The commercial pet food industry has enjoyed strong growth in the past two decades and spectacular growth in the past five years. According to Euromonitor International, an international market intelligence provider, sales of pet food in the U.S. exceeded $15 billion in 2007 up from $12 billion in 2002.
Some of this growth is due to an increase in the number of pets in the U.S. (Euromonitor estimates that there were 67 million dogs in the U.S. in 2007, 7 million more than in 2002.) But not all of the industry’s growth can be directly correlated to the increase in the number of canine and feline mouths to feed.
The pet food industry, like the human food industry, has become increasingly savvy about marketing essentially, selling more pet food than is actually needed. And empires are being built from the innovation of products that fill previously unnecessary needs. How did our dogs survive before they had special diets for seniors, large-breeds, small breeds, dogs of specific breeds? (Really? A food just for Yorkshire Terriers?)
Despite my skeptical tone, I’ve welcomed some of the industry’s advances, such as the increasing use of organic and other high-quality ingredients.
More recently, pet food manufacturing has seen a lot of innovation, as a growing number of entrepreneurs, thinking outside the conventional bags of dry food and cans of wet food, have developed entirely new ways to deliver high-quality nutrition to our dogs. Some of these developments make the products particularly useful for certain applications: such as dog food pre-mixes, which are formulated to contain everything a complete and balanced diet contains except for the fresh meat, which you provide. These are great for the person who wants to feed fresh, home-prepared food, but is worried about balancing the diet. Another convenient option are dehydrated foods, which are light and compact, and easy to take on the road; just add water!
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). It’s easy to identify these products by the omission of a complete and balanced claim on their labels. In our opinion, the only people who should feed these products to their dogs are experienced, knowledgeable owners who would recognize the signs of nutritional deficiencies, or who have a close, collaborative relationship with a veterinarian who can provide educated oversight of such a feeding plan. For more on this topic, see Foods for Intermittent or Supplemental Use, or That Lack a Claim, on the next page.
Let’s look at some of these manufacturing innovations, and some of the products in each category.
Dog food pre-mixes
Pre-mixes are probably the oldest of the dog food innovations; Sojourner Farms, probably the oldest maker of dog food pre-mixes, was launched in 1985. The most basic concept behind the products in this category is just add meat (and water). The products generally resemble muesli.
As stated earlier, some companies guarantee that the addition of a specified amount of fresh, wholesome meat results in a diet that is complete and balanced (as per the AAFCO guidelines). Even without the complete and balanced statement, these products would be identifiable by one feature of their ingredients list: they generally contain added minerals; mineral levels are difficult to ensure through food sources alone.
Most of the pre-mix products contain grain; a notable exception is Sojourner Farm’s Europa Grain-Free Dog Food Mix, which contains dried vegetables, fruits, eggs, herbs, and a few other ingredients. Some contain whole grains that require cooking or soaking; in others, the grains are ground, and require only the addition of water. All of the products include dried vegetables, fruits, and/or herbs; some require the addition of some sort of healthy oil, in addition to meat and water. Some utilize organic ingredients.
All of these products may appear to be expensive, especially considering that you also have to buy fresh meat to complete the diet. However, because they contain so little water, when you calculate the cost of the reconstituted diet, their prices are generally competitive with other premium, healthy diets.
Dehydrated diets
Two types of dehydrated canine diets have emerged. The first are powdery products made by The Honest Kitchen (and no one else we are aware of); the second resemble freeze-dried hamburgers.
The Honest Kitchen, a San Diego-based company, seems to have single-handedly developed the concept of complete and balanced diets comprised entirely of dehydrated human foods, mixed together in a human food manufacturing facility. For most of its products, dried, ground meats and grains are mixed together with dried vegetables, fruits, and herbs; a 100 percent human food grade vitamin/mineral supplement is added to complete the diet to AAFCOs recommended nutrient levels.
With the exception of one formula, The Honest Kitchen’s diets require only the addition of water and stirring. However, the company’s founder, Lucy Postins, encourages owners to feel free to add fresh foods, such as vegetables and dairy products, to provide additional variety to the dog’s diet.
The company’s first product was a beef-based diet with organic grains, but The Honest Kitchen now offers six different canine diets, including five ‘complete and balanced’ varieties; one (Preference) that requires the addition of meat (like the pre-mixes discussed previously); and three grain-free varieties. We’ve toured The Honest Kitchen’s manufacturing facility, admired what we saw, and love these products.
A handful of companies offer a freeze-dried or dehydrated versions of their frozen diets. In most of these products, ground meat is mixed with other ingredients; then, instead of being frozen, the product has its moisture removed. The products are then contained in air-tight packages. Dog owners simply add water, wait, and feed.
These products are very popular with owners who feed their dogs raw diets at home, but prefer an easy-to-transport and prepare diet while traveling. All of the products we are aware of in this category are complete and balanced diets.
Dog food rolls
We have to admit that this is our least-favorite type of novel canine diet and that some of our readers swear that these products are the only type of foods that their finicky dogs will eat. Having nursed a very thin, senior dog who had almost no appetite through his final years on earth, we can appreciate that there is a time and a place for these foods. These products are also used by many positive trainers as training treats. Their texture, aroma, and taste (apparently) make them a high-value treat for most dogs.
All of the dog food roll products that we are aware of are complete and balanced diets. They generally contain a high percentage of animal protein including animal muscle tissue (including heart) and lungs, livers, kidneys, and spleens. Both of the two largest makers of these products list these organs by name and by species. This lends the impression that these are not the low-cost, bottom-of-the-barrel by-products found in bargain pet foods.
The products contain a lower percentage of moisture than conventional wet foods; they average about 40-43 percent moisture. This is closer to the moisture levels found in fresh meat; unlike with many canned foods, water is not needed for processing, and so none is added.
Everyone wonders: How can products that contain so much meat be stored at room temperature for up to a year, and remain wholesome? Preservatives are used, but the manufacturing process and the oxygen-free product packaging are key. Like canned foods, rolled products are actually cooked and sterilized of bacteria in the plastic packaging. Once the package is sliced open, the product must be kept refrigerated, and should be consumed within a few days.
Fresh-chilled
This is the newest type of novel canine diet to the marketplace. While frozen canine diets (raw and cooked) have been available for many years, only recently did a company roll out a complete and balanced fresh diet in the U.S. Interestingly, this sort of diet is highly popular in Australia, where the category comprises 20 percent of all the pet food sold.
There is only one company we are aware of that offers this type of diet here in the U.S.: the appropriately named Freshpet. The company was launched in 2006, and has reportedly experienced phenomenal growth, mostly through supermarket sales. The products contain no preservatives, are never frozen, and have a relatively short shelf life 13 weeks from manufacture to declared best by date.
Fresh-chilled products are by far the most expensive of the novel foods described here, but their availability in mainstream grocery stores, in refrigerator cases that are in close proximity to prepared human food products, seem to increase their attractiveness to many owners. The quality of the ingredients, the lack of preservatives, and the high inclusion of meat (the company claims the products are 70 percent meat), are terrific. We can’t imagine being able to afford to feed these products to anything but a very small dog, or a convalescing dog for a short period of time, however.
Fredericksburg, Virginia, trainer Laurie Williams tried to use her appearance on CBS’s “Greatest American Dog” to promote positive training.
How many of you would put your dog and yourself at the mercy of a network TV “reality” show, competing against other dogs and dog owners for more than six weeks? Keep in mind that the show’s producers will do their best to foment discomfort and personal conflict between yourself and your fellow contestants. Also, while your every moment will be filmed, only a highly edited and manipulated version of what actually happened will be broadcast to a national audience, who will be encouraged to share their opinions with other dog owners about you, your dog, your dog training skills, and your most unguarded facial expressions and utterances. I don’t think I would do it!
In my opinion, all of the 12 people who actually put themselves through this very experience last spring and summer on CBS’s “Greatest American Dog,” were very brave. True, they were competing for a prize of $250,000, and some hoped to use the exposure to promote their various careers; there was potential for some compensation to offset the risk of being made to look ridiculous.
In my opinion, though, the most admirable contestant was Laurie Williams, CPDT, a professional dog trainer from Fredericksburg, Virginia, who went on the show with her six-year-old Maltese, Andrew.
During the final episode, broadcast on September 11, the judges questioned the final three contestants about their motivation for taking part in the competition and what they had gotten out of the experience. Williams answered that her motivations for being on the show included promoting positive, dog-friendly training, and showing what well-trained small dogs are capable of. She added that she felt that she and Andrew had succeeded in realizing those goals.
The three judges on the show agreed. “Laurie, you and Andrew have so much love and respect for each other. You define what dog ownership is all about,” said judge Victoria Stilwell. Another judge, Allan Reznik, commented, “Andrew loves to work. I’ve never seen a dog work so happily, and that joy reflects the loving nature of your relationship and of your work ethic.” The final judge on the show, Wendy Diamond, said, “Andrew is the most incredible Maltese we have ever witnessed.”
Despite these enthusiasms, the judges selected another dog/owner pair as the winners of the “Greatest American Dog” title; Williams finished the competition in second place. Williams remains proud of her accomplishments on the show. “We definitely walked out of there with our heads held very high,” she says.
I interviewed Williams shortly after the conclusion of the show, to talk about her experiences in the competition, the opportunity she had to demonstrate dog-friendly training to a mass audience, and about her professional observations about the advantages of positive-only dog training techniques. You don’t have to have seen the show to appreciate her comments about the benefits of a strong, fear-free relationship with your dog.
WDJ: Laurie, it’s great to talk to you! Please accept my congratulations and condolences on your second-place finish. Of course, I wanted you to win!
LW: Thank you. I did, too!
WDJ: You got as close to winning as possible. Unfortunately, there was no way of guessing which way the final judging was going to go. It wasn’t at all clear what the judges criteria were.
LW: Yes, that was disappointing. But I’m very proud of Andrew. He did everything I asked him to do and more. And I’ve received hundreds of letters and e-mails from people who appreciated his performance.
WDJ: During the show’s run, I was unsure as to whether you or any of the other contestants were professional trainers. The biography provided by the show indicated you were a dog daycare owner.
LW: I’m not sure why they did that. I am a dog daycare owner, but I’m also a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT). I opened my business, Pup N Iron, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 2005. It is primarily a training facility and dog daycare, but we also have a therapy pool and offer rehab. I used to be a personal fitness trainer and a gym manager, and I would always joke around with my colleagues that one day I was going to open a dog gym and call it Pup N Iron. They would all laugh at me, but I got the last laugh, because I have realized my dream.
WDJ: Were you the only professional trainer on the show?
LW: I wasn’t. Teresa Hanula is also a CPDT, although the show identified her only as a pet sitter. She has a dog training and a pet-sitting business. Two of the other five finalists, Bill McFarlin and J.D. Platt, also have extensive dog training experience.
WDJ: Which makes it even more strange that the winner, Travis Brorsen, was quite up-front in saying he had no dog training experience whatsoever.
LW: He did make a lot of progress over the course of the show, though. He was smart enough to spend a lot of time learning from those of us who had a lot of experience, and asking a lot of questions. And he really did have a nice relationship with his dog. Plus, they were very appealing; they had “that look,” the stereotypical all-American boy from the Midwest and his floppy-eared young Boxer.
WDJ: I had a bad feeling about the show from the way it was originally described, but as a viewer, I was drawn in from the beginning. I have to say, though, that I was frustrated throughout the series because the technical aspects of training were very rarely discussed. And only in the final episode did we hear anyone say, “positive, dog-friendly training.” I could have kissed the TV when I heard you use that phrase.
LW: It was even more frustrating for me, because getting those words on TV was definitely part of my whole agenda for being on the show. I told [the producers] going in that that’s what I wanted to show. I wanted to show them the fantastic relationship I have with my dog, which was created entirely through positive training.
WDJ: I was surprised by the selection of the participants on the show. It seemed as though the producers wanted some well-trained dogs, but not all well-trained dogs on the show.
LW: That surprised me, too. From the way the concept of the show was described to me, I thought it was going to focus on the relationships between dogs and owners and that the whole objective was to test who had the strongest and best relationship. I wasn’t envisioning a lot of physical challenges; I thought it would be more about having a well-behaved dog and one you’re in sync with. That’s one of the reasons I was shocked when I saw very young dogs and completely untrained dogs after the selections were made.
Four of the five finalists had extensive dog training experience, except for the winner, Travis Brorsen (far right). From left, Laurie Williams and Andrew; Bill McFarlin and Star; J.D. Platt and Galaxy; and Teresa Hanula and Leroy. Photo courtesy of CBS.
At the end, the judges talked about who was the most improved. I thought, Gee, I wish I knew at the beginning they wanted to see the dog’s progression. I also have a young Dalmatian I could have brought if that’s what they wanted! But, in retrospect, I brought exactly the right dog, maybe not to “win” by the judges’ standard, but to be a champion for my cause. I’m getting lots of e-mails from people who really appreciated what Andrew and I have, and who recognized the depth of our relationship.
WDJ: Did the show’s producers provide any instruction to those who needed help getting their dogs to complete the challenges?
LW: They did have trainers studio trainers who do things completely differently from the way I do them. Generally, they didn’t seem concerned with how to teach a dog to do something in a way that preserves his relationship with them, or in a way that will prove to be a positive experience for the dog in the long run. Studio trainers just want to get the dog to “get the shot” as fast as possible. Learning theory and principles of animal behavior was not the focal point.
Also, some of the participants were advised to get some help with training their dogs before the show started. The producers even sent lists of trainers to the contestants with a suggestion that we have some dog training “cram sessions” before we got to the show. I know that Travis (the eventual winner of the show) was one of the people who spent a bunch of time with a dog trainer, a week or two before the show started filming.
Here’s an odd thing: They made it clear from the beginning that all training styles would be welcome. And not all of the trainers on their list were positive trainers.
But when we got there, and learned that Victoria Stilwell [a positive trainer from Britain, and star of a cable TV show called It’s Me or the Dog!] was one of the judges, it was clear that at least some of the judging would be biased toward positive techniques. Which was fine with me; I’m completely committed to positive training. It was not especially fair to the people who use other types of training methods. J.D., in particular, got a raw deal; even though nobody ever saw him do anything harsh to his dog, Galaxy, he frequently described himself as an “old-school dog trainer,” and he got slammed for that on the show. If that’s not a set-up, I don’t know what is.
WDJ: I wanted to ask you about J.D. and his dog. It seems to me that you have a very strong relationship with Andrew, and clearly, nothing makes him happier than to work with you. J.D. also seems to have a strong relationship with Galaxy but I thought I could see a difference between the bond between you and Andrew and the one between J.D. and Galaxy. She’s a very well-trained dog, but there were moments when her body language told me that she had some reservations about him, that she had been trained with force-based methods at some point. It sometimes seemed as if she complied with his requests because she was at least conscious of the potential for an unpleasant consequence.
The judges said several times that Galaxy seemed “robot-like.” I think they were responding to the same things I was seeing but I have had a hard time figuring out what, exactly, it was about her that lent these impressions. I mean, it’s not like she cowered from him or anything like that. I finally decided that it’s her stillness, that body language that says, “Maybe I had better sit here and think about what he wants me to do, so I don’t make a mistake.” Whereas dogs who have been trained with no aversive techniques frequently and spontaneously “offer” behaviors. Was it a lack of exuberance?
LW: Perhaps that’s it the lack of that glee, that joy, that “Hey! Let me try this!” But you know, she’s also an older dog. She was very quiet. She didn’t really come alive until he got the ball out and she could work.
Andrew, on the other hand, did do that. He chose to do his own thing a lot. That was one thing that kind of got my goat, when the judges suggested he had separation anxiety. I felt that was so irresponsible of them to equate what can be such a serious dog behavior issue to Andrew’s desire to remain with me when given the choice. I’ve worked hard to establish that connection with him, because it’s necessary with a therapy, service, and performance dog.
Laurie enjoys a rare laugh on the set. The participants were completely sequestered – no phone calls, TV, newspapers, books, Internet – for six weeks. Photo courtesy CBS.
