal (24 kcal/oz) and has 24 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal. Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio is 4: l.
Recipe #3: Mixed
3 lbs whole wheat macaroni, cooked
2 lbs chicken thighs, skin and separable fat removed
1 lb ground beef, 95% lean
1 lb broccoli stalks
1 lb red leaf lettuce
1/2 lb chicken liver
1/2 lb beef heart
1 can (3.5 oz) sardines
egg white from 1 large egg
4 tsp eggshell powder (or 6,000 mg calcium from other sources)
1 tsp kelp meal
200+ lUs (10+ drops) vitamin E
This recipe yields 4,206 kcal (28 kcal/oz) and has 24 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal. Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio is 5:1.
Recipe #4: Chicken with bones (raw)
6 oz chicken necks, skin and separable fat removed
1/2 lb chicken thighs, skin and separable fat removed
1 lb sweet potato, baked in skin
1/2 lb broccoli stalks
3 oz chicken liver
1/4 tsp iodized salt
40 to 100 IUs (2 to 5 drops) vitamin E
This recipe yields 995 kcal (24 kcal/oz) and has 24 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal. Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio is 7:1.
Preparation of These Recipes
The meat without bones can be fed either cooked or raw (meat with bone must always be fed raw). Green vegetables should be either lightly cooked 0r pureed in a food processor, juicer, or blender. Starchy carbs should always be cooked.
Homemade Dog Food Portions
A moderately active 50-pound dog will consume around 1,000 kcal daily. A 25-pound dog will need a little more than half as much (around 600 kcal), and a 100-pound dog a little less than twice as much (around 1,700 kcal). Really tiny dogs require more energy for their weight; a 5-pound dog will need around 175 kcal daily. The amount to feed will vary considerably depending your dog’s activity level and metabolism.
Substitutions
Brown says, “I use chicken thigh meat instead of breast meat because thigh meats are higher in the long chain omega-3s. That’s why, for the chicken recipe, I don’t need to add a specific DHA source. Breast meat cannot be substituted for the thigh meat in these recipes without upsetting the fat balance.” With chicken thighs and necks, remove the skin and separable fat, but don’t remove the fat within the muscle, which is high in omega-3s.
Beef heart can be substituted for lean ground beef, which is fine as far as fats are concerned, but the recipe would then be low in zinc. It would be okay to use beef heart one day a week, but if fed more often than that, a zinc supplement should be added.
Almost any green vegetables can be substituted for the ones listed.
Any form of calcium can be substituted for eggshell powder at the rate of 1,500 mg calcium per level tsp of eggshell powder. You can also interchange bone meal and eggshell, but you need to use more bone meal than eggshell because of the phosphorus in bone meal. Substitute 1.5 to 2 tsp bone meal (6 to 8 grams) per 1 tsp of eggshell powder, and vice versa.
A Simple Acute Pancreatitis Dog Food Diet
Spenser is a six-year-old Cardigan Welsh Corgi with a history of digestive problems. His owner is Diana Thompson of Fulton, California. Following Spenser’s attack of acute pancreatitis last December, Thompson’s veterinarian tried feeding Spenser Hill’s prescription canned i/d, but Spenser would not even try the food, and the vet didn’t know what else to offer him. Here is Thompson’s account of what she found worked for her dog:
While Spenser was hospitalized, with my vet’s approval, I offered him homemade dilute chicken broth, followed by slushy steamed potatoes mixed with a broth made from lean ground sirloin beef. Next I gave him some low-fat yogurt, then bits of boiled chicken breast. I fed him a couple of tablespoons of food several times a day.
Once Spenser came home from the hospital, he ate five or six small meals a day. Meals consisted of slushy potatoes, boiled chicken breast, and yogurt, a little less than 1/2 of a cup at a time. I also offered him 1/2 cup of diluted homemade chicken broth (25 percent broth, 75 percent water) every hour, as he wouldn’t drink plain water. The broth was made from the water I used to boil his chicken breast, with fat skimmed off.
I continued to feed small, frequent meals for the next few weeks, slowly increasing the size and decreasing the number of meals, until he was eating three meals a day. Five weeks after the attack, his blood tests were back to normal.
Today, Spenser continues to get three meals a day (even prior to the pancreatitis, he did better with more than two meals a day). For breakfast, I usually feed him 1 cup (4 oz) of cooked rice mixed with 1/2 cup (2 oz) ground round beef, cooked in a skillet. About one meal in five I will either substitute baked potato with skin removed for the rice, or combine rice or potato with two small scrambled eggs (21/4 oz) in place of the beef.
For dinner, Spenser usually eats two raw, skinless chicken necks (3 oz). If we are out of these, I’ll give him the same mixture he gets for breakfast. At bedtime, he gets a half meal consisting of 1/2 cup rice or potato with 1/4 cup cooked ground beef or one scrambled egg.
Spenser gets slices of raw carrots to chew, and a small beef marrow bone once every couple of weeks. He also mooches from my husband’s plate, getting small amounts of just about anything that is not high in fat. I use Liver Biscotti and a few tiny kibbles of dry cat food for training rewards.
Spenser’s coat and energy are great on this diet, and he’s back to his normal weight of 30 pounds. I think feeding a simple, home-cooked diet with only a few ingredients at a time helps him stay healthy. If his stools become loose, I know that potato helps to firm them up. Now that he’s been healthy for a year, I’m planning on reintroducing The Honest Kitchen’s Verve soon to give him more variety.
Mary Straus comments on this diet: At first glance, this diet looks like it might be high in fat due to the chicken necks and eggs, but both are fed in small amounts so that all of Spenser’s breakfast and dinner meals have a similar amount of fat, ranging from 6 to 8 grams of fat per meal. The overall diet is 25 percent meat and eggs, 25 percent raw meaty bones, and 50 percent carbs, and averages out to 32 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal (GFK).
I agree that adding more variety would be an improvement, particularly since Spenser is not getting any organ meat, nor a good multi-vitamin and mineral supplement. Note that there’s no need to add calcium to this diet, because it’s provided by the raw chicken necks that include bone.
A Cooked Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Diet for Dogs
Marilyn Wilson of the northern Adirondack Mountains of New York has a seven-year-old German Shepherd Dog, Annie, who was diagnosed with EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) two years ago. Wilson feeds a home-cooked diet that works well for Annie, though many dogs with EPI do not do well with fiber or grains. Following is Wilson’s description of what she feeds Annie per meal, twice a day:
I start with 1/2 pound of cooked meat, rotating between chicken, pork, beef, venison, rabbit, turkey, and fish (canned salmon, jack mackerel, and sardines packed in water). I’ve recently begun using chicken and beef heart along with muscle meat. I usually feed one protein for a week, then switch to another, with canned fish fed once a week. I grind the cooked meat in a food processor for easier digestibility because of Annie’s EPI.
I add 3/4 cup of starchy carbohydrates, rotating between brown rice, sweet potato, quinoa, spelt, and whole-grain pasta. I overcook the grains for better digestibility. Sweet potatoes are baked and fed with the skins. I also include 1/8 cup of fresh, raw veggies, herbs, and fruits, such as celery, spinach, parsley, cilantro, carrots, green beans, other dark leafy greens, and berries. These are pureed in a food processor. Occasionally I include nuts (such as walnuts, but never macadamias, which are poisonous to dogs), or canned clams or oysters.
I add 1 teaspoon of oil, rotating among fish oil, olive oil, safflower oil, and butter, with the emphasis on fish oil. I feed about half a pound of raw, organic liver a week, spread out over multiple meals, as too much at one time leads to loose stools. Annie doesn’t do well with eggs or cottage cheese, so I leave those out of her diet, but I often add some plain, low-fat yogurt to meals. I also give her appropriate human leftovers. Each meal is mixed with a cup of warm, filtered water, along with Annie’s prescription digestive enzymes.
I use bone meal for calcium, and give a human multi-vitamin and mineral supplement. I also give cod liver oil that provides 130 IU vitamin D twice a day during the winter when there is little sunshine.
Once a day, I add 1 tsp psyllium for fiber, human probiotics, and a sublingual (under her tongue) vitamin B12, as dogs with EPI have trouble absorbing this vitamin from their intestines. Annie was dealing with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which is common in dogs with EPI) for a long time, and using these supplements helped her to recover.
I cook food once every two weeks. I remove the separable fat from all meat, and skin from chicken, then boil the meat. I’ll cook a 40-lb case of chicken breasts in batches, using the same water each time. I put that water in the refrigerator overnight, then skim the fat off and use the liquid to cook the grains and pasta. I also bake sweet potatoes in large batches, buying 40-lb crates when they are on sale. I freeze the cooked meat in meal-sized portions, and the carbs in gallon-sized freezer bags.
I watch for sales and stock up on foods when I can. I sometimes buy whole shoulders and rump roasts. These come cryopacked, easy to freeze until I have time to defrost and cook them. When the hunting season starts, I ask hunters for any leftover venison from last year. I make training treats out of beef liver, boiling thin slices for ten minutes, then cutting into tiny pieces and microwaving for 10 minutes or drying in the oven for an hour at 150 F. I refrigerate a week’s worth and freeze the rest. I do Annie’s training right after she eats so she will still have the digestive enzymes in her system.
Both of my dogs look gorgeous and have great energy on this diet. Annie weighs around 70 pounds now, up from 50 pounds when she was at her worst. When I first started home cooking I was overwhelmed, but I actually enjoy cooking for my dogs now that I have the process streamlined.
Mary’s comments:
This diet has lots of variety and good proportions of meat and carbohydrates. When using bone meal, give an amount that provides 1,000 to 1,200 mg calcium per pound of food.
A Diet for Dogs with Hyperlipidemia
Keely, a five-year-old Miniature Schnauzer, is owned by Gail Roper, of Tucson, Arizona. A year ago, Keely’s right eye turned white. Her ophthalmologist diagnosed her with corneal fat deposits due to hyperlipidemia, which is common in Miniature Schnauzers, and advised putting Keely on a low-fat diet. Within a month, the deposits were gone. Here is Roper’s report of what she feeds her dog now:
Keely is an agility dog who weighs 19 pounds. She gets a lot of her food during training, so her meals are small. For training, I use chicken breast and London broil (both cooked), and non-fat feta cheese, which she loves. I boil the beef, then cut it up into quarter-inch squares and freeze it. I’ve had trouble finding heart, but my grocery store said they could order it for me, so I will be using that as well.
Breakfast foods include non-fat yogurt and cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, sardines, 93 percent lean turkey bacon (microwaved), and chicken wingettes with as much skin removed as possible. She gets 1/3 of a strip of bacon once or twice a week, one sardine twice a week, 1/2 hard-boiled egg three times a week, a tablespoon of cottage cheese and yogurt three times a week, and chicken wingettes once a week.
Dinner foods include skinless chicken breast, 93 percent lean ground turkey, salmon, and just a little bit of liver three days a week. I boil the chicken and liver, but feed the turkey raw. The salmon is left over from our meals once a week. I make 1-lb packages by mixing 9 to 10 ounces of raw turkey with 5 to 6 ounces of cooked and shredded chicken, plus a little yogurt to help with the mixing, then add 1/2 tsp ground eggshell per pound of meat for calcium. I add an ounce or two of liver to every other package. I then freeze each package in quart-sized freezer bags, which lasts my two dogs a couple of days. I add warm water at mealtime to make a stew.
Daily supplements include 1,000 mg fish oil, 200 IU vitamin E, 1,000 mg vitamin C, and Animal Essentials’ Multi-Vitamin Herbal Supplement. Three times a week I give a vitamin B-50 complex, and twice a week she gets 30 mg CoQ10. I hide some supplements in her food, but use a little bit of canned food for the rest.
Treats are EVO grain-free dog treats, Merrick’s dried beef lung, and homemade chicken, beef, and turkey jerky. To make jerky, I boil the meat, then cut it into thin strips and bake on a cookie sheet at 250 F until dehydrated. For recreation, I give Keely raw beef bones with marrow removed.
Mary’s comments: Even a diet without carbs can be relatively low in fat, if you’re careful about what foods you use. The dinner meal has about 36 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal.
A Raw Dog Food Diet for Acute Pancreatitis
Rowdy is a Rhodesian Ridgeback who was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis for 10 days at age 12. His owner, Jerri Langlais of Brentwood, California, was afraid to return Rowdy to a raw diet after almost losing him. Instead, she fed him Royal Canin canned low-fat prescription food.