Once he jumped up on an obedience trial judge in the ring “Hi judge! Pick me up!” He’s also prone to veering off to greet people at ringside , “Hello fans, love you!” He’s really a ham. And he offers behaviors all the time; he’s always clowning. In contrast, Galaxy is very “locked on,” very quiet, and I never really saw her behave in an upbeat way until her ball came out. But you’re right; she doesn’t offer behavior. She rarely did anything until told to do so.
WDJ: J.D. was highly criticized by the judges during the so-called “loyalty challenge,” where the dogs had to stay even with people using toys and food to try to get them to break the stay. She was really tempted by the balls and other toys and food, and he had to lean forward and raise his voice and his intensity, and keep repeating, “Galaxy, no, no!” and “Stay!” You and Andrew provided quite a contrast there. You were very quiet and calm, not at all intense, and you only had to repeat “Andrew, stay!” I loved watching that.
LW: That challenge was really difficult for Galaxy because she really loves to chase balls and to eat treats, since she never gets them! J.D. doesn’t believe in using food in training at all, and never, ever gives dogs “people food,” so of course food was her weakness, her Achilles heel. That’s why he felt he had to stay on her like that, kind of stay in her face, take his intensity to that level.
But that challenge leveled the playing field in that it was all about our relationships with our dogs and how we communicate with them; finally the dog’s size or age or physical condition didn’t matter. I mean, a dog can only do what he can do physically. Physically, Andrew cant do everything that Travis Boxer can do. The challenges like that, which tested our relationships, were my favorites. And that one in particular showed how strong the relationship is between Andrew and me. Hed rather hang out with me than go play ball or take food from someone else, and thank God for that!
Another reason I liked that one: It did really show your training style. If I leaned over Andrew and shook my finger at him and raised my voice, he wouldn’t know what that means. He’d be curious; “What are you doing, Mommy?”
I was trying to explain this to J.D.; he didn’t understand why the judges said he was being intimidating to Galaxy, because of course he didn’t hit her or scare her. I told him that it seemed like he was telling Galaxy, “Don’t you move, or else!” For my dog, there has never been an “or else.” Andrew doesn’t know what “or else” might mean. The worst thing that might happen is that I pick him up and put him back in that spot and ask him to do it over again. And the more likely thing that may happen is that he’ll get some delicious treats after a while.
But, again, J.D. wasn’t the only one who used that posture. I think most of the other contestants except for me used that type of body language at some time or another.
WDJ: Andrew was the only purely positively trained dog on the show, then?
LW: By my definition of correctly implemented positive training methods, yes. However, I think some of the contestants really didn’t know what correct positive training is. Some thought they were using positive methods when they actually were bribing and baiting, never “marking” correct behavior and just babbling “Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!” Repeating every cue half a dozen times. That’s what gives people like J.D. a negative view of positive training
WDJ: This is what I liked most about the show: The opportunity to watch different people work with their dogs, and see what works well and what doesn’t. I can see the difference between dogs who are trained with only positive techniques, dogs who are trained with a lot of aversives, and dogs who are trained with a mix of techniques. Except for Andrew, the dogs on the show seemed like mostly the latter. J.D. and Galaxy, included.
On Laurie’s cue, Andrew keeps his eyes on her and holds his sit-stay even as a trained elephant approached to within 10 feet. Photo courtesy CBS.
LW: I found J.D. to be a very gifted handler, but from my view, he didn’t understand the science of animal behavior. He would say, “I never use treats; I’m old school!” And I would say, “J.D., don’t you understand that when you use playing with a ball as a reward, or praising Galaxy with words and petting, you are using positive reinforcement, just like I’m doing with my treats?” He couldn’t wrap his brain around that. He thought it was different. I would say, It doesn’t matter what the reward is, as long as the dog enjoys it. He could not accept that.
WDJ: Teresa and Leroy might be another example. It was clear that she used positive training and had taught him to do a lot of things but there were times when he would get overstimulated and lose focus, and she would get frustrated and yell at him. He would get confused and anxious and start barking . . .
LW: I have gotten to know Teresa better since the show ended, and I know she’s very committed to positive training. Some of her problems with Leroy are kind of like stage mother problems. I think she gets self-conscious and anxious when there are people waiting for her to get Leroy to do something, and she gets nervous, and he feels that and gets more nervous. But she’s very well-educated about animal behavior. And when she’s teaching others what to do with their dogs, she’s very positive, very patient, very encouraging.
WDJ: It must be difficult to sit still when you hear or read criticism from people who saw the show, knowing that they were only seeing an edited version of what really happened.
LW: Well, yes. And many people just dismissed the show out of turn, because it seemed ridiculous. It was ridiculous at times. But it was also the first time you saw regular people training dogs on national, network television!
WDJ: Many people make snap judgments about what they see on TV. I read many comments on the show’s message boards and elsewhere where people basically said, “I’m not watching the show any more since Tillman got voted off.” Or, “I’m not watching the show because they had an elephant scare the dogs.”
I thought, “Wow, people are so judgmental! Maybe you don’t agree with the judges or even with the show’s production choices, but, wait, you can learn from some of this footage!” It occurred to me that the challenge for the show’s producers was the same challenge I face at Whole Dog Journal and perhaps the same challenge you face as a positive trainer: Keeping people interested long enough past their initial snap judgments to show them how fun positive training is, and how effective . . .
LW: I think you’re right! I took a lot of flak for subjecting Andrew to the elephant challenges [where the dogs had to hold a sit-stay as an elephant approached them, and then, in a later episode, where the dogs had to fetch an object by running underneath a stationary elephant]. As I saw it, my daily job was to keep my dog safe, make sure each task was fun for him, and not set him up to fail. If I could meet those goals in each challenge, then wed participate as best we could. And we were able to do that in the elephant challenges.
I was actually more concerned about the smaller, daily things, like the extreme heat, keeping Andrew’s stress low, and making sure he was successful and didn’t get hurt. Unfortunately the judges didn’t seem to understand this, which was surprising. Victoria Stillwell accused me of “over-mothering” Andrew, which really shocked me. I thought of all the judges she would understand the concept of setting a dog up for success rather than failure, particularly when we were never really given the proper amount of time to really teach our dogs new behaviors and acclimate them to various different equipment.
WDJ: In the final episode, I liked when you stated that Andrew didn’t care if he won or not, he wouldn’t know the difference . . . that he was simply doing what made you happy with him.
LW: I’m glad [the producers] included that part, too. I thank my dogs a lot. “Thank you for letting me take you to that show, for doing what you do for me!” I know that they would rather just chill at home on the couch. I think people are delusional when they say the dog wants to win, or the dog is competitive. They mostly just want to be with you.
WDJ: And I loved when you stated that your goal had been to represent positive, dog-friendly training. And I think you did it very well.
LW: Thank you! Of course, having started training dogs 25 years ago, I used to be old school, too like everybody else back then. I am a “crossover trainer” for sure. I crossed over from the dark side about 11 or 12 years ago. And while I’ve never looked back, I think it helps me get through to my students even more, because I can tell people, “Look, I’ve done it both ways. And force-based methods do work. But I know that the relationship I have with my dog today is far deeper, far closer, far more reliable than what I had when I used aversives.”
I had dogs that I put obedience titles on who would run away from me if they were off-leash and had the opportunity. My all-positive dogs today are far more reliable than those well-trained dogs in my past; they can go anywhere off-leash and they stay with me without any special effort on my part. Because of their positive experiences with me, my dogs always look for me, check in with me, they want to be close to me. I really know the difference. I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it.
WDJ: Thanks so much for speaking with us, and doing your best to “represent” all of us fans of positive training. You and Andrew did us proud!
Your dog has vomited several times, doesn’t want to eat, and is walking around with his back arched up, or lying in a corner refusing to get up. Should you:
A) Try tempting him to eat by adding bacon grease to his food or offering something tasty like ham or bologna
B) Wait a day or two to see if he gets better
C) Take him to your vet right away
The answer is C: Take him to your vet right away. These can be signs of pancreatitis. While it’s fine to wait to see if a dog improves on his own after a single vomiting episode with no other signs of illness, repeated vomiting can quickly lead to dangerous dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, especially if your dog isn’t drinking or can’t keep water down.
When signs of abdominal pain accompany vomiting, pancreatitis is high on the list of possible causes. The worst thing you can do is feed your dog fatty food at this time.
Pancreatitis literally means inflammation of the pancreas, the glandular organ that secretes enzymes needed to digest food. When something causes these enzymes to be activated prematurely, they can actually begin to digest the pancreas itself, resulting in pain and inflammation.
Pancreatitis occurs in two different forms, acute and chronic, and both may be either mild or severe. Acute pancreatitis occurs suddenly and is more often severe, while chronic pancreatitis refers to an ongoing inflammation that is usually less severe and may even be subclinical (no recognizable symptoms).
Acute Pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis can be extremely painful, and can become life-threatening if the inflammation spreads, affecting multiple organs and systems. Symptoms commonly include anorexia (loss of appetite), vomiting, weakness, depression, and abdominal pain. Abdominal pain in a dog may be exhibited as restlessness or not wanting to move; a hunched appearance or a “praying position,” with the chest down and the rear raised; or vocalization (crying or whimpering). Additional symptoms may include diarrhea, drooling, fever, and collapse.
For mild cases, all that may be needed is to withhold food and water for 24 to 48 hours (no longer), along with administering IV fluids to prevent dehydration and drugs to stop vomiting and control pain.
Some breeds are at increased risk of developing pancreatitis. Miniature Schnauzers are prone to hyperlipidemia, which in turn can be a cause of pancreatitis.
For moderate to severe cases, hospitalization and intensive treatment and monitoring is required. Supportive treatment includes intravenous fluids to keep the dog hydrated and restore electrolyte and acid-base balance. Potent pain medication is needed, such as injectable buprenorphine or other narcotic pain relievers. Treatment is generally required for three to five days, and sometimes longer. Surgery may be necessary, particularly if the pancreas is abscessed or the pancreatic duct is blocked.
Recommended medications that stop vomiting (antiemetics) in dogs with pancreatitis include a metoclopramide infusion and chlorpromazine (once dehydration has been controlled).
Alternatively, dolasetron (Anzemet) and ondansetron (Zofran) – antiemetics developed to combat vomiting that has been induced by chemotherapy – may be used. Cerenia (maropitant) is a new antiemetic drug approved for dogs that some vets are starting to use, though it has a limited track record. Metoclopramide (Reglan), a commonly used antiemetic, may be contraindicated in pancreatitis due to concern that it may decrease blood flow to the pancreas (antidopaminergic effect), though this has not been substantiated.
Antibiotics to control infections secondary to pancreatitis may be used, though this complication is not thought to be common in dogs. A plasma transfusion is sometimes given in moderate to severe cases in the hopes that it will inhibit active pancreatic enzymes and systemic inflammatory response; it also provides clotting factors that can help prevent and treat disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), an often lethal potential side effect of pancreatitis.
Antacids have not been shown to have any beneficial effect in the treatment of pancreatitis, though they may be given when vomiting is persistent or severe. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are not effective and should be avoided due to concerns for gastric ulceration and kidney and liver damage. There are no studies yet to support the use of corticosteroids for treating pancreatitis in dogs.
Nutrition During Acute Pancreatitis
Traditionally, the standard recommendation has been to withhold all oral food and water until symptoms subside, in order to allow the pancreas to rest. If symptoms persisted for more than 72-96 hours, nutrition was given parenterally (intravenously, avoiding the stomach and intestines). It was thought that even the sight or smell of food could trigger pancreatic secretions that would make the problem worse.
Today, though, there is growing evidence in both humans and animals that recovery time is reduced and survival rates increased when patients are fed early in the recovery from pancreatitis. It is now accepted that prolonged withholding of oral food and water for more than 48 hours (including the time before the dog was brought in for treatment) can lead to increased intestinal permeability (“leaky gut”), atrophy of the digestive cells in the small intestine, and sepsis (blood poisoning). In turn, sepsis can contribute to multiple organ failure and decreased survival rates.
Without oral nutrition, the intestines starve, even if nutrition is provided to the rest of the body through IVs. This is because the intestines receive their nutrition only from what passes through them. Enteral feeding, in which nutrition is provided through the digestive system, is thought to decrease the potential for bacterial infection caused by intestinal permeation, and may reduce the time the dog needs to be hospitalized.
Because most dogs with pancreatitis are unwilling to eat, a liquid diet may be fed via a tube placed through the nose, esophagus, or stomach. Dogs may tolerate nasoesophageal feeding even when vomiting persists. There is evidence that pancreatic secretions are suppressed during an attack of pancreatitis, so food delivered in this manner stimulates the pancreas less than we used to believe, and helps to maintain the health of the gastrointestinal tract and decrease inflammation and side effects such as those listed above.
The ideal composition of this diet has not yet been determined. It is possible that the addition of omega-3 fatty acids, pancreatic enzymes, medium-chain triglycerides, and the amino acid l-glutamine to the liquid nutrition may also help with recovery, though this must be done with caution. Probiotics, however, are not recommended; a recent human study showed an increased death rate for patients with severe acute pancreatitis when probiotics were administered, possibly due to reduced blood flow to the small intestine.
Enteral (tube or oral) feeding should begin after 48 hours without food. Vomiting can be controlled with antiemetics and pain medication. The goal of nutrition in the short term is to improve barrier function (stop leaky gut syndrome) rather than to supply total caloric needs.
Parenteral (IV) nutrition should be used only when absolutely necessary, due to persistent, uncontrolled vomiting. Survival rates improve when it is combined with enteral nutrition. A tube can be placed into the jejunum (part of the small intestine) if needed to provide enteral nutrition when vomiting cannot be controlled.
Chronic Pancreatitis
Chronic pancreatitis refers to a continuing, smoldering, low-grade inflammation of the pancreas. Symptoms such as vomiting and discomfort after eating may occur intermittently, sometimes accompanied by depression, loss of appetite, and weight loss. In some cases, signs may be as subtle and nonspecific as a dog not wanting to play normally, being a picky eater, or skipping a meal from time to time. Chronic pancreatitis may periodically flare up, resulting in acute pancreatitis.
Dogs with chronic pancreatitis often respond favorably to a low-fat diet. Pain medication can be helpful in relieving the symptoms of chronic pancreatitis and may speed recovery.
Chronic pancreatitis is often subclinical and may be more common than is generally realized, with symptoms blamed on other diseases. It may also occur concurrently with conditions such as IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) and diabetes mellitus.
Pancreatic Functions
In addition to digestive enzymes (exocrine function), the pancreas also produces insulin (endocrine function). Dogs who are diabetic may have an increased risk for pancreatitis.
Conversely, a dog whose pancreas is damaged due to pancreatitis may develop diabetes, which can be either temporary or permanent; 30 percent of diabetes in dogs may be due to damage from chronic pancreatitis.
Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), when the pancreas is no longer able to produce digestive enzymes, can also result from chronic pancreatitis, leading to weight loss despite consuming large amounts of food. When the pancreas is damaged, diabetes is likely to show up several months before EPI.
Causes of Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is often blamed on high-fat diets, though there is little scientific evidence to support this. Active, working dogs, such as sled dogs, can eat as much as 60 percent fat in their diets without developing pancreatitis, but too much fat may cause trouble for middle-aged, overweight, relatively inactive dogs, who are the ones most commonly affected by pancreatitis. Too much fat can also cause problems for some dogs with chronic pancreatitis.
Dietary indiscretion, such as eating rancid fatty scraps from the garbage, can also lead to pancreatitis, particularly when a dog accustomed to a low- or normal-fat diet ingests high-fat foods. That’s why pancreatitis incidents are thought to increase after Thanksgiving, when people may feed their dogs a meal of turkey skin and drippings.
Low-protein diets have also been shown to predispose dogs to pancreatitis, especially when combined with high fat intake. Some prescription diets may be a concern, such as those prescribed to dissolve struvite bladder stones; to prevent calcium oxalate, urate, or cystine stones; and to treat kidney disease; especially for breeds prone to pancreatitis.
Several medications have been associated with pancreatitis, most recently the combination of potassium bromide and phenobarbital used to control epilepsy. This combination has a much higher risk of causing pancreatitis than phenobarbital alone (no studies have been done on the use of potassium bromide by itself).
Many other medications have been linked to pancreatitis, though the relationship is not always clear. These include certain antibiotics (sulfa drugs, tetracycline, metronidazole, nitrofurantoin); chemotherapy agents (azathioprine, L-asparaginase, vinca alkaloids); diuretics (thiazides, furosemide); other antiepileptic drugs (valproic acid, carbamazepine); hormones (estrogen); long-acting antacids (cimetidine, ranitidine); Tylenol (acetaminophen); and aspirin (salicylates).
Corticosteroids, such as prednisone, are especially controversial: while veterinarians have long considered them to be the most common drug to cause pancreatitis, recent human studies have discounted this link. Based on anecdotal evidence, however, I believe the association does exist in dogs. I personally know dogs who developed pancreatitis within days of being given corticosteroids.
Toxins, particularly organophosphates (insecticides used in some flea control products), as well as scorpion stings and toxic levels of zinc, may also lead to pancreatitis.
Certain conditions may predispose a dog to pancreatitis. These include diabetes mellitus (though it is not clear whether pancreatitis precedes diabetes); acute hypercalcemia (high levels of calcium in the blood, usually from a calcium infusion or poisoning rather than diet or supplements); hyperlipidemia (high fat content in the blood, again usually due to metabolic disorder rather than diet); hypothyroidism; and Cushing’s disease (hyperadrenocorticism).
Both diabetes and hypothyroidism can affect fat metabolism and lead to hyperlipidemia, which may predispose a dog to pancreatitis. Miniature Schnauzers are prone to developing hyperlipidemia and thus may have an increased risk of pancreatitis. Obesity predisposes dogs to pancreatitis, and the disease is often more severe in dogs who are overweight.
Pancreatitis can occur in dogs of any age, breed, or sex. That said, most dogs with pancreatitis are middle-aged or older, overweight, and relatively inactive. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Collies, and Boxers have been shown to have an increased relative risk of chronic pancreatitis, and Cocker Spaniels an increased relative risk of acute and chronic pancreatitis combined. Dachshunds have been reported to be predisposed to acute pancreatitis.
Other breeds mentioned as having an increased risk for pancreatitis include the Briard, Shetland Sheepdog, Miniature Poodle, German Shepherd Dog, terriers (especially Yorkies and Silkies), and other non-sporting breeds.
Humans sometimes develop autoimmune chronic pancreatitis, and it is theorized that dogs may as well. German Shepherd Dogs have been shown to develop immune-mediated lymphocytic pancreatitis, which predisposes them to pancreatic atrophy.
Pancreatitis has been associated with immune-mediated diseases, which may include IBD, though the cause-and-effect relationship is not understood. While there is no scientific evidence to support this, some doctors have suggested that food allergies could be a rare cause of recurrent or chronic pancreatitis. I think IBD could possibly be both a cause and an effect of pancreatitis, or that both could be caused by an underlying autoimmune disease or food allergy.
Dogs with immune-mediated pancreatitis may respond well to corticosteroids such as prednisone, which suppress the immune system, even though this drug has also been thought to cause acute pancreatitis.
Trauma to the pancreas, such as a result of the dog being hit by a car, can lead to inflammation and pancreatitis. Surgery has also been linked to pancreatitis, probably due to low blood pressure or low blood volume caused by anesthesia. Gallstones (choleliths) can block the bile duct, and thus the flow of digestive enzymes from the pancreas and can lead to pancreatitis in people; it is likely that the same would be true for both species (pancreatitis can also block the flow of bile from the gall bladder).
Other theoretical causes include bacterial or viral infections; vaccinations; obstruction of the pancreatic duct; reflux of intestinal contents up the pancreatic duct; impaired blood supply to the pancreas due to shock, gastric-dilatation volvulus (bloat), or other causes; and hereditary factors. In rare cases, pancreatitis can be caused by a tumor in the pancreas.
In most cases with dogs, the cause is never found. In humans, pancreatitis is most commonly caused by alcohol abuse.
Confirming the Diagnosis
Some blood test results are suggestive of pancreatitis, but not definitive. Substantially elevated (three to five times the normal level) lipase and amylase, in particular, are strongly supportive of a diagnosis of pancreatitis, but the absence of these signs does not rule it out; lipase and amylase may be normal in as many as half of all dogs with pancreatitis. With chronic pancreatitis, blood tests are often completely normal, and may be so with acute pancreatitis as well, particularly if it is not severe enough to cause complications.
In 2005, IDEXX Reference Laboratories developed a blood test called Spec cPL (canine pancreas-specific lipase), based on the cPLI (canine pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity) test developed at Texas A&M University. There are three types of lipase: pancreatic, hepatic, and gastric. Standard blood tests cannot differentiate between them, but the Spec cPL measures only pancreatic lipase. Spec cPL is now considered the best choice for quick and accurate diagnosis, with results available in 12 to 24 hours. The cPLI test is equally accurate, but not as readily available and the results take longer.
IDEXX claims that the Spec cPL test has a sensitivity greater than 95 percent, meaning almost every dog with pancreatitis will test positive (fewer than 5 percent false negatives), and a specificity also greater than 95 percent, meaning fewer than 5 percent of dogs who don’t have pancreatitis will have a false positive result. In comparison, the cPLI test has 82 percent sensitivity and 98 percent specificity.
The Spec cPL test can be repeated every two or three days to help judge response to therapy, and after returning home, to confirm recovery. It can also be used to monitor response to changes in diet and other treatment for dogs with chronic pancreatitis.
The Spec cPL test is recommended for any dog whose symptoms include vomiting, anorexia, or abdominal pain. It can also be used to monitor dogs with chronic pancreatitis, or those with conditions or whose medications predispose them to pancreatitis. In the future, this test may be done as part of standard blood work on normal, seemingly healthy dogs, to identify chronic pancreatitis that may be subclinical (not causing recognizable symptoms).
In 2007, IDEXX introduced the SNAP cPL, a version of the Spec cPL test that can be done in-house by your veterinarian and return results in 10 minutes. If the SNAP cPL test results are abnormal, IDEXX recommends that you follow up with a Spec cPL test to establish a baseline cPL concentration and to monitor treatment.
Radiographs detect only 24 to 33 percent of cases of acute pancreatitis, but are also used to identify other causes of vomiting and anorexia, such as intestinal obstruction.
An experienced ultrasound practitioner can detect two-thirds of acute pancreatitis cases. Ultrasound may also be used to look for signs of peritonitis, pancreatic abscess or cyst, and biliary obstruction. Neither x-rays nor ultrasound can identify chronic pancreatitis. Biopsy of the pancreas can be used to identify pancreatic cancer. Biopsy may be an unreliable method of diagnosing pancreatitis, as often only part of the pancreas is affected.
TLI (trypsin-like immunoreactivity) is a blood test that has only 33 percent sensitivity for pancreatitis, but it is very accurate for diagnosing EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency). Dogs with chronic gastrointestinal problems should have TLI, cobalamin, folate and Spec cPL testing done to look for EPI, SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth, also called ARD, or antibiotic-responsive diarrhea), and chronic pancreatitis. Dogs with EPI usually have lower-than-normal Spec cPL results, but TLI is considered more accurate for diagnosing EPI.
Recovering From Acute Pancreatitis
Whether in the hospital or at home, once vomiting is under control, water is slowly introduced, with a few laps or ice cubes every hour or so. If the dog keeps this down, liquids are tried next, followed by soupy, low-fat, high-carbohydrate foods. Frequent small amounts are less likely to cause problems than larger quantities, particularly in the beginning. Dogs who have been hospitalized can return home once they are able to keep food down without vomiting.
Dogs are often sent home with pain medication, such as a Fentanyl patch or Tramadol. Controlling pain is important during recovery, so ask your vet for help if you feel your dog is uncomfortable.
Dogs recovering from acute pancreatitis are frequently maintained on an easily digestible, fat-restricted prescription diet, particularly if they are overweight or have hyperlipidemia. While I am not a fan of these products due to their low-quality ingredients, I think that sometimes it is easier to follow your vet’s advice, as long as your dog is willing to eat this food and does not react adversely to it. You can later transition your dog back to a better quality commercial or homemade diet.
But what if your dog won’t eat the prescription food, or reacts poorly to the food, or you just can’t bring yourself to feed a commercial food after feeding a homemade diet for so long? What should you feed your dog in that case?
What to feed in the beginning
The goal in the beginning is to feed a diet with low fat, moderate protein, and high carbohydrates, as carbs cause the least amount of pancreatic stimulation. An easy diet to start with is overcooked white rice made with extra water, combined with a low-fat protein source, such as cooked chicken breast, low-fat cottage cheese, or boiled hamburger (boiling removes most of the fat).
Even if you normally feed a raw diet, the meat should be cooked for now, to remove fat and to destroy bacteria that can be problematic if the intestines have been damaged. Cooking or warming food usually makes it more appealing as well. Bones should not be fed at this time. Offer food at room or body temperature, as cold food takes longer to digest.
If possible, choose foods your dog has had before – ones you know agree with him and that he likes. White rice is the preferred carbohydrate choice, as it is easiest to digest, but you could use potatoes or sweet potatoes instead if you need to avoid rice due to allergies or intolerance (remove the skins to reduce fiber in the beginning).
Overcooking starchy foods such as rice or potatoes increases their digestibility. Cooking white rice with extra water creates a type of porridge called rice congee, which is soothing to the stomach and digestive tract, and can help relieve vomiting and diarrhea. To make congee, boil one cup of white rice (not Minute Rice) in four cups of water for 20 to 30 minutes. You can offer the rice congee liquid alone to start with, then include the rice, and next add the protein. This progression can happen over the course of a few hours or a day or two.
At first, feed a higher percentage of carbohydrates, and a lower percentage of protein, such as two-thirds carbs and one-third protein. If your dog is doing fine, the ratio can then be slowly changed to half and half after the first few days.
Whatever you feed, start with small amounts fed frequently, six to eight meals a day or more. Small meals stimulate the pancreas less, and are less likely to trigger vomiting. Small meals are also easier to digest than larger meals, and less likely to cause discomfort. If your dog is able to keep the food down without vomiting or showing signs of pain, you can begin to feed larger amounts at longer intervals, but proceed slowly, especially in the beginning; you don’t want to make changes too quickly and end up with a setback.
Contact your vet for advice if your dog vomits. You will probably need to stop feeding again briefly (12 to 24 hours), then start over by introducing water and progressing to bland foods again. Your dog may also need anti-vomiting medication.
It is not necessary for your dog’s diet to be “complete and balanced” in the short term; an adult dog will do fine on an incomplete diet for a few days to a few weeks. Start with a very simple diet, and then add more ingredients as your dog recovers and you see he is doing well.
Broth and other flavorings
Broth can be used to make rice and to add to foods to improve flavor and encourage your dog to drink more. Many store-bought broths are high in sodium, however; even some “reduced sodium” varieties have hundreds of mg per serving. Look for broths with less than 100 mg sodium per serving.
You can make your own nonfat, no-sodium broth if you prefer.
You can also use the water that you boil chicken or other foods in for flavor and nutritional value, since boiling removes some nutrients that are then left in the water. Just be sure to remove the fat before feeding.
Healing the digestive tract
L-glutamine is an amino acid that can help the intestinal mucosa to recover from the effects of going without food. A typical dose is 500 mg per 25 lbs of body weight daily, but 10 times that much can be used to supply nutrition when necessary.
L-glutamine is available both as a powder and in capsules. The powder can be dissolved in water or mixed in food. Glutamine is unstable at room temperature for extended periods, so any uneaten portion should be removed after 15 minutes. L-glutamine can be found at supplement shops online and at health food stores.
Seacure is a highly nutritious supplement designed to treat malnutrition. Seacure can help to heal the intestines and provide other health benefits. Made of hydrolyzed whitefish, Seacure has a fishy smell. Sprinkled on your dog’s food, it helps make the food more attractive to your dog. (See “Securing Seacure,” WDJ April 2003, for more information.)
The herbs slippery elm and marshmallow can help to soothe a throat and stomach that have been irritated by vomiting. One product that contains both is Phytomucil from Animal Essentials. You can also make your own by steeping 1 teaspoon of either or both dried herbs in 8 ounces of very hot water. Optionally, add a teaspoon of honey for flavor. Give from 1 teaspoon to 4 tablespoons, depending on the size of the dog, every four hours.
Transitioning to a normal diet
Once a dog has had an attack of acute pancreatitis, he may be less able to tolerate fat in the future, depending on how much the pancreas was damaged. Some dogs are able to return to a normal diet after they have fully recovered, while others may need a low-fat diet for the rest of their lives to prevent chronic pancreatitis and further acute episodes.
Dogs who experience a single, acute, uncomplicated episode are more likely to be able to return to a normal diet, while dogs with repeated episodes of acute pancreatitis, hyperlipidemia, or steatorrhea (large, greasy, foul-smelling stools caused by fat malabsorption) should be kept on a fat-restricted diet.
Dogs with chronic pancreatitis may also do better on a lower-fat diet. Drugs that predispose dogs to pancreatitis should be avoided if possible in these dogs. If such drugs are needed, e.g., to control seizures, these dogs, too, may benefit from a low-fat diet. Dogs who have had acute pancreatitis should never be fed really high-fat meals, even if they are able to return to a normal diet afterwards.
Continue to feed a low-fat diet with moderate protein for at least 7 to 10 days or longer, depending on the speed of your dog’s recovery and the severity of the episode. Gradually increase the size of each meal and the time between meals until your dog is eating two or three meals a day.
If your dog is doing well and showing no sign of discomfort after eating, you can then begin to gradually increase the amount of fat in the diet. Begin adding small amounts of his regular food back into his diet. If the diet he was eating before was high in fat, try feeding foods with a moderate amount of fat to start with, though you may eventually be able to transition back to somewhat higher-fat foods if your dog gets a lot of exercise, is lean rather than overweight, and you have reason to believe that something other than diet caused the acute pancreatitis.
Remember that lower-fat diets provide fewer calories, so the total amount you feed will need to be increased when you reduce the amount of fat in the diet. The increase will depend on how much fat was in your dog’s previous diet. If possible, determine how many calories your dog was getting before and try to match that with the new diet (or moderately decrease the calories, if your dog is overweight). Weigh your dog frequently and then adjust the amount you are feeding up or down as needed to maintain proper weight. If your dog lost weight due to acute pancreatitis, don’t try to put the pounds back on too quickly; slow and gradual weight gain or loss is healthier than trying to make large changes in a short period of time.
Keep a close eye on your dog, particularly after meals, watching for signs of discomfort such as a hunched appearance, whining, panting, restlessness, or not wanting to move around. If you see any of these signs, return to a lower-fat diet and smaller, more frequent meals, and wait longer before trying again to increase the amount of fat even more slowly, using different foods. If the signs of discomfort return, you may need to keep your dog on the lower-fat diet indefinitely.
Also watch for signs of digestive upset, such as burping or flatulence (gas), borborygmus (stomach gurgling), lip licking, or heavy swallowing. These are not signs of pancreatitis, but could indicate that the diet you’re feeding does not agree with your dog. Try feeding a different brand of food, using different ingredients, a grain-free diet, or one with a different protein source, adding digestive enzymes, or feeding smaller, more frequent meals, to see if that helps.
These symptoms can also be signs of EPI, especially if accompanied by increased appetite, weight loss, and large “cow-patty” stools. EPI is treated with prescription-strength digestive enzymes such as Viokase, Pancrezyme, or generic equivalents. Raw pancreas can also be used, or human pancreatin supplements, which consist of freeze-dried pork pancreas.
With pancreatin supplements, strengths such as 4x or 10x indicate that the product is concentrated and the dosage is equivalent to 4 or 10 times as much as is shown on the label. Each mg of pancreatin contains 25 USP units of protease and amylase, and 2 USP units of lipase. Dogs with EPI may also require cobalamin (vitamin B12) injections, and often a low-fat diet as well.
Preventing Recurrence
Pancreatitis is both more common and more severe in overweight dogs. Inactivity may also be a contributor, so weight loss and exercise are both important.