Rowdy was troubled by borborygmi (loud intestinal rumbling noises) after eating this food and seemed uncomfortable, switching positions frequently. After three weeks, he started rejecting the prescription diet, even with added fat-free organic chicken broth or low-fat cottage cheese. Langlais decided to switch back to a homemade diet, hoping it would help Rowdy return to normal. Here is her story:
I started with grilled skinless chicken breasts, combining half a breast with a cup of white rice that was cooked with lots of extra water and fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth. When he did well with that, I began feeding him Verve from The Honest Kitchen for one meal a day, then 1/2 cup green tripe every other day.
Next, I added beef heart, then beef kidney, and then raw chicken breast to his diet. I rotated between white rice, quinoa, and oatmeal, feeding these as half his diet. I then began feeding the chicken breast raw, with the bone, and giving one chicken wing. Each time I started something new, I would wait at least three days, watching for any signs of discomfort, before making any further changes.
Rowdy’s stomach noises and discomfort after eating gradually diminished, especially after I began feeding raw food. I gave him slippery elm tincture and chamomile tincture when this happened, which quieted them down within 10 minutes. Adding Primal Defense soil-based probiotics also really seemed to help.
Two months after his pancreatitis attack, Rowdy had emergency surgery for gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV, also known as bloat). Fortunately, it was caught in time and the surgery was successful. The good news was that the surgeon said Rowdy’s pancreas looked normal. I fed him chicken soup, using chicken breasts boiled with white rice and grated vegetables, for five days following surgery, but he was able to resume his regular diet once his incision healed.
Rowdy dropped from 82 to 71 pounds after his stay at the hospital, and he looked emaciated. He had difficulty gaining weight until I began feeding him 5 to 6 ounces of raw pancreas every day. I had tried giving digestive enzymes with pancreatin, but they made him gassy. As soon as I added the pancreas, his energy level increased markedly and he started gaining weight and strength. It took about four months for him to return to his normal weight.
Rowdy’s current diet consists of a large meal in the morning, usually around ¨ lb raw meaty bones. He does best with raw turkey necks. I also feed whole chicken parts with skin and fat removed, or Verve from The Honest Kitchen.
His evening meal is smaller so that he gets a total of about a pound of food a day. I rotate among green tripe, raw pancreas (once a week), beef kidney, and I’m starting to try ground beef. I no longer feed lamb, which is high in fat. Beef heart makes his stools loose if I feed too much, so I just give a small piece with his meal. Raw liver also gives him loose stool, so I feed small amounts of cooked liver as treats. If he acts hungry in the afternoon, I give him 1/4 cup of nonfat yogurt. I use commercial dog cookies that are 5 percent fat.
For supplements, he gets wild salmon oil, probiotics, and algae/spirulina. Rowdy’s energy level improved dramatically when I began adding salmon oil. He gets one tablespoon three times a week, though I started with just 1/2 teaspoon and increased gradually once I saw that it wasn’t causing him any problems. I was alternating salmon oil with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, but I’ve discontinued the coconut oil now that he’s back to his normal weight.
Rowdy turned 13 years old in October, and is doing really well. No more stomach sounds at all, and he plays more regularly now. The longer he is on raw, the better he seems to feel.
Mary’s comments:
There’s no reason that dogs can’t return to a raw diet after recovering from acute pancreatitis, as long as you’re careful not to feed too much fat. Most raw meaty bones are high in fat, though turkey necks have less than any other kind. Rowdy’s diet is high in bone, but that’s what works best for him.
A Mixed Diet for a Dog Who Wouldn’t Eat
Rocky is a 31/2-year-old Yorkie-Poodle mix who has had digestive problems all of his life. From puppyhod, he was a picky eater and had frequent diarrhea. His owner, Danielle Flood, who lives in Crofton, Maryland, tried feeding all kinds of foods, but nothing seemed to work, and within a few days, he would stop eating again.
One of the vets Flood consulted believes that Rocky has both IBD and chronic pancreatitis, and suggested feeding a home-cooked diet, but Rocky wasn’t interested in a mixture of chicken and rice. Rocky was down to 13 pounds of skin and bones when Flood, desperate to find a food that Rocky would eat and that wouldn’t make him sick, came across the dehydrated foods made by The Honest Kitchen. Flood’s first success was with Preference, its low-fat incomplete mix meant to be combined with meat and other fresh foods:
I mixed just under 1/4 cup of Preference with hot water and added half of a boiled chicken breast. To my surprise Rocky devoured his entire plate and for the first time was begging for more food! Better yet, he didn’t start refusing the food after a few days, as he has with everything else we’ve tried.
A few weeks later, Rocky is still happily eating Preference mixed with chicken. We have also tried cooked chicken livers and very lean beef sirloin, and he loves those as well. He likes it best when there is a little more meat than mix.
We continue to give Rocky 1/8 tsp acidophilus with each meal. He also gets a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement.
Treat options are very limited for Rocky, but he does very well with “chicken breast wraps” made by Free Range Dog Chews, which we cut into tiny pieces. With our vet’s approval, we have also started giving him tiny pieces of lean raw meat (beef sirloin), which I was shocked to find he loves.
This is the longest I have ever been able to get Rocky to eat consistently. He is so excited at meal times, which is a first, actually diving into his plate to eat, and finishing completely on his own instead of my having to coax him.
We have discontinued giving Pepcid, as he no longer has an upset tummy. His stools are now normal, which they have never been before. He has gained weight, over a pound in the first two weeks, and is now up to 16 pounds and looks wonderful. Our vet, my husband, and I are delighted and relieved to see Rocky healthy, happy, eating, playing, and in no pain.
Mary’s comments: This is a good example of perseverance paying off. There are many different types of foods available; if kibble and canned don’t work for your dog, try something else. Pre-mixes are a great way to feed fresh foods, without having to worry about balancing a homemade diet.
HOMEMADE LOW-FAT DOG FOOD: OVERVIEW
1. Feed a low-fat diet if your dog has hyperlipidemia or digestive problems that improve when fed lower-fat foods.
2. Experiment with different types of diets, including dehydrated, refrigerated, and frozen commercial diets, if your dog doesn’t do well on kibble or canned foods.
3. Don’t be afraid to feed a homemade diet, either raw or cooked, as long as you use appropriate ingredients and proportions.
4. Use a commercial pre-mix to make feeding fresh foods easier, without worry about calcium and balance.
Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition topics as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com website. She lives in the Bay Area.
Actually, that headline should read “Allow the president-elect’s daughters to pick their own dog!” but it wouldn’t fit. I hate to sound grumpy in the holiday season, but I feel very protective of Malia and Sasha Obama and their wish for a dog.
I wish it wasn’t such a big story. Just about every dog magazine or discussion group I’ve seen has asked its readers to “Vote on the breed that Obama should get!” Others are polling on the question of “Shelter dog or purebred?” (As if there were no purebreds in shelters; wouldn’t that be nice!) Celebrity trainers have weighed in. Headlines proclaim “Top Dog Will Have to Watch Step!” and “Doo the Right Thing, Obama, Forget the Dog!” When it comes to dogs – unlike the country’s economic troubles or the wars we’re fighting – it seems that everyone has advice for the next First Family.
If the Obama family still doesn’t have a dog as you read these words, good! People should take their time when choosing the next member of their family.
And consider this: Can you imagine being a dog-crazy 10-year-old girl who has been wanting, dreaming about, and working toward getting a dog for years, and suddenly having every aspect of that personal dream broadcast on every news station and newspaper in the country? For a real change, I wish the press would allow the child and whatever dog she selects to have some privacy!
“Why get so riled up about the Obama dog story?” a colleague asked me. “It’s a great opportunity to educate people about dogs.” But I don’t agree. Did the country learn anything after then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton’s dog, Zeke, escaped from the Governor’s Mansion and got killed by a passing car? Heck, not even the Clinton family seemed to learn anything from that! In 2002, Buddy, the Clintons’ famous chocolate Labrador, escaped through an open door from the Clintons’ home in New York, and, yes, was killed by a car. Were there any headlines that urged dog owners to keep their doors and gates secure? I doubt it.
How about the more recent story about Barney Bush, the outgoing President’s dog, who was caught on film biting a reporter? (After watching the footage on YouTube, given the dog’s behavior and that of his handler, I doubt that it was Barney’s first bite; both the dog and handler were too calm afterward, as if this sort of thing had happened before!)
Did the press rush to educate the public about the body language clues that most dogs give – like Barney did – when they are uncomfortable enough to bite a person? (If you want to learn more about this, see “Stress Signals,” Whole Dog Journal June 2006.) Did they discuss the significance of bites that break the skin, as opposed to bites in which the dog merely pinches the skin? (See “Bite Me Not,” October 2005.) Did any of the mainstream media discuss the best way to greet a dog, or how to train a dog to greet people? (See “Four on the Floor,” May 2008.) All the headlines I saw joked about the bite; none were educational.
I hope the Obamas find a lovely dog for their daughters. To help the rest of you, we’ll plan articles on how to live with dogs if you are allergic to them (like Malia Obama is), and how to help children train the family dog.
I have had a number of dogs, but Otto is actually the very first dog that I’ve gotten as a co-owner. A former boyfriend paid the $40 or $50 that a Bodega, California, sheep rancher wanted for my heart/soul dog, Rupert, way back in 1989, but the puppy was a birthday present for me; Rupe was always my dog. He stuck close by my side through the breakup of that relationship and the next few, too. When Brian (the man who later became my husband) came on the scene, he and Rupert formed a bond, but still, Rupe was mine.
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Later, a summer of dog-sitting my sister Sue’s long-haired Chihuahua, Mokie, turned into a several-year stay. Mokie has since gone on to live with my sister Pam, who won’t ever give him up; Brian was more than happy when I did so. He tolerated Mokie, but never fully embraced the idea of a yappy little house-dog, no matter how smart and cute.
So, while Brian and I have shared a home since 1996, we have never truly shared full ownership of a dog, like we do now. I selected Otto from a shelter, but Brian was the one who gave the signal that it was time for us to get a dog. When Brian and I got married, I kept my own last name, but Brian wanted to be sure that Otto took his surname, and even made sure the dog’s full name (“Otto Maddock”) was engraved on his ID tag. And Brian has been a real champ about sharing dog-care duties with me.
This is all good news, and I’m happy – I really am. I love my husband, I love our dog, I love that all three of us spend a lot of time taking walks and runs and hikes and drives together. I love the fact that Brian and Otto interact a lot – all on their own. And I really enjoy that Brian and I frequently discuss Otto’s behavior, and compare notes on how to best teach Otto to be a well-behaved member of the family, with full indoor and outdoor privileges. But it’s not all sweetness; it’s not all easy.
Battle of the sexes? I’m just going to come out and say it: Guys do things differently. I know that’s sexist. Not all guys are alike. But my guy is. Brian respects my knowledge about dogs and dog training, and he often solicits my opinion about how we should deal with some naughty Otto behavior or another. But sometimes he just wings it – in a very guy way.
For example, way back in July, when Otto had been with us for only two weeks, Brian decided to take Otto for a bike ride. He wasn’t going far, just six blocks or so to drop off the bike at a repair shop for a tune-up, and then he walked Otto home. Never mind the fact that I was working hard to teach Otto polite leash walking skills, and didn’t want him to practice pulling or running ahead. Forget about the fact that Otto was still shy and mildly anxious about meeting strangers, and that I wanted to make certain that all of his social encounters were positive, and all of his outings were carefully controlled to keep them fear-free.
If Brian had asked me what I thought about him taking Otto with him, running alongside his bicycle to the bike shop, I would have been adamant: no way, not yet! And I’m sure that’s why Brian didn’t ask what I thought, he just did it.
It was over before I even knew they were gone. I heard the front gate clang, and there they were, apparently back from a little walk. Brian fed Otto a treat as he unsnapped the leash and turned the dog loose in the yard. Otto happily trotted over to his water to drink and then to greet me, tail wagging and eyes dancing. “Where’d you go?” I asked Brian. He answered casually, “We just took a little bike ride. And then I dropped my bike at the shop for a tune-up.”
I’m sure I gaped. And then caught myself. This was not just my dog; Otto is ours. Of course Brian has every right to take the dog out without consulting me. So I tried to modulate my worried inquiries. I really wanted to say, “Darn it, I hope you didn’t hurt him or scare him. And if you set back his training or socialization, I’m going to have a fit!” But what I actually said was, “How did it go? Was he okay?”