Many weight loss diets are extremely high in carbohydrates, with low fat and low protein – in fact, some have even less fat than the prescription diets that are recommended for dogs recovering from pancreatitis. A low-fat diet is not required for dogs to lose weight, and higher protein helps dogs lose fat, while low protein can lead to muscle loss. It’s better to feed a diet that has higher protein and moderate amounts of fat and carbohydrates to help your dog lose weight.
Underlying metabolic disease such as hypothyroidism, hyperadrenocorticism (Cushing’s disease), and diabetes mellitus may be associated with increased risk of pancreatitis and should be managed appropriately. Hypothyroidism can contribute to obesity and may affect fat metabolism. Not all dogs who are hypothyroid have the classic signs, such as dry skin and hair loss. A full thyroid panel is more accurate than a simple screening test. Even dogs whose results are in the low normal range may benefit from thyroid supplementation. Noted thyroid specialist Dr. Jean Dodds at Hemopet will consult with you or your vet regarding test results for a small fee.
If your dog is prone to hyperlipidemia (increased blood levels of cholesterol or triglycerides, even when fasted for 12 hours before the test), there are several things you can do to try to lower these levels and reduce the likelihood of pancreatitis. Feeding a low-fat diet, giving fish oil supplements, and treating hypothyroidism, which is often the underlying cause, are all helpful in reducing lipid levels in the blood. In addition, dogs prone to hyperlipidemia may benefit from the use of human statin medications, such as Lipitor, to control lipid levels. Though no studies have yet been done, anecdotal reports from vets who have tried this on an experimental basis have been positive.
Whether or not too much fat was the initial cause of your dog’s pancreatitis, high-fat foods may trigger a recurrence, particularly if the pancreas was damaged. Be sure that your dog does not have access to your trash bin (use locking lids or an alarm if needed), and don’t feed high-fat foods or treats such as pig ears. Make sure that your dog does not get fatty treats from other family members, friends, or neighbors. Don’t try to tempt your dog with high-fat foods and additives if he doesn’t want to eat; this may be good advice even for dogs who have not had pancreatitis, unless you’re certain that the inappetence is not caused by pancreatitis nor a condition that would predispose a dog to it.
Avoid medications that may be linked to pancreatitis, particularly any that may have contributed to the initial attack. If possible, find alternative therapies for dogs taking drugs known to cause pancreatitis, such as using Keppra (levetiracetam) in place of or in combination with potassium bromide or phenobarbital for seizures.
In humans, vaccinations have sometimes been associated with pancreatitis. Avoid overvaccinating your dog. The American Animal Hospital Association now acknowledges that there is no need for yearly “boosters” for most vaccines. (See “Vaccinations 101,” August 2008, for more information on current vaccination recommendations.)
Periodic monitoring with the Spec cPL test may be helpful in preventing recurrent pancreatitis, especially after a change in diet.
Supplements
Certain supplements can help reduce the risk of acute pancreatitis or control the effects of chronic pancreatitis.
Digestive enzyme supplements that contain pancreatin may be helpful for dogs who have had acute pancreatitis or suffer from chronic pancreatitis. It is theorized that these may reduce the load on the pancreas and inhibit pancreatic secretion.
These supplements are sold over-the-counter for humans or dogs; the prescription-strength enzymes needed by dogs with EPI can also be tried to see if they seem to reduce pain from chronic pancreatitis. Note that enzymes seem to help some dogs, but not others. If your dog does not respond well to one brand, you can try adjusting the dosage or using a different brand, but don’t continue to give them if they cause any problems.
You can also try feeding small amounts of raw pancreas, giving pancreatic glandular supplements, such as Pancreatrophin from Standard Process, or giving plant-derived digestive enzymes, which may be helpful if your dog has trouble digesting carbohydrates.
Fish body oil, such as salmon oil or EPA oil (not cod liver oil), can help to lower blood lipid levels (both triglycerides and cholesterol) in dogs with hyperlipidemia. Studies have also found it to be beneficial in treating acute pancreatitis, while its effects on chronic pancreatitis are unknown. The dosage needed to treat hyperlipidemia may be as high as 1,000 mg of fish oil (supplying 300 mg combined EPA and DHA) per 10 lbs of body weight. Dogs with normal lipid levels should do fine on that amount per 20 to 30 lbs of body weight daily, preferably split into two doses. If you use a supplement with more or less EPA and DHA, adjust the dosage accordingly. Vitamin E should always be given whenever you supplement with oils – give around 5 to 10 IUs per pound of body weight daily.
Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that live in the intestines and help to keep bad bacteria in check. While probiotics are not recommended for dogs with acute pancreatitis, their effect on chronic pancreatitis is unknown. As they are known to help with some gastrointestinal problems, and since their population may be depleted during acute pancreatitis, I think it makes sense to give them once your dog has recovered. You can use products made either for dogs or for people.
Prebiotics are indigestible carbohydrates that feed the beneficial bacteria in the intestines and are often included in probiotic supplements. Certain prebiotics called oligosaccharides have been shown to decrease triglyceride and cholesterol blood levels, which can be helpful for dogs prone to hyperlipidemia. These ingredients may be listed on the label as fructooligosaccharides (FOS), oligofructose, inulin, or chicory. (See “Probing Probiotics,” August 2006, for more information on both probiotics and prebiotics.)
Dogs fed a very low-fat diet may become deficient in the fat-soluble vitamins A and E. Adding fish oil and coconut oil to the diet can help with this. Dogs with damage to the pancreas may also suffer from vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency – in this case, monthly injections may be needed if the dog is unable to absorb B12 when given orally. Chronic pancreatitis may interfere with absorption of vitamin B, so supplementing with B-complex vitamins makes sense.
Human studies suggest that antioxidants, which are found mostly in fruits and vegetables, may help protect against pancreatitis, and reduce the pain of chronic pancreatitis. Vitamin E and selenium (which work synergistically), vitamin C, beta-carotene, and methionine have been found to be effective in helping to prevent pancreatitis in human studies.
Other natural antioxidants sometimes recommended for chronic pancreatitis, though evidence is lacking, include SAM-e (S-adenosyl methionine); alpha lipoic acid (not recommended for diabetics); OPCs, found in grapeseed extract and pycnogenol; resveratrol; and milk thistle. There are a number of combination antioxidant products made for dogs, such as Small Animal Antioxidants and Immugen from Thorne Veterinary, and Cell Advance made by Vetri-Science.
In their book, All You Ever Wanted to Know About Herbs for Pets, Greg Tilford and Mary Wulff-Tilford suggest herbs to support the liver and digestive system. “Dandelion, burdock root, or Oregon grape can help improve digestion and reduce pancreatic stress by gently increasing bile and enzymatic production in the liver. …Yarrow is said to help reduce pancreatic inflammation and improve blood circulation to the organ.”
Long-Term Low-Fat Diets
For information about commercial and homemade diets for dogs with chronic pancreatitis, EPI, and other conditions that may require a low-fat diet to be fed long-term, see https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/health/weight_control/healthy-low-fat-diets-for-dogs-with-special-dietary-needs.
For sample low-fat diets that people are feeding to their dogs, see https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/food/homemade-low-fat-dog-food-diets/.
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As the proud, happy, but sometimes vexed owner of a new dog – one who has made a serious dent in the amount of sleep I’m getting – I completely understand that you don’t really know what you’re getting when you adopt a dog. Of course, you do your best to assess the dog’s character and temperament before you bring him home, and try to compare the list of attributes you were looking for in a dog with the traits he seems to display. But you don’t really know whom you’ve brought home for days, weeks, and months.
That was certainly the case with Spryte, the dog discussed in the “case history” that appears on the following pages. Fortunately for Spryte, she was adopted by an unusually experienced, determined, and open-hearted couple, who did everything in their power to find just the sort of training regimen the reactive dog needed. Positive trainer and writer Terry Long, of Long Beach, California, brings us the story, which could serve as a blueprint for an extremely successful dog adoption.
Also in this issue, Training Editor Pat Miller defines “generalization” in its dog-training context, and explains why it should be your goal whenever teaching your dog a new skill. The article appears on page 8.
After hearing about case after case of kennel cough, our long-time contributor and holistic health expert, CJ Puotinen, decided to take an in-depth look at preventing and treating this contagious canine condition (see page 10).
On page 15, I offer another account of what I’m doing to try to establish my new dog, Otto, as a well-behaved, diurnal member of the family. I’m much less experienced than the owners featured in our case history, but just as determined. And, of course, I have 11 years’ worth of back issues of WDJ’s training advice at my fingertips! It’s my hope that through sharing some of the details of our experiences with Otto, others may find some useful information on dealing with their new dogs. Or learn from my mistakes!
Finally, on page 18, we present a longer article from Pat Miller about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in dogs. Many people (myself included) make jokes about OCD, but anyone who has a dog who suffers with this condition can tell you that it’s not a laughing matter. These dogs truly can’t control their behavior in certain circumstances, and may be easily triggered into long sessions of tail-chasing, fly-snapping, licking themselves, or other repetitive behaviors until they have harmed themselves (and driven their owners to the brink of madness). Miller describes the tell-tale signs of a budding canine OCD behavior, and instructs us on what to do and what not to do if our dog begins exhibiting one.
Say, last month I gushed about my guilty pleasure: watching a TV show called Greatest American Dog. I mentioned that it was broadcast on Thursday nights – just before its schedule was changed to Wednesdays. I hope everyone saw its final episodes, and apologize if I accidentally made anyone miss it. As this issue goes to press, all the episodes are still available on the CBS website: cbs.com.
At some point in our lives, some of us find ourselves living with a difficult dog, one whose behavior challenges our patience, and exhausts our training knowledge – and opens our hearts and eyes to a new, better way of training. This is the story of one such dog and her very knowledgeable dog owner. Together, they reached an entirely new and higher level of dog training skills, thanks to the owner’s life-altering experiences with a reactive dog who wasn’t fit to compete in the career intended for her: Flyball.
Flyball is not the sport for everyone. It is a relay team event, which means you have to commit to training and competing with your dog and other dogs and dog owners as a team, and you have to have an appreciation for over-the-top dogs and the resulting cacophony of sounds.
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In flyball, a team of four dogs race, one after the other, leaping a series of hurdles, throwing their bodies against a spring-loaded box that ejects a tennis ball, snatching the ball, and hurtling their bodies back down the row of jumps to where their next teammates strain to be released for their turns. The fastest team wins.
You hear a typical flyball tournament before you see it. Dogs are barking in excitement and play growling while they play tug between races, and people are screaming encouragement so loudly to their canine teammates that many of them are hoarse the next day. Whistles blast to start races, to alert false starts, and to end races. It can be hard to hear the PA system, which alternately blares announcements and rock and roll music.
Chris Bond loved it all. She and her husband Rich, with three of their Border Collies, were on the Jets, the British flyball team that broke the world record in 1997. They loved it so much that when they moved back to California in 1999, they started their own team, Gold Rush Flyball. They worked with inexperienced pet dogs and owners and trained them to top competition levels. One of their teams achieved a race time of 17.88 seconds – at the time, within one second of the fastest team in their region. What they needed in order to beat the competition was a fast, small dog. Small is important in flyball because the jump height for the team is determined by the shortest dog on the team.
Fate in a small package In February 2002, Chris was approached by someone from another team who was looking for a home for a small, bright-eyed, five-month-old Border Collie-mix pup that had been found as a stray. That little dog captured Chris and Rich’s hearts and, hoping that she would become the super-fast flyball dog they were looking for, they adopted her on the spot.
Although the little dog showed subtle signs of fearfulness (weight backward on the haunches when she greeted someone, lowered posture, and furtive glances at her surroundings), Chris assumed these were a result of the unfamiliar, noisy environment. They named her “Spryte” because she was as sprightly and cute as a little English pixie.
Other than being a bit nervous and shy, Spryte acted like a “normal” dog for the first two weeks. Then she suddenly began attacking the other household dogs. In one instance, when Misty (a 12-year-old Border Collie) walked by the couch where Spryte and Chris were sitting, Spryte leaped on Misty’s back and began biting her around the neck and shoulders.
Around the same time, Spryte began barking and lunging at unfamiliar dogs and people while out on walks. Her reactivity increased exponentially over the next few weeks. She became reactive to any sudden change in her environment, including loud or unusual noises, and other dogs or people appearing, even at a distance. Often, she would “shut down” for no apparent reason – most likely due to a noise she could hear that her humans could not.
Despite this, Chris’s attachment to Spryte was growing. When Spryte was in what she perceived a “safe” environment, she was very clever, sweet, and personable. Chris had never had a dog like this before. “My husband, Rich, and I were fortunate to have had three beautiful, sociable Border Collies, which we adopted over the years we lived in England. They came to us as puppies from Ghostland Kennels, known for lovely natured dogs. Our dogs were friendly with people, well mannered with other dogs, and full of confidence. They had traveled everywhere with us, and were comfortable in any environment. Nothing fazed them.”
As a result, all of Chris’s experience with training dogs had been with good-natured, resilient dogs; she was now in uncharted territory. She was also coming to the realization that this little dog might not reach the goals Chris longed for. In fact, she might not be a competition dog at all.
By nature, Chris does not give up easily so she decided to start training. But where to start? She had used both lure-and-reward training and traditional, punishment-based methods. Like many people, Chris’s first reaction to any signs of aggression from Spryte was to stop the behavior immediately. When Spryte attacked the other household dogs, Chris would hold her by the scruff and say, “No!” When she lunged and barked at people or dogs while on leash, Chris would jerk the leash and say, “No!” But Spryte’s over-reactivity escalated. When off-leash, she would rush other dogs and people across football-size playing fields. She had to be continuously leashed, and was often left crated in the car to avoid conflicts.
A positive shift Frustrated and depressed, Chris sought the advice of a friend and professional trainer, Lisa Clifton-Bumpass of Hayward, California. Lisa is a positive trainer and her influence was a turning point in Chris’s relationship with Spryte.
“Lisa changed my understanding of how dogs learn, which probably saved Spryte’s life,” says Chris. “Through Lisa, I learned that fear is an emotion that is highly responsive to classical conditioning. If I punished Spryte in the presence of something she feared, she would begin to fear that thing more. If I rewarded Spryte the in the presence of something she feared before she became reactive, she would begin to associate that thing with good instead of bad, and she would become less fearful. Lisa taught me that punishment was escalating Spryte’s reactivity.”
Lisa recommended Chris avoid all punishment. She gave Chris reading assignments, including Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor, and she explained how Spryte’s fears could be reduced through counter-conditioning. She also explained the limits of counter-conditioning, and the amount of time that Chris would need to invest. Months. Years, perhaps. And, although the work would make a profound difference, Spryte would always be what her genetics and prior learning history had made her.
“My heart sank with the realization that I had a true problem dog on my hands, and at the same time rose in the hope that there was something I could do to make things better,” says Chris. “With Lisa’s guidance, I began a positive training regime with Spryte. She earned her meals every day, with food for all her good behaviors.
“For counter-conditioning and desensitization, I took Spryte on leash to a nearby school in the evenings, when only a few children would be playing on the equipment. I stood at the far end of an open field, so far that Spryte was still attentive to me and not paying attention to the children. There, I fed her a continuous stream of food, one morsel at a time. She got all of her favorites: smelly, juicy, cooked steak; cheese; and sausage, chopped into quarter-inch squares. We gradually moved closer to the children, but never so close that she reacted. Before her bag of treats was finished, we would turn and leave. Over time, the distance gradually reduced. Eventually, we were able to play ball at the far end of the field, with her off leash. Things were looking better.”
Clicker training, shaping, and management Chris also added clicker training to her arsenal of training tools. She played shaping games and practiced behaviors daily. Spryte learned an amazing number of behaviors, including useful skills such as a nose touch and a paw touch to objects. Chris would later use the nose touch to teach her to heel, and the paw touch to teach her agility touch-points.
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Most importantly, Spryte learned that she had control of her environment through behaviors Chris wanted and rewarded, instead of behaviors Chris didn’t want and, therefore, did not allow to be rewarded.
For example, looking calmly at an unfamiliar dog or person was a wanted behavior; lunging at the dog or person was not. So Chris reinforced the wanted behavior by clicking as Spryte first glanced at the dog or person. At the sound of the click, Spryte would instantly turn her head back to Chris for a treat. Spryte soon learned to look at the other dog, then look back. This not only made an enjoyable game out of something that would otherwise be worrying to Spryte, it also taught her a head-turn, which is now one of her signature freestyle (dog dancing) moves.
Because clicker training was fun, it motivated Spryte (and Chris) to learn a variety of exercises. Chris and Spryte trained daily, building foundation skills such as “look at me,” “check the environment, then look back at me,” as well as the basic sit, down, wait, and leave-it behaviors. They participated in several classes, where the training was positive and the environment was calm and spacious. Spryte learned basic obedience, freestyle, tracking, and dock diving.
All the while, Chris worked very hard to manage Spryte’s environment. If they went somewhere, she would check the place before taking Spryte out of the car. If people were there, she would let them know that her dog was reactive, and she was specific about what they should do (avoid eye contact with her, give her space, and not make any sudden movements). Everywhere they went, Spryte was rewarded. And Chris quit activities before her little dog became bored or tired.
It was during this time that Chris accepted that Spryte could not compete in flyball. But she still hoped there was some venue that would allow her to compete with Spryte. She started thinking that perhaps agility would be okay. There, Spryte would have the ring to herself, with just a judge and a few ring stewards. Although there is a lot of activity going on at agility trials, there is only one dog competing at a time, unlike flyball where there can be as many as 16.
Agility class Chris enrolled in a local class. There were 20 dogs in the class. Fortunately, most were good-natured Shelties. Standing in line with calm dogs her own size, Spryte began to respond positively. Chris asked the people around her to give them space, and she continuously fed Spryte small bits of fresh cooked meat or cheese. She was able to complete the first few training sessions, and things were going well.
Then one evening an Australian Cattle Dog attacked a Border Collie he had been eyeing for several sessions. One of the trainers was badly bitten, and the commotion was too much for Spryte. “Spryte refused food treats and began to bark at the air above her head. She had lost it,” remembered Chris. “The head trainer looked at me and said, ‘Hold her muzzle shut and tell her No!’
“Instead, I knelt down and made eye contact with Spryte. After a moment, her glassy eyes cleared as she recognized me. She came to me quietly and leaned her body into my side. She had learned to trust me. At that moment my heart melted, as a poignant realization hit me to the core: First and foremost, my duty is to protect this little dog. Not just physical protection. Emotional protection as well. I did not return to that training class.”
Some months later, a friend recommended another agility trainer. Kathryn Horn had a long track record in both the sport of agility and positive reinforcement methods. Chris contacted Kathryn and explained her situation. She told her everything she had been working toward over the past nine months and the progress Spryte was making. She asked if she could enroll in her class and use Spryte’s class time to do more counter-conditioning before working on the agility equipment. Chris wanted Spryte to enjoy agility, but knew that years of foundation work lay ahead before they could begin to focus on agility skills.
Kathryn was very understanding, and welcomed Chris into her class. “When I first brought Spryte out of the car, Kathryn automatically knelt down and averted her gaze so she did not make eye contact with Spryte. I was amazed when Spryte trotted up, wiggling with appeasement, and greeted Kathryn without barking. I felt a flood of relief. This was the kind of training instructor Spryte and I needed.”
Kathryn didn’t put any pressure on Chris to teach Spryte agility. Instead, she allowed Chris to teach Spryte that the agility arena was a fun place. The environment Kathryn provided was so supportive, with a small class and plenty of space and one-on-one training, that Spryte’s confidence grew quickly. She was able to practice on agility equipment much earlier than planned.
The agility equipment itself was easy for Spryte. She had some difficulty with the teeter-totter because of the noise; otherwise, she had no fear of the equipment. For touch-points (teaching a dog to stop at the bottom of the dogwalk, A-frame, and teeter), Kathryn taught bow-on-a-mat using clicker training. Spryte loved touch-points so much that she began seeking out the A-frame and dogwalk.
“Because my goal was to build confidence, I rewarded everything Spryte offered, as long as it was not fearful behavior. It worked. Spryte began to show excitement in the car when we neared the agility-training site, and confidence when she was in the training arena. As the months passed, she began to look like a true agility dog.”
Dealing with setbacks Spryte’s progress was not always unremitting. One night as they were training, a ranch hand started the diesel engine of a Mac truck. The noise was sudden, loud, and startling. Spryte shut down. She became frenetic, looking for a place to hide, body tucked low in an attempt to become invisible. After the truck left, Chris tried to bring her out of it, but Spryte was unable to cope, so Chris took her home.
Photo copyright Dave Mills.
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The following week when they neared the agility site, Spryte curled herself up in her crate. Fearful, she refused to come out of her crate, so they sat together in the car, watching the other dogs run, and Chris focused once again on counter-conditioning, feeding her bits of meat and cheese just for being there. Spryte took the food timidly at first, and then began to relax a little. But she still would not leave her crate.
“It was very depressing; I was starting all over again,” describes Chris. “My goals of a competition dog were, once again, slipping away. I thought about quitting. I had put so much work in building her confidence, and here we were back to square one. I decided to continue agility for a couple of months and, if she didn’t bounce back, we would leave the sport. After all, we were doing this for fun, and right then, it wasn’t fun for either one of us.”
Over the next few weeks, Spryte gradually became less fearful. Kathryn avoided using the teeter during that time so Spryte wouldn’t have a setback. Once her fears had subsided, her confidence bounced right back to where it had been before the event. Because Chris had worked through the problem, the bond between them seemed to grow. Lisa had given sound training advice that paid off over the months and years: Set short, attainable goals, and look at the behavior modification program from a long-term perspective.
After four years of agility training with Kathryn, Spryte was doing beautifully in practice and Chris was learning how to give verbal and physical cues smoothly to keep her confidence high. But she was so worried that Spryte would rush and bark at the agility judge that she avoided entering a competition. Finally, Kathryn convinced her to enter Spryte in a small competition where Kathryn would be judging some of the classes.
The payoff On the day of the competition, Kathryn made sure all the judges, ring stewards, and helpers knew that Spryte was fearful and not to approach her. Kathyrn even saved Chris a parking spot in a quiet, shady spot, away from everyone else.
Kathryn was judging the first round. The plan was to walk Spryte into the ring, do a couple of obstacles, then mark (i.e., “Yes!”), and leave the ring to give her loads of treats. Chris’s goal was for both of them to completely forget about the dogs and people around them and play together, just for a moment. Chris describes their breakthrough:
“I walked Spryte in and out of the barn to introduce her to the area before our round, working some freestyle moves and giving her treats. She was tense. Then, when our turn came, we went straight into the ring, treat-less and leash-free. I said, ‘Ready, go over!’ Spryte flew forward, sailed over the jump, right past a helper – without even a glance – and up the dogwalk. We connected at the base of the dogwalk, and then she was off over the next jump, tunnel, and so on. Before I knew it, she’d done the entire course, about 15 obstacles – fast, happy, and absolutely connected with me the whole way. I threw my arms up with a big “Yes!” as she sailed over the last jump. She responded by bouncing on her hind legs. She was still playing. I was absolutely amazed.”
Chris and Spryte had done far more than achieve their goal. They not only made it through the entire course, but won first place in her height group. Spryte was also the third fastest out of 17 dogs in the Novice class. And she achieved a qualifying round toward her first agility title.
Chris and Spryte ran two more perfect courses, winning yet another first place and qualifying for points toward two titles. Most importantly, she was able to play agility happily among unfamiliar people and dogs, in an unfamiliar place. The classical conditioning of the agility obstacles was so strong that it transferred to a new location better than Chris expected.
“Throughout the day, several people commented how well we were doing for our first time. That was pretty cool. Especially given the true ‘obstacles’ we had tackled together. Of course, even if she hadn’t done all that, Spryte is still very special to me. She taught me how to be a better trainer and a better partner in our agility team.”
As Spryte’s confidence in the world has grown, Chris has focused more on agility. Since that inaugural competition, Spryte and Chris have entered five more agility competitions, qualified in 11 runs across four different classes, and earned two titles: Novice Regular and Novice Touch-n-Go. To a spectator, Spryte looks like a “normal” agility dog. She barked at the judge once, and at a cameraman once. But she recovered quickly on both occasions, and finished the course.
Spryte is a work in progress. She has provided Chris with many challenges, setbacks, and disappointments, but also a lot of joy and achievement. “The road to success with Spryte has been long and winding, with lots of dips and rises, but we’re enjoying the journey together,” says Chris.
Because she is so aware of every little thing around her, Spryte has taught Chris to be aware of her, to observe her, and respond to her needs each moment.
“The lessons Spryte has taught me have made me a better trainer,” says Chris. “She has taught me that trust, even in the human-dog relationship, requires patience, consistency, and clear communication beyond verbal language. She has also taught me that communication is two-way: To succeed as a team, I must listen to my dog and understand her emotional needs. In this way, Spryte has provided a service not only for herself, but for all the competition dogs that share my life in future.”
Terry Long, CPDT, is a writer, agility instructor, and behavior counselor in Long Beach, CA. Terry lives with four dogs and a cat and is addicted to agility and animal behavior.
Chris Bond lives with her husband and three Border Collies in Dublin, CA. Since her introduction to clicker training, Chris earned a diploma in Advanced Canine Behavioral Sciences with Companion Animal Sciences Institute, and has become a CAP assessor.
“But he does it at home!” Usually uttered in a plaintive wail, this common dog owner complaint is often heard in dog training classes, among other places. When one of my students says this, I reassure them that I believe their dog probably does perform the behavior in question with a high degree of reliability in the comfort of his own home. The fact that he won’t do it in class is usually a generalization issue; the owner has only practiced the behavior with her dog at home. He doesn’t know he’s supposed to do it other places.
According to authors Mary Burch, PhD, and Jon Bailey, PhD, in their excellent book, How Dogs Learn, “Generalization occurs when behaviors are seen in contexts other than those in which they were originally trained.” Simply stated, this means practicing with your dog in different places, at different times of the day, under different conditions, in the presence of different people, dogs, and a variety of other distractions.
People who compete with their dogs in obedience, rally, and other canine sports – at least those who compete successfully – understand how important this is. They call it “proofing” when they help their dog generalize his show ring behaviors to new and distracting environments. They make sure to “proof” their dog for typical show ring distractions such as wild applause, metal chairs clattering to the floor, flash bulbs going off, and a dog owner shouting conflicting cues in a commanding tone in the next ring.
Sandi Thompson, a positive trainer in Berkeley, California, works with Turtle, her terrier-mix, outside a playground.
You may not need to take it to that extreme, but if you want your dog to perform his behaviors as well in public as he does in the privacy of your own home, you will need to help him learn how to generalize.
Monitor your expectations
If you teach your dog new behaviors such as “sit” only at home in the den on the rug in front of the coffee table, your dog will believe that “Sit!” means “sit in the den on the rug in front of the coffee table.” That’s it. If you never ask him to sit anywhere else, that will be the sum total of his “Sit” association.
It’s not fair, then, for you to get irritated, frustrated, angry, or annoyed and claim he’s “blowing you off” if he fails to sit when you ask him to do it in the waiting room of your vet’s clinic surrounded by a barking Pomeranian, two cats yowling in their carriers, and a parrot squawking loudly on his owner’s shoulder. Even well-trained dogs might have difficulty responding to the cue in that environment! If that seems too obvious, it’s just as unfair to expect him to sit the first time you ask him to sit in your kitchen, or on the sidewalk in front of your own house, regardless of how well he responds to that cue in the den on the rug in front of the coffee table.
In a new environment, you may have to initially reintroduce a lure, and increase your rate of reinforcement.
Trainers frequently say, “Dogs don’t generalize well.” What we mean is that dogs don’t generalize “operantly” trained behaviors (you do this, you get a cookie) without some assistance from their humans. The good news is that your dog can become quite proficient at generalization, if you take the time to show him how.
How to generalize
Generalization really is quite simple. To start, make lists of all the variable conditions in which you might ask your dog to respond to your cue for a particular behavior (see “Generalization Variables,” right). Train that behavior to a high degree of reliability – 80 percent or better – in the den on the rug in front of the coffee table. Take “Sit,” for example. When your dog will promptly and consistently sit at least 8 out of 10 times when you ask him to, you’re ready to start generalizing.
Add a variable. Ask a friend to stroll through the den, and cue your dog to sit. (Still on that rug in front of the coffee table!) If he does it, click and treat (if you are not familiar with this phrase, see the Review sidebar, below). If not, prompt the sit with a food lure or a hand motion, to remind him what “Sit!” means. When he does it, click and treat. Repeat this exercise with your strolling partner until your dog responds reliably even with the distraction of a moving person.
Turtle ignores the waves and the shore birds, focusing only on Sandi. Hurray! Turtle has generalized “sit” well.
Now add a different variable. Have another volunteer bounce a ball on the den floor, opposite side of the room. Cue the sit, prompt if necessary, click and treat when he does. When he’s reliable with the bouncing ball, try changing the venue – move him several feet off the rug and work up to reliability, then add strolling spouse and bouncing ball.
Okay, there’s a whole world out there and you and your dog haven’t even left the den yet. Your next step is to practice his sits in various rooms of the house, first without, and then with, additional distractions. During this phase, you can also generalize him to your own body positions: sometimes ask for the sit while he’s facing you, sometimes next to you and behind you, and sometimes when you’re sitting, or even lying down.
Taking it on the road
But you’ve only just begun; you’re still in your house! When your dog will sit consistently and reliably anywhere inside, it’s time to go outside. Ready for your walk around the block? Have your dog sit at the door – a “Say please” good manners behavior that is appropriate to practice anywhere, anytime. When the two of you step outside, ask for a sit on the front stoop. Prompt if necessary, click and treat when he responds. Ask for sits several times as you make your way around the block, making sure to prompt him if he needs help, and rewarding him each time he sits.
As your dog becomes more and more responsive to your sit cue in an environment with infinite possibilities for distraction (other dogs, squirrels, cars, bicycles, cats, mail carriers, baby strollers, joggers, etc.), you can gradually start decreasing the rate of reinforcement. Sometimes ask for a sit, praise him when he does it, then ask for another, and click and treat when he responds. By decreasing the rate of reinforcement you make the sit response very durable (resistant to extinction). He’ll learn that if he keeps playing the “sit game,” like a slot machine, it will eventually pay off.
The rest of the world
Your home and your walk around the block are still relatively limited environments. Now you get to generalize your dog’s sit behavior to the rest of the world. Take him with you to the bank and practice sits while you wait in line to make a deposit. Visit your vet’s office and just hang out in the lobby practicing sits. Go to your favorite pet supply store and practice sits in the aisles. Walk past a school playground and reinforce sits in the presence of children running and playing. And oh yes – then you get to do the whole procedure with all the other behaviors your dog is learning. Phew!
The good news is that generalization seems to, well, generalize. The more you do the process, the easier and easier it becomes for your dog to generalize new behaviors. So, while it may take a concerted effort to help him understand that sit means sit everywhere, when he gets that figured out, he’ll generalize each new behavior more quickly.
The other piece of good news is that you don’t have to restrict yourself to one behavior at a time. If you’ve already taught him sit, down, stand, and target on that rug in the den in front of the coffee table, you can go ahead and practice all four behaviors when you take your generalization show on the road. So – get going on your generalization program! You and your dog have a lot of work to do if you want him to be a truly well-trained, well-behaved canine companion, wherever your travels together may take you.
Kennel cough symptoms (also known as infectious tracheobronchitis) appear extreme, with a dry, hacking cough accompanied by frequent, intense gagging. Despite its appearance, a typical case of kennel cough is not life-threatening, and it tends to run its course in a few days to a week or so. But it is a disease that is frustrating for pets and caretakers alike.
Kennel cough should be expected whenever your dog suddenly develops the characteristic cough 5 to 10 days after exposure to other dogs – especially to dogs from a kennel (especially a shelter) environment. Usually the kennel cough symptoms diminish during the first five days, but the disease may persist for up to 10-20 days. Kennel cough is almost always more annoying (to dog and her caretaker) than it is a serious event.