Brian and I have been married long enough that he knows exactly what I wasn’t saying; he could probably read my real thoughts as if they were printed on my forehead.
“It went fine!” said Brian. “Otto didn’t really get it at first, he was nervous about the bike, but I went slow and he caught on fine. I only ran over him once!”
This last thing was not true; it’s part of Brian’s humor. It’s also how he catches me mentally flat-footed about a dozen times a day. I know I’m overprotective of the dog and I know I tend to take things too literally. But you would think I would catch on at some point.
“WHAT?!” “I’m kidding!” Brian laughed. “Otto was fine. We went really slowly. And I brought him into the store with me – I didn’t leave him tied outside; I know you don’t approve of that. I gave him a bunch of treats along the way and we walked back. He’s fine!”
Different parenting styles Okay, so it’s never as bad as I think it is. As a point of fact, Otto accompanies us on a lot of bike rides now: on-leash in town and off-leash on trails. In both situations, he’s well-mannered and just brilliant.
And Brian does listen to my endless lectures about positive training and behavior modification. He’s seen me have a lot of success with dogs in the past; he sees it working with Otto.
But I also know that in his heart of hearts he thinks that I make things harder than they need to be. I’m sure he thinks that living with a dog should be simpler, and that I needlessly anticipate problems and overanalyze minute bits of Otto’s behavior. You don’t have to read a hundred books on dog training to own a dog! The problem is, I have read a hundred dog-training books. I’m hyper-aware of all the ways we can screw up the dog, make him fearful, and undermine his training and his confidence.
And it’s always something with this guy! He wants the dog to do guy things, like ride in the back of the truck. He opens our front gate to enable Otto to chase a feral cat (who lives under the abandoned house on the corner) across the street and back to that abandoned house. When they hike in our local wilderness areas, he lets Otto chase any jackrabbit that they happen to come across. He often gives Otto his plate after dinner so the dog can lick it clean. When he sees Otto doing something he doesn’t approve of, he is apt to bellow, “Otto! No!” I, of course, have issues with all of those things!
Recently, the three of us took an off-leash hike. Suddenly I noticed that Otto had stopped for a third time in a few hundred yards to pee. One of the things I have really enjoyed about walks with Otto is that he hardly ever urine-marks; he’s usually fixated on moving on and moving out, getting some serious mileage on the trail. And excessive urine-marking is one of my dog-walking pet peeves; I really like walking fast and hate being pulled to a halt every 50 feet. So I kept walking and called Otto, giving him a treat when he caught up to my side. And I said to Brian, “When you walk Otto on leash, please don’t let him stop to sniff and pee whenever he wants to ‘mark’ something.”
“Huh,” said Brian. “But that’s what we do!” Meaning himself and the dog and all the world’s male citizens, I suppose. “Brian! Come on!” I insisted. “I really don’t want him to turn into one of those dogs who stops constantly, and pees on every other tree we walk by.”
“What’s the point of taking the dog for a walk if he can’t smell stuff and pee on things?” Brian argued. “That’s what dogs like to do! It’s natural! You’re going to take all the fun out of going for walks!”
I argued back. “He can do all of that stuff when we’re in a place like this, and he’s off-leash. But when he’s on-leash, I want him to pay attention to me, not the bushes, and walk without dragging me all over the place. He still has plenty of opportunities to have fun!”
I’ll spare you the rest. Suffice to say we have different ideas about dogs and dog training, and even though I am the editor of The Whole Dog Journal, since we are equal partners in owning this dog, I don’t always get my way.
You’d think I’d be used to working out our dog-care and -training differences, since we have kids and we have spent more than a decade co-parenting. Ah, but our kids pre-date our relationship, and I’m here to tell you that there is a difference between parenting a child of your own, and one who isn’t yours and doesn’t live with you full-time. We take a respectful back seat when it comes to major decisions concerning each other’s kids, letting the biological parent call the shots. But Otto is, in effect, our first child together. And somehow this means we have a lot of arguing to do!
My son is going to be 17 years old soon, which means that long before I ever read dog books, I read books full of parenting advice. I read – and learned – that all parents have different ways of caring for their babies and children, and that all styles of loving, safe guidance are valid and important for the kids’ development. A protective new mom might be worried about turning over her precious baby to her partner, for what might even seem like less-effective care, but it’s best if each parent learns and uses his or her own special way with the infant. I know all this stuff. That doesn’t make it any easier to share my dog!
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Back to school Here is another thing that I know a lot about, but am not necessarily good at: dog training!
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve read a ton of great dog-training books. And I can’t tell you how many hundreds of hours I’ve spent in dog training classes, dog sports events, and dog parks combined. I’m usually carrying a camera, and I have taken tens of thousands – maybe hundreds of thousands – of photos of dogs and people with dogs. I’ve developed a really good eye for canine behavior, and a solid ability to accurately predict what a dog is going to do next. In training classes, I can often spot and “diagnose” a dog/human communication problem before the handler realizes that he’s got one, and even make a good guess at what the class instructor will tell the handler to do to correct the problem.
But taking a class as a participant is another matter! It turns out that no matter how much you know, you still have to practice the actual skill of dog training in order to have much success with it. (Of course, I’ve heard dozens of trainers say that, but now I’m really getting it!)
Practice, not just knowledge, is necessary because you have to develop and improve your timing; the quicker and more accurately you can “mark” the behavior you want your dog to repeat, the faster he’ll learn how to do it on cue. You have to practice the physical skills of retrieving treats (from your bait bag or pocket or wherever) and delivering them to your dog in a manner and location that doesn’t draw him out of the position you are trying to reward him for attaining.
You have to practice in order for your hands to learn to be conscious of the leash, and not unwittingly rise in the air, floating like magic until the leash is unaccountably taut again, through no fault of your dog. It even takes practice to learn to walk again! That is, to walk with your hands low and leash loose, while watching your dog carefully, occasionally reinforcing him for being in the right zone by your side, and steering him to where you want to go without the leash, using only your clear, confident body language.
Believe me, these things don’t just happen; they have to be practiced and practiced. And that practice has to happen at home and in front of an instructor who can bring your attention to all the ways you are doing something that prevents your dog from getting what the heck you are trying to teach him. Sometimes it’s simple. “Try giving the cue again, but this time, take your hand out of the bait bag before you give him the cue,” my trainer said to me one night. I had to look down. Well, shoot! How did my hand get in the bait bag? I had no memory of that. Of course Otto will have a hard time concentrating on the signal from my right hand if my left hand is busily indicating “Here’s another delicious hot dog, coming right up!”
Learning good timing and coordination is no small matter with a dog who has learned “the shaping game” so well. After he receives a click and treat for something twice, Otto almost always “gets” what it is that he did that earned the treat, and he delivers it again, pow! On the night when we first tried nose-targeting in class, he had successfully touched the target stick with his nose three times in a row, and then I got sloppy and clicked too soon. I was listening to the trainer talk to someone else, and as Otto leaned his nose toward the target, I inadvertently clicked at the exact moment he took the end of the target stick into his mouth. Well, there’s nothing for it; if you click, you have to give a treat. The click (or other reward marker, such as a verbal “Yes!”) is supposed to always predict a treat. I waited a full minute before I held out the target again, but Otto is a dogged dog, and he knew just what to do; he immediately mouthed the stick again.
Fortunately, because he is so good at shaping, it was easy enough to undo the damage. I simply didn’t click or give him a treat when he took the stick in his mouth, and instead gently pulled it away, paused a moment, and then presented it to him again. After the third time that he took the stick and failed to get a click, he tried a nose-touch again. Whew! Click and a bunch of treats! And just like that we are back on track.
I laugh and laugh at myself in class; I just can’t believe how dopey and uncoordinated I am in class sometimes. My trainer, Sarah Richardson (shameless plug: The Canine Connection in Chico, California, thecanineconnection.com), is a great sport and she laughs with me as I fumble with the leash, the treats, the clicker, and the dog.
I also laugh at the looks on Otto’s very comical and expressive face as he offers various behaviors, figuring out which position or motion will make me give him a treat. He doesn’t seem to be offended by my laughter; I think he knows it’s all in fun, taking a new language class together.
Nancy Kerns is Editor of Whole Dog Journal. She (and her husband) adopted Otto from a shelter on June 13, 2008.
Lucy, come!” I call, as I walk across our front lawn toward the old barn to feed the ponies housed there. Our Corgi beelines across the driveway, low to the ground, ears flat against her head, as she speeds to join me. My heart warms. There is nothing more gratifying to a dog owner than a canine companion who comes flying as fast as her paws can carry her in response to the recall cue. The recall response seems to come naturally to some dogs. For others, it’s a hard-won behavior. The Miller pack has some of both.
A solid recall is a valuable behavior for dogs of all sorts, including dogs who compete in sports, do therapy or assistance work, or provide the valuable service of being someone’s beloved companion. The better the recall, the safer he is when off-leash, and the more he can enjoy off-leash freedom with his human. One good off-leash hike is worth at least 10 on-leash walks around the block!
I’ve been blessed throughout much of my life with dogs who have had naturally solid recalls. Maybe it’s due to my predilection for herding breeds, who seem to have a genetically programmed tendency to stick close to their humans. But then there was Josie, the best dog ever, a terrier-mix who never once entertained a “run away” notion during her 15 years as a beloved member of our family.
Still, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that on our farm, Lucy the Corgi and Missy the Australian Shepherd can be off-leash at will, while Dubhy the Scottie and Bonnie the Scottie-mix require closer monitoring. The two terriers have outstanding “situational recalls.” They will both come beautifully sometimes, in some places – not surprisingly, the places we’ve practiced the most – but not with the generalized reliability that Missy and Lucy demonstrate.
I used to teach “Come” the old-fashioned way, in which you put your dog on a sit-stay, walk to the end of the leash, turn, face him, call him, and jerk on the leash. I look back on those days and wonder that we were able to teach recalls that way at all! What a negative association those dogs must have had with the come cue: “Come means run to my owner fast so I don’t get hurt.” Not to mention that to a dog, the body language of a direct frontal position is assertive and intimidating, a position that threatens, “You may be risking bodily harm if you approach.” Yikes! Now I know why Marty, my tricolor obedience competition Collie, always trotted to me with his head down when I called him. He always came, but he wasn’t happy about it. “Workmanlike,” I think the judges called it then.
My Bull Terrier took it one step further. As long as Caper was within the 30-40 foot distance that we practiced for show-ring recalls, her “Come” response was faster than a speeding bullet. But if she was beyond range of my normal leash or long-line correction distance, my “Come!” cue caused her to run as fast, or faster – in the opposite direction.
Teaching happy recalls
We’ve raised the standard since those obedience days some 30-plus years ago. Nowadays we want recalls that are not just reliable, but that are happy and fast as well. We want dogs who come because they want to and love it, not because they have to.
The good news is it’s not as hard as you might think. It just takes a commitment to regular practice, keeping it fun and happy.
• Start by “charging” your “Come” cue. This will be a word that will always mean to your dog: “Absolutely wonderful stuff is about to happen and you better get over here fast or you’re going to miss out!” Say “Come!” in a loud, cheerful voice and feed your dog a very high-value treat – chicken, steak, whatever he thinks is totally wonderful. Repeat many times, until your dog’s eyes light up when he hears the cue. Remember, he doesn’t have to “come” for this part – he’s just hanging out with you, eating treats.
Note: If you’ve already taught your dog that “Come!” sometimes means “bad stuff” then you’ve “poisoned” your cue, and you need to pick a different word. See “The Poisoned Cue” on the next page.
• Now, with your dog walking by your side on leash, say “Come!” loudly, in a cheerful tone of voice, and run away fast. You and your dog are running together, in the same direction. Run 10-15 feet. Reward him with a treat when you stop, or even better, a toy – play a quick game of “Tug” or toss a ball for him to catch. If you keep your rewards high-value and unpredictable, your dog will find your recalls irresistible. “I wonder what exciting thing she’s going to do next!”
By the way, “fast” is relevant. If you have a Labrador Retriever, “fast” is probably “fast as you can.” If you have a Yorkshire Terrier, “fast” is considerably slower. “Fast” should only be as fast as your dog can comfortably run.
• After several days of practicing the previous steps, try this: Wait until your dog is a few feet away from you (still on leash). Say “Come!” (cheerful and loud!) and run away fast. Run 10-15 feet and reward her at the end. Exciting and unpredictable! If your dog stays very close to you, drop a few yummy treats on the ground, walk to the end of the leash, wait until she’s eating the last one, then say “Come!” and run away. Practice this step for a week or more.
• When your dog consistently runs to you and with you when you say “Come!” and run, start a little off-leash work in a safely enclosed, low-distraction area, such as a hallway in your house, or large den. When he’s not right next to you and not deeply engrossed in some highly rewarding activity (such as gnawing on a bone), say “Come” (loud and cheerful) and run away. Remember to reinforce with an exciting, unpredictable toy or several treats when he comes.
• Avoid calling your dog when he’s not likely to come! At best, you’ll teach him “learned irrelevance” – that your recall cue is meaningless. At worst, you’ll get angrier and more insistent with your recall cue and poison it. Then you’ll have to pick a new cue and start over again. Make sure you have his attention before you call him. Say his name first and wait for him to look at you. If you call him and he doesn’t come, do something else: make a kissy noise or squeak a squeaky toy, and make sure you have his undivided attention before you call him again.
• You can practice longer distance recalls outside with your dog on a long line – a leash that is 20 to 50 feet long (not a retractable leash!). The long line keeps him safe and prevents him from leaving, but do not use it to pull him to you. Remember to turn and run away fast – at least at first. If he’s now flying to you happily every time, you can face him to greet him and reward him when he gets to you.
• When he reliably comes to you on the long-line in a safely enclosed location, start working on off-leash recalls – still in your safely enclosed location. Repeat the two previous steps. Take care not to call him if he’s involved in some highly rewarding activity such as eating deer poop in the garden. Always call him in a loud, cheerful tone, and use a high-value (and unpredictable) reward when he comes.
• When your dog will run happily to you even when you take only one or two running steps, you can add an automatic sit. This parks him when he gets to you.
If you’ve already done a good job of installing a “default sit” by reinforcing “sit” so much that he offers it easily and automatically, this part is easy. As he runs toward you, turn to face him, and when he gets to you pull your shoulders back, lift your chest and, if necessary, raise your hands to your chest. This body language will often elicit a sit. If he sits, reward him. If he doesn’t sit, reward him anyway for coming, and then ask for a sit.
• When your dog’s recall-sits happen easily and automatically, occasionally reach for his collar, gently, under the chin. Give him a yummy treat, and then toss a ball or toy for him to chase. This teaches him to happily accept you reaching for him after a recall for those occasions when you need to restrain him. We’ve all seen those dogs who dance just out of reach when their owners are trying to capture them. Don’t let that be your dog!
• Now you can add Round Robin Recalls with other family members and friends. Supply each player with a stock of toys and yummy treats. Take turns calling your dog and running away fast, with each person rewarding him each time they call him, with a high value (unpredictable and exciting) treat or fun game with a toy.
• As long as your friends and family are around to help with your training, ask them to create distractions while you call your dog. Small ones at first – standing between you and your dog; walking across his recall path; talking to him as he runs by – and then bigger ones: sitting on the ground between you and your dog; holding treats in their hands (but not letting him have them); holding a toy, eventually tossing it in the air and catching it as you call your dog – and finally, huge ones: running across his recall path; throwing a ball on the ground as he runs past; or walking across the yard with another dog on-leash.
What should you do if your dog fails to resist the temptation to investigate one of the distractions? First, try to stop him from engaging with the distraction (the other dog, a ball, another person with treats), put your dog back on-leash, and make a note to yourself: your dog is not yet ready for that level of distraction off-leash!
With your dog back on-leash, go back to work, but with a less-challenging distraction. Ask your distraction volunteers to stand farther away, or to be much less exuberant in their efforts to distract your dog. Also, increase the value of your reinforcer. Bring out the very top-level treats you possess, or the toy that your dog loves so much that it will overcome almost any distraction.
Your goals, as always, are to prevent the dog from being reinforced for behaviors you don’t want (failing to come to you); and to reinforce the behavior you do want (coming when called) with rewards that are very meaningful to your dog (not just kibble).
• If you and your dog have been successful at the previous steps, you can start working on generalizing your dog’s recalls in new locations. Each time you go to a new place, practice recalls on the long line until you’re sure he’s really reliable, even in the presence of big distractions. When you’re confident he’ll come every time you call, and as long as it’s legal and safe, you’re ready for long off-leash hikes in the hills – the best adventure and exercise any dog could ask for.
You may be surprised!
Sometimes our dogs are better than we think they are. While Dubhy’s and Bonnie’s recalls aren’t as solid as Lucy’s and Missy’s, I am sometimes reminded that they’re pretty decent after all. When we hike on the farm, I do let Bonnie off-leash. She bolts off after a flock of crows and I watch her disappear into a hayfield. Since our house in the middle of 80 acres surrounded by neighbors’ woods, I’m not too concerned that I can’t stop her in her tracks and that she ranges a little farther than I’m truly comfortable with. I give her several minutes of running time, then call her. Sure enough, her happy panting face soon peeks out from the tall grass, and we hike on.
Dubhy the Scottie stays on his long-line for our hikes and we practice safe recalls a lot. I know from experience that his recall is great unless he’s halfway down a groundhog hole where he might choose to stay for quite some time.
However, his recall worked like a charm this past July when he discovered a gate he could pry open in the backyard and he escaped into the darkness. When I called the dogs in from their final evening potty-break, Dubhy was nowhere to be found. I grabbed a flashlight and headed out to hunt for him in the woods, knowing how futile it would be to look for a small black dog in the dark, especially if he was down a groundhog hole. I anticipated sitting up all night, going out every 15 minutes to call him, hoping he’d stay out of trouble.
To my surprise and delight, I hadn’t even gotten to the woods when I heard doggie paws rustling through the horse pasture. It was Dubhy, speeding happily back to me in response to his “Come!” cue. Our long-line practice recalls on all our hikes paid off. I’m half-tempted to let him off-leash on our next farm-hike!
Thanks to Sandi Thompson, CPDT, owner of BravoPup! of Berkeley, California, for demonstrating these techniques. See “Resources,” page 24, for contact information.
Pat Miller, CPDT, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of The Power of Positive Dog Training; Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog; Positive Perspectives II: Know Your Dog, Train Your Dog; and the brand-new Play with Your Dog. See “Resources,” page 24, for more information.
1. Help your senior dog at home by following a predictable daily routine.
2. Make gradual, rather than sudden, changes in the household or routine.
3. Use tactile (rugs, runners), and audible (TV, radio) cues to help pets maintain orientation and help with navigation around the house.
Each of us has, at some point, wandered into a room and realized that we’ve forgotten why we’ve gone there. When that happens, chances are we are momentarily perturbed with ourselves, but typically we chalk it up to too much on the brain, remember why we’re there, then move on. Should our dogs wander in the same fashion, it could well be a sign of cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS), a condition quite similar to Alzheimer’s in humans. CDS happens when the aging process affects brain pathology, resulting in behavioral changes, including cognitive decline (memory and learning). One of the biggest culprits is the damage done to mitochondria caused by oxidative damage over time. Researchers also believe that a decline in cerebral vascular circulation contributes to the changes we see in our aging dogs.
Testing dogs’ cognitive abilities in a laboratory setting has shown that signs of CDS can be seen as early as seven years of age, yet we, as pet owners, often don’t realize a change in our canine companions until they reach 10 years of age or older. However, dogs trained to a higher level – such as service or guide dogs, agility, and other competition dogs – are those whose cognitive decline might be noticed sooner than that in “just” a pet dog because of a subsequent drop off in the highly trained dog’s performance.
Symptoms of Cognitive Decline in Old Dogs
The gold standard for testing for CDS is in the laboratory. In aged dogs tested in a laboratory setting, researchers observed poor performances on cognitive tasks using a “three component delayed non-matched to position task” (3-DNMP) that tested discrimination learning (ability to select one object over another), reversal learning (after training to select an object, criteria are reversed), and spatial memory (memory of places).
Unfortunately, such laboratory testing is not readily available to us mere mortals. So what should you do? Watch and observe your dog, looking for changes in his or her behavior that might be symptoms of CDS. Traditional “DISHA” categories include:
Disorientation, including appearing lost or confused in the house or yard; wandering aimlessly; pacing; staring into space or at walls
Altered Interactions with people or other pets, including not seeking attention or petting or failing to greet family members
Sleep-wake cycle alterations, including sleeping more in the day, less at night
House-soiling “accidents”
Altered activity level
Gary Landsberg, DVM, DACVB, in his paper “Therapeutic Agents for the Treatment of Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome in Senior Dogs,” published in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, notes that we might also see:
increase in anxiety
decrease in hygiene/self-grooming
altered appetite
decreased responsiveness to stimuli
deficits in learning and memory
At the same time, it’s important not to jump to conclusions and self-diagnose our dogs if we see any of these signs. These changes can also be due to a variety of medical problems, so it’s important to first rule out environmental factors, physical health, and drug-induced behavior side effects with a visit to your dog’s veterinarian.
I had that very experience with my 12-year-old Bouvier, Axel. When I queried his veterinarian, Susan Wynn, DVM, as to whether his standing very still for periods of time when out in the backyard with me was a sign of CDS, her observation, after further querying me, was that she just wasn’t seeing it. Her hunch was that the behavior was most likely a result of pain from arthritis.
She further explains, “I think CDS is very difficult to differentiate from pain and this is a mistake that is made often. I do see CDS occasionally, but I treat for pain first, and as an acupuncturist, I often find pain that is missed on the conventional exam. If signs of compulsive walking and disorientation remain after two weeks, I’ll usually initiate a trial for cognitive dysfunction.”
What You Can Do for Your Old Dog
If you’re concerned that your canine companion might be showing signs of CDS, don’t panic, cry, or devour a box of bon-bons just yet. The good news is that there are traditional and alternative interventions that can both treat the symptoms and also possibly halt further progression of the condition.
Most exciting of all have been ground-breaking studies examining the positive impact of dietary supplementation and behavioral enrichment that includes social, cognitive enrichment (learning problems), and physical exercise components. Check with your veterinarian to discuss the following alternatives.
Dietary Intervention
A variety of clinical studies have revealed that dietary intervention in the form of an antioxidant-enriched diet improved the learning ability of older dogs, and a resulted in a subsequent decrease in CDS symptoms. Primary supplementation included:
• Vitamin E: Acts to protect cell membranes from oxidative damage
• Vitamin C: Essential in maintaining oxidative protection for the soluble phase of cells as well as preventing Vitamin E from propagating free radical production
• L-Carnitine: Mitochondrial co-factor
• Alpha-lipoic acid: Mitochondrial co-factor
• Other antioxidants from fruits and vegetables (i.e., spinach flakes, tomato pomace, grape pomace, carrot granules, and citrus pulp) that are also rich in flavonoids and carotenoids
Dr. Landsberg notes that it has been suggested that high intakes of fruits and vegetables might decrease the risk for age related cognitive decline through their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and the addition of omega-3 fatty acids can promote cell membrane health and provide a possible anti-inflammatory effect. Although available in a commercial prescription dog food, the diet can be mimicked by those pet owners who prefer to feed home-prepared, or another type of food by feeding an antioxidant rich diet and supplementing.
Dr. Wynn, who practices alternative and complementary medicine and is the nutritionist at Georgia Veterinary Specialists in Sandy Springs, Georgia, says that antioxidants are the single most important treatment for her clients diagnosed with CDS, adding that “any older dog with clinical signs” is a good candidate. In addition to antioxidants, she uses acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid. She also recommends herbs, preferring to treat with lemon balm, gingko, bacopa, and gotu cola. In her experience, she expects to see results “usually within two weeks.”
Dr. Wynn agrees, too, that for those people so inclined, “Use the diet you want, plus antioxidants and alpha-lipoic acid and acetyl-l-carnitine supplements.”
Behavioral Enrichment
Just as exciting is the research reported in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, “Enhanced Spatial Ability in Aged Dogs Following Dietary and Behavioural Enrichment” (P.M.D. Nippak, J. Mendelson, B. Muggenburg, N.W. Milgram). This study tested aged dogs on a 3-DNMP test, and followed the results of dietary intervention and behavioral enrichment on the cognitive abilities of aged (and control) dogs in the trial for three years. As has been found in previous studies, dietary intervention in this study ” . . . led to rapid improvements in learning and within two weeks, significant improvements in spatial attention.” Over time, learning ability improved as well, while untreated dogs showed progressive decline.