Anyone who’s heard it will recognize the dry, hacking, something’s-stuck-in-my-throat dog coughing that won’t quit. It’s the signature symptom of canine infectious tracheobronchitis, also known as Bordetellosis, Bordetella, and most commonly as kennel cough. Whatever you call it, tracheobronchitis is one of the world’s most widespread canine diseases.
Like the common cold in humans, tracheobronchitis is highly contagious, rarely fatal, and runs its course in a few days. Fortunately, there are several ways to help make canine patients more comfortable, speed recovery, and prevent future infections.
Tracheobronchitis is called kennel cough because of its association with boarding kennels, animal shelters, veterinary waiting rooms, grooming salons, and other areas where dogs congregate in close quarters. The coughing can strike dogs of any age but is most common in puppies, whose immune systems are still developing, and adult dogs with conditions that impair immune function.
Although often referred to as Bordetella, tracheobronchitis isn’t caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria alone. Several infectious agents contribute to the condition, primarily parainfluenza. Other viruses that may be involved include canine adenovirus, reovirus, and the canine herpes virus.
When Bordetella and parainfluenza combine to cause tracheobronchitis, kennel cough symptoms appear within a week of exposure (usually after three to four days) and continue for about 10 days. Even after symptoms disappear, the recovering patient remains contagious, shedding Bordetella bacteria for up to 14 weeks.
In mild cases, dogs with kennel cough remain active and alert, with good appetite. In more severe cases, symptoms may progress toward pneumonia and include lethargy, fever, and a loss of appetite.
The main symptom of tracheobronchitis—its cough—has been described as unproductive, throat-clearing, goose-honking, hacking, dry, harsh, gut-wrenching, gagging, wheezing, and croup-like, not to mention annoying to the dogs who can’t stop coughing and the humans they live with. Vigorous exercise triggers it, but even resting dogs may cough every few minutes throughout the day.
The dog’s cough is caused by irritation and damage to the lining of the trachea and upper bronchi. In the trachea, exposed nerve endings are aggravated by the passage of air over damaged tissue as the dog inhales and exhales.
Just as the virus that causes the common cold is carried by water vapor, dust, and air, the bacteria and viruses that cause tracheobronchitis spread in all directions. When inhaled by a susceptible dog, they attach to the lining of upper airway passages whose warm, moist conditions allow them to reproduce and eventually damage the cells they infect.
Learn more about how dogs catch kennel cough by reading, “The Many Causes of Kennel Cough,” (January, 2017) at Whole Dog Journal.
Kennel Cough Risk Factors for Dogs
Some people catch frequent colds and others never get sick. Some dogs are susceptible to tracheobronchitis and others never get it, even after repeated exposure.
According to Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, Educational Director of VeterinaryPartner.com, “The normal respiratory tract has substantial safeguards against invading infectious agents. The most important of these is probably what is called the mucocillary escalator.”
Cilia are tiny hairlike structures that protrude from the cells that line the respiratory tract. They are covered with a protective coat of mucus, and they beat in a coordinated fashion. As viruses, bacteria, and other debris become trapped in the sticky mucus, the cilia move everything up (hence the escalator analogy) toward the throat, where it can be coughed up or swallowed.
Conditions that damage the mucocillary escalator and cause dog coughing include shipping stress, crowding stress, heavy dust exposure, exposure to cigarette smoke, viruses, and poor ventilation. “Without this protective mechanism,” says Dr. Brooks, “invading bacteria, especially Bordetella bronchiseptica, may simply march down the airways unimpeded.”
Poorly ventilated, crowded conditions increase the odds of contracting tracheobronchitis, but dogs can catch the disease almost anywhere. All they need is exposure to a dog who has an active infection or is recovering from one—or to the viruses and bacteria an infected dog left behind.
Kennel Cough Treatment
Most veterinarians treat tracheobronchitis the way physicians treat the common cold. They let it run its course while keeping the patient comfortable. Some veterinarians routinely prescribe antibiotics, which are effective against bacteria, thus addressing part of the infection. But because antibiotics have no effect on viruses, this treatment is not a cure, and most vets save antibiotics for more serious conditions, such as the secondary infections that sometimes develop in dogs with tracheobronchitis.
For partial relief of symptoms and to help the dog feel more comfortable, some owners use cough medicine for dogs. Minor cases are often treated with nonprescription cough remedies such as Robitussin (dextromethorphan). Cough medicine for dogs, like Robotussin, is recommended for chronic, dry, unproductive coughing, and should not be used for moist or productive coughs. Note: Products that contain acetaminophen or caffeine should not be given to dogs.
Prescription cough suppressants and most antibiotics for dogs should be reserved for cases in which a fever develops, symptoms last longer than a few days, or the cough becomes more severe.
Some veterinarians may recommend a cough medicine for dogs, but others contend that cough suppressants further weaken the immune system and should only be given to dogs under severe circumstances.
Your Dog Could Have Pneumonia – or Something Else
Tracheobronchitis usually clears up on its own without complications. If it doesn’t, there may be a secondary bacterial infection (such as pneumonia), or the problem may be due to something entirely else entirely. Dogs cough for many reasons.
For example, dogs can create their own tracheal irritation by pulling on the leash. A body harness with a leash attachment in front of the chest or on the back instead of the collar can prevent this cough-inducing problem.
Dogs with heart disease, including congestive heart failure and heartworm infestations, often cough after exercise or excitement. Heartworm disease is endemic in some parts of the country, and less common in others, but is a possibility in any area where mosquitoes are common. Congestive heart failure, which occurs when the heart’s valves leak, is most common in middle-aged or older dogs, including small breeds.
Dog coughing due to tracheal collapse can be triggered by drinking water.
Diseases of the larynx or esophagus can cause dog coughing after eating. A damaged larynx may not close properly, allowing swallowed food to enter the trachea. Paralysis of the larynx is more common in large breed dogs.
An abnormally dilated esophagus may allow food to pool, then pass back up to the mouth and down into the lungs, causing infection and coughing. Tracheal collapse is most common in middle-aged and older, overweight small-breed dogs.
The cough resulting from canine tracheobronchitis is usually dry. A moist cough sounds that way because of accumulated fluid in the lungs or airways. The fluid can be water, blood, or pus. Hunting dogs and dogs who spend most of their time outdoors may inhale seeds, pollen, grasses, or other foreign matter that travels through the nose to the lung, causing pyothorax, an infection that produces a large amount of pus.
Dogs of any age can develop allergic lung disease from exposure to dust, pollen, or smoke.
While lung cancer is unusual in dogs, it too can cause coughing. Short-nosed breeds exposed to second-hand smoke and any dog exposed to asbestos may be at risk.
Pneumonia and other secondary bacterial infections can develop in pet store puppies with tracheobronchitis and in older dogs with weak immune systems or other illnesses.
Any dog who doesn’t recover quickly from what appears to be canine tracheobronchitis should receive a thorough veterinary exam. To help your veterinarian reach an accurate diagnosis, keep track of your dog’s coughing symptoms, noting on a calendar or notebook the date of each symptom and its description.
It’s Not Dog Flu
Three years ago, canine flu seemed to be an epidemic affecting dogs of every description (see “Fending Off the Flu,” Whole Dog Journal, December 2005).
The dog coughing produced by the canine flu virus is soft and moist, and it’s usually accompanied by a high fever and nasal discharge, none of which are symptoms of tracheobronchitis.
Fortunately, of the strategies that help prevent and treat tracheobronchitis work for canine flu as well as other infectious diseases. The herbs, supplements, and treatments described below can help your dog stay healthy when exposed to many different viruses and bacteria.
Kennel Cough Vaccinations
Most boarding facilities require proof of Bordetella vaccination for dogs who will be visiting. However, because there are many strains of Bordetella, and because no vaccine protects every patient, some immunized dogs contract tracheobronchitis despite being vaccinated. Veterinary recommendations range from vaccinating a dog every four months to not at all.
“There are two kinds of Bordetella vaccine,” says Stacey Hershman, DVM, a holistic veterinarian in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. “The intranasal vaccine is highly effective and very safe since it is not systemic but goes down the nose into the throat. I do not recommend the injectable vaccine since it can cause negative side effects like lethargy, fever, vomiting, or diarrhea.
“I never vaccinate animals more than once a year for kennel cough, and then only if they are going to a boarding kennel. Kennel cough is not fatal in adult dogs, who usually board, therefore it would be over-vaccinating in my opinion to do it more than once a year. Healthy, strong immune systems are resistant and do not catch it, which is another reason not to vaccinate unless the dog is going to a kennel that requires it.”
No matter what your dog’s vaccination status, a few natural kennel cough preventives can’t hurt, especially whenever your dog is exposed to dogs with active or recent infections.
Honey and Coconut Oil for Kennel Cough Treatment
The single treatment for canine tracheobronchitis that conventional veterinarians, holistic vets, and caregivers of every description agree on is honey. Honey soothes the throat, but it does far more than that.
As noted in “Bee Products Have a Special Meaning for Dogs” (September 2007), all honey has disinfecting properties. One of the most expensive honeys sold in the United States and around the world is manuka honey from New Zealand, where bees harvest nectar from the manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium). Twenty years of research at the University of Waikato show that manuka honey has impressive antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and antifungal properties. While all honeys share these properties, they are especially pronounced in manuka honey.
Most dogs enjoy honey’s sweet taste, so it’s easy to feed from a spoon or, if the honey is thick, you can roll it into a treat-sized ball. Honey can be fed by itself, mixed with powdered herbs for additional benefit, or added to herbal teas that double as cough syrups.
There is no specific recommended dose, as both larger and smaller doses are safe and effective, but for most dogs ½ to 1 teaspoon of honey three or four times per day works well.
In recent years, coconut oil has become a popular supplement for people and pets (see “Crazy about Coconut Oil,” October 2005). Because its medium-chain fatty acids kill harmful bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi, and parasites, its advocates call it an all-purpose infection fighter. As coconut oil expert and book author Bruce Fife, ND, explains, “Taking coconut oil daily is like a daily inoculation. It will help prevent your dog from becoming infected.”
The recommended maintenance dose is 1 teaspoon coconut oil per 10 pounds of body weight per day in divided doses, always starting with smaller amounts and increasing gradually. When your dog has been exposed to tracheobronchitis or any other infection, the dose can be doubled. The only adverse effects of a too-high dose of coconut oil are loose, greasy stools and a temporary feeling of fatigue (thought to result from detoxification). Most dogs adjust easily to a coconut oil regimen, and because they’re usually fond of the taste, coconut oil can be fed from a spoon or added to your dog’s food.
Honey and coconut oil work well together. Combine these two infection fighters for both the treatment and prevention of tracheobronchitis and other contagious diseases.
Herbs for Canine Tracheobronchitis
Most natural foods markets and pet supply stores sell herbal products that help coughing dogs.
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra or G. uralensis) is a favorite of herbalist Juliette de Bairacli Levy. In her book The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat, which describes her “Natural Rearing” approach to pet care, Levy recommends making a strong infusion (steeped tea) by combining 1 tablespoon dried licorice root with 2 cups cold water, bringing it to a boil, removing it from heat, and letting it stand until room temperature. Add 1 teaspoon honey to each tablespoon of licorice tea and give 2 tablespoons to the dog before meals. Small dogs and puppies can take less and large dogs more, but precise measurements aren’t necessary. Refrigerate leftover tea for up to five days.
Levy also recommends as cough remedies teas made of sage leaves (Salvia officinalis), blackberry leaves (Rubus spp.), elder blossom (Sambucus nigra), and thyme (Thymus vulgaris). “Sage is the best,” she writes.
Apitherapy Honey Wild Cherry Bark Syrup from Honey Gardens in Vermont, sold in natural foods markets, contains raw honey, apple cider vinegar, wild cherry bark (Prunus virginiana or P. serotina), elecampane root (Inula helenium), propolis (a bee product), rosehips (Rosa spp.), ginger root (Zingiber officinale), licorice root, slippery elm bark (Ulmus fulva), and the essential oils of lemon, peppermint, and eucalyptus.
All of these ingredients are traditionally used to support upper respiratory health and soothe sore throats. The human adult dose is 1 teaspoon every other hour while symptoms persist. Adjust the dose for your dog’s weight, and to make the product more palatable, try mixing it with honey and/or coconut oil or add it to a small amount of interesting food.
Tossa K, an herbal product from Amber Technology, contains infection-fighting olive leaf (Olea Europaea), mustard seed (Brassica spp.), black seed (Nigella sativa), and pau d’arco (Tabebuia impetiginosa).
Described as an antimicrobial that aids upper respiratory infections, Tossa K is given orally four times per day for up to 10 days. The recommended dose for most dogs, based on weight, is 15 drops at a time. According to the manufacturer, this product is designed to stimulate immunity, rid the lungs of congestion, kill viruses and bacteria, soothe digestion, rid the body of free radicals, and protect pets who are exposed to illness.
Australian herbalist Robert McDowell’s favorite treatment for tracheobronchitis is a blend of rosehips, garlic (Allium sativum), fenugreek (Trigonella fornum), marshmallow, elecampane, coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), kelp (Laminaria digitata), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and mullein (Verbascum thapsus), which he makes in a base of apple cider vinegar.
“All this sounds like a lot,” he says, “but the old-fashioned way of treating chest and respiratory infections works well. These herbs provide important minerals and vitamin C, and they act as healing tonics, expectorants, and lymphatic supplements. The result is an herbal mix that gets rid of the cough, and by continuing for several weeks after the cough has gone, it builds up the immunity. I recommend that it be kept on hand and given to the whole kennel at any signs of cough showing up, at which time all dogs should be given a short course. One dog recovered quickly when given this blend after six prescriptions for antibiotics failed.”
Dr. Christina Chambreau is a staunch believer in what she calls “R&R” – a flower essence remedy called Rescue Remedy and reiki, a healing “life force energy” practice. Dr. Chambreau recommends taking just one course in reiki to learn how to perform reiki on your dog on a regular basis. And while Rescue Remedy and flower essences in general won’t cure kennel cough or any other disease, many dog owners report that these plant distillations can center your dog’s emotions and help alleviate distress.
Juliette de Baircli Levy’s famous Natural Rearing (NR) Herbal Compounds tablets contain garlic, rue (Ruta graveolens), sage, thyme, eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), and vegetable charcoal.
Levy recommends giving dogs 3 to 6 tablets daily to help fight and prevent disease. “These tablets maintain health and promote a cure in the sick,” she explains. “Use them daily for prevention, especially before and after your animal is exposed to any public place where other animals have been.”
Holistic health consultant Marina Zacharias recommends Bioprin, a Chinese blend of 21 herbs.
“This formula is the best for any type of viral infection,” she says, “as well as helping the overall immune system, and it acts like a natural anti-inflammatory. Combined with the kennel cough nosode (a homeopathic remedy designed to help increase the body’s defense against the infection), Bioprin usually brings quick relief, often within one to three days.
“Most of the people I work with have multiple-dog households, so we give the remedies to everyone preventatively whenever we know there has been exposure or when one of the household members has contracted the infection. The results are great as no one else in the house gets sick.”
Note: While mullein is not an endangered plant, plenty of popular holistic herbs are. Dr. Chambreau suggests substituting marshmallow root for slippery elm, which is being overharvested because of the popularity of its medicinal bark. As a bonus, marshmallow is the gentler of the two, while still providing soothing relief to inflamed mucous membranes. For throat soothing, Dr. Chambreau suggests aloe vera and raw honey.
Herbal Diffusers and Cleaning the Air
When Faith Thanas, an aromatherapist who lives in Leicester, Massachusetts, adopted a Doberman Pinscher from Louisiana one year after Hurricane Katrina, Sasha arrived in a van carrying 20 rescued dogs. A few days later, she started coughing.
To help soothe Sasha’s throat, Thanas mixed a blend of essential oils to spray in the air around the dog. She started with Ravensare (Cinnamonum camphora), one of the “must have” essential oils listed by Kristen Leigh Bell in her book Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals. As Bell explains, this gentle and tolerable antiviral, antibacterial essential oil supports the immune system and has tonifying effects.
Thanas then added Eucalyptus radiata, the gentlest of the many eucalyptus varieties available. It is known for its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and expectorant properties. Bell writes, “Due to its gentleness, it is very appropriate for use in blends for animals for congestion, and it makes an excellent room air cleaner, deodorizer, and flea repellent.”
Eucalyptus globulus, the next ingredient, is the eucalyptus commonly found in chest rubs, cough drops, and cough syrups. It has a fresh antiseptic fragrance and, when inhaled, acts as a decongestant.
Thanas added Spike Lavender (Lavendula latifolia) for its powerful antibacterial properties.
After diluting the essential oils, Thanas used a spray bottle to mist the air around Sasha. “The results were instantaneous,” she recalls. “She stopped coughing, she was able to breathe, and she was so much more comfortable.”
Thanas wasted no time adding Cough Drop! to her AromaDog line of aromatherapy pet products. She describes it as an all-natural cough suppressant that works quickly, helps open breathing passages, acts as an expectorant (antitussive), soothes the chest and respiratory system (balsamic), reduces swelling (antihistamine), helps reduce excess mucus secretion (anticatarrh), and acts as an immune system stimulant.
“The bottle should be shaken well for at least three seconds before use,” she says.” Repeat the application every three hours. In households with other animals, or in boarding kennels, spraying the air, bedding, and other surfaces can help keep the illness from spreading.”
Another way to disperse essential oils into the air is with a diffuser. Aromatherapy supply companies, such as Aromatherapeutix, sell different models. A nebulizing diffuser consists of a nebulizer (glass receptacle) attached to the hose of a small air compressor. Drops of essential oil placed in the nebulizer are atomized into tiny droplets that are sprayed into the air.
Bell notes that disinfecting essential oils dispersed by a nebulizing diffuser effectively clean the air, deodorize the room, and help clear up and prevent contagious illnesses.
A new type of ultrasonic cold mist diffuser runs silently (unlike nebulizing diffusers with their noisy air compressors) and can be set for constant or intermittent dispersal. To use, simply fill the unit with water, add a few drops of essential oil, and turn it on. Buttons on the unit control the frequency and duration of misting. Simpler models, such as the SpaMist diffuser, run constantly. Ultrasonic diffusers have become popular accessories for aromatherapists and those who use essential oils.
Any blend of disinfecting essential oils, such as Ravensare, Eucalyptus radiata, or Spike Lavender, can be dispersed into the air with a diffuser.
Canine nutritional consultant Linda Arndt has a favorite remedy for clearing the air and helping dogs recover from and avoid respiratory infections. The Nzymes product Ox-E-Drops (not to be confused with Oxy Drops, an eye drop from a different manufacturer) contains sodium clorite, which breaks down to form chlorine dioxide, a microbiocide.
To use in a warm steam vaporizer (an inexpensive appliance sold in pharmacies), mix 1 teaspoon Ox-E-Drops Concentrate with one gallon of water. For severe cases, use up to 1 tablespoon. In a small bathroom, other enclosed room, or in a crate covered by a sheet, direct the vapors toward the dog’s head, keeping the vaporizer far enough away so that its hot steam doesn’t pose a safety hazard.
“Allow your pet to breathe the vapors for 15 to 20 minutes each hour for four to five hours,” says Arndt. “Repeat the procedure for two to three days until symptoms improve.”
Thieves Essential Oil is also effective in staving off canine colds. A proprietary blend of therapeutic-grade oils from Young Living, Thieves Oil gets its name from the four grave-robbers of medieval legend who avoided contracting the plague from the cadavers they pilfered by swathing themselves in oils (that turn out to have antimicrobial properties). The oil is a wonderful immune booster; when colds and viruses make their wintertime rounds, give yourself and your dogs foot rubs of Thieves diluted in almond oil to keep everyone sniffle-free.
Water Tonics for Kennel Cough
Ox-E-drops can be added to drinking water as well as sprayed in the air. “Use 1 drop per 20 pounds of body weight, diluted in 1 to 3 teaspoons of water,” says Arndt, “and give this amount three times per day for all types of illness or respiratory problems.”
Faith Thanas at AromaDog created Lickity Spritzer, a blend of colloidal silver and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) hydrosol, to help keep dogs healthy while traveling as well as at home. Colloidal silver, a suspension of submicroscopic metallic silver particles in a colloidal base, is promoted as an all-purpose disinfectant and infection-fighter.
In her book Hydrosols: The Next Aromatherapy, Suzanne Catty writes that the hydrosol (distilled flower water) of lemon balm makes a good prophylactic in flu and allergy season and has both immune-stimulating and infection-fighting properties.
“Together,” says Thanas, “these two super-power ingredients knock out the potential for infection from bacteria, fungi, and viruses, stimulating the immune system and emotionally calming your pet. Lickity Spritzer purifies your pet’s yucky water bowl so it becomes a clean source of good health. This product is great for dogs or cats and multiple pet households.”
Special Immune Support Supplements for Dogs
According to San Diego veterinarian Stephen R. Blake, DVM, the most important defense against any infection, whether fungal, viral, or bacterial, is the gastrointestinal system.
Dr. Blake’s favorite supplement for immune support is bovine colostrum from New Zealand, where all cattle are pasture-fed and organically raised. Colostrum is the “first milk” a cow produces after giving birth, and it contains all the immune support a calf needs to avoid infection. Cows produce colostrum in greater quantities than their calves can consume, so the excess is collected for supplement use.
“I recommend a dose of 500 mg colostrum per 25 pounds of body weight once or twice a day, depending on the dog’s risk factor,” says Dr. Blake.
Other supplements that support the gastrointestinal tract include probiotics, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus and other “friendly” or “beneficial” bacteria, which help make up the body’s first line of defense against viruses and other pathogens.
Probiotics are especially important for dogs who have been treated with antibiotics, as antibiotics destroy these beneficial microbes. Several probiotic supplements have been developed for dogs and are sold in pet supply stores or veterinary clinics. And don’t neglect vitamin C. Consider giving your dog 500 mg vitamin C three times per day, or half that amount for small dogs, in addition to the animal’s usual supplements for as long as the infection lasts.
The Best Defense
Controlling your dog’s exposure to other animals is one way to help prevent tracheobronchitis, canine flu, and other contagious diseases. Another is to disinfect the air and surfaces around her.
These are common sense precautions. But your dog’s best defense against infection is a strong immune system, which you can boost with nutrition, exercise, and supplements like those mentioned here. And if your dog ever contracts a respiratory infection, you’ll know how to use simple remedies to turn it around in record time.
The best treatment for kennel cough is preventative. Strengthen your dog’s health from the ground up. That means the best quality food possible and clean water, avoiding exposure to toxins, and paying attention to early signals that your dog’s immune system is weakening.
Signs of a weakened immune system start off seeming negligible. “These are little things your vet won’t think are wrong,” Dr. Chambreau says. Goopy eye discharge, waxy ears, a little red line in the gums, minor behavioral problems, and a slight overall odor that necessitates baths every couple of weeks are some examples. Dr. Chambreau recommends keeping a daily journal so you can see patterns in your dog’s well-being emerge over time.
C.J. Puotinen is a frequent Whole Dog Journal contributor and freelance writer living in New York. She is also author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care and many books on holistic health care and herbal remedies for humans.
Some of my friends have been horrified to learn that my husband and I have chosen, so far, to allow our new dog, Otto, to spend his nights outdoors. From some of our friends’ reactions, you’d think we were turning him loose in the Alaskan wilderness each winter, but the fact is, the decision was made in response to Otto’s own wishes -and our own pressing need for sleep! Allow me to explain.
As I’ve hinted before, Otto is quite nocturnal. Left to his own devices, he would sleep through most of the day, and do his very best to party all night. To his dismay, he’s alone in the wee hours. This is incredibly boring, but he’s game for the challenge of finding things to do, even with so few activity partners at night!
On the few nights when we did try to have him sleep in the house, he paced, whined, chewed stuff up, and nudged me repeatedly (seemingly right after he had gotten a drink of water, and had water all over his beard, every time) as I slept. When we gave him toys and chew-items, he threw them around, clunking them into the walls and furniture. Then he paced and whined some more.
Also, he barked. Because it’s hot where we live, from May through October, and because we aren’t big on air conditioning, we open the house up at night and position fans to bring in cooler air and drive the hot air out of the house. We have screens on the windows, and security screen doors – which means that Otto can hear and see anything that is going on outside at night, but he can’t go investigate. So he barked with his big, booming bark, perhaps as a guarding behavior, but also in frustration. He wanted out.
It didn’t take us long – just a few nearly sleepless nights – to agree that, yes, Otto can go play outside at night. With all the doors and windows open we can still hear when he barks at something -which, thank goodness, is less and less all the time. Because I’m a mom, and have experience with jumping up out of bed to check on a crying baby (albeit 16 years ago . . . these reflexes don’t ever go away, I think), I’m the one who leaps out of bed and goes to the appropriate door to look out and say, “Hey Otto . . . What are you doing?”
Busy, busy, busy
Mostly, what he’s doing is, you know, keeping busy. He looks for random objects to augment his growing toy collection. He collects shoes, tools, and sticks – and of course, anything that we’ve witlessly left untied down – and this fills an hour or two. Tossing those items in the air and carrying them around the yard takes up most of the night.
He chews some things during his nighttime adventures – weird things. He has chewed the arm of a plastic deck chair and the edge of a wooden bench. He loves chewing sticks and scraps from the lumber pile, but his favorite thing to chew is a foam-filled dog bed – yum! He’s chewed up three beds, which I find odd because he also has several soft stuffed toys, and he hasn’t chewed even a tiny hole in any of them.
Due to all the foam-bed-ripping, he’s now down to a single bed, a mat-like fleecy thing that he likes dragging around from the front yard to the backyard and back to the front. He likes to chew stuff up while lying on the mat, but he doesn’t sleep on it. When he does sleep, he either curls up in the dirt or in his (now) bare-floored plastic crate. Go figure.
One good thing that has resulted from his item-chewing and -relocation habits: our yard and deck are now very neat. No one leaves anything out, because we have all learned that anything that’s left outside will be relocated and might be chewed.
The exception to the tidiness is the potting table by our back door; it’s become heaped with a bunch of stuff we don’t want Otto to chew, hide, or roll through the dirt, including shoes, gardening gloves, a paint brush, a broom, Otto’s leash and car harness, his brush, and the toys we want to preserve (or have taken away at night when his tossing them about wakes us up).
As happy as Otto seems to be as a nocturnal dog, we’re trying to convince him that life on the day shift is more fun. Throughout the day, when I see him snoozing in the shade somewhere, I say, “Hey Otto! Wake up!” and engage him in an impromptu training session or race around the house. We give him Kong toys with wet food frozen inside (“Kongsicles”) and rawhide chews or bones to chew on. I invite him into my office, and send him back outside at random intervals. Brian calls him into the house, into his at-home office.
We take him along to the post office – a half block away! We also have been making him exercise a lot. I often take him for an early morning walk or bike ride; we have easy access to some terrific trails where I can let him off-leash and run ahead of my mountain bike. When we walk along the river that runs through our town, he wades and swims a little. About once a week I take him to a dog park for a couple hours of off-leash play with other dogs. And we take him for a long walk or off-leash run every evening. Tiring him out is tiring us out!
“I think it would be easier to put him on a plane and send him to Europe for a week,” I once told Brian. “Maybe he’d come back with jet lag, and get onto our schedule.” I haven’t entirely ruled this out! Still, no matter what we do to try to exhaust him during the day, at around 9 p.m., mellow Otto visibly transforms into Super Otto! His ears and tail go up, and he starts running laps around the house, a toy in his mouth and not a care in the world. It would be darling, except . . .
Oh, the barking!
During his first week with us, Otto barked in short bursts practically all night. He barked when leaves fell onto the deck. He barked when trains went by, as they do about five times a night, about four blocks from our home. He barked when police or ambulance sirens were heard in town, and when a loud truck or motorcycle went by. And of course, he barked when he heard human voices, from people walking by or if he heard loud conversation from any of our neighbors’ homes.
But just at night! During the day, he sleeps through all of it!
Because we got him from our local shelter and his past is unknown, we weren’t sure if previously he had been treated as a watch dog, and perhaps encouraged to bark; had been neglected and allowed to bark; or had lived in a home that was much less stimulating, perhaps in a remote area. What was clear was that he had absolutely no idea that barking at night was not welcome. No matter how excitedly he was barking at something, if I called him, he would turn and run toward me happily.
One of the most basic principles of dog training is that you never, ever, punish or scold or treat in any unhappy way a dog who has come when called, no matter what horrid thing the dog had been doing when you called him. I didn’t want to give him any reason to be reluctant to come to me when I called his name.
Because both of us were sleep-deprived and cranky within three days of Otto’s arrival, on the fourth day, we decided to allow him to stay outside at night. And I volunteered to sleep outside, to be able to call him to me as quickly as possible when he barked. The goal was to interrupt the unwanted behavior – keeping him from practicing something we didn’t want him to do – and to give him something else to do, something we’d rather he do, and to reward him for it. I love to camp and sleep outside anyway, and we have a big, private deck on the side of the house where I could sleep unobserved by the neighbors. And I got a bit more sleep than when Otto was pacing in the house.
Every time Otto barked, I’d whistle or call him as softly as I could, and then pat the foam mattress next to me. He’d joyfully romp back to me and dive onto the bed, rolling over for a belly rub. Sometimes I’d get up and give him a rawhide chew, an interactive toy (he enjoys the plush beehive with the bees that can be pulled out of various openings), or a food-stuffed Kong. Other times, I’d praise him and pet him for a minute, then fall back to sleep.
Within just a couple of nights, Otto stopped barking at all but the most alarming things: people walking by the house in the middle of the night, and cats. I have to admit I’m probably okay with a dog who woofs a time or two when a person is slinking around my house at 3 a.m., though of course I don’t want him barking for longer than that. When I woke to Otto’s barking, and I could see or hear a person or people walking by, I’d let him bark a time or two more, and then call him. “Good boy,” I’d say.
Stray cats: Our nemesis
Cats are another matter. There are a lot of feral cats (and a few wild skunks) that prowl around our riverside town. Prior to Otto’s arrival, at least one of the cats had learned how to enter our cat door and eat our cat’s food in our kitchen. (This was actually a factor in my husband’s sudden decision to get a dog.) Now, with Otto on night patrol, at least one of these cats started hanging out on the sidewalk in front our house, just on the other side of our chain-link fence. Wahoo! Or rather, as Otto puts it, “Wah, woo-woo-woo-woo woo!”
This, I don’t want. If he could chase cats away silently, I’d be all for it, but this is pretty unlikely. When I call him away from a cat, he comes to me, but the second I take my attention from him, he’s amped up to go look for the cat again.
Now, I know from reading 11 years’ worth of articles by Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor, Pat Miller, that one of the major strategies of a positive training program is to manage the dog’s environment to prevent him from being rewarded for behaviors you don’t want him to repeat. Because we have (weather permitting, for now) allowed him to spend the night outside, we’ve eliminated “putting him in the house” as a viable option to prevent his cat-related barking. And we know he’s busy at night, so I’m not eager to try crating him or locking him in my office; I think he’d freak out.
For now, we’ve settled on a compromise: on most nights, we close the gates on the sides of our house, keeping Otto restricted to the backyard. It’s just a matter of time, I expect, before the feral cats figure this out, and start taunting him from the front yard. To try to prevent that, I sometimes leave a side gate open, so Otto can perform random sweeps of the front yard – usually with a bit of barking, of course.
It’s a work in progress; we know we’ll have to adjust things when the weather starts to get cold. I’m still sleep-deprived, but he’s getting better all the time.
Choosing gear
One of the most rewarding things for me in the past few weeks has been compiling some of my favorite bits of dog-care and -training gear. Like many former horse owners, I’ve got an inordinate love for “tack” – leashes that feel just right in the hand, buckles that adjust easily, training equipment that looks good and fits really well, and so on. Finding the right gear to use with Otto has been fun for me.
One of my first challenges was finding just the right collar. I’ve always put leather collars on my dogs, and especially like those made of soft leather in a full-rolled (round) style. However, Otto has an apparent wealth of experience with ducking out of a collar. He needs a “limited slip” or martingale collar, the kind that tightens when his leash is taut, but one that can’t choke him or tighten too much.