In their test of the effect of behavioral enrichment on cognitive abilities, researchers reported that the dogs showed similar improvements to those receiving dietary intervention. Behavioral enrichment included increased exercise, environmental enrichment (kennel mate, toys alternated weekly), and a program of cognitive enrichment. Why? We can only guess, based on data from human studies that tell us:
• Physical activity is associated with improved cognitive function and lower risks of cognitive impairment and dementia.
• Enriched environments improve learning ability and ” can be sufficiently robust to reduce or eliminate age-dependent cognitive decline, particularly if intervention is instituted early in development.”
• Cognitive experience is linked to the absence of cognitive dysfunction, with an inverse relationship between educational level and rate of cognitive decline later in life; studies also show that patients with dementia demonstrated an improvement in cognitive performance following the implementation of special cognitive training protocols.”
Jonna Kanable, Certified Canine Rehab Practitioner (CCRP) with Atlanta Animal Rehab and Fitness in Roswell, Georgia, is a firm proponent of the exercise piece of the puzzle. “If you look at it from the common sense standpoint, if you increase blood flow to a particular organ, you’ll see more nerves firing and more synaptic involvement, and you should definitely increase cognitive ability at that point, too.
“In my own experience, I’ve had a lot of elderly canine clients for exercise (underwater treadmill) who were arthritic but also showed symptoms of CDS. They were prescribed exercise to help out with the arthritis, but we also saw their cognitive ability improve.”
Kanable also reported seeing dogs with “more peppiness, not that listless stare; they’re looking around more, and definitely seem to be more energetic afterward.” The more weekly sessions the dogs attended, the longer they “held” their treatments and demonstrated more voluntary movement at home instead of just lying or standing in one spot. Plus, she adds, “All the owners, every single one of them, said with exercise during the day they saw improvements (a decrease) in their dogs’ pacing behavior (a classic CDS symptom) at night.” Kanable believes daily exercise is the key. Even if it’s short periods of exercise – 10 to 15 minutes at a time, two to three times daily, for an elderly pet, depending on their level of conditioning – owners should expect to see better quality of sleep for their pets and better cognitive ability.
In addition to exercise, enriching your dog’s environment could include short outings to meet people and take in new sights and sounds; visits with other dog-friendly pets; mini-daily training sessions; a low key training class; and a weekly rotation of toys. Whole Dog Journal‘s Training Editor, Pat Miller, lists the following activities as a few of her favorites to keep your dog’s brain engaged:
• Shaping games, including “101 Things to Do With a Prop,” or directed shaping of a specific task; great because these can be played no matter how much a dog may be physically limited.
• Playing with interactive stuffed toys with “parts” the dog pulls out or apart.
Diet + Behavioral Enrichment = Best Formula
All these things are helpful for dogs with CDS, but what researchers discovered was that the combination treatment group – the one that received both dietary and behavioral interventions – consistently demonstrated greater benefit than groups receiving a sole treatment. Prior reports indicated that the “3-DNMP” task was too difficult for aged animals, yet this study showed aged dogs making fewer errors and responding more slowly (actually a good sign!) on these complex tasks.
While Dr. Wynn likes to start dogs on antioxidants at roughly nine years of age as “prevention,” she, too, is a big believer in the power of behavioral enrichment in combination with dietary intervention.
“I think that, as in humans, if you don’t use it, you lose it,” says Dr. Wynn. “Some older dogs are left at home with nothing to do but dwell on their anxieties – the gradual loss of hearing and sight, increasing stiffness and pain. I really think they dwell on these changes unless they are given other things to do and to think about, and are provided with adequate pain control. So we should manage their pain very aggressively with acupuncture, massage, herbs, chiropractic, physical therapy, and drugs, and provide them with small projects, or if possible, keep them in training. Training and exercise should never stop.”
Nutraceuticals
A variety of nutraceuticals intended to boost brain power are available. Studies that indicate that Juvenon®, available for dogs as “Vigorate,” is effective for canine CDS. Other available nutraceuticals include Memoractiv™, Geriactive®, Proneurozone™, and Senior Moment®. At this time, the efficacy of these products has not been proven through clinical trials or cognitive studies, although some users report seeing improvements in their dogs.
Pharmaceuticals
Currently, the only veterinary pharmaceutical approved by the FDA for treatment of CDS is Anipryl® (selegiline hydrochloride, L-deprenyl hydrochloride). This drug has also been used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s in humans.
Like any drug, Anipryl can cause adverse reactions and side effects, and should not be used in combination with drugs that include, but not limited to, phenylpropanolamine, ephedrine, other tricyclic antidepressants (Clomicalm), amitraz (Mitaban dips or Preventic collars), fluoxetine, mirtazapine ( a tetracyclic antidepressant used as an antiemetic and appetite stimulant, often in cancer patients), and tramadol. A thorough review of current medications and an in-depth discussion with your veterinarian are in order should you decide to take this route.
Other pharmaceuticals being studied, according to Dr. Landsberg, are those that enhance cerebral vascular circulation and drugs that increase alertness and regulate sleep-wake cycles. Antidepressants might also help (i.e., clomipramine), as might anti-inflammatory drugs and hormone replacement therapy, although clinical trials have yet to be run specifically for treatment of CDS with these interventions.
Prepare While Your Dog is Sharp!
Think your friend is not quite ready for the senior center? Well then, now is the perfect time to get serious about updating his diet and engaging him in an active lifestyle. Human epidemiologic studies suggest that maintaining an active lifestyle can protect against pathological aging. Participation in cognitively stimulating or physical activities that lead to improved function reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Reduced intellectual or physical activity in middle age has been shown to lead to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s later in life.
Since some treatments might actually slow the progression of disease rather than simply treat symptoms, it’s best to start treatment of senior dogs prior to onset of clinical signs. At the end of the day, it’s a win-win situation, with both of you benefitting from a change in lifestyle that incorporates an antioxidant-rich diet, exercise, and cognitive stimulation.
Lisa Rodier lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband and two Bouviers.
Any time we aspire to review the best products in a given category, we inadvertently miss some. Last month, we highlighted some interesting novel foods products that are manufactured outside the conventions of dry, canned, or raw frozen foods. Somehow, we failed to include a few interesting dehydrated products.
As we stated last month, dehydrated foods are light and compact, and easy to take on the road; just add water. Because most include raw, dried meat as the major protein (and indeed the major ingredient), they are frequently used as travel food for dogs who ordinarily eat a home-prepared or commercial raw meat diet.
Please note that some of these products are not formulated to meet the nutritional levels recommended by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). Its usually easy to identify these products by the omission of a complete and balanced claim on their labels. However, one product below makes a complete and balanced claim that lacks information about which AAFCO standard it met.
Most dogs can eat unbalanced or incomplete diets for a short time without adverse side effects. But such diets should be used only as a short-term solution, or by owners who are experienced with home-prepared or unconventional diets. Its advisable to develop a collaborative relationship with a vet who can provide educated oversight of alternative diets.
1. Learn to calculate grams of fat per 1,000 kcal rather than relying on fat percentages to identify low—fat foods.
2. Be sure your homemade low-fat diet includes the proper amount of calcium.
3. Avoid foods that are excessively low in protein, such as some prescription and weight—loss diets.
4. Avoid low-fat diets for dogs that are excessively low in fat, unless your dog is one of the few who requires it.
In previous issues we’ve talked about the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of pancreatitis. In this article we will discuss low-fat diets for dogs that can be used long term for dogs who cannot tolerate too much fat in their diet. These low-fat diets for dogs guidelines are meant for adult maintenance only, not for puppies or females who are pregnant or nursing, as their requirements are different.
Many dogs with chronic pancreatitis and those prone to recurrent attacks of acute pancreatitis do better when fed diets that are low in fat. Dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) due to damage to the pancreas, or with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), may also respond favorably to a low-fat diet. Some dogs need low-fat dog foods to control hyperlipidemia (high levels of triglycerides in the blood) that can lead to pancreatitis.
Dogs with fat intolerance or mal-absorption may show signs such as diarrhea and weight loss, or steatorrhea (excessive excretion of fat in the stool, resulting in large, pale, greasy, and malodorous stools) in more severe cases. Fat malabsorption can also be associated with liver and gall bladder disease, intestinal infection (viral, bacterial, or parasites), lymphangiectasia, and other conditions. It’s a good idea to try a low-fat diet for any dog with digestive problems to see if he improves, though if no improvement is seen, it need not be continued.
How Much Fat is OK for dogs?
As a rule, veterinarians consider a diet with less than 10 percent fat on a dry matter basis (less than 17 percent of calories from fat) to be low fat, while diets with 10 to 15 percent fat (17 to 23 percent of calories) are considered to contain a moderate amount of fat. Foods with more than 20 percent fat are considered high-fat. A few dogs may need a very low-fat diet, especially if they have hyperlipidemia, or if they react to foods with higher levels of fat.
When comparing the percentage of fat in different foods, you must consider the food’s moisture content. The percentage of fat in wet food (canned or fresh) must be converted to dry matter (DM) for comparison, or to use the guidelines above. To do the conversion, first determine the amount of dry matter by subtracting the percentage of moisture from 100, then divide the percentage of fat by the result. For example, if a food is 75 percent moisture and 5 percent fat, divide 5 by 25 (100 – 75) to get 20 percent fat DM.
Percentages give you only a rough estimate of the actual amount of fat your dog will consume.
For a more exact figure, calculate the grams of fat per 1,000 kcal (kilocalories, the standard caloric measurement). For simplicity’s sake, I will call this GFK, though that is not a standard abbreviation. Veterinary nutritionists consider diets to be low-fat if they have less than 25 GFK (22.5 percent of calories from fat). This measurement can be used for any type of food: dry, canned, or fresh.
The ratio of fat to calories is more accurate than the percentage of fat in the diet, since the amount of food your dog needs to consume is determined by calories.
For example, a diet that is 10 percent fat with 4,000 kcal/kg provides 25 GFK, while a diet that is 8 percent fat with 2,700 kcal/kg provides 30 GFK.
In other words, for every 1,000 kcal your dog consumes, he would get 30 grams of fat from the food with 8 percent fat, but only 25 grams of fat from the food with 10 percent fat. See the sidebars on the following pages for instructions on how to easily calculate the GFK in various foods and combinations.
Here is a list of the percentages of fat that would translate to 25 grams per 1,000 kcal for foods with various calories:
Vegetarian diets are sometimes recommended to provide a low-fat diet. I do not advise feeding your dog a vegetarian diet, whether commercial or homemade. See “Have Dinner In,” (WDJ, April 2007) for more information on how such a diet can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies.
Some low-fat diets for dogs recipes are excessively low in fat, providing as little as 5 to 8 GFK, with as much as seven times more starches than meat. With very few exceptions, it’s not necessary to feed such an extremely low-fat diet to dogs recovering from or prone to pancreatitis or with other forms of fat intolerance, nor is such a diet likely to be nutritionally adequate, regardless of how many supplements you add. The NRC (National Research Council) recommends a minimum of 11.1 GFK for adult dogs (10 percent of calories from fat, or around 5 percent fat DM).
Low-fat diets for dogs that are too low in fat can lead to deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins and problems with the skin and coat; they can also leave your dog feeling tired and hungry all the time. It’s important to feed adequate fat unless your dog absolutely cannot tolerate it. In that case, you can add easily digestible fat in the form of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), found in coconut oil and MCT oil (generally made from coconut and/or palm kernel oil). See last month’s article for more information on MCTs.
Not all dogs who have had acute pancreatitis, or who have EPI, need low-fat dog food. Many dogs who have experienced acute pancreatitis can return to a normal diet with no problem. A recent study showed that severe fat restriction (less than 13 percent of calories from fat, or less than 15 GFK) failed to show any significant benefit for dogs with EPI.
A case report of three German Shepherd Dogs with EPI demonstrated that a diet with 19 percent fat (on a dry matter basis) was well tolerated and resulted in weight gain, decreased diarrhea, and an improved coat (the diet used hydrolyzed protein, which is processed in such a way as to render the proteins nearly hypoallergenic). Diets with 43 percent calories from fat have been shown to promote better protein, fat, and carbohydrate digestibility compared to diets containing 18 and 27 percent calories from fat in dogs with experimental EPI.