I went back through Whole Dog Journal’s collar reviews, including “The Collar of Money” (May 2005) and “Slip-Sliding Away?” (about martingale collars, in October 2000). I remembered that I liked the limited slip collars made by Premier Pet Products, but preferred the soft hemp fabric and wide variety of colors and styles offered by earthdog (the company doesn’t use capital letters in its name). I looked up the company’s website (earthdog.com) and excitedly ordered a red collar with stars.
This collar has been a dream. It has a nice, big ring on it for clipping a leash onto; I hate hunting one-handed for a too-small ring. It fits nicely, hasn’t allowed Otto to slip loose – even when he was trying hard to escape a bath – looks handsome, and washes well.
Very recently, I was admiring a large line of earthdog collars and leashes in my favorite independent pet supply store (Dog Bone Alley) in my old town of Alameda. I decided that because it had been weeks since Otto had tried to slip his collar, I’d buy a regular earthdog collar, in blue, with a matching leash. We’d be the stars of our next training class!
Back home, I switched the tags from the martingale collar to Otto’s new flat collar, and for days, I admired his new look – until one day I decided he again needed a bath, and he deftly slipped his new collar on the way to the hose. Whoops! Now we change collars frequently; I just have to remember which collar he has on before initiating something he’s likely to try to escape.
Nancy Kerns is Editor of Whole Dog Journal. She adopted Otto from a shelter on June 16, 2008.
earthdog is located in Brentwood, TN. See earthdog.com or call (877) 654-5528.
You’ve probably heard about people who wash their hands repeatedly until the skin wears off, who pull out their hair until they’re bald, or return home, time after time after time, to make sure the stove is turned off. These are obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCDs).
Sad to say, OCD behaviors aren’t confined to humans; dogs get them, too. Oh, you won’t see your dog worrying about whether the stove was left on, nor will you catch him washing his paws repeatedly in the sink. Dogs have a whole set of potential OCDs all their own, specific to canine behavior. Canine OCDs are just as capable of destroying a dog’s ability to function as human OCDs are capable of affecting human lives.
“OCD is a psychiatric disorder characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions, such as cleaning, checking, counting, or hoarding. One of the anxiety disorders, OCD is a potentially disabling condition that can persist throughout a person’s life. The individual who suffers from OCD becomes trapped in a pattern of repetitive thoughts and behaviors that are senseless and distressing but extremely difficult to overcome. OCD occurs in a spectrum from mild to severe, but if severe and left untreated, can destroy a person’s capacity to function at work, at school, or even in the home.”
The last thing you want is for your dog to develop an OCD. The more you know about them, the better armed you are to prevent OCDs, and the better able to recognize and take action sooner rather than later – a critically important element of a successful behavior modification program for OCDs.
Are Dogs Really “Obsessive”?
There is some disagreement among animal behavior professionals about applying the term “obsessive” to canine behavior. The “anti-s” declare that the term “obsessive” refers to the dog’s thoughts, and because we can never really know what a dog is thinking, it’s therefore inappropriate to use the term in reference to dog behavior; we should simply call it “Canine Compulsive Disorder.” The word “compulsive” refers to the dog’s actions, which we can clearly see, so it’s okay to use that term in relation to dogs.
Those who favor using the term “obsessive” argue that we know a dog’s brain is similar in many ways to a human’s, albeit with a smaller cortex, and the observed compulsive behavior patterns are so similar to human OCDs that it only makes sense to call it obsessive, even with regard to dogs. A growing number of behavior professionals share this opinion – as do I – and so “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” is becoming an increasingly used term in dog behavior work.
Noted veterinary behaviorist Dr. Karen Overall suggests that as much as two to three percent of our canine population may be afflicted with OCD. She also identifies it as one of the most difficult canine behavioral disorders to successfully treat, and emphasizes that genetic, environmental, and neurochemical/neurophysiological elements all come into play.
Certain breeds have a clear genetic propensity for specific OCDs. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are prone to fly-snapping, and shadow-and light-chasing; Doberman Pinschers tend to flank-sucking and self-mutilation from licking; a high percentage of Golden and Labrador Retrievers seem to suffer from pica (eating inappropriate objects); and several of the herding breeds are likely to demonstrate OCD spinning and tail-chasing behaviors (see “OCDs and Breed Predispositions,” below). It’s a good idea to research your own breed thoroughly, so you can be especially watchful for telltale signs of any that may plague your breed.
In addition to the genetic component of OCD behavior, environment plays a significant role. OCDs most often emerge in young dogs, between 6 to 12 months, in dogs who have a genetic predisposition to the behavior, when subjected to environmental stressors that trigger the onset of the behavior. Dogs who may be genetically prone to a behavior may dodge the OCD bullet if they avoid being significantly stressed during this period. Or maybe not.
Early Signs of Canine OCD
The early sign of any OCD is the occasional performance of a behavior out of context. It’s normal for a dog to chase a real fly; it’s not normal for him to start snapping at things in the air that you can’t see. Because well-practiced OCDs are heartbreakingly difficult to modify, it’s critically important to identify and modify OCD behavior in its early stages.
I’ve had two different clients who had dogs with fly-snapping behavior. One was a Bernese Mountain Dog, the other a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Both are on the list of breeds at high risk for this behavior. The Berner’s owners, already Peaceable Paws clients, identified the behavior at its onset and we immediately took appropriate steps to modify the behavior. Leo eventually stopped snapping at imaginary flies. The Cav’s owners also identified the behavior at onset and contacted the breeder, who told them, “Oh, some Cavs just do that. His sire and several of his littermates do it, too.”
By the time Widget reached the age of 18 months and his owners sought professional behavior assistance, the condition was severe. When I visited their home I found a dog in misery, unable to be in a lighted room for any length of time without becoming extremely anxious, eventually snapping nonstop at his invisible tormentors. He could escape his mental torture only by running into the darkened dining room and hiding in his crate. This poor dog required extensive treatment with psychotropic drugs as well as a behavior modification program to bring the debilitating behavior under control.
Our own Cardigan Corgi, Lucy, exhibited tail-chasing behavior in the shelter before we adopted her, both in her kennel and during the assessment process. Note that tail-chasing and spinning are seen disproportionately in the herding breeds. Fortunately for us and for her, Lucy was young when we adopted her (six months). Simply removing her from the stressful shelter environment and providing her with large daily doses of physical exercise resolved her behavior.
Ben, a four-month-old Golden Retriever client in Monterey, was also treated successfully, simply by having his owners remove all reinforcement (getting up and leaving the room) the instant the pup started to chase his tail. His spinning behavior ceased within a month. A Standard Poodle client I worked with in Santa Cruz was not so fortunate. At age three, Giselle’s spinning behavior was well-established; her owners couldn’t even walk her on leash because of her nonstop spinning anytime she was in the least bit stimulated. Like the Cavalier, she required extensive pharmaceutical intervention.
The following are the most common OCD behaviors seen in dogs:
Lick granuloma: Also known as Acral Lick Dermatitis or ALD, this disorder presents as repetitive licking of the front or hind legs, ultimately causing a bare spot, then an open sore, sometimes causing systemic infection. In extreme cases, a limb may need to be amputated.
Light-Chasing
(Includes shadow-chasing.) Likely related to predatory behavior, light-chasing is characterized by staring, biting at, chasing, or barking at lights and shadows. This behavior is sometimes triggered by an owner playing with the dog with flashlights or laser lights.
Tail-Chasing/Spinning
Also perhaps a displaced predatory behavior, tail-chasing often starts as an apparently innocuous, “cute” behavior that is reinforced by owner attention. Only when it attains obsessive proportions do many owners realize the harm in reinforcing this behavior.
Flank-Sucking
A self-explanatory term, flank-sucking behavior is likely a displaced nursing behavior. Similarly, some dogs may suck on blankets or soft toys – behaviors that can be equally obsessive, but are less self-destructive.
Fly-Snapping
No, this one doesn’t refer to dogs who chase real flies – that’s a normal behavior; the OCD version of fly-snapping involves snapping at imaginary flies. Dogs who exhibit this behavior may appear anxious, apparently unable to escape their imaginary tormentors.
While some fly-snapping may be seizure-related, a significant percentage of sufferers don’t demonstrate behaviors typical of seizure activity, and those episodes are characterized as true OCD behaviors.
Pica
While many dogs are happy to eat objects that humans consider inappropriate, dogs with pica do so obsessively. Pica induces some dogs to obsessively eat and swallow small objects such as stones, acorns, and twigs, while others ingest large amounts of paper, leather, or other substances. Pica can cause life-threatening bowel obstruction.
It’s important to note that dogs who are prone to one obsessive compulsive behavior can easily adopt another. I firmly prohibited my husband from playing with Lucy with a laser light, or water from the hose, knowing full well she’d delight in these activities. We didn’t need light-chasing on top of tail-chasing! Ben, the tail-chasing Golden pup, had a more serious OCD problem: he was obsessive about eating pebbles, small sticks, and acorns. At the tender age of four months he had already undergone one emergency surgery for intestinal blockage, and had to wear a muzzle when he was outside, on leash or off, to prevent a recurrence.
For this reason, simply suppressing the behavior through punishment is a dangerously inappropriate approach. Not only does the punishment add stress to a behavior already triggered and exacerbated by stress, it heightens the risk of having the dog transfer to a new OCD. Far better to approach an OCD modification program more scientifically.
Modifying OCD Behavior
There are five key components to most successful OCD modification programs:
1. Increase Exercise
A useful part of almost any behavior modification program, exercise relieves stress and tires your dog so he has less energy to practice his OCD behavior. While physical exercise is hugely important, don’t overlook the value of mental exercise for relieving stress and tiring a dog mentally. (See “A Puzzling Activity,” June 2008, and “Mind Games,” October 2004, for more information on how to keep dogs busy.)
2. Reduce Stress
This is an important and obvious step, given that OCDs are triggered and exacerbated by stress. You will need to identify as many stressors as possible in your dog’s life. Have the whole family participate in making a list of all the things you can identify that cause stress for your dog – not just the one(s) that appear to trigger the obsessive behavior.
Then go down the list identifying any you can simply eliminate (i.e., shock collar for that evil underground shock fence) and commit to removing those from his environment. Next, mark those that might be appropriate for counter-conditioning – changing his opinion of them from “Ooh, scary/stressful!” to “Yay! Good thing!” (See “Fear Itself,” April 2007).
Finally, try to manage his environment to at least reduce his exposure to those that can’t be eliminated or modified.
3. Remove Reinforcement
All too often, owners mistakenly think obsessive behaviors are cute or funny. They reinforce the behavior with laughter and attention, and may even trigger the behavior deliberately, unaware of the harm they’re doing. When the behavior becomes so persistent that it’s annoying, the dog may be reinforced with “negative attention” when the owner yells at him to stop doing it.
As in the case of Ben, the Golden pup, removing reinforcement by having all humans leave the room can work well to help extinguish an OCD in its early stages.
4. Reinforce an Incompatible Behavior
This was also an effective part of Ben’s modification program. When the puppy wasn’t chasing his tail, his owners used a high rate of reinforcement for calm behavior, especially for lying quietly on his bed. Also, look for other calm behaviors to reinforce during otherwise potentially stimulating moments, such as sitting quietly at the door for his leash rather than leaping about in excitement over the pending walk.
With persistent and well-practiced OCDs, referral to a qualified veterinary behaviorist for consideration of pharmaceutical intervention is nearly always imperative. The selection, prescription, and monitoring of the strong, potentially harmful psychotropic drugs used for modification of difficult behaviors requires the education and skill of a licensed veterinary professional.
If some of this information has alarmed you – good! Obsessive-compulsive disorders are alarming.
If your dog, or a friend’s, is showing early signs of OCD behavior, we want you to take it seriously, and intervene immediately, in order to prevent the behavior from developing into a debilitating disorder. Dogs like Lucy, Ben, and Leo can lead full and happy lives because steps were taken early to prevent their behaviors from becoming extreme.
If your dog already has a severe obsessive compulsive behavior, do something about it now. Dogs like Widget can lead quality lives because their owners care enough to find solutions for difficult behaviors. Make the commitment to find the help you need so you and your dog can have a full and happy life together.
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.
I felt compelled to send a response to Patricia Coale’s letter (in the August 2008 issue) about the article on green tripe (“How Green Is Your Tripe?” July 2008). I wholeheartedly agree with her that the community in which we live is absolutely unaware of the atrocities committed to factory farm animals. I have actually assisted an animal rights activist to help get Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, on the 2008 California ballot.
I introduce myself in this manner to only illustrate that I too, have quite a bit of knowledge in the treatment of farm animals. I also agree with Patricia that maybe Whole Dog Journal could add a comment about the source of the meat in products they recommend. The source for products such as green tripe is the main reason why these foods have such a positive benefit.
Whole Dog Journal promotes a holistic approach to dog care. I would also assume that the target audience for the newsletter has a very high regard for all animals, not just their dogs; these subscribers are seeking a healthier approach to caring for their canine family members. This is what I’ve found in the short time I’ve been a subscriber.
Additionally, I found that most of the suppliers I contacted from the resources Whole Dog Journal listed in the green tripe article, worked only with suppliers who provided the animals with a free-range environment and organic feed. This was apparent just by scanning the list of suppliers in the resources section. Many companies described themselves as raising pasture-based and/or organically grown cattle.
In talking with the suppliers of green tripe listed in Whole Dog Journal’s article, I learned that they all felt that using meat from a factory farm was not an option, due to the chemical processing/health concerns with these animals. The people from these companies seemed intent on promoting the benefits of using meat from farms where the animals were humanly treated. Please note that I do know there are companies that will jump on the raw food/green tripe bandwagon for the purpose of profit and use unhealthy meat sources that treat animals cruelly. My comments about the “all natural sources” are based on the resources Whole Dog Journal has provided, not companies across the board.
Caroline via e-mail
GRASS IS GREAT
Thanks so much for your article on grass-fed and pasture-fed beef (“Grass-Fed Is Greener,” September 2008). As you are aware, there are many producers that package and ship beef across the country. We have a small family farm and raise our beef cattle with individual attention and care for local consumption. Most of our cattle are sold as breeding stock to other breeders. However, we also sell grass-fed beef raised right outside our house to individuals for their own and their animals’ consumption.
It would be a valuable service to your readers to provide a list of local grass fed beef producers to enable dog owners to locate a provider in their area. I’m sure there are many people who are interested in local sources of grass-fed beef. We would be happy to help concerned dog owners obtain a natural product for themselves and their pets at a very competitive price. Our website is kcgrassfedbeef.com.
Kaye Fuller, DVM, and Roger Fuller Owners, KC Grass Fed Beef
Rather than list farms – which might be longer than we could run –we gave the contact information (in the Resources section of the article) for groups that publish lists of grass-fed and/or organic sources for meat, dairy, and poultry products. Thanks for writing! We love hearing from farmers who have dogs and produce grass-fed meats for dogs and dog owners!
GOOD, NOT GREAT
A very rarely write letters to the editor but this one, about your editorial in the September issue (“Guilty Pleasure”), I had to send. I wish that you had chosen to be involved in the development of this show because as a dog owner I am very disappointed in it. The three judges invariably have harsh comments for each contestant and dog and offer no suggestions of how they could have accomplished the task differently.
We need people who understand that dogs are not people, and they need socialization and training. I agree with the judges that positive rewards yield higher gains than negative methods, but they fail each week to impart any suggestions of how things could be done differently. I agree with you that the show is cute, but it provides little value (like all reality shows) in how to accomplish positive training with your dog and have a good, fun, productive, four-legged member of your family and society.
Laura Jenkins Via e-mail
I, too, wish the show included even just a tiny bit of instruction on positive training and tips on canine body language, especially the signs of canine stress!
I see I am not the only one; CBS’s Greatest American Dog is my guilty pleasure, too! It has been really interesting watching the dogs and handlers, seeing nervous behavior sometimes, wonderful compliance at other times, and seeing where certain dogs excel. The varying styles of the handlers has been very interesting, too. Of course, I have my favorite pairs! When the challenges are given, it is fun to ponder how I might guide my dog in similar circumstances.
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