Find the Amount of Fat in Commercial Dog Foods
You can calculate the grams of fat per 1,000 kcal in any food you find by using the following formula:
Fat percentage ÷ kcal per kg x l0,000 = grams of fat per 1,000 kcal (GFK)
For example, if a food is 10.0% fat and has 4,000 kcal/kg: 10.0 ÷ 4,000 x 10,000 = 25 GFK
For dry food, you need to know the kcal per kg, not per cup. a volume measure that cannot be converted to kcal/kg.
For canned food, if you know the number of calories and ounces per can. you can use this formula instead: Fat percentage x ounces per can ÷ kcal per can x 284 = GFK.
If you know the kcal per pound (rather than per kg) of any food. you can use this formula instead: Fat percentage ÷ kcal per pound x 4,540 = GFK.
See the table below for examples of higher-quality, lower-fat commercial foods (presented alphabetically) that you can choose from if your dog requires a low-fat diet. This is just a sampling; there are other brands that would be comparable. Most are senior or weight-loss formulas, but I have also included some adult formulas that are only moderately higher in fat. which will be fine for many dogs. For comparison. see the gastrointestinal prescription diets at the table‘s bottom; note that these are not high-quality foods.
The most important column in the table is “grams fat/1,000 kcal (GI-K)”. That value gives you the most accurate information about the amount of fat in each food, and can be used to compare different types of foods, Some varieties of food shown are lower in fat than most dogs need (less than 25 GFK); these can be combined with foods that have moderate amounts of hit to give you more feeding options.
Be careful to check the individual food you‘re considering feeding; just because one variety a company offers is low-fat doesn‘t mean they all are. Canidae Platinum Formula is an example of a food where the canned version has almost twice as much fat as the dry.
I’ve included three incomplete dehydrated pre-mixes. These must be mixed with fresh foods per instructions to provide a complete diet. The added foods will boost the protein level of the overall diet to an adequate level.
The fat percentages in the table are taken from the minimum values as shown on the label. The actual amount of fat will be somewhat higher than the guaranteed minimum. Some companies provide (on their websites) the actual “as fed” amount of fat found when the food was tested. Ranges of fat percentage and GFK are given for those foods, showing the difference between the computations using the minimum and actual amounts of fat.
For canned and raw foods, I also show the dry matter (DM) percentages of fat and protein in parentheses: dry foods have so little moisture that their DM percentages are only slightly higher than their “as f ” percentages. Use the DM percentages of wet foods when comparing the amounts of fat or protein to the amounts in dry foods.
BRAND
TYPE
KCAL/KG
% FAT
GRAMS OF FAT/1,000 KCAL (GFK)
% PROTEIN
CONVENTIONAL DRY AND CANNED FOODS
Blue Buffalo Chicken Dinner
can
1,213
4% (18.2%)
33
8.5% (38.6%)
Blue Buffalo Senior Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe
dry
3,398
8%
24
18%
Blue Buffalo Weight Control Chicken & Brown Rice
dry
3,100
6%
19
20%
California Natural Low Fat Rice & Chicken Meal Adult
dry
3,426
7%
20
21%
California Natural Low Fat Rice & Lamb Meal Adult
dry
3,373
7-7.1%
20-21
21%
Canidae Lamb Meal & Rice
dry
4,022
12.5%
31
21%
Canidae Platinum Formula
dry
3,328
8-8.5%
24-26
20%
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Adult Formula
can
1,139
4% (18.2%)
35
8% (36%)
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Adult Light
dry
3,088
6%
19
20%
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Senior Dog Formula
dry
3,364
12%
36
22%
Drs. Foster & Smith Dry Senior Dog Food Formula
dry
3,180
8-8.9%
25-28
23%
Eagle Pack Holistic Select Duck Meal & Oatmeal
dry
3,656
13-13.6%
36-37
23%
Eagle Pack Holistic Select Senior Care
dry
3,606
10-12.5%
28-35
26%
HealthWise Chicken Meal & Oatmeal Weight Control
dry
3,285
7-8%
21-24
20%
Innova Low Fat Adult
dry
3,340
7-7.9%
21-24
18%
Innova Senior Plus
dry
3,491
10-10.2%
29
24%
Wellness CORE Reduced Fat Formula
dry
3,270
9-10%
28-31
33%
Wellness Senior
can
1,064
3% (13.6%)
28
7% (32%)
Wellness Super5 Mix Complete Health Chicken
dry
3,570
12%
34
22%
Wellness Super5 Mix Just For Seniors
dry
3,220
10%
31
18%
DEHYDRATED DOG FOODS
Sojos Europa Grain-Free Dog Food Mix (incomplete)
dehyd.
3,469
6.5%
19
15%
Sojos European Style Dog Food Mix (incomplete)
dehyd.
3,738
6%
16
13%
The Honest Kitchen Preference (incomplete)
dehyd.
3,510
5%
14
12%
The Honest Kitchen Verve
dehyd.
3,770
7.5%
20
21%
RAW FOODS
Primal Pet Foods Venison Formula
frozen/ raw
1,689
4% (18.2%)
24
16% (73%)
PRESCRIPTION FOODS
Hill’s Prescription Diet i/d
dry
3,849
9-13%
23-34
22%
Purina Veterinary Diets EN Formula
can
1,194
3% (11.5%)
25
6.5% (25%)
Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Digestive Low Fat LF20
dry
3,410
4-6%
12-18
20%
Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Low Fat LF
can
1,148
1.5-2% (6.8%)
13-17
8% (32%)
Calculate the Amount of Fat in Fresh Foods
The table below has a sampling of foods that you can use to create a low-fat diet for your dog. You can check out other foods at nutritiondatacom, which allows you to save selected foods online and then use them to create recipes.
Once again, the most important column is the “grams fat/1,000 kcal,” which gives you the most accurate fat measurement for comparison purposes, Note that some of these foods, such as eggs, are high in fat, suitable only when combined in limited amounts with lower-fat foods. Several foods show a range that depends on how the food is prepared (raw, roasted, boiled, etc); see nutritiondatacom for details.
A simple formula similar to the one used for commercial foods will allow you to calculate the grams of fat per 1,000 kcal (GFK) in any individual food or recipe. All you need to know is the number of calories and the grams of fat (not the percentage) for each food or recipe. both of which can be found at nutritiondatacom.
grams of fat ÷ number of calories x 1,000 = grams of fat per 1,000 kcal (GFK)
Example: To calculate the grams of fat per 1,000 kcal in low-fat cottage cheese (using the numbers from the table below), divide 1.0 grams of fat by 72 kcal and multiply by 1,000.
1.0÷72x 1,000= 14 GFK
Remember that not everything you feed must be low-fat. Moderate-fat foods can be combined with very low-fat foods in order to create a low-fat meal. To calculate the GFK in any recipe, divide the total grams of fat in the recipe by its kcal and multiply by 1,000. For example, nutritiondatacom says that 8 ounces of cooked white rice combined with 8 ounces of roasted skinless dark meat chicken provide 223 grams of fat and 750 kcal. So, 22.3 ÷ 750 x 1,000 = 30 GFK
Low-Fat Commercial Diets
In order to calculate the amount of fat in commercial foods, you will need to know the kcal/kg. If this information is not provided on the label of the product you’re interested in, call or e-mail the company. Ask them to provide the actual amount of fat from a nutritional analysis if possible, rather than the guaranteed minimum amount that is shown on the label. (See above. You’ll see that the actual amount of fat in a food may be much higher than the “minimum” amount shown on the label.)
Most senior and light diets are relatively low in fat, but look for those that are not also low in protein. Low-protein diets should be avoided, as they can increase the risk of both hyperlipidemia and pancreatitis. Diets that are low in both protein and fat are mostly carbohydrates. Dogs get more nutritional value from protein than from carbohydrates, so it’s better to feed a diet that is higher in protein and therefore lower in carbohydrates. You can increase the amount of protein in the diet by adding high-protein, low-fat fresh foods, if needed. Moderate amounts of protein (up to 30 percent on a dry matter basis, or 23 percent of calories) are recommended for dogs recovering from acute pancreatitis.
Low-fat foods are inherently less palatable (not as tasty). If your dog is unwilling to eat low-fat foods, try adding some low- or moderate-fat canned or fresh foods, or low-sodium nonfat broth, to make the food more attractive. See the homemade diet section below for more information on foods to add. You can also combine low-fat food with moderate-fat food to keep fat at reasonable levels while increasing palatability.
Veterinarians debate about the amount of fiber that is best for dogs recovering from pancreatitis. Some dogs respond better to low-fiber diets (0.5 to 5 percent DM), using mixed soluble and insoluble fiber types, while others do better on diets that include moderate levels of insoluble fiber (10 to 15 percent). The difference may depend on what other gastrointestinal disorders the dog has. Low fiber is recommended for dogs in the initial recovery stages of acute pancreatitis, as fiber slows gastric emptying, which may prolong pancreatic stimulation.
Low-Fat Homemade Diets
To make a low-fat homemade diet, feed about half carbohydrates, and half low-fat meat, eggs, and dairy. The percentage of carbs can be decreased, and the amount of meat increased, if you use very low-fat cuts, or boil them to remove most of the fat.
The majority of the carbohydrates should be starchy foods, such as rice, oatmeal, barley, quinoa, pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and winter squashes (e.g., acorn and butternut), to supply low-fat calories. Other types of vegetables, such as broccoli, summer squash, and leafy greens can be included, but they supply fewer calories so they can’t replace the starchy carbs. You can also use a low-fat pre-mix designed to balance out a homemade diet, such as Preference from The Honest Kitchen.
The other half of the diet should be mostly low-fat meats, or meats cooked to remove much of their fat. Skinless chicken breast is very low in fat, but other parts can be used as long as you remove the skin and visible fat. Turkey, venison, goat, buffalo, and rabbit are low in fat, while lamb and pork are generally high in fat. Ground beef comes in varying levels of fat.
Whole eggs are relatively high in fat but are highly nutritious, so they should be included in the diet in limited amounts. A large egg has about 5 grams of fat, which is not a lot for a very large dog, but too much for smaller dogs. You can hard boil eggs and then feed just a portion each day, or split them between multiple dogs. Almost all of the fat and calories are in the yolks, so the whites alone can be added to increase protein without increasing fat, if needed. When feeding just egg whites, they should either be cooked or a B vitamin supplement should be added, as raw egg whites can deplete biotin over time when fed without the yolks.
Low-fat or nonfat dairy products are also good to include in the diet. Cottage cheese, plain yogurt, and kefir (a cultured milk product that is easy to make at home using low-fat or nonfat milk) are all good choices. Avoid other cheeses; even low-fat ones are high in fat (nonfat is okay).
Homemade diets should include organ meat, and most organs are low in fat. Liver and kidney should be fed in small amounts only, no more than 5 to 10 percent of the total diet (around 1 to 1.5 ounces organ meat per pound of food). Beef heart is quite low in fat and is nutritionally more of a muscle meat, so it can be fed in larger quantities, as long as your dog does well with it.
Fruits such as apple, banana, melon, papaya, and blueberries are fine to include in the diet in small amounts. Avoid avocados, which are high in fat.
Meat can be fed either raw or cooked. Certain types of cooking, such as boiling and skimming off the fat, can be used to reduce the amount of fat, while other types, such as frying in oil, will increase the amount of fat. You can buy less expensive, fattier cuts of meat if you remove the fat by cooking or trimming before feeding. Grains and starchy carbs should be cooked to improve their digestibility, while other vegetables must be either cooked or pureed in a food processor, juicer, or blender in order to be digestible by dogs (raw whole veggies are not harmful, but provide little nutritional value).
If you feed raw meaty bones, the amounts should be small, as these tend to be high in fat. Be sure to remove the skin and visible fat from poultry, and avoid fattier cuts such as lamb and pork necks and breast (riblets).
This is one case where “balance over time” does not apply. A high-fat meal can’t be balanced out later with a low-fat meal. Instead, combine foods so that no meals are high in fat. Some dogs prone to digestive problems do better with more fiber, while others do better with less. Many vegetables and fruits are high in fiber, as are beans and some grains, while white rice has little fiber. If you need to add fiber, you can use canned pumpkin or psyllium.
Balancing a Homemade Diet
You will need to add calcium to your homemade diet, unless you feed at least 20 percent raw meaty bones (RMBs, where the bone is consumed) or use a pre-mix designed to balance out a homemade diet.
Because you need to feed more food when feeding a low-fat diet in order to supply the same number of calories, it’s better to calculate the amount of calcium needed based on the calories your dog consumes rather than the weight of the food. The National Research Council recommends 1 gram (1,000 mg) of calcium per 1,000 kcal for adult dogs. Another way to compute the amount of calcium your dog needs is by body weight: the NRC recommends 30 mg calcium per pound of body weight (65 mg/kg) daily. Be sure to divide this daily amount by the number of meals you feed.
If you are feeding RMBs but they are less than 20 percent of the diet, adjust the amount of calcium proportionately. For example, if your diet is 10 percent RMBs, you would need to add only half as much calcium as the NRC recommends to balance out the rest of the diet.
You should also adjust the calcium amount if you feed part commercial and part homemade. There’s no need to add calcium if the homemade food is just a small percentage of the diet, say 25 percent or less, but if you feed more than that, calculate the amount of calcium based on the percentage of the diet that is made up of homemade food. For example, if you feed half commercial and half homemade, give half as much calcium as your dog would need based on body weight, or calculate the calories in the homemade portion and base the amount of calcium to add on that amount alone. You can use any form of calcium, such as calcium carbonate or calcium citrate. You can also use bone meal. Ground eggshells can be used to supply calcium. Rinse and dry the eggshells, then grind them in a clean coffee grinder or blender. One-half of a teaspoon of ground eggshell provides approximately 1,000 mg of elemental calcium.
Find the Amount of Fat in Combination Diets
If you feed a combination of different commercial foods, you’ll need to know the weights of each in order to calculate the GFK. Calculations are based on weight, not volume. The actual weight doesn’t matter, only the proportions.
If you feed the same amount of two or more foods, just add the values together before doing the calculation. For example, if you feed halflnnova Low Fat Adult (7.9% fat, 3,340 kcal/kg) and half lnnova Senior Plus (10.2% fat. 3,491 kcaI/kg), add the values for each together:
What if you feed different amounts of two different foods? Say you feed 3 ounces of canned Blue Buffalo Chicken Dinner (4.0% fat. 1,213 kcal/kg) plus I ounce of dry Blue Buffalo Weight Control food (6.0% fat, 3,100 kcal/kg); that’s a ratio 3:1. To do the calculatiOns. multiply each canned value by 3 and add the results to the values for the dry food:
3 x 4.0 = 12.0 ÷ 6.0 = 18.0 grams of fat
3 x 1.213 = 3.639 ÷ 3.100 = 6.739 kcal
18.0 ÷ 6,739 x 10,000 = 27 GFK
If you know the kcal/oz of a canned food, you’ll need to convert that to kcal/kg in order to compute the GFK of a combination of foods. To do so, divide the number of calories per can by the number of ounces in the can, then multiply by 35. For example, if a food has 360 kcal per 12 oz can, 360 ÷ 12 x 35 = 1,050 kcal/kg.
If you know the kcal/lb of any food, again you’ll need to convert that to kcal/kg in order to compute the GFK of a combination of foods. To do so, multiply the kcal/lb by 2.2. So, if a food has 1,200 kcal/lb: 1,200 x 2.2 = 2.640 kcal/kg.
Things get a little trickier when you combine fresh foods with commercial foods. To calculate the GFK in a combination of a commercial food and fresh foods, convert both to amounts per 100 kcal.
To convert kcal/kg (which is how the information is usually given for commercial foods) to kcal/100 grams, just divide by 10. Percentage of fat is the same as grams of fat per 100 grams, so no conversion is needed there. Use nutritiondata.com to get the grams of fat and kcal for 100 grams of any food or recipe (be sure to change the serving size to 100 grams).
If you feed half commercial food and half fresh food, just add the grams of fat per 100 grams of the fresh food to the percentage of fat in the commercial food. then divide by the combined total calories. Remember that calculations are based on weight. not volume.
For example: To calculate the GFK in a meal that is half Blue Buffalo Weight Control Chicken & Brown Rice and half broiled 95% lean ground beef (e.g., 4 ounces ofeach), add the values for the two together and use the same formula from above. Blue Buffan has 6.0 grams of fat (6.0% fat) and 310 kcal (3,100 divided by 10) per 100 grams. The ground beef has 6.5 grams of fat and 171 kcal per 100 grams.
This same formula will work no matter what combinations you use, as long as you adjust for weight ratios. For example, if you combine 4 ounces each of three different foods. you‘re feeding the same amount of each food. so just add the grams of fat and kcal for all three foods together.
If you use more of one food than another, then multiply the grams of fat and kcal for that food by the appropriate factor — for example, if you use three times as much of one food as another, multiply the grams of fat and kcal for that food by 3 and add it to the numbers for the other food.
For example: lnnova Senior Plus has 10.2 grams of fat (10.2% fat) and 349 kcal (3.491 divided by 10) per 100 grams. Low-fat cottage cheese has 1.0 grams of fat and 72 kcal per 100 grams. If you feed 6 oz lnnova Senior Plus and 3 oz low-fat cottage cheese. you‘re feeding twice as much of the lnnova as the cottage cheese, so multiply those values by 2 and combine them with the values for the cottage cheese:
10.2 x 2 = 20.4 ÷ 1.0 = 21.4 grams of fat
349 x 2 = 698 ÷ 72 = 770 kcal
21.4 ÷ 770 x 1,000 = 28 GFK
You can use the same formula for combining the values for raw meaty bones with other fresh foods, since nutritiondata.com doesn’t have information on RMBs. Enter your recipe for all the ingredients except the RMBs into nutritiondatacom and get the grams of fat and kcal for 100 grams of that recipe; again, make sure to change the serving size to 100 grams. Then combine it proportionately with the values for RMBs from the table above.
Once you get a feel for the diet you‘re feeding, there will be no need to continue to do the calculations. You’ll know about how much eg you can add, for example, without increasing fat too much — or you’ll know that you can add more egg when feeding a particularly low-fat meal.
Note that when we talk about a meal being half one thing and half another, we are talking about weight, not volume. A cup of dehydrated food will weigh less than a cup of ground beef, for example, so use the weight for the calculations. It‘s easy to weigh the food with an inexpensive kitchen or postage scale.
Dietary Supplements for Dogs
If the low-fat diets for dogs you feed lacks variety, especially organ meats, it’s best to add a supplement designed to balance out a homemade diet. Two supplements are designed to balance out high-carb diets: Balance IT Canine and Furoshnikov’s Formulas Vitamins & Minerals for Home-Cooked Dog Food.
When using Balance IT, calculate the amount of calcium your dog should have based on the formulas above, then figure how many scoops of the supplement are needed to supply that amount of calcium.
See Spot Live Longer Homemade Dinner Mixes can also be used, but give a little less than the recommended amount, since it’s made for diets that are higher in fat. Each of these supplements supplies calcium in the proper amounts, so there’s no need to add more.
Even if the low-fat diets for dogs you’re feeding has a lot of variety, it’s a good idea to add certain supplements. As discussed last month, digestive enzymes and probiotics may help to control the effects of chronic pancreatitis, and sometimes are helpful for other digestive problems. Fish body oil, such as salmon oil (not cod liver oil), and antioxidants, including vitamins C and E, beta carotene, and selenium, may help reduce the risk of acute pancreatitis. Dogs with chronic pancreatitis can be deficient in B vitamins, so a B-complex supplement is also recommended.
Diet versus Single Recipe
Many people feel more confident feeding low-fat diets for dogs that has been designed by a veterinary nutritionist, but these can have limitations. Most nutritionists provide the dog owner with a single recipe rather than a diet, and in fact caution against making any substitutions to the recipe in order to keep each meal “complete and balanced.”
The problem with this approach is that variety is key to good nutrition. Human nutritionists would never supply a single recipe and expect clients to eat that and only that for the rest of their lives. Instead, they give guidelines for which foods can be eaten in quantity, which in moderation, and which should be avoided or eaten in only very limited amounts. That’s what I’ve tried to do here. If you do use a recipe from a nutritionist long term, don’t be afraid to sometimes substitute other foods in the same category as those used in the recipe if they have similar amounts of fat (as long as your dog does not have severe digestive problems or food allergies that require a very limited diet).
The other problem with these recipes is that often they are excessively high in carbohydrates, with minimal amounts of protein, and rely on supplements to provide many nutrients. Carbohydrates are needed to supply low-fat calories for dogs who require a low-fat diet, but they provide less nutritional value than animal products such as meat, eggs, and dairy. Diets that are high in carbohydrates must rely on synthetic supplements to supply much of the nutrition that your dog needs.
A diet that contains more animal products and variety will meet more of your dog’s nutritional needs naturally, without requiring a complete vitamin-mineral supplement. Also, diets that rely on supplements may lack nutrients as yet unidentified as necessary or beneficial, as was the case with taurine before it was discovered that a deficiency leads to heart disease in cats (and some dog breeds as well). Taurine is one example of a nutrient that is found in meat, but not plant products.
Low-Fat Treats
If your dog cannot handle much fat in his diet, then you’ll also need to use low-fat treats. Carrot, apple, and banana pieces or green beans can be used, if your dog likes them. Many people buy or make dried sweet potato slices for dogs prone to pancreatitis. Rice cakes are another option.
Many commercial treats are low in fat. Check the fat percentage on the label of dry treats to get an idea of how much fat they contain; most dry treats with 8 percent or less of fat should be fine. Moist treats are harder to calculate, since you must either convert the fat percentage to dry matter, or know the number of calories so that you can use one of the formulas above in order to determine the actual amount of fat (most treat labels do not provide information about calories).
Some dehydrated or freeze-dried lung and other meats are low in fat. Avoid using dehydrated chicken jerky, though, as most are imported from China (check the small print carefully), and the AVMA and FDA have warned that these treats have been linked to kidney failure in dogs, though no cause has yet been found. Also avoid using pieces of cheese, hot dogs, lunch meats (even those marked low fat), and other fatty foods as treats.
You can create your own dehydrated treats by drying thin slices of low-fat meat in a dehydrator or an oven set to a very low temperature. Sprinkle with garlic powder or nonfat Parmesan cheese before drying to make them even more enticing. Anise is another flavor that dogs really like. Try boiling beef heart in water with a couple of teaspoons of anise seed powder, then cut into small pieces to use as treats.
Use low-fat or nonfat yogurt in place of peanut butter or cheese for stuffing Kongs. Put them in the freezer to create a frozen yogurt treat that will last a long time.
Some chews, such as bully sticks (also called pizzles), are low in fat, while others, such as dried trachea and pig ears, are quite a bit higher. Dried tendons appear to be low in fat, but may be greasy, so use your own judgment. Similar products from different manufacturers may vary in fat content, so pay attention both to the amount of fat listed on the label and to the feel of the chew. Marrow bones are filled with fat and should be avoided. Knuckle bones also appear to be too high in fat to use safely.
Two low-fat chews that last a long time are Himalayan dog chews, which are made from yak and cow milk and are less than one percent fat, and deer antlers, such as those marketed by Lucky Buck. Mindy Fenton, who owns K9 Raw Diet, carries these and other low-fat chews, and has helped many customers whose dogs are prone to pancreatitis to find chews that work for them.
I found several anecdotal reports of rawhide chews, particularly those that were imported, causing acute pancreatitis in dogs, but could find no studies or warnings from veterinarians or other reliable sources on this topic. Some people fear that the act of chewing for long periods may overstimulate the pancreas and cause problems for some dogs, but I could find no supporting evidence. A veterinary pancreatitis specialist confirmed that he feels chewing is not a problem as long as the chews are not high in fat (such as pig ears). Keep an eye on your dog and discontinue giving chews if they appear to cause any discomfort.
Do What Works
Remember that the bottom line is always to do what works for your dog. Numbers tell you only so much, and nutritional analyses for both commercial and fresh foods may vary from what you’re actually feeding.
If your dog continues to have problems, try different foods to see if he tolerates some better than others. If possible, feed frequent small meals, which are easier to digest. Experiment with supplements to find those that seem to help your dog. Keep a journal of what you feed, including treats and supplements, to help you see patterns and identify ingredients that might cause problems for your dog.
If digestive disorders continue no matter what you feed, work with your vet to look for other causes, such as intestinal infection, parasites, or food allergies that may be an underlying factor.
Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition topics as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com website. She lives near San Francisco with her almost 17-year-old dog, Piglet.
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For some reason the blinking red light on my phone that signals “message waiting” always seems ominous to me. Last Thursday, my wariness was reinforced: my friend Cindy had left a frantic message. Her dog was lost.
“Hattie’s missing!” I could hear the panic in her voice. “I was walking her at Antietam Battlefield last night, the leash came off her collar, and she took off after a deer!” Bad news. In many parts of the country, dogs who chase wildlife or livestock can be shot.
There was more bad news as Cindy’s message continued. “I have to leave town today for a work-related retreat. I have people looking for her, but if there’s anything you can do?”
I called Cindy back immediately. She had already placed a “lost dog” ad in the paper for her 18-month-old, wheaten-colored, Irish Wolfhound-mix. She had put up posters in the area where Hattie was lost, as well as on the five-mile route between the park and her house in Sharpsburg. She had notified the only shelter in the county that handles stray dogs. She left one of her sweatshirts in the spot where Hattie went missing. And she had people who knew Hattie well – staff from the doggie daycare facility she visited regularly – looking for her. There wasn’t much more I could do. I gave her contact information for a person in Maryland who has a dog trained to find missing pets, and suggested setting a humane dog trap. And praying.
It was worrisome that Hattie had been out all night on her own and hadn’t been spotted by anyone. She was a large, light-colored, well-socialized dog, microchipped, and wearing a collar with tags. Someone should have found her already.
Thanks in part to my 20 years working at a California animal shelter, when an animal goes missing I tend to immediately imagine the worst-case scenarios. Lost dogs can be hit and killed (or badly injured) by cars; shot if suspected of chasing livestock or wildlife; poisoned; caught in a leghold trap; attacked by wild animals; or picked up by someone who wants to keep her themselves, or by someone with the misguided idea that anyone who loses a dog is irresponsible and shouldn’t get her back. Of course, what you hope is that your dog is picked up by someone who returns her to you or to a local animal shelter.
Our best hope was that Hattie was still wandering around the cornfields at the Battlefield, trying to find her way home. If someone had found her, they should have already called.
Before your dog gets lost
I fervently hope you never find yourself in the position of looking for your missing dog. But just in case, there are a number of things you can do in advance to maximize your success in finding her.
• Identification: For starters, make sure your dog is wearing a collar with lots of identification. Tags should include both a current dog license (if required where you live) and an ID tag with up-to-date owner information and at least two, preferably three, contact numbers. You can also order collars that have your phone number and the dog’s name stitched into the collar. Well-fitted collars are less likely to fall off than tags.</p>
Finally, tattoos and microchips are excellent “back-up” ID systems. Be sure you keep owner information current with those registries as well – if you’ve moved, they need to know. (For more information about identification methods, see Whole Dog Journal August 2004.)
• Shelters: There is only one shelter in my county that handles stray dogs. That makes it relatively easy to know where to look for a lost dog. In some jurisdictions there are several, and your dog could end up in any of them if she wanders or is transported over county or city lines.
Before your dog gets lost, find and visit every shelter in your area and ask how long they hold stray dogs, so you know where they are and how often you have to visit. Ask if they keep records of dogs found dead along the road, or if someone else does – perhaps the Department of Public Works. Then keep a list by your phone of the addresses, telephone numbers, and holding times of each shelter, so you don’t have to look them up in a panic.
• Training: A solid, frequently practiced recall is a must if you plan to take your dog off-leash anywhere that’s unfenced. But even if you don’t intend to let your dog run off-leash, dogs frequently get lost when stuff happens – stuff like Hattie’s equipment failure, the board that came loose on our fence last July, earthquakes and fires, doors and gates left open, and car accidents.
I highly recommend teaching every dog an emergency recall to a special cue that will carry through forests and over cornfields. We have a “storm whistle” – available online and at camping supply outlets – that is so shrill and loud I have to cover my ears when I blow it. Teach your dog that the sound means “chicken!” (or whatever your canine pal likes best) and you’ll have an invaluable tool for those emergencies.
• Take several photos of your dog now. Make a stack of emergency fliers with her photo and your contact information to hand out if she gets lost. Offer a reward on the flier. Stash them in a safe place for future use. With luck, you’ll never need them.
• Check your perimeter fence regularly to be sure it’s secure.
• Put locks on yard gates to avoid accidental release – and keep them locked.
• Google “lost dog” and bookmark websites that offer online lost pet announcements.
• See www.missingpetpartnership.org and find a trained “pet detective” near you. These are people with dogs who are specially trained to search (using their keen sense of smell) for lost dogs. Talk to the lost pet specialist, find out what services she offers, and put her contact information on your shelter list by your phone so you can reach her easily if you ever need her.
After your dog gets lost
The worst has happened: Your dog has gone missing. Don’t panic! It can happen to any of us. Our Scottie found the loose board on the fence late one evening last July and slipped out into the darkness. I envisioned searching through the woods for him all night as he pursued nocturnal critters. Fortunately, Dubhy came when I called him. Of course, the sooner you spring into action, the better your chances of recovering your dog quickly. So don’t panic, but do get busy.
Unless you know your dog was lost away from home, first, go looking on your own property. Dogs sometimes get trapped in a culvert, stuck in a hole or crawl space, closed in the basement, the clothes dryer, an upstairs bedroom, or a stall in the barn. Take a flashlight, so you can look in holes. Look behind, under, and inside everything that could possibly hide a dog.
If you don’t find her on your own property, or you know for sure she’s not there because someone saw her dash out the door and down the street, search your neighborhood. Take your emergency whistle, treats, a flashlight, and your dog’s favorite squeaky toy or anything else that makes a noise she’s familiar with. If she has a favorite canine friend, take him, too. Grab your emergency fliers to hand out to people you see while you search. Go to every home in the area, talk to the residents, and leave a flier with them. If no one is home, leave a flier on the door.
Talk to everyone you meet on the street, and give them fliers. Children, mail carriers, meter readers, delivery people, and school bus drivers are especially helpful. Walk the streets calling your dog, occasionally blowing the whistle, rattling a dog cookie box, squeaking her squeaky toy. Call out her favorite phrases, like, “Want to go for a ride?” or “Cookies!” Stop occasionally and be quiet, to see if you can hear your dog answering you. If she’s trapped somewhere, she may bark, or whine to try to get your attention. Most lost dogs can be found within the first few hours when the owner makes a concerted effort.
If you don’t find her within an hour, it’s time for the next level of attack. Call a lost pet specialist. Her dog will have a better chance of finding yours if there’s a fresh scent trail. Call the shelters to see if anyone’s reported finding your dog, or brought her in.
Make large, fluorescent posters and post them everywhere. If possible, put a large color photo of your dog on each poster, and make sure your phone number is large enough to be seen and dialed from a passerby’s car; you want to make it easy for someone to call you as quickly as possible if they’ve spotted your dog as they were driving. Consider creating fliers in a second language if there is a concentration of non-English speakers in your area. Offer a reward.
Call the newspapers and place “lost dog” ads. Call all the vet hospitals in the area, to see if anyone has brought in an injured dog, as well as to put the staff on the alert if someone should happen to come in for vaccinations or a check-up of their “new” dog – who just happens to fit your dog’s description. Deliver fliers with photos to all the vet hospitals and shelters. Look through each shelter’s kennels; your description of your dog may differ from theirs, and if you rely on a phone call, they could miss her.
Before you end your search for the day, especially if your dog went missing in unfamiliar territory, leave an article of your clothing and a bowl of her food in a sheltered placed near where she was last seen. You may even choose to camp out in a sleeping bag. You probably aren’t going to sleep well anyway.
Day two
On the second day, if you haven’t already, put a pet detective to work. Her dog should be able to at least help you focus your search on the most likely area, where your dog’s scent is strongest and freshest. She may also be able to tell you that your dog’s scent stops abruptly along the side of a road – perhaps a clue that someone picked her up. Her dog should also be able to find evidence – hair, perhaps blood – if the trail stops because your dog was hit by a car, in which case you’ll redouble your efforts to find your injured dog in the immediate area, hopefully still alive and in time to get veterinary care.
If the pet detective dog tells you there’s no fresh scent in the area, then you know to concentrate your efforts at shelters and around the community.
How long should you look? Start immediately and keep looking – for weeks and months if necessary. If someone else is keeping her, someone will see her sooner or later. If she’s roaming, someone will spot her and, one would hope, let you know, even if they can’t catch her.
If you have a strong connection to your dog you’ll find a way to do the impossible – visiting all the shelters, posting fliers, working with a pet detective, checking with rescue groups and internet sites – until you find your dog. If you are easily discouraged, your chances of finding your missing pal plummet dramatically. Don’t give up; she’s counting on you to bring her back home.
Tragic ending
The vast majority of lost dog stories have happy endings. But sometimes the end of the story is tragic. Cindy came home from her work commitment on Sunday afternoon and immediately went searching for Hattie. I got another red-flashing-light phone message from her late Sunday.
“I found Hattie.” Cindy’s voice on the recording trembled with emotion. “She’s dead.”
Cindy found her dog’s body not far from the place she had last seen her. She believes Hattie was shot with a high-powered rifle, possibly illegally on federal property and dragged back to the place Cindy found her, probably on the first night she was lost. Cindy, of course, was grief stricken and guilt-ridden.
If your story doesn’t have a happy ending, at least you will know you did everything possible to find your missing companion. Like Cindy, you will grieve, and perhaps blame yourself for allowing it to happen, or blame anyone else who might have contributed to her escape.
People who don’t understand the depths of your love for your dog will tell you to get over it – that she was “just a dog.” But you’ll know better. They are not just dogs. They are our beloved friends, family members, and part of our hearts. It’s okay to grieve, as long and as hard as you need to. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Pat Miller, CPDT, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of The Power of Positive Dog Training; Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog; Positive Perspectives II: Know Your Dog, Train Your Dog; and the brand-new Play with Your Dog.
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Autumn seems to be having a positive effect on the internal clock of Otto, our new dog, helping him get in synch with a schedule that more closely resembles the one we follow – you know, sleeping at night and being active during the day? More frequently, I am enjoying the pleasure of being woken by the light of day, rather than Otto’s middle-of-the-night barking at feral cats, or his pre-dawn gallops back and forth past my bedroom window with a toy dangling from his mouth.
As I write this, in early October, his preference is still to sleep outdoors, even though the nighttime temperatures are dropping. He made an exception on the night of our first rain since last spring. Though he still sometimes curls up in the dirt, more and more, he’s been sleeping in a doorless crate on our back deck. It’s well protected from the weather – but when the rain started falling hard, he wanted to come into the house.
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I let him in, of course, and put a wooly (synthetic; he chews wool) mat (no padding; he chews foam) on the kitchen floor for him to lie on. I sincerely hoped he’d sleep on it. Past attempts to keep him in the house at night resulted in restless nights for the whole family, as he paced and whined and dropped toys loudly on the floors.
Maybe he was tired by the long walk we took in the rain before darkness fell, or perhaps it was the sudden change in the weather that curbed his usual interest in nighttime activities, but he lay quietly on the mat throughout the evening as we ate dinner and watched a movie. And he slept there until about 4 am! That’s when he padded into our bedroom to nudge my arm and let me know he was ready to greet the day. I could just barely make out his gleaming eyes and wagging tail.
It was quiet; the rain had stopped. I got up and tip-toed across the cold floor to open the sliding door to the backyard, intending to let him out and go right back to my warm bed. But when the door opened, Otto and I both lifted our noses at the intoxicating scent of the damp earth. And we both stepped out onto the deck, which was blanketed by wet, newly fallen leaves. We stood there for a long while, transfixed by the rich, earthy aroma, the brightness of the stars, and the distant sound of geese calling as they flew past, far overhead.
Then we both shivered – me from the cold, and him from excitement. “Have fun!” I whispered, as he trotted off to make his rounds. I was drifting back to sleep when I heard his first galloping trip past the bedroom window. He was play-growling and rhythmically squeaking a toy as he ran. I recognized its pitch – one of the stuffed bees from his “three bees in a hive” interactive toy.
I smiled to myself. And then I realized: I enjoy everything more with a dog in my life again!